Chapter 44 – Walking Back to Dual Realities


It was strange to arrive back at Hogwarts after their trip to Egypt. It was cold by comparison. In more ways than one to Osiris, who immediately felt the lack of familiar magic after being so bathed in it. There lingered but a sheen of it.

With a bit of a walk back to the castle, Osiris said, "Thank you for taking me, master…and for staying with me. I'm sure that's not precisely what you imagined. It's not what I imagined." The last bit was said quietly. He crossed his arms, pulling his black coat more tightly around him.

"I was the cause of you needing it in the first place," the professor replied. "And you need not thank me after what you are sacrificing for me."

"I've noticed a lot of people may not be grateful or thankful or even acknowledge a thing you're doing, but I am appreciative, sir." Now he had a better view of the experience – they had wanted to exclude him entirely and did not seem the least bit appreciative given the grisly details. Osiris was not going to join the throng that had been doing the same thing to the professor for years.

"The feeling is quite mutual." Lack of lazy students, distractions, and girls coupled with some form of purposeful direction and raw experience of realities had altered his apprentice in the last many weeks. But he felt even more of a change than situation dictated alone.

Osiris continued, "And you aren't the cause of my injuries, sir. You didn't do anything to me willingly. The Dark Lord..." That was where the cause was to be found. After realizing his omission, he added with narrowed eyes, "And Mr. Malfoy."

It was far more difficult for the professor to excuse himself of total responsibility. "I am still responsible for you as a student and as my apprentice." The boy did not challenge that, and he amended, "But you are generous to say so, Mr. Silver."

"It is just the truth as I see it, sir." He might be bearing it for the professor's benefit, but the professor was far from the cause of the situation.

The situation they both found themselves in.

"How do you feel? You look far better."

Osiris looked up at him, far more expression in those hazel eyes. "I cannot explain it, master…although I can say I am far more well than I have been in a very, very long time." Since before his mother had died.

The process of reciprocation was somewhat foreign to the professor's practice, but he had been tasked with something, and at the moment he felt more poignantly about the task asked of him by an Egyptian he did not know than the one charged to him by Dumbledore. "Why not try to explain it."

"It sounds far too poetic if I try to in my head." He pushed stray pieces of wavy black hair away from his face.

Severus snorted. "I don't mind a little poetics in my philosophizing."

Osiris looked sideways at him again as they walked and said, "It is very." He was not particularly such a visionary with words, especially in English. It took many more words to convey anything in English. And how he felt inside was difficult to frame in any language. In his language it took one word, perhaps three to make it beautiful.

Nevertheless, he tried to explain how the healing and protection made him feel better, more himself. "It felt like the embodiment of that moment when the sun kisses the horizon as it rises. Every shade of every color comes forth between the dark shadows and the light." He took a breath. "But it was from the inside. It reminded me of a lot of things my mother would say to me growing up."

"Like?" He raised a brow in the budding darkness. There was a long moment of silence where just the squish and rustle of footsteps was heard. He turned his head, wondering if the boy was going to answer him.

"It reminded me of how beautifully she would talk about that moment when a potion became more than just the sum of its parts, how it would transform and have a new beginning as something greater." He paused and thought for a few more steps. Unlabored steps. For the first time in a while. "Egyptians, we, call it Khepera, and that is what I felt. That is where the name for the apothecary comes from too."

"Quite fitting." He went further than he might have previously and said, "I would have liked your mother. Her mind seemed quite beautiful from the research journals you shared with me." It was an admission, for rarely on first impression did he find the prospect of liking anyone. Then again, a journal was not a person but a representation of one.

Osiris smiled and then chuckled, looking sideways. There was not the same hesitation in answering, "She probably would have liked you too, master. She might have even let me study under you." He paused with a lopsided smile. "After a thorough interrogation, I mean, interview." The look on his face suggested he was visualizing it.

The professor lifted a brow and shook his head in amusement. "I doubt I would have readily or easily subjected myself to that."

