The Tomb Of Our Forlorn Love

Severus and Ellary reluctantly approached the small, shabby looking house at the end of Spinner’s End. It was a miniscule home with broken windows, shutters hanging off the unpainted walls, and missing shingles on the roof. The garden that must have been beautiful at some point was a dead and withered mess. A sick feeling always entered Ellary’s stomach when she looked at the house. It wasn’t even the fact that it was so ugly, but more all the painful memories that were embedded inside the walls.

“Welcome to hell,” Severus whispered in her ear, wrapping his arm protectively around her waist as they drew closer.

“Hurry up kids, let’s get you all settled before your father gets home,” Mrs. Snape whispered, prodding her children gently in the back.

She had grown so accustomed to staying quiet that she was now unable to even raise her voice above a whisper. Helen Snape, formerly Helen Prince, was a middle-aged woman that looked a great deal older. Her once black hair had turned nearly completely gray, her black-brown eyes were faded, she skin and bones, and wrinkles marred nearly every inch of her face. Black and blue bruises could be seen running up her arms and her eye was purple. There was a shadow of beautiful woman still left in the outlines of her face, her high cheekbones, and finely curved lips.

“How are you doing mum?” Ellary asked hesitantly, when they entered insider the house.

The portraits were hanging crooked and numerous holes created by her dad’s fists could be seen along the wall.

“Fine, just fine. It has been very quiet around here lately,” she smiled, “Oh! I must start dinner before Tobias gets home. He’ll be wanting dinner. Yes, he will,” she muttered to herself, scurrying away toward the kitchen without another word to her children that she hadn’t seen in months.

Tobias Snape had put a spell over Helen Prince when they first met twenty years ago. He was a charming, intelligent muggle man who had practically swept her off her feet. Within a month he had asked her to marry him knowing full well that she was a witch and she accepted immediately and chose to give up ever doing magic again. Then, three years later, Ellary and Severus were born, and from there everything started to go wrong. The responsibility of having two children seemed to drive Tobias insane, and when they started showing magical tendencies, he became disgusted with the magical world.

He blamed Helen that everything was her fault and after awhile she started to believe him. Instead of leaving him she only tried harder to make him happy and every time he hit her she believed that she deserved it. It made both Ellary and Severus sick the way she fawned over their father despite what a horrible person he had become over the years. She hardly even realized she had children anymore and when she actually did acknowledge them they could see the faint glow of anger behind her eyes, they knew she blamed them for ruining her fairy tale marriage.

“So good to be home isn’t it?” Ellary asked sarcastically, as she and her brother trudged up the rickety, wooden stairs.

“Bloody fantastic. I can’t wait to see dear ol’ dad again,” Severus replied; disdain dripping from his every word.

They both walked inside of Ellary’s room, which was the last door on the right. It was a terribly plain room that didn’t mirror her personality in the least. There was a small bed in the corner, a small nightstand with an alarm clock on top, a closet with some clothes inside, a dusty window, and an armchair that was tearing apart at the seams. She had pinned up a few pictures of her friend to remind herself of all the good things in her life when the misery of her home threatened to break her spirit completely. She smiled at the picture of her, Sirius, Peter, and James doing the chicken dance at the Potter’s and then the one of Remus dressed up in a bunny suit they had bought at a muggle costume shop.

“I am just going to go grab a few things from my room, okay? Then I’ll set up the cot in here,” Severus told her, snapping her out of her daze.

“Yeah, okay,” Ellary nodded, “Thanks again for staying in here with me, I appreciate it,” she added.

Severus smiled a little, “No one wants to be alone in this place,” he answered.

**

“Regulus!” Mrs. Black exclaimed in excitement when her youngest son walked through the front door. “I have missed you so much! I talked to Professor Slughorn a few days ago and he said that you are doing fantastic in Potions! Straight O’s on all your projects! I am so proud of you, love,” she gushed.

“Err- thanks mum,” Regulus forced a smile onto his face, but in truth he hated being ambushed by his mother like this.

“I am making your favorite for dinner tonight! Chicken pot pie and then bread pudding for dessert,” she grinned.

“I hate bread pudding,” Sirius grumbled, when he entered behind his brother.

He looked completely miserable as he looked around the house. It was definitely a dark wizard’s house with the shrunken house elf heads mounted along the wall, portraits of stuffy old wizards with big noses, and the countless dark magic objects on display such as a withered old hand called the Hand of Glory and an amulet that would strangle any person to death who dared to put it around their necks.

“Well your brother likes it and he actually deserves a reward unlike one of my other children,” his mother hissed in reply.

“I’m your only other child, mother,” Sirius rolled his eyes and purposely dropped his trunk hard on the ground.

