It was his birthday, and he celebrated the commencement of a new era: a lifetime of torture. And it hurt the three-year-old.

               Severus had been leaning forward to blow out the candles on his cake when he yelped and clutched his burning head. He fell off the chair he was in and screamed, tears streaming down his face.

               “Honey, what’s wrong?” Eileen asked, dropping at her son’s side. She was shocked at the quick onset of pain and pulled out her wand to perform diagnostics, only to draw no conclusions. She cradled her son when a glare of sunlight hit her eyes. She winced, squinting as the last of the sunset vanished before she remembered the curse.

               Eyes widening, she looked down at her son, tears welling in her eyes.

               “I am so sorry,” she whispered, holding her son as he writhed in her arms. Severus clung desperately to her. Eileen stroked her son’s black hair that matched her own, unsure how else to help her boy. He was slowly changing before her eyes, his clothes stretching and ripping as his body morphed and grew two extra limbs in the back, hair sprouting all over his body. Severus cried, rubbing his eyes.

               “It’s okay, you’re almost there,” Eileen said, shushing her son.

               Finally, the toddler was a small, dark haired centaur who couldn’t possibly weigh more than thirty-five pounds. His shirt rubbed uncomfortably against his hair that had spread all over him and Eileen removed it. His legs were all bunched in his muggle trousers, and when Eileen struggled to remove them, she decided to use her wand to vanish the trousers.

               Severus collapsed slightly once his legs were free, slipping on the tile floor. He whinnied in surprise at the fall, then his eyes widened at the noise he made. He laid on his side, unsure how to make his new body move. It took long enough to figure out two legs, now he had to work four legs together.

               “Mummy,” Severus cried, “what’s wrong with me?”

               “It’s okay, Sev,” Eileen said, helping her son stand again. “This is . . . normal now.”

               Severus wobbled on his hooves as he searched for balance. After a few seconds, his front legs slipped. He stumbled to correct himself before falling down with a whinny, his legs sprawled out on the floor. He snorted, shaking out the black mane he had before pushing himself back up. Shakily, he managed to stand up again.

               “There you go,” Eileen praised, clapping her hands. “Come to Mummy now! Come on.”

               Severus didn’t move for several seconds, his legs wobbling again. He quickly discovered his short tail behind him, and he gave it a curious flick. He slowly took a step forward, placing his hoof several times before deciding he could lean into his hoof. Carefully, he slowly made his way to his mother, falling into her when he reached her. He smiled up at her, nickering.

               “I did it!” he said.

               “Good job,” Eileen smiled, the tears in her eyes slowly drying up. She stroked Severus and kissed his forehead. She sighed. “Sev, I need to tell you about the Prince Family Curse . . .”

               “Eileen!” an angry voice snapped from the kitchen doorway.

               Eileen stood up, protectively standing in front of Severus, who stood behind her and peered around her legs, gripping her muggle dress with his hands. A tall, dark haired man stood in the doorway glaring down at Severus. His dark eyes looked up at Eileen, disbelief and anger evident within the brown orbs.

               “What is that?” he asked, pointing at the small centaur.

               “Tobias, I can explain,” Eileen began.

               “This isn’t some of your freaky presto garbage, is it?” Tobias asked, eyeing the wand in Eileen’s hand. “What is that thing? Where’s Severus?”

               “Toby, listen to me,” Eileen began, taking a step toward the man. “My family was cursed a long time ago and . . .”

               “That’s him, isn’t it?” Tobias snapped, pointing at the centaur. “He’s stuck like that, ain’t he?”

               “No-no! Just temporarily, he’ll be back to normal by morning, I promise.”

               “And here I hoped my genes would have made a normal kid. You’ve made the boy a monstrosity! I can’t take that think in public. What is he supposed to be anyway? A horse!?”

               “He’s a centaur. Now stop yelling, you’re scaring him.”

               “You take that freak of nature far away from here! Dump it in the river or—”  

               Eileen gasped. “How could you? He is your son!”

