Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or "General Hospital" or the characters of either of those fabulous works of fiction. The plot twists and convergence of the two worlds is all mine of course…
A/N: This chapter offers some history of the spell /curse that Spinelli has been under – the history has been partially adopted from the tales of King Arthur, but have been highly distorted by me (especially as the legend occurred well before my inventive historical account). I do not own the Legend of King Arthur, but I do own the twisted history which has been wrought upon this page.
Revivification
"Get up!" Severus was so tired that even the tips of his fingers ached. It was a monumental effort just to keep his eyelids open. Still, there was one more important detail to complete in the removal of the spell which had confined Spinelli in the anti-magical, Muggle world for so long. He needed the boy up to complete the spell and Spinelli wasn't complying. Was there a blue tinge to the boy's lips? Severus held his own breath as he bent over Spinelli's prone form and listened for an inhale or exhale, he wasn't overly picky, just some sign that the boy was still breathing. He turned to watching his son's too still chest, then placed an ear directly upon his cool flesh, over the heart and resumed his listening. Nothing. Damn it! This could not be happening now. Not when the process had nearly been completed. All of his work couldn't have been for naught. Lifting his ear from the boy's immobile chest, he pounded a fist where the ear had rested.
"Get up!" No response.
"Get up!" Nothing.
"Enneverate!" Severus pointed his wand directly at the boy's unmoving chest, allowing it to nearly touch the pale skin as he shouted the word, knowing that it would have the same effect whether shouted or whispered, but allowing his exasperation to momentarily take over the function of his fatigued vocal chords. His voice echoed off the walls as though he had performed a sonorous charm at the same time to amplify his voice.
A spasm tore through Spinelli's prone form as his back arched off the bed and his chest jerked up following the movements of Severus' wand. He waited for the space of a belated heartbeat before repeating the spell.
"Severus," a hand gripped his elbow as he prepared to strike Spinelli's prostrate form with the spell yet again. Scowling, curse on the tip of his tongue for whoever had dared to stop his assault, he turned hard, tear-glistened eyes and found himself face-to-face with Albus Dumbledore.
"Severus," the blue eyes that met Severus' cold, dark ones held the same compassion that spilled from his voice, "stop." The word was said gently, but the hand that held back Severus' wand hand was firm and unrelenting.
"But, he's…Albus," Severus' voice cracked and he snarled in disgust at his uncustomary display of weakness. Wrenching his arm away from the Headmaster, he tore his black eyes away from the compassionate gaze that threatened to break the dam which held his traitorous tears in check. He once again prepared to perform the spell he had hoped would revive his, no, not his, but Kathy's dead son. He didn't deserve to think of the boy he had spawned through an act of deception as his son. He would not dishonor the memory of the woman who had died giving birth to his child by presuming to have some parental privileges that had been robbed from her. No, Spinelli was Kathy's son; he didn't deserve to hold any claim on the boy. If not for him, she would still be alive. If not for him, his son would still be alive.
"Severus!" Albus, no longer sounding compassionate, stepped between the father and son. Still Severus did not waver, he maneuvered around Albus and attempted to enneverate Spinelli.
"You are going to do more harm than good," Albus remonstrated.
"Impossible fool," Severus spat as he once again readied his wand to perform the spell which had bucked the boy's body in a way that would have been painful had he been alive to feel it.
"Enough!" Albus' voice resounded in the tiny room. He grasped a wild-eyed Severus painfully by the forearms and forcefully removed him from the room, shutting himself in alone with Spinelli. Muttering a quick mobiliarbus spell, he positioned a chair under the knob of the door and cast another spell to keep the door locked and Severus out of the room. Knowing that the wizard would do everything in his considerable power to regain entry, he reinforced his spell on the door with another, hoping that it would slow Severus down long enough for the wizard to calm down and return to reason and give him enough time to revive Spinelli.
