Prince Severus

Eileen felt like dying. It wasn't the pain, no, though the aching of her lower body was more than she would've been able to handle if it had not been considerably less than it had been mere moments ago. It wasn't the embarrassment either, the agony of earlier had washed all that away and though some of it was now slowly trickling, oozing back like honey lazily out of jar, it felt inconsequential. She'd be shamed later on, outraged, perhaps even thoroughly ruined… but now she had no energy for it. And that was it. She felt like dying because at that moment, she felt just about tired enough for it.

"Congratulations, ma'am!" chirped the nurse while holding the screaming infant in her hands. "It's a healthy boy!"

No, Eileen thought blearily. It was a healthy monster that had invested her womb for nine months and now had torn it's way through her - in the dead of the night in middle of the bleeding winter, of course. A healthy monster seeded by another who had the gall to be who knows where while she was giving birth to his first born probably at the pub. Men! She had heard this from her own mother - her own father had taken off too when she had been born. They were like that. Oh, fiction had them seem so nice and helpful and adorably nervous when their kids were born, but in reality the first sign of kid, they took off like someone had set their tails on fire.

"Do you want to hold him?" the nurse asked eagerly while the doctor gave her an irritated look, trying to reach close enough to cut the umbilical cord.

"Not before he's cleaned up," the fresh mother answered. "Also, I'd like some painkillers now. Or something to knock me out. Which ever works fastest."

No one listened to her, but thankfully the doctor did snatch the child from the over enthusiastic nurse - probably her first labour, the mother thought irritably. Eileen closed her eyes and swallowed, wishing for some water - no, scratch that, some fire whiskey would've hit the spot nicely right about now. Somehow distantly she heard her baby being washed and weighted and measured. Three thousand four hundred and eighty grams, fifty two centimetres, healthy average.

Then the screaming thing was being handed to her and she had to open her eyes. She frowned. Of course she had never thought children were cute, infants especially. They were red and wrinkly and screamed a lot - all in all, they were ugly. But, while disgruntled accepting the baby and trying to hold him right, she had to admit. The tiny fingers were just slightly cute. She hadn't though they'd be so small. Every child's hands were small, obviously, but this kid's were Lilliputian. His toes too. Nose, not so much.

"What are you going to name him, ma'am?" the too eager nurse asked.

She opened her mouth and then closed it. In all honesty, she hadn't given it any thought. And neither had her husband. Neither of them had prepared for a child that well, she admitted to herself. Frowning she thought about what sort of name would be suitable. She could give the kid her own father's name, that was traditional enough. Or maybe not, considering that she had been disowned. Though on other hand, it would make interesting slap against the bastard's face, naming her ugly little half blood child with a nice pureblood name. Her own husband wouldn't much care for it, though.

She smiled mirthlessly. Though having a son named after her own bastard father, well… it would be amusing, but having that name around day in and day out would be unbearable. No, she'd name the child after her grandfather. There was a nice and strong name. and she had liked her grandfather, before the old man had died of course. Yes, that would suit fine. Her husband still wouldn't like it much, but what did she care, really? Her husband didn't like anything much, after all.

"Severus," she said while trying to wiggle into better position. "His name will be Severus, hm… Severus Tobias Snape." It was traditional enough and perhaps having their son bear his own name would appease her husband some. Probably not.

"That sounds like fine name!" the nurse nodded happily. "Very unique! Does it come from some legend, or myth? I have friend who is named for one of those Arthurian tales…"

"That's quite enough," the doctor cut in before the nurse could get on a roll. "Let's clean up, shall we? Take those away, and wash those…"

Eileen tuned the pair of them out and stared at her wrinkly child. He really was an ugly little thing. Well, maybe once he wouldn't be so red and wrinkly, he'd look a little better. She doubted it though. The babies she had had misfortune of seeing in her time had never really looked like much. And they made so much noise. And smelled. She sighed mournfully and almost wished she had abided by her father's wishes. It had been worth it to marry Tobias just to see the look upon her father's face when she did, but if she hadn't… well, at least that way she would've had a house-elf to thrust the brat upon. Except of course if she hadn't married Tobias then it would've been another brat, and not Severus.