               “Not anymore. I will not have this so-called curse in my house. If you won’t see to it, I’ll kill the bastard myself.”

               Tobias walked menacingly toward Severus, who tripped over his hooves trying to run away, squealing in fright, his ears flattened against his head.

               “Leave him alone!” Eileen shouted, and Tobias went flying across the room from a blasting charm, smashing into the kitchen table, the wood snapping and crumbling around him. Eileen ran for Severus and picked him up. She fixed her wand on Tobias, who held his head and groaned as he pushed up to his feet. He glared at Eileen.

               “You said you’d never use that on me,” Tobias said.

               “I won’t let you hurt my son.”

               “Take your son—” Tobias spat the last word— “And get out of my house.”

               Eileen felt her eyes water. Tobias had been a charmer when she first met him. But after a year of marriage, his true personality started creeping through more and more. She had hoped a child would have brought back the chemistry between them, and it did for a while, but here they were now. The man she had grown to love had nothing but disgust and hatred for her and their child. She sadly shook her head at him, then spun on the spot, apparating away.    

               Mummy was crying, Severus observed from his new bed, lying down with his legs curled under him and his upper torso leaning into his arms. Apparently, this would be his new bedroom from now on. He glanced around. The walls were bare and needed more hand drawn pictures. There was an empty wardrobe and a bathroom to his left, and a desk and window to his right.

When his mother apparated them to a large manor, he had been surprised, but was still getting over the shock of his father coming to attack him. He hadn’t really looked around while his mother carried him inside. He did not see anyone else on the way up to his new room. He blinked thoughtfully, but noise from downstairs caught his attention. His ears perked.

               “You didn’t see him—he hated me! The look he gave me.” Eileen’s voice broke as she sobbed more. “And Severus! He wanted to kill him right there. What am I going to do, Father? I can’t take care of him alone. And he needs a father in his life, a male figure to look up to.”

               “Says who?” a deep voice asked.

               Severus tilted his head. He had yet to meet anyone knew at this huge mansion. Eileen had called it “Prince Manor,” yet it seemed rather empty. Did his mum call the man father? Was he about to meet his grandfather?

               “You don’t need that muggle,” the voice said again. “I tried to warn you. He was no good from the beginning. What was wrong with the suitors we presented you?”

               “I wanted to marry who I chose! Not whoever you threw at me every chance you got since I was sixteen. I don’t care if it was tradition, I wanted my freedom. And he was such a gentleman when I first met him. He was kind and loving and gave me the world. I don’t know what changed.”

               “He’s a muggle. He deceived you. They’re all like that; judgmental and easily frightened by what they don’t understand.”

               “Please, don’t start . . .”

 “You’re lucky he didn’t hurt my grandson.” The man speaking sighed loudly, and when he spoke again, his tone was much softer. “Have no fear, you may stay here for as long as you need to. I’ll help you take care of the boy and I’ll even make him my heir. He’ll be set for life when he inherits from me. This will be difficult for both of you, but I can help you get through it. He needs that support. If anyone can help him, it’s me.”

“Thank you, Father.”

There were loud steps walking through the house, then the floo flared downstairs, then again upstairs. Severus licked his lips as footsteps clipped toward the bedroom. He stared at the doorway, his ears stiff and twitching, his little tail clamped down against him. He bit his lip this time, his hands gripping the bedsheets.

Then, he gasped as a large centaur stepped into his room. The centaur . . . looked a lot like Severus now, just bigger and with lighter hair. The new centaur had a dark bay body, and his mane was a mix of browns and blacks that flowed all the way down to his withers. He had black stockings and a serious look on his face.

Severus’s eyes darted around the room, his ears slowly lowering. Where was his mother?

“What’s wrong with you, boy?” the centaur asked. “Afraid of your own grandfather?”

Severus stared up at the man for a second before pushing his head forward and curling his lips at the man, clicking his teeth together. A sign of submission and a plead to not be harmed. The centaur snorted.

“You’ve got a lot of instinct in you for a first timer. I won’t hurt you; I promise. Let’s get a better look at you.”