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To his credit, Albus had not known that the spell he had asked Severus to perform on Spinelli would result in the boy's death. Intrigued, he had thankfully done some further research into the intricacies of the spell and had uncovered some bitter truths. The spell that had been performed on the young infant, presumably to protect him in the Muggle world, had its roots in the Dark Arts and had been used to strip the progeny of one's enemies of power, thus establishing the dominance of one magical family over another. Reversal of the spell, though possible, was extremely difficult and always resulted in death. Entire generations of wizards and witches had been lost in the 17th century due to Merlin's own use of the dark spell upon his enemies ; those he had claimed were practicing wicked witchcraft (prior to its discovery, children of those accused of dabbling in the Dark Arts had been slaughtered mercilessly).
Newborn babies had been taken from their parents, sometimes from upon their mother's breast. A wizard, who had sworn allegiance to Merlin, forsaking the dark arts, would perform the spell to strip the baby of its magic. The baby would then be placed in the home of a Muggle or brought to an orphanage, growing up without knowledge of the magical world from which he or she had been forcibly abducted. Sometimes a child would come into his or her magical powers upon entering puberty and would be placed in a school of witchcraft and wizardry, the implications of which had not been lost on Albus. More often than not, the child would never come into his or her magical powers, but would have children born with magical abilities that could not be explained. This would sometimes skip a generation or two. Those considered Muggle-born were, in reality, born to those whose lineage could be traced back to those very babies who had first been subjected to Merlin's act of magical cleansing in the 17th century.
The records of the magical genocide had very nearly been destroyed and were in fact sparse and difficult to retrieve. Someone had gone to great lengths to cover up what had happened. It had taken Albus weeks to uncover them, and had he not been determined to understand the spell that had been performed on Severus' son, he would never have found them. The history of Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had never mentioned this atrocious act. No history Albus had ever come across had mentioned it. Everything he knew and understood about the Magical World had been shattered upon the discovery of what Merlin had done.
Had Kathy's family been aware of this when they cast the spell on the infant? Had they done so to perform a magical cleansing of their own, knowing that their daughter had been involved in someone who practiced the Dark Arts?
In his research, Albus had also uncovered the disturbing truth about the spell used to reverse Merlin's curse: it was fatal. Merlin had taken precautions to ensure that his enemies would be unable to reverse what he had done. He felt strongly that children born to wizards and witches practicing what he considered to be wickedness would grow up to be wicked themselves and sought to keep the world free of their evil influence. Reading Merlin's thoughts had caused Albus' stomach to churn in disgust. He felt tainted having merely read the wizard's thoughts. Merlin was a name highly revered in magic. He was thought to have been the premiere figure of all that was right, just, and good in the magical world. His practices and spells had long influenced magic and were still used today. His very name had become immortalized and many a witch or wizard used the words, "By Merlin," in reverence.
A young witch, by the name of Viviane, who had been marked as 'wicked' because she became pregnant out of wedlock, protested when her boy was taken from her. She vowed to find and restore her son's magic and to destroy Merlin in the process. Her young son, Arthur, had secretly been placed in the home of the king and queen who were unable to conceive a son of their own. They were delighted to have such a beautiful son, whose mother, they had been told, died during childbirth.
Viviane remained a captive in a remote village for three years before she managed to escape. She spent the years plotting her revenge on Merlin and perfecting the reversal spell that she planned to use on her son when she found him. She went from village to village, searching for her little boy, performing the reversal spell on boys her son's age that had been placed there by Merlin's men. Spell after spell proved fatal and she was often chased from one village to another by distraught, torch-wielding villagers.
Viviane's spell finally succeeded in a village near the castle, where unbeknownst to her, ten-year-old Arthur resided, but not without causing the village boy to die at first. She had ascertained that the death could not be prevented, Merlin's counter curse placed upon the child when he was stripped of his magic made sure of that. Another spell to bring someone back from death was necessary. This she had practiced on villagers who had died through disease or by a simple accident and had discovered that reviving someone who had been dead for more than a few hours would lead to little more than an undead body without ability to reason. Again, she had been chased out of villages and deemed mad. Merlin's henchmen sought her and villagers happily pointed out which direction she had taken. They remained, always, a village or two behind as Viviane now practiced the Dark Art for which she had been wrongfully accused of when her son had been taken. Her Dark Magic concealed her from Merlin's men and left the villages she was routed from in thick fog for weeks after she had been forced to leave.
