The Good News: I've been typing up a storm.
The Bad News: I've been typing up dense legal documents for my parents' architectural firm. (…ugh, so…boring)

Good News: I'm being paid well over the minimum hourly wage!
Bad News: I've had almost no time to write Elfin! (Grrr)

Good: Here's Chapter 9!
Bad: It's Short! (sorry…again)

Elfin

by
Bone White Butterfly

"Calm"

Severus stood up sharply, his temper snapped. Fen slumped. "I can't tell you," the boy whispered miserably and braced himself.

Braced himself.

Severus looked down at his hands, which he had slammed down on the table. Rage and frustration boiled within him, threatening to spill out. His fingers curled into the palms.

XXX

Henry swiveled his head to watch his brother fly out the house, snap the door shut, and glare up at the porch roof. A clumsily clutched fork of egg hovered dangerously near his ear. An amused smirk stretched across his face, trying to reach the egg.

Severus, still craning his neck skyward and now muttering about a Gryffindor Jr., began to pat down his robes in a desperate sort of way. One of Henry's aquiline brows rose when he freed a stoppered glass vial from its pocket prison. The man paid no attention and swigged fatalistically.

A sniff was heard. "Whiskey?"

He sent the werewolf a withering look. "Calming potion."

The other eyebrow rose.

"—Laced with Firewhiskey," he added and upended the vial. "It adds to the potency." He pocketed the empty container and sagged against the door. He let his eyes fall shut as he felt the acid build-up in his mind neutralize.

"He won't tell you who raised him, Sev."

One eye sprang open. It saw Henry sitting on an old wooden chair, his breakfast sitting forgotten on his knees. The man was staring blankly at an old shed nestled in the tree line. It was an imposing structure, built too large and too sturdily. It hadn't been built to hold mere gardening tools.

Severus's eyes clouded. "Henry."

Henry never looked away from the dark shed. "It won't do you any good," he pressed. "Stop asking the boy about who raised him."

Severus's brows furrowed, and he opened his mouth, only to say nothing. Instead, his eyes clicked back to the shed. The heavy wood door was barricaded shut from the outside. He dropped his gaze. "This isn't the same, Henry," he sighed.

"It isn't," his brother agreed. "He got away."

"Henry, for all we know, his foster parents had a row and he overreacted and ran away. You're mistaking a meek child for an abused one."

Henry's neck stiffened. "And what makes a meek child, Sev? Do you think they're just born that way, afraid of every person they meet? You weren't born afraid of anything. Hot stoves, staircases, it was all an adventure. Pain taught you to be scared." His tone of voice cracked. "He's scared of the people he's running from, Sev."

Severus came forward and squeezed his brother's shoulder. "It isn't the same," he said, softer than should have been possible for him. The man didn't respond. Severus turned to walk back into the house, only to find his hand trapped by a relentless grip. He looked back. "Henry?"

Henry tightened his hold.

Severus winced. "Henry."

"He's scared if he tells you who they are, you'll make him go back. And even if you don't, maybe this Ministry of yours will. I won't let that happen. Sev, we may be family, but if that boy ever has to go back to the people who hurt him—I'll eat you."

Henry let go of Severus. His brother stared at him, cradling one half-crushed hand. His blank gaze stayed on the shed's barricaded door.

Severus glanced at the shed as well. His gaze darkened. "Burn it down," he snapped and stalked back inside.

Henry continued to grimly stare ahead. "As soon as He's chained up inside," he muttered. His hand absently caressed a bulging pocket, in which a pouch of memory-killing powder rested. The magic forgetfulness was tried and true. The boy had forgotten the horrors of the bloodied wooden prison. Henry could too. If he wanted, he could use the powder to banish the cruel claw marks raked across his mind. He could be ten years old again. He could be innocent again—after he murdered the man who raised him.

The light shifted, plunging the old shed into deeper shadow.

