Wonderful chapter 39
Muggle Way Vs. Wizard Way
They had a tree. Severus couldn't believe it. They had a tree. Maybe not the best tree, but it was a real tree. "Wait till you see the trees at Hogwarts," Eileen told him as she transfigured things around the house into ornaments for her son to hang on the tree. She went on and on about how spectacular Christmas at Hogwarts was until Tobias came home. It was better if she didn't talk about the wizard school around him.
"You decorated that tree right nice," Toby complemented. "Nicer than any I ever saw." With that admission the man plopped himself down on the sofa and put his feet, work boots and all, up on the coffee table Ele had acquired.
"Do you mind," she scolded. "This isn't a barn."
Out of habit Sev got nervous. If Toby had been drinking he would have been all over Eileen in an instant. Where he was only secretly smoking, he was fairly mellow. With a snicker he took his feet off the table. "Didn't grow up in a barn," he grumbled. This was the first time Sev had heard his father speak of his past. "Might not have been as fancy as your 'palace,' but we had a house, for a bit." Toby grew strangely contemplative. "Even one of those damn caravan wagons isn't a barn."
It was Eileen who was snippy that day. "I didn't say you grew up in a barn. I just said this wasn't one." A wave of her wand removed the dry mud from the table top. Her mood was fueled by her thinking of the holidays not only at Hogwarts but with her family. Though there were sometimes she felt what Toby called a palace was more like a dungeon, she missed it. If she had really wanted to, she could show up at her father's on Christmas, but she would have to listen to the rest of the Prince family berating her and hexing her Muggle husband left and right. Merlin knows what they'd say or do to her Half-blood son. No, she didn't want to deal with that.
Feeling that his father was in a as good a mood as he could be, Severus took a piece of parchment out of his pocket and approached Tobias. "Look what I did today," he said while handing it over.
"What's this?" Toby asked.
"My list for Father Christmas. You said you'd mail it."
"So I did." The man looked at the boy's 'wish list' and nearly had a stroke. He covered his shock by telling his son, "Why don't you go find an envelope, so we can mail this." He had wanted to get the boy out of the room.
Severus didn't know that. "We can just roll it up and get an owl to bring it."
"No . . ." Toby was trying to think of how to get the boy out of hearing range without making it obvious. "We're gonna send it the regular way."
The boy's face soured. In his mind an owl was the regular way. His father insisted, "Now you go find an envelope." He knew there were no envelopes anywhere but upstairs so the boy had to go there to find one. As soon as Sev was away Toby turned to Ele and asked, "Did you see this?"
"No, Why?" Eileen asked before taking a look herself.
"Half of the stuff is from your lot, and the other half we can't afford."
Eileen had never been in such a position. As a child she was never denied anything she had ever asked for. "What did your parents say to you when they couldn't get something you wanted for Christmas?"
A strange amused, but pained look came to Toby's face. "We knew better than to actually ask for something."
Eileen thought about that statement. She thought it sad until Toby elaborated. "We knew we didn't have two sticks to rub together. We knew our parents couldn't afford fancy things. We made our own fun for the holidays."
"Like what?" Ele sat next to her husband.
"Singing songs, playing games. There was always something special to eat, that's one thing we knew how to do right."
"You were happy then?"
"I was a dumb kid. I didn't know any better. When I grew up I knew we were piss poor, and wanted nothing to do with that kind of life. And look where I am now, what a joke."
She had been feeling sorry for him until the last line. "You think our marriage, our family, is a joke?"
"Don't go twisting my words woman."
This got Ele wound up. "Don't you talk to me like that," she fumed.
Now Toby was wound up. "I'll talk to you any way I please, woman."
This was what Severus came back down into holding up the envelope he'd found. He stopped on the last step hearing his parents quarreling.
"I'm not in the mood for your nonsense Toby."
Toby kept pushing. "I'm not in the mood for your bitchiness woman."
"You did not just say that." Eileen was pointing her wand at her husband. "You want to see bitchiness, I'll show you bitchiness."
Toby saw his wife brandishing her wand in a pre-cursing motion. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. You don't want those blokes from your precious ministry of magic back here now would you?"