The centaur lifted Severus off the bed and set him on the floor. Severus wobbled for a second before finding his footing once more. He looked up—way up—at the large horse man in front of him. He offered a smile, hoping to get one back instead of the neutral, uninterested look he was getting now.

“Father,” Eileen said from the doorway. She stepped inside and stood next to Severus, kneeling next to her baby. “Be nice.”

“I am, sweetheart,” he said. “My name is Jeremias Prince. But you may call me Grandfather.”

“Grandfather?” Severus tilted his head. “What about Grandpa? It’s shorter.”

“You make a fine point, though that name is rather informal.” Jeremias sighed. “But it’ll do. Welcome to the club, boy.”

“What club?”

Sighing again, the great centaur shook his mane irritably. “Never mind. First time, eh? I remember my first time. Worst day of my life, it was. And every night since—pure agony.”

“Father,” Eileen scolded, motioning to Severus, who’s ears dropped.

“I will not sugarcoat this, Eileen. There is nothing great about being a filthy animal that no one wants anything to do with, even my own father. I was nothing but a mistake in his eyes. He should have known better than to have had children.”

“Then why have me?” Eileen snapped, exasperated.

“You are a woman. The curse does not affect you.”

“You didn’t know I would have been a girl.”

“Well, I admit it was hard to resist your mother. I’m surprised she even stayed with me after learning about the curse, though I guess staying with me was better than being disowned for getting pregnant out of wedlock. And I warned you to avoid having children.”

“I knew I wanted children since I was fifteen. Nothing, not even a curse, was going to stop me once I was married. And I love Severus.”

Eileen lifted her son and hugged him close. Severus wrapped his arms around his mother, though it was awkward to do from his angle. He had wanted a hug for a while now.

“Too bad he couldn’t have been born a daughter. I had hoped I would be the last to endure this curse and have it die with me. My deepest apologies, Severus.”

“What’s so bad about it?” Severus asked. “It only hurt for a little.”

“That’s because you’re little. As you grow, the pain grows.”

               “Father, don’t tell him that,” Eileen said, turning away with her son. She rested her head against Severus’s.

               “As I said, I will not sugarcoat this. Perhaps you should have let the muggle kill him. It would have spared him from the life you are condemning him to.”

               Jeremias slowly turned away to avoid lashing out anymore at his daughter and grandson, huffing as he stepped toward the exit, his ears twitching and his tail flicking. He wanted to stomp his hooves in frustration or gallop nonstop for hours to release his building anger.

               “Telamon!” Eileen called to him, turning around. “There is some joy being a centaur, isn’t there?”

               At the sound of his pseudonym that he used whenever he encountered strangers as his centaur self, Jeremias paused in the doorway, glancing back at the teary face of his daughter and the frightened look of the baby in her arms. He thought about the games he used to play with Eileen in centaur form when she was a child, the joy he felt in those few moments. However, the pain and misfortune of transforming every single night all his life, missing out on social events and parties, being deemed an antisocial outcast by other Pureblood families, and the own hatred his father had spewed at him outweighed those few good memories. Jeremias shook his head.

               “If there is any,” he said, “I’ve yet to discover it.”

               With that, he left the room, ignoring the sob his daughter choked on.

               Eileen didn’t know how to feel about her son’s curse. She didn’t want it for Severus, but there was nothing she could do except make Severus’s life as happy as possible, if she even could. She was doing the right thing, wasn’t she? She sank to the floor and cried into Severus’s mane.

               “Mummy,” Severus said, looking up at his mother. “Did I do something wrong?”

               Eileen couldn’t answer. She shook her head against him instead and kept crying.

               Severus nickered softly in thought before squirming out of his mother’s hold. Severus wobbled on his feet before he managed to walk away steadily. He paused to look at his distraught mother’s form. She had covered her face with her hands and was still crying. Severus didn’t know how he could make this better, but he just had to. His mother never cried. He snorted and walked after the large centaur that had left. His grandpa would know how to make her better.