The simple word she had used to revive the ten-year-old boy was ristabilire. She had put some of her own life force behind it and the boy was revived with his magic intact. The villagers were astounded, but did not force her to leave. She did not remain for long, however, being compelled to continue her search for the boy that had been stolen from her, restoring young wizards in her wake. Being accepted by some villages, rejected by others, she traveled from village to village in search of her son.
She finally achieved revenge on Merlin through guile. Having learned that Merlin was in a nearby village searching for a young boy of about fifteen who was purported to be a powerful magician, she disguised herself as a youthful maiden and he was overcome by her charm. She led him to a lake and was able to trap him beneath a tall oak tree, but at great cost to herself. Moments before her death, she found an abandoned sword lying near the oak tree, transferred her magic to it and placed it in a stone adjacent to the lake. The only one who would be able to remove the sword would be her son.
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Though Albus had found the history fascinating, if not a bit disturbing, he had read through the threadbare remnants of the account in search of only one thing, the spell which would revive Severus' son had Kathy's family placed the counter curse upon the boy. He had found it literally seconds before apparating to Severus', hoping that it would be unnecessary and that if necessary, it would work.
He had attempted to stop Severus from trying to enneverate the boy's inert heart, but Severus had not heard him at first and had cast the spell oblivious to the danger. Logically it should have worked, but magic did not necessarily rely upon logic and Albus knew (having once tried such a thing on a pet as a child) that the spell could cause irreversible damage to the heart. His own pet's heart had been torn in two after his third attempt to enneverate the frog. He hoped that Spinelli's heart had survived the trauma Severus' ill-cast spell had placed upon it.
"Ristabilire," Albus whispered and pointed his wand at the deceased boy, allowing some of his life force to accompany the magic that poured forth from his wand. He ignored the sounds of pounding and thrashing that came from just outside the door as Severus attempted to gain entry to the room. The door shook and rattled from the force of Severus' attack upon it. The chair fell to the floor and the hinges vibrated in their brackets. The door splintered and flew inward as though it had been blasted with dynamite.
Albus had no idea what was happening around him. He was locked in the spell with Spinelli, incognizant of Severus' breach of the door and his entry into the room. His brow was furrowed in concentration and sweat coursed down his face. His eyes focused, unseeing on the unmoving eyelids of the boy he sought to revive. Magic and his very life flowed from the tip of his wand into the stationary figure upon the bed.
Severus fought for entry into the room, cursing Albus for his interference. It was he who insisted that they find the boy and restore his magic to him, all under the guise of keeping the young man safe from the followers of the Dark Lord who had somehow found out about an heir to one of his staunchest followers. This was all Albus' fault. Severus would have been fine, even content, having never learned the truth of what had happened to Kathy. He would have been ignorant and blissful in his ignorance had the old fool not insisted upon enlightening him to the existence of one Damien Spinelli. He and Spinelli would both have been better off if they had both been allowed to remain in the dark. Spinelli would still be alive. He would still be childless. All would be well.
But what if Lucius had learned of your son? What if he had discovered him and trained him in the Dark Arts so that he may present him to the Dark Lord as a prize when he is restored? A voice, he instantly quieted, niggled at the back of his mind as he finally succeeded in breaking through Albus' spells and found himself stumbling into the room. Blinking back surprise, he watched on legs unsteady from lack of sleep, as Albus paled and crumpled unceremoniously to the floor the instant Spinelli's eyes snapped open and he sat up on the bed, unseeing, gasping for air like a fish that had been dumped out of its tank.