"Maybe I would." Again she raised her wand in anger. After a few moments of looking at Tobias with her wand hand shaking, she put it down. "Damn you, you Muggle bas . . ." Seeing her son sitting on the bottom step, afraid to move any closer, stopped Eileen from calling Tobias a word she wouldn't want Severus to repeat. She turned to Toby. Through gritted teeth she told him, "You are not going to ruin this for Sev."
There was a release of air from between Toby's lips. "Bring me the envelope boy." Severus was understandably hesitant. Toby held out his open hand. "Haven't got all day, hand it over. Or don't you want Santa to get it?" This made the boy scurry right over and hand him the envelope. Sev watched as his father folded the list into a shape that would fit the envelope and seal it shut. "Go get a pen." The young wizard came back with a quill and ink. Toby rolled his eyes as he handed the envelope to his son. "You know Santa's address?"
"Of course."
"Then get to it."
Severus took the envelope and the writing utensil over to the coffee table and in his best penmanship wrote out:
To: SANTA
A.K.A Father Christmas
North Pole
Then he asked, "What country is the north pole in?"
"S'not in any country."
"It must be."
"Bloody Hell," Toby mumbled.
"Don't think it's there either," the boy wise mouthed.
Ele came in-between and told her son, "Put Canada Sev, that's close enough."
Toby was wrangling for an argument that day. "What if it's in Russia? What if Father Christmas is a Commie?"
"Knock it off Toby."
The boy ignored his father and put Canada. He knew to write their address in the correct place. "Can't I let an owl take it?" He asked when it came time for the postage.
Toby was not going to, as his wife had requested, 'knock it off.' He shouted out, "No! Santa's not a wizard so you're going to use the postal service."
"Santa, not a wizard?" Severus wanted to add, 'Are you mental?' But he liked his backside not to hurt.
"Don't listen to him," Eileen advised. "Santa is most certainly a wizard."
"Ha!" Toby snorted. "Then why does he bring stuff to Muggle children?"
"He is a kindly wizard."
"Haven't met one of them yet."
Eileen's eyes narrowed at her husband before whispering, "I don't know what crawled into your shorts today, but if you keep this up nothing else will."
The man actually took a moment to decide if he wanted his wife's attentions later that night. Eileen knew Toby's weakness. He stopped antagonizing his son and went into the kitchen to find something to eat.
"Give me the letter," Eileen asked her son. Severus handed it over. "I'll give it to an owl on the way to work." It was put into her bag. "Now, you mustn't expect Father Christmas to give you everything on your list." Sev frowned. "But I'm sure you'll get a few of them."
After nodding his understanding he asked about something he didn't understand. "Why doesn't Dad like wizards?"
"That's a good question. I wish I knew the answer." This was one of the oddities she never understood about her husband. He purposely went out looking to marry a witch. He had hoped to be included in the wizarding world somehow. He knew if they had a child it would most likely be a wizard. Hadn't he thought of that? She had thought about the possibility of her children being Muggles. This seemed to worry her less that the fact that their son was a wizard bothered Toby.
Eileen was still thinking about that question late that morning when she returned home and she was laying next to her sleeping husband. She shook him awake. "Toby."
"Uhhhh," Tobias moaned before turning over; not waking up.
"Toby." Ele poked at him again.
"Whaaaaat?"
"Whaaaat, was that nonsense you were spouting this afternoon?"
"You woke me up to ask me that?" Toby was rolling over again.
Eileen shook the whole bed. "Yes, I woke you up to ask you that. What did you mean by starting up a few days before Christmas?"
"Me?" Toby turned back over to face her. "You were the one getting all bent out of shape."
"I was just being crabby, you were being insufferable."
"You want to start it up again?"
"No, I don't. I want things to be nice this year. Last year was terrible, and Sev can't remember when it was good."
"What do you want me to do?"
"I want you to go out and get one of those things that was on Sev's list."
"Right, I'll just pop down to the department store and get a flying broom and a cauldron shall I?"
"I didn't mean the wizard things. I got one of those, all you have to do is get one of the Muggle things." Toby didn't say anything. "Like a bike, or a model rocket, or something."
"A bike?"
"Don't you tell me we can't afford it. I know what we have. You just don't want to spend it. What kind of a father doesn't want to spend money for his boy at Christmas?"
"Alright, alright, I'll get the bike."
"Today."
"Yeah, yeah today." With that Toby rolled back over to go back to sleep.
Under her breath Ele said, "you better.'
tbc
