An Unlikely Savior ~ (Edit) COMPLETED

Chapter 21 ~ Continuing Conflicts

“She put spiders on you, Rose?” Hugo asked his sister incredulously.

”Yes, she did, Hugo. Acromantulas,” Rose replied, frowning. “I told you she was dangerous. I could have been killed.”

Hugo looked perplexed.

”So, how did you get away? Did you out fly them?” he asked, his eyes wide. They were in the Gryffindor common room, sitting on one of the sofas and speaking in quiet tones.

Rose considered telling Hugo that she did out fly the spiders, not wanting him to think Eileen was some kind of hero. She wasn’t. Saving someone didn’t count if you put them in danger in the first place. But lying about it would be wrong.

”Eileensavedme,” she said quickly.

“What?”

”I said Eileen came back and saved me,” Rose said in an irritated voice.

“So she didn’t plan for you to get hurt in the first place,” Hugo said, connecting the dots.

”That’s not what’s important here, Hugo. The fact is she put the spiders on me in the first place and I could have been killed,” she spat at her brother in frustration

“But you weren’t.”

Rose let out an exasperated sigh. Hugo was so thick sometimes. Didn’t he see Eileen was capable of anything?

”Anyway, Hugo, I still don’t think it’s a good idea to try and talk to her. I did, and you heard what happened,” his sister told him.

”Too late. I’ve already talked to her. I walked her to Slytherin house,” Hugo replied with a smile. “And she didn’t put anything on me. You must have pissed her off or something.”

“What? She talked to you?” Rose asked him. It was her turn to be incredulous.

”Well, I did most of the talking, but she answered me sometimes. Some Slytherins tried to get me, too.”

”Slytherins? Oh, Hugo. You should know better to go down in the dungeons alone!” Rose exclaimed.

”I wasn’t alone. I was with Eileen. But she kept telling me to leave, too. She said I’d catch the bad end of it if other Slytherins showed up. But I wanted to talk to her, so I didn’t leave,” her brother explained.

Rose frowned. Well, at least Eileen warned him about the danger. Still—

“So she helped you when they showed up? Told them to leave you alone?”

Hugo shook his head.

”No. She didn’t say or do anything. She didn’t have to. I hexed all three of them myself. I was faster. And I showed her I was brave. I think she was impressed I could take down three big Slytherins, even if she didn’t say it.”

”She should have helped you.”

”She didn’t have to.”

”Well, what if you hadn’t been able to hex those students? What would have happened then?”

Hugo shrugged.

”I don’t know. Maybe Eileen would have helped me. They were all bigger than me.”

Rose snorted.

”She would have let them hex you to Kingdom Come, Hugo. She doesn’t care about you,” Rose declared.

”It takes time to care about people you don’t know, Rose. I think once she gets to know me, she’ll care. And she’ll care about mum too, and you—“

“You’re dreaming, Hugo. That will never happen.”

Hugo studied his sister.

”What’s wrong with you, Rose? Why are you so against Eileen? You don’t even know her and you’re saying that she’s no good and trying to keep me from getting to know her. Are you jealous?”

Rose turned bright red.

”Of course I’m not jealous! Why would I be jealous of Eileen Snape? She’s a Slytherin, she has no fashion sense, all she wears is black, she has no friends except for Alsop and she’s just plain freaky. She’s a freak.”

Hugo frowned at his sister. She was mean to him sometimes, but she was usually nice to other people. Her attitude about Eileen seemed really out of character.

”She’s our sister, Rose, like it or not! And you shouldn’t call our sister a freak,” he admonished, shaking his little finger at her. “Mum wouldn’t like it either.”

“Mum doesn’t know her, and neither do you, Hugo. Just because she said two words to you in the dungeons doesn’t mean you know her. I don’t—I don’t trust her. Period. She’s going to ruin our family.”

Hugo stood up now, frowning at Rose.

”Somebody has to trust somebody, Rose. She’s not going to ruin anything. If anyone will ruin something, it’s probably going to be you, because you don’t want to give her a chance!” he said angrily. “I want to get to know her. You don’t and you don’t want anyone else to either because we might find out she’s okay. You act like a real prat sometimes. It’s not always about you, you know.”

Hugo stomped off, heading for his rooms. He was furious at Rose.

Rose watched him go, unable to believe he’d defend Eileen like that. All of the sudden, she’s a member of their family and they were just going to accept it, like it’s something normal? This situation wasn’t normal and Eileen wasn’t normal either. She didn’t act like anyone Rose knew. She got great marks, but so what? Being smart didn’t mean that much. What would people say when they found out she was Eileen’s sister? They’d ask all kinds of embarrassing questions and whisper behind her back. It was going to be awful.

Rose wished her mother had never found out about Eileen. That Hermione would have turned around and walked out of the hospital when she saw it wasn’t her in the hospital wing. Just walked out.

If she had, everything would have been all right.

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Eileen sat on her bed, looking over the study schedule she had drawn up. She didn’t use schedules often, but when she was pressed for time she’d make them up so she could allocate it better. This way, she didn’t overexert herself.

