Wonderful chapter 22

Selfish

While her son was enjoying seeing the magical creatures, Eileen was being treated to a somewhat less enjoyable experience, a cross-examination from Professor Dumbledore. Of course this grilling came in the form of concern. "You do not look well Eileen."

Ele did not respond. She didn't know what to say. He was right; she didn't look well. She wasn't well.

"I've known quite a few witches and wizards who have married muggles. There are always difficulties, but most do not have the troubles I think you are facing."

"I will admit that things are not going the way I had expected." Eileen admitted, "Things are not going well for me."

"It seems to be Severus who's paying the price."

Eileen knew this was true as well. "The funny thing about this conversation is that you were the one who opened my eyes about muggles not being as bad as my family believed them to be."

"If you learned that from me," Dumbledore acknowledged, "I do not regret that. I know full bloods whose marriages were disasters as well."

"In other words," Ele had as sarcastic tone in her voice. "I picked the wrong muggle?"

"You know better than I."

"I made my choice, even if it was the wrong one, I have to live with it."

"Not to be rude - - " a true sign that he was going to be. "But there is such a thing as divorce."

"Not to be rude - - " a sure sigh that she was about to be. "You've never been married."

Dumbledore cleared his throat. She had him there. He had never chosen to share his life with another that closely. "You love him." It was a statement not a question. "You're sure you not staying just so you don't have to eat your father's crow pie?"

Instead of answering that question, Eileen told Dumbledore, "My father wants a squib test."

Sock crossed Dumbledore's face. "After what happened to your nephew?"

"That just reinforced his conviction that he was right."

"I always knew Radu Prince was a antediluvian but this takes the cake." The old wizard paced. "From what I can tell, your boy is safe. Magic will not let him down."

Eileen knew that magic would never let Severus down. The world had already started to, but magic would never let him down. "My father is a stubborn man. I don't think I could prevent it."

"If your father is that bone headed, there is always the scholarship fund."

Eileen bristled at that thought. "You know, I may be down, but I still have some pride."

"I did not mean to offend. I just want you to know if you need help, it is here."

"I needed help to get Sev away from those people. You have obliged. Right now that is enough."

Back at Hagrid's the first years were becoming antsy. Some of them were ready to go back to the castle. Severus never stopped throwing dagger looks at the boy who had made the wisecrack. Hagrid's explanation only gave the boy more questions. Hagrid could see the boy was still upset. "You're not still brooding o'er what Tihon said are you Sev'rus?"

Maybe." The boy pouted. "Are Slytherin and Gryffindor enemies?"

"Enemies? I wouldn't say enemies, just rivals."

"Why?"

"Well, when you get older, you'll find that different people have different ideas about what's right and wrong. I hate to say it, you're Mum being Slytherin and all, but some Slytherin have bad reputations."

"So you think Slytherins are bad?"

"Not all, just some. And those some have really gone bad. One particular Slytherin did something terrible, then blamed me." Hagrid's statement made the boy look even more puzzled. "I got sent to Azkaban and everything."

"That's not good."

"You know about Azkaban then do you?"

"There were some men, from the ministry of magic at our house. They said I best behave or they'd send me there." The boy now looked scared.

"Don't you fret, they don't send kids to Azkaban."

"Not even really bad kids?"

"They'd have to be really bad." Hagrid reassured. "Yer not a bad kid. Sharppie wouldn't play with you if you were a bad kid."

"He wouldn't?"

"He would not. Now you stop all this talk about being bad. I've got something special to show you." Hagrid led Severus outside the cabin, past the pumpkin patch, just outside of the forbidden forest. Hanging out over 'safe' territory there was a tree branch. On that tree branch there was a circle of twigs. To Snape this meant nothing. In the city he had never seen a bird's nest.

Hagrid had wanted to show the boy something special, but when he looked into the nest he was glad he had not lifted the boy first. An "Oh no," escaped from the huge man's lips. He didn't tell the boy, but the mother bird was gone. This was a type of bird whose behavior was that the mother never left the nest, unless the father hadn't come back with food. Four of the six baby birds were still alive. Hagrid gently took them out of the nest and placed them in his pocket. "We're going to have to hand feed these."

"We?"

"Yer going to help, aren't you?"

"Sure."

Back inside Hagrid made a new nest out of a towel, and told Severus, "Now you keep an eye on them while I mix up some grub for them."

Severus nodded. The tiny blue birds weren't doing much of anything except opening their mouths, yet they were not peeping. While Hagrid mashed up grubs to put into eyedroppers he told the boy about the birds. "These are Jobberknols. If you're lucky, when they're older they'll give you a feather or two for a memory potion."

Ignoring what Hagrid had just told him. As if the chicks were suspect Severus asked, "Aren't birds supposed to sing?"

"Like I said, they are Jobberknols. They don't make no sound till - - Maybe I better not tell you about that." Hagrid paused. "Some people use them as spy birds, but you have to - - better not tell you about that either."

What Hagrid wasn't telling the boy was that when the birds died it gave a cry of everything they had ever heard. So if placed in strategic places, the bird would repeat what it had heard, of course one had to kill it first. Only dark wizards did that.

