Vector's Challenge

Chapter 23

It was a foggy, cold day that November second. The Vector family walked out of the church and through the graveyard. Edmund and Aoife set their flowers down on the six graves with the little tombstones. Uncle Nicholas Vector set flowers down on the four graves for his family. Uncles David, Robert and Thomas Vector were there as well. Aunt Anne Alexandra Vector Tonks and Aunt Philippa Vector Shacklebolt gave their sister-in-law a hug. The Finnigan aunts and uncles, Declan, Kieron, Bridget Finnigan Murphy, Deirdre Finnigan O'Neill, Desmond, and Father Jimmy, were there as well.

Uncle Father Jimmy started to recite prayers in Latin. Aunt Mother Superior Dorothy Vector joined him. Emmy felt a prickling sensation between her shoulder blades, as if someone were watching her. She turned her head and looked around. At first, she thought that the figure in black was another priest in a cassock, but then she realized that it was Snape. She drifted away from the family group, towards him.

Snape saw her looking at him. His eyes flashed with anger, and he stalked toward her. "Did you forget to tell me something today, Emmy?" he said softly when he reached her.

"Such as?" Emmy asked.

"Dammit, woman, I'm your fiancé, after all. I'm supposed to be invited to these little family functions, am I not?"

Emmy took a deep breath. "Normally, Snape, yes. However, I thought that springing most of my family on you less than forty-eight hours after announcing our engagement might be a bit much. Particularly bringing you to a cemetery."

She could hear that Uncle Jimmy was finished, and then her brother Mike stepped next to her and Snape. "Snape, you greasy bastard, what the frigging hell are you doing here?" Mike whispered.

"I was looking for my fiancé," Snape retorted. "And what is your family doing here?"

"It's All Souls Day, you pagan oik. We're remembering our dead, especially those who your filthy Death Eater lot killed, like our little sisters and brothers, Emmy Vector!" Mike was practically shouting now, and attracting attention from all over the cemetery. He pulled Emmy away from Snape.

Snape took Emmy's arm, and she moved towards him. "So I'm a filthy Death Eater, am I? Good enough for a quick shag in the dungeons, but not good enough to bring home to your family?" Snape whispered, between clenched teeth, to Emmy.

"What's left of our family -- Emmy, you didn't give him a quick shag!" Mike said, horrified.

"Don't worry, it wasn't that quick," Severus retorted.

Emmy glared at her fiancé and her brother. "Severus," she hissed, and then turned to her brother. "My love life is none of your damned business, Michael Vector," Emmy replied. She took a deep breath, and then moved her arm and took Snape's hand. "I suppose that since you're here, Severus, we might as well get the introductions over with." She led him over to the graves where her parents and uncles were standing. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is my fiancée, Professor Severus Snape, Potions Master at Hogwarts. He was the same year as Michael, but in Slytherin. Severus, my father, Edmund Vector, Hogwarts class of 1937, Ravenclaw House. My mother, Aoife Finnigan Vector. My aunts, Dorothy (Mary Elizabeth) Vector, O.P., Hogwarts class of 1941, Slytherin House, and Anne Alexandra Vector Tonks, Hogwarts class of 1941, Ravenclaw House, and Philippa Vector Shacklebolt, Gryffindor 1943. My uncles, Nicholas Vector, Hogwarts class of 1939, Ravenclaw House, Robert Vector, Ravenclaw House 1946, Thomas Vector, Hufflepuff 1949. My mother's siblings, Declan, Kieron, Bridget Finnigan Murphy, Deirdre Finnigan O'Neill, and Desmond Finnigan, and James Finnigan, S.J."

Snape and all Emmy's remaining family muttered greetings. Snape looked at the names and dates on the gravestones. Joseph Columcille Vector May 1 1962-May 2 1962. John James Vector November 1 1964- November 2 1964. Margaret Anne Vector, December 1 1969-August 10, 1975. Angela Agnes Vector, April 9 1971-August 10 1975. Kevin Matthew Vector, September 17 1973-August 10 1975. Brian Luke Vector, December 20 1974-August 10 1975. Elizabeth Anne McGowan Vector, Beloved Wife. May 7 1930-August 10 1975. Mary Madeline Vector, January 21, 1952-August 10, 1975. Nathaniel John Vector, March 30, 1955 - August 10, 1975. Theodore Jude Vector, June 10, 1960-August 10, 1975.

