A/N- This is a companion piece to my story Return to Youth, a bit ahead in the future, but I wanted to get his memories down because they have been swimming around in my head for a while. Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer- The only things that are mine are the original characters. Which in this chapter they do not appear. So, more or less, nothing here belongs to me. There. I have said it. Be happy.
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Chapter 1- The first memoryHermione frowned at the note within her hands. What could it possibly say? Curiosity and frustration rose within her mind. One would think it would be much simpler to just say what had happened, instead of sending her to see Albus. Honestly, it made her feel like she was a student all over again. How very disturbing. She sighed and looked at the beautiful ring on her finger, smiling at the concrete reminder. Of course the man she was to be marrying was not one for delving deep into his personal thoughts, otherwise he would not have waited two years, and her practically jumping him to get him to propose. She laughed at that as she reached the stairs to the headmaster's quarters. "Cookies, Toffee Molasses." The passwords for his office always got sweeter and sweeter…
The staircase rose and she climbed them. "Albus?" She heard some movement in the other end of his office, and then seen him come down with a light smile on his face.
"Ah, Hermione, it is nice to see you. What might I do for you? Lemon drop?" She smiled at him and politely shook her head.
"No, not quite. Severus sent me here with this letter. He didn't say what it was about." She handed the letter to him and he opened it. After a moment he finished reading and he looked over his glasses at her.
"This is a rather serious matter. Come with me, Madame, so I may discuss this with you in private." She gave him a confused look, but followed him into a separate room that was hidden behind a bookcase. "He has told me that he wishes you to look into his pensieve. It seems he wishes you to know certain things of his past, but cannot bring himself to say it in person. He has also written that he wishes me to inform you that some of the things you might see may not be pretty, and hopes that you will understand." She nodded slowly.
"I understand, I know what he was. Thank you, Professor Dumbledore." He gave her a small thin smile, raised his hand to her shoulder for reassurance, and then left her in the room. She sighed. So that what all this was about. She walked to the middle of the room and opened the pensieve, and was dazzled at the swirling wonder before her. She looked down and seen something resembling a window. How odd… She leaned closer, and then practically fell in.
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A small dark haired boy sat in a small dark room, curled up in the corner of the bed that seemed to take up most of the floor space. It looked like a cell it was so gray and bland; there wasn't even a window. He curled his knees up to his chin and wrapped his arms about them. This couldn't be… Severus? Before she could carefully analyze the situation laid out before her, a scantily clad house elf popped into the room holding a small plate of food.
"Young Master Snape, Brini has brought Severus some food. Brini is acting horrible, Brini will slam hands into door when next gets the chance." He didn't look at her.
"I won't eat it. Take it away." He spoke in a whisper.
"But, Young Master, I" He looked at her then, and she seen his eyes were red from tears, and his voice never crept above a light whisper. It sent chills down her spine.
"NO. I won't have you getting into trouble by disobeying their direct orders again. I have gone without a days food before, it isn't worth you getting hurt for me."
"But, Master must eat! Young Master is not at all healthy, Brini worries for him, she does." He sighed and looked away from her.
"I shall be fine. I always seem to end up all right. It is not as if they worry anyhow. I will do without for today." The elf's ears drooped and its shoulders slumped down.
"Yes, Young Master, Brini will do as Master commands of her." She popped out again and she watched him curiously a moment. It wasn't for too long before the door opened again and a tall man stood in front of it like an abysmal shadow. She shrank back away from him, and she noticed that Severus had flinched.
"YOU!" He didn't look up to the man.
"Yes sir?" The man pointed out to the other room in the same fashion that she had seen Severus do himself many times. She now understood where he had inherited the oppressive demeanor… He looked up at him then to see the action, and the man roared.
"Did I give you permission to let your gaze touch me you filth?!" She gasped at the mans words, "Get up, get out! Your creator seems to think you wish outside." He quickly stumbled out of the small cell and out into the hall. She found herself gasping again, but this time in wonderment. How could such a beautiful place house such a horrid and small room?
"May I look out the window sir?" The man grunted and the boy went to the window looking out of it wide-eyed. It was in this time, in the light, that she was able to assess him better. She noticed he was about 8 or nine years old, most likely this had been before he had even attended Hogwarts. He was extremely pale, even paler than she remembered him to be, which she though to be near impossible, as he seemed nearly white as it was. His eyes still had that haunting look in them, strange, she had always thought that had come after his becoming a deatheater… "It is snowing."
"Is it?" Hermione turned to look back at the imposing figure again and seen the sadistic smirk that befell Severus many times whenever it was he was planning something sinister, yet amusing to himself. She gulped back the fear of what this man might do, if this was truly the man that he had learned it from. "Perhaps… We should actually go outside. Make a snowman, like you have always wanted." The boy frowned.
"But it is so bright out there… and…" The man came up to him, giving him a false smile and put a hand upon his shoulder as he knelt down to him.
"Yes, but the cold of winter should keep you from burning, I have never heard of a sunburn in the middle of winter, have you?" The boy shook his head and the man stood again. "Good… Now get your coat on, boy, and trust your Father for once…" Father? Hermione walked around to get a good look at the man's features. Long silken black hair, a large hooked nose, and a bit pale, but not completely comparable to that of Severus skin tone. Yes, she could see the resemblance now.
The boy smiled and quickly put on his coat, and the two filed outside, Hermione following of course. For a moment they seemed a happy pair, but once a good ways from the house, she watched as the man drew his wand from a hidden sheath within his cloak, pointing at his son the moment the boy's back was turned. She watched in horror as she heard the softly spoken, "Petrificus Totallus" and watched her young love fall stiffly into the snow. The man walked up to his son who was now half buried in the snow and smirked. "Perhaps it would do you well to take this time to learn from your atrocious behavior, you sick excuse for a living… thing" He spat it out as if it contained poison, and then turned from him. "It is bad enough I must provide you with a bed, and food to eat, along with the bloody medical expenses you incur, but never ask of me the precious time that I could be doing something of use. Good day." With that the man briskly walked back into the house, leaving his petrified son still lying within the snow alone. Hermione went to run for him, but things started to swirl in front of her, and suddenly she was in Hogwarts infirmary.