"One baby to another says I'm lucky to have met you. I don't care what you think unless it is about me. It is now my duty to completely drain you. A travel through a tube and end up in your infection." -Nirvana, Drain you

"Look at me."

She raises her eyes to mine, as much as she can with the angry black and violet swelling surrounding them. Even with her face looking like it was hit by a freight train, she still manages it. She still manages that sardonic half-scowl, her lips curled into the slightest grin, as if she's always inwardly laughing at some private joke about you.

"Episkey.", I whisper, and listen to the broken bones and torn cartilage in her nose mend itself back together. I dip a rag into a can of salve on the bedside table and gently spread it over her raccoon-like eyes.

"I brought you something for the pain if you-"

"Save it.", She reaches beside the bed and holds up a bottle of Everclear to my face. "I've provided my own.", Her head falls drunkenly to the crimson silk pillow and she laughs to herself. She'll die laughing; I've told her half a hundred times.

I breathe in deeply and exhale with a long sigh. "I'm sorry.", The phrase feels like a foreign language on my tongue. 'I'd like to get fucked up the ass by a gryndilow' would feel more natural coming out of my mouth than those two little words.

"I suppose I'm sorry too.", She shoots the words out quickly, examining a piece of sopping wet hair she's twirling around her finger.

She supposes.

I unfasten the black silk bathrobe she's wearing and push it back, revealing her nakedness. I never could get used to seeing the grotesque rods and chains and shackles that ran through her extremities, but I'm thankful they only occupy the less interesting parts of her body. There are more bruises around her breasts, ribcage and stomach. I feel a sharp pain above my heart and a lingering shame for what I've done, but it's still nothing compared to the Pandora's box that she has so carelessly and selfishly opened.

"You're lucky, you know.", I tell her as I spread more salve onto her milk-white flesh.

"Oh?"

"If Grandfather had been the one to catch you, you'd be nothing but a stew of liquified gore swirling in a cauldron right now."

She laughs, as always. "I am forever grateful to His Majesty for his gentle heart.", She takes my hands in hers and begins to run her tongue along my knuckles, which are bruised slightly from connecting with her bones so many times. The sensation brings on that ever familiar rush of blood down south. I try as I may to stay focused.

I clear my throat. "Can I just ask you one thing?"

She slides her body along the silken sheet and closes the distance between us. Allowing her nipples to brush against my chest, she lays her arms around my neck and lets her fingers work their way through my hair, massaging my scalp. She feels my hardness pressed against her and in the darkness I know she's smiling. "What is it?"

"Why do you still do it? It can't be about the money anymore, you have more than enough. You could leave it all behind and never look back and still live as a wealthy woman for the rest of your days. Why keep the charade going?"

Her body slithers up mine like a snake and I gasp lightly as I feel one of her cold chains brush my skin. No matter how warm she got, a part of her would always feel ice cold. She licks my ear from bottom to top and when her teeth graze the lobe I can't stifle a moan.

"Because-", In one swift motion she skewers herself onto my cock and tightens her entire body. The unexpected stimulation makes me moan all too loudly and grip her body tightly as if I were dangling from a cliff and she was a rope. She rocks her hips back and forth, up and down; I hear the chains in her legs clinking lightly. I've rendered all control to her. She knows it and she loves it and I let it happen again and again and again and again.

"I'm a God to them-", She whispers in my ear, gushing wetness at her own words.

"Oh god-...harder...please-"

"It's all smoke in mirrors, deception, illusions, I know, but to them it's their entire world, and I'm the center of it-"

"Faster...yeah...that's it."

"They would burn their houses to the ground if I asked them to. Men would skin their wives if I suggested it would better them. Mothers would slaughter their newborn babes at my feet if I wished it...and Merlin forgive me, but I do love it-"

"I love you...slow it down a bit."

"And the punchline of this grand practical joke on the human race is...in truth, I have no power at all."

"I'm sorry...what were you saying?"

She stops thrusting me and her hyena like laughter fills my ears. Gently, she plants a kiss on my nose.

"You're funny, Sev."

…...

"And that there is St. Jude's Church.", Tobias pointed his cigarette in the direction of a church that looked so old and dilapidated a strong wind was apt to blow it down. "It's been abandoned for a few decades now, but eh, the motto around here is 'if it falls down, we'll pick it up then...maybe.'"

He inhaled deep on his cig and they crossed the street. The roads of Spinner's End never seemed to be busy. "Now on this here block we have Buns n' Thighs. It's a fried chicken joint and a strip joint; innovation if I ever saw it, I tell you what. Next door from that you can get your checks cashed and your bail bonds and all that jazz. And here...we have Seniore Jappepi's Gymnastics Studio." On the stoop of a small, dingy looking building, an olive-skinned man with slicked back ebony hair and a pencil-thin mustache stood smoking a cigarette. The long black traveling cloak he wore almost gave him the impression of an overgrown bat.

"Hey there Seniore Jappepi! How's tricks?", Tobias extended a wave in a friendly gesture.

Seniore Jappepi's eyes narrowed to slits and his face contorted into a look of utter contempt for the both of them. He spat on the ground in disgust. "Iuogo remoto idiota stronzo-", still muttering filthy sounding Italian slurs under his breath, he turned his back to them and retreated into his studio, slamming the door behind him.

"He uh...he ain't the sunniest fellow.", He told her quietly.

"I've noticed that's a running theme around here...except for maybe you, that is.", She said, flashing him a sheepish smile.

"Heh, well you see, Spinner's End is...there's a French word for it, now, if I can manage to think of it. It's a...a...ooby...oobly-", He screwed up his face in concentration.