She found herself thinking about Hugo Weasley. He was a courageous little bastard. And, he’d taken down three Slytherins. Three bullies. Eileen didn’t like bullies. She never had. When she first arrived at Hogwarts, she had a couple of run-ins with some Gryffindors who tried to menace her because she was a first year and by herself on the first floor. Like Hugo, she didn’t hesitate either. One of them had to go to the infirmary to get the huge donkey ears that sprouted out of his head removed.

Unlike the other students of her house, Eileen really didn’t practice house rivalry. Oh, she talked about Gryffindors, but that was because they considered themselves the best that Hogwarts had to offer and were swollen-headed. It was as if no other house mattered. Eileen was a lot like Snape. She hated braggarts and show-offs and Gryffindor house seemed to be full of them. But, she never engaged them in any violent manner unless they started it. If they did, she’d finish it. They learned to leave her alone by the end of her first year.

Like her mother, Eileen was very studious as well, and hated to be bothered while she was working. This caused a rift between her and her housemates, this and fact that in the beginning they tried to hang around her because she was so good with a wand and knew so many defensive spells. Eileen was no one’s protector. When she saw that they would purposely try to start duels with Gryffindors just so she’d take them out, she wanted no parts of it. It made no sense to look for trouble, so she told her fellow students to leave her alone. She wasn’t going to be used. If she were going to duel, it would be because someone else started it, not the other way around.

Because of her attitude, and her skills with spells, Eileen was one of the few students that could generally walk around Hogwarts without being harassed. But that attitude also distanced her from her fellow Slytherins. It didn’t matter to her. They were all self-serving prats anyway. It was the nature of Slytherins and she accepted it for what it was worth. Less than a Knut in her estimation.

But Hugo? He seemed a little different than the usual Gryffindor in that he didn’t seem to mind her being a Slytherin. He was open-minded. She idly wondered if that was his mother’s influence or his father’s. Rose seemed as tightly closed-minded as a vault at Gringotts. But Hugo—he seemed up for anything. And he really was a brave little bugger.

In fact, maybe she could use Hugo to find out more about her mum before deciding whether or not to meet with her. A little research into the matter first seemed like a good idea. Eileen didn’t think Hugo would sugar-coat anything. He’d already said his mum could be a terror, so she doubted he would try to make her seem like the greatest thing on earth since treacle tarts.

Eileen smirked a little. If she did talk with Hugo that would probably piss his sister off to no end. And pissing off Princess Rose Weasley was very appealing. Imagine her thinking that she would hurt Hugo. Eileen knew what people thought about her, but damn, was it really that bad? She hadn’t hexed anyone at school in ages, except for Alsop, and he was begging for it to begin with. He couldn’t get it in his head he wasn’t supposed to steal kisses, no matter how many hours he spent as a newt.

Alsop. She was going to have to tell him the news, that she was his aunt’s daughter. Maybe he’d stop stealing kisses then.

Eileen frowned a little at this. She didn’t hate him doing it as much as she pretended. Actually, Alsop was the only person who showed her affection other than her father. She knew he liked her, but also knew he respected her and wouldn’t push. And to be honest, she liked him back. She just wasn’t ready to have a real boyfriend.

Hugo popped into her head again. She had a feeling he’d be happy to show her affection too, in a brotherly way. There were some good points about Gryffindors. They were very loyal once they sank their claws into someone, and would go to the ends of the earth for them. It was stupid from a Slytherin standpoint, but comforting to know. Hugo would always have her back if she needed him. It would be odd to have someone else besides her father to look out for her and care what happened to her.

Eileen opened her Advanced Arithmancy book and began to read, focusing on something other than Hugo and her extended family—for now.

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Hermione was decorating her house for Christmas when she suddenly realized that she needed to get Eileen something for the holiday, too. She had no idea what her daughter liked. In fact, she had no idea about a lot of things about Eileen. She didn’t even know her birthday, or what subjects she liked in school. What her favorite foods were. What was her favorite color? Hermione knew none of the things a mother should know about her child.

She frowned, anger starting to rise inside her, hot and boiling. Since finding out about Eileen, she’d been rather contrite, worried and anxious about the situation. But as it sunk in just how disconnected she was from Eileen and why, she became furious with Snape. Absolutely furious.

Hermione stopped hanging ornaments on the tree, stalked over to her writing desk, sat down and began writing. It was time for her to get to know her daughter, and a little research was in order. The only person who could give her answers other than Eileen herself, who was at school, was one Severus Snape.

This time, he wouldn’t have the upper hand either. Hermione was past her shock and was going to let him know exactly what she thought of what he did, whether he believed himself to be within his rights or not. She was Eileen’s mother and had rights too. She might be sixteen years late, but she was here now and would not be ignored. She wanted answers, and that sneaky, snarky, smug bastard would give her the answers she wanted, one way or the other.

She almost hoped it would be “the other.”

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A/N: Just a little transitions chappie that lets us get into Rose’s, Hugo’s and Eileen’s heads. So, Eileen does schedules. Lol. At least she doesn’t seem as anal about them as Hermione was when she was in school. Hermione’s finally getting her groove back. I think there’s some Mama Drama coming up next. Lol. Thanks for reading.