"I think you would have if she showed you the things we have at Khepri that no one sees or gets to have for any sum. She was no delicate flower; she would have given you ample bait if she thought you best suited, master."

Although feeling complimented was somewhat unexpected, it was…nice…nonetheless. "No wonder you found yourself in Slytherin. Why not keep you to herself? That's not uncommon these days."

"I do not think she ever intended that, actually, sir. She was very practical, although we were very close, and she would have wanted someone who would see me through a fresh set of eyes and challenge me. Like my ten-year-old boy stirring." He gave a grand impression of it with his arm. He had not forgotten that admonishment that seemed so long ago, but it truly had only been over the holiday.

"And give you a thump on the head now and again?"

Osiris smiled, "She was very good at that too, always kept a clean stir in reach to whack me – or my brother - on the head or hand, but yes, sir, she would have approved wholeheartedly of that."

The professor chuckled. They could do little more than provide a crisp sting. "I do not think I would have needed secret storeroom bribery to apprentice you were it not for the dangerous role you now know I play. Just as you might have not made the explosive entrance into Slytherin had your mother not passed."

Something of earlier lingered. Severus could feel it. Something of that place still surrounded Osiris. Dare he wonder if it also, somewhat, surrounded him.

"Truly, master?" It was hard to imagine it might have been as simple as his mother asking and him proving himself. In another lifetime…for both of them. One thing the professor had said before he'd made his decision rang true: his life now had something of a dividing line, or dividing wall, through it. The old one was very over. The new one was coming forth from light and darkness, quite literally.

"Were it not for obligations which currently bind me, I doubt I would be entirely foolish enough to pass up the opportunity to apprentice someone raised around potions and ingredients. You are not wholly without merits."

Osiris was quite stunned by this candor. So stunned, he stutter-stepped for a moment and had to take a few long steps to catch up again.

The professor added, "I doubt we would have had issues were you not also a student. My misreading of your behavior as an impulsive brand of disobedience learned from your former school, rather than the acting out of distrust and loneliness that it likely was, did not help matters."

"I'm not sure if I was lonely, master, but none of it was particularly what I planned in my head for a fresh start, sir. I'm rather ashamed of it every time I think about it. I'm sorry for it."

"Like you were to Professor McGonagall?"

"You heard that, sir?" It was not a common occurrence for the professor to point out the good in his character.

"I did. You did well to do it. She never gets an honest apology from a Slytherin. It would do her well to remember her own stereotypes." There was a pause before he remembered his other point, "And you were lonely. Perhaps not in a traditional sense, but to be separated from your brother so soon after your mother's death and to go to a strange school where everyone your age already has five years of friendships. Your Egyptians knew it right away."

"They knew my magic suffered because of it. Being alone."

"And you are not foolish enough to be ignorant that you and your magic are linked, especially not after all of this. There's also little reason to argue the point. There is nothing wrong in being close to your family."

Osiris looked at him for a long moment, almost missing that one of the stones was higher than the others as they walked.

"No, I did not say that there was, but at some point…I'll be eighteen in a few weeks, sir. At some point you are supposed to get on without your parents."

"Yes, but typically, they're not dead, Osiris. And traveling is no large impediment to wizards."

"I suppose, master."

"In retrospect, I am fairly confident if I had handled things differently, without isolating you, then you would have been far less idiotic." He then amended, "In my defense, you wasted no time at all sending others to the Hospital Wing, and I doubted your ability to restrain yourself in general population with your school record. It seemed the safest plan."

"Yes, well, I am still embarrassed over that too, sir." Then he said, "In my defense, those things generally led to me getting attacked in the past. Showing that I'm not an easy target seemed the safest plan. At the time." Osiris still did not have much remorse over anything he had done to Malfoy Junior.

"You did not know at the time that I would not be like those at your former school who allowed the other students to torment you. And your brother," he allowed. "Survival instincts can be very irrational when displaced to different situations."