“Yes and sometimes I don’t believe that you actually came from my womb, except for the fact you look just like your father. Honestly! A Black in Gryffindor! I am still shocked about after six years. And then there is all that filth you hang out with, like that Snape girl. Her father is a muggle you know, positively disgusting-”

“Don’t talk about Ellary like that,” Sirius barked, cutting her off in mid-sentence, “You don’t even know her.”

“I don’t have to know her! She is of dirty blood and therefore is not worthy of being called a wizard!” she responded.

Regulus shifted uneasily in the corner at these words, as Sirius’ eyes filled with righteous anger. Part of him wanted to fight along side his brother and stick up for Ellary, but he knew in the end that would only prove disastrous. Maybe there was another, subtler way though…

“Could we not waste time talking about Sirius’ friends, it is really quite tedious,” Regulus said, putting on a snobby, bored tone. “When is father arriving home? Before dinner, I hope,” he changed the subject swiftly.

“Hah! I hope he never comes home,” Sirius grumbled, roughly nudging his brother out of the way and stamping off toward his room.

“Why you little ruffian! You touch your brother like that again and you’ll be sorry mister!” she screamed after Sirius, but he had stopped listening. “Anyways, love,” she began turning back to Regulus, “Your father will be home around seven o’clock and he will be bringing a guest with him, I believe, so please dress sharply for dinner. This man has quite the interest in you and with his help you could do great things, my son. Great things, indeed!”

“What’s his name, mother?” Regulus inquired.

“Mr. Riddle, Mr. Thomas Riddle,” she answered, “Charming man, he is. He was in Slytherin with your father when they were your age.”

“I can’t wait to meet him,” Regulus lied.

“Oh yes and your betrothed will be here too! I thought you would love to get a chance to talk to her. Her complexion has cleared up miraculously in the past few months,” she added, before he could make his escape.

Regulus had to force a smile to his face. Talking to the unsightly, eleven-year-old-girl he was supposed to marry someday was not exactly high on the things he liked to do.

“Fantastic,” he mumbled, and thankfully his mother completely missed the sarcasm in his voice.

**

“I’ve made some changes to the house while you were gone, dear! I painted the walls a brighter shade of blue to liven up the place a little bit. Oh yes! And then I bought you all new furniture, the best mahogany of course. It’s gorgeous, practically shines in the light! I’m sure you’ll love it. Don’t worry though, it is not going to be your Christmas present, I got you plenty this year! Even a few things on that lengthy list of yours!” Peter’s mother winked.

Peter began to tune her out as she continued to ramble the entire subway ride home. She had desperately been trying to fill up the void left in Peter’s life when his father up and left them five years ago with material things. His mother worked a high paying job at the Ministry of Magic, but instead of saving any of it up she instead chose to buy Peter all the things he could possibly want in life. Little did she know that she was really only making things worse for her only son. All Peter really wanted was some affection, but his mother could hardly bear to hug him anymore because he looked so much like his father. He knew that she loved him, but at the same time he knew that every time she looked him square in the eye her heart broke a little more. Nothing made him feel guiltier than being around his mother.

“The color is great mum and I love the furniture,” Peter said gratefully, after emerging from his room again.

“That’s wonderful hunny, I knew you would. Anyways- I have to go on a weekend business trip to Ireland, so I won’t be back until Christmas morning. Polly-” Polly was their house elf, “-will be making your meals and such. Plus I left plenty of snacks in the pantry for you! I don’t want my little boy to get hungry!”

“You mean that you aren’t going to be home for Christmas Eve?” Peter asked, in surprise.

“Not this year, love. But Polly will be here to keep you company!” she exclaimed, swinging her bag over her shoulder and throwing on her expensive pea coat. “Goodbye dear,” she said, kissing him swiftly on the forehead before dashing off toward the door.

Never once during the entire conversation had she made eye contact with him. He watched her go with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He was going to be alone for Christmas Eve.

**

“So how is school going?” Remus’ mother asked, as the two of them walked down the dirt path toward his small, cottage home right outside the woods.

His parents had always loved the wilderness and would often take him on hikes when he was a young boy. One of those hikes, however, resulted in something that would change Remus’ life, as he knew it forever. As he looked out over the trees in the distance the memory of that day came rushing back to him…

Young Remus skipped gleefully through the open clearing of the woods toward the hill where he and his parents were headed. The family had decided to go on a midnight hike, so they could observe the beautiful, silver full moon from the top of a hill in the middle of the forest. Remus had always loved the full moon more than anything; something about made him feel happy inside, so when he found that tonight was a full moon he had begged his parents to take him out.

