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Severus

Walburga Black was in the library, having her afternoon tea, while her sons, Sirius and Regulus, studied from books. Walburga was tightening the knotted bun on the back of her neck when there was a knock at the front door. The two boys looked up. There was never a knock on the door - ever. Their house was unplottable, invisible to the eye unless you knew it was there. "Kreacher!" Walburga's voice was stern, "Get the door."

The ratted little house elf nodded from the floor, where he'd been hovering, awaiting instructions after giving his mistress her tea. "Yes, Kreacher will get the door for his mistress," he croaked and rushed off, nearly tripping over his pillowcase toga in his haste.

"Who is it, mother?" Regulus asked.

Walburga's mouth was a tight line. "I don't know, Regulus."

A moment later, Kreacher's shuffling footsteps were followed by two other sets on the stairs. Kreacher came into the library alone first and said, "Miss Prince and her son to see you, mistress."

Walburga's face squeezed into a disgruntled frown. "Show them in, then," she murmured.

The door opened and a woman with filthy black hair and dark, deep-set eyes stepped in, followed by a boy about Sirius's age, with equally dirty black hair. Sirius looked at Regulus and they both smirked at one another.

"What do you want, blood traitor?" Walburga asked.

"Walburga," whispered Eileen Prince, "Please. It's my family. We have no means to get food and my son -" she put her palm on Severus's shoulders, "- I can't let him go hungry. Please help us."

Sirius's eyes met Severus's, a ghost of a mocking grin still playing upon Sirius's lips. Severus felt a hot flush of embarrassment warm his neck and cheeks and looked away quickly. "Hasn't he got any shampoo?" Regulus asked Sirius quietly.

"Doesn't use it if he does," Sirius hissed back. "Maybe he likes being greasy."

Severus swallowed back the rising lump in his throat.

"What do I care about your filthy half-blood son?" Walburga demanded, staring down her nose at Severus. Her eyes moved back to meet Eileen's.

"He may be half-blood, yes," Eileen agreed, "But he is half-blood Prince. That ought to mean something to you. Your precious blood flows in his veins the same as it does in your sons!"

Walburga looked at her sons, who quickly made as though they'd never looked up from their books, and said, "My sons are of the noble House of Black, pure blood runs through their veins. They are not foul blood traitors."

Eileen frowned. "Walburga, I am your sister! Doesn't that mean anything to you at all? We are family!"

"No, we are not." Walburga's voice was sharp and she shook her head. The truth was that Eileen was Walburga’s half-sister, the daughter of her mother from a second marriage after the death of her father. "You are a stain upon the family name! No family of mine would marry muggle filth as you have, Eileen. No family of mine would believe that half-blood is a status of which to hold pride. Your son is a blemish on the family line - as are you!"

"Walburga!" cried Eileen, shocked, "How could you --"

Severus's face was flushed once more and he felt the corners of his eyes burning, threatening tears to fall, and he sniffed, trying to keep his composure as steady as he could, afraid of the shame that was welling up in him.

"He's snivelling," hissed Regulus.

"Snivellus Snape," snickered Sirius.

Severus closed his eyes, anger building in his stomach. He was humiliated. Only the worst circumstances could have brought Eileen to Walburga’s house - and they’d reached the rock bottom back home as Tobias was in his sixth month of unemployment. They’d been living off only the smallest of provisions that could be picked in their gardens for quite some time, but as it was winter the food they could grow was running out. Severus thought to himself that he would rather starve than beg for help like this.

Walburga had gotten up and walked to the wall as Eileen wept. Up on the wall there was a tapestry, the family tree of the pure blood line of the House of Black, depicting crisscrossing family lines, recording every union in the ancestry, convoluted by years of cousins marrying cousins to keep the blood pure. About halfway down the wall, Walburga pointed her wand at Eileen’s entry upon the tree, connected by a thin green threaded line, curling away from Walburga’s entry through her mother, Irma Crabbe. She snaked her wand around the portrait of Eileen slowly, menacingly, like a silent threat. Then she looked into Eileen’s eyes, a cold, regal expression in her eyes. “Obliterus,” she whispered, and a jet of icy-white light blasted Eileen’s name from the tapestry.

Eileen gave a desperate shriek of despair. “Walburga! Please!” she sobbed, “Don’t you remember, when we were children? We played together! We were so close - best friends - why would you - how could you -”

Severus wrapped his fists into her robes. “Mother, we should go,” he said, recognizing that the cold in Walburga’s face would not be moved by the tears she was shedding.

“Leave my home!” Walburga shouted, pointing her wand violently towards the door, making it swing open on it’s hinges quickly. “Kreacher!” she shrieked, “Kreacher! See this filthy blood traitor to the door! Shame upon the House of Black!”

Kreacher rushed forward and waved to Eileen and Severus to follow him as he shuffled to the door. “Yes,” he muttered, “Yes, Kreacher will show the half-blood filth from the house… yes… out of the noble House.” Walburga was staring down her nose in hatred at both of them as Kreacher beckoned to them.

“Noble!” Eileen wailed, “What is noble about this house when you cannot even help family?” Fat tears streaked her cheeks.

“Mother…” Severus pleaded.

Regulus leaned closer to Sirius, “Imagine having that for a mother?” he whispered. “No wonder he’s a sniveling, brainless git.” He grinned wickedly, and both boys snickered quietly.

Severus was certain that his face had never been so hotly flushed. If he could have melted into the carpet at that very moment, he would have. He wanted nothing more in the world as much as he wanted to get out of that library - out of that house - and as far away from Walburga and her sons as he possibly could. “Mother,” Severus said firmly, taking her hand in his and pulling her toward the door, “Let’s go.”

Sobbing still, Eileen finally consented to be led from the room as Severus pulled her along after the hobbling house elf, down the stairs and out of the house. The echoing of their footsteps down the stairs was drowned out by Walburga’s shrieking screams, “Filth! Mudbloods! Stairs! An abhorration to all wizarding pure bloodlines!” Kreacher pulled open the front door of the house. “Go and I bid you to never darken the door of this house again!”