"An oubliette?"

"Yeah, That's it. It's a place people go to be forgotten about, essentially. Everyone keeps to themselves and nobody asks too many questions. We got your ex-cons, your bootleggers, your nutters, your druggers, your backgammon players; just a bunch of folk who'd rather be left out of the thick of society."

"And which of these categories do you fit? Not the last one, I hope.", She asked him coyly.

He chuckled low and deep, a sound she was quickly beginning to love. "No, no. Me, I'm just a simple man. I stay here to help out my Mah, mostly. She's been here all her life. Stick around her long enough and she'll be sure to let you know fifty times over how there used to be nothing but Polish folk who lived here before the 'undesirables' rolled in and the river used to be so clean you could wash your babies in it." He cocked an eyebrow and gave her a playfully suspicious once-over. "So what is it you're hiding from, little lady?"

"What do you mean?", She asked, a slight shakiness in her voice giving away her feigned innocence.

"I'm a simple man, not a stupid one. It's a mistake people tend to make around me. German accent or not, you speak the Queen's English. You rarely leave your room, but when you do, you're dressed in clothes that are probably worth a month's pay to most folks around here. Also...you've just got a certain kind of pretty about you that you only see with highborn women.", He looked down at his feet momentarily and blushed as he finished the sentence. "It just makes me wonder. What's a rich, pretty lady like you doing washed up in a God forsaken gutter like this?"

"Formerly rich. Any money I had belonged to my family, not me. I didn't earn a dime of it. As a matter of fact, neither did they really. It belonged to their fathers before them, and from there, their fathers before them, and more than half of it belonged to the Studworths anyway."

"The Studworths?", He couldn't help but add a touch of mocking snootiness when he voiced the name.

"Friends of the family." She replied, smirking. "That's how a great deal of wealth works, anyhow. Being born in the right place at the right time and knowing the right people. I'll let you in on another secret, as well: It doesn't make life any better. More comfortable, perhaps, but not better. When it all comes down to it, fate hands us all the same bullshit. Some of us just get it wrapped in shinier packages."

"A poetic way of putting it.", He nodded.

"To answer your question, however, I came here to start a new life.", She turned her eyes to the late afternoon sun flitting through the trees of the encroaching forest.

"I'm guessing the little feller's dad not waking up no more had something to do with that decision."

Eileen nodded and shifted her eyes to her feet.

"Hey now, I'm sorry if I stepped over the line with that..."

"Oh, no, it's okay, really.", She met his gray-blue eyes and found she could not hold his gaze long. It seemed the more she looked at him the harder he was to look at, like gazing into the sun.

"Welp, this here is where the trail starts for the forest.", He took her by the arm and led her from the sidewalk to a narrow, dirt trail cutting through low-hanging trees that drooped overhead like great green curtains. Some of them still even held their spring blossoms, sending a flurry of petals dancing in the wind with every light breeze. As Tobias guided her through the dense wood, she noticed that there was an unnatural yet nonthreatening silence and stillness to the place that made it as sedating as a quaalude. She simply walked with her handsome companion in silence for a time and watched the sun begin to dip under the canopy, gold setting a hundred shades of green aflame while she enjoyed the rugged feel of his calloused hand in hers.

"I can see why you wanted to wait until sunset.", She told him in little more than a whisper.

"It's pretty, ain't it? Not too many folks come by around these woods. Makes it all the better for me, I suppose. I come around here a lot, just to think, to get away-"

"Look!"

Eileen gasped and pointed in the direction of what appeared to be a sentient shrubbery at first, when a few seconds later a doe with fur so pale it was nearly white raised it's head above its leaves, gazing at them with wide and frightened shimmering eyes. Hand outstretched, she took a few stealthy steps toward the creature, trying her best to move in silence so as not to spook it.

"Careful now," Tobias whispered. "Those things have been known to charge at folks."

Eileen paid him no heed and continued toward the animal, which had now turned away from them and begun slowly trotting down the trail. She stood on the barest tips of her feet as possible and followed it. She looked behind her toward Tobias and giggled softly as she watched him follow suit. Ahead, the doe sauntered gracefully onward, calm and steady as if it was purposefully leading the two of them someplace.

Step by carefully muted step they trailed behind, taking great caution not to get too close and have it scamper off into the trees. Just as the falling sun's rays were beginning to beat directly into their eyes, the beige doe sped up it's pace slightly and galloped over a slight incline and down into a slim ravine of cracked and worn concrete, at the end of which resided a dried-up storm drain so coated in moss and vines it looked to be one with the nature surrounding it. Tobias caught up with her and gently retook her hand, guiding her carefully down the mild slope. The doe had come to rest and stooped its head down to graze in the grassy patches just beyond the concrete. She would have continued her playful attempts at approaching the animal, had it not been for the glint of metal that was glaring in her peripheral vision, caught directly in the rays of the setting sun. It was coming from the storm drain. On second look, in fact, the storm drain didn't appear to be quite so abandoned at all.

"Tobias, do you see-"

"Yeah, I see it.", His eyes were already narrowed in the direction of the mossy opening. "Stay behind me, hun. This town's got more than its share of bums crawling around and not a one of them are too friendly."

Slowly and guardedly they approached, yet luckily there appeared to be no sign of life inside.

"Hey!", Tobias called with cupped hands into the opening of the drain, but was only met by echoes.

Seeing that the coast was clear, Eileen stepped from behind him and ducked inside. Standing a few feet inward from the opening was a rickety old table that was serving whoever must have inhabited the place as a writing desk, atop of which sat a typewriter that had seen so much use the letters on its deeply indented keys were all but faded away. Beside the table, a threadbare sleeping bag was laid out. The arrangement of items before her certainly bespoke a sad life to whatever individual called this musty, crude space a home. Sadder still was what she found just beside the sleeping bag.

