Chapter IX: The Prince Family Tales
Hola. Just a note that a new chapter of Pureblood Prince is up Here . It would make me so very happy if people who are interested (especially in Snape and his backstory) could read and review it for me. Good, bad, I don't care. I just want it to be critiqued and enjoyed :)
The Pureblood Prince
by mystfatale.
Disclaimer: All characters you recognise belong to J.K. Rowling.
Warnings: A few scenes of domestic abuse in this chapter.
CHAPTER IX: The Prince Family Tales
From the point in which this meeting ended, she would look back on this moment as a stupid idea. As something she should have known better than to agree to, to surrender to… but there was something about him, about this man who had pushed down the walls that her family had worked so hard to keep up around her… something… it was a power he had that she would never escape from until her dying day.
Eileen could never have imagined what that power, that something, would have eventuated into. Not back then.
She was, obviously, confidant enough (back then at least) to trust that she would be adequately prepared to defend herself should something untoward happen. This is why she had no qualms in accompanying Tobias back to his shared but presently vacated London council flat a week after their first meeting. They had arranged to meet in the bar once again… Eileen wasn’t very hopeful that he would remain true to his word, but surprisingly enough, he was sitting there as she entered the bar, waiting for her.
He’s waiting for me… me and only me.
Eileen made a point tonight not to drink any more but one glass of the Muggle Merlot tonight. That way she would be sure that it wasn’t the alcohol making decisions for her. Sure enough, the feelings that she had for Tobias remained as potent as they did the last Friday night. They laughed and talked and cuddled on the couch of the damp, run-down flat into the early hours of the morning, drinking cold tea that they had forgotten to pour in the mad, lustful rush of getting lost in each other. Eileen had never felt so happy.
“Oh - that was - disgusting - I loved it -” Eileen laughed after placing the empty, chipped mug upon the table - which was harder than it looked while kissing another person frantically.
“Mmm - you’re the first woman - to compliment and insult my tea - at the same time, Eileen. Such - a way with words.” Tobias replied, considerably out of breath. Eileen leant her head back and smiled. As Tobias continued kissing the nape of her slender neck, sending cool shivers down her spine, Eileen looked around in wonder at all the various Muggle contraptions that his living room held. They seemed run-down, but that made Eileen love them all the more. There was a dusty looking grey box in the corner with one single dial and two protruding wires on it that caught her eye. She wondered what it could be, and also just how ingenious Muggles really were. Everything here appeared well used and well loved, quite unlike the intact coldness of the ‘Maison de Prince’.
For the next few moments Eileen had become so lost in pleasurable thought that the feeling of a warm hand caressing her inner thighs merely added to the blissful sensation. All sensible thought came back to her, however, when the hand urged to move further.
“No,” Eileen’s eyes snapped open - her hand snapping towards his with equal rapidity. “Not here, not tonight, Tobias.”
Much to her delight, Tobias immediately leapt off the couch…
“Sorry, I just… I thought, well, you looked like -“
Eileen wrapped her arms around him. He had certainly proved his worth to her. “Tobias Snape…” she whispered, lightly kissing the back of his neck. “I’m afraid I like you too much.”
Every word was true. She was very afraid that she liked him too much.
Without warning, he wrapped his arms around her frail body, encasing her in a cacoon of safety and security. Eileen felt her body almost shutdown in relaxation. All those years she dreamed of being kept safe by someone…
“I’ll see you soon tho’ won’t I?” he asked as she nestled into his neck. “There’s somethin’ about you Eileen. I wouldn’t be very happy at all if I didn’ see you again.”
Eileen pressed her lips to Tobias’s once again. “Of course you’ll see me. I’ll meet you here. Tomorrow if you’d like.”
“What if I meet you at yours? Be a right sight better than this pigsty of a place…”
“No.” Eileen said firmly, holding his head in her hands. “It’s my… parents. They wouldn’t approve of my running around with anyone but a family friend. Best if I make my way here.”
“Alone?”
Eileen gave a faint a smile. “I can take care of myself. Promise. But for now, just before I head off home…” she walked over the to grey box with the wires. “Can you operate this for me?”
Tobias followed her with a very amused expression on his face. “What, the television? Well, I suppose. I could make us some more tea.”
A telly vision…?
“Yes, put on this telly vision” Eileen nodded enthusiastically, never considering once how very strange she must’ve sounded to this Muggle. Tobias flicked the switch and she opened her eyes wide in amazement… it was exactly like a photo… only the people in the photos didn’t just move around in their frame, stuck inside four walls - no, scenes kept changing before her eyes… different black and white people kept appearing and talking. There was laughter in the background.
“Amazing…” Eileen whispered in absolute bewilderment. All her life she had known that Muggles were an miraculous people, it was a world that she had obsessed about ever since learning about its existence, but never knew that such people, without an ounce of magic within them, were capable of such inventions, such creativity.
“You mean to tell me your fam’ly don’ have a television?” Tobias said with a laugh, cutting into Eileen’s current hypnotic state. “Thought you’d have a much better one than this old box n’ all. Only have one ‘cause Jim was given one for his birthday… rich Ma up near Edinburgh you see.”
