Eileen laid Severus down on his bed. Severus stirred a bit, opening his eyes as much as his sleepiness would allow. He looked at her through his long black lashes, his eyelids heavy.

"Mmphmum." He muttered. "Free."

Eileen placed "Three" the stuffed Cerberus next to Severus, and he wrapped his small arms around it, holding it to his thin chest. He clung to it as if it were a life preserver. She smiled down at him, and kissed the top of his head.

"Goodnight, dear." She stroked his hair a bit, and then went still, just watching him sleep for a bit. She savored the peacefulness on his face, her heart which had begun to turn hard and cold at the hands of her Muggle husband, full with the kindness of a bespectacled wizard. She turned to see Abraxas just then, at the doorway.

Eileen rose from the bed, and looked back once more at her sleeping son before whispering to Abraxas.

"Did you need something, Abraxas?"

"I wanted to check on you and Severus." He looked into the room, seeing the small outline of Severus with his stuffed dog. "He's such a small boy, really." A frown flickered over his lips as he wondered how someone could be so terribly cruel to something so small. He thought briefly to when he was a boy- small, like Severus- wanting the attention from his ill father.

He shut his eyes, drifting back to when he was five- trying to get his father to read him a story. Claudius tried, but half way through the horrible rattling coughs were back. They were so terrible they shook the bed. Slowly his father sank back into the pillows as his breath slowly grew less ragged. His hand rested on Abraxas's head as he muttered a dry sounding apology. Too sick to finish, he handed Abraxas the book- to which he cradled to his small chest.

He mentally shook the memory from his mind, taking his glasses off to pinch the bridge of his nose before he put them back on. Quietly, he walked over to Severus, watching the boy curled up with the dog he bought him earlier. Gently he reached out, brushing some of the dark strands from his face.

Severus didn't stir, though he let out a small sleepy sigh as the fingers brushed his face. Eileen stayed in the doorway, watching. She waited for Abraxas to come back, and once they were in the hall she asked him quietly.

"Are you alright?" She could tell something had bothered him, though she doubted he would really speak of it. "It has been a long day." She added, resting her hand briefly on her hip where she had her wand tucked beneath her braided belt. "I hope you know that I appreciate it so very much. I don't think I could properly thank you."

"I was..." He trailed off, trying to figure out whether or not he wanted to tell her. However, she had opened up to him, he figured he should do the same for her. He shut Severus's door over so he didn't hear them. "My father... he died when I was seven. I never got to spend much time with him. He was very sick, same with my mother. They both died within hours of each other. I always wanted to spend time with him, as most sons do with their fathers- I wanted to learn all the things he knew, but so often he was too sick to leave the bed, or even see me." His normal cool mask cracked a little bit, as he looked fairly emotional.

"So... when I hear of a man like your husband, who betrays that love a son has for his father, it makes me quite upset." He scowled and balled up his fingers into fists. "I... will harm him, if I ever meet him, Eileen. And on that day, I won't have to use magic to get my point across." His eyes flickered momentarily before he forced the emotion back down to nothing again.

"You don't have to thank me, Eileen. I appreciate your presence in the manor. It's good for Lucius as well. His mother died so soon after he was born. He needs a female presence too."

Eileen hugged Abraxas briefly. She would not often show such affection, but she desired to just then. It was quickly, thin arms there and gone.

"I'm so sorry about your family." She said nothing of Tobias, as there was really nothing to say. She wouldn't mind witnessing Abraxas harm him, as she felt he certainly deserved it. "They...they would be proud of the man you are."

"Lucius is a good boy. I'm glad he and Severus get on so well, I enjoy watching them together. I have no doubt he will grow into as fine a man as his father though of course, with his own differences. Such as wardrobe preferences...unless you begin to fancy French hats."

Abraxas didn't say anything else on his family as he felt there was no longer a need to. He reached over and tucked a piece of hair back over Eileen's ear when they separated. "I hope he will remain that way, Eileen. A good boy doesn't necessarily make a good man." He said looking back to Lucius's door. His son was easily lead if it benefited him, no matter where it happened to be coming from and that fact bothered him. "Besides... my hair's too thick to sport a hat. It would simply rest on top."

He blinked as he remembered what he wanted to ask Eileen. "Oh! I forgot. How foolish of me-- Eileen, I wanted to know if you would mind overseeing my family's business, Malfoy Apothecary- I am terrible at potions and I know that you were great at them- Slughorn often mentioned it. They often as me what they should be making and I... have absolutely no idea. I take Lucius there, he inherited my family's knack for them and is fascinated by the business."