Ever since the day she was handed down her late Great-Aunt Mandarys' wand, which held a strand of Veela hair at its core, Eileen had a bit of a fascination with the bewitching Siren-esque creatures. Having read more than one book about them, as well as making them the subject of her second year term paper, she would certainly know if she saw one. The silver haired, sea-blue eyed, porcelain skinned female somehow managed to glow through the shattered glass of the tarnished picture frame that laid just beside the place one would rest their head in the tattered old bedroll.

A man and a little girl shared the photograph with her, and handsome as they both were, each were dulled in a way by her radiance. The little one must have been their daughter, as she seemed to share a blend of features of the two adults flanking her. She had smooth skin that was the color of heavily creamed coffee and long, thick, midnight black hair. Contrasting her dark features were eyes as pale a blue as sea foam. The father, who stood smiling proudly over the both of them, looked very oddly familiar to Eileen, but she could not place from where. He had skin several shades darker than his daughter's, shaggy black hair and eyes such a rich, light shade of brown they appeared gold. Eileen gingerly ran her fingers along the cracks in the glass covering the photo. They had a certain pattern to them, being densest at the center of the picture and then spidering outward loosely to the edges, as if the frame had not been dropped or fallen, but rather had been struck, like someone put their fist through it. When Eileen took a second glance at the man in the picture, she found that she knew him...

"Honest Jon!", She gasped, holding her hand to her mouth in surprise.

"Wha?", Tobias looked up from the typewriter he was curiously fiddling with and turned to Eileen.

"Look, it's him, in this picture. This must be where he lives...", She told him, letting her eyes take in the dark, dank surroundings of the storm drain once again.

"Who now?", He came up beside her and cocked his head to the left confusedly at the photo she was holding.

"Honest Jon. He comes around with a shopping cart and screams on by the hotel all the time."

"Wait a minute! You ain't talking about that nut job who's always hootin' and hollerin' about mind powers and space aliens are ya?"

"Yes, him! This must be a picture of him before he...moved in here, I suppose.", She did not want to be so cruel as to say 'before he lost his mind.'

"Ah man, this I gotta see.", He said disbelievingly, gently taking the picture from her hands and holding it in the light. "Well I'll be a baboon's asshole, that is him! Christ, you can't even recognize the man once ya give him a shower and something decent to wear. Goddamn, he had a looker for a wife too...Really makes ya wonder what could have happened to the guy, doesn't it?"

"It does. It really does...", She said bemusedly. Only when they stepped out of Honest Jon's somber abode to continue their walk, she was certain her head was brimming with different questions than her date's. A man married to a Veela couldn't be ignorant of the wizarding world, that one thing was for certain. Was the homeless 'prophet' who bellowed his lunatic's ravings through the streets also a fellow Wizard of Spinner's End? Was he simply a muggle who was fortunate enough to catch the attention of a very non-picky Veela? What on Earth could have led the poor man to such a life of abject poverty? Though she only knew Honest Jon in passing and considered him a nuisance at best, the implications more than piqued her curiosity.

"That's just how it goes, it seems.", Tobias mused, half to himself.

"Huh?", Eileen looked toward him, startled out of her reverie.

"Life around here, I mean. People wind up here from everywhere, looking to...fade away, I guess. Everyone has their own sob story. A whole town of folks just sittin' on their porches, singin' about how great they used to have it, before bad luck and shit choices led them to the wrong side of the river. You though...", He gently cupped her chin in his hand, bringing her black eyes to his own. "You come here looking to make a new life...it makes me wish I could tell you something...I don't know, encouraging, but...", He trailed off and broke eye contact with her. She could see the end of the trail a few yards away, and beyond that, the street which would bring them back to the hotel.

"But what?", She asked him.

"But...nothing good ever comes from Spinner's End."

She smiled at him. "Now, that can't be true. I mean you have...this lovely forest, for example! And...nuclear energy! That's a great thing, isn't it?", She blushed, knowing she was grasping at straws so hard she was barely making sense. He chuckled low under his breath and ran a hand through his thick, mouse brown hair. As they emerged from the woods and he stepped into the last rays of the retreating summer sun, he looked to her to be a silhouette of perfect masculinity. She had to stifle a sigh.

"Well now, I never said nothing great comes out of Spinner's End...just nothing good."

Before she could ponder just exactly what he meant by that, the shrill warnings of the impending arrival of The Puppet Master and the indescribable wonders of infinite consciousness exploded in her ears.

"OUR SOULS ARE MADE OF BUT MERE ELECTRICITY! WE ALL EXIST CONNECTED ON THE SAME CURRENT! WE MUST COME TOGETHER TO OVERTHROW THE MASTER!", Honest Jon screamed as he pushed along his rusted shopping cart full of books. He was walking in their direction. Eileen figured he must be headed toward his home to seek some respite from his daily travels.

"Ah jeez, speak of the devil.", Tobias muttered.

Recognizing Eileen, Honest Jon waved and began jogging over to them, his mismatched rags flopping after him like jester's motley.

"Eileen! My sweet dauphine! How it pleases my heart to see you out and about!", Completely ignoring Tobias, he seized her by the wrists and playfully spun her around.

"HEY! You get your filthy Gypsy paws off her ya fuckin' loony!", Tobias shouted threateningly, shaking his raised and coiled fist in front of him.