“No… I… well, my parents are somewhat afraid of the future, shall we say.” Eileen replied, far too beguiled by the funny Muggles on this telly vision contraption to truly register what she was saying to Tobias.
“Ah, I see. Well you just sit there and I’ll make us summore tea before I drop you off.”
“Mmm,” Eileen mumbled, wide-eyed.
As she sat on the floor, inches from this incredibly piece of Muggle genius, as she heard the faint noises of Tobias busying himself with washing up their mugs, Eileen felt the first tears well up in her eyes. She would’ve given anything to stay here and never go back to the wizarding world. She wanted to learn everything possible about them, wanted to ask Tobias so many questions… of course, her stringent mother had forbidden her from taking any Muggle studies classes at Hogwarts, but she would stay up into the early hours of the morning reading all the Muggle books she could, locked away in the Ravenclaw dormitories. She collected bits and pieces of the Muggle world whenever she came across them - Muggle money, Muggle bus tickets, she had even once gone to Aofie’s “ballet” recital once - and had enthused about how beautiful it was to her friend so much that Aofie had bought her a book on the art for her 15th birthday. It was a book that she kept hidden in a locked box at the very back of her wardrobe, amoungst all the other wonderful Muggle objects.
She recalled the still pictures in her book… remembering how dazzled she was by the dancing Muggle girls - spinning purely on the strength of their toes (or ‘en pointe’ as she had learnt from the book). The promise that she made to herself, that one day she would dance just like them, had not come true.
Eileen hastily wiped away her now freely flowing tears before the Muggle man, who would never know just how lucky he was, came back into the room.
After months of perfect bliss with Tobias, Eileen knew that something was certain to come crashing down… and unfortunately, as in the world of academia, she found herself hardly ever wrong.
When she came down the cold, tiled steps of Prince Manor one morning after spending the night with her wholly adored Muggle man (trying very hard not to show how happy she was save interrogation by her father), she found a much different sort of man shoot a glare at her from the sitting room. In one swift move, Atticus Prince had come to the foot of the staircase to meet his daughter, still clothed in her nightdress.
“Had a good time, last night did we?” he barked. “Didn’t think to tell your mother or I where you were off to?!”
“I’m eighteen now,” Eileen replied as calmly as possible. “I came of age a year ago last July. I can take care of myself.”
“While you’re under my roof it makes no difference if you are eighteen or twelve! YOU ARE TO TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE OFF TO YOU MUGGLE LOVING, GOOD FOR NOTHING LITTLE TRAMP!”
At the sight of his raised wand, Eileen turned on him and rushed back up the stairs. Of course, she knew he would follow, but she really had no-where else to go… if she apparated, probability suggested that Tobias might not take so kindly to her demands that she move in with him immediately.
Before she could get to her wand, Atticus had grabbed her by the nightie and spun her round to face him.
“You should be thankful that your mollycoddling mother isn’t here to see what a slut her daughter has turned into. Running around with filthy Muggle men all night. Don’t think I don’t know what sort of disgusting acts you get yourself up to!”
“Have you forgotten that mother used to do the same thing on a much grander scale?” Eileen bit back; she was not one to back down from a challenge, regardless of how many bruises and cuts it had given her over the past. You didn’t become Captain of the Hogwarts Gobstones Club to sit back and shy away from competition.
Atticus did not use his wand; he rarely did when dealing with her. A swift hand hit her on the face.
“HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR MOTHER LIKE THAT? COMING FROM A SLUT LIKE YOU!”
Eileen and her father struggled with each other on the landing, but he was far too burly for her. He shoved her against the frame of one of the doors; Eileen hit her head so hard that the room started to spin. Seeing his daughter lying against the frame, her hand on her throbbing head did not deter Atticus, did not garner even the slightest bit of sympathy. He grabbed her nightie with his furiously shaking hands and with one, swift stroke, ripped off the entire garment, leaving her naked from the waist up. Eileen screamed and pulled the remainder of her nightie up to her breasts, but the damage had already been done.
“Look at you, you little Muggle loving whore. Look at what you’ve been reduced to.” Her father spat viciously at his daughter, as if her actions alone were utterly to blame for the pitiful state she now found herself in. “I’ve put up with your trouble for years, but no more. If you want to live under my house, you will abide by my rules.”
Eileen didn’t flinch. No, she was stronger than him, better than him. Without blinking, she rose to her feet - and even though her body was barely covered with the tattered remains of her nightdress, she pulsed with an air of self-confidence worthy of her mothers envy.
“It appears to me that you’re labouring under the delusion that I actually give a damn.” She bit back proudly. “Oh yes, I’ve had everything money could buy! Clothes, books, toys, the best of the best. Anything to shut me up, anything to make me feel like an ungrateful child and that I should actually thank you for all the disgusting things you’ve done to me!”
“You can’t prove anything, sunshine.” Atticus replied in an extremely speedy fashion. Eileen couldn’t believe it. He was actually more concerned with people finding him out than the wrongdoings he had done to his own flesh and blood.
“I don’t want to prove anything anymore.” Eileen said, completely exasperated. “I’ve finished. I’ll wait until mother gets back home and I’ll be saying my goodbyes.”
Tobias will understand…
“Yes, I am sure you will find a very profitable career selling out your sickly body to Muggles on the street corner. Eileen Prince, the biggest hussy in town. How proud you have made you family, my dear.”