While she pondered about how to accommodate the child in her and Tobias's small house and wondering whether or not she should curse Tobias for not being there, she was taken to a private room while Severus was taken off somewhere elsewhere where they'd be doing some sort of tests or whatnot. She didn't particularly care. Some privacy and sleep sounded wonderful though - and maybe bath afterwards. She was absolutely disgusted with herself as she was, all dirty and sweaty and no doubt horrible to look at. Not that the latter part was anything new.

"Now, you must have some rest and regain your strength," the annoying nurse said before leaving. "Rest assured, we will be taking special care of little Severus while you rest - and you'll see him first thing tomorrow!"

"Spare me," Eileen murmured, but thankfully the nurse was already gone. Sighing, the witch lay back against the pillows of the uncomfortable hospital bed, and tried very hard to lose consciousness.

She was interrupted by a polite clearing of a throat. The first time it sounded she tried to ignore it as figment of her imagination, but the second time was so loud that she was forced to open her eyes. "Yes, damn you?" she croaked without even knowing who or what it was that was so keen on not letting her sleep. "What do you want?"

"Ah, you are awake then, madam. Good," a male voice said while a form stepped out of shadows of the room. A wizard judging by the robes and heavy cloak. He was young, handsome, had glasses, and was completely out of place in the muggle hospital. "Allow me to introduce myself -"

"I don't care. Go away," she said, closing her eyes again. Stupid wizards. This was why she had decided to leave magical world. They popped in and out of nowhere without as much as how-do-you-do. "Come back tomorrow. Or, preferably, don't."

"Now, now, no need to be so grouchy," the man said cheerfully while walking closer. "This will take but a moment. My name is Harry and I am here to pledge allegiance to your son."

Eileen was still for a moment, half asleep, before the words sunk in. Blearily, she opened her eyes and stared up to the young man who was now standing over her, smiling. "Excuse me?" she said slowly.

"My name is Harry and I am here to pledge allegiance to your son," the man repeated calmly, still smiling like a half wit. "I thought it would be polite to announce my intentions to you, as you are his mother, before I will go and attend to him."

Eileen was quiet for a moment, taking in the wizard's outwards appearance - he seemed well fed and clean, but his robes weren't the finest quality, so he probably did well for himself but wasn't rich. He didn't look like a lunatic, though, but with wizards that could really mean anything. The best of them never looked like lunatics and they usually were. And the lunatic looking ones often were the sanest.

She considered telling him to go away, to shove off, to stick his head in pit of lava and die, but decided against it. After all, he was a wizard, most likely one in possession of a wand and all, whilst she was dressed in mere hospital gown and wasn't even sure if she had brought her wand with her. So, instead of issuing orders, threats or even insults, she merely asked, "Why?"

"Because in the future he saved my life more times than anyone cared to count, and got himself killed for it," the young wizard answered with odd, frank solemnity about him. "I quite literally owe my life several times over to him. But he died and I was unable to repay back my debts, so instead I am here now to do so. The start of his life seems like the perfect place to start."

It took Eileen a moment to go through the words and figure out their meaning. "You're lying," she then said, more a test than statement or even an accusation. Maybe this was some trick of her family's, maybe they thought that by sending her a servant or something of the sort they could coax her back into the magical world? She couldn't quite figure out why, though. They had disowned her after all, so it wouldn't make much sense. Also, why the ridiculous tale if it was her family behind it?

"I am afraid not, madam," the man answered with a shake of his head, before getting some steel into his eyes. "I won't not tell you about the future events except perhaps those I intend to change, but I will tell you this much. Under your husband's care, you son will grow abused and severely neglected. You yourself will soon begin experiencing semi-regular beatings at your husband's hand, until in less than fifteen years you will die in rather suspicious circumstances - most likely to internal bleeding or infection. Your husband will eventually drink himself to death, but not before turning your son into a worse man than your own father by his physical and verbal abuse."