Severus walked unsteadily to his son's side; wavering at first over whether to go to his son or to check on Albus, worry for the son he never wanted inexplicably overcame his normally cool, logic-minded actions and he sat down heavily next to his son. Albus was completely forgotten as he willed his son to breathe.
"Breathe," he begged as he placed a shaky arm around his son.
"That's it, just take a breath…okay, now another," he coaxed in an uncharacteristically gentle voice. Grateful when Spinelli's breathing began even out; he relaxed his grip on his son and finally allowed his eyes to wander over to Albus' supine body on the floor.
Getting up from the bed, he knelt beside the older wizard and fumbled for a pulse. Relief washed over him when he felt a rhythmic beat beneath his cold fingers. Albus' eyes fluttered open and he smiled wryly, holding out a hand for Severus. Pulling Albus to a sitting position, Severus summoned a pepper-up potion for the wizard to help revitalize him.
"What happened?" He asked as Albus drank the potion and stood on wobbly legs, eyes resting on Spinelli who sat rigidly in bed and stared blindly at the wall across from him.
"I came across some useful information regarding the curse that was placed upon young Damien Spinelli here and came in all haste to stop what I had unwittingly started," Albus sat wearily on the bed next to Spinelli and patted his legs.
"Thanks for the terse explanation of how my s…uh Spinelli almost died," Severus' tone held no trace of its earlier gentleness.
"Not almost, Severus," Albus turned sorrow-filled eyes to look at the man who now stood with arms crossed, glaring at him, "Spinelli did die."
"Wh..what?" Spinelli whipped his head around, feeling as though he had just awakened from a deep sleep. His chest ached as though his heart had nearly been torn from it.
Smiling, eyes twinkling, Albus turned to Spinelli, "You have died, my boy, and been reborn a wizard."
Spinelli let his head fall to the pillow and winced at the pain the action brought to his aching body, "Wonderful, the Jackal has presumably passed on from one ordinary life and been reposited in another of magical measure."
"Albus!" Severus scowled.
"It's alright O Masterful Mage of Dubious Intent," Spinelli sat up to face both wizards, unsure what to make of what had been said. Had he really died, again? Had he been reborn a wizard? What did any of this mean?
Clearing his throat, almost sheepishly, Albus broke the silence that had descended awkwardly on the room, "Spinelli, the curse placed upon you as a baby has been broken. Unfortunately when its hold over you was broken, your body was unable to handle the stress and you died. I was able to perform an ancient counter curse, and…well, as you no doubt can see and testify to of yourself, you are now very much alive."
Much to their astonishment, Spinelli grasped a good portion of the skin of one of his arms between his thumb and forefinger and pinched himself, hard, "Ouch!"
Chuckling, Albus turned to Severus and noted the look of exhaustion in the man's eyes, sobering himself, he stood and faced the man who was about to collapse where he stood, "Well, there is just one thing left to do Severus and as you look about ready to pass out, I am more than willing to perform the next spell."
"Do you think he's ready for another spell so soon?" Severus' voice was tinged with worry.
"I think that the sooner we get this all out of the way, the easier Mr. Spinelli will rest, not to mention you, Severus," Albus smiled tightly while summoning the chair that had been used to barricade the now splintered door. He positioned the mildly protesting Severus into the awaiting chair and then once again sat on the edge of the bed where Spinelli sat.
"What spell do you want to perform now?" Spinelli was almost afraid to ask, and much to his embarrassment, his voice quivered.
"Nothing that will harm you, I assure you," Albus motioned for Spinelli to lie down.
"As you may or may not recall at one of our earlier meetings, I am the headmaster of a school for young wizards and witches." Spinelli nodded his head, not really sure if he actually remembered having learned this or not.