"I would be honored." Eileen said. "I worked in an apothecary for some time before marrying the Muggle. I quite enjoyed it, and yes--I do love potions. Potions and Gobstones were my forte in our school days, though only one of those does much good in the real world outside of childhood." She smiled. "I will have to teach the boys how to play the game."

Abraxas shut his eyes as he attempted to remember. "Ah... ah yes! You were captain of the Gobstones team! I remember now. You were quite unbeatable. I heard some of the girls moaning about it." He nodded and gently took her arm. "Let me escort you to your room."

Always the gentleman to women, as he was certain his mother's ghost would pound him into the ground if he wasn't, he took Eileen back to her room. "Today was an excellent day, Eileen. I had a great time with the boys. I believe they did as well- given how early they went to bed tonight."

"You know, I might've hexed their Gobstones." She joked, though she couldn't have even if she had wanted to, as the magical marbles were inspected for curses thoroughly before each competition.

Eileen smiled subtly at the compliment, and then a bit more noticeably when he took her arm. She walked along with him to her room, enjoying it. She had nearly forgotten in her years with Tobias, that there were men capable of being kind and gentle to a woman.

"Severus is having a wonderful time. He is a rather serious boy, but I'm glad to see he's being a child. It really does warm me to see him...more than a shell. I've never seen him so happy."

They stopped outside the door to her room, and she rested her hand on the knob.

"Goodnight, Abraxas."

"You? Never." He said. "I'm certain you were just that good, and the others were fairly annoyed that you bested them so soundly. People are often petty, especially when they consider themselves to be the best at something."

Abraxas nodded slowly. "It is good then, that he's here- I would hate for him to be miserable here. Lucius seems to enjoy it too- I wasn't sure how he would take it, considering he loves attention and was never very good at sharing things. But since there is another person to give him attention, I don't think he's felt any loss. He must feel more important, considering he has a younger person who may look up to him. Lucius already values such things."

He nodded to her, wondering briefly if he should say or do anything else. After moments of deliberation, he determined it would be too awkward, and they hadn't had a proper date yet. "Goodnight, Eileen. Sleep well. You will know where to find me if you need me for anything." With that, he turned and went straight back to his room. He sent a message to his one house elf to make the vase in Eileen's room were filled with blue hydrangeas in the morning.

They were a flower that had no smell, but were gorgeous in their ball shape and many tiny flowers.

Severus woke up in the night, gasping. He clutched his knees, trembling hard, and crying. The remains of the vivid nightmare still swirled around his sleepy mind, like shadows circling in the darkness. He wanted to go back to sleep, but he was having a hard time calming down, and he was afraid if he went back to sleep, the nightmare would come back.

Severus sniffled, and wiped at his leaky eyes with his blanket. He thought about going to sleep with him Mam, but she told him he was a big boy now. He thought he would be embarrassed if Lucius or Abraxas knew he had crawled into his Mam's bed at night.

He sat for awhile longer, rocking himself, crying, looking around the darkness of the room in a twitchy manner. He knew it was only a dream, he knew he was somewhere safe now, his Da was far away...but he couldn't help being upset. He thought back to earlier in the day when Abraxas had taken him into the restroom and showed him that there were no monsters in the loo. Thinking of Abraxas dissolving the loo monster myth wasn't doing much to help Severus feel better now, though. He thought about the monster that had been in the attic, and how he had been brave then--but now he was crying. He supposed when his Da was mad, that scared him more than anything. Da had really frightening eyes when he was angry, they looked like they were hollow, and didn't care about anything but being mean, and violent.

Severus wiped his eyes again and snuffled. He was looking towards the secret passage that connected his and Lucius' rooms together. He wondered if Lucius would think him a baby if he crawled into bed with him.

Severus grabbed his stuffed Cerberus and went quickly to the passage. He crawled out into Lucius room, trying to be as quiet as possible, thought it sounded to himself as if his breathing was loud enough to wake the neighbors. Severus tip-toed quietly towards Lucius' bed, and then stopped. He played with the button eyes on the Cerberus, thinking over what he was to do. At last Severus decided he didn't want to wake Lucius up, so he curled up on the floor at the side of Lucius' bed, using Three for his pillow.