Eileen blinked and then frowned. "Tobias isn't that bad."

"Yes, he is," the wizard, Harry answered calmly, with perfect certainty. "Or if he isn't yet, then he soon will. In either case, I am here with the intentions of stopping most of that from happening."

The witch blinked. "To pay back this… dept you think you owe to my son," she confirmed.

"Yes."

Eileen frowned. The man was either a plain regular every day lunatic or very powerful lunatic from the future. She couldn't quite decide which was worse. "If you're really from the future, changing the past will change your own history, you know. It's illegal - and you could very well write yourself out of history."

"Actually, changing past is not illegal. Just not very wise thing to do. No one actually prohibited it with laws because if those laws are broken, well, convicting the guilty party would be next to impossible. And, actually, it is equally hard to write myself out of history. I can write out the person who would've became me, but I will remain myself," the man answered with perfect calm. "Just by being here, I am already part of history and the world around me. Only way to undo myself now would be to kill myself."

"Paradox -"

"No such thing," the man answered with insufferable calm. "Trust me, my friend researched this. She had some experience with time magic. Time is not lineal line. It's more like a… tree."

"A tree?"

"Yes, a tree. And we're in one of the branch. I come from one branch branching from that branch, but now that I am here, we will go down another branch - the original branch from which I came from will continue on without me, and my actions here will not affect it anymore than branches can grow back together," the man nodded.

Eileen stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out what the hell he was saying. After a moment she decided against trying. She was too tired to try and talk about time travel trees. Or it's branches. "Okay, fine. So you are here to swear allegiance to my son and make him live a better life?"

"Among other things," the man nodded.

"Why allegiance? My son isn't a lord or a king or anything like that. He's a halfblood for Merlin's sake."

"Well, I think allegiance sounds better than servitude or slavery," the wizard shrugged.

"Oh," Eileen murmured and blinked. Did life debts really force someone to do that? The only way to way back a life debt would be to return it - to save the life of the person who saved your life - as far as she knew anyway. If Severus really had saved this Harry as many times as the man seemed to think, then it would perhaps take a while to bay it back, but this sort of thing wasn't necessary. "You know, I don't think a life debt forces you do that. Even if there are several."

"Well, no," the man admitted. "But it gave me a perfect excuse to travel back in time to meddle with timelines as I see fit."

"Oh," she said again. Well, that made more sense. Or not. "That doesn't explain the servitude."

Harry smiled. "It helps the meddling. Trust me. Also, since your son did save my life so many times, I kind of feel honour bound to do something for it. You know, aside from saving his life here and there."

"Right. Will you do us any harm?"

"Your husband maybe if he intends to harm your son. Or to yourself, since your son will no doubt grow fond of you in no time at all," Harry nodded. "But since it's healthy for a child to have two secure parents, I imagine I will just show your husband error of his ways and leave it at that."

That didn't sound too promising but Eileen was too tired to argue - and had a feeling that it would make little difference at this point. "Alright," she merely said, and closed her eyes for a moment to try and regain her strength. "Does this mean you will coming to live with us? Our house is pretty small - just trying to fit Severus might be a bit hard -"

"Ah, no," the man smiled. "No, you will come to live with me, I think. Once I have a house that is. I will probably have to build it, but it shouldn't take too long. It will be bigger than your row house, I promise. All four of us will fit quite nicely, I will make sure of it. And any other children if you intend to have some more."

"I don't think my husband will like that," Eileen said slowly.

Harry smiled gently. "I don't think your husband will have much choice," he said, and stood up. "Well, now that our introductions are over, I will go and introduce myself to my prince if you don't mind."

"Your prince is in infant. And probably a sleep. And not a prince at all," Eileen murmured with a yawn.

"Time, rest and some paperwork will change that, I assure you. Severus Prince sounds much better than Severus Snape does anyway. You can't even imagine the way he will be teased for that name, seriously…" the rest of the man's speech faded away as he walked away and Eileen fell asleep.

