Chapter 67: The River Of Eternity

{A/N: Here's Another Update....}

My Thanks To All My Readers And Reviewers...Enjoy-S.S.

{"He said life's a lot to think about sometimes...When you keep it all between the lines...Of everything I want and I want to find, one of these days... What you thought was real in life somehow steered you wrong...Now you just keep drivin' tryin' to find out where you belong...I know you feel helpless now and I know you feel alone...That's the same road, that same road that I am on...What you thought was real in life somehow steered you wrong...Now you just keep drivin' tryin' to find out where you belong...I know you feel helpless now and I know you feel alone...That's the same road, that same road that I am on..."}The Road I'm On, 3 Doors Down

The Battlements, Hogwarts Castle, Wizarding World...(1997)...

Swollen clouds of the deepest gray swirled in the ever looming sky above Hogwarts Castle as Potions Professor Severus S. Snape stood alone amid the scent of rain and high winds reflecting on the up coming chaos as his heart and mind warred with one another in the wake of him being given a simultaneous assignment from The Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. It had been in direct violation of the despot known as The Dark Lord Voldemort's orders to Draco Malfoy but the silent wizard had taken two unbreakable vows to ensure the safety of his young godson and the clueless Harry Potter.

The images of a small boy with raven hair much like his own and similar obsidian colored eyes had been burned into the halls of his vast memory as he stood before the chaotic sea as the very last of his unspoken hopes and unobtainable dreams seemed to sink into the bottom of it's murky depths. It was all too clear to him now that there had never been any choice for him in the direction his life would go in, his brief moments of happiness were just that...brief moments born from accidental interest as opposed to something intended for the likes of him.

Without another thought as to what his life might have been like had he not been used an unwilling pawn between two wizarding forces, Severus Snape buried any further aspect of hope for himself as well as the long carried dream of being permanently reunited with the family he had left behind so far away from the chaos and carnage of wizarding England. If he had ever ventured back, there would be nothing left of him for them to love and he refused to be the reason for the loss of yet another son.

Elaine and Regulus were his past and his duty had been all that mattered if they were ever going to live in a world free of attention seeking monsters hell bent on using those they considered their lesser as pieces in wizarding chess. Severus Snape made a silent vow to ensure his son never had to walk the same path as he, or he would die trying even if it meant becoming a monster in the eyes of the world to do it.

Severus Snape allowed his emotions to become submerged in the watery depths of his mind which he constructed to have been as deep as the ocean in which he had been staring, a slow coldness began to fill him as he turned his attention to readying himself for the task at hand.

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Dark Dank Cell, Azkaban Prison, Outskirts Of The Wizarding and Muggle Worlds...

Regulus Snape willed himself to stand after yet another vicious beating on the behalf of the guards that had taken it upon themselves to let him know just how "welcome" a Snape had been here in Azkaban. Two years of their hospitality and he had been well accustomed to the bruises and broken skin due to their preference for the magical whip. The rather thin pale wizard smirked thinking back to how angry he had been after finding out that he'd been left to rot in the uncharted pit from hell for the past two years for a crime he had not committed. Harry Potter's word, despite his history of never knowing of what he was talking about had been enough to incriminate him.

Harry Potter.

The beaten young wizard rolled his eyes not in the least having the energy to vent his outrage on the subject of geek boy or the fact that he had always gotten his way. If he had not believed him to have been an overrated, egomaniac before he had been of the mind to agree with whomever Arcturus had been when he brought it to his attention years ago.

Regulus had felt his knees buckle despite his best efforts to stay on his feet and it was quite difficult to breathe due to his broken ribs but he stubbornly clung to the wall for several moments before collapsing onto the cold stone floor.

He had been out of it when he heard the door to his cell being opened and two of the guards rush in. They had not been the usual guards that had taken him for his daily beatings as if that would endear them to anyone whom had held Albus Dumbledore or Harry Potter in high regard.

"He's semi-conscious." said one of them looking to be a bit concerned.

"It's a wonder he survived this long...he's got a bloody fever." said the other feeling Regulus' forehead.

"Hey Snape...stay with us...you're being released today it'd be a shame if you died before it could happen." said the first guard.

