Ch. 12
Once Severus and Hermione were back in Hogwarts, but were forced to use the Headmaster's rooms and not the dungeons that Severus really wanted to be. The house-elves were putting their stuff away; as they sat in the Headmaster's office, where they were waiting for Lord Voldemort to show up. He was sitting behind the grand maggoty desk; looking at what paperwork was there, but not really in the mood to look into it.
Hermione was walking around the big office; she was antsy, she really did not want to face the darkest wizard of the age. She was also antsy because as the days start passing by; the war was also coming as well, and the closer the baby was starting to grew within her.
Severus sighed, "Come here Hermione," it was driving him insane watching her waking around the office and doing nothing; he knew that the war and having a baby was bothering her. Once she was near him, he pulled her into his lap; where he could have her settle against him. After a few short moments; he heard her breathing slowed down, as her nose was upon his neck and he knew that she was asleep.
He gave out a buff of air; for he was able to get her to calm enough so he could think in quiet, and he did not have to fear about her going insane as he was doing so. As he held her against him, Severus was rubbing one of his hands against his hair. All the years that he had known her; he had thought that her hair was wild and crazy, but once she had gotten older, it had felt soft and smooth against his skin.
As he was wondering off in space; the fire from the fireplace had turned a bright green, and moments later the Dark Lord walked into the office. When Voldemort had spied what was going on in front of him, he gave a cough to get the new Headmaster's attention.
Severus looked up and saw his master standing before him; he said, "I'm sorry my Lord. My wife was not in her best of mind, and I managed to get her to get to relax and she fell asleep."
The snake man before him gave Severus a thin lip of a smile, "It's alright Severus; she must be losing sleep with that son of yours, and also you being away from home last night." Voldemort then walked closer to the couple and found himself a set before the desk and then pulled out some papers from his pockets, and placed them upon the desk. "Here is the outline of rules for your professors to follow, what I would like to have taught to the children of the school in each of the classes, and the potions that I want Lady Snape to do research on."
Severus with his emotionless mask upon his face asked, "Anything else, my Lord?"
The most pail looking man in the room glanced over to the portrait of the late Headmaster Professor Albus Dumbledore; who was awake and watching the whole thing that was happening in the office, which Voldemort asked, "Have you told Severus Snape, who his real father is?"
Albus gave the speaker a dark glare, "I never thought that it would be beneficial for him to find out, and since you have not told him. Why have you waited until now to tell him?"
The Dark Lord growled, "I have never thought about telling him until now; now that I knew that he can be trusted, and he is no longer part of the Order of yours."
Albus answered with his own growl, "I am warning you, Tom. Don't you dare bring my people into this! I was their leader and they were following my orders! The reason that I hadn't told him was because he wouldn't know the meaning of love, if I had allowed his mother to be with you."
Severus spoke up, "What about my mother?!"
Albus sighed, "Your mother and Tom were dating back when they were Hogwarts together. Just after graduation I gave your mother and a muggle man a lust potion, which lead them to run off and get married. What I didn't know was the night before graduation, your mother slept with Tom and I later found out that she was pregnant with you. When you were born; I had done some spells to see which one of the men that your mother had gotten to make you, and I found out that it was Tom. I had cast a very strong Glimmer upon you, to where you looked like that muggle man that your mother was married to."
Severus gave a cold look towards the grandfatherly man and then glanced over at the man who caused the love of his life to be dead. He could not believe that he was son of a massive killer. Subconsciously; Severus wrapped one of his hands onto Hermione's belly, where his growing son was. He was trying to hide his unborn son from the man before him; he really did not want to have his man around when his son comes into the world.
Voldemort sighed; once he had seen Severus acting protective of the child, "Don't be like that Severus; I know that I have some things that you may have not liked, but I am your father and I think it's time to take that Glimmer off of you." The Dark Lord grabbed a hold of his wand and waved it towards Severus, and within seconds his looks started to change. His hawk like nose lost its sharpness. His black eyes became a sapphire blue. His long black greasy hair became short and curly like Tom's was when he was in school. Severus had also became a few inches thinner at the waist but ripped, grew a few inches taller, and became more broader, like if he had worked out for ages. With a smirk; Voldemort said, "Now you look more like me, from the time that I was still more human of course."
Severus groaned; he couldn't really move without waking Hermione, so he brought out his wand and wave it on one of the sheets of paper before him and turned it into a mirror. He grabbed it and brought it before his face, "Bloody hell!"
This caused Hermione to wake up and squeaked when she saw the Dark Lord before him, and then glanced over to her husband and flat out screamed. She was trying to get out of his lap, but Severus had one of his arms around her, which prevented her from moving much.
"Hermione, it's me! Now calm down."
She started to breathe and trying to calm herself down, "Severus? You don't look like yourself."
Severus sighed, "Long story short; Albus hid the fact that Lord Voldemort is my father, and put a Glimmer on me. Now I look more like my father than what I had looked before."
Hermione was in shock; she really had not seen this coming, but she had a feeling that Dumbledore was hiding something from her. She had believed it had something to do with Harry, but not her husband with the Dark Lord before her. Once she glanced over towards her father-in-law; she saw that he was reading her mind, and he was giving her a grin.
"You; young lady, are the brightest witch of the age," stated Voldemort. "You were correct that your old Headmaster was hiding something against Potter, but it has nothing against the war. He is the last known heir of Godric Gryffindor and that is one of the reasons that he was able to pull the sword out of that hat, back when you were in second year. Speaking of heirs; Severus, you are the last known person of Rowena Ravenclaw from your mother; as well as Salazar Slytherin from my side."