With one final strike, Atticus Prince turned on the spot and walked away leaving his daughter to weep on the floor - as if merely forgetting where he was supposed to be going.
Tobias will understand… was all she could tell herself.
Tobias will understand.
~*~
~*~
It was a good as meeting as Serafina could have hoped. She had not expected him to be welcoming… what kind of son would, after believing his own mother to be abandoned by her family? No. It was clear that Eileen had meant all that she said; because it was obvious that he loved her dearly.
Considering that brute of a husband, she was possibly the only person whom dear Severus had ever loved.
She had been escorted from the school grounds by the deputy headmistress - someone by the name of McGonagall - whom Serafina recognised from her own Hogwarts generation as one of the younger Gryffindor prefects when Serafina herself was a Slytherin prefect in seventh year. Serafina could tell by the way in which this McGonagall woman shot sideways glances at her that she was not well trusted.
It was no skin of her nose, obviously. As if the Hogwarts faculty could possibly comprehend the enormous task at Serafina Prince’s hands. The minute that she apparated into West Sussex, Serafina hastily ran down the vast driveway of her mansion, her black boots clipping loudly on the wet cobblestones.
Her aged house elf was waiting for her at the archway. “How was Mistresses trip?” the diminutive little elf asked.
“Do not ask me questions, Missy.” Serafina replied without looking the elf in her eyes. She handed Missy her travelling cloak and stepped into the dining room, where she found her husband in the same place that she had left him.
“Did you find him?” Atticus mumbled. He was now nothing more than a shrivelled up piece of human being now - old and sour. Serafina’s lip curled in repugnance, she sacrificed a great deal when she became his very young wife.
“Yes, my darling” she replied loudly, walking over to him and placing her hand around his shoulder. “He is powerful… the Muggle in him has certainly not dampened his powers; though his face is the splitting image of his fathers.”
Atticus grumbled at the mention of this last piece of information.
“He will make his way here, of that I have no doubt,” Serafina continued. “It seems I was right about that Muggle. He has led our daughter completely away from magic. I dare say she barely holds any magic ability in her anymore… the Muggle has beaten it out of her. Did you hear, Atticus? Our only child has been beaten.”
She sat opposite her ancient looking husband, who either had not heard her, or refused to comment, and took out a long, silver cigarette which she lit with her wand. After about fifteen minutes of silence in which Serafina leant against her chair, puffing silvery smoke at the ceiling and contemplating her meeting with her grandson - Atticus stopped wheezing and spoke up.
“She’s a lost cause, always has been. What kind of witch allows herself to be hit? And by a Muggle.”
Serafina took a long inhalation of smoke. Without it, she might have done something rather unbecoming.
“I am positive that her son can make her see the error of her ways, if I cannot. He will succeed where I have failed.”
“What makes you so sure, Sera?” Atticus strained. “For all we know he could be as violent and brutish as her animal of a husband. And he is more of a danger to her. He is a wizard… a half-blood, yes, but still a wizard.”
Serafina had never heard her elderly husband say so much in a day, let alone a few minutes.
“He loves her, I can tell.” She explained. “He refused my invitation because he felt he was betraying her.”
Atticus began to cough and splutter in shock. She merely glanced away.
“He - said - NO?” Atticus rasped, hunched over from that rather unpleasant kick in the teeth. “Sera, you made a promise to… to him!”
“I know I did, you geriatric imbecile!” Serafina finally snapped. How dare he insult her effort? After he made none at all! “Severus will join the Death Eaters. Of that I have no doubt. His loyalty to his mother and hatred of his father will bring him to me eventually, and ultimately to the Dark Lord. Do not even think of questioning my ability to perform this task!”
“You have never failed before Sera, but I’m afraid you may be pushing it!”
“I have more to lose than you if I don’t fulfil this promise, remember that my dear! I made this promise to the Dark Lord, not you. I am the one who wants to see my daughter in her rightful place again… you would simply let her suffer.”
Atticus looked as if he were about to protest, but restrained himself - which infuriated Serafina, who at least expected him to lie about wanting his only child to be safe from harm.
“You know the only reason I sought the Dark Lord out was for Eileen,” Serafina said in less than a whisper - she was not even sure that her husband could hear her, but it didn’t matter. “I would not put myself in front of the radars of death if it were not for something that would kill me anyway if it did not come to fruition. The only way is to erase the Muggles from her life…”
She caught sight of the leather chair in the corner of the room, where she used to cuddle her daughter whenever she had cried.
“We have to do this…” Serafina continued to herself. “I cannot fail her…”
~*~
~*~
The Mark began to burn… he answered its call dutifully.
“My Lord, I came as soon as I could.”
A tall man cloaked in shadow stood at the opposite side of the pond that separated them; he did not turn to face the other man who had apparated before him.
“Not soon enough, Lucius. I trust whatever duty kept you from me for more than an hour was a matter of life-or-death.”
The man called Lucius Malfoy swallowed tensely. “I was… momentarily preoccupied, my Lord. I swear to you that if I have could have avoided it, I would.”
The elegant, blonde-haired man drew comfort in the fact that he was, in all truth, not deceitful in this avowal. He could not have avoided the affections of Narcissa Black… he failed to see what man could.