"Severus," Albus gestured toward the man whose eyes were slit, watching the scene before him with a calculating air, "is a professor there. He teaches Potions. Students call him Professor Snape," realizing that he was babbling, he cleared his throat, "I believe that we mentioned that Severus would be giving you lessons in magic this summer and that you would then be attending Hogwarts, the school of which I am headmaster." Albus waited for acknowledgement from Spinelli, who quickly nodded his head in the pillow again. He still was unable to recall having heard any of this before but reasoned that he had simply not really listened the first time he had been told. He had been through a lot in the past couple of weeks after all. He was determined to listen well now.
"It is our intention that you attend Hogwarts as a fourth year student. I had considered at one point, when I learned of your existence, having you attend as a first year and learn magic as every other wizard child does, but thought it might be too traumatic to, well, to regress you that far," Albus was babbling again and stopped mid-thought when Spinelli snapped up to a sitting position.
"Wait a minute," Spinelli sputtered, "by regress, you don't mean. Surely you don't mean what I think you do. I mean it isn't feasible. It isn't logical. It isn't possible."
"I see that you do get it," Albus smiled, patting Spinelli reassuringly.
"No way," Spinelli protested, sinking back into the pillow once again.
"Well, you see, we can't really bring you to a school for young wizards and witches at your present age and, while I acknowledge that it would probably be too much to regress you to the age of eleven once again, I believe that it would be far less of a traumatic change if you were to be returned to say, age fourteen, nearly fifteen once again," Albus' smile was once again radiating.
"Much less traumatic?" Spinelli questioned, eyes glazed at the very idea of once again being an awkward teenager at the mercy of other awkward teenagers. Not that he wasn't awkward now, but things had been much worse when he had been a teenager. He did not relish the prospect of being fourteen once again. He reddened as a humiliating memory of a cheerleader and the basketball team flashed through his mind.
"Here's an idea," Spinelli said, a rare touch of anger colored his voice; "you and Dark Wizard here return the very happily adult Jackal to Port Charles where he belongs."
Severus had some of his own painful teenage memories playing at the back of his mind and understood how Spinelli felt. Though he doubted that his son had been through what he had, he knew that from his reaction, it couldn't have been an easy adolescence, "Spinelli, I understand your reluctance to be fourteen once again, but we cannot return you to Port Charles," Severus said with regret.
"Why not?" Spinelli looked directly at the wizard who looked ready to fall over in his chair.
"Because," Albus took up the argument once again, "the wizards that are after you will not stop until they find you. They are wizards who would like to train you in what we call the Dark Arts and turn you over to their fallen leader when he returns. You would not be safe in Port Charles and neither would your friends." Albus held up a hand to silence Spinelli's next protest as he opened his mouth, "Those who are after you will not hesitate to harm those you love. They will not stop until they have you. The safest place for you in the entire world is at Hogwarts."
"Okay, so the Jackal will be safe at this hallowed Hogwarts place, but what about my friends in Port Charles? What's to stop those wily wizards from hurting them? Wouldn't they torture them to try to find me?" Spinelli asked in a panic, thinking about how defenseless Stonecold would be against magic and how vulnerable Fair Lulu and the Valkryie would be, "Maximista, oh no, sweet Maximista…"
"Relax Mr. Spinelli," Albus placed a hand on the frantic boy's arm, "Ms. Jones will also be attending Hogwarts."
"What?" It took a minute for Spinelli's panicked mind to register what Albus had said.
"Ms. Jones will also be attending Hogwarts, it appears that she has some magical heritage of her own," Albus' voice dropped as he mused on her connection with Merlin and what he now knew of the wizard he could trace his own ancestry back to.
"Ooh…Maximista regressed to the tender age of fourteen," Spinelli grinned goofily for a moment before his grin was swallowed in a frown.
"What's wrong?" Severus asked, worry laced his words as his son had just paled considerably.
"I just realized that the beautiful Maximista would be even less attracted to a fourteen-year-old rampantly hormonal, awkward Jackal," he groaned into his pillow.
