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An alternative version of Silverfox's Runaway Dragon. http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=431805
It will likely make no sense unless you have read that fic.
The basics are that Severus Snape lives with his new family in a very poor part of town when he's not at the school, under scrutiny by Aurors because of his past which includes a prison sentence for being a Death eater - Albus didn't quite get him free after Voldemort's fall, but managed to keep it down to 5 years and probation. He's forbidden to move or get another job, held on a tight leash by a ministry pretending they have everything under control, and he's trying to make the best of it.
He has found someone who is healing him, he has a young son, and he's learning to live for them rather than in a cold fear of the future, hiding from human contact. And he's not mixed up with Death Eaters, he's doing his best not to be mixed up with Death Eaters. Even if not that many people believe it.
He finds a shattered Draco Malfoy who has just witnessed his father kill his mother.
Silverfox's story is Draco's view of events, this one is Snape's. The plot and explanations are hers, many of Snape's reactions and statements won't make sense without knowing the fuller story. This is more a character study than a story. Think of it as a companion piece, though I'll do my best to make the sequences clear.
I own nothing but my words, the things that aren't JK Rowling's are Silverfox's.
I apologise for any shifts in tense between past and present, I gave up trying to keep it fully consistent.
This is all from Snape's view, if that makes it easier to cope with the tense shifts. Almost all dialogue is taken from Runaway Dragon verbatim.
I did this because I like Snape, I like the different view SilverFox has of what might happen to him and what path he might take, and I have writer's block on Transformation.
Alternative Dragon
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Chapter 1
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Covers Runaway Dragon Chapter 1
http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=431805
At first I didn't notice the pile of clothing had a boy inside it, but the movement caught the corner of my eye, and the sobs caught the edge of my hearing.
I don't know why I bothered, and had it been Knockturn Alley I wouldn't have, but something about those sobs and the bright daylight and that it was Diagon Alley turned my feet.
The face - tense, tearstained, horrifyingly lost - was familiar. And that was bad news. Very bad news. Whichever way you looked at it, Malfoy's son here crying and probably hurt was very bad news.
I had to fight the desire to whip my head around looking for the Aurors or worse still the cloaked and masked figures, instead I intensified my awareness, concentrated hard on the surroundings, every sense kicked into overdrive.
Someone had been at Draco Malfoy, and here I was in the middle of it. Unasked, unwanted, and very unwilling. But no way out now, I couldn't leave the poor kid like this.
I allowed myself a casual look, no one obviously here. Alright, time to approach the boy.
"Draco? What are you doing here?"
The usually controlled, usually contained, usually quite capable boy was snivelling, incapable, almost unrecognisable. What had got him into this state?
"Come Draco, I'll take you home".
The boy's reaction, the words jerking out, startled me. What on earth?
"Who killed whom?" I said. Slowly, calmly, trying to get the boy to make sense.
"My father... killed my mother..."
Gods! Couldn't be true, Lucius? No, must have just been a bit of a fight, bit of a disturbance. Could he have seen some Dark thing and mistaken it?
I tried to calm the child, tried to get him to see reason. And, feeling perhaps a little foolish, ran my thumb over the boy's forearm, wondering if I'd feel the Mark... Wondering if that's what had snapped Draco's self control.
All my senses said the boy believed it. Well, if there was trouble at Malfoy Manor, the last thing Severus Snape - convicted Death Eater with "target: Aurors aim here" scrawled on his back - needed, was to get involved.
But dammit, I couldn't leave Draco like this. The father was a terror, and had been ruining the boy quite energetically, but maybe there was hope for Draco still. Even if not, I couldn't leave him here like this. OK, let the damned Aurors earn their money for once, the boy seemed to think that's what he wanted. "Alright, I'll tell the aurors, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. And I'll take you home tonight." Sudden jump, eyes wide. unmistakable terror and memory there. Maybe there was something in it! Another quick check, stlll no watchers, no feel of magic beyond the usual background level, nothing obviously wrong. It isn't a setup, but it seems like the Manor isn't an option.
Damn! Damn! Damn!. Have to do it. "Not your home. Mine."
Later, I wondered why I'd been so certain it was safe to expose myself and mine to Draco. I must have believed Lucius was dead and his hold over the boy equally dead, to have even considered it.
Sometimes, instinct is reliable. Even mine.
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We walked across the bridge, the boy's eyes getting wider and wider. Did he even know this part of the world existed? Yes, apparently so, probably heard a few grisly tales. Everyone knows how bad West Hogsmeade is. Everyone who matters that is. Meaning not me. I no longer matter, and it is amazing how liberating that is. I have felt freer in West Hogsmeade during these last couple of years than I'd ever felt at Hogwarts or anywhere else. Than anywhere except maybe University.
"I know it's not the best part of town, but you'll be okay as long as you stick close to me. They're not bad people if they know you."
Suddenly I realised I was about to show how much I didn't matter to this spoilt little rich kid. How much money and power Severus Snape didn't have any more. Somehow I didn't think Lucius's son would realise that wealth wasn't always measured in money.
No, sometimes it was measured in the strangest things! Like laughter. Like this odd happy feeling I had as I watched Draco cope with something as simple as a light switch. No disdain, no pretending he knew all about it, instead an almost avid delight in the discovery. Who'd have thought it?
Explanations lasted all the way up the stairs, and through the door. Where nearly all my worldly wealth met me in the living room.
A few words passed, but neither of us really paid much attention to them, words as defence are a habit between us when others are in the room. I watched as she fed that damned stray dog the way she cared for everything, cared for me, words and actions so oddly different.
And now she seemed happy enough to take in another stray, as though a tearstained disturbed teenager was no more trouble than a scrap of a dog.
Or a damaged Death Eater, convict, indentured servant....
Oh gods above and gods below, how did I deserve her? I still find it impossible, unbelievable. She likes to tease me about that, curled up with me in the darkness. "I'm here. I was here yesterday, I will be here tomorrow, so apply intelligence to problem and on Mr Squeers's principle, go to bed and work it out!"
The boy was still stunned, acting very different to his normal snotty self. Shocked right out of his comfort zone, he was grasping at the strange new muggle stuff around him to stop himself thinking about whatever it was he saw at Malfoy Manor. Would wear off soon enough I thought, enjoy it while it lasts!
And brace yourself Severus Snape, for dealing *voluntarily* with Aurors in the morning. It's Lucius Malfoy, which means the Anti-Dark-Arts squad, because no one will appreciate normal flatfoots horning into that part of town, that particular house. And that meant.. well, don't think about that. Not tonight. Sufficient unto the day the evil thereof, let dealing with those bastards be tomorrow's problem.
Tonight I have better things to do.
I will be doing the When Sev Met Sarah story soon. It will involve Death Eaters and the Anti-Dark-Arts squad and intrigue and a whodunnit and the Sev-torture that one has to have in these productions.
It will also be the most complex thing I've done and it's scaring me silly.
So until I have it plotted and outlined and ready to go, Alternative Dragon keeps the creative juices flowing. And maybe the 3rd part of Transformation will happen.
This isn't really for anyone but me and Silverfox, but with luck it will appeal to others!
and if you have alternate wording to solve this damn tense shift problem that is eating at me, please let me know!