“You have not impressed me today - nor any time of late, Lucius” the cloaked man spat. “But I am a merciful Lord. I shall give you chance to redeem yourself with a task I have set for you…”
“Anything, my Dark Lord…”
“In a few days time the next generation of wizards will be waiting in the wings, to join our ranks. I am giving you the task, Lucius, of ensuring that they find their way… safely… into our nest. I have two or three particulars in mind that I would like you to pay special attention to.”
Lucius nodded, feeling the sting of his master’s gaze upon him even though the two men were not looking into each other’s eyes. The Dark Lord turned slowly to face his follower - his whitewashed face appeared contorted in the moonlight.
“Evan Rosier should not be difficult in tracking,” the Dark Lord informed him. “He and a few others have already been working from within. I already have my followers in contact with them. Go to his residence the night that he returns from Dumbledore’s school and formally invite him to his final initiation. His family will be thankful of it.”
“I will, my Lord.”
“However, Lucius, before he leaves Dumbledore’s clutches - you must ensure that Rosier performs one last task for me from within that school…”
“Yes…?”
“I have recently received news from a reliable source that a seventh-year Slytherin by the name of Severus Snape is somewhat hesitant to join us. I want you to instruct Rosier to boast about his initiation in front of the boy. I want make him feel isolated. I want Rosier to make the boy feel unwanted by me to increase his desire to join us. You are to speak of this to no-one.”
The name struck Lucius like a tonne of bricks.
“Snape, my Lord? I knew him. Talented, yes, but he is not-”
“Talent that could greatly benefit our cause. But that is not the only reason I require his services.”
“Forgive me for seeming intrusive my Lord, but Severus Snape…” Lucius cleared his throat tentatively. “He is not of pureblood heritage. Snape is not a wizarding name; his father is Muggle.”
“Do you not think I already know this, Lucius? Do you take me, the Dark Lord, for an ignoramus!?” Lord Voldemort hissed viciously, causing his servant to back into the shadows ever so slightly - pleading “no, my Lord, no! Of course not…! I merely-”
“His family, his wizarding family, are one of the oldest and most powerful pureblood lines since your own and the Black’s. Having the Prince’s as followers to our cause would be greatly beneficial. Indeed, Snape’s own grandmother is not only a Prince by marriage, but a Black by blood. Your future wife’s great-aunt, no less!”
Lucius positively jolted in disbelief. That didn’t sound quite right. No, it didn’t sound right at all… but his Master could see through the lies of everyone… did this mean that Severus’s very own grandmother was related to Narcissa? He would have to talk to his fiancé about this…
“Are you sure that it is her, my Lord…? I have never heard of…”
Lord Voldemort’s otherworldly eyes sliced into Lucius. He did not need to utter a rejoinder, the malevolence in his eyes told him more than enough. Lucius backed down.
“From the reports that Rosier has been giving my Death Eaters from within the castle, Severus Snape has proven himself to be an influential wizard. His skills in Potions could be of a vital assistance to us. It is clear that any Muggle blood within him is not hindering his magical abilities a single iota.” The Dark Lord began to pace back and forth, causing Lucius to tense every time he turned towards him. “However, his mere talent is inconsequential compared to the powerful allies we can make out of the Princes were he to join us.”
“And Severus Snape would be tied to you forever, my Lord, if you held threats against his family.”
Voldemort gave an acidic laugh. “How perfect a situation it would be, my slippery friend! How perfect! You know his mother was at Hogwarts with me, Lucius, a particularly ordinary Ravenclaw schoolgirl with naught to offer apart from her name. Nothing more than an expendable piece of Muggle loving meat… how effortless it would be to murder her in front of her own sons eyes if he ever thought to desert me!”
“So, you would let his blood-traitor mother survive, my Lord? As leverage?”
“Only so long as I require her. You see, my friend, Serafina Prince has made an Unbreakable Vow with me - that she will take her grandson in and train him in the ways of the Death Eaters. She believes, as Severus will believe, that his joining us is the only way they shall ever get rid of his Muggle father. Proof of the foolishness of love!”
Lucius suddenly recalled something spoken earlier.
“But, my Lord, did you not just tell me that Severus Snape has refused us? Does that not mean that Serafina Prince has failed and therefore… well, she would be dead by now, no?”
“The deadline has not passed yet, foolish servant.” Voldemort spat. “It will take time for him to come to the realisation that he has no choice but to join us. By my orders, Serafina Prince has recently implanted promises into his head - promises from me that, if he were to offer his loyalty, would ensure that his Muggle father would perish and that his dear mother would be safe from all harm. A promise that I will create a paradise for her in which she would be protected and given the opportunity to be truly loved.”
“And you intend to create this… paradise, my Lord?”
Another icy laugh.
“I have no intention of doing anything of the sort! A blood traitor deserves nothing more than unbearable agony, not rapture! No; pleasurable lies should be enough for the Half-Blood and the Princes to give into my every whim. Remember, Lucius, the blood traitor is nothing more than a piece of bait to us - of this you must tell no one. As long as I do not kill her, I may do anything to her I wish. Her mongrel son and pureblood family will remain forever loyal to me… else…”
He snapped his wand toward a disturbance in the distance. A jet of green lightning shot towards the noise - lighting up the target as it did so. A young deer dropped to the ground, lifeless, in front of their eyes.