Tobias downed the rest of his drink with a flourish, enjoying the warm atmosphere of the friendly pub and the thunderous laugher of his fellow drinkers. This was the life. Telly on and displaying some game, music coming form a nearby radio and good pint of beer at his fingers - and another just an order away. Someone was telling an obscene tale - or very long joke, he couldn't quite say - while somewhere in the corner some woman was weeping about something while some other women tried to comfort her. And the bartender was there, offering him another pint. This was the life.

"… and so I took a nice firm grip and good footing and got ready to pull - and I mean really pull with all my strength - when the thing came clean off. And I went flying -" someone was telling but Tobias had never had hand of the story. Something about construction machines, he believed. Truck maybe. He hadn't paid attention.

Yes, he thought while ordering another pint and immediately taken a hearty gulp. This was the life a man was supposed to lead. He was still young, after all. He had a good job at the textile mill - well, it paid the bills anyway - and he had a good enough home. True, his wife wasn't much of a looker, but he couldn't complain - she was wicked in bed and in all brutal honesty, he wasn't much of a looker either. So that was fine as it was. Kind of. The whole baby thing was probably bearable too.

But he would be damned if he would let this whole being domestic thing interfere with his life style. He was a man. Women took care of the babies. They gave birth to them after all, so it was only right. She'd take care of the brat. He'd bring food to the table. And for his troubles he deserved a day off. A day just like this, when he could enjoy happy company and good gold beer. This sort of life was the life he was meant to leaf. After all.

"Thish ish the… life," he murmured determinately to no one in particular. It had been bit of a sudden decision to go down to the pub after all, so none of his usual drinking buddies were there - but to hell with them. one didn't need the guys to drink, after all! And he would later have the chance to tell them what fun they had missed, being home with their wives and kids. "Thish iss… the life!" he repeated with more vigour to suppress the twinge of guilt. "Eileen'sh fine. Fine."

"Yer wife'sh not fine. She'sh a hag!" the man next to him.

"Shut your mouth," he answered lazily. "Thatsh not the point. She'sh fine. At the hosh…pithal. Women stuff. You know?"

"Yer wife'sh ill? Rotten luck, mate!"

"Nah, she'sn't ill," Tobias said and frowned in dismay. The guy didn't get it. Who ever it was. Neighbour maybe - or maybe they had talked sometime in the pub? He couldn't quite remember. The hair was familiar though. But the guy still didn't get it. "She'sh givin' birth. You know. To a kid." He made a face at the concept.

"Yer wife'sh given birth! You hear that, mates! Tobias'sh a daddy!" the man grasped the idea and ran with it. "Oi, you loutss! Let's give a… a hand to Tobiash! He'sh a daddy now!" And then, much to Tobias disgust he was being congratulated and patted to the back and someone even asked him what the kid would be named and if it was a boy or girl. How the hell was he supposed to know? it was Eileen giving the birth, not him. Though the fact that someone bought free rounds to celebrate the occasion was pretty nice of them.

"Yes, yes, congratulations, Mr. Snape," a disturbingly sober voice said from behind him and a hand landed to his shoulder. "Now why don't you come this way with me, I have few things to inform you off."

Tobias was too drunk to disagree - and even when he did disagree with the other's decision to leave the pub, he couldn't much fight against the man leading him because the bleeding ground wouldn't stay still. He was even forced to seek support from the guy, whoever it was. Probably some stupid neighbour. He had too many of those. "Whaddya want?" he asked. "You have shomething to shay, you can shay it to my fashe!"

"Yes, indeed I can. First, though -"

Tobias saw stars even before the pain registered and he doubled over. The next thing he knew, he was vomiting to the side walk, the bitter taste of malt and stomach acid making him gag more than the initial blow, until his throat hurt, his nose felt wet and his head was bounding. As he spattered and coughed, trying to breathe, the man grasped him by his hair and wash of cool air ran over his face, washing away the moistness from his chin and thankfully taking the smell with it. Then, just as Tobias had started gathering coherency to argue and accuse, something was showed to his lip and forceful tugging by his hair forced him to swallow the liquid.