Eileen waved her hand low in his direction to pacify him. "It's quite alright Toby, I assure you he means no harm." Nonetheless she tore her hands from the grasp of Honest Jon. "That will do Jon, that will do.", She said tersely as she smoothed her skirts.

"I see you have...company.", He remarked, sizing up Tobias up and down in his golden eyes with an air of condescension that should have been difficult for a vagrant to pull off, but came rather naturally to Honest Jon.

"Yes, I do.", Eileen shifted her eyes towards Tobias, who was glaring at Honest Jon whilst grinding his fist in his hand. "Listen, Jon, you um...?", How exactly am I supposed to approach this without tipping off Tobias?

"I what, my Lady?"

"You never told me you had a family.", Were the words she finally decided on.

Honest Jon flinched backward from her, as if the statement leaving her mouth had physically shoved him. His soft smirk was practically slapped off his face and his smarmy demeanor drained out of him, making him look more downtrodden than ever. Looking away from her, he wrapped his fingers around the handle of his shopping cart, as if it were the only thing keeping him from falling to his knees. As he did so, she saw his hands were trembling. She knew at once she had hit a raw cord with him and felt true sorrow for the man.

"Jon...", She extended a hand towards the dark, shaking one that grasped the rusted cart, but he pulled away sharply.

"I'm afraid you are in error, my Lady.", His eyes met hers, cold as the metal they were colored after. "I have no family.", He scraped up the smallest shred of a smile he could muster and tipped his hat to her. "Good day to you."

With the exception of the tinny shrieks from the wheels of his cart, he made his way toward the shelter of the trees in silence. Eileen wanted badly to stop him, to press him further about his origins, to ask him what and if he knew of magic, but she did not have the heart to do so. Using her better judgment, she walked on with Tobias and left the Gypsy to his pain.

They returned through the doors of the Railview Hotel just as the stars were beginning to attempt to shine through the blanket of smog that hung over the town. Tobias Snape led his date by the arm down the drab corridor back to room #27 just as the mingled scents of the various guests' evening meals was beginning to clear out. When they reached her door, they stood facing each other as an awkward but not unpleasant silence passed over them.

Tobias absently rubbed the back of his neck. "Would it be uh...forward of me if I were to invite myself inside?", He asked her sheepishly, his face flushing pink.

For a half-crazed moment she actually caught herself subconsciously calculating when her father would be home, before she remembered that he was hundreds of miles away in a different country altogether and must have given up his search for her, had he even held one to begin with. She smiled warmly at Tobias. "Well, I do have a bottle of firewhisky inside that's been sitting untouched since I moved in."

"Firewhisky? I don't think I've heard of the stuff."

She mentally smacked herself as she pulled out the key to her room. "It's...foreign. I think you'll like it."

He smiled at her, warm and confident. "I'm sure I will darlin'.", And with that, she unlocked the door and hand-in-hand they stepped inside.

Eileen went to the sink and scrubbed off two tall glasses for them to use as her male companion absently examined the few items that lay scattered about the room, most of which were toys belonging to Viserus. She had not thought to clean up before she left the house and didn't think much of it...until a golden snitch, the one Aunt Jenny had passed on to Viserus from her days as beater for Slytherin and she had been too goddamn absent minded to put away, flew past her head so fast she swore it took some of her hair with it.

Shit.

She snapped her head towards Tobias, who was staring at her with eyes just slightly wider than dinner plates. "What in tarnation was that thing?"

"A toy!", She said, too loudly and too uneasily, "Of my son's.", She tittered nervously as she poured the firewhisky, slopping some over the side of the glass in haste.

"Damn. I sure as hell never had any neat gizmos like that when I was a kid."

She handed him a glass of the sugary, cinnamon smelling red liquid. "Just another...foreign thing. They have all kinds of crazy toys for kids in Germany; Dolls that really shit themselves, shoes that turn into rollerblades, it's really quite something.", She realized how skittishly fast and high pitched her voice had become and took a deep swig of her firewhisky, hoping it would take the edge off sooner rather than later.

"Does the little guy miss it? Germany, I mean?", He asked her as they adjourned to the sofa.

"He only reminds me every day.", She replied sardonically.

"You weren't in the thick of the war, now were you?"

Eileen coughed as she felt firewhisky hit the raw back of her throat from an overly greedy sip. "The war?"

"Yeah, you know, World War II.", He said plainly, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, which it was. "Now me, I don't know what went on in Germany or nuthin' so I don't know if you had Nazis marchin' down your streets and sayin' howdy to you at the corner store, but I tell you what, if I hadn't busted my knee at the plant a few years back I would of enlisted. I heard what went on in those camps was just something awful. You ain't thirsty, are ya?", He quipped, smirking and eyeing her already drained glass.

Her face flushed with embarassment, but between being assaulted by her son's snitch and the mention of the war, she was very thirsty indeed. "I suppose I am.", She smiled as she poured herself another glass. "To answer your question though, no, my family had no part in the war, thank God.", She lied through her teeth as she guzzled more liquor. Between the mugginess of the summer air, the booze running through her blood, her general anxiety, and the heat of something else altogether that flowed through her via the presence of male company, she decided that the room had become unbearably stuffy. "If you don't mind I'm just going to crack the back door and get some fresh air in here."

"Not at all, darlin'."

She set her glass on the coffee table and strode over to the sliding glass doors at the back wall, and when she pulled back the curtains to crack them she let out a blood curdling scream and recoiled backward so quickly she tripped over her own feet and landed on her backside. There he was, right at her back door. A cigarette was held between his long, slender fingers and his feathery cut golden blonde hair was rustling in the breeze along with his long, white labcoat. From the sideways position he was standing, the glare of the moon on his glasses hid his eyes, but she would know him anywhere.