Clearing his throat, Albus brought them back to the conversation at hand, "As for the rest of your friends in Port Charles, we have sent wizards to protect them and have also sent out rumors that you have been brought back here and placed in an unknown location under my protection. No one will learn of your, or Ms. Jones' age regression, nor do I believe will they suspect that even I would do such a thing. They will search for you and not find you. The last place they would look for you, I believe, would be Hogwarts for who, even someone as foolish as me, would place a young adult at a school for children?"
"Are you sure there isn't any other way?" Spinelli plead.
"I believe this is the best way," Albus offered.
"Will I remember who I am? Or will I regress in memory as well? Will I once again be fourteen to have no recollection of those I came to know in Port Charles or the events that took place in these past weeks? Will I have to forge my way once again through the awkward, hopeless teenage years unaware of happiness which awaits as an adult? Will I remember Maximista?" Spinelli's questions came at a speed faster than could be comprehended.
"You will once again be fourteen, but I believe that you will hold a vestige of your adulthood memories, though I think they will seem as dreams," Albus answered apologetically.
"And you're sure there isn't any other way to keep my friends safe?" Spinelli asked.
"I am sure," Albus locked his eyes on Spinelli's and was unprepared for the tug of Legilimancy that came from the new wizard. Spinelli was surprised as well, but he found that, as he looked at the elder wizard's memories and thoughts, he was regretfully being truthful. Spinelli would once again have to live through his awkward teenage years.
"Um, how long will I have to remain a teenager?" Spinelli broke eye contact.
Blinking his eyes, Albus answered a bit awkwardly, "I am not sure, hopefully not too long. Once Voldemort's followers have been defeated you should be able to be re-aged."
"Voldemort?" Spinelli questioned.
"Voldemort is a wizard who tried to take over the world. He practiced the Dark Arts and urged his followers to do the same. He desired to rid the world of Muggles, so that wizards and witches would reign supreme on the earth. Though he is currently not at large, his followers remain committed to him and his return," Albus answered while Severus looked on with a look of hatred.
"Is he returning?" Spinelli asked.
"Yes, he has already begun to return," Albus answered truthfully.
"What happens when he returns?"
"He will be defeated," Severus answered in a steely voice.
Spinelli held a breath as he caught the look of unmasked hostility on the wizard's face.
"Alright, so what do I need to do?" Spinelli tore his gaze from the angry wizard.
"Just lie back and I shall perform the spell. When you wake up, you will be fourteen. Severus, whom you will call Professor Snape, will begin your training. You will attend Hogwarts when summer is out. It just so happens this year that we are having guests and it will not appear strange for the school to welcome two new people from another country into our midst," Albus' face lit up briefly in excitement.
Lying back, Spinelli closed his eyes and, though he tried to stay awake, he felt himself drifting off to sleep as Albus performed the spell which transformed him into a fourteen-year-old wizard.
Severus was so tired that he thought his body would soon walk itself of its own accord to his bed, but he stayed to watch as Albus transformed his son into a teenager. The resemblance to his teenage self was striking and he found himself gaping at the gangly youth that now lay upon the bed before him. It seemed to him as though he had gone back in time and were staring at himself.
"Albus," Severus sputtered.
"Yes, my boy, I see the resemblance, but doubt that you have much to worry about. There are no photos of you as a teenager at the school which would alert students to his parentage. I will of course inform the staff, as many of them knew you then. They will need to know what has taken place and I am sure that we can trust them with this secret. We must keep him from the Malfoys and others who knew you at his age as I am sure they would be discerning enough to put two and two together," Albus placated.
"We should put a concealing charm on him," Severus countered, "something to alter his appearance."
