THE PROMISE – CHAPTER 3

THE PROMISE – CHAPTER 3

THE AUTHOR HAS SOME WORDS. LOADS OF THEM!

. I checked for Eileen and found it is an Irish name originated by the Greek “Helen”, and it means “light”. I chose Moira for her middle name, coming from the Irish “Bitter” because she seems to have been a good girl who had to go through some bad times, and that’s the kind of thing that stays marked in our skins forever.
. Breandan is ancient Irish, and I found it nice. Just for that reason. Many of the things you might find here have no reason or logical explanation whatsoever. That’s perfectly natural, as it is the way my small confused brain works.
. And yes, I’ve been reading the Dictionary!


CHAPTER 3 – I KNOW WHAT’S COMING, BUT I’D RATHER RUN!


The doorbell rang twice, melodically, with a pleasant sound, though none was expected at number 417, Blueberry Road, Spinner’s End.
Most things were packed now, and that doorbell would not be used for the next few months, because the inhabitants of that house would be in a very different place: the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Severus wide opened the door and just shocked, blinking his eyes at least three times, and believing he had exaggerated on that stomach calming potion.
Again.
There had to be something very wrong with it.
Definitely!
What was it with him these last few days? Honestly!
He was about to shut violently the door on the face of that dreading vision, when it, unexpectedly, spoke!
Obviously, not as a figment of the imagination would speak, saying something amazing from the other world, a revealing message from the Future or a forgotten word from the Past.
No.
It spoke the most ignominious thing such an apparition could ever spit out.
- “Hi there, nephew!”
And, as if it wasn’t enough, it found right to add:
- “You look pale! Have you been eating your vegetables? I bet your madcap mother never thought you properly!”
And even a:
- “Glad I’m here! Mind if I come in?”
There then.
Anything more to be uttered?
Well, Aunt Weasley did it, in fact.
After looking at the smiling man at the door with a very thorough stare over a quivering, nearly breathless Severus Snape sprawling on the floor, she just mumbled something about him having some very nice buttocks and then left the room as fast as she could with that stupidly heavy box with books on her arms and red as a pepper, which was something inordinately obvious combined with that flaming Weasley hair of her.

Who was this man? – this Ingeram Corvinus Prince -, one might ask.

