Howdy readers. I don't have a clue as to where the idea for this came, so the plot is still being figured out. It may turn ino a Slash story, but I seriously doubt it. Depends really.
So anyway, please, if you are going to take the time to read it, can you please review it for me? I've always been interested in what people think of things I do. Thanks!
No Flames. They are just arrogant comments.
My Name's Sev'rus
Chapter One: Young Severus
Severus Snape hates many things. He hates teenagers. Three particular teenagers actually, neither of whom have yet to show any talent in the potions area. He hates getting up in the morning. If asked "why?" a simple answer such as, "Would you bask in the enjoyment of awakening to a castle full of hormones?" would normally suffice for the moment. He hates brown bread. According to Severus, there is absolutely nothing worse then the churned, parched taste of brown bread. The only way to fix this plain taste, he decided, was to empty at least one quarter of the butter dish onto a single slice. Finally, he hates excess noise. There really is no need to elaborate on this matter, as the simple answer should already be clear to you. Who likes excess noise when their trying to work?
Now Severus Snape loathes a few things, Rita Skeeter being one of them and childish behaviour being another. Consequently, there is one particular thing he loathes. This particular thing was today in the form of a person and was annoyingly seated in front of him. If you have ever been forced to sit alongside someone who makes your blood boil, then you have a clear understanding of how Severus was feeling today.
"Lupin! For the sake of my sanity and your well being, I am giving you five seconds to stop that infernal racket and sit still," barked Severus, clenching his stirring rod tightly in an effort to withstand the urge to pound the wolf before him.
Remus dropped the large bronze key and grinned sheepishly. He had been tapping the key against vials of potions, enjoying the different tones he received with each tap. With the exception of talking to himself, he was beginning to get quite bored. Professor Snape clearly was not going to converse with him and he didn't fancy having a conversation with himself either.
"Honestly Severus," he moaned, leaning back in his stool against one of the desks, "Does it really take this long?"
"Would you prefer it if I made a mistake?" Severus asked, cocking an eyebrow and still managing to glare at Remus, "Believe me Lupin, I would enjoy nothing more then witnessing you writhe on that floor due to an incorrect measuring."
Professor Lupin rolled his eyes and continued to examine the cluster of shelves on the walls. Rat tails, dried newts, bat hair, frog legs, toad warts, something blue that he wanted to examine and a jelly substance that appealed to him. Sighing heavily, Remus swivelled around in his stool to face the storage cupboard. He remembered from his own school days how James and Sirius used to steal the newt eyes and play ping-pong with them across the tables. Grinning stupidly he elevated a hand to open the cupboard.
"Don't. Even. Think about it," Severus hissed from behind the cauldron.
"Of course, yes erm - my apologies," Remus mumbled.
"If you are that bored, Professor Lupin, you can seat yourself over there and arrange those potions according to size."
Remus shuffled across the class to the desk of vials. Each one was labelled with a name and he immediately picked out Harry's. Compared to most of the other potions, Harry's seemed to be a bit off colour. Hermione, he noted, had a pale shade of yellow, Ron had managed to concoct a mucous coloured liquid and Harry's was more royal blue then anything. Remus proceeded to sort the clutter of vials, large to small. Perfect.
"What are these for anyway?" he asked, rotating one vial around so that the label was clear.
"Sixth year veritaserum," Snape grunted, delicately chopping something long and white and then crumbling it into dust, "Very doubtful that any of them are strong enough."
"What colour should it be?"
"It should not be any colour, just transparent. Anything that has a colour to it wouldn't be enough to get a correct date of birth out of someone," Severus explained, stirring the steaming wolfs bane.
Remus cleared his throat as if getting ready to announce a note of great importance. Grinning he said, "They all have colour, except for Draco Malfoy's."
Severus snorted and threw his eyes to heaven. "Draco Malfoy is about as good at potions as you are, Lupin," he smirked," What you are looking at is tap water."
He cheated!" Remus accused, pointing vigorously at the bottle.
"Well spotted, Professor. My Godson is incapable of making himself morning toast, the slight chance of him ever brewing correct truth serum is about as likely as Miss Granger not knowing an answer."
"That bad then, is it?"
Severus grunted again. "Consequently, he will suffer a punishment. Mr Malfoy still seems incapable of understanding that I will not be the one correcting his NEWTS paper, so therefore I cannot let silly mistakes pass."
Remus grinned, folded his arms and moved to the front of the class. Harry one, Malfoy - 1. He peered into the cauldron. The thick potion bubbled lightly and almost mockingly in his face. He hated wolfs bane. The taste was vile; the colour contemptible, the texture crude and the smell, the smell was enough to knock Hagrid into a coma. A great pity of course that one could not add sugar to the mixture.
"It doesn't look as … horrible as usual," he commented, "New ingredients?"
"It isn't finished yet. Go to the storage cupboard and get me a small vial with red liquid in it," Severus commanded, flicking his wand at the cupboard to open the doors, "Do not touch the other bottles, some of them are seventh year potions that went wrong."
Remus nodded. He examined the bottles before him. There was a funky shaped bottle that spiralled and had multi coloured liquid in it. Making a mental note to examine that thoroughly the next time, he picked out the small vial on the top shelf filled with ruby red liquid. Carefully handing the bottle to Severus, he retook his seat, feeling for some reason like a naughty schoolboy. Severus added four drops of the liquid to the potion and stirred it counter clockwise five times, then turned his back to chop some more. The potion simmered gently for a few seconds, occasionally spurting a bubble or two. Remus noted that the colour began to drain from the mixture and the intensity of the liquid increased. He peered carefully over the rim of the cauldron, quickly moving his head out of range of the spurting bubbles. A piercing hiss began to emit from within the cauldron and the liquid was seeping over the rim.