"There," satisfied voice said while he was pushed aside roughly and the phial which had been emptied to his lips clattered against the half frozen asphalt. "Now let's wait a moment for it to kick in…"

"You bastard! Who are you, what do you think you're doing - give me one good reason not to call the bobbies on you -!" Tobias started and was quieted by the other's appearance. Long robe and cloak over it. Neither something a normal respectable human being would wear in polite society. "Bugger," he murmured instead. "You're one of Eileen's folk, right?"

"Yes, I am," the man, surprisingly young considering the rather forceful actions of before. "My name is Harry, Mr. Snape. I'm here to inform you that I have pledged allegiance to your son."

Tobias, much like Eileen some time earlier, stared at the man with some measure of disbelief and then asked fatly, "What the hell?"

"My name is Harry and I am here to inform you that I have pledged allegiance to your son," the wizard repeated, stepping forward and suddenly kicking Tobias to the chest so that the man was sent to his back on the partially snowy ground. Then the wizard was standing over him, placing one foot upon his chest to keep him down. "I am also here to possibly make living hell of your life due to the fact that you are abusive son of a bitch. I would kill you right this very moment, but consideration towards your son holds me back. For now." Somehow he said it all with oddly polite, almost casual tone.

"Fuck you. Even your kind can't do that sort of thing," Tobias hissed, though he didn't feel quite sure of himself. "Eileen told me. If you do magic, those ministry folk of yours will come and put it right."

"Even they can't reverse death - and I can just as well do it by muggle means," the young wizard answered happily while bowing down a little. "That way they would never find out. Besides, the ministry cannot interfere with what they have no knowledge of. I could take your life this very moment and no one would notice. Your wife might wonder for a while, but she's not exactly fond of you is she? I rather doubt she'd even shed a tear for you."

Tobias swallowed. Whatever the wizard had given him, it had sobered him up well enough for him to take the threat seriously. This was exactly why he regretted marrying Eileen, he thought bitterly. Magic was too unpredictable for any sort of normal person to handle. "What do you want?" he ground out.

"A good life for your son, to whom I owe quite a bit. And for your wife as well," the wizard answered politely. "You will comply, or you will vanish. I trust you understand?"

Tobias ground his teeth, but as the other brought out a wand, he quickly nodded. he had seen enough of that with Eileen to know not to mess with it. "What do you want me to do?"

"Good man," the young wizard answered and lifted his foot from Tobias's chest. Moment after, Tobias was pulled to his feet. "For now the two of us will go and do some redecorating at your house. your son needs a place to stay. Some cleaning up might not be amiss either," the wizard said, moving to walk away. "Then you will show utmost kindness and gentleness to your son and proper respect towards your wife. You will be the proper father and man of your family. Like you're supposed to."

Tobias blinked and after realising that the younger man was heading towards his house, he stumbled to follow. "And that's it?"

"No, that is just the start. Come along, there is much to do," the wizard said with disturbing cheer. "Oh, and you will lessen your drinking - if you will not I will make sure you will not drink another drop of alcohol for the rest of your life."

Tobias eye twitched but he said nothing for now, instead measured the other with his eyes. The wizard was much shorter than him and pretty slim, in fair fight Tobias would've been able to take him easily. But just as he considered it, the other lifted his wand and he thought better of it. "Why are you doing this? Are you from Eileen's family?" he asked. Eileen had a pretty important family in the wizard circles as far as he could remember.

"No, I have no blood relations to her," the wizard answered. "I am here to pay back a debt I owe to your son - several in fact."

"How can you owe a debt to a newborn?"

"It involves magic, war and time travel and few other factors - nothing you should bother yourself with now. You can ask me again later on if it will really interest you," the man answered. "For now all you need to know that you will either play nice or you will play dead. Now… that would be your house, right? Well then, let's get down to business."

