Prologue: Slytherin Heart

Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns the Potterverse and the characters, of course, unless I end up coming up with any original ones. And I'm not making any money on this.

Originally posted at occlumency dot sycophanthex dot com

Tobias looked down at the scrawny black-eyed boy glaring up at him.

"They deserved it, Da. They've been stealing my books and stuff since the second week of school. Why is it okay for them but not for me?"

"Sit down, Salazar." The man waved his son to the faded, threadbare sofa in the front room, and settled himself on the equally shabby armchair with the matching pattern.

The boy relaxed somewhat at the sound of his middle name, which only Mum or Dad ever used, but the glare did not soften.

"I'm not going to defend the Wizarding rules against underage magic. Your hex was well controlled, and your Muggle classmates will never know that they were victims of magic. You did not endanger the barrier between Muggles and the Wizarding world."

Salazar's mouth dropped open in an expression of surprise that, at the age of eleven he could still be shocked into displaying. Later, his control would become so good that no one would ever see any reaction he didn't deliberately allow them to see. This was not the lecture he was expecting.

Tobias smiled faintly at the unintended emotional display that he could still occasionally evoke from his son.

"I accept the necessity of the separation of Muggles and wizards, and I even accept the restriction on underage magic, in general," Tobias continued. "But I don't accept any Ministry law without question." He paused. "Salazar, why did you hex those boys?"

The boy hesitated. The answer was obvious - therefore, it was a trick question. He did not want to ask his father what he meant unless he couldn't figure it out for himself.

Tobias watched the gears turn in the boy's head, and the dark glare turn to cold emptiness as his son turned within himself.

"I wanted to get revenge," he started, slowly. "I wanted them to stop bothering me."

"All right," said his father. "And what did you expect the consequences to be, when you broke the Ministry law?"

"I know you and Mum think the law is stupid," he answered quickly. "You'd stick up for me."

"And why would we do that?" the man responded.

Salazar's eyes widened, then turned cold again as he began to process this new information.

"What will the Ministry do to me, then?" he asked tonelessly.

"It was very unwise to break a Ministry law without knowing exactly what power the Ministry had over you, and without lining up support ahead of time," his father said coolly. "Your mother has the relevant sections of the code on your desk in your room. I expect you to read it and give us both a full report after dinner. But in short, the consequences can be quite severe - more severe than your mother and I are willing to allow. So we will indeed stand up for you, pay the fine, and impose a discipline that is acceptable to the Ministry."

Now Salazar's face burned with shame. The Snapes were not well off, and he knew the fine would be a hardship. But mostly, he was furious with himself for not anticipating the consequences of his act. He didn't even know how much the fine might be. Or what the "unallowably" severe consequences were.

"I'm sorry, Da," he mumbled softly, eyes downcast.

"We are confiscating your wand, and banning all use of magic in the house for one month," Tobias said.

"Yes, sir", the boy sighed, turning his empty eyes respectfully back to his father.

The two sat in heavy silence for several moments, and the boy dropped his head again.

"Salazar." Tobias went over to sit next to his son on the sofa, and put his hand on his shoulder. The boy looked up at his father, eyes still empty to cover the shame he felt.

"This is about more than knowing the consequences of your actions," the man continued. "There may come a day when you will accept far worse consequences than this for something even more important. When you will not be able to live with yourself if you do not accept them. And if I'm still alive when that day comes, it will be the proudest day of my life."

His son's eyes bored into his with an intense curiosity that would have unnerved Tobias if he hadn't had long familiarity with it.

"You must know what that highest value is, Salazar. You must know what is worth any consequence to defend."

"What is it, Da?" the eleven-year-old asked.

"You must decide that for yourself, " Tobias answered, "and it will probably change over time. When I was your age, it was entering the Wizarding world." His son smiled faintly, remembering the familiar story of his father's initial decision to become a part of the magical world. "Now, it is my family."

Then Tobias' voice became silky and dangerous, and he was gratified that he could still elicit fear from his son's eyes, however carefully the child controlled it.

"Don't ever let me see you cause harm to this family for anything less than what you value most. And even then, even though I'll be proud of you, I will fight you with everything I have. Don't ever doubt that."

"No, sir." The boy shuddered, hoping it never came to that, even though his father was just a Muggle.

Then the boy his classmates knew as Severus went up to his room to study Ministry law.

Author's note:

The "familiar story of his father's initial decision to become a part of the magical world" is described in my one-shot, "A Decision."