Wonderful chapter 25
Believe What You Will
Eileen didn't know what she should do with the rest of this stress filled day. She didn't want to leave Severus with the hung over Tobias, but she didn't want to miss the money she'd get for working at the pub. There was no more invisibility potion so Sev could go with her. At the moment all she wanted to do laws sleep.
Toby had the nerve to ask, "How about some food?"
"IF there's any left, get it yourself." Ele went upstairs, stopping in Severus' room first. "Hey you."
"What Mum?" Sev looked up from the parchment he had been doodling on.
"How you feeling?"
"All right." The boy went back to drawing.
"What are you making?"
"A picture of Hogwarts." The excited boy turned the parchment around to show his mother. It was a fairly decent representation of Hogwarts castle. There were some unicorns and a few witches and wizards. "This is everyone I met today. I still have to draw Dumbdoors and Haggid."
"You do that. Mum needs a rest.
Severus went back to drawing the last two wizards. Eileen gave him a kiss on the top of his head before going to her own room. She fell into desperately needed sleep so deeply that she slept right through the time she was due to be at work. What woke her up was a commotion down stairs.
"Get out of my house!" Toby was yelling at someone.
"When I get my money," a voice unfamiliar to Eileen responded.
'What is going on down there?' Ele wondered. She went to the top of the stairs to see.
"It's not time yet," Toby pleaded.
"I told you Snape," it was the bookie, Stone. "That I would come by and remind you until you paid up." Stone was much taller and muscular than Tobias, so there was no escape from the blow. "And tomorrow, if I don't see my money, you can say good-bye to your knee caps." The thug made a finger gun and made a shooting motion towards one of Toby's knees. "Get the picture."
Eileen didn't dare move until the man left. She ran down to her husband. "Who was that?"
Toby spit out a tooth before answering, "The reason I need money."
"Merlin - - " Ele gasped. "What a mess you are." She grabbed a rag from the kitchen to soak up the blood. "No wand, no potion, you'll have to suffer."
"Like you don't think I deserve it."
"I think you should get off your drunk, stoned behind and get a job."
"A job isn't going to get me that money by tomorrow."
"How much?"
"Three hundred pounds."
A snarl and a groan came from Mrs. Snape. "And you think I made that working at a pub for a day?"
"No," Toby said. "I know you still have some stuff you can sell."
"I don't believe you."
-
Severus had long finished his picture of Hogwarts, and had begun another of him and the unicorn foal. 'I wonder if Sharppie has wings?' The boy's imagination was set off and he drew wings on his little friend. It had been a long day for him as well. Even thought he wanted to finish his drawings, Sev fell asleep right there on the parchment and charcoal. He did not wake up until hearing his father yelling at someone. It wasn't him. He hoped it wasn't his mother. Peking out of his door he saw Ele waiting to go downstairs so it wasn't her either. The boy wanted to stay as far away from Toby as possible, so he waited till Eileen came back up.
"That was the man who hurt Dad the other day?"
"Yes."
"He hurt Dad again?"
"Yes."
"If Dad doesn't get that man's money, will he go away and hide somewhere?"
Eileen looked at Severus. It looked as if the boy would be happy if Toby disappeared. "Maybe he'll get the money."
The boy rushed forward a little to say, "Only if you - - " He stopped mid sentence.
"If I don't give Daddy the money, he'll get hurt real bad." Eileen saw the look on her young son's face. It was that of something wild, feral, something that wanted bad things to happen.
"He huts us enough time." Severus' statement was true enough. "His turn."
His mother might have halfway agreed with that, but she was still blinded by love. "You mustn't say that."
"Why mustn't I?" The boy pouted. "It's true."
She had told him to be truthful, but he was finding out that the truth wasn't always what people wanted to hear.
"It's not nice."
"Neither is Dad."
"Severus Snape." Eileen rubbed her forehead. "When Daddy is - - "
While she searched for a delicate way to put it, her son said, "Drunk Mummy. The word is drunk." Sev did understand more than a kid his age should.
"He's not himself."
Again Severus had a way of going from overly mature back to a little kid. He rushed over to his mother and pleaded, "Turn him back Mummy."
If Eileen's heart had not been broken so many times in the last year, as Toby got worse and worse, the look in her son's eyes would have done it.
"This is one of those things I told you about. Something that can't be fixed by magic."
"What can fix it?"
Ele wasn't sure if she was telling Sev the truth, but it was the only thing she could think of. She wiped a charcoal smudge off of the boy's face with her sleeve before saying, "Love."
"Oh - - "
"You don't like that answer?"
Severus was very quiet. Eileen could see the boy milling something over in his head.
"I'm a bad boy."
"What? No you're not." She knelt down to hug her son.
"Daddy's drunk because of me."
"Don't say that."
The boy began to cry. "I don't love Daddy anymore." Eileen knew that children's emotions were often confused. She worried when he continued. "Not after the night before, and last night. He doesn't love me, and I don't love him anymore."
"You're being silly Sev." This was not the right thing to say. It silenced the child. He didn't like being called silly, even if it was by someone he still loved. Ele changed the subject. "Daddy's not going to be hurt." She knew it was a foolish thing to do but she was going to do it anyway. "I have an emerald bracelet I can sell and get the money to give the man."
"Mum?" Severus was clever for his age. "Why didn't you sell it when we needed food?"
This question jolted Eileen. She asked herself the same thing; why hadn't she?
"We can go without eating for a few days. Daddy can't go without his kneecaps."
"Can't he?"
Eileen wondered if Sev really understood what would happen if Stone weren't paid. "I'm going to make Daddy promise not to let it happen again."
A hiss of disbelief came from the boy. He did not believe it would happen. Cynicism came early to Severus Snape.
Ignoring the sound her son made, she told him, "I have to go to the pawn shop, then see if I still have a job. You stay up here and don't get into trouble. Can you do that for me?"
Sev nodded. He could do that. H didn't want to go down where Toby was. He didn't want to go outside either. He was still afraid of the witch hunters.
"You're a good boy Sev."
The boy wondered if his mother was telling the truth. She said Toby loved them and he knew Toby didn't.
When Eileen left Severus went back to his drawings. This time it was not of Hogwarts and flying away on a unicorn. It was of faceless wizards pointing their wands at a figure that looked a lot like Tobias Snape. "Hex, hex, hex." Sev pretended to hex his father and anyone else who had ever hurt him; the neighborhood boys, "Hex;" the witch hunters, "Hex;" the Gryffindor boy who had insulted Slytherin, "Hex."
Then the boy felt bad and counter cursed them all back to normal, all but Toby that is. He drew another picture of himself, as a grown up wizard, hexing Toby into a big ugly toad. That day, Severus' new name for his father was TODY. He was not ready to forgive what had been done and said because he knew, regardless of what his mother said, it was not the end of it.
tbc
