Chapter Sixteen: Eileen
It was a Tuesday in October. Eileen had finished up at the Apothecary, and made her way out to Muggle London through the Leaky Cauldron. As she walked down the street to the place she usually chose to Apparate back home, a bomb exploded.
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So far, Severus had managed to delay the inevitable. His first major assignment from Avery was to brew a love potion, to be administered to a beautiful sixth year from Ravenclaw. It had taken him a month to procure the ingredients. The fourth year boys' dormitory had been rearranged to make room for a work table for Severus and his cauldron - that had taken another week to organize. And the potion itself would take one month, full moon to full moon, to brew. But he should be able to start it during the full moon this week, which meant that towards the end of November, it should be ready.
The Cruciatus Curse was another matter. Avery had smuggled him a book with the instructions for that, and many other dark curses. As Severus read through it, he began to realize the difference between the childish hexes and jinxes he and his fellow students used, and real Dark magic. A Dark curse didn't just cause harm; it revelled in it. It was magic powered with malice and hatred and a pure delight in agony and humiliation.
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The police and other emergency personnel arrived at the scene of the bomb blast within minutes. The injured were shuttled off in an ambulance to hospital. The dead were set carefully out of the way until they could be taken to the morgue.
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Tobias was worried. Eileen had not come home yet. As he set about putting something together for supper, someone knocked on the front door. When he got to the door, he saw his older brother, Raphael.
"Toby, is Eileen home?" Raphael asked. "Pam insisted I come over and check. You really should get a telephone."
"No she isn't," anwered Tobias, "and she should be. What made Pam think she might not be home yet?"
"It's been on the telly. There's been another bombing in London, and she thinks it looks close to where Eileen works. Toby, you've got to come over to our place, I think we need to make some calls."
"I'll be by in just a minute. Let me contact Eileen's people first."
Raphael knew his brother was one of the eldritch Snapes, but it still made him shiver a bit. One part of him wondered how Toby was going to contact Eileen's people without a phone and without leaving the house, and another part thought it was probably best not to know. That Toby would indeed be able to contact the Princes he had no doubt whatsoever. "OK, but if you're not there in half an hour, I'm coming back for you."
"Thanks, Rafe," Tobias said. He went up to their bedroom, and took a small hand mirror out of a drawer. "Severus Prince!" he called.
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Severus Prince, Eileen's oldest brother, lived a few streets over. He had a low level position at the Gringotts branch in Manchester. His three eldest children were grown and out of the house. The youngest, a "change of life" baby, was five years old and still at home. The boy came running into the sitting room, waving a hand mirror, and shouting. "It's Uncle Toby, come see, Da, it's Uncle Toby!"
Severus grabbed the mirror, and sent his son into the kitchen to Mummy. "What's wrong, Toby?" he asked the face in the mirror. They reserved this form of communication for emergencies.
"Eileen's not back from London, and there's been a Muggle bombing close to the Leaky Cauldron. I'm going over to my brother's to make some calls, but could you do something to check in the meantime?"
"Shite! Keep the mirror with you. I'll Apparate over to London and check it out. Call back and check in as soon as you can."
"Right." Toby pocketed the mirror, and rushed out the door. By the time he had traveled the block over to Raphael's house, he was totally out of breath.
"Gwen, Eileen might be in trouble. I'm going over to London," Severus called to his wife, and then disappeared with a loud crack.
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Tobias sat in Rafe's sitting room, his face in his hands. It looked like Eileen's body had been identified at the scene of the bomb blast. The Muggle authorities wanted him to come to London to make positive identification, and bring the body back to Spinner's End.
He took the train to London. From the train station, he took the tube to the morgue, where he identified Eileen's body. The shrapnel had spared her face, at least. Tobias was met there by Severus Prince. Eileen's brother had transfigured a bench into a hearse, and identified himself to the people at the morgue as a mortician. After Tobias signed for the body, Severus and Tobias brought it out and laid it carefully in the "hearse." The wizard then apparated the body back to the Snape sitting room.
He was met there by his parents from a few streets over, and his other brother, Hadrian, who had Apparated over from the Hebrides Islands, where he had a job helping the MacFusty clan manage their dragons.
"I can't stay yet," he told them. "I've got to get back to London to wrap up a few loose ends, and take care of Tobias." He apparated back to the "hearse" with a crack.
Tobias was leaning against the outside of the "hearse" when Severus opened the door and stepped out again. He cast an Obfuscation Charm on the area around the hearse, so no passing Muggles would notice what he was doing, and then transfigured it back to a bench.
Now that they had taken care of everything that needed to be done for the time being, the two men sat down on the bench, and the reaction set in. Tobias crumpled, and wept uncontrollably on his brother-in-law's shoulder. Severus Prince put an arm around him, and his own tears fell, more quietly.
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After classes that day, Severus was called to the Headmaster's office. When he walked into the room, he saw Uncle Hadrian standing next to Dumbledore, a serious look on his face.
"Severus, please sit down," Albus said, waving him to the couch. "I'm afraid we have bad news."
Hadrian Prince went over, seated himself next to the boy and turned so he could face him. "Eileen ... your mother ... she's been killed."
Shock and disbelief followed each other over Severus' face. "Voldemort's people?" Severus asked, with a hitch in his voice.
"No," his uncle answered with a grim smile. "It was a Muggle bomb. Tobias ... your father ... says some Muggle group has been planting them in London recently. With no particular target, except whoever happens to be there when they go off."
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Severus stopped back at his dormitory, grabbed his formal robe for the funeral and some books, and stuffed them in his book bag. On his way out through the common room, he found Avery and let him know he was going home for his mother's funeral. He would not be able to start Avery's potion this month.
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Author's note
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/17/newsid_2514000/2514827.stm According to the BBC: "1974 was one of the deadliest years in the IRA's mainland bombing campaign." There was a London bombing on October 22, 1974, which was on a Tuesday. However, I don't know if it would have been anywhere near the Leaky Cauldron, and there were no fatalities from that bomb.
According to "Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them," the MacFusty clan live in the Hebrides Islands and traditionally care for the Hebridean Black dragons of the islands.
There is nothing in canon that I am aware of that mentions any siblings for either Eileen or Tobias, so those are my own invention. I chose Raphael for the name of Tobias' brother, because there is a Raphael in the book of Tobit. I chose Hadrian for Eileen's other brother's name, because Emperor Severus is connected with rebuilding / repairing Hadrian's wall. "Pam" and "Gwen" are supposed to sound like lower class women's names from the 70's.
There is also no mention in canon, as far as I know, of a branch of Gringott's in Manchester, or anywhere else.
Posted by Madmaxime at October 11, 2006 02:40 PM