Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters. I'm just having fun playing with them:)
Chapter One: Drinking Memories Away
In another week students would be receiving their letters and supply list for the upcoming year. In another two weeks after that, carriages will be arriving at the castle. At that time new students will look in amazement at the wonders that they have heard about all their lives. Returning students will be meeting up with old friends and discussing all the wonders that had happened over summer vacation. The Great Hall will once again be filled with the laughter, drama, and gossip of the young Wizarding students of this time. The house-elves, ghosts, and other hired help were merry during this time. They loved nothing more than to prepare the castle for all the wonderful children to come back. In fact, all of the creatures of the castle were beginning to become a lot more cheerful, that was besides the professors. This was not a time of partying for the professors of Hogwarts.
Most of the professors leave the castle to spend their break either traveling, visiting family, or attending to other personal business. This usually meant that these past two weeks went by like living hell as the professors rushed to get their lesson plans completed, and all of their supplies ordered and received before the students arrived.
Severus Snape was no exception to this rule. He had only gotten back to the castle this morning from a most enjoyable holiday with his parents in Scotland. In recent years, he had been working on spending all the time that he could with his parents. After he became a Death Eater and pledged his mind, body and soul to the Dark Lord Voldemort, his parents had disowned him. Telling him that as long as he used the gift that he had been blessed with to cause others harm, that they could not find a place in their hearts, and in their lives, for him.
This is part of what ultimately caused Severus to come back into the Light and join the Order with Albus Dumbledore. For as much as he tried, he could not forget the look on his mother's disappointed face as she told him to leave her house many years before. This was a look that had haunted his dreams for many years, and sometimes even the potions that he brewed to make these go away did not help. The look on her face was as much burned into his memory as the Dark Mark of Voldemort's had been burned into his forearm. After several tormenting years though, the love of his parents burned stronger in his heart than the calling of the Dark Lord.
He still remembers the day vividly when he arrived back to Hogwarts, and begged at Albus Dumbledore's feet to help him. To save him from the Dark Lord and mostly to save him from himself, the heartless killer that he was becoming. He events of the previous night had finally snapped his already troubled heart. The Dark Lord had brought before him a Muggle child. A little girl of only seven or eight years old. The Dark Lord then ordered Severus to torture the girl, and to ultimately take her life to show his loyalty to Him.
In between the pain causing hexes that Severus had been applying to the girl, a simple plead came from the girl's mouth.
"Stop him Uncle Sean," escaped the girl's mouth as her broken body fell back to the floor.
"Stop!" ordered the Dark Lord and all the eyes of his loyal Death Eaters were upon him as he slowly walked over to the girl's body.
"Who is this Uncle Sean you speak of girl? Is your Uncle Sean in this room?" He said as a bit of excitement washed over his face.
"He's standing over there Sir," the girl pointed to a dark haired man that had been among the Dark Lord's lower ranks. He was recruited not very long ago actually, and trying desperately to do everything in his power to please the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord thought the boy showed a lot of promise.
"This ought to show me where his loyalties lay," the Dark Lord thought to himself as a loud fit of laughter escaped from his mouth.
"Who would have known that our toy for the evening would be a relative of one of my very own?" he bellowed to his followers.
With that, he called the young man before him, as he knelt at his Lord's feet. This is when he was ordered to take the girl's life. To show what mattered most in his heart.
"Don't you love me Uncle?" were the last words to escape the girl's lips as the Killing Curse hit her body. Killed by her own uncle in the name of the Dark Lord.
The boy turned quickly away from the body as he approached the Dark Lord. "I will always be loyal to you, My Lord," he stated in an emotionless tone as he kissed his Lord's staff.
That was when something broke inside of him. He couldn't imagine having to kill one of his own family members. He had killed his share of Muggles to prove his loyalty to the Lord, but never someone that he actually loved. He knew he had to get out of there and the only person he could think of that would be compassionate enough to help him, was Albus Dumbledore.
He remembers how Albus had held onto him that night, promising to do whatever he could to help him. He explained that he knew that the Dark Lord was not really Severus's calling. But that he had to sit back and wait for the time when Severus would realize this on his own, and then he would be able to do what he could to help him make amends for the wrong that he had done. It had been 9 years ago to this very day that Albus had changed his life for the better. He given him hope for a future, something that the Dark Lord could not.
It took his parents a couple of years to come to terms and believe that he had come to the Light. Even though he still made potions for the Dark Lord and followed his calling, they knew that it was all part of his new job. He was making amends as a spy for the Order of the Phoenix. The thought that he had been a spy for Albus was beyond them, and even frightened them more than when he was working directly for the Dark Lord. But they knew their son needed him now more than ever, and as a parent, they had to do what they could to support him now that he had put his life in danger just to fall back into their favor. It was the least that they could do for him.
