Severus watched helplessly as Vi clawed at her arms. He watched as Bastian moved to her and pinned her arms to her sides. He listened as he crooned unintelligible words to her and told her to focus only on him.
“Does she need a Calming Draught? Or a Dreamless Sleep?” He asked. He didn’t know how to help and he wanted to help.
“No we can’t give her anything when she’s like this,” it was the youngest brother who replied, he believed Vi had called him Hiro. “This is part of her abilities. She’s an empath so she feels everything 10 times worse than we do. Anger and other negative emotions she can deal with thanks to our uncle but sympathy and pity she can’t deal with. They feel like needles and if it gets really bad knives.”
Severus was shocked. He’d never heard of an empath that strong before. Coupled with legimancy, it would explain how she was able to get past occulmancy shields.
“What can we do?” He heard Regulus asking.
“Seriously?” Hiro snapped. “Don’t pity or sympathize with her! See her for what she is! A fucking human being!”
Severus wasn’t really surprised the boy had cursed. If he was raised by his sister, as Severus suspected, he would have picked up her habit for swearing.
“Tatsu,” Vi’s voice was weak and shaky. “It’s ok Tatsu. It’s a natural reaction to seeing someone who has been through hell and come out the other side.”
Severus furrowed his brow. She had called him by another name. It must be something just between the two of them.
“I shouldn’t have brought it up,” Draco’s voice startled him. Not because he’d spoken but because of how broken he sounded.
Severus didn’t really think it was his fault for bringing up the fact she’d not reapplied the glamour or fixed her uniform. She’d been dealing with a lot of emotions from everyone all day. She had to have been overwhelmed by them to some extent. Add to that pity and sympathy, two emotions she couldn’t deal with, and things spiraled out of control.
Vi said something to Bastian that had him carrying her to Draco and Hadrian. He set her on her feet and released her arms. Before he let her go, he healed her arms simply by running a finger down each of them in turn. He pressed a kiss to her forehead before he left the room. He watched the young man leave in what seemed like a hurry. He wondered why.
Severus followed Bastian out of the room. He heard him sobbing before he actually found where the prince had run off to. Severus followed the sound of the sobbing and found Bastian kneeling in the center of the parlor doubled over sobbing. He made his way into the room quietly and shut the door. He threw up some silencing wards as he made his way to the young man on the floor. Severus placed his hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. He stood there quietly until his sobs slowed then finally stopped altogether. Bastian turned to him. His eyes widened in surprise at the sight of Severus.
“I take it you didn’t want your sister to feel that?” He asked taking a seat on the settee.
Bastian nodded slowly, still confused by his presence.
“I don’t know how to help your sister while she’s at Hogwarts and I worry about something like this happening again,” he sighed rubbing his forehead in frustration. “I understand she can’t be around large groups of people for long periods of time and will do whatever I can to mitigate this problem but I’m afraid the old man is manipulative and will do whatever he wants. I need to know how to protect her from things like this. She has her mates to help with her magic and I suspect your youngest brother is able to siphon magic from her if necessary. But what I’m concerned about is episodes like the one that just happened.”
“I’m not sure what you want me to do,” Bastian told him.
“Tell me anything you’re still hiding about your sister,” Snape answered. “I realize that you probably keep her true abilities a secret due to the fact your uncle is a bastard and you don’t know where enemies to the imperial family may be hiding. But I need to know them so I know how to better protect her inside the school. You’re going to be going back to your own mates soon so I have to be able to help her.”
Bastian nodded, “We weren’t really hiding the fact she’s an empath. She doesn’t like the looks she gets when she tells people and she hates the way those looks feel. She’s also a natural at legilimancy as well as occulmancy. Though you probably knew about the second one from our meeting with Dumbledore. My sister is also very well versed in multiple languages and wizarding customs around the world. All she did was study. If she can study or occupy her mind, it’s easier for her to ignore the emotions of others. Positive emotions are harder for her to deal with because our uncle has conditioned her to negative emotions. I wish I could have been there for her more often than I was but my father refused to let me continue to be a day student. Obaa-san did her best to give her the positive emotions she needed but she was too frail by that time to do very much. After okaasan died following Hotoke’s birth, otōsan couldn’t look at either of them. He named his own son something that means dead person. It’s why none of us call him by that name. Vi called him Tatsuhiro to spite both our otōsan and our uncle. Their names both mean dragon, something our uncle is proud of. The fact that he can do magic far above the level of a typical first year just shows how fitting that name is. My suggestion is to keep him as close to Vi as possible. The two of them are connected in ways we don’t understand yet.”
Severus sighed deeply. Protecting this girl might be harder than he anticipated.
“Vi is also a world champion duelist, if that helps,” Bastian offered.
“How old is she?”
“16.”
“And she’s already at world champion level in her dueling?”
Bastian nodded.
“That helps but it could certainly be used against her,” Severus sighed again.
Suddenly, a thought struck him.
“She said she’d worked out that the Dark Lord had made horcruxes,” he began.
“Yes.”
“Voldemort isn’t active in Japan though,” Severus mused.
