Wonderful ch. 5
First Spell
One more time listening to the record turned into two more times. Two more times turned into three. Halfway through the fourth time, the door opened.
"Hey Ele," came forth from Tobias' mouth. He seemed to be excited about something. "You won't believe . . ." He didn't finish the statement. What he had seemed so eager to tell his wife was pushed out of his mind for something else. Toby rounded on his son like a lion summing up its prey, then snarled, "Who told you, you could use that?"
Sev froze. The song still played in the background until Toby grabbed the record off of the player, waving it in the boy's face. "I've told you not to touch my stuff how many times boy?"
Sev tried to say something. Toby had frightened the words right out of him. Stammering words finally came out of the boy's mouth, "I, I, um."
The father mocked as he shut up the record player case, "I, I, um." He turned back to his son. "Speak up boy!"
"I'm sorry?"
"You sure are sorry." Toby picked up the record player by its handle. "Ya' little shite."
The little boy began to shake and sniffle.
"Go on cry. It could be your secret weapon, the deadly tears of doom. You'll be the scourge of the wizards, won't you?"
Afraid to even move, Severus didn't answer.
Toby kept badgering, "Won't you boy?"
Ele had come out of the kitchen, and saw Severus' state. Her eyes narrowed on her husband. "What did you do?"
"I'm keeping the brat in line. Messing with my things again."
"I told him he could use your stupid record player."
"After what he did to the radio? You want him to blow this up too?"
"That was an accident. That player is a piece of junk, being blown up might be an improvement."
From there the yelling went on, the two of them hashing and rehashing arguments old and new. As they did, the little boy on the other side of the room kept saying something that they didn't hear. "Stop . . ." They didn't. The bickering continued until Severus shouted at the top of his lungs, "STOP YELLING!"
This was a first.
Toby's rage turned back to his little boy. "Oh, so it can speak as well as blubber."
"Leave him alone," Eileen barked. "Geez Toby, you're not even drunk and you're being an ass."
They were off again. Squabbling ensued. What neither of them saw as they fought was that Severus had picked up Ele's wand. Despite his earlier agreement not to use it, it was aimed squarely at Tobias Snape. Ele saw it. "Sev no!"
Even as she said this Severus was saying something else, "Dadio-Donkius!"
Zap; Toby's nose turned into a donkey muzzle. His ears grew. The spell of an angry six year old wasn't powerful enough to produce a fully formed donkey, but the man's hands and feet turned to hooves. A tail grew out of the back of his pants. Toby went to say something like, 'Ele do something,' but all that came out was a braying, "Eeh-Haw." Hove hands covered his mouth in alarm. "Eeh-Haw."
"Severus," Ele said cautiously. "Lower the wand."
The boy did as his mother had said. He had stopped crying. With an eerie calmness Sev said, "You said he was an ass, now he is one."
Donkey Dad made a threatening move towards his son. Son raised wand again. Toby stopped in his tracks. With his new hooves he reached for something that hung around his neck. He manipulated the smaller of the amulets so he could smash it between the two hooves. Severus let out a shout of pain before collapsing to the floor. The wand fell from the tiny hand. Eileen ran over to find out the condition of her son. She felt the side of his face as it lay in her lap. The boy groaned. She turned to her husband. "You could have killed him doing that!"
The cursed man still brayed, but the witch could understand every word. "No great loss."
Now the wand was in Ele's hand.
"I wouldn't do that," Donkey Tobias brayed. He dangled the second charm. "Unless, you'd like to join our dear Sevy in the hospital."
Severus' parents remained in this magical Mexican stand off for what seemed an eternity, but was only a few minutes, until four people burst into the house; two from St. Mungo's, and two from the Ministry of Magic.
"Oh dear, what have we got here?"