But today, Severus had to worry about other things. The worst part about summer for him was the fact that there were no students to give detentions to. Which means, no students to clean up his room and potion supplies for him. Of course, he could have house-elves scrub out his cauldrons, organize his private ingredient store, and straighten up his personal library, but he didn't trust them. They didn't fear him like the students do. They would surely make mistakes, and in the world of Severus Snape, he had it drilled into his head in past years that there was not enough room for mistakes, as they can be deadly.
Up in Gryffindor Tower, Minerva McGonnagall had her own problems to worry about now. She had spent most of the morning up in the Tower where the students whom she was Head of House for had their dormitories. She always made sure to come and make sure everything was perfect for the children to arrive. She also did a bit of decorating in the common room and filled it with treats, just so that they would know she cared. Although this year, as she walked around the familiar common room, looking at the familiar portraits and banners of famous Gryffindors of the past, her mind was not full of happy thoughts and her stomach did not set easily.
Her thoughts turned to Harry Potter. She was sure that there would be a portrait of him hanging in the common room one day, if not all over the school for that matter. For it would make him a greater hero than he already is when he finally defeated the Dark Lord for the final time. Never in all of her years would she have believed that it would be up to one of her students to bring an end to him. Could they really expect Harry to defeat the Dark Lord on his own? And did they even have the right to ask him to do this? She already knew the answer to these questions though. There was no other choice and as much as she would surely rather send a team of Aurors to fight him, she simply knew that there was no way of ending this without Harry. Sighing to herself, remembering all those years ago when her and Albus had delivered him to his aunt and uncle's. She had known then that Harry had been blessed, but she always thought that the Order would have been stronger by now, and that they would have already destroyed the Dark Lord before Harry had even come of age to be introduced to the Wizarding world and all the troubles that came with being Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived. But that was not the case, as things never seem to go easy in the world of witches and wizards.
She knew that young Harry Potter had been facing battles with Voldemort since his first year at Hogwarts. The boy had managed to escape him for the past five years, but not without paying a price. Him and his friends had been injured, he witnessed his friend's death at the hands of a Death Eater as well as the death of his uncle Sirius Black just earlier this year. That was too much to ask of a young boy to handle, yet she knew that Harry was not an ordinary boy. He was the chosen one, the one that would have to end it all.
Shaking her head trying to clear it of these thoughts, she organized the last of the bottles of butterbeer in the common room self-cooling space-saver beverage cooler.
"Things were going to be alright," she thought. "This year we have access to information we've never had in the past. New devices to aid us in battle, and more spies among the Dark Lord's ranks than ever before. This year was going to be the year that we will finally defeat Voldemort once and for all. This year, Harry won't be alone when he takes him down." The thought of this bought a small to Minerva's face for the first time in weeks.
"One more year and it will be all over," she smiled joyfully to herself.
Deep in the dungeons of the castle, Snape was just finishing up putting his private security wards back up on his classroom and store. He did not trust his classroom to be left open like the rest of the professors in the school did. There was too much there, ingredients that were too rare, too valuable, and too dangerous for them to accidentally fall into the hands of a misguided house-elf or nosy students. That was one mess he was not going to try to chance having to clean up. He would rather everyone think that he was a paranoid old git, than think of the consequences that himself, or even the entire school would have to face if things ever got too out of hand.
As he walked along the dark corridors leading to his chambers, all that was on his mind was needing to relax. Surely cleaning wasn't a horribly difficult task, but it was one in which Snape did not enjoy. He despised the same old day to day life, doing the same things repeatedly over and over again. This meant that he would not like tomorrow's chores. Tomorrow he would be making up countless vials of Dreamless Sleep Potion, Burn Salve, Bone Healing Serum, and other supplies that he had promised Poppy. Poppy had been the medi-witch for Hogwarts Castle as long as Snape could remember. Even back when he was a student there. As Potions Master of the school, it was his job to supply her with the potions she would need to heal the students from the countless injuries they were bound to have during the year. Magic was not an idiot-proof subject to learn.
Sitting down on his bed, Snape reached over onto his nightstand and pulled out a bottle of firewiskey. Tilting his head back he began to drink, and drink he did until the bottle of firewiskey was empty, then he unceremoniously threw the bottle into the corner, where countless other bottles lay. Drinking seemed to be the only thing that he could do to get the memories to go away.
"Why did all of this have to happen to me?" was the last thought that crossed Snape's mind before he slipped into a land of darkness filled with nightmares of his past.
So whatcha think? This is my first taste at writing fanfic so reviews would be welcomed. Also if anyone is interested in Beta reading or co-writing, drop me a line, I could use some help:) Thanks!