Thank you to all those who have stuck to this series for this long! It's so hard to believe that this series started 4 years ago! And it has truly helped me grow and develop as a writer. Yet, after all this time I still struggle with the first chapter. Anyway. please enjoy this next segment of the Second Chances Reality.
There were no doors. There were no windows. Metal bars surrounded him like a bird cage, and cold shackles tied his hands and ankles to the concrete floor beneath him, rattling and clanking as he moved them around in an attempt to pick the locks with a pin he had found lying next to him. He had no idea where he was or how he got there, but he knew one thing: he had to escape.
Severus Snape cursed when the pin fell out of his hands. He had been so close to freeing himself and now he would have to start over. As it was, his legs were starting to cramp from sitting crisscrossed for so long. He reached for the pin, but his fingers could not find the small object in the dark room. Severus felt around and his fingers graced something soft and he picked the object up.
The room slowly filled with enough light to see the new object, and Severus realized he was holding a lily. He glanced around the room. Several lilies were potted all around the tiny room, blooming despite the lack of sunlight.
Severus frowned. Oddly, the pin had vanished. Severus contorted his body in all ways to look for the pin on the floor of his cage. Where would a pin just vanish to? As he felt around the outside of the cage as far as his shackles would allow, a cold splash of water jerked his body into panic mode.
The room was slowly filling with water, but where was the water coming from?
"Dad!" Harry's voice cried for him.
Severus looked across the room, noting for the first time that Harry was there. His son was tied to a chair, his hands tied behind his back, and the boy was struggling to free himself. Water was slowly rising in the room, and Severus's heart raced in his chest as he yanked on the shackled.
"Harry, hold on!" Severus shouted as water reached his chest. Severus tried to look for the pin in the water, hoping it would be pushed into his grasp by the water's pressure.
When I find out who did this to us, Severus thought, glancing at his son, I'm going to kill them.
Harry's head was still above water, but Severus took a deep breath as he was now completely submerged. He opened his eyes under the water, and he spotted the pin floating in front of him. He tried to reach for it with his hands, but they did not move far enough, and they yanked against the chains. He reached with his mouth instead and caught the pin in his teeth.
With it, he was able to quickly free himself and the cage fell apart under the pressure of the water and lilies were being pulled this way and that in the current. Severus swam for the surface, breaching the water and finding himself in the middle of an ocean, waves and thunder rumbling around him.
"Harry!" Severus cried out.
A huge wave crashed down on Severus, forcing the man under and tumbling him around like a piece of driftwood. Severus crashed with land and the waves receded, leaving him gasping and choking for air. Severus dragged himself across the muddy terrain, finding it strange that the ocean sounded miles away now. He stood, his knees cracking in protest, and looked around. Where was Harry? Had he failed to save him?
Severus saw nothing but black sky all around him. He looked down and realized he was standing on the very edge of a muddy cliff. And clearly, noticing his predicament was enough to send him falling over the edge, and his chest tightened from the sudden feeling of flight and his hands searched wildly for non-existent breaks to catch himself.
Above him, the clouds rolled into a strange shape. Severus frowned and tried to make sense of it when he struck shrubbery that cut and scratched him as he tumbled through it before landing harshly in a pile of dry, crackling leaves.
Severus groaned as he pushed himself up slowly, kneeling on the ground while he stretched his back, his muscles hurting. Something growled from the bushes as it stalked past the man, circling Severus, who watched its movements as he searched for his wand in his sleeves this time. No such luck.
The creature emerged from the bushes, and it crouched low to the ground with bloodshot eyes, its tail flicking and its ears flattened.
"Faolan," Severus said, jumping to his feet, glad to see that Harry was alive but also cautious of the tiger. Harry had acted this way before after he and his friends had been trapped on island during their second year. Severus held up his hands to show that they were empty. "Easy, Faolan."
The tiger snarled and swiped at Severus's hands, forcing the man to jump back. Faolan roared and leaped.
Severus ducked just as Sam jumped out from the trees and forced the tiger away, both disappearing in black fog that began to swallow everything in sight. Severus didn't move as he was sure he would only lose himself in the fog. He had no clue what had happened to Harry or why his son was like this once more, but the sooner he found his wand, the sooner he could end this insanity.
