Severus Snape: Mastermind
Just an idea that popped into my head. Hope you like it.
Disclaimer: All characters, settings, and devices of the Harry Potter Franchise are owned by Mrs. J. K. Rowling. I have no ownership or partnership in said franchise. Thus, I do not profit from and works or derivations thereof.
-Begin-
Severus Snape was not a happy child. If you had grown up in the environment which he was subjected to, you would not be either. He was ridiculed, tormented, and occasionally beaten by his Muggle father, while his mother stood by and did nothing. Not that she could not do anything. She was a witch, and thus had a wide variety of magical abilities at her disposal. However, she was so beaten by her husband, that she could only stand by and watch.
However, despite this torturous upbringing, Severus had an advantage. You see, by the time most infants were learning that correct motion of hand and foot could let you move on the floor, Severus was learning that certain symbols and pictures had special meanings. Yes, Severus Snape, was a genius.
He hid it well from his father. His father believed him to be dumb and nearly mute. Indeed, most children would have been withdrawn from such treatment from their fathers. However, due to his intellect and the experiences of his torturous upbringing, Severus Snape plotted and swore to use his intellect for the betterment of those around him.
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Severus was four when he learned of the Dark Lord Voldemort and the world of Magic. Severus had been reading the magical newspaper which was still delivered to their house. His father used it for tinder in the stove, but Severus had managed to steal one of the pages from the paper and was currently reading about the terror that was sweeping the country. He was enthralled about the magical world and was determined to learn more.
Severus read about the atrocities committed and decided, then and there, that he was going to find a way to bring down the Dark Lord. Thus, he began to plan.
--
To prepare himself for the task he had set before him, Severus took to sneaking out of the house and heading to the nearby library, which contained a respectable, Wizards-only area. There, he began to study magic.
Transfiguration, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Hexes, Enchantments, Wards, Runes. Whatever he could get his hands on. However, there were three avenues of magical study that he truly threw himself into. They were Potions, Scrying, and Mind Magics.
Severus loved Potions for two reasons. First, he could make them without disturbing any of the wards or traces that tracked magical activity. Second, they were an art that he could truly explore. Once the basic foundations of Potion-making were founded, few tried to push the boundaries of what could happen in Potions. Severus, having little else to do as he waited to be "officially" exposed to the Wizarding World, pushed at those boundaries. He kept notebooks filled with his ideas and speculations. When Hogwarts came, he would test them, but his focus was, as ever, on the fall of the Dark Lord.
Mind Magics and Scrying were tied to that goal. Mind Magics were useful because, not only did they help Severus keep all the thoughts running through his head in order, they also would allow him to keep his intellect secret. Not to mention it was invaluable to be able to tell what would set his father off, and what was safe to mention.
Scrying was an ancient, almost lost art, which Severus only discovered in a book that had obviously had its cover exchanged for another, as he doubted that Scrying had anything to do with A Brief History of the Lampton Muggles and How They Keep Screwing Things up. (A/n: No offence to anyone who lives in any town called Lampton) By Scrying, Severus could tell a lot about a person when he was looking at them, and could even track and spy on someone by using something attached to them.
It was threw Visual Scrying, also known as Mage-Sight, that Severus discovered Lily Evans.
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Liy Evans was very pretty, very kind, and very gentle. She was also insanely powerful, magically. Snape had literally started gaping when he saw her aura through the Sight. HE had immediately added her as a new variable to his plans. He had to make sure that Lily Evans wasn't tempted by the Dark Arts.
He had worked on befriending Lily. He was saddened to see that Lily's gift was ostracized by Petunia, but there was little he could do there. It was quite obvious that the jealousy had been festering for some time. Still, he worked to keep up Lily's confidence and her spirits.
However, he had to admit, he was very relieved to see the Parchment of the Hogwarts Letter in her hands. It was getting rather difficult to convince her that what she could do was normal.
--
Over the next several years, Snape grew closer to Lily. He had to admit, he loved her. But, he also knew that he wasn't the one that was meant for her. It pained him to do it, but he had seen immediately the almost-connection that had sprung up between her and one of her fellow Gryffindors.
James Potter.
He really couldn't hold it against the boy. He had obviously been raised to believe himself to be special. He was a Pureblood Heir in every sense of the word, though, Severus had to admit, he was fairer than most. But, as Severus had seen on the train, when James and his buddies, Sirius and Peter, had burst into the compartment where Severus and Lily were chatting, James's magical core was bigger than Lily's but not by much. There was a flare when James entered and the two large cores had begun to war against each other. To Severus, the outcome had been a foregone conclusion.
Lily and James were going to either get married or kill each other.
What had followed had been some of the greatest matchmaking Hogwarts had ever seen, though they didn't know it. Up through Fifth Year, Severus guided the two of them through the steps of their relationship. He wound them up like a rubber band, pulling them away from each other, so, when he provided the snap, they would come together. He rationalized it as setting up his friend with her, eventual, true love, but he still felt pangs of guilt.
As he planned out his companions love-lives, (he had long since given up on setting up Sirius with any one, he just could not commit) Severus continued to learn as much as he could about anything that might allow him to take down the Dark Lord.
--
It was during the end of his Fifth Year when he saw it. James Potter had just started tormenting Severus, when Lily had stepped up to defend him. He could see it, feel it, taste it. This was the defining moment. He heard the band snap as he said the disgusting word, as he shattered Lily's friendship with him, made four enemies for life out of the Marauders, and pushed together a couple that he foresaw as being a beacon against the darkness, all with a single word.
"Mudblood."
It required a conscious effort to not vomit as he let the dirty word slide past his lips. At that moment, as he saw Lily's face fall and betrayal light up in her eyes, his heart shattered, never to be reformed. He swore on the pain to give his life in this war.
He would accept nothing less.
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All right, I am stopping this here. This way, if people want to see more, I can write more, but if not, I can hold off and it is complete here. I won't mark it as complete yet. Any subsequent chapters will describe various scenes from each book from Snape's point of view.
Hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for reviewing.