Dearest Harry - Eileen's Story

Betas Kim, Shaeron and TQA - Thanks Ladies


Chapter One


Eileen Prince was dying. She had non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and it was killing her. Rapidly. Cancer didn’t kill witches and wizards, usually their magic was too strong; but Eileen had never been lucky. All she had left was her son, and he was currently on the run from the wizarding authorities. But Eileen had been sent a gift, a small pensieve, about the size of a soup bowl and inside it was a memory; a memory left by Albus Dumbledore. He had sent it to her to keep safe, so that when the war was over she could tell the world of her son’s innocence. Only problem was the old man wasn’t as omniscient as he’d thought himself. Eileen knew she wasn’t going to see the end of the war; she’d be lucky if she got to the end of the year come to that.

But somewhere, somewhere in this god-awful world, she had a grandson and she wanted to meet him before she died. Meet him and hand over the secret, the one that would vindicate her child.

She put the kettle on and opened a packet of his favourite Garibaldi biscuits. Severus would be here any minute now and she was not looking forward to the conversation they were about to have. But he really should have trusted her. She was his mother after all was said and done, and she loved him; and if he could have trusted anyone with the secret of his spying then it should have been her. How different things would have been then. But there was no use crying over spilt milk was there? Today she would finally tell him the truth.

There was a rapid knock at the door and Eileen rose stiffly to answer it. She loved her son with all that she had, but she did not understand him. She had never really known why he had joined that gang of vicious thugs that surrounded the Dark Lord. She knew he had a chip on his shoulder though; that he was angry against the world, and she wished it could have been different. Wished she could have been different. But Severus had never really had a chance had he? Not with Tobias as a father.

Tobias had been handsome and dashing and had swept her off her feet, Severus poor love resembled his mum. He was tall and dark right enough, but not terribly handsome and she said it who was his mother. Poor, poor Severus.

But now he was here and she opened the door to her son; the son for whom she had sacrificed so much, whom she owed so much.

“Hello Mum,” He said in his deep rich voice, the sexiest thing about him she’d always thought. Did a mother do that? She wondered, think about their child’s attractiveness? Maybe if they wanted grandchildren they did. But she already had a grandchild didn’t she? And who would have thought it eh?

He had her in his arms now; he was tall and strong if a little thin at the moment but his face, his dear face was creased in concern, when she should be concerned for him. She had wanted to feed him up, look after him. But he had said he didn’t have the time, he had to keep moving and she was too weak to do much in the way of cooking anyway.

“Come on in love,” she said “look at you you’re all wet,” Brushing his shoulders as she spoke.

“Oh but who is this with you love?” she asked looking beyond him to the pale, slim blonde boy who stood shivering in the Yorkshire rain. She frowned because she did not want anyone else here. She saw little enough of Sev as it was, but the wee mite did look awful cold.

“This is Draco, mum.” Severus said, “He has nowhere else to go. The Dark Lord wants to kill him, but if I keep him away long enough then he might just forget the little bastard. He is the reason that I am in this mess! I have been hiding him, but we have just run out of places to go. I was hoping, that maybe…?”

“Oh no love,” Eileen said, “I couldn’t, not right now. Listen Sevvy love you need to sit down. I’ve got kettle on and I have something to tell you. A lot to tell you. But come in and I’ll get you tea before we start.”

Severus was looking at her with those deep black eyes of his, wondering what she was up to; he’d always said he could read her like a book, but he never had been quite right on that one had he?

The boy followed behind her son, looking completely out of place in her cosy little sitting room. She loved her bungalow. It was warm and snug and Sev had bought it for her a couple of years ago now, when he’d taken over Spinner’s End. She had never liked that place. Always smelt of damp and it collected dust like you would not believe! This place was far nicer in her opinion, but the boy had his nose right in the air. Made her itch to smack it, it did.

“You can sit in the kitchen I think,” She told him, “I need to talk to my son and I don’t want you ear wigging in!” He looked at Severus and when the ex potions master nodded moved off to sit at the cloth-covered table, looking longingly at the biscuits piled in the centre. He didn’t touch mind, so somebody somewhere had taught him his manners once upon a time she reckoned, and she softened a bit towards him, “go on lad” she said, “You look peckish, help yourself.” And as the boy tucked in she poured him a cup of tea and let him add his own milk and sugar.