He was digging through his pockets again when he noticed a strange mark on his robe right at his sternum. It was the same shape he saw in the clouds when had been falling. The shape flashed red and Severus gasped at the sharp sting that faded quickly, turning into a dull, throbbing ache.
Blood started dripping from his chest and Severus collapsed to the ground . . .
"Ahh!" Severus gasped in pain as he sat up in his bed and clutched at his chest, looking at his hands for blood and feeling around. He was shirtless, and there was no blood, just sweat. Severus took in several deep breaths as he looked around his room, taking in the darkness of his room and the time: exactly four forty-four am.
It had all been a dream.
Severus collapsed into his pillow and closed his eyes, throwing an arm over his head. He was still panting, and his heart was racing. Sympathy pains throbbed across his chest. Everything about that dream unsettled him for some reason, but Severus could not understand why for the life of him.
Severus swallowed dryly and cleared his mind, summoning a Dreamless Sleep potion. He measured out a small dose, hoping to sleep for a couple more hours before he had to rise and prepare for the day. He swallowed the potion, rolled over and focused on falling back to sleep.
Three hours later, Severus managed to pull himself out of bed and shower, enjoying the heat of the hot water. After a shave, face wash, and dressing in his teaching robes, Severus left his room rubbing the exhaustion out of his eyes. He nearly tripped over the fox sitting outside his bedroom door.
: I was going to ask if you slept well, Sam said, backing away from Severus when the man nearly stepped on him, but by the looks of it, you could crawl back into bed and hibernate like a bear.
"Sorry, Sam," Severus muttered, walking toward his kitchen. "I had the strangest dream."
: Me too, Sam said, trotting at Severus's side. I was back in Japan fighting over a fish with tanuki. But then the fish stood up on its tail and started yelling at me and the tanuki, insulting us with such vulgar words. Then it tripled in size and tried to eat me, and it actually chased me around the forest. Then my sister appeared and told me to stop playing with my food.
Severus looked down at Sam with a quirked brow as he pulled out a frying pan to start making eggs and sausage.
"And I thought you were odd when you were awake," he said.
: Thing is—Sam wrinkled his nose—I don't even like mackerel.
Severus snorted and began cracking eggs over the pan. The three-tailed kitsune, his son's familiar, sat down at his heel and stared up at him expectantly, one of his ears flopping over.
: So? What was your strange dream?
Of course, the fox must know, Severus thought. He bit the inside of his cheek, wondering if he could even share the dream without embarrassing himself.
"It's . . . a lot to remember. I think I'm already forgetting half of it." Severus frowned as he thought back to the dream that woke him in a sweat. "At first I was in a cage and Harry was tied up not far away. I managed to get out but then I was under water and Harry was gone . . . then I was falling and ended up in some jungle not unlike that island we saved the kids from last year. And then Faolan attacked me but you intervened. Then I was surrounded by fog and . . . and this symbol on my chest—I don't know, one second I see it and the next I'm bleeding all over. Like I said, it was strange."
: Hmm, stranger things have happened. What was this symbol?
"I don't know. I could never get a good look at it."
: I see. Well, in my experience, dreams are often significant to some aspect of our life or they mean absolutely nothing. I'm sure I have no fear of being eaten by a fish anytime soon, or you being uh, killed by a symbol.
"Don't jinx me," Severus glared at the fox halfheartedly.
Sam smiled, then his ears perked up as Harry's footsteps sounded on the stairs and came running into the kitchen. Harry was dressed in his new school robes and shoes and his hair was still damp from his shower.
"Dad," Harry said, shoving a parchment toward Severus. "You forgot to sign this again!"
Severus glanced at the parchment and raised a brow at his son.
"I'm sure you could ask me in a more mature manner than that, young man."
"May you please sign this form that I've been asking you to sign all summer?"
Severus rolled his eyes and took the parchment, summoning a quill from his study. He quickly scrawled his name where it was indicated and handed the form back to Harry. However, he didn't let go of it right away when the boy tried to take it.
"It has not been all summer," Severus said. "You only received this two weeks ago and you've obsessed over it since."
"Well, if you didn't keep putting it off every time I asked you and then forgot about it, I wouldn't have obsessed over it."
"How could someone be so cheeky this early in the morning?"
"Genetics," Harry smirked.