               Severus looked both ways, trying to remember which way his grandfather had gone. He decided to go right, and he walked down the hall. He sniffed around, having discovered that he could smell things he didn’t even know had a scent. His mother’s flowery smell had intensified, and his grandpa’s scent of gloom and despair still lingered in the hall. He followed it, finding the man in the master bedroom, standing next to the king-sized bed, his head and torso lowered, arms crossed, and his eyes closed.

               Severus crept into the room, working around the bed and up to the large centaur. Jeremias opened his eyes as Severus neared him.

               “What are you doing here?” the older man asked.

               “Why have a bed if you can’t sleep in it?” Severus asked with a frown, distracted from his original intent on finding Jeremias.

               “Every manor has bedrooms with beds. It makes it look normal.”

               “Normal?”

               “You’ll understand when you’re older.”

               “Mummy’s crying.”

               “What do you want me to do about that?”

               “Make her better.”

               “Her only beloved son is doomed to a life of pain and unfairness thanks to the sins of our ancestor. How could I possibly make her better?”

               “I don’t know. I don’t like when Mummy cries.”

               Jeremias nickered softly. He closed his eyes. “Me neither, kid.”

               The two stood in silence, Severus patiently waiting for the large centaur to open his eyes. After several minutes and Jeremias’ eyes remained closed, Severus spoke up again.

               “Am I going to turn into a monster forever now?” he asked.

               Jeremias’ eyes flew open, wide and angry. He rose to his full height and glared down at the boy.

               “My great-grandfather was a monster,” Jeremias snapped. “He is the very reason we are cursed, trying to slaughter a sphinx! My grandfather was an even greater monster. And my father was certainly no better. But I am no monster, boy.”

               “But-but the curse said—”

               “For he who slays what he calls a monster must beware the monster inside. And he shall be the hunted outcast come each and every night. And all his sons shall be cursed as long as prejudice thrives. When met again, his fate will depend on who he helps revive. Nowhere does it say that I am a monster. I never was. I had no choice in the mater. I will not allow myself to be considered such a vile thing.”

               Severus wanted to argue about the curse, but he wisely shut his mouth. His lower lip trembled as he looked up at his furious grandpa. When his mother had recited the curse to him, he had been sure it was calling Severus a monster. He didn’t understand what the curse meant, and clearly misinterpreted it if Jeremias was acting like this. He muttered an apology and started backing away.

               Jeremias sighed himself, his ears dropping. He lowered his torso once more, stretching out toward Severus, who stopped backing away and watched him. Jeremias took a single step closer to Severus in order to gently touch his short, horse-like muzzle against Severus’s, his brown-black hair falling over the boy slightly.

               At first, Severus’s human reaction was to back up and get out of the man’s face. But some internal instinct said to push back his own head against the man, and he smiled as he did so, nuzzling against his grandpa, his ears pivoting back and his eyes closing.

               For Jeremias, it was the first kind interaction he ever had with another centaur. He had observed a colony once before out of curiosity, and adults seemed very affectionate with the foals, this very action a common occurrence in the herd. It felt nice to know someone else shared his pain and burden, and that he was no longer alone. He raised an arm and stroked Severus’s short mane, running his hand through the silky black hair.

               For Severus, it was very comforting and sent a wave of calmness over him. Here was the large, strong centaur—there to keep him safe from all harm and pain. He nuzzled against the centaur again, nickering softly. Jeremias gave a gentle nicker in return.  

               Eileen watched her grandfather and son from the doorway, happy tears trailing down her cheek this time. She put a hand over her heart and smiled. They would be okay.

               Severus opened his eyes and smiled at Jeremias, who opened his eyes as well, but had yet to smile himself. Out of the corner of his eye, Severus saw his mother smiling at them. He whinnied and trotted for her, stumbling and tripping just as he reached her. Eileen laughed and scooped him off the floor, hugging him against her chest.

               “My little Ajax,” she said, kissing his muzzle. Severus nuzzled against her, blowing some hair out of his face. Eileen pushed the stray strands of hair back and kissed her son again.

               Jeremias finally smiled, watching his daughter and grandson.