"Here now." Hagrid put a bird in front of Severus. "You take care of this one." He called two other kids over to take care of two other ones and he took care of the last. "Like this now." He showed the kids to hold up the eyedroppers in substitute of the mother's beak. "Now be careful, they're rather fragile." After they had fed the little birds Hagrid told the children, "Now try to keep them warm." He gave them each a cloth to wrap the chicks up in.

Severus had his little bird nestled in the cloth on his lap in a corner by himself. It did not take long for the little boy to become attached to the baby bird. It did not take long for one of the kids that didn't get to take care of one of the birds to try and take it away from him.

"Let me hold it for a while," the eleven year old asked the almost seven.

"No. Hagrid told me to take care of it," Severus maintained. "It's mine!"

"It is not yours." The other boy tried to take it.

"Yes it is." Severus turned to block the other child from grabbing it away.

"You're supposed to share."

"Who says?"

"I want to hold the bird."

"Forget it." Severus was going to make sure this little twit didn't get his bird. He took off for the other side of Hagrid's cabin.

The pest followed him. "Let me hold it."

"You keep your paws off my bird."

Hagrid noticed there was an argument but didn't hear what they were saying. "What are you two arguing about?"

The Hogwarts kid told, "I want to hold the bird."

Severus had in the fray taken the bird between his hands and held on to it tightly. "He wants to take away my bird."

"I just want to see it."

"NO!" Sev ran in a different direction to keep the bird away from the kid. He ran out of the cabin before Hagrid could stop him. Following close behind, when he got outside he saw Severus had fallen down. The boy sat back up and franticly looked in his hands. The bird was yelling out, "It's mine. It's mine." Then the bird stopped moving. A little red drop was coming out of its eye. Tears flowed down the boy's face as he asked Hagrid to, "Fix it. Use your wand to fix it."

"I don't have a wand," Hagrid admitted.

The boy didn't care. He again asked, "Fix it Hagrid, fix it."

The man was not sure what he should do. He knew that kids had to learn about death sooner or later. He thought Severus should learn that there were consequences to the actions one took. Still, the boy was only a few years old, a little bird himself. Hagrid tried to trick the boy. He took the dead chick and mumbled some words before sneaking out the live one he had in his pocket and presented it to the boy. "Look all better." Severus reached for it, but Hagrid stopped him. "I think I better hang on to it now."

Severus was taking a good look at the bird in the half giant's hand. "That's not my bird."

"Your bird."

"That's not the same bird." Severus was clever. "You've just substituted another." The tone in little Snape's voice lowered. He sounded menacing. "You're a deceiver. Where is MY bird?"

Hagrid knew he had blown the moment, but didn't like the transformation that had occurred in the little one. "I was only trying to - - "

"To trick me," Sev snarled.

"Now look here young man. Do you know what you've done?"

"What I've done?"

Hagrid took the dead bird out of his pocket. He allowed his own emotions to get the better of him. "Your bird is dead. It's not coming back. No amount of magic can bring back something that's dead."

The anger he had felt at Hagrid switching the birds was replaced by a dreadful realization. "I - - killed it?"

Hagrid felt a twinge of regret that he had not held his tongue. "It were an accident. I know you didn't mean to."

Severus saw his mother with Dumbledore heading down the hill from the castle. He bolted in their direction strait to his mother's leg. He buried his face in her coat and cried.

"Sev?" Eileen questioned, "What's wrong?" She took him up in her arms.

"I - - " Sniff. "I killed it."

"What are you talking about?"

Dumbledore was looking down toward a defeated looking Hagrid back beside the cabin as the boy explained. "I squashed it. I didn't mean to. The other boy tried to take it away from me. It was mine, he shouldn't have tried to take it." Tears burst forth again. As Eileen tried to calm her son, the headmaster went to talk to Hagrid.

"What happened?"

"I was letting the kids take care of some Jabberknol chicks and one of the other kids tried to take the one Sev'rus was holding. He's a possessive little fellow. He ran out here and fell, swishing the chick." Hagrid looked a bit red at this point. "He asked me to fix it, and I tried to fool him by switching it for this one." He showed the little blue bird in his large hand. "Sev'rus is a real smart kid."

"He knew it wasn't the same bird?"

"Yhea." Hagrid said with a nod. "He called me a liar and I may have been a bit harsh in telling him the bird was dead."

Dumbledore sighed. "Let this be a lesson for the future. It is not wise to try and fool an intelligent child, no matter how young. And switching the birds to spare the boy's feelings didn't teach him anything either."

"I told him it was an accident," Hagrid informed. "I don't think he believes it."

Dumbledore nodded. The headmaster motioned for Eileen to bring Severus over to where he was. Severus was still distraught. "Listen to me Severus, it was an accident that you squashed the little bird. Hagrid is sorry he tried to trick you. Do you think you can be friends again before I bring you and your mother home?"

Severus turned to look at Hagrid. He wiped the tears off of his face with his sleeve. He nodded in the affirmative. He did not however leave his mother's arms. He buried his face in her shoulder once again. He was still crying. Even though it was not late, it had been a long day.

tbc