“Remus, honey! Remus please slow down, you don’t want to get lost!” his mother’s voice called out, but Remus disregarded it.

He had walked this path so many time that he was not even the slightest bit worried about getting lost. But navigating through the old forest in the darkness was a much different story than in the sunlight and with one wrong turn he found himself completely and utterly lost amongst the tall trees.

“Mummy! Mummy! Daddy, where are you?” he cried, in a scared, timid voice.

The distant hooting of an owl made his heart leap up into his throat as the fear of being alone in the dark began to overcome him. Then he heard another sound, footsteps. They were faint, but he could still here them clearly. Maybe they belonged to his parents? Without another thought he quickly ran in the direction of the sound, but instead of his parents he found himself face to face with the most horrifying creature he had ever seen in all of his short life.

Its yellow eyes stared straight at him as the hair on its back stood straight up. Its teeth were bared ferociously and the low growl escaping its mouth made Remus’ heart practically stop beating in his chest. He had seen these types of creatures before only in books, they were called werewolves. Remus could still sense the humanness of the creature, which made him know it was more than just a mere wolf. The hideous creature took a step toward him as it licked its lip with what looked like pure delight .

“My name is Fenrir Grayback,” it hissed in a menacing tone. Remus yelped a little, but he could not make himself run… his legs seemed to be frozen in place.

“What are you doing out in the woods all alone, you silly little boy?” it laughed, but it was certainly not a pleasant laugh.

When Remus didn’t answer the monster seemed to smile, showing every single one of its yellow fangs. Then within the next second, before Remus could even react or feel pain, the deed was done. He remembered collapsing to the ground with blood pouring profusely from his abdomen, but after that everything had gone black.

“Remus, are you feeling okay? You look peaky,” his mother spoke again, snapping him out of his dream.

“Oh- uh- no… I’m fine,” he mumbled, “Just a little tired, I think,” he said in a quiet voice.

“There isn’t a full moon coming up, is there?” his mother asked suddenly, not even attempting to mask the fear in her voice.

“No, mother,” Remus sighed, as the usual tears welled up behind his eyes and the feeling of failure washed over him. He hated the fact that he made his mother so scared, he hated the fact that he wasn’t normal, and could never be the son she had always hoped for. “No, not this vacation,” he whispered.

**

“Wow, mum! The house looks brilliant!” James exclaimed, as he and his parents walked up the small brick path up to his front door.

The rather large house they lived in was exquisitely decorated with blinking, multi-color Christmas lights that were truly stunning in the evening darkness.

“Your mother is talented, isn’t she?” Mr. Potter chuckled heartily, as he kissed his wife on the cheek. “She wanted the house to look extra special for your homecoming, Jamie,” he smiled.

“Well she succeeded!” he grinned.

“Aww- thank you dear, I’m so happy that you like it,” Mrs. Potter responded, with the sweet smile that was almost always on her face.

Charles and Nancy Potter were probably the two nicest wizards on the face of the planet, in least in the opinion of ninety nine point nine percent of the people lucky enough to meet them in person. They didn’t work for a living because Charles had received a huge amount of money in inheritance when his uncle passed away eighteen years ago. Instead the two spent most of their time volunteering at homeless shelters, teaching squibs to do magic, or serving as guest members on the Board of Hogwarts Education. They always made sure that they were busy with some new project.

James’ jaw nearly dropped straight down to the floor when he walked inside the house. A gargantuan Christmas tree stood at the end of the hall decorated with shiny ornaments of ever color, bright lights, and silver tinsel glittered brilliantly. But it was more the large pile of presents under that caught his eye.

“They’re not all for you, James,” Mr. Potter laughed, knowing exactly what his son was thinking.

“No- this pile over here is for our family,” Mrs. Potter pointed to a still considerably large pile of presents on the right side of the tree. “These ones are going to charities, these ones to our relatives in Scotland, and then these ones are for our friends. Ah yes! I wanted you to send these ones out for me. Here is one for Sirius, Ellary, Peter, and that darling boy Remus; when I was out shopping yesterday I just had to get them all something. They are such wonderful friends to you!”

“You got them presents? Oh mum, you didn’t have to. I already bought them all something at Hogsmeade,” James replied.

“Oh don’t be silly, Jamie! These gifts are from your father and I to them, not from you. We wanted to personally give them something,” she grinned, patting him on the head. “Now come in here and I’ll get you both some dinner before it gets too cold!” she called to her husband and son.

James smiled as he looked at the four gifts; he knew why his mother had bought them. He was really the only one out his friends who actually had a normal family life at home, his mother just wanted them all to know that at least someone out there cared about them and in that moment he had never admired his mother so much before in all his life.