There was a part of him which thought of his son's safety as he said this, but a much larger part that did not wish to see his teenaged self staring back at him with dark, somber, angst-filled eyes. He did not want to watch his son's life unfold before his very eyes and know that he was unmistakably like himself. Tortured memories of what he had been through as a teenager and what had led him to Kathy in the first place rapidly replayed themselves in his mind. He would not wish any of that on anyone, well okay, maybe on his worst enemy: Potter. Potter, though, was dead and his death lay partially at Severus' feet as did the death of the one woman he loved, Lily Evans. If not for Potter and his cronies Severus' teenaged years at Hogwarts might have been bearable. Instead, he had been tortured and humiliated at every corner and had lost Lily's friendship and made a terrible mistake that had cost him his very soul. He had also robbed Kathy of her innocence and unwittingly, her life. Though she had been a willing participant, Severus still felt responsible and as though he had taken her as his Slytherin pals had tried to coerce him to do.
No, he did not want to watch his awkward, teenaged son picked on by others as he had been. He was unprepared to be a father. He was not ready to watch his son walk through the halls of Hogwarts, jeered at and cursed at around corners. Furthermore, he was terrified that he would treat Spinelli as his own drunken father had treated him. He had been exasperated by the stubbornness of the boy before he had been turned into a teenager, he feared for the boy's safety now that he was a hormonal teenager. If he rebelled at something Severus told him to do, would he hit the boy? Would he beat him and withhold food from him? Would he reduce his son to tears as his own father had done to him?
As though reading Severus' distraught mind, Albus placed a comforting hand upon the man's bent head, "Severus, you are not Tobias."
Severus raised feverish eyes to Albus' and swallowed the lump of paralyzing fear that had gripped him, "Albus, I don't know if I can do this."
"Sure you can. Remember, you are not Tobias. Mr. Spinelli is not you. His life will not unfold as your own has. He has already lived through to adulthood and by all appearances has made a good life for himself. He will not make the mistakes that you have, just as you will not make the mistakes that Tobias did. You, whether you choose to believe this or not, are a good man who made some bad choices in life. You, Severus Snape, can do this," Albus stood to leave.
"Albus please stay," Severus despised his weakness even as he spoke.
"Alright, I will watch over your son while you get some sleep," Albus helped the man from the chair and walked him to his own room, settling him in his bed. Severus was asleep the moment his head touched the pillow.
Albus returned to the room in which a teenaged Spinelli slept and marveled at how much he looked like Severus, though he mused at how much his personality resembled that of Kathy's. Even so, he had recognized the same sense of self-recrimination that Severus had for himself in Spinelli. Both boys felt responsible for entirely too much, though Severus would be loathe to admit it.
Albus had taken the time to look into Spinelli's history before telling Severus he had a son. He had discovered that the boy had made some poor choices of his own. He had gotten involved in illegal activities which Albus could not even pretend to understand, never having taken a course in Muggle studies. He was apparently in the employ of a man of dubious character who was considered a criminal in the Muggle world. Like father, like son. Yet, Spinelli didn't seem hardened by this. He somehow maintained a sense of naiveté about him (according to those he had spoken to in Port Charles) which Albus was sure would cause him to scoff and protest if he knew. He doubted very much that Spinelli would consider himself naïve, and knew that the boy would attempt to prove himself otherwise should he be made aware of what his friends thought of him. Spinelli also appeared to have an innocent vulnerability about him and a desire to fit in that Albus was a little worried could be exploited as Severus' own desire to fit in had been when he had been a student at Hogwarts. Albus would need to keep a close eye on the boy. Hopefully he would be able to atone for not having done so with Tom Riddle who had become such a monster and for Severus whose self-hatred had turned into a bitterness that pained Albus to watch.
It was going to be a difficult year ahead for all of them. Sighing, Albus sat in the chair and allowed himself to drift off while he kept watch over the son of Severus Snape: hated Potions Professor, spy for the light and valued friend.
A/N: I know that many of you are waiting for Spinelli and Maxie to get together…be patient, it shall happen (all in due time). In the meantime, please let me know what you think by reviewing.
Thanks: MercuryMan (a turn this chapter took is due in part to your review), Average Everyday Sane Psycho (love your reviews, they make me happy ), Spixiegirl27 (you're the reason Maxie is still here), and blondecrazything (your patience shall be rewarded, thank you for hanging in there)