~*~
The Pureblood Prince
by mystfatale.
Disclaimer: All characters you recognise belong to J.K. Rowling.
Warnings: A few scenes of domestic abuse in this chapter.
CHAPTER IX: The Prince Family Tales
From the point in which this meeting ended, she would look back on this moment as a stupid idea. As something she should have known better than to agree to, to surrender to… but there was something about him, about this man who had pushed down the walls that her family had worked so hard to keep up around her… something… it was a power he had that she would never escape from until her dying day.
Eileen could never have imagined what that power, that something, would have eventuated into. Not back then.
She was, obviously, confidant enough (back then at least) to trust that she would be adequately prepared to defend herself should something untoward happen. This is why she had no qualms in accompanying Tobias back to his shared but presently vacated London council flat a week after their first meeting. They had arranged to meet in the bar once again… Eileen wasn’t very hopeful that he would remain true to his word, but surprisingly enough, he was sitting there as she entered the bar, waiting for her.
He’s waiting for me… me and only me.
Eileen made a point tonight not to drink any more but one glass of the Muggle Merlot tonight. That way she would be sure that it wasn’t the alcohol making decisions for her. Sure enough, the feelings that she had for Tobias remained as potent as they did the last Friday night. They laughed and talked and cuddled on the couch of the damp, run-down flat into the early hours of the morning, drinking cold tea that they had forgotten to pour in the mad, lustful rush of getting lost in each other. Eileen had never felt so happy.
“Oh - that was - disgusting - I loved it -” Eileen laughed after placing the empty, chipped mug upon the table - which was harder than it looked while kissing another person frantically.
“Mmm - you’re the first woman - to compliment and insult my tea - at the same time, Eileen. Such - a way with words.” Tobias replied, considerably out of breath. Eileen leant her head back and smiled. As Tobias continued kissing the nape of her slender neck, sending cool shivers down her spine, Eileen looked around in wonder at all the various Muggle contraptions that his living room held. They seemed run-down, but that made Eileen love them all the more. There was a dusty looking grey box in the corner with one single dial and two protruding wires on it that caught her eye. She wondered what it could be, and also just how ingenious Muggles really were. Everything here appeared well used and well loved, quite unlike the intact coldness of the ‘Maison de Prince’.
For the next few moments Eileen had become so lost in pleasurable thought that the feeling of a warm hand caressing her inner thighs merely added to the blissful sensation. All sensible thought came back to her, however, when the hand urged to move further.
“No,” Eileen’s eyes snapped open - her hand snapping towards his with equal rapidity. “Not here, not tonight, Tobias.”
Much to her delight, Tobias immediately leapt off the couch…
“Sorry, I just… I thought, well, you looked like -“
Eileen wrapped her arms around him. He had certainly proved his worth to her. “Tobias Snape…” she whispered, lightly kissing the back of his neck. “I’m afraid I like you too much.”
Every word was true. She was very afraid that she liked him too much.
Without warning, he wrapped his arms around her frail body, encasing her in a cacoon of safety and security. Eileen felt her body almost shutdown in relaxation. All those years she dreamed of being kept safe by someone…
“I’ll see you soon tho’ won’t I?” he asked as she nestled into his neck. “There’s somethin’ about you Eileen. I wouldn’t be very happy at all if I didn’ see you again.”
Eileen pressed her lips to Tobias’s once again. “Of course you’ll see me. I’ll meet you here. Tomorrow if you’d like.”
“What if I meet you at yours? Be a right sight better than this pigsty of a place…”
“No.” Eileen said firmly, holding his head in her hands. “It’s my… parents. They wouldn’t approve of my running around with anyone but a family friend. Best if I make my way here.”
“Alone?”
Eileen gave a faint a smile. “I can take care of myself. Promise. But for now, just before I head off home…” she walked over the to grey box with the wires. “Can you operate this for me?”
Tobias followed her with a very amused expression on his face. “What, the television? Well, I suppose. I could make us some more tea.”
A telly vision…?
“Yes, put on this telly vision” Eileen nodded enthusiastically, never considering once how very strange she must’ve sounded to this Muggle. Tobias flicked the switch and she opened her eyes wide in amazement… it was exactly like a photo… only the people in the photos didn’t just move around in their frame, stuck inside four walls - no, scenes kept changing before her eyes… different black and white people kept appearing and talking. There was laughter in the background.
“Amazing…” Eileen whispered in absolute bewilderment. All her life she had known that Muggles were an miraculous people, it was a world that she had obsessed about ever since learning about its existence, but never knew that such people, without an ounce of magic within them, were capable of such inventions, such creativity.
“You mean to tell me your fam’ly don’ have a television?” Tobias said with a laugh, cutting into Eileen’s current hypnotic state. “Thought you’d have a much better one than this old box n’ all. Only have one ‘cause Jim was given one for his birthday… rich Ma up near Edinburgh you see.”
“No… I… well, my parents are somewhat afraid of the future, shall we say.” Eileen replied, far too beguiled by the funny Muggles on this telly vision contraption to truly register what she was saying to Tobias.