Severus narrowed his eyes.
"I think I need to erase my signature," Severus decided, tugging on the parchment to take the form back.
"No, it's too late, you already signed it!" Harry managed to pull the form out of his father's grip. "No take backs."
Severus snorted and ruffled Harry's hair. He made a face at the dampness and waved his hand over the boy's head, drying the hair completely. Harry used a hand to fix his hair.
"Sit down and eat some breakfast," Severus demanded, handing the boy a plate and giving his shoulder a gentle shove. "I hope you're all packed for school. I've been reminding you to make sure you had everything all week."
"Of course, you'd remember to do that but not sign my Hogsmeade permission slip. Everything's packed, even my emergency potions kit."
"And your cloak is packed as well? Along with the two schoolbooks that arrived late in the mail? And your new quill and ink set from Uncle Sirius?"
Harry stuffed his mouthful of scrambled eggs and Severus nodded knowingly, filling a bowl with sausage and eggs for Sam. He set the bowl on the floor for Sam, who began inhaling the food. Severus made himself a plate and sat at the head, waiting until Harry finished gulping down a glass of juice.
"I expect you to go pack the items I just mentioned as well as double check your suitcase for any other missing items. I am not flooing back here any time soon just to grab something you carelessly left behind."
"I'll double check everything," Harry said.
Phantom, Severus's great grey owl, pecked at the window in the kitchen to be let in. Severus flicked his wrist and the window opened, allowing the owl to fly into the room. Phantom delivered the Daily Prophet, fetching it from the mailbox down the driveway as he usually did every morning. Severus set the paper aside for now while he ate his breakfast with his family.
"Do you think I could work a little more for my allowance this year?" Harry asked. "You know, for the Hogsmeade trips?"
"I suppose if you'd like to come scrub cauldrons every night, that can be arranged."
"That's not exactly what I had in mind."
"Keep in mind," Severus said, sitting up straighter and giving Harry a stern look, "these Hogsmeade trips are privileges. And you will not spend any allowance on an absurd amount of sweets form Honeydukes."
"I know. I wasn't . . . going to."
"Mmhmm," Severus commented.
"Could I help you prep ingredients for the first years?" Harry picked at the rest of his food on his plate as he asked.
"That would be agreeable. A sickle for each ingredient you get done, is that a deal?"
Harry smiled and nodded at Severus. "Thanks, Dad. You're the best."
"Indeed," Severus agreed before lifting up the paper.
As his eyes fell on the front page, he sucked in a breath and the paper fell with a soft thud to the table. Severus stared down at the words and picture with wide eyes as his breathing picked up the pace to match his heart rate.
"Dad, what's wrong?" Harry asked.
Sam looked over at Severus with a tilted head and perked ears. Severus took a slow, deep breath, pushing down the anger that was starting to build up in his chest. He casually picked the paper back up and gave his son a reassuring smile.
"Nothing, I just thought I saw a familiar face on the front page. Turns out, no one I know."
"Really? Who would be on the front page that would make you react like that?"
"There are some people," Severus said. His eyes strayed away from the dark eyes of the man's picture, looking back up to his son's concerned look. Sam also seemed unconvinced. Severus rolled his eyes. "I overreacted to nothing, all right, you two. You're staring at me like the world is about to end. Finish your breakfast and you," Severus pointed at Sam, "go do whatever you usually do after breakfast."
: Oh, that's easy, Sam said, allowing the distraction for now as he strutted over to Harry and sat at the boy's feet. I wait for seconds.
Harry laughed and gave Sam another sausage link. Severus nodded his head, satisfied that they were back to acting like their usual selves. Severus looked back at the headline.
Dark Wizard Could be Eligible for Parole after 12 Years
Severus took a deep breath as he tried to keep himself together, though the tightening of his chest only grew with his increased efforts. Now was not the time to floo to the Ministry and demand for answers and injustice. He had to drop Harry off at King's Cross Station and see to his new first years later that night.
Tomorrow for sure he would find his way to the Ministry even if it meant canceling the first potion classes of the year.
There was no way he was letting the man who killed his wife walk free from prison.
They say you shouldn't start a story with such a cliched move like a dream, but I enjoy breaking the rules, and I hope it was interesting! Please share your thoughts!
