Unlikely Allies

Chapter 9

"Well, let's get this party started then," Marlene quipped as she strolled over to the tree Kreacher had thrown her against the previous day. Seating herself beneath it, she leaned her back against its trunk before gesturing to Severus. "Come sit beside me. Perhaps if you're closer I will get stronger impressions." She gave an embarrassed shrug. "Or not, I'm still learning how this thing works."

Severus shrugged back, coming to sit at her side, expression reluctant and wary. "Look, you'd better not tell your little prat Gryffindor git friends what you see, providing you truly see anything about me," he said.

Marlene smiled. "As you asked so nicely, of course I won't. Gods, you're all such gits! I wasn't planning to tell anyone. Now all of you shut up while I try to see something."

She still enjoyed the power she held over them that made them be quiet. Hopefully Severus would notice the silent behavior of Kreacher and Regulus and follow suit like a good little prat. Sighing Marlene closed her eyes, then opened them, glancing from Severus to the ball in her cupped hands and back to Severus before staring hard and unwaveringly into the ball. Hopefully she had all the mental impressions she needed as Severus was no fun to stare at.

Everything seemed to go silent in her mind as the vision claimed her awareness. She saw a woman who looked a lot like Severus in a shouting match with an older man who also looked a lot like Severus. He was her father, Severus's grandfather. He was constantly angry, and had never gotten over the fact his daughter had married a Muggle and worse had a child with him. The daughter in question, Severus's mother, had never gotten over the death of her Muggle husband and she would never adjust to life under the roof of her hateful father no matter how many years she stayed.

"Your grandfather is a git," Marlene murmured.

"Right so far," Severus drawled. "What else?"

As she'd sort of wanted that feedback, Marlene didn't gripe him out for speaking. Instead she glanced quickly at him for more psychic fuel before firmly returning her gaze to her new crystal ball.

Severus was six, sitting on the floor of a small house and crying over his dead father. His father had been killed by Voldemort for daring to enter a potions shop though he was a Muggle. Marlene's breath caught at the unfairness of it all as a lump rose in her throat at the pure misery on little Severus's tear streaked face.

"Gods it's so unfair," she said, not realizing until she spoke, that tears were running down her own face. "He's so fucking evil! Sick and evil! Severus I'm sorry... So sorry for you and your poor mum."

She didn't want to look at Severus, somehow doubting he'd appreciate her sorrow on his behalf as he simply wasn't the type. Instead she kept her now blurry gaze on the ball as tears continued to spill down her face. Without realizing it she found herself humming a tune. When she realized why, she laughed as she continued to cry.

"Do you think she's lost her bloody mind," Regulus whispered.

"Kreacher believes so," the elf whispered back. "What a shame."

Marlene lowered the ball as she turned to Severus. Placing the crystal orb in her lap, she reached to take Severus's hands. She spoke in a rush before he could pull away or say something gittish. "Your dad... He talks to a song writer in a few years. He's a ghost of course, maybe a spirit is the proper word, as I think he's moved on. But those specially creative types, you know they get their inspiration from all sorts of... dimensions or something and this one song writer guy hears your dad I think without knowing it. Your dad won't need him to know it, though. He channels through this guy and writes a song for your Mum.

It's going to be called Come On Eileen and it's by a Muggle pop group called Dexy's Midnight Runners. I don't think they're even a group yet, it's a few years from now, but Severus it is a beautiful song, and it will mean the world to your Mum. It's your dad singing to her of how they met and how he felt about her. It's bouncy and laughing like I bet he was, and it's so beautiful! Please you've got to tell her so she'll know to look out for it."

Still crying, she sang a few of the lines, hoping the words would mean something to Severus. Perhaps her own tears were making her vision unreliable, but she thought there were tears in Severus's eyes as well as he briefly clung to her hands.

"Thank you... I'm sorry you were upset," he said, then sniffed and released her hands to wipe at his nose with the sleeve of his Slytherin school robe. "She's real," he said, turning to Regulus and Kreacher.

"Which means Jegulus is real too, so we all need to start taking this very seriously," Marlene said, turning to shake a finger at Regulus and Kreacher.

"Severus Snape's father is a Muggle," Kreacher asked, wrinkling his nose.

Severus glared. "Hang the lot of you if you have a problem with it. I'm proud of who I am. My mother is a brilliant dark witch and my father was the best smartest most fun man in the entire world and I am proud to be the Half Blood Prince!"

"Alright then," Regulus said, frowning at Kreacher as he held his hands up calculatingly to Severus. "We are very sorry for your loss, aren't we Kreacher?"

The elf shrugged sullenly. "Kreacher supposes we are. Kreacher would not have killed the Muggle who made Severus Snape."

The odd apology had Marlene blinking. Gods but those pureblood purest could be bloody weird! Seeing Snape all fired up and emotional was nearly as weird and she was getting a headache. She hoped that wasn't going to be a common thing with these visions, but this time perhaps the crying had something to do with it. She sighed. She was tired and as such was not looking at all forward to her afternoon classes.

"So what will you do now," she asked Regulus dully.

"I..." Regulus just stared for a moment. The expression on his aristocratic face was a mix of shocked and lost. "I suppose I need to come to terms with the fact that the Dark Lord is some sort of monster. Now who's going to lead the wizarding world to glory," he asked Kreacher despondently.

The elf leaned against his side, giving a sad sigh. "Indeed."

Marlene's lips twisted. "Perhaps I'll scry that one out once we've solved the problem of Jegulus for good."

Kreacher looked over at her with an excited smile. "That would be very helpful, Kreacher thinks."

Marlene sighed. That lot never got her dry humor. Ever.

"But Severus," Regulus said, turning suddenly to the other boy with a confused expression on his face. "You have spoken frequently of wishing to follow the Dark Lord... After what Marlene just shared... why?"

Severus studied him for several seconds before speaking. "Am I to understand that you are no longer interested in following him yourself," he asked carefully.

"You are to understand that, yes," Regulus replied.

Though Marlene believed his words, they came out almost confused, as if Regulus still tried to wrap his mind around the truth of that. She wasn't sympathetic, but then again he wasn't asking her to be.

"I agreed to help you for the same reason I will agree to follow him. In order to help take him down. He killed my father then because of that I had to live for years with my Grandfather Prince. He treats me and my mum like rubbish and I hate him! I believed Hogwarts would be an escape, but it wasn't. Instead I had to deal with the Gryffindor Gang of Gits bullying me for bloody literally existing. I lay all of this at his feet for one reason or other, and I plan to make him pay for all of it."

Marlene was impressed, and she clapped. "Good for you."

Severus gave her a tight smile after giving her a once over to make certain she meant it. "Thanks."