“Ah, I see. Well you just sit there and I’ll make us summore tea before I drop you off.”
“Mmm,” Eileen mumbled, wide-eyed.
As she sat on the floor, inches from this incredibly piece of Muggle genius, as she heard the faint noises of Tobias busying himself with washing up their mugs, Eileen felt the first tears well up in her eyes. She would’ve given anything to stay here and never go back to the wizarding world. She wanted to learn everything possible about them, wanted to ask Tobias so many questions… of course, her stringent mother had forbidden her from taking any Muggle studies classes at Hogwarts, but she would stay up into the early hours of the morning reading all the Muggle books she could, locked away in the Ravenclaw dormitories. She collected bits and pieces of the Muggle world whenever she came across them - Muggle money, Muggle bus tickets, she had even once gone to Aofie’s “ballet” recital once - and had enthused about how beautiful it was to her friend so much that Aofie had bought her a book on the art for her 15th birthday. It was a book that she kept hidden in a locked box at the very back of her wardrobe, amoungst all the other wonderful Muggle objects.
She recalled the still pictures in her book… remembering how dazzled she was by the dancing Muggle girls - spinning purely on the strength of their toes (or ‘en pointe’ as she had learnt from the book). The promise that she made to herself, that one day she would dance just like them, had not come true.
Eileen hastily wiped away her now freely flowing tears before the Muggle man, who would never know just how lucky he was, came back into the room.
After months of perfect bliss with Tobias, Eileen knew that something was certain to come crashing down… and unfortunately, as in the world of academia, she found herself hardly ever wrong.
When she came down the cold, tiled steps of Prince Manor one morning after spending the night with her wholly adored Muggle man (trying very hard not to show how happy she was save interrogation by her father), she found a much different sort of man shoot a glare at her from the sitting room. In one swift move, Atticus Prince had come to the foot of the staircase to meet his daughter, still clothed in her nightdress.
“Had a good time, last night did we?” he barked. “Didn’t think to tell your mother or I where you were off to?!”
“I’m eighteen now,” Eileen replied as calmly as possible. “I came of age a year ago last July. I can take care of myself.”
“While you’re under my roof it makes no difference if you are eighteen or twelve! YOU ARE TO TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE OFF TO YOU MUGGLE LOVING, GOOD FOR NOTHING LITTLE TRAMP!”
At the sight of his raised wand, Eileen turned on him and rushed back up the stairs. Of course, she knew he would follow, but she really had no-where else to go… if she apparated, probability suggested that Tobias might not take so kindly to her demands that she move in with him immediately.
Before she could get to her wand, Atticus had grabbed her by the nightie and spun her round to face him.
“You should be thankful that your mollycoddling mother isn’t here to see what a slut her daughter has turned into. Running around with filthy Muggle men all night. Don’t think I don’t know what sort of disgusting acts you get yourself up to!”
“Have you forgotten that mother used to do the same thing on a much grander scale?” Eileen bit back; she was not one to back down from a challenge, regardless of how many bruises and cuts it had given her over the past. You didn’t become Captain of the Hogwarts Gobstones Club to sit back and shy away from competition.
Atticus did not use his wand; he rarely did when dealing with her. A swift hand hit her on the face.
“HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR MOTHER LIKE THAT? COMING FROM A SLUT LIKE YOU!”
Eileen and her father struggled with each other on the landing, but he was far too burly for her. He shoved her against the frame of one of the doors; Eileen hit her head so hard that the room started to spin. Seeing his daughter lying against the frame, her hand on her throbbing head did not deter Atticus, did not garner even the slightest bit of sympathy. He grabbed her nightie with his furiously shaking hands and with one, swift stroke, ripped off the entire garment, leaving her naked from the waist up. Eileen screamed and pulled the remainder of her nightie up to her breasts, but the damage had already been done.
“Look at you, you little Muggle loving whore. Look at what you’ve been reduced to.” Her father spat viciously at his daughter, as if her actions alone were utterly to blame for the pitiful state she now found herself in. “I’ve put up with your trouble for years, but no more. If you want to live under my house, you will abide by my rules.”
Eileen didn’t flinch. No, she was stronger than him, better than him. Without blinking, she rose to her feet - and even though her body was barely covered with the tattered remains of her nightdress, she pulsed with an air of self-confidence worthy of her mothers envy.
“It appears to me that you’re labouring under the delusion that I actually give a damn.” She bit back proudly. “Oh yes, I’ve had everything money could buy! Clothes, books, toys, the best of the best. Anything to shut me up, anything to make me feel like an ungrateful child and that I should actually thank you for all the disgusting things you’ve done to me!”
“You can’t prove anything, sunshine.” Atticus replied in an extremely speedy fashion. Eileen couldn’t believe it. He was actually more concerned with people finding him out than the wrongdoings he had done to his own flesh and blood.
“I don’t want to prove anything anymore.” Eileen said, completely exasperated. “I’ve finished. I’ll wait until mother gets back home and I’ll be saying my goodbyes.”
Tobias will understand…
“Yes, I am sure you will find a very profitable career selling out your sickly body to Muggles on the street corner. Eileen Prince, the biggest hussy in town. How proud you have made you family, my dear.”
With one final strike, Atticus Prince turned on the spot and walked away leaving his daughter to weep on the floor - as if merely forgetting where he was supposed to be going.