"I learned right away you would not be like them, though." There was a soft snort at the recollection. "They would have bloodied me more, not cleaned me up." It had happened all the time.

The master let out his own huff of amusement and said, "I learned right away when you thanked me instead of running away the moment I allowed you to, in an angsty huff at the unfairness of life."

Angsty huffs were not his thing. He had experienced too much reality even before apprenticeships and Dark Lords. "I did break at least one of their noses, master. I do have the sense to know when I deserve to be in trouble."

"You are your own largest impediment. Do not mistake it," the professor told the boy, bluntly, but without the cut of it being a censure, more an observation. "And understanding does not excuse bad decisions. You need to employ the same responsibility and control you use for our training all the time now. I know you can do it, so I expect it."

"Yes, master."

"Speaking of such things, we will need to discuss how the headmaster's plan impacts your training and apprenticeship." The two were distinct in his mind. "I will have an entirely different timetable and will not be able to do anything for your apprenticeship during class hours anymore."

Osiris raised a brow at the look of consternation the professor was wearing. "Why couldn't the headmaster just find someone to replace Lupin for Defense?" He, of course, had little idea that Professor Snape had wanted to teach Defense for some time.

"Because the headmaster is contrary enough to decide to give you what you want at the moment when he knows you least want it or no longer want it," he told the boy. "Something clearly takes precedence over our workload." Or simply them in general. "Which one would think your training should be rather important since that is what keeps his precious information." He was feeling considerable salt for the headmaster over the doings with Osiris.

"What if the headmaster just wishes someone who truly knows what they are doing with Defense," Osiris replied.

"Is that a critique of Lupin's skills?" His lip curved upward at that thought, even if it might only ever be a minuscule piece of Dumbledore's reasoning. His choice of Defense teachers had been abominable the last many years.

"By comparison to just what I learned at school previously, Professor Lupin is not preparing them at all. He is not challenging enough. They can barely do silent spells and whip their wands about and are just generally easy targets."

"I appreciate your confidence in my ability to best that," the professor might have joked, although his tone of voice did not reflect it one way or the other.

"You won't be concerned with enjoyment and having a good time, sir, which I think Professor Lupin likes. Being the popular teacher. That shouldn't be the class for it." He understood that even now more than ever. Even Professor Lupin being nice to him had ulterior motives in the end and subverting Professor Snape by giving him fake detentions had not been right either, no matter how much Osiris wanted to sleep.

Letting him escape the consequences that his own decisions had caused was not very responsible for a teacher.

"They won't be enjoying themselves much at all if they cannot manage silent spells yet." If any of them hoped to fight adult wizards, Death Eaters at that, they could not be waving their wands about and announcing what they were trying to do. "I hear Potter is rather fond of disarming, which I incidentally taught him 2nd year, though I doubt he would ascribe the knowledge to my tutelage; alarming that he has not learned anything significantly better since then."

Osiris chuckled. Though, if a good Expelliarmus was all Potter was practicing to defeat the Dark Lord, they were all in significant trouble. And not even a silent one at that!

"Frightening of the Chosen One, I know," the professor said, scathingly. He had never known a boy more intent on applying himself to no pursuit other than trouble and recklessness than Potter, and one would think he would have every reason to apply himself to the pursuit of some advanced form of magical knowledge. The Dark Lord is not waiting about for Potter to grow up. Yet, he would keep trying to get it through that thick, dunderheaded skull the boy inherited from his father.

As if sensing the tension of Prince Potter as a subject, Osiris asked, "So, who is this new Potions master Professor McGonagall spoke about?"

"I would not say new, Mr. Silver. He was my Head of House and was for a long time previous to that as well."

The boy made a face, and the corners of the professor's lips curled with some amusement. Mature or not, teenagers were all somewhat similar.

"And, well, there's no polite way to ask if he is any good…"

"I am better," the professor replied, evenly.

