Lord Voldemort held out a long-drawn sigh at the unconscious boy in his bed, red eyes narrowed at how the latter unknowingly clutched his blanket for dear life. In addition to that, his guest was swaddled in scarves and clothes spelled with warming charms since the cold sensation running along the boy's body hadn't gone down even after he pulled the young man out of the Pensieve. He briefly wondered what would happen if he hadn't followed the boy into the stone basin.
Speaking of the viewed memory, the Dark Lord admitted what happened to Severus Snape was unpleasant and downright disturbing, but at the same time the terrible incident opened up to more mysteries surrounding the young man. Recalling at how Severus' fists shook in rage when seeing his past self struggling with the O.W.L. questions, then at the four Gryffindor boys who attacked him… he suspected there was something huge going on between Severus and the four boys.
He conjured an ink bottle, a quill and a piece of parchment before jotting down what he witnessed in the Pensieve, making notes about how Severus answered the werewolf questions, and the Gryffindors' nicknames.
When all was done, he put the quill in the ink bottle and tapped his chin. If he remembered right, one of the Lions' boys – the prefect – was called 'Moony'. What a strange name, he once thought but the more he delved into Severus' behaviors with them, re-watching the memory on the boys' conversations and checking his observations, it then made so much sense.
Was there… a werewolf in Hogwarts?
The Dark Lord huffed with flared nostrils. He should have known it was Albus Dumbledore's doings for taking in such creature into the school where young children roamed around, remembering the half-giant student a few years below him when he was in Hogwarts. It was a lucky thing that bumbling oaf had a spot for dangerous animals otherwise he couldn't pin down the blame of Myrtle Warren's death onto him.
But why would the old coot let a werewolf attending the school? No, wait;howcould a werewolf attend such place? Hadn't the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures put up a warning so that humanoid citizens of the wizarding world must be registered or otherwise paying up a hefty fine?
Unless of course, the werewolf in Hogwarts was unregistered and Dumbledore vouched to the Prefect boy's parents that the school would prevent unwanted incidents to happen. That probably wasn't true since Severus somehow found out about it, and Lord Voldemort's eyes glinted greedily at the raven-haired boy who remained unconscious, a wide grin was on his pale face.
Yes, he really had struck the jackpot with the young man. Did Severus know he held the keys that may topple Dumbledore's authority in the wizarding world? Perhaps not but that made the Dark Lord more willing to wait until he woke up. Patience is a virtue, after all.
Then they could create chaos for his new reign.
It was about two weeks into their summer vacation, and Remus Lupin was in the Leaky Cauldron, barely listening to his friends gushing over the old, battered Advanced Potion Making book that they took upon seeing Lily Evans left it on the table after the Potions O.W.L examination. He knew enough that the book didn't belong to the redhead girl due to it looked like an older edition; rather he had high suspicions that Severus Snape was its real owner.
And he was conflicted over it. The spells the Marauders found in the book were more than entertaining like theLanglockspell and the toenail-growing hex while the muffling charm was helpful in preventing others from listening in to their conversations. But theLevicorpusspell… Remus felt it was the prototype for something bigger that when James used it onto Snape, his heart clenched in great anxiety.
Sooner or later, Snape would know of them using the spell, and may plan his revenge soon. With his spell-crafting skills, Remus could only imagine in utter fright on what the Slytherin boy had in store for them. When he voiced his concerns however, his friends only laughed at him.
"Come on, he deserved it! And we hadn't had any fun since we almost got caught, eh?" Sirius Black barked with a grin. Indeed, after the disastrous 'prank' Sirius had played onto Snape at the start of their fifth year, they had to lie low in fear that their secrets would be exposed to the public. But as the months passed by and Snape remained keeping his mouth shut about the incident, they then realized fate had sided with them yet again and brushed the 'prank' off their minds.
Remus knew he should rein in his friends' shenanigans but he was also starved for real friendship and as such, let his opinions be swept under the rug for the umpteenth time. Besides, it was rather funny to catch Snape off-guard by his own spells; it's just… what James did afterward left a sour taste in him. Snape's cries for help haunted his mind and even after convincing himself the boy had it coming for snooping on them, it shouldn't warrant for his friends to strip him in front of everyone else.