Tobias will understand… was all she could tell herself.
Tobias will understand.
~*~
~*~
It was a good as meeting as Serafina could have hoped. She had not expected him to be welcoming… what kind of son would, after believing his own mother to be abandoned by her family? No. It was clear that Eileen had meant all that she said; because it was obvious that he loved her dearly.
Considering that brute of a husband, she was possibly the only person whom dear Severus had ever loved.
She had been escorted from the school grounds by the deputy headmistress - someone by the name of McGonagall - whom Serafina recognised from her own Hogwarts generation as one of the younger Gryffindor prefects when Serafina herself was a Slytherin prefect in seventh year. Serafina could tell by the way in which this McGonagall woman shot sideways glances at her that she was not well trusted.
It was no skin of her nose, obviously. As if the Hogwarts faculty could possibly comprehend the enormous task at Serafina Prince’s hands. The minute that she apparated into West Sussex, Serafina hastily ran down the vast driveway of her mansion, her black boots clipping loudly on the wet cobblestones.
Her aged house elf was waiting for her at the archway. “How was Mistresses trip?” the diminutive little elf asked.
“Do not ask me questions, Missy.” Serafina replied without looking the elf in her eyes. She handed Missy her travelling cloak and stepped into the dining room, where she found her husband in the same place that she had left him.
“Did you find him?” Atticus mumbled. He was now nothing more than a shrivelled up piece of human being now - old and sour. Serafina’s lip curled in repugnance, she sacrificed a great deal when she became his very young wife.
“Yes, my darling” she replied loudly, walking over to him and placing her hand around his shoulder. “He is powerful… the Muggle in him has certainly not dampened his powers; though his face is the splitting image of his fathers.”
Atticus grumbled at the mention of this last piece of information.
“He will make his way here, of that I have no doubt,” Serafina continued. “It seems I was right about that Muggle. He has led our daughter completely away from magic. I dare say she barely holds any magic ability in her anymore… the Muggle has beaten it out of her. Did you hear, Atticus? Our only child has been beaten.”
She sat opposite her ancient looking husband, who either had not heard her, or refused to comment, and took out a long, silver cigarette which she lit with her wand. After about fifteen minutes of silence in which Serafina leant against her chair, puffing silvery smoke at the ceiling and contemplating her meeting with her grandson - Atticus stopped wheezing and spoke up.
“She’s a lost cause, always has been. What kind of witch allows herself to be hit? And by a Muggle.”
Serafina took a long inhalation of smoke. Without it, she might have done something rather unbecoming.
“I am positive that her son can make her see the error of her ways, if I cannot. He will succeed where I have failed.”
“What makes you so sure, Sera?” Atticus strained. “For all we know he could be as violent and brutish as her animal of a husband. And he is more of a danger to her. He is a wizard… a half-blood, yes, but still a wizard.”
Serafina had never heard her elderly husband say so much in a day, let alone a few minutes.
“He loves her, I can tell.” She explained. “He refused my invitation because he felt he was betraying her.”
Atticus began to cough and splutter in shock. She merely glanced away.
“He - said - NO?” Atticus rasped, hunched over from that rather unpleasant kick in the teeth. “Sera, you made a promise to… to him!”
“I know I did, you geriatric imbecile!” Serafina finally snapped. How dare he insult her effort? After he made none at all! “Severus will join the Death Eaters. Of that I have no doubt. His loyalty to his mother and hatred of his father will bring him to me eventually, and ultimately to the Dark Lord. Do not even think of questioning my ability to perform this task!”
“You have never failed before Sera, but I’m afraid you may be pushing it!”
“I have more to lose than you if I don’t fulfil this promise, remember that my dear! I made this promise to the Dark Lord, not you. I am the one who wants to see my daughter in her rightful place again… you would simply let her suffer.”
Atticus looked as if he were about to protest, but restrained himself - which infuriated Serafina, who at least expected him to lie about wanting his only child to be safe from harm.
“You know the only reason I sought the Dark Lord out was for Eileen,” Serafina said in less than a whisper - she was not even sure that her husband could hear her, but it didn’t matter. “I would not put myself in front of the radars of death if it were not for something that would kill me anyway if it did not come to fruition. The only way is to erase the Muggles from her life…”
She caught sight of the leather chair in the corner of the room, where she used to cuddle her daughter whenever she had cried.
“We have to do this…” Serafina continued to herself. “I cannot fail her…”
~*~
~*~
The Mark began to burn… he answered its call dutifully.
“My Lord, I came as soon as I could.”
A tall man cloaked in shadow stood at the opposite side of the pond that separated them; he did not turn to face the other man who had apparated before him.
“Not soon enough, Lucius. I trust whatever duty kept you from me for more than an hour was a matter of life-or-death.”
The man called Lucius Malfoy swallowed tensely. “I was… momentarily preoccupied, my Lord. I swear to you that if I have could have avoided it, I would.”
The elegant, blonde-haired man drew comfort in the fact that he was, in all truth, not deceitful in this avowal. He could not have avoided the affections of Narcissa Black… he failed to see what man could.