“That is what grandfather would have the world believe,” Bastian told him.
“Are you saying that the war has spread that far?” Severus demanded.
“Many of our people live in fear because of Death Eaters,” Bastian answered. “Those bastards have been really active this year especially in the muggle born areas. Wait, didn’t Vi say something about the true savior in the headmaster’s office?”
Severus thought for a moment.
Flashback
“Cease your futile attempts at legilimancy,” she laughed. “They will not work on me. Just like normal occulmancy shields do not stop me from seeing inside your head. Want to know a secret?” She paused partially for dramatic effect and partially to give him an opportunity to say no. “The one you call ‘the boy who lived’ is not really the one who defeated Voldemort that night. You got it wrong. And you’re just not willing to admit it, especially because the real one got sorted into Slytherin.”
She watched the old man’s eyes darken considerably.
“Ah, there’s the darkness that lurks within the light,” she chuckled gleefully. “The true face behind the grandfather act. Welcome to the party!”
“She said that the one Dumbledore calls ‘the boy who lived’ is not really the one who defeated Voldemort that night,” Severus began slowly.
“Then who did?”
“Earlier, before you joined us in the common room, she asked how my son had gotten a syren inheritance when he was already a dhampir,” he continued. “I told her syrens are created not born. She put the pieces together that Hadrian was the one to defeat Voldemort that night.”
Bastian nodded. He didn’t seem surprised by the fact Severus had admitted to being Hadrian’s father.
“I take it your sister told you that Hadrian is my son?” He asked.
“She said as much last night after she fed,” Bastian laughed.
“She called you that late?”
“Actually, it was Bricriu who called me,” Bastian laughed again. “He was calling me to make sure my connection to her had broken.”
“Then how did she tell you? Connection?”
Severus had never been so confused.
“We figured out very quickly that Vi was unlike other bosorcoi. She was unable to feed from humans, wizard or muggle. It took a lot of trial and error to figure out that she could only feed from a bosorcoi or dhampir. Turns out, it was an unforeseen side effect of her curse. My father asked Baba Yaga about it, that’s how we know. Now since my father can’t really look at my sister because she looks like our mother, he wouldn’t feed her. Also, normal bosorcoi produce a pheromone that induces what we call ‘heat’ where the submissive partner is fertile and able to conceive. Her particular pheromone is far more potent than a normal bosorcoi for two reasons. The first is that she is an alpha or dominant and a very powerful one. The second is because she’s a kyuketsuki, which is essentially a type of demon. Though I suspect the curse has a lot to do with the fact her pheromone is so potent. As for my connection to her, I was connected to her because I was the only one who would feed her. Mind you, she can eat just like everyone else but she needs blood at least twice a week. As she matures, the frequency of her feeding will decrease. Mate bonds among bosorcoi are usually triads. Typically, you have an alpha, beta and a dhampir. Sometimes though, you end up with two alphas and a dhampir. This describes the triad I’m in. Otsana is the only female bosorcoi alpha that I know of. Lyacon is our dhampir.”
“That would make you the other alpha,” Severus concluded.
“Yes,” Bastian nodded. “The bond I shared with Vi was essentially an incomplete mate bond. When she fed from Hadrian and Draco she broke the bond that connected her to me. To seal her bond, Draco and Hadrian must feed from her and mark her in some way. Draco wears her mark on his skin and will always wear it. Hadrian’s mark has already healed, which is why she gave him earrings.”
“But his ears aren’t pierced,” Severus said in confusion.
“She likely pierced them herself with her fangs,” Bastian told him. “It would be best for Hadrian to gift her a family heirloom to mark her as his. It’s unlikely he’ll get anything from his mother in regards to an heirloom.”
“I’d have to take him to my vault.”
“I suggest you do it soon because things are going to change quickly for them, especially with him being the one who has to defeat Voldemort.”
Severus sighed for the umpteenth time.
“Is it strange to know that you have a son you don’t know?” Bastian asked him.
Severus looked up at the prince.
“Makes me sad that I missed so much of his life,” he said. “I loved his mother very much but I was going down a dark path that she tried so hard to pull me off. I didn’t listen until it was too late and I missed most of my son’s life because of that.”
“You have the rest of his life to spend with him though,” Bastian pointed out.
Severus chuckled slightly, “I suppose you’re right about that.”
The fell quiet for a moment.
“Do you think my sister will be safe here?” Bastian asked after a long moment.
“I don’t know,” Severus replied turning to look out one of the parlor’s windows. “I fear she will always be a target because of who she is and how powerful she is. I hope that she will be safe because if she is that means my son is too. But if there’s anything I’ve learned it’s that nothing in life is certain. Regardless of that, I will always do everything in my power to keep her and her mates as safe as I possibly can.”
“Thank you professor,” Bastian sighed. “I really needed to hear that. After everything that has happened to her, she needs someone who understands and will protect her even if it’s from herself.”
“You may call me Severus, since I’m not your professor, your highness,” Severus told him extending his hand.
“Then please call me Iv or Bash, I detest titles almost as much as my sister,” Bastian laughed grasping his hand.