A Bend in Time

The bright sunlight stings Rowan's eyes waking up with dark eye shadows. She had not slept well at all her dreams were full of terrifying nightmares. She hears a loud cough and sees Severus impatiently waiting for her to get up.

Rubbing her tangled hair with one hand, Rowan grimaces at her fingers getting caught on a snag. She needed to find a hairbrush to untangle her long hair. That and hair stank feeling greasy to the touch.

Carefully folding her ratty tatty, patched-up blanket, Rowan waits for Severus to carefully jingle the knob. He carefully opens their bedroom door open just enough so they can slip through without causing the hinge to squeak. The two of them pause at the top of the rickety stairs and peek down below. Their parents, Tobias and Eileen sit peacefully together at the kitchen table without any arguments.

Eileen wears a dark patched dress with a faded shawl wrapped about her shoulders. Her face is sharp and gloomy much like the same sharpness found in Severus and Rowan's face. Eileen keeps purposefully quiet mindlessly stirring a chipped cup of tea with a bent spoon. She was tired and was in no mood to deal with her husband's anger or the prattling of her children.

In a factory worker's gray uniform, Tobias irritably reads the tabloids. He happened to glance over the top of his paper to meet Eileen's onyx-colored gaze. Eileen quickly glances away while Tobias's midnight-indigo, red-rimmed eyes seem to burn through his wife. His face is waxy and unshaven with a tinge of yellow from habitual drinking.

Hearing the creak of the stairs, Tobias throws his paper onto the rickety table. "Did the two of you clean all of this?" He barked.

Severus clenches his hands into fists eyes burning with anger, while Rowan presses her hand to his shoulder. "Yes, we did," Rowan calmly answered.

"You mean all this time, the two of you could have cleaned this entire house, but you lazy louts haven't?" Tobias roared sending his chair flying back onto the floor with a loud clatter. "Just what have your lazy arses been doing all alone?!"

Eileen flinched but remains silent in her seat. Severus looks mutinous his onyx eyes burning with anger. His nails dig small red crescents into the fleshy parts of his plan. He vowed in his heart that once he went to Hogwarts, he would learn powerful magic and save himself, his mum, and Rowan from their father.

Rowan sensing that Severus might do something rash reaches for his hand. However, that didn't mean that she wouldn't. "We're just children, it's not our job to do so," she flatly retorted.

Eileen reflexively hunches down and makes herself smaller. It would be over that much sooner. She signed irritably to herself. Why couldn't the damn girl keep her mouth shut!

"What did you say to me?" Tobias bellowed dangerously.

"If you hit us again, I swear I'll go to the bobbies," Rowan ruthlessly threatened. "Our mother may be a witch, but that doesn't change the fact that you will go to jail for hitting your wife and children. And we both know that the bobbies will never believe that mother's a witch. It will only serve to convince them that you are mad and ought to be locked up in an asylum!"

Tobias sputters in fury, "Are you threatening me?!"

"And what if I am?" Rowan growled showing her teeth.

Utterly enraged Tobias throws the table onto its side causing the teacups to shatter onto the ground. "Useless," he spat at Eileen. "I'm going out for a pint!" He bellowed before storming out.

Eileen sighs with relief as the door slams shut shaking the doorway. With a grimace, she rises and sidesteps the shattered pieces of glass. She may no longer be Eileen Prince, but she had never been good at housework.

Seeing their mother sidestepping the shattered glass, Rowan gently squeezes Severus's hand in comfort. "It's over, Sev," Rowan whispered as Severus slowly unclenched his fists.

Eileen pauses to stare at her children on the edge of the rickety staircase. "You should have not done that," she reprimanded her daughter. "Tobias will only return that much angrier after his stint. When will you learn to keep silent?! Your behavior does us no favors!"

"Sorry, Mother," Rowan quietly answered.

Eileen's face softens for a moment, before reaching down to straighten the uneven dinner table. "I'll help you, Mum!" Severus eagerly said sidestepping the pieces of glass and helping straighten the table.

Seeing Severus so eager to help Eileen and the almost nonexistent reaction from Eileen, Rowan says, "Mother, we do not need to continue living like this. We both know that you come from a different social circle."

Eileen raises her onyx-colored eyes that are full of spite towards her child. "And what do you know of it? You are merely a half-blood."

Rowan refrains from saying, "And whose fault is that?" She takes a deep breath and carefully says, "Mother, why don't we return to the Prince's?"

"They will never take me back," Eileen hissed in old pain.

"Maybe, that was before, but now you have two children," Rowan purposefully said. "We may be half-bloods; we still carry the last of the Prince bloodline. Alone, they might not be willing to accept you, but Severus is a male heir. If he takes the Prince's surname, he will be able to continue the family line."

Eileen's onyx eyes flash in a calculating manner before growing dim. "My father is stubborn. He may not oblige."

"We stand to lose nothing," Rowan deadpanned. "Send an owl."

Eileen hesitates as she stares at her daughter. Severus burned fierce and true like his father, but Rowan was studious and deliberate knowing no boundaries when it came to protecting Severus. It did not matter how drunk; Tobias was Rowan would without any hesitation shield Severus from danger. She had lost count of the number of times her daughter had returned bruised and battered from school. Bloody and triumphant with eerie-knowing eyes, Rowan resembled her grandfather, Eileen's father far too much for comfort.

"You are certain you will not regret leaving your father," Eileen asked with Severus glancing at the two of them uncertain of what to make of the situation.

"I could ask you the same question, mother," Rowan asked parting the left side of her hair to reveal a hideous, blood-encrusted wound.

Eileen presses her lips together in guilt and old anger. She curtly nods her head and says, "I'll be back," before grabbing her purse and rushing out to find an owl. She had spotted one on the fringes of the town. She would beg the owner to let her borrow the owl.

The door echoes after Eileen as Severus in disbelief stares at Rowan. "You want us to leave! Are you crazy, you know know what mum said about those people! They don't care for half-bloods!"

"That may very well be true, but it isn't safe to stay here anymore, Sev," Rowan pointed out. "Father's violence during his drunken stupor has been steadily increasing. It won't be long before he escalates even further, and I don't know what will become of us then. We both know that he felt no remorse the morning after."

Severus opens and closes his mouth recalling Rowan laying in a pool of blood. His heart had stopped for a moment when he couldn't get Rowan to respond. For a moment, he even believed Rowan's breath had stopped leaving him alone. He didn't want Rowan to die especially not because of something he had done.

"Alright," Severus whispered, before sadly saying, "And what about Lily?" She was his only real friend. He had never been good about making friends. And Lily didn't seem to mind.

"Don't worry, Severus, I am certain that Lily will be attending Hogwarts this year too, you'll see her then," Rowan persuasively added.

Severus suspiciously narrows his eyes at Rowan. "How can you be so sure?!"

"I just am," Rowan seriously answered.

"I don't believe you," Severus flatly said.

"You will," Rowan confidently countered.

"Fine then," Severus said through gritted teeth. "I won't forgive you, if that's not the case, Rowan."

"That won't happen," Rowan triumphantly retorted.

Severus brushes past Rowan in annoyance and heads outside to think for a bit. Hopefully, he'd get to see Lily. He didn't know what to feel, but a part of him was rather uncertain of what the future would bring.

Inside the Snape family home, Rowan sits in the old velvet green armchair to think. The most prudent course of action would be to return to the Prince's having concluded this late last night. Even if the Prince's, a pure-blood household turned to be distant and cold towards them they were already used to being treated like this by their mother when she was in one of her moods. At least her mother only ignored them, and it was far better to have something to eat than to remain in poverty with an abusive, drunken father.