DISCLAIMER: THE BOOK BELONGS TO J. I HAVE ONLY BORROWED BOTH CHARACTERS AND PLOTLINE.


Harry

1978, Hogs Head Pub.


'Bloody hell!' I was stunned out of my wits as I stood staring at the face of a much younger Severus Snape and instinctually felt the need to run the heck away from him when I was reminded of the fact that the man didn't even know who I was in this world, even if he was looking at me like he'd just seen a ghost.

This was a meeting that I was just not up to facing that day as I had spent the entire night yesterday following the young, out of bounds Bartemius Crouch as he went club hopping with rest of his wastrel friends till the wee hours of the morning.

So far I had found nothing incriminating about him which was becoming increasingly frustrating a fact which everyone kept reminding me off every evening before I left to chase after him calling it a wild goose chase!

I knew in my gut that I was not wrong but explaining to them why I was so sure was inviting my-self to a whole new set of problems that I was just not yet ready to discuss. Atl east I was thankful that they'd finally deemed me capable of carrying out this mission so I promised myself that I would not let them down even if Hermione's voice of changing the events of the future causing terrible repercussions constantly rang warning bells at the back of my mind.

Looking at the woebegone expression on Snape's young face in front of me was a painful reminder of the last time that I'd seen the Professor in his dungeons for my occlumency lesson which was when my life had turned upside down and I'd landed myself into another interval of time altogether with no way of going back home!

The memories from his pensive with my father and the other marauders bullying him and my mum coming to his defense were still so clear in my mind that I had to stop myself from blurting out a word of sympathy when he suddenly gave me a look of absolute horror and fled the room like his bum was on fire!

"Wait…!" I called out to him uselessly but he was out in flash and I just let him go without chasing after him because honestly, I did not want to brave a conversation with the man who'd been outwardly hateful towards me since I was a mere of eleven. But his appearance left me with the happy thought that soon I might possibly even have the chance of meeting my Dad, mum and Sirius in this realm!

It was nearly fifteen minutes later since the once churlish man/boy had scarpered out of the room when I decided to keep the used bottles in the alley outside the store did I find Snape once again. This time however our meeting proved entirely different when I saw that he looked like death warmed over and was sitting in a pool of what looked like his-own blood.

Calling for Ab, I quickly located the wound in the meanwhile taking a second to register that it actually looked like it had been self-inflicted before closing it with a quickly uttered spell of Diffindo and levitating his limp body up into the air so that I could bring him back to my room above the pub.

"I recognize him from the papers" Gideon was staring blankly at the very obvious dark mark on his arm. "His parents were the ones who'd been murdered by Voldemort only recently. It make no sense that he should be…"

"You mean what prompted him to join the Dark wizard?" Ab finished his question for him. "I think I might be able to answer that for you" he sighed, sitting down heavily on a high-backed chair in the room "He was obviously coerced into it with the threat of death!"

"How can you be so sure?" Fabian asked the wise old man curiously.

"His loneliness and devastation is writ all over his countenance" Ab said impatiently "A man who wanted to be a death eater would not have tried to kill himself. A real death eater would kill rather than brave death himself! They are a motely bunch of unfeeling bastards while this young man obviously feels too much and regrets his lot in life."

"That we'll have to see only when he wakes up" Fabian maintained his stance "The boy bears his mark and by all rights should be handed over to the Ministry to be kept under custody. God knows what his involvement in this war has been and how many people's deaths he is responsible for!"

"I agree" Gideon nodded "He needs to be bound before he wakes up and gets away. No leniency should be shown towards these monsters."

"Dean? What about you mate? What do you think about all this? You've been really quiet this whole time. Surely, even you must have some sort of opinion?" Fabian turned towards me with a kind smile on his handsome face.

I however, was still reeling under the shock of seeing my former potions master whom I had felt such mixed emotions of loathing and pity nearly die in front of me that it had really done a number on me! At that moment I couldn't really formulate any sensible thoughts so I mumbled a soft 'let's wait till he wakes up' and headed off towards the bathroom to clear away the fog in my head with a cold shower.