"Oh, no," Snape muttered under his breath. He remembered August 10, 1975 all too well. One of the largest attacks by the Death Eaters, on Diagon Alley itself. So. Her family members were some of the victims. And if I had not provided the weapon, they might still be alive. He looked at the Vectors again. He swallowed. "I am deeply sorry for your losses. My condolences."

Nicholas Vector glared at him. Edmund Vector's face was unreadable. Aoife Vector looked at Snape, then at Emmy, and bit her lip. The man in the Roman collar looked at the other Vectors and Finnigans, and then at Emmy and Snape. "Well, better late than never," Father James Finnigan said. There were surprised sounds of shock from the others. "Come on. Didn't Himself say 'let the dead bury their dead?'" He sighed at the stunned looks of incomprehension on their faces and continued, "Let's go inside and argue about this where it's warm and dry and we can get a wee bit to eat and drink."

The others nodded, and they all walked to Edmund and Aoife's. The Vector house was indeed warm and dry, and Aoife Vector's idea of "a wee bit to eat and drink" was enough bounty to put a house-elf to shame. After running a gauntlet of introductions to numerous Vectors, Finnigans, and Fitzgeralds, Snape wound up juggling a grossly over-filled plate and a large mug of tea with a generous splash of whiskey in it. He drifted off to a corner, and watched Emmy with her family. They were starting to lose their somber attitude, and Snape could hear rapid talk in English and Irish, and a fair amount of laughter. Little children were noisily running around, older children were moving around in groups, and people were everywhere. Father James Finnigan, carrying a full plate and mug of tea, came and sat next to Snape in his corner.

"Well, it looks like the lass is keeping up the crazy Vector family traditions," he said. "I suppose that isn't the worst possible way to meet your future in-laws, though."

"What could possibly be worse than that?" Snape asked him.

Father Finnigan chuckled. "How about the way that her father met her grandparents for the first time?"

"What happened?" Snape asked.

Finnigan took a swig of tea, and then began to talk. "Well, when her father and mother met, my sister, her mother, was in the Little Company of Mary, a Catholic nursing order. Her father got into a car accident in Edinburgh, wound up in St. Raphael's Hospital, and met and fell in love with my sister. She decided when her temporary vows expired that she was leaving the order and marrying Edmund. So here's Edmund, this Englishman, twice her age, tempting her to leave the order, and coming to visit my Irish-speaking, devoutly Catholic parents for the first time."

Finnigan paused and took another mouthful of tea. "He takes the ferry over to Dublin, rents a car, and decides to drive all the way out to Kerry, instead of taking the train or Apparating like any sensible man would. Well, my parents know how long it takes to drive from Dublin to Kerry, and it was quite a jaunt in those days. So they're all waiting for Edmund to get there, and they keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Finally, six hours after he should have gotten there, they get a phone call that he's in hospital in Limerick, having gotten into another car accident."

Snape was wide-eyed in disbelief. Father Finnigan went on, "So here instead of him coming to us, we all have to pile into our old jarvey and drive up to Limerick, to get Edmund out of hospital there. My sister was not about to leave him in hospital to chat up more novices, now."

"So he met your parents for the first time in the hospital?" Snape asked.

Finnigan chuckled. "Aye, that he did, and he was banged up like anything and arguing with the doctors and nurses that he had to get out, that he had to go see Aoife and meet her parents, and here we all came in the door witnessing him insisting that yes, he could go ahead and drive, that it was only one arm that got broken, he could still shift gears, and he would be perfectly fine to get to Kerry on his own. So of course, then we knew that everything was going to be fine. He was just as crazy as the Finnigans."

Snape was laughing quite hard at the image of that sober, proper gray-haired man that Emmy had introduced as her father being that young at heart and crazy with love. Then he sobered up. "How do I get her family to accept me, Father?' He thought, How many of my own bones do I have to break?