"Father!", She cried as tears of unbridled terror welled in her eyes.

The man on the other side of the glass turned to her, and when the glare over his glasses passed, he looked her dead in the eye...his brown eyes full of confusion. Though her vision was skewed by tears and whiskey, she could see now that his face was too round and he was about 20 years too young. While she clutched her hand to her chest in an attempt to keep her heart from bursting through her ribcage, Tobias bound angrily toward the door and ripped it open.

"HEY ASSHOLE! You see that sign over there?!", Tobias bellowed.

"Whut sign?", The blonde stranger replied.

"That one! It says NO LOITERING! And here I see you, clearly lookin' for an ass beatin', on my property loitering! You nearly gave my lady friend a coronary, that you did!"

"Quit torquin' me man! I'm just tryin' to have a bogey here, alright?"

"You can have it somewhere else unless you wanna be havin' your fuckin' teeth down your throat, ya hear! Now go on, git!"

The blonde stranger spat and stalked off, clearly not wanting to engage in a physical confrontation with the taller and far angrier man. Tobias slid the door closed just enough to leave a crack for air. "Christ almighty, the folks around here...I'm so sorry about that, darlin', are you alright?", But when he turned to find her still crumpled on the floor, face white as a corpse and cheeks stained with tears he knew she wasn't. Slowly and softly he approached her, dropping to his knees himself and taking her in his arms.

"Hey now...it's alright.", He murmured to her, stroking her dark hair. "Ssshhh...it was only some dumbshit gutter trash. He's gone now. It's okay."

"He's never gone.", She spoke to him in a trembling whisper.

"What do you mean, darlin'?", He asked as he carefully helped her up and guided her back to the sofa.

What did she mean? What was she doing? She was in the middle of England living in a shoddy hotel sharing firewhisky with a muggle man. Should that have been her real father standing outside, Tobias' brains would have been painting the walls right now and God only knew what the vile man would have in store for her. And even if the day never came when her father found her, what then? What kind of relationship could she possibly lead with the man sitting next to her with the frightened and befuddled look in his eyes. Years ago, she could have just given up her life of magic, but as it stood she had a three-year-old wizard son and that was all out the window now. She was in the wizarding world for life whether she wanted to be or not. Without even being aware of what she was doing she drained her second glass of firewhisky, and the more she felt the booze hit her the more doubts and fears pelted her brain. The floodgates that held her emotions in check were opening and there was nothing she could do to stop them. Her vision doubled, the room spun, and her sense of judgment and reason were lost in the raging tide. She knew she should tell him to go, tell him she was out of sorts and that she needed to be left to herself, but out of her numbed lips came the words:

"Tobias, I have to tell you something."

"What is it, hun?"

"My life is...complicated.", She poured herself another glass of firewhiskey.

"I get ya, darlin'. Widow, single mom, new town...I know it can't be easy.", He soothed, stroking her back.

"It's more than that...a lot more."

"Well lay it on me, hun-"

"I'm a witch, Toby."

He chuckled softly and rubbed the back of his neck. "My mom's a witch. Hell, most of the women I've dated were witches. You though, you ain't no witch, you're a real sweetheart.", He rubbed her shoulder.

She laughed in spite of herself. "I'm serious. I come from a community of people who are able to wield magic, and well...a lot of them are not all too friendly to people who cannot."

He looked at her, bewildered. "I don't get it."

Without another word she got up from the sofa, nearly fell straight back down from the head rush and staggered to her bedside table to fetch her wand. When she returned to the sitting area she sat beside him and looked at him almost pleadingly. "Promise me you won't scream."

"I ain't no wimp.", He replied confusedly.

She knew that there would be no going back after this, but the can of worms was already half open anyway. Pointing her wand toward a pair of Viserus' shoes that lay discarded in the corner, she caused them to levitate at least 6 feet off the floor and drift over to the open closet and landed them inside.

It was Tobias' turn to drain his glass.

"Christ on a cracker...the radiation leaks really are fuckin' up this town.", He said in a voice filled half with awe and half with fear.

"It's real, Toby. There's practically a whole world of people like us. I can show you more, if you like.", She told him, raising her wand again. He filled another glass.

"That's...that's quite alright, darlin'. I believe you, I do. I just...wow. I wasn't expecting that.", He drank deep.

"No muggle ever is."

"No what?"

"Muggle. It's what we call non-magic folk. We kind of have a bit of our own language too, I'm sorry."

"It's alright.", He sighed heavily and ran his hand through his hair. "I tell you what...I've seen my share of folks come and go through this town. Jokers, smokers, midnight tokers, thieves, killers, loonies, bums, and shit I still don't know what the deal is with that wop at the gymnastics place, but this...this I do say is a first. You are most certainly the first witch I've seen in Spinner's End...or anywhere for that matter.", There was a pregnant pause. "The little fella, is he-"

"Yes. My son is a wizard. My late husband was as well. As is the rest of my family. And the reason I came here was to get so far away from them that they would never find me."

"Why would you want to do that? Aren't they your...kind an all? Ah shoot, that sounded racist, didn't it? I'm sorry..."

"It's alright. I know this all must be so very unusual to you. I'm so sorry, I never should have got you roped into all this. If you want to leave, I understand completely-"

"Hey now, witch or not, I still stand by what I said before. You're a real sweetheart, Eileen.", He pulled her in closer to him and planted a kiss on her forehead. "I really can't imagine a girl as nice as you coming from a family so nasty that you'd have to hide from them.", He wiped a tear from her cheek and offered her a soft, loving smile.