While James went to order some food, someone entered the Leaky Cauldron and Remus' heart lurched in horror at who it was.
Severus Snape.
The Slytherin boy was wearing a black cloak with the hood hid part of his dour visage; his onyx eyes were steely as he headed for the other side of the counter. James, blissfully unaware of what occurred only walked back to their table.
"W- We should get out of here now," Remus started only for Sirius to frown and James to raise his eyebrows.
"We just got here Moony, and we still hadn't seen the new Quidditch brooms; what gives?"
"I- It's Snape!" Peter Pettigrew squeaked.
James and Sirius immediately turned to see Snape paying for a bottle of Butterbeer and took a seat a few tables away from them before smirking; the latter's grey eyes glinted wildly in excitement. "Heh, 'thought he went crying for his mama elsewhere. Guess we still hadn't taught him to mind his own business, eh?"
Remus clicked his tongue, agitated with how adamant they were to antagonize Snape. "Look, he's not doing anything right now, OK? Not everything is supposed to be a fight, Sirius-!"
"It's just the toenail hex, Remus; zip it!" Sirius glared at him and Remus instinctively cowered to avoid the situation escalating any further. Glancing at Peter, he saw the mousey boy's eyes lit up gleefully and he watched in terror of what could happen next.
But before Sirius could do anything, he was swept off his feet by a strong gust of wind; his head hitting the table causing to topple down and his wand flew into Snape's outstretched hand.
The Marauders turned to see Snape staring at them with his fathomless black eyes. "How… interesting to see you here," the boy drawled, cracking his neck.
Remus blinked. Was that Snape's doings? He shouldn't be so surprised by the non-verbal spells the boy casted seeing that he had created some wordless spells; however Snape's wand was nowhere to be seen. Had he practiced wandless magic? It wouldn't be until their seventh year for them to learn those!
Snape's eyes narrowed at the book fallen on the floor and realizing the dire situation they were in, James scrambled to catch it however just as before, the item leapt gracefully into the Slytherin boy's arms.
"Having fun?" Snape hissed with venom in his voice, clutching the book to his chest. "Do you think I didn't know what you've done?!"
Much to Remus' dismay, Sirius took the opportunity to goad Snape more, "Well it's your fault for leaving your book with Evans. She put it away after Potions exam and we got to get back at you for what you did to us. Trying to break us apart? Think again!" He motioned for James to give his wand, and from the corner of his eyes, Remus could see the customers were watching them.
"Come on now; we had our fun, didn't we?" he tried to reason only to be interrupted by a flash of red light and a loud bang that blinded everyone else. When he looked around to see what happened, he saw James and Sirius were writhing on the floor, scratching their faces which had wild rashes and bubbling yellow pus oozing out of their skin.
"C- Curse you, Snivellus!" James howled as he clawed at his own visage until blood began seeping out of his wounds.
By the time Snape's onyx eyes fell on Remus and Peter, the latter gulped in fright upon seeing Snape raising Sirius' wand and Remus hoped to the existing deities and gods for someone to save them from Snape's justified wrath.
Mere moments later, a girl's shrill voice echoed across the place.
"SNAPE!"
Lily Evans' initial intention of coming to the Leaky Cauldron (and by extension, Diagon Alley) was to get away from her sister, Petunia and her boyfriend, Vernon Dursley who loudly denounced her as a freak that amounted to nothing in life. Even as her parents tried to dissuade them from their outlandish thinking, Petunia argued on what their younger daughter could help with in the future due to not having proper secondary education.
However, the uncertainty in her parents' eyes told Lily enough and she hopped onto the bus heading to London to clear her mind, convincing herself there was so much more to the wizarding world than the nonsensical things Petunia spat out.
But upon arriving at the dingy eatery that acted as the entrance to one of the famous wizarding Britain's places, she was terrified by James Potter and Sirius Black's incessant scratching that caused their wounds to open up further, while Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew flinching at the person at the center of it.
Severus Snape.
It was an instinct to call out her friend-no, not friend. They weren't friends anymore, right? He had called her a Mudblood in front of everyone while she tried to help him out… just how ungrateful one could be?