Hermione timidly asked, "Who is the heir of Hufflepuff?"
"That would be Longbuttom, through his grandmother's line," answered the older living man of the room. "Even though she does not act like it, but it's true."
Lady Snape groan, "When will this war end?"
Severus was wondering the same thing, but he knew not to ask; even if the man before him was his father, he still had a bad temper.
The evil tyrant stood up and made his way towards the window that overlooked the grounds of the school. "The war will end; when Potter or myself, lay cold upon the ground."
Hermione sighed; she knew that may have been his answer, and asked, "What are your true beliefs for the Wizarding World?"
Tom Riddle was standing at the window, became ramrod with his back. "My beliefs for this world is that all magical humans to be severed from the muggle world. What I mean about that is this; if a child is part of the muggle world and found out that there are magical, then we should take that child and have a magical family to become sergeant for that child. That way the children who come to Hogwarts would know the laws, customs, and the history of our world long before stepping into the school. It would help the transition before stepping through the school's doors."
He took a deep breath, "I had once talked to Albus about this when I was in school here, and he thought that we should just leave everything as it should. Did you know that Salazar was not totally against having muggle-borns into the castle; he was just afraid with all those witch hunts that they would find a way to get into the castle to kill everyone in it. Which nearly happened; when a child of a witch hunter found out that he was a wizard, he came to the castle and thought he would make it up to God, if he did away of the Devil's children. Godric had found the child and modified the child's mind and send him back home, but at this time the lion's founder was too prideful to admit of his mistakes, and that was when Salazar left the school."
"What about the word mudblood?"
Severus growled at hearing that term, but the Dark Lord answered, "Tell me, Hermione. Where did Adam come from, from your Bible?"
She glared but answered, "From the ground."
"From the mud of the earth," replied Tom.
"Then tell me where the purebloods come from?"
Tom chuckled; he was enjoying the fact that she wanted to learn more, "From the magic of the earth. From the time of Macha; the goddess of life, who brought life into living crystals that gave birth to all the witches and wizards of the world. Merlin was her first creation of all, before any other was brought into the light. He is our teacher, like Jesus is to the muggles."
Hermione was surprised from the knowledge that her father-in-law was giving her; she would have never had known about any of this, but wanted to ask another question, "And your belief of how muggle-borns were able to have magic?"
Tom turned around to face the young woman and said, "It is either the over breading from purebloods, to where they are becoming so weak that their children become magic less and Macha casts their magic into a child that happens to be born near the time as the pureblood child has. Or that Macha is at work and she casts the magic to where it is needed the most and where it can become the most powerful; just like yourself, where you are both powerful and knowledgeable. Even more so than most of the pureblooded children that are in this school, children like Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson; neither of them are very smart, nor powerful."
Albus yelled from his portrait, "I have told you, TOM that you should not talk about those beliefs! Macha, is nothing more than a story! Why did you have to tell Lady Snape; of all people, about all of this?"
Tom glared at the yelling man, "People deserve the real history of the Wizarding World! People like Lady Snape; who are smart, deserve the real knowledge about our world, Ablus. Why do you believe that we should teach the children to be blindsided and ignorant?"
The white bearded man sighed, "It's because of Merlin and King Author of Pendragon. No one knows where Avalon is and because of that, it is nothing but a story and we should not have children believing in things that are not shown any proof of it being real."
"You are wrong Albus," stated Hermione. She had slid off of her husband and walked towards the man who has caused many issues for many people. "I know all about King Author and Merlin; long before I have ever stepped upon these grounds, and the entire muggle world knows of stories of Avalon. People are out there today; wanting to find the lost Kingdoms and wanting those legends to be true, and it's because Author was a just King, a true King to his people. There are stories of Merlin; who was a wise man behind King Author, and he was the one who made many laws that came into the muggle world for us to follow. So don't ever tell anyone that they are not real!"
"You young lady," glared Albus, "are nothing but a walking, talking textbook of ages and should start living in the world of the living. You have a child that will be coming into this world and you will do better by walking away from those books, if you want to have your child to be a part of this world."
Severus yelled, "What is that supposed to mean?!"
The blue sparkling eyed portrait stated, "Before I had died; I had cursed some of the books to hurt a pregnant woman who handles them, which means that you could be losing your child if she keeps up with her reading."
"WHAT!" Yelled out three living souls within the room.
Severus went on to say, "Your agent beliefs of woman are outdated old man. If your beliefs were like this, than why did you allow me and Hermione to marry?"
Ablus grinned, "It was a lot better choice than her running off on a man hunt with Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley; where Lady Snape would have been caught by Bellatrix, who would have carved into her flesh with a cursed blade, and where she would have to live with the word Mudblood upon her arm. And once the war was over; she would have been stuck at home with tons of children from the youngest Mr. Weasley, who would have found himself in Ms. Brown's more than a few times. But once you are married within our world, you are forever married to that person. Now tell me Severus, would you allow something like that to happen to your; now, wife?"
Severus gave a no, before grabbing his wife and have them sit behind his desk again.
Tom Riddle smirked toward Albus, "You are losing your people, just by the words that you speak. It's good to know that I'm winning without casting a spell here and there."
"This isn't over, Tom."
"But it is, Albus." The Dark Lord turned away from the painting and walked back towards the desk, where the Snapes were sitting at. "Well; children, is there anything else that we need to talk about before I leave?"
Hermione glanced over at Severus than to his father, "Is there a way that we could end the war without any more killings?"
Lord Voldemort had told her that there was no other way and walked through the fireplace, with a swirl of green flames, he was gone and the married couple was alone in the Headmaster's office.