XXX

When Severus came into the kitchen, Fen jerked his head up. One wide hazel eye seemed to pop out of the boy's hairline. Severus glared at him as he tried to shake the pain out of his hand. "I won't hurt you, boy," he snapped at last.

He let his gaze fall in the quiet moment that followed. He saw the table that had been his impromptu pillow for two hours. At one corner, a stack of failed essays had been shuffled into some sort of order. There were two plates. The one before his empty chair was all but undisturbed. The boy's was polished clean. It was impossible to tell that there had once been food on it.

Severus came forward, picked up his plate, and slid its contents onto Fen's demolished one. "Eat," he said and turned to his schoolwork. The pile of parchments was quickly rolled up and secured with a bit of ribbon. The quill went into a small case and the bottle of ink was wrung shut even tighter. "We will be leaving shortly." He started going through his pockets in search of a map of the Forbidden Forest.

The apparating potion had burned out of his system hours ago. Now he needed to get clear of the Forest to apparate. That meant a long hike with a wand at the ready. He would have asked Henry to act as a guide, but there wasn't much chance of that now. He rolled out the joints in his right hand as the left continued to search. His eyes smoldered. The werewolf had picked a hell of time to learn he had teeth.

He stopped as he realized he had gone through the same pocket for the third time. His lips thinned. In his rush, he hadn't taken the map from Dumbledore.

He turned and looked from the boy's barren plate to the living room. "Svartálfar, that owl is school property," he said. "Roust it out before my brother decides he wants poultry for lunch."

There was an indignant screech from the recesses of the house. Fen gulped but stood and walked a death row march into the living room.

Severus watched him go. Then, slowly, his gaze moved to consider the door that led out to the porch. He sighed. His eyes went skyward as he started a walk similar to Fen's. This was going to be painful.

XXX

Severus took in a breath. "Henry," he called, trying to pull the man from his knife-edged meditations. "Henry, I need you to lead us out of the Forest."

Henry didn't look up. "Just apparate."

"I can't," he said through his teeth, using up a lifetime's supply of reluctance with two words. A thrashing noise started inside the house. Severus lowered his voice to speak under it. "It's impossible to apparate in or out of the Forest. Some ancient enchantment."

"But you"—Henry gestured towards the living room, where Severus had apparated in last night. His fingers snapped when words failed him.

Severus shook his head. "I bent the rules, went around them."

Henry's head jerked up a bit. "Then why don't you bend the rules for the boy?"

Severus bit back a groan. He had seen that coming. "I can't gift drop him on the school, Henry," he tried to explain. "His guardian needs to give him permission to come. Then there's fees, supplies to buy—and in his case clothes." The ruckus inside the house suddenly stopped. "Someone has to pay for all of that. Henry,"—his brows rose, lengthening his look of disbelief—"Henry are you—"

Henry was stonewalling him.

XXX

Severus stormed back into the kitchen. Fen was there, looking particularly disheveled. The owl didn't look much better, but her beak had somehow transfigured itself into a victorious smirk. Severus barely acknowledged them as he pulled a vial from his pocket and drank deep. After the initial kick, the liquid turned cool. His taut muscles relaxed, and the boiling inside reduced to an annoyed simmer. He swept back outside, shutting the door behind him.

XXX

With his eyes rolled towards the heavens, he told Henry, "The Ministry pays for the schooling of orphans. I swear—on the grave of our Father—that I will register the boy as a ward of the Ministry until I can prove—to your satisfaction—that his guardian is not an abusive, flesh-eating monster."

"There's a small Muggle town to the northeast," Henry said simply. "Hour's walk. Just fields along the forest edge; you can apparate there."

Sharply, Severus replied, "Thank you," and swept back inside.

XXX

There, he blinked at the sight before him. "Svartálfar, why is that bird nesting atop your head?

The chapter sorta went like this: Poor Sev, poor Fen, poor Sev, whoa…Henry, poor Sev, poor Sev, and…go Nibble!

Yep, my mission in life is to frazzle Snape out of his sanity, with much fun and semi-angst along the way.