SUMMARY – Looking up from his grading, Severus Snape finds himself face to face with two elderly strangers from another time- a 100-year-old Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. Both determined to play a role in Snape's life, as they try and find a way back home.
A/N—another story!
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Father Figures
By RobinTheSlytherin
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Chapter One
The Strangers
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Severus Snape sat behind his old oak desk, scrawlingdesk, scrawling scathing comments across a third year's essay.
He sat stiffly, reading and marking with an impassive expression behind his stoic eyes.
It was nearly dinnertime when Severus finished the last of the essays. He sat back with a sigh and stared down his forearm venomously.
His knuckles tightened white around his forearm, as if trying to squeeze the mark away. Every now and then he pondered taking a knife to his arm and cutting the damn thing out of this skin.
Severus Snape thought bitterly of what his life had become. He thought about those he was unable to save, and the one he did manage to save, hated him.
There was no one who had truly been on his side, except Lily, and in the end, he lost her too.
Severus continued to stare at his clothed forearm, until an unfamiliar voice broke his train of thought.
"Do that long enough and you're going to burn a hole through your arm." Came a deep rugged voice.
"Don't waste you'reyour breath, he won't listen." growled another voice as sharp as a knife. "Stubborn is Sev's middle name."
Severus leapt to his feet, banishing his wand towards the unknown voices before him.
As the unspoken hex shot out of Snape's wand, the cloaked strangers flicked it away as one might swat a fly.
"If you don't want me to boil out your eyeballs, reveal yourselves! "!" Snape demanded. "NOW!"
"Merlin, I forgot how cheery you were!" the first cloaked figured chuckled deeply, pulling back his hood to reveal his ruggedly handsome face.
The stranger was nearly as tall as Severus but looked considerably older. From a glance the man looked to be around 70 years old .old.
His dark grey hair held streaks of white, and was combed elegantly back, except for his fringe that covered a portion of his forehead .forehead. His white beard and distinguished mustache wasn't long, but the length reached his clavicle.
Severus noticed how strong the man looked despite his obvious age, and how many scars he bore.
And there was something else about him.
Severus lowered his wand a fraction as the first man peered over his silver, round rimmed glasses at him.
But it wasn't the glasses that struck Severus, but rather the vibrant color of his bright green eyes.
Severus froze, his skin paling even more than usual.
The man smiled softly at Severus, as if he was an old friend. There was a genuine warmth and understanding in his eyes that startled Severus.
And then… there was the other stranger.
The second figure held a familiar walking stick with the head of a silver snake on its handle.
The second man wasn't as rugged, but equally as aged as the first. He stood tall with an air of regal elegance and grace.
His face, though worn, was pointed and pale. His silver hair was brighter than the first man and slicked back into a ribbon on the base of his long neck.
His silver hair was long, and hung down his back, in a most familiar fashion.
is piercing grey eyes held none of the warmth that the green-eyed man possessed.
This man appeared colder, crueler, and far more cunning.
Severus refused to lower his wand, which made the green-eyed stranger's smile grow wider.
"Am I so unrecognizable to you, Snape?" the first man's deep voice asked, sounding very tired "Out of everyone, I thought you would know my face."
"Indeed." sneered the second man, narrowing his grey eyes on Severus with skepticism. He gripped the head of his walking stick, twisting it tightly.
"Who. Are. You?" Severus ordered, enunciating each syllable.
The elderly wizards were quiet for a moment, leaning back against the class desks.
The man with the vibrant green eyes crossed his strong arms over his chest, considering him for a moment before speaking.
"He's a child, no matter how we might remember him." The pale, silver haired man hissed, pinching the bridge of his pointed nose.
The elderly wizard with the green eyes straightened, taking five long steps towards Severus.
Severus refused to lower his wand as the tip of it connected with the older mans chest.
In the background, the second man raised his walking stick threateningly, but halted as the green- eyed man raised a hand.
"Look….at…me." the man whispered, looking deeply into Severus's black eyes.
Something in those words made Severus feel as if someone had walked over his grave.
And then he watched as the elder wizard raised a single calloused hand to his forehead and swept back his white fringe.
Snape's eyes widened in horror as his hand went limp, and his black wand clattered to the floor.
"Potter?" Snape breathed, shaking his head in denial.
He raked his black eyes over the forms of the two wizards, taking a small step back.
The elderly green- eyed wizard smiled warmly, as he swooped to pick up Snape's wand, holding it out to him from his crouched position on the floor.
"Hello Professor Snape, its been a long time." Harry Potter smiled exaggerating the wrinkles by the corners of his eyes and around his mouth.
