Usual disclaimer: I don't own them and make no profit, except at their expense.
AN: Yes, the long awaited glimse into Severus' mind! Although, it's more 3rd person POV, you still get a glimse into what he's starting to have to deal with.
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Chapter Fourteen: Disappearing Names
"Severus, have we received responses from all of the prospective students for the upcoming fall term yet?" Minerva asked her Deputy.
"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure off-hand Minerva. The quill and scroll will know for sure, have you checked it?" he nearly sneered in response.
"No, come look with me – your eyes are younger and keener than mine young man." She said with mock reproach.
As they were checking the scroll and quill for the list of upcoming term students for those that hadn't yet replied, Minerva and Severus saw the listing of a new name.
"Ah – a new life, a new name. You know, they say those born on New Year's Day will always have luck on their side." Minerva said, smiling as she moved closer to see the latest name listed.
"What udder codswallop!" he sneered, as he too moved closer eager to see who's spawn he was to expect to be teaching in the future.
"Severus - !" the rest of her comment was frozen on her lips, as it wasn't the fact that the quill was hovering over a name. It was the name itself that was listed on the scroll that caught both of their attention: 1 January 2003, Corvus Jonathan Granger Snape.
"Why didn't you tell me the baby was yours and that it was born three days ago, I might add?" Minerva started to admonish him.
"Because, Minerva, I didn't know – on either account," he stated. Seething with pain inside, and his mind was racing. A child – mychild! Three days. Three, whole days since the child was born and she never bothered to tell me... Why? Why do I have to find out like this?
Minerva coughed, and was about to speak again when the name started to seemingly flicker, then disappeared. "The name was there Severus! You saw it just as I did!" She said before he could respond.
"I'm sorry Severus, as briefly as I saw the name it – it disappeared!" She said to him bewildered.
At her apology he looked at her sharply. The pain was evident in his eyes before he could mask it.
"Now Severus, just because the name disappeared doesn't mean that she's taken him out of the country with her – never to return." She said, trying to console the harsh man before her. "It could also mean one of two things: that the child's a Squib or –"
"If the child were a Squib the name wouldn't have appeared at all. You know that, as well as I do Minerva." He cut her off before she could finish her sentence. "She's taken the child and ran. Three Days, Minerva – three days – that she didn't say a word! She's taken the child without so much as a word –" he was nearly shouting in his tirade.
Quietly she piped in with the last reason. "It's the worst case that – that, the child is – dead." She whispered and choked out the last word fervently hoping that it wasn't so.
Her words sunk in and he paled at the thought as to why the child's name would disappear from the register. Dead, the child could be dead... The chance – the choice... taken before – Before what? What were you going to do? Play happy families with a woman that couldn't even be bothered to tell you she was pregnant, let alone that the same child was yours? He began to mentally sneer at himself once more.
He turned to see what caught Minerva's eye. The fireplace was lit with green flames, and the tear-stained face of Harry Potter was there, looking at them...