Had she been sober, she might have laughed at the irony. As she was though, the comment only caused the floodgates of her sorrow to open wider, and she found herself lost in a sea of her own horrid memories and misgivings. She began sobbing in earnest, holding her spinning head in her hands and letting tears fall to her lap.

"Ssshhh.", He soothed, guiding her head to his shoulder. "It can't be all that bad, darlin', can it?"

"It can.", And with those words her last wall had crumbled, and into Tobias' tear soaked shoulder she told him everything. In her heaving sobs and anguished cries he learned the tale of Severus The Conqueror, of her dreadful marriage to her cousin and the child they shared, of her repugnant Aunt Jenny who lived for her brother's cock and the Studworth's money, of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade and thralls and blood wars, of Princes and kings and a man who wore a crown of thorns and claimed to be a Lord. When she finally fell silent, Tobias was still there, still holding her, and still whispering words of love and comfort into her hair. After a long pause to take in all she had to say, what he said in return was short and sweet.

"Like I told you before darlin', everyone around here has a story, and by God that is the one that takes home the Oscar, I tell you what. But all in all, you still have one thing in common with everyone else around here."

"And what is that, Toby?"

He lowered his face to hers, so as to meet her eyes. "It's all in the past for you now. You don't have to cry about it anymore. You can put it all behind you now."

She wanted so badly to eat up those honeyed words, but she knew it was not that simple. "You don't understand, my father-"

"Is half a world away and if he shows up here I'll deck him so hard he'll be eatin' out your aunt with a set of wooden teeth."

"If anyone were to ever catch my father and hold him you'd have to wait in line behind a few million Jews to get your chance.", She sipped her drink bitterly.

"What...do you mean? Just who was your father?"

"My father is Dr. Severus Prince, the 66th of his name, former Head Physician of the Schutzstaffel and Chief Advisor to the late Fuhrer of Germany, Adolph Hitler.", She drained her glass in one gulp as she felt Tobias stop breathing for a moment.

"And you...had to live with that man?"

"Aye. That I did. And do you know what he did to me the first time he found me with a muggle man?"

"What did he do? It's alright darlin', you can tell me."

She could see her tear-stained face reflecting in the polished black exterior of her father's Mercedes. Her trembling hand fumbled with the door handle until Dr. Prince opened it for her from the driver's seat. She stepped in and buckled her seat belt as he turned the key in the ignition, making the well oiled engine of the expensive vehicle purr like a kitten, and for the rest of the drive that was the only sound that was heard.

Eileen wanted badly to ask him where he was taking them, to once again shower him in apologies, beg him to turn the car around and promise that she would never touch another boy until the end of her days if that's what it took. She looked out the passenger's side window to a gray sky and watched as the buildings and structures of the city slowly became more and more sparse, shifting to grassy country. The first few droplets of a summer rainfall came softly down and ran tiny rivulets of water down the glass. She absently followed the paths of the raindrops with her finger in silent foreboding, having not an inkling as to what her father had in store for her...until in the distance ahead she saw a familiar looking building: Two simple one-story wings to either side and an imposing tower in the center which held two windows. At the foot of the tower stood a large, spiked black gate, making the place vaguely resemble the gaping maw of a hungry monster. As the car approached the gate, a man in a black uniform stopped them.

"Identification, please.", The man said to her father's side of the car, urgent and businesslike.

Her father simply rolled down the driver's side window and smiled at the man.

"Dr. Prince! My apologies.", He threw his right hand across his stomach and bowed low. "I'll get the gate for you.", The man ran off and the black steel rattled and then opened slowly with a metallic shriek, revealing a private road flanked by barbed-wire fences. At the side of the road stood a sign that simply read: Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Eileen felt her throat constrict as fresh tears welled in her eyes. "Father, what are we doing...here?"

On the fences clung inmates, men, women, and children alike that had the look of a bare layer of skin stretched too thin over naught but bone. At the sight of the black Mercedes their faces dropped and they warily retreated back to their camps like startled animals. The car proceeded down the road like a wolf making its way through a crowd of frightened sheep, each one fleeing as it came into view. She wondered briefly if the inmates reacted so fiercely to even the sight of the Fuhrer himself. Probably not, she thought to herself. The sight of him would mean death, for sure, but the sight of Dr. Prince meant pain...unspeakable pain and horrors beyond imagination as he played God in those cold, sterile rooms, taking human lives and leaving behind twisted, misshapen parodies. Eileen had to make a conscious effort to hold down the contents of her stomach.

"Father, please...let's just go home."

"Oh come now, princess, you're practically a woman now.", He patted her on the shoulder and smiled at her playfully. "Surely you're mature enough to see a bit of your father's work."

They came to a parking lot and he rolled the Mercedes into a spot marked 'Reserved for Dr. Severus Prince.' He stepped out of the car and she hesitantly did the same. With a disposition as cheerful as if he were walking her to the county fair, he offered her his long, slender-fingered hand and a smile. Obediently, she took it and walked with him. His hand was frigid cold in hers. It was always cold. When they reached a heavy, steel door marked 'Laboratory 19' her father opened it and led her inside.

The pungent odor of unwashed bodies, urine and feces, a myriad of strange chemicals, and something even danker which she could only assume was death came together and assaulted her lungs with such fury she doubled over and nearly emptied her guts right there. Her father laid his arm around her shoulders, his liberal use of cologne adding to her borderline suffocation.

"You'll get used to it, princess.", He said almost soothingly, as he led her down the dark, dingy corridor.