Finnegan swallowed some more tea. "You've already made a start, by showing up and making your apologies. But you'll have to keep on going with the right actions. And I'll put in some good words for you as well. After all, if you look at it in one light, your old crowd owes the Vector family eight lives. Maybe it's time for someone to give lives rather than taking them away." He paused, then said, "Now go on over and pay some attention to your fiancée, and quit spending time in the corner with an old man like me."

Snape shook his head as Finnegan shooed him toward the dining room. He thought, Just bloody wonderful. Of all the witches in Britain and Ireland, I have to find one who's got a short, skinny, Jesuit version of Albus Dumbledore as her uncle.

As Snape made his way back to the dining room, he heard shouts of "Wahhey! It's Lar! Apparated all the way from America! Join the party, Lar!"and then a "Jesus, Mary and Joseph, it's Cousin Laurence!" from Emmy. He heard footsteps, and then Emmy was by his side, panting. "Come on, Snape, let's go hide someplace," she said to him.

Snape raised his eyebrows. "Far from the madding crowd?" he said.

Emmy shook her head. "It's not that. All my aunts and uncles put together aren't nearly as bad as Cousin Laurence Fitzgerald, and that's saying something."

Snape touched his tongue to his lips. "The name sounds familiar," he said.

Emmy snorted. "It's because that nutter makes the Quibbler every single issue, and the Daily Prophet's News of the Weird column at least once a month."

"Oh. That Laurence Fitzgerald."

"Yes. In a nutshell."

"And what's this I hear about Cousin Emmy getting married again?" a light tenor voice said. "I thought you promised that you'd wait for me, Emmy darling."

Emmy turned around. A slight, blonde, hazel-eyed man stood there. "Hello, Cousin Laurence," she said. "I'd like to introduce you to my fiancée, Severus Snape."

"Snape, you sly dog, congratulations," Laurence said. He turned to Emmy and said, "I could have been a Death Eater if that's what I knew you went for, cousin dear."

Snape hissed, "We had some standards!"

Emmy realized that there were several ways this conversation could go, none of them good. She thought, frantically, Faking appendicitis won't work, Laurence knows I've already had it out...She started to hyperventilate at the thought of Severus dealing with Laurence, and the room started swimming. Severus caught her as her knees gave way.

"Knocked her up already, Snape? Quick work there," Laurence said.

Emmy shook her head as she attempted to get up, and said, "Shut yer frigging gob, Laurence ye frigging nine-fingered shite hawk, and don't be frigging insulting me in me own parents' frigging house."

Laurence raised his eyebrows. "Sweet cousin. I remember when we were little and your father used to wash your mouth out with soap for talking like that." Laurence pulled out his wand. "I remember the spell very well."

"And now she's a woman grown and it's left to Severus to deal with her when she uses language like that," Edmund Vector said as he entered the room. "She's long past my command." Edmund glared at his wife's cousin. "I believe that Michael and some of your other cousins wish to go out pub-crawling. I would greatly appreciate it if you joined them."

Laurence nodded. "As you wish. Mr. Snape, a pleasure meeting you. Cousin Emmy, I'll see you sometime." He left the room.

"Hopefully at Nevermas," Emmy muttered. "Da, it's late, and Severus and I need to get back to Hogwarts. Could you make sure Laurence is gone before we say our goodbyes to everybody?"

Edmund nodded, and left the room. Snape let out his breath. "I take it that you and your cousin don't exactly get along."

Emmy sighed. "Usually he's all right. But every now and then, when he's between girlfriends, he takes a fancy into his head for me, and he gets very unpleasant then. Once I tell him I'm not interested, he goes away and finds another girlfriend."

Snape frowned. "Then we'll have to find him a wife. I don't want him chasing after you when we're married."

Emmy laughed. "Much easier said than done. Who'd want to marry that Laurence Fitzgerald?"

"We'll work on it together," Snape muttered.

Emmy kissed him on the cheek, and they went out to say their good-byes.

End of Chapter 23