Then she and Severus moved into the living room and sat down beside the gas fire, Eileen was very proud of it, it looked like a real fire but without any of the hassle of cleaning it out, of course all her wizarding visitors had to Apparate rather than floo, but as she didn’t have many wizarding visitors that was not really a problem anyway.

“I’m not well, Sev,” she began and as he started forward she raised her hand to stop him, “no love, not yet, I’ve got a lot to tell you and you need to listen carefully love, cause I don’t have a lot of strength right now”

She looked at her son to see that his eyes were filled with tears, glistening in the gloomy sitting room. It wasn’t really that cold, it was July after all, but Eileen thought it was the cancer getting to her. She couldn’t really keep weight on anymore, she was as thin as a stick she knew. But Sev didn’t have long and she was getting tired so she launched right into the story she had to tell.

“Before I had you love, I got ill. It were a very stressful time, I had just defied your grandparents and run away from home to marry Toby, he were a right bad un, Toby were but very romantic. There were a muggle film star at the time called James Dean, he made this film, Rebel Without a Cause and your dad looked just like him, even down to the hair! Anyway I had fallen in love with that film, when it came out just a few years before, just like I fell for your dad. But your grandparents hated him, which of course made it all the more romantic didn’t it? We ran away to Gretna Green to get married, I was awful young, just seventeen, fresh out of Hogwarts.

I hadn’t told him about the magic though, he never knew, not about me being a witch, cause I used a glamour you see, it weren’t a very strong one because I was never that strong at spells, I was always better at potions, just like you are love. But it made me more attractive, prettier, so that Toby would like me. But then I got ill and then I fell pregnant with you and that’s when it all went wrong. Your grandparents didn’t want to know me, see. They were very much into all this pureblood stuff, being from an old wizarding family, but I didn’t agree. My magic was weak enough as it was and I thought it were all that intermarriage that didn’t help, not that that is why I married Toby. But the pneumonia, cause that’s what it was, followed by your birth, well that just about finished me and I were easy prey for your dad’s temper. That’s where your get your temper from, your dad!”

She looked at him ruefully, she had never told him any of this, never wanted to but he had to know now, whatever he thought of her

“After you were born I was very weak, and one day not long after I came back from hospital your dad decided that he wanted intimate relations again, but I wasn’t ready, I was too sore!” She didn’t realise that she was rocking to and fro now in her comfy arm chair with her arms wrapped around her, searching for the comfort that she had had precious little of in her life.

“Your sister was born just eight months later,” She ignored the sharp intake of breath that Severus made and continued on with her story.

“Your Father had grown increasingly more violent and abusive, and I despaired of keeping you safe from him never mind myself, or another bairn come to that, so when I was two months pregnant I contacted the only person I thought who might be able to help us; your father’s sister Rosemary.

Rosie hated Tobias and they never spoke. She lived at the other end of England, she already had a child, a little girl, but there had been complications at the birth and she couldn’t have more children. Rosie knew Tobias for what he was and she agreed to take the baby, so when she was born Rosie came to see me when your father was not around. We had to be so careful, he hadn’t to see what was going on because he probably would have killed us both and then killed the child. He had become so violent by then. So we were very careful Rosie stayed away from her family and as close to me as she could for several months and it was her and her husband’s name put on the birth certificate not mine and your dad’s. Nobody except me, your aunty Rosie and your auntie’s husband George ever knew what had really happened.”

Tears were running down Eileen’s cheeks now as she remembered holding her little girl for the first and last time, the downy head, those tiny perfect little hands, oh she was so beautiful, so precious.

“But I couldn’t protect you both, could I love? I had to choose, and I already had you I could never have given you away but I had to protect my little girl too. I am so sorry love. I just wasn’t strong enough to protect you both!

Sometimes in secret your auntie would send me photographs and little notes of her progress. I treasured them but I hid them away because if your father had known he would have gone mad! And as the years went by, he got worse, more violent and more angry. Then when you were six, we ran away my magic was back by then, not strong, never strong but back nevertheless. We spent years in hiding, do you remember? And I lost touch with Rosie, but I never forgot my little girl, and I often thought of her as the years went by.

Rosie of course was a muggle but a nice lass. Her husband was called George Evans and their daughter was called after a flower, fancy name it was Petunia, I think, Rosie insisted that I choose a name for my little girl as I would not see her again, or have any claims on her, so thinking about the other little girls name, I called your sister after my favourite flower, I called her Lily. Lily Eileen Evans.”