“You have not impressed me today - nor any time of late, Lucius” the cloaked man spat. “But I am a merciful Lord. I shall give you chance to redeem yourself with a task I have set for you…”
“Anything, my Dark Lord…”
“In a few days time the next generation of wizards will be waiting in the wings, to join our ranks. I am giving you the task, Lucius, of ensuring that they find their way… safely… into our nest. I have two or three particulars in mind that I would like you to pay special attention to.”
Lucius nodded, feeling the sting of his master’s gaze upon him even though the two men were not looking into each other’s eyes. The Dark Lord turned slowly to face his follower - his whitewashed face appeared contorted in the moonlight.
“Evan Rosier should not be difficult in tracking,” the Dark Lord informed him. “He and a few others have already been working from within. I already have my followers in contact with them. Go to his residence the night that he returns from Dumbledore’s school and formally invite him to his final initiation. His family will be thankful of it.”
“I will, my Lord.”
“However, Lucius, before he leaves Dumbledore’s clutches - you must ensure that Rosier performs one last task for me from within that school…”
“Yes…?”
“I have recently received news from a reliable source that a seventh-year Slytherin by the name of Severus Snape is somewhat hesitant to join us. I want you to instruct Rosier to boast about his initiation in front of the boy. I want make him feel isolated. I want Rosier to make the boy feel unwanted by me to increase his desire to join us. You are to speak of this to no-one.”
The name struck Lucius like a tonne of bricks.
“Snape, my Lord? I knew him. Talented, yes, but he is not-”
“Talent that could greatly benefit our cause. But that is not the only reason I require his services.”
“Forgive me for seeming intrusive my Lord, but Severus Snape…” Lucius cleared his throat tentatively. “He is not of pureblood heritage. Snape is not a wizarding name; his father is Muggle.”
“Do you not think I already know this, Lucius? Do you take me, the Dark Lord, for an ignoramus!?” Lord Voldemort hissed viciously, causing his servant to back into the shadows ever so slightly - pleading “no, my Lord, no! Of course not…! I merely-”
“His family, his wizarding family, are one of the oldest and most powerful pureblood lines since your own and the Black’s. Having the Prince’s as followers to our cause would be greatly beneficial. Indeed, Snape’s own grandmother is not only a Prince by marriage, but a Black by blood. Your future wife’s great-aunt, no less!”
Lucius positively jolted in disbelief. That didn’t sound quite right. No, it didn’t sound right at all… but his Master could see through the lies of everyone… did this mean that Severus’s very own grandmother was related to Narcissa? He would have to talk to his fiancé about this…
“Are you sure that it is her, my Lord…? I have never heard of…”
Lord Voldemort’s otherworldly eyes sliced into Lucius. He did not need to utter a rejoinder, the malevolence in his eyes told him more than enough. Lucius backed down.
“From the reports that Rosier has been giving my Death Eaters from within the castle, Severus Snape has proven himself to be an influential wizard. His skills in Potions could be of a vital assistance to us. It is clear that any Muggle blood within him is not hindering his magical abilities a single iota.” The Dark Lord began to pace back and forth, causing Lucius to tense every time he turned towards him. “However, his mere talent is inconsequential compared to the powerful allies we can make out of the Princes were he to join us.”
“And Severus Snape would be tied to you forever, my Lord, if you held threats against his family.”
Voldemort gave an acidic laugh. “How perfect a situation it would be, my slippery friend! How perfect! You know his mother was at Hogwarts with me, Lucius, a particularly ordinary Ravenclaw schoolgirl with naught to offer apart from her name. Nothing more than an expendable piece of Muggle loving meat… how effortless it would be to murder her in front of her own sons eyes if he ever thought to desert me!”
“So, you would let his blood-traitor mother survive, my Lord? As leverage?”
“Only so long as I require her. You see, my friend, Serafina Prince has made an Unbreakable Vow with me - that she will take her grandson in and train him in the ways of the Death Eaters. She believes, as Severus will believe, that his joining us is the only way they shall ever get rid of his Muggle father. Proof of the foolishness of love!”
Lucius suddenly recalled something spoken earlier.
“But, my Lord, did you not just tell me that Severus Snape has refused us? Does that not mean that Serafina Prince has failed and therefore… well, she would be dead by now, no?”
“The deadline has not passed yet, foolish servant.” Voldemort spat. “It will take time for him to come to the realisation that he has no choice but to join us. By my orders, Serafina Prince has recently implanted promises into his head - promises from me that, if he were to offer his loyalty, would ensure that his Muggle father would perish and that his dear mother would be safe from all harm. A promise that I will create a paradise for her in which she would be protected and given the opportunity to be truly loved.”
“And you intend to create this… paradise, my Lord?”
Another icy laugh.
“I have no intention of doing anything of the sort! A blood traitor deserves nothing more than unbearable agony, not rapture! No; pleasurable lies should be enough for the Half-Blood and the Princes to give into my every whim. Remember, Lucius, the blood traitor is nothing more than a piece of bait to us - of this you must tell no one. As long as I do not kill her, I may do anything to her I wish. Her mongrel son and pureblood family will remain forever loyal to me… else…”
He snapped his wand toward a disturbance in the distance. A jet of green lightning shot towards the noise - lighting up the target as it did so. A young deer dropped to the ground, lifeless, in front of their eyes.
~*~