"Well, master, that does not precisely answer the question."

"Very good, I'll allow, but he is better at picking out particular talent than in displaying it himself."

"That will make class rather boring."

"You won't need to continue Potions class with him. They will lose their utility. We will accomplish more one on one." He then added, "You can assist him with the same classes you did for me, so that will not change."

Horace would probably take one week to decide that he could just watch Osiris teach his easier classes, and considering the boy had gotten a perfect OWL, he was more than trustworthy through all that material. Osiris had also been the only student in his 6th NEWT class that had known the first set of instructions they were given that year would have blown up. There were surely things his apprentice did not know, and he would make sure the boy knew that deeply too, but Mr. Silver was very capable in general when removed from distractions. With supervision, there would be no problem, and Horace had been dealing with Slytherin teenagers for half a century. He could handle one Mr. Silver.

His old Head of House would probably be pleased beyond measure to skate out of the less desirable aspects of teaching and return to his academic pursuits of sneaking Tentacula leaves from the greenhouse. And holding dinner parties.

"I think you should prepare for the headmaster to say you cannot continue classes at all," the professor said.

Up went a dark eyebrow, "None at all?"

"You are more of a liability as a student and splitting your attention does not suit his purposes. His focus will never contemplate what may be best for you. Don't forget that."

"Master, a complete idiot would have figured that out by now."

Having already contemplated it, he said to the boy, "The specifics of your magical education likely matter extremely little if you are dead, you already have an apprenticeship so your NEWT scores do not matter, and you have plenty of money and a business so you'll never need any of it for a resume or a job."

Osiris shrugged, "Egyptians don't have laws about magical education either, and I don't think Minister Amun're cares one jot about Hogwarts or any exams." He chuckled at the thought. It was almost a strange free pass that the Egyptian Elder took an interest in him, because he was a foreigner here and not particularly bound to their laws long-term. "He surely did not caution me about my marks in classes before leaving."

"I think you are more than correct on Hogwarts and exams, he seems far more esoteric, and the headmaster dislikes the man as it is."

"Best not to mention any of the last 48 hours to him then."

"Indeed." All his other master needed to know was that Osiris was healed enough to not be a danger to them both when the Dark Lord called again. That was all Dumbledore cared about anyway. Whatever he did with the boy outside of his Order duties and school duties was not the headmaster's concern.

In a few more steps they encountered that pink-haired Auror that had helped him at the Order meeting. She lowered her lit wand when she recognized them.

"Oh, Professor Snape, it's you. They said you lot were still out. Everything all right?"

"Perfectly fine, Miss Tonks."

She did not seem deterred by the professor's short remarks and didn't move away from the door, probably not realizing he had no intention to stop and talk. "You're looking much better," she said to Osiris. "That gash on your face didn't even scar. You must have used a lot of dittany."

Tonks gave Professor Snape a look. She knew all about dittany from him after all. He did not seem to notice.

"Thanks. And I used quite a bit," Osiris replied, but what had finished the job had been what they had just done. Osiris was not about to tell her that. "Extra security detail?" he asked. There had been extra Aurors about on and off all year.

"Professor Dumbledore is out," she said in a quiet voice, leaning about closer to Osiris. Then she turned her attention back to the professor, "I hear you're taking over Defense, Professor Snape?" Her tone suggested she approved of that. Everyone knew he was vastly knowledgeable in that area.

"I am, Miss Tonks. If you wouldn't mind. I have things to do." He took a step forward. She got the hint and moved aside. He looked over at Osiris and said, "Don't be long, Mr. Silver." He gave another glance between the two and went inside.


AN - I dedicate Osiris' critique of Lupin & Dumbledore to my loyal reviewer Duj! Thanks so much for your thoughts & words about my stories!

I hope everyone is enjoying the maturation of the relationship between Osiris & Snape! It will be mostly the two of them with a little of this and a little of that thrown in as we sail to the end ;)