--

Eileen said goodnight to Abraxas, and went into her room. She threw herself onto the comfy bed and was quickly asleep. When she woke the next morning she was so refreshed, and was surprised to see the vase of flowers. They were gorgeous. She touched them delicately, and sniffed at them. There was no scent to them, but the color was so vibrant and fresh, it made her feel good to have woken up. That thought jolted her a bit, as she had not had very many--if any--mornings back at Spinners End when she had woken up and actually been happy about it.

Eileen's smile played subtly on her thin lips. She readied herself for breakfast, and then went to Severus' room to wake him, and get him ready too. She pushed open the door, and saw only a tangled of covers in the bed. Her first thought was that he had gone down to breakfast already, but then she noticed his clothes still laid out on the chair she had put them on last night, when she had undressed him and slipped the nightshirt over his head for bed.

She went into the dining room, thinking perhaps Severus had gone down without dressing himself.

"Abraxas, those flowers were quite nice to wake up to--very lovely." She smiled a bit, more with her dark eyes than with her mouth. She couldn't remember Toby ever having bought her flowers, or doing something so subtly nice for her. Or...much anything nice for her, for that matter. "Have you seen Severus this morning? He wasn't in his bedroom."

Lucius woke up when he heard the sound of the passage opening up. He remained still- momentarily forgetting that the only one who'd be using the passage was Severus. After years of being afraid of monsters and whatever Abraxas kept in the attic, he quickly trained himself to wake up at the slightest noise. He shifted to the side, peering over the edge of his bed at Severus on the floor.

"Sev! What are you doing down there- you shouldn't be down there that's not comfortable." He clumsily got out of bed, his legs not really ready to be used after sleeping so soon. He helped up the smaller boy into bed, and crawled back in beside him. After pulling up the blanket, he muttered a quick "Goodnight" and was out like a light.

He slept soundly for the rest of the night, never bothering to dwell on why Severus would come into his room in the middle of the night. At most, he figured the younger man only wanted to have a surprise sleep over.

-

The next morning, Abraxas was busy in his study, pouring himself over an ancient puzzle. When Eileen came in and remarked about the flowers, he nodded. "My mother liked those. They're nice- they have no scent, and they're quite stunning when there's a bunch in a vase."

When she mentioned Severus, he shook his head. "No, I haven't. I haven't seen Lucius either- but then again the boy doesn't wake up until precisely 9 am." He checked the grandfather clock again. "It's not quite that then. Maybe Severus is waiting for Lucius to wake." He stood up from his desk. "I doubt he's off exploring the manor, but then again... Maybe we should go check for him."

Abraxas held open his study door for Eileen, heading down for Lucius's room. He opened the door quietly to peak inside. "Lucius? ..Severus?"

Severus climbed into bed with his stuffed Cerberus, and fell asleep quickly next to Lucius. His nightmare did not return.

Severus woke up to the sound of his name being called. He was buried warmly beneath the covers, and made a small disturbed noise before poking a head of messy blank hair out, and sitting up. He rubbed at his eyes a little. Abraxas was peaking in at them, looking over the tops of his glasses.

"Luci...wake k'up," Severus mumbled. The cobwebs of sleep were still clinging. He nudged Lucius. "Morning Misser Malfoy."

Severus smoothed a bit of his hair away from his face, and hugged Three, before climbing off the bed with the toy tucked under his arm. He moved towards Abraxas and stopped several feet away. He hugged his toy again, waiting to see if Abraxas had anything else to say.

"Mmmmpphhhhrhraanfklmph." Lucius said in reply and turned over. He shucked the covers over his head, as it wasn't 9 am yet.

"It isn't 9 am Abraxas snorted slightly at the display from his son and shook his head- glancing down to the young boy and the plush toy that seemed nearly as large as he was. "Ah, Severus- your mother and I were wondering what had happened to you. You weren't in your room. ...Clearly, because you were in here." He put a hand on the back of Severus's head to guide him out of the bedroom so to not disrupt his still sleeping son.

"Was everything okay last night, Severus? Did you sleep alright? ...I am not mad, if you are wondering." He added, remembering the time with the monster in the attic. "I just want to make sure you're alright."

Severus thought about answering, and finally did in a small voice.

"Jus' a bad dream," Severus said, shrugging one thin shoulder. "I dinnit make the bed wet or nothin'. Jus' got scared...dinnit want to sleep by myself." Severus sniffed a bit, as a particularly vivid image from the dream flashed through his mind. His large, dark eyes, filled with tears that he tried hard to keep back. "Is Mam okay?"