Thankfully, all the doors to the experimentation rooms were closed. However, though she could not see what was going on in this thrice-be-damned sepulcher of science gone mad, just hearing it was enough. The building was a symphony of human suffering. Echoing off of every stark white wall were cries of help and pleads for mercy to an uncaring and absent God. Children screamed for their mothers, men and women alike begged for respite from agony, and some only beseeched their tormentors for death. Amidst the cacophony of tortured howling, every manner of cruel instrument wielded by modern man could be heard. High-pitched drills set her teeth on edge, chains could be heard rattling and buzz saws roared. To the grinning man who had his arm around her, however, this hellscape was just another day at the office.

Up ahead, a man in a white lab coat identical to the one her father donned stepped out of an experimentation chamber and bid them hello.

"Ah, Josef, my good man!", Her father gave his partner a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"Severus, and...oh my! This pretty young lady can't possibly be little Eileen, could it?", He smiled at her amiably, revealing a rather large gap between his front teeth. His voice was as soft and gentle as a songbird's, yet there was something about the man that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. "Why, the last time I saw you, your father had to carry you on his shoulders. It's hard to believe I'm looking at the same girl."

"I swear, Josef, you blink and find they've grown up on you.", He tangled his long fingers in her hair.

"You ought to watch this one, Sev, she's too pretty for her own good.", Though he meant it as a complement, under the circumstances, his words held a dark ominousness about them.

"Oh, you can say that again. Tell me, do we have any garbage to take out today?"

"Actually, I was just about to take care of chamber 13."

Her father placed a hand on Josef's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, I'll handle it while I'm here."

"You're a prince, Dr. Prince. Thank you. Now if I hurry and get home, I may just yet spare myself a night of my wife's hollering. A good evening to you both.", With a friendly nod of his head, he bid them adieu and was off.

He brought me here to watch him take out the trash? She pondered, confused. Only when her father flipped the light switch beside a hermetically sealed room of steel and plexiglass labeled "Chamber 13", she was not greeted by a can of rubbish. She was standing in front of a gas chamber. A row of dead-eyed breathing skeletons looked her over with empty gazes as fluorescent light flooded the small chamber. Children and adults of all ages stood side by side, naked as they were on their name days, rubbing their hands against their twig-like arms in a vain attempt to stave off the frigid air against their bare skin.

The smuggest look of satisfaction spread over her father's features as he watched the color drain from his daughter's flesh.

"Welcome to the machine, princess."

As Dr. Prince stepped into view of the ill-fated inmates, they screamed in unison, knowing that they were standing in their grave. The thickness of the chamber's walls muffled the sound, but it was no less heart-wrenching. The women shielded the eyes of their children and the men tried to keep what little composure they had for the sake of the women.

"Daddy...please..."

"I asked you a question earlier. I asked you what you thought was more important in life, love or strength. You answered love."

She nodded, tears falling freely down her cheeks.

Her father cupped her face in his icy hand, wiping away a tear with his thumb. "I'm about to show you why you are wrong." He kissed her gently on the forehead...and then stepped back, wrapping his fingers around the handle of a large, red switch on the wall.

"NOOO!", Eileen screamed, but her plea fell on deaf ears. Dr. Prince flipped the switch without a second thought. The machine roared. Behind the glass, the shrieks of the forsaken mingled with a sharp, piercing hiss that birthed a sickening sound all its own which resonated through the entire facility. Her father slithered up behind her and cupped her shoulders in his hands, she could feel his feathery hair tickle her cheek.

"Do you see that woman there?", He pointed to a middle-aged woman trying desperately to cover three small children with her own body. She whimpered and nodded. "Two of those children are hers, and one is her nephew, and the man standing beside her his her husband. Oh, and that man over there covering that old woman's mouth, they're mother and son. Let's see...if I'm not mistaken, all four of those men are brothers and one of them is fucking that woman over there, I forget which, oh well." He shrugged and looked at his daughter. "There certainly is a lot of love in that room, wouldn't you say?"

She was sobbing so heavily that speech escaped her.

Her father brought his lips to her ear. "How long do you think it will be before love, chivalry, and family bonds crumble to ashes in there and all of those people become biting, clawing animals?", He whispered with a passionate, almost romantic sounding caress.

"Daddy, PLEASE! Turn it OFF! MAKE IT STOP!", She wailed.

"I've watched this over a thousand times, princess. It's always the same. Give it about another 15 seconds; that's when the gas will have filled the room about halfway. It's coming from those vents near the floor, you see. Towards the ceiling there will still be a bit of fresh air."

She tried to turn face away and hide her eyes from the carnage in front of her, but it was no use. Her father seized a handful of her hair and tightly held her head in place. "Daddy...please...stop...please don't make me watch...", She continued to sob, and he continued to ignore her.

The woman who was holding the three children abruptly let go of them and began clawing at her own throat in frenzied agony. A purple flush crept up her skin and the veins in her throat became distended and pulsed visibly as she tore into her neck with her own fingernails. She staggered on half-dead legs over to one of the four brothers her father had pointed out and seized his shoulders, trying to scale his body to the untainted air that was slowly waning at the top of the chamber. Her weight on his weakened body brought the both of them crashing down and her head hit the floor with a sickening crack. The man found his footing and made his way over to the children, which had already choked to death, judging from their limp, purple bodies, and began unceremoniously piling their corpses against the wall and attempting to climb them to higher ground.

Eileen could no longer keep her food down and Dr. Prince had to shift backwards in order to keep her vomit from spraying onto his shoes. "Dad...", She dry heaved, her face and eyes blood red from weeping and puking. "Please..."

Dr. Prince looked at his watch. "One minute and thirty-three seconds.", He stated.