At first, we might believe the two men facing themselves were identical copies but, after a few moments with both of them in the same room, we would soon discover those two particular persons had nothing in common.
Apart from one thing.
As Ingeram wittily noticed, the Prince family – and he meant all of its elements – had the particularity of suffering from a whatsoever pathology of the psychological type. Some kind of a hereditary gift.
The inner Severus agreed completely with that bright affirmation.
In Ingeram’s situation… well, he turned out as a hyperactive knuckleheaded person with the strange tendency of being always in a good mood!
And also the fact that they were close relatives, of course!
Severus managed to put himself together quite swiftly, and in no time they were in the living-room having a lemongrass and ginger tea, and those very special chocolate chip cookies Aunt Weasley got ready in the blink of an eye: a rather altered but fighting to control the situation Severus, a curious Harry, an even more curious Aunt Weasley, and a mysterious Ingeram.
Ingeram Corvinus Prince started his tale by presenting himself as the brother of Eileen Moira Prince – and therefore Severus’ uncle, though he had never heard of him, nor could remember such character, even from the farthest moments of his childhood.
In fact, Severus never knew much of his own family, apart from his parents, and the narrative of this unknown man, who he could, however, feel as strangely trustworthy, had captured all his attention.
He had always been curious about the history of his family that had been kept in the shadow, from both sides, and never succeeded in having a straight answer neither from his mother - a witch -, nor from his father –a muggle.
The simple mention of that subject in their house brought unease and certain trouble.
Though he had been more curious about his mother side of the family, of course.
Ingeram was the older brother of Eileen Prince and, much as Severus himself did also, left the familiar home as soon as he finished Hogwarts.
He went away to the deep North, to study ancient magic forms, but it was a good excuse as any other to get as farther as he could from his elitist parents and his growingly obsessed sister.
However, before starting to date Tobias Snape, Lia – his pet name for his baby sister – was much different – a lovely little girl who he esteemed dearly, and who had been his comfort and light in bitter moments.
He left when he understood that she, blindly in love and influenced like a lifeless puppet by that new person in her life – to whom she didn’t even tell she was a witch, though -, wanted him away, her brother, the one who had always protected and stood up for her, and there was nothing he could do for her then.
The fist bit of information shown itself to Severus as a shocking surprise, as he could have never guessed that of the Eileen Prince he had known, though he had had enough of the second one!
How was it that he barely knew his own mother?
Now, definitely, Severus wanted to know everything else!
Unfortunately for him, Ingeram was fond of suspense tales, and he decided Severus could visit him at Hogsmeade every time he wished to hear a bit more of the story, and even colour it with some pictures he might have all over the place in that dusty attic.
Wait…
- “Hogsmeade?”
Severus swallowed a huge number of questions that popped inside his mind, trying to find the right one to ask.
- “What do you mean by that?” – he asked cautiously, at last, fixing with a pensive look the appealing golden colour of the tea in his cup.
He had to wait for an answer and, as it was taking a while now, he lift his head from his trance and faced his so-called uncle.
It had a reason to be – Ingeram was rather busy at the moment, praising Aunt Weasley’s chocolate chip cookies, and how marvellously it combined with that fresh yet exotic tea she had picked whilst she had the where-had-this-hot-bun-been-all-my-life face while explaining that she had a secret trick for those cookies that, by the way, where his nephew’s favourites also.
- “Aunt Weasley, please!” – Severus bursted. It was enough now! – “I have an image to keep, and I’m afraid that shouting to the world my fondness towards your chocolate chip cookies is not the best way to define it!”
- “Now,” – he turned to Ingeram – “what is it with Hogsmeade? I was never told I had family there.”
- “Well, it is a family house” – the older man started - “though no one has lived in it since the time of your great-great-grandfather – Breandan Snape, the Long Bearded One -, except for the year I lived there after leaving home, preparing my journey to the North.”
- “Your great-grandparents found more refined to live in a big and modern city, shut down the house and never set a foot there again, nor did you grandparents or your mother.”
- “It’s now time I return, and as you are working so close, at Hogwarts, I believe I can expect a few visits from you and your surprisingly quiet and nice son! And from Miss Weasley, of course! I would be devastatingly delighted!”
I guess devastation is the right word for what happened to the set of tea cups and saucers Aunt Weasley was carrying on a tray on her hands at the moment, for there would never be a magic-glue that could possibly fix that jumble it turned into on the kitchen floor!
Harry had other things to think about, and took his socks off, observing the details of the South Park cartoon very thoroughly.
Thoughts were twirling inside Severus’ head now. Breandan, the Long Bearded One? His mother as a nice and balanced person? At attic at Hogsmeade with photographs of the family he never new? Aunt Weasley being overly courteous to a man she had just met? Aunt Weasley being overly courteous in general?
He needed vacation from that vacation!
He still wasn’t sure how he could possibly have agreed with it, but somehow he accepted on travelling to Hogsmeade with his psychotic uncle.
It was about time he read that “Hogwarts: a History” again! All of it! And before returning to Hogwarts!
He’d better start now!
Severus managed to successfully skedaddle from the room in a subtle way – he was a gifted wizard, after all! -, leaving Aunt Weasley and “uncle” Ingeram staring at each other with rather idiotic smiles on their faces, and Harry teasing Dragan with his socks, and just ran away from upcoming madness.
But fortunately for Severus – he breath out relieved -, nothing was wrong with his ability for brewing potions, he could realize now!
The most important thing for him, he decided these last few hours, was to preserve his future and save his sanity!