Regulus glared at him despite his delirious mindset.

As the two guards carried him from the cell and into what appeared to have been an infirmary, the younger Snape found himself noting the presence of his long deceased father. Without saying a word, he reached for him, resulting his heart rate skyrocketing in the process.

"SNAPE!" shouted one of the guards trying to get through to him. "WE HAVE TO HURRY WE'RE LOSING HIM!"

The silent wizard clad in ebony said nothing as he watched his son slip from the land of the living despite the rushing of the guards to save his life.

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Unknown Location, Unknown World...

Regulus Snape opened his eyes to find that he had been back in North America staring into the fast moving river that had been located about five miles from his childhood home. He caught a glimpse of the ebony clad wizard making his way across the stream. Filled with fear and longing to catch up to his father, Regulus took off running toward him.

"PAPA!" he shouted noticing for the first time that he had the voice of a small child.

Severus Snape seemed to not have heard him as he continued to cross the rushing river ahead of him. The water seemed to have had no effect on him as he reached the other side without looking back. Regulus grew all the more desperate to reach him but the water had been moving too fast and it had been much too cold to swim across given his age.

"PAPA WAIT!" he shouted as his words had once more fallen on deaf ears.

Severus Snape continued to make his way amid the rolling hills on the other side as if nothing could impede his journey.

Regulus looked down at his hands shocked that his childish appearance. Looking back across the fast moving river at his distant father, the boy Regulus made up his mind to be just like him casting away any means of foolish emotion that held him back.

Running straight ahead, Regulus Snape rushed through the icy water, pushing himself to reach the same water-less banks as his father before him not looking back as he pressed forward. Ignoring the coldness of the water and the fast current, he reached the opposite hill as the water from the rushing river dripped off his body which he found to be clad in ebony attire not so unlike his father's.

There had been no sign of Severus Snape, despite the younger Snape's efforts to reach him. Turning back to the stream, Regulus caught sight of his own reflection. He had no longer been a child struggling to keep up with the quick advancing footsteps of his father before him but a grown man whom had now become the living embodiment of him.

It didn't take long for him to realize as he looked back across the stream to see the ghostly reflection of the small boy struggling to keep up with him that it had not been his father that he saw crossing the fast moving river but himself.

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Infirmary, Unknown Location...

The obsidian eyes of Regulus Snape burst open and he found himself in a strange room surrounded by several healers and hooked up to a beeping and buzzing machines. He had been confused as to how he had ended up in a place like this but quickly recalled the guards speaking about him being released from Azkaban. Unsure of whom to trust following his less than savory experience with trusting the likes of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger before hand, he ripped the tubes from his chest and attempted to rush out of the nearest window.

The healers all attempted to calm him only to find themselves thrown about via wand-less magic as the startled younger Snape rushed out of the room dodging well meaning healers and patients alike in his attempt to escape.

He had gotten half way down a large corridor toward the reception desk when he was stopped by none other than Lucius Abraxas Malfoy whom had been given word of Regulus' release and transfer to St. Mungo's Hospital.

"REGULUS!" said the worried blond wizard.

Upon hearing his uncle's voice for the first time in two years, Regulus seemed to have calmed down. Lucius made his way over toward the younger Snape relieved that his source had been correct in their given information as he embraced the trembling and utterly confused boy as he would have his father.

Regulus looked up at Lucius, his usually handsome face riddled with exhaustion following his continuous campaign to get him freed and brought home. Draco Malfoy had been there as well rushing over to the weakened Regulus and aiding his father in holding up the ailing young wizard.

"Father let's get him home." said Draco pleased to have found Regulus Snape still very much alive despite the guards' best efforts to ensure otherwise.

Lucius agreed narrowing his gray eyes at the staff before he and his son left the building with Regulus Snape in tow, it seemed the family had at last been reunited.

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Adjacent Rooftop, Muggle World...

The brown eyes of the wizard known as Lucius Arcturus Prince stood watching as his elder twin brother was carted off to safety by the Malfoys. It would only be a matter of time before the next stage of his apparent master plan to expose Harry Potter for the fraud he was would come into play.

"I'll be seeing you soon." he said amid the darkness. "Brother."