"Err - Severus!" Remus shrieked, quickly stepping behind one of the desks, "Should it be doing that?"
Severus sighed deeply and turned towards Lupin, chopping knife in one hand, something dangly in the other. "Should it be doi -?"
BOOM!
Remus fell backwards over one of the stools and hit the cobblestone hard. A turret of white liquid had sprung from the cauldron and high into the air, hitting the ceiling and raining in heavy droplets back to the floor. Remus sprang to his feet, breathing deeply and slowly stepping towards the hissing cauldron.
"Severus?" he called, cautiously stepping over a blob of gooey liquid, "Professor? Are you ok?"
An eruption of nausea swept across Remus. I've killed the bastard. He quickly ushered behind the desk and was welcomed with a pile of heavy dark robes, saturated in sticky liquid. Remus gasped, casting a quick scourgify on the robes and bending down to examine them. A tiny lump beneath the robes caught his eye. Carefully lifting the heavy cloak to one side, Remus gently began untangling the heavy clothes.
"Oh my god, what have I done?" he muttered to himself.
Tucked inside the large white shirt, was the tiny frame of a toddler. The dark, raven hair was unmistakably that of Severus'. Remus bounced avidly on his heels, flapping his hands in a bird like manner and squeaking to himself. He groaned loudly, first attempting to touch the tiny professor, but then deciding better of it. Remus swatted a strand of hair from his eyes and stood up.
"OK Remus, think logically," he told himself, "He may be hurt, so don't move him. Instead, find help - yeah, help. Poppy and Dumbledore. They'll help …. Their good helpers."
The hospital wing for Remus had always emitted a warm, homely feeling. The large, gothic barrel design had become something of a familiar aspect to his life. He loved to wander in here some days after hours and sit on one of the beds, enjoying the soft flicker of the night-lights, the warm glow of a fire and the feeling that a helping hand is just through the door. Tonight however, he felt the complete opposite. Instead of a warm, welcoming feeling, an unsettled twinge of guilt and fear had rooted deep within his mind.
"Will he be alright, Poppy?" Remus asked the matron for the fourth time in one hour. He was seated in an armchair having relayed the incident, nervously ringing his hands.
"Madam Pomfry, can anything be done to reverse the potions affects?" Professor Dumbledore asked. He had arrived after an emergency owl flew through his office window bearing the grave news of his Potions Masters sudden twinge of youth. Dumbledore was now seated gently on a hospitable bed, one of his ageing hands resting upon the youthful hand of Young Snape.
"I am sorry, Headmaster," she sighed, marking something on her chart, "But I am no potions engineer. I cannot identify what was used in this concoction."
"So are you trying to say that Severus will have to just - grow up!" Albus barked, glaring fiercely at the vial of white potion Remus had collected as a sample.
"Headmaster, I understand that you accepted Severus almost as a son, but I cannot identify the ingredient. I will need to send the sample away for testing. I-I've never seen anything like this. Severus will be a rich man if he can relay the ingr-"
"How long will testing take?" Albus interrupted. He did not want to know about how rich Severus would be because of this potions mix up. Severus was never one for selling inventions, certainly, if they were youth concoctions.
Madam Pomfry shook her head briskly. "Oh - I don't know Albus," she sighed, dropping her quill, "I don't know how this happened and I don't know why."
For a moment all three adults froze as if pausing time, to stare down at the sleeping figure of young Snape. He was snuggled into a pair of hospital pyjamas that had been shrunken to his size. His large adult robes were folded neatly at the end of the bed, Dumbledore had insisted, for when the affects wore off. Remus bit his lip. The tiny figure before him looked so helpless and un-Snapish. It was all because of him. He had put Severus Snape in this vulnerable position.
"How old is he?" Remus suddenly asked, eyeing the figure.
Poppy cocked an eyebrow. "Well lets see," she said, "Judging from his actual size, I would make an estimation at about - four years old. Would you agree?"
The two professors nodded, neither wanting to comment on the complexity of this situation.
"Very undernourished though, might I add," Poppy continued, "Too thin altogether, quite pale as it were. But no need to worry, he'll get a good lunch tomorrow."
"Severus was always thin and pale," Remus said, looking between the professors.
Professor Dumbledore smiled wearily, "No Remus, he wasn't. Severus gets so caught up in his work that he looses track of his surroundings. You wouldn't believe the trouble I have getting him to come to breakfast over the holiday breaks. I do of course partially blame myself; I should have taken his cauldron."
"Well, I'm sure he'll have a healthy appetite now that he's four years old. Severus will be fine and healthy when we figure out the antidote," Poppy smiled.
"Very well, I shall take my leave to my office and I will immediately write a letter to the potion masters of other schools," smiled Albus, he gently squeezed young Severus' hand and patted Remus on the shoulder, "None of this is your fault boy, do you understand?"
Remus nodded briefly, and then continued to wring his hands. "He will be ok, won't he?" he asked.
"Severus is probably the strongest man I know. I have no doubt that this will fix itself, but for now, the most you can do is be prepared for anything, Remus. Get a good night sleep. "
"Thank you headmaster. Good Night."
Remus leant forward in his armchair to survey Young Snape. He was an average size toddler although slightly underweight. His dark raven hair fell in a mass of waves against his shoulders, which rose steadily with each breath. Remus grinned, Young Severus' mouth hung slightly open and he was gently snoring. One hand was tucked beneath the pillow and the other was resting in a balled fist. For a moment, Remus wished to run his finger through the mass of raven hair, but he quickly thought otherwise.
"You're a cute little boy, Severus," he whispered.
One chapter down, many more to come!
Thank you for reading, I hope to see many more of you in future chapters.
(Mike Dirnt Obsessed)