Slowly, he rose to his feet, so gracefully that Severus wonders how old the wizard could possibly be "It seems trouble has found me yet again, and I need your help."
"A-hem?"
Severus blinked glancing behind the elderly Potter to the pale faced wizard sneering behind them.
Severus flickered his black eyes towards the familiar walking stick.
"Draco?" Severus
"Oh please don't look so shocked." The elderly Draco Malfoy replied, snapping his wand back into his cane "Clearly, anything involving Potter,involves trouble…No matter how much time has passed, or how old we've become."
Severus narrowed his eyes, a dark shadow passing over his skeptical black eyes.
"No." Severus shook his head, gripping his wand. "Harry Potter, and Draco Malfoy are both six years. Either you are those same boys and took an Aging Potion…Or you are imposters. Either way, your words will not suffice with me- drop your wands."
"Severus," The elderly Potter spoke gently "I understand your skepticism, but you also must understand that after a lifetime of waswar and death, that I cannot simply hand over my wand to yoyuyou."
"Huh, I'd like to see him try." The Elder Draco chuckled darkly.
"Violent delights have violent ends, old friend." Potter replied in a deep voice laced with weary.
"Indeed, they do." Draco grinned wickedly, causing the wrinkled around his mouth and eyes to pull at his skin.
"What the devil are you?!" Severus shouted, further enraged at the game he thought was being played on him. "WHO are you!?"
"Devil?" The Elder Draco laughed "the devil's got nothing on me, Uncle Sev."
Without warning Severus unleashed a flood of dark curses including one that turned one's skin inside out, one that vanished the cartilage between your joints, and another that made your ribs tear out of one's chest and back.
One after another stream of curses rained down upon the two elderly wizards.
The elder Potter, despite his age, danced around the curses easily- almost stylishly.
"Sevreus, enough! What we say is the truth!" Potter snapped, making Severus feel as if he was a school boy being reprimanded.
"LIES!" Severus hissed, causing the elder Draco to bark out laughing as he swatted away a decapitation curse.
"The future government of our world betrayed us!" The elder Harry shouted, looking weary and mournful "After we gave our lives to restoring order and defeating dark lord after dark lord! THEY BETRAYED US! THEY TRIED TO KILL US!"
Severus stopped the flow of curses but did not lower his wand. He studied the old wizards, looking between Harry and Draco- looking into their old scarred, tired faces.
"They sent the killing curse at both of us." the elder Harry panted, bowing his head. His green eyes flickered across the floor "We ran like fugitives through the Ministry. They tried to destroy our wands, but we fled. We hid in The Sands of Time room, where they held the last remaining Time Turners…They found us. We fought as best we could, but there were twenty wizards. We fought them off as best as we could."
The elder Draco slid a hand through his silver hair, stepping back until he was shoulder to shoulder with Harry who became silent.
"They fired the Killing Curse at me." Draco spat, looking at Harry as if he wanted to punch the old man in the throat "And then Potter did what he always does. He threw himself in front of me. But as we fell back into the shelf of Time Turners, something happened."
The Elder Harry looked up at Snape, giving him an odd tremulous look.
"We landed on the floor, in that same room. Only no one was there. We ran as fast as we could through the ministry, confused and on edge." Harry continued "But then we saw Minister Scrimgeour, and we knew something was wrong…deeply wrong."
"And you expect me to believe that?" Severus barked, baring his teeth "And even if I did, the Potter I know is a lazy, arrogant, attention seeking swot- a troublemaker with a death wish—"
The Elder Harry let out a raspy laugh that began bout of coughing.
"Then by all means, child!" The elder Harry continued to cough though his laughter "procure us a spoonful of Veritaserum, and all your questions shall be answered."
"You dare call me—"
"but you are Sev." Draco sniffed away his laughter "compared to our 100 years, you are a child."
Severus looks deeply into their eyes one at a time. The silence stretches between them. Understanding what Snape was doing, elderly wizards keep their old eyes open for the Potions Master to penetrate.
Then after several minuets Severus retreats from their minds, looking ashen and deathly pale.
He drops his wand, and steps back until his lower back hits his desk.
Severus observed the elderly wizards in horror.
"one hundred…years …old?" Severus breaths, then slowly reached behind him to open a drawer to his desk, pulling out a bottle of Fire Whiskey.
Without looking away from the pair, he lifts the bottle to his lips and drinks a quarter of the bottle.
As Severus placed the bottle onto his desk, he let out a bitter sigh.
"Why must you always complicate things, Potter?"
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A/N— updates sporadically because I'm trash.