In the following hour, the young wizard broke into Tobias's house, inspected every room and ruined his life. In the end Tobias was left with considerably cleaner and tidier house and one extra room filled with baby stuff - purpose of most he didn't even want to know. Tobias almost appreciated the fact that the wizard had also filled their fridge with fresh food, but the list stopped him. It was written on a parchment, pinned to the fridge door and it's unforgiving red writing detailed the new rules he needed to abide by and the consequences he'd suffer if he wouldn't.

He stared at the words "Rule Four; physically or verbally abusing Eileen" which were followed by "will be punished with extreme prejudice", and wondered if he really was that bad. Okay, he might not like his wife that much - she could be one spiteful witch if she wanted to, and most times even without wanting to. And she wasn't exactly front cover material. But he wasn't a wife beater for god's sake. He had married the woman, he wasn't about to beat her. "Rule One; any sort of violence towards Severus will be punished by death." What kind of sorry bastard was violent towards a child?

"Well…" he murmured, eying the list for a moment uncomfortably. "Whatever…" Shaking his head, he turned to the cupboards and started throwing out his liquors, mourning the life he apparently wouldn't be leading any more. But in the end he valued living a bit higher than he valued his fun. Insane wizard says; lessen the drinking. "Out with the liquors it is then."

When Eileen returned from the hospital with Severus, it was to a wholly changed home. The first thing she noticed that the horrible dirty carpet in the front was clean - gone were the stains she hadn't gotten off even after two years of trying. Then she noticed that the closet next to the front door was tidy. And it only got worse from there. The living room was almost pure, not a speck of dirt anywhere, even the windows were clear and there was no usual layer of dust in the telly. And Tobias, who had against his very nature greeted her at the door and taken her bags, was wearing clean clothes - he had even shaved.

"What the devil?" Eileen finally asked.

"An insane wizard visited," Tobias answered. "And said he'd kill me unless…" he made a vague motion at the house and himself and coughed. "He cleaned up here. And he made a room. There," he pointed. "For the… uh… for Severus?"

Eileen blinked. "Ah," she then said with a nod. Apparently the visit by young wizard had not been a dream. "So, he, uh… cleaned up, threatened to kill you and made us an extra room?" she asked just to be sure, while lowering Severus in his baby car seat to the couch - shockingly clean couch. She peered into the extra room. Like she had suspected, it was made for a baby - it had extra crib and care table and everything. And by the looks if it, it was better equipped than the corner Eileen had cleared to their bathroom. "Did he just transfigure this stuff or…?"

"Transfigure, like change shape of things? No, he had these miniature things which he made larger I think," Tobias answered awkwardly. "I was, uh… trying not to watch. Do you know that guy, Eileen?"

"I've never seen him in my life. Before he showed up at the hospital that is," she answered honestly while sitting down beside Severus. The baby was happily asleep, making Eileen wonder if the mysterious wizard, Harry, had really gone and sworn his loyalty to the boy. In the hospital. In some room with other babies… and then the man had came here to upturn her entire life. All for the little sleeping brat in front of her. No wonder Severus was sleeping so soundly.

"Does… this sort of thing happen often with your kind?" her husband asked after moment of awkward silence.

"I don't think I've ever heard of anything like this," she shook her head. "I've heard of time travel, though." And if what she remembered about the meeting with Harry was even nearly correct, then the wizard was using them as excuse. Or cover. A very weird cover, but wizard logic was pretty often rather faulty. Who knew what Harry's real motives were. To change history or future or whichever, obviously, but to what direction and why, it was anyone's guess. But since his - rather poor - cover was the well being of a single child, it couldn't be too bad.

"Can't you go to your ministry, and tell them to take care of this guy?" Tobias asked more curiously than angrily. "I mean… if this sort of thing doesn't happen often, then… there should be rules against it. And he's threatening to kill me. That at least ought to be illegal even in your world."