Though, when she locked eyes with Snape, her bravado faded away like the wind. Snape's onyx eyes seemed to shine with wrath even as he stood up and left the place.
It was only then did Lily find her courage back and chased after him, "Snape!"
She was a few feet away from the boy when she found herself at the receiving end of his wand which let out some red sparks toward her and she gulped. She shouldn't be afraid of the kind boy from her childhood but people change, both for the better and the worse.
And he had fallen prey onto the latter category.
"You have no rights to be mad at me," Snape whispered. "In fact, I could hex you just like I did to them. You want to know why?" He then held his copy of Advanced Potion Making and Lily blinked in utmost confusion; what did it have to do with her Housemates?
"You left this on your table after you finished using it, not bothering to give it back!"
Her face turned pale. She remembered that she had checked her satchel after the examination but had not find the book anywhere and assumed Snape had taken it back without her noticing. She winced when Snape took out another wand and snapped it right in front of her, slowly crushing the broken halves with his boots to smithereens.
"Want to know what you really are?" Snape asked out of sudden, onyx eyes bulging in intense hatred to her.
Lily was paralyzed at her place like a rabbit caught in an eagle's talons, ready to be torn apart for dinner. She knew what the answer was, yet hoping for it to be false. How could someone so kind and gentle be terrifying and cruel? When had it gone wrong?
Then he uttered out the word that wounded her heart the most before taking his leave with a billowing of his black cloak.
"Mudblood."
Lord Voldemort returned to the apartment room he rented with a sharp gasp of breath, wincing as he haphazardly put the old Potions book on the dining table before taking off all the clothes he wore and summoned the black cloak to wrap around himself; the effects of the Polyjuice Potion he consumed had reached its time limit.
Standing in front of the mirror, he was mesmerized as Severus' sharp aquiline facial features slowly morphed into his own serpentine visage, thin fingers flexed and unfurled while he took deep breaths to calm down. What he felt when he met the Gryffindor boys was utmost puzzling and intriguing; it was as ifhewas Severus Snape, and the wrath flowing through his disguise was Severus' magic, wanting to lash out at his tormentors, causing the two of the four boys to claw at their faces.
Sighing after the transformation was complete, he sat down and summoned the Potions book, wondering why the posh young men would have such worn book and were willing to retrieve it instead of running away.
The Dark Lord got his answers soon after.
Even if the book was over three decades old, it was chockfull with improved potion recipes and techniques, along with some alternatives for rare ingredients. He tapped his yew wand onto the handwritings and found they were nearly one or two years old. However, he felt like he had seen the penmanship elsewhere and dived back into the Pensieve to check if his instincts were true.
Sure enough, it belonged to Severus thanks to his O.W.L answers.
Lord Voldemort then found himself fascinated with the spells written in the tome, and had tested a few of them. However, his curiosity was piqued upon seeing 'Levicorpus (n-vrbl)' in one of the pages and he readied his wand.
"Dobby!" he called for the Malfoys' house-elf, who appeared with a loud crack.
"Dobby is here, Master Dark Lord," Dobby spoke enthusiastically, bowing down to him so low he almost kissed the hem of his dark robes. "What does Master Dark Lord want from Dobby?"
"I will cast a spell on you. Do not resist it."
"Dobby understands, Master Dark Lord."
Lord Voldemort then mentally uttered the incantation and was startled by the elf's surprised yelp upon being lifted upside-down. He immediately searched for the counter-spell and casted it onto Dobby, who only blinked in bewilderment before was dismissed.
The Dark Lord thought back of what happened just then and his eyes widened minutes later in realization of what actually drove Severus to fall into a self-induced coma. It was not just the matter of assault. It was not about deep grudges Severus had against the Gryffindor boys, although he suspected it also played a part to what ailed the boy at the moment.
It was about pride and dignity. Of when one incident led to another, Severus' self-worth was beaten to the ground and as James Potter hoisted him upside-down in the air, exposing his greying underpants… it was mocking Severus' most prized talent: spell-crafting. Having his talent used against him, followed by a close friend's betