Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Sev's Gang	By : RueRambunctious Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Snape/Lucius Views: 5202 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter universe and make no money from this fair usage fiction.

Chapter List
- 12
- 13
- 14
Severus had deliberately not sent any of the grinning sweets to his mother lest they antagonise his father. Come the Christmas break, Severus wondered why he'd bothered, because the strain between his parents was worse than he ever remembered it to be.

Without Severus around to be harmed by Tobias, Eileen had been speaking her mind more than she had in years. It had not served her well, but she had lost faith in her husband a long time ago.

She reined in her argumentativeness when her only child returned for the holidays, but he could taste the tension in the air. He did not know what had caused it, but it worried him.

Eileen and Severus did their best to keep out of Tobias' way, and for a little while that worked.

Severus almost jumped out of his skin when an enormous owl appeared before his mother on Christmas day.

She looked utterly stunned, and for a moment did not react at all to Tobias' furious exclamations. Eventually she blinked and reached out to take the message from the bird, stroking it absently.

“If your ruddy parents think that just because we've let the kid go to that bloody school that they can-”

Eileen gave a small frown and nodded a little in her husband's direction, as though she were listening and agreeing peacefully. She took a piece of food from the table and handed it to the owl, making a gentle shooing motion with her frail hands.

The imperious messenger gave her a cool look and perched pointedly on the crooked coat stand.

“Get that bloody owl-”

“He's waiting for a reply,” Eileen explained.

“Your father?” Tobias sneered.

“No, the owl,” Eileen replied. “The owl… is a boy. He's been trained to wait for a reply. I don't think the owl is my father's… He never favoured this kind. He preferred fast owls over strong.”

Severus watched the scene play out before him with horrified fascination. He had no memory of his grandparents, who had disowned their daughter for her relationship with the muggle Tobias, and he had very few memories of his mother acting familiar with the wizarding world. She had been in a very odd mood for days after sneaking Severus into Diagon Alley for his school supplies. More urgently, Tobias was liable to blow up at any moment over the invasion of wizardry within his muggle house.

“The quicker I reply the quicker we can have the owl out of the house,” Eileen stated, brushing her fingers along the seal of the parchment.

“Burn the thing and I'll get a broom for the owl,” Tobias suggested.

“They might send another,” Eileen pointed out.

Tobias huffed, but motioned to his wife to follow her own suggestion. He was sated enough with food for the time being that he was not as quick as usual to jump into a raving temper.

Eileen opened the letter warily, doing her best to school any hope entirely from her sunken features. She blinked quickly, looking pale as she read and reread the text.

“What is it?” Tobias asked impatiently.

Eileen swallowed and stared at her son with a heavy expression he could not interpret. “It's… an offer of intent. From… a House of High Standing.”

Severus' eyes widen and he felt heat creep up his neck. It went unnoticed due to the feeble glow of the nearby Christmas lights.

“A what now?” Tobias snapped.

“Someone has made an offer for our son's future,” Eileen explained.

“Like an apprenticeship?” Tobias asked.

Eileen made a breathy noise. “In a… loose sense of the word, I suppose, yes.”

“So he needn't go back to that blasted school?” Tobias questioned. Severus felt sick at the thought.

“Well no, he'd be expected to complete his schooling first,” Eileen said carefully, “the offer would come into place when he reached his majority at seventeen.”

“Eighteen, you mean,” corrected Tobias.

“Seventeen for wizards,” Eileen said softly. To circumvent a snarl from her husband she added, “Which would be one less year of putting food in his belly.”

Severus watched the exchange quietly. He knew his mother wanted him around, but what would happened to her if he had to leave?

Tobias made considering noises. “But this would be working for a wizarding family, you say?”

“A very… traditional, and rich family,” Eileen admitted, watching her husband scowl, “but they would… be paying us, for the privilege of having our son in their service.”

“Paying us, not him?” Tobias queried.

“Well, I would expect him to receive some sort of allowance,” Eileen conceded, “but as his parents we would receive a… considerable payment.”

“Sounds like a dowry,” Tobias sneered.

Eileen whitened. “Something like selling a boy to a chimney sweep, I imagine,” she said carefully.

“How much are they offering?” Tobias asked.

“Negotiations would typically begin when the child turns sixteen,” Eileen said. “If we agreed to this offer.”

“Why ask us now?” Tobias asked.

“Possibly to give the family time to put enough money together, or to have time to survey the suitability of the arrangement,” Eileen commented. “Mostly it's traditional… but we aren't ...of a traditional wizarding background, so it makes no difference to us.”

“Why would they want our boy anyway?” Tobias asked.

Eileen stares at the message, wondering what to say. “The family's heir is in Severus' school house, in a senior year. He's vouched that our boy seems hardworking, intelligent, and respectable.”

Tobias snorts. “Doesn't sound like our little nancy to me.”

Eileen schools her face. “Does it matter if it secures a job for our boy's future, and means we have money coming in when he goes?”

“Write them back then,” Tobias orders. “I want rid of that damn owl.”

Eileen nods, and looks around for something suitable to write on and with, as surely the Malfoys will not be impressed by muggle writing supplies. Though their avoidance is likely to provoke Tobias.

“I'll go find something to write with,” Eileen murmured, giving Severus a strange look as she left the room.

The letter had referred to her by her title as a Prince heiress, despite her well-documented denouncement. Should she respond with the Prince seal? She still had a small ring that could do the job, one she couldn't bear to pawn because she wanted to give Severus a piece of his heritage come his seventeenth.

Eileen wrote the letter, sealed it, and gave it to the sulking owl.

When Tobias had finally drunk himself into a stupor, Eileen took her son aside. “You can break this arrangement at any time if that's what you want,” she told him, “just don't tell your father.”

“What about when he finds out what… what Malfoy intends for me?” Severus asks.

“Let's hope it never comes to that,” Eileen says soberly. She puts her hands on the boy's thin shoulders. “The… arrangement… is not what I would have hoped for you, but it will get you out of here. You'll never have to worry about food, or money…”

“What if I'm terrified of him?” Severus asked.

“I'm terrified of your father, but I don't have a mansion to hide from him in,” Eileen said tartly. She gave him a soft look. “But the choice is entirely yours.”
- 12
- 13
- 14
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Sev's Gang