"Well, I suspect he could be at least be told off for it, and I suppose I could go to someone about it… but there are few problems," Eileen shrugged. "One, he hasn't actually done anything yet, except for the fact that he cleaned our house. Two, we don't know who he is, where he came from, where he is staying, or anything else which would actually help someone catch him. And, more importantly…" she smiled. "Three, I don't think I want to."

"Eileen -"

"Tobias, the guy swore allegiance to my child and is going to protect and care for him, which saves me from whole lot of trouble. And he's pretty good at house work, which also saves me whole lot of trouble," she glanced around them and nodded with appreciation. Then she looked at him again and smirked. "And he made you of all people smarten up! Hell, I'm keeping this guy."

Tobias frowned. "He threatened to kill me," he said slowly.

"Yes," Eileen nodded calmly.

"You don't care?"

"Tobias, darling, when I went to give birth to your first born son, you went to a bloody pub," she said and smiled coldly. "I want to kill you."

"Ah. Right," he nodded and smiled awkwardly. There was a moment of strained silence. "So, now what?"

"I am going to have our son settled, and you are going to make me a sandwich," she said and stood up. "And after that we'll see."

She inspected the new baby room to find that it was well stocked - especially considering that a wizard had made it. There was a drawer full of nappies of just the right size, there were new clothes for night, day, summer and winter wear, there were toys, most of the soft and unbreakable, there were also every needed powder and ointment. There even was a baby monitor sitting next to the brand new crib, which was in much better shape than the second had crib she had gotten.

Awkwardly Eileen settled Severus to the crib before spending a moment to figure out how the baby monitor worked - since Harry had put it there, he meant it to be used, and considering that the man had the power to create a room out of nothing to their otherwise rather small row house and still make it look like it belonged there… well, she was in no hurry to go against the man's wishes. Once she was sure everything was just about okay, he took the second monitor and headed back to the living room, expecting her sandwich to be ready. She was starving.

"I got an idea," Tobias, slightly brightened now, said while handing the sandwich to her. She examined it with mild surprise. It was turkey. Had Tobias really visited the store while she had been gone? Tobias, not noticing the fact that she now headed forward to examine the fridge as well, continued on. "This wizard that's bothering us, he swore allegiance, right? So, he should do whatever we want him to do."

"He swore allegiance to Severus, dear," Eileen snorted and then frowned at the contents of their fridge. "And I doubt he will even do whatever Severus wants him to do once Severus will be old enough to actually want something. The whole thing is a sham to cover up whatever he's really doing. Did you visit the store? And where on earth did you get the money for this?"

"The wizard did it," Tobias answered, frowning as well. She glanced at him with slight appreciation. Frown suited Tobias - with the nose and the eyebrows and the dark eyes, the man looked positively savage when he frowned, rather hawk-like. Idly she wondered if Severus, who had inherited his father's nose apparently, would look the same. "What is he really doing then?" Tobias asked.

"Who knows," Eileen shrugged, biting to her sandwich and continuing to examine the fridge. They were well stocked thanks to Harry, whom she was starting to like more and more. Would it always be like this? No, she didn't mind that at all. "He said he comes from future - hence the whole thing about being indebted to Severus being slightly plausible. I imagine something happened which he wants to change. We are just an excuse. And, unless he proves out to be really weak or really stupid and I doubt either will happen, we have little to say to it."

"Time travel. Bah. You really believe him?"

"Well, not really. But it doesn't make much difference," she shrugged and eyed the sandwich in appreciation. After hospital food, it was a heaven's sent. Definitely the best sandwich she had ever tasted. "I say we make the most of it, though. He intends to take care of Severus and see to his needs. Let's be nice and maybe he'll do the same for us."

Merry Xmas! This is yet another time travel idea I had, something little closer to the crack side than whatever I've written before. Dunno when/if will be continued, but I hope you enjoyed what little I wrote. Hasn't been betaed, so if you notice any grammar errors and such which bother you, let me know and I'll fix.