"What?"

"One minute and thirty-three seconds. That's how long love was able to put up a fight in the face of chaos."

In the chamber, the man standing atop the pile of children desperately sucked at the slightly less toxic air towards the ceiling. Lumbering behind him came one of his brothers, who grasped him by the hair and smashed his skull against the wall, sending him to his death. He laid his dead brother's bleeding, lifeless body atop the children and climbed...

"Tell me, princess, who do you think will be the last man standing?"

She looked upon the dying as they clawed and grasped desperately at their throats, as their legs gave out beneath them, as their noses and protruding eyes leaked blood...

"The strongest.", She whispered through heaving breaths.

"What was that, princess? I could not hear you."

She knew he could, but she humored him. "The strongest.", She said, slightly louder.

"Ah, now you are learning.", He kissed her cheek.

She watched as one by one the survivors piled the fallen atop each other, building a tower of flesh and bone. The remaining men battled one another for the position at the top, where the last shred of clean air faded away. They pushed and bit and bashed and shoved and clawed until the man who won the top fell limp and purple against the wall.

At the very least, she was relieved it was finally over.

"You may think me cruel, Eileen, but I assure you the world is far, far crueler, and out there, love is worth nothing. Strength and wit, however, that is what preserves a man. It is why I'm the one pulling the switch and they...", He pointed to the bodies. "Are the ones climbing their dead for a chance at a last breath. And in our world, as you know, all it took was one fiercely strong man to make us the royal family. You are a Prince, Eileen. An heiress to the finest and most powerful dynasty of wizards and witches who ever walked the Earth, and you are one of the last of us. I will not see you wasted whoring yourself amongst muggle commoners and bringing half-bloods into this world. You will grow up to be a strong witch, you will marry one of our own, and your offspring will be strong as well, and together..."

"We will take back what the weak ones in our family have allowed to slip through their fingers.", She finished telling Tobias as she drained her sixth glass. His face was ashen as a ghost's and an unlit cigarette trembled in his fingers.

"Mother of God..."

"God couldn't save anyone who was on the wrong side of Dr. Prince, and he won't save us if he ever finds us.", Once again, she let her tears fall free, having relived the horrors of the day her father welcomed her to the machine.

"Do you know what I think, darlin'?", He brought his face so close that his hooked nose brushed against her petite one.

"What?"

"I think if your father wants a pure-blood wizard to get fucked, I know who he can start with.", And with that he closed his eyes and took her mouth in his, and her tongue answered him hungrily. He embraced her thin frame tightly as he explored her mouth, growling softly as he admired just how lovely her subtle, skinny curves felt in his hands. When his calloused hand moved down to cup her small breast, she did not stop him.

"I ain't gonna leave you, darlin'. You're safe with me, ya hear?", He stroked the side of her breast with his thumb almost ritualistically as he repeated the words: "You're safe with me, you're safe with me."

She deepened the kiss, knowing full well what it would lead to. He slid an arm under her knees and seized her up, carrying her princess-style to the bedroom. When he laid her gently on her bed, his hand found the zipper to her dress and slowly pulled down. She felt goosebumps break out over her arms and legs as he lightly caressed her bare back with his nails. Every sensation he caused was new and exhilarating to her. Despite the fact she had been married and even shared a child with a man, she was a virgin. A virgin to the pleasures of lovemaking in which there was actual love involved, and now that she had been given a taste she only wanted more. She unclasped her bra while he pulled his t-shirt over his head and unfastened his jeans. When he pulled her dress down over her legs, tossed it against the wall and mounted her she couldn't have given half a shit if her father himself was standing over the bed watching. The way he was touching her she wouldn't make him stop if the hotel was on fire. His manhood found her so sopping, he entered her without any effort at all. He had one hand tangled in her hair and the other intertwined her own. Diamonds of sweat formed on her brow as she breathed his name, over and over and over again. Her whispers turned to screams as she neared ecstasy and he was so lost in her flesh he didn't even feel it when she raked her nails across his back so hard he bled.

"I meant what I said, darlin', I ain't gonna leave you.", He whispered softly as his he spilled his seed into her flooding opening. When her shrieks of 'Toby' subsided, he pulled out of her and spooned her into his arms. She relaxed against him, letting her head fall on his chest, savoring every second of his warmth as he held her in the darkness.

Every man Eileen had ever known had a been a liar. Though whether it be wishful thinking, severe excess of alcohol, or the glow of post-coital bliss, she drank his every word. He wouldn't leave her. And she didn't want him to, ever. As silly and juvenile as it was, she could almost picture them married, sharing a quiet life together. She knew she was thinking like a half-wit teenager but God be damned if she ever got to be young. As her eyes became heavy with sleep, her mind danced with visions of a perfect wedding, a perfect home, and a perfect life. In the deepest recesses of her imagination, she could even see them having children, and she envisioned them the most perfect of all.

-End of Part I-

A/N: Dr. Prince does not fuck around when giving life lessons. Whenever I write lines for him, I always picture the voice of Col. Hans Landa from Inglorious Bastards in my head. I picture them pretty similar in mannerism as well, just happy-go-lucky Nazis. Also, if anyone's wondering what Seniore Jappepi called Tobias, he called him a 'backwoods idiot douchebag.' Anyway, Severus himself will FINALLY be making an appearance next chapter. 30,000 words later I do say Eileen's portion of the story went on longer than I wanted it to, but I'm still pleased with how it turned out. As always, I hope everyone's enjoying themselves so far. Fun fact: Honest Jon is my self-insert character and I'm actually writing this story from a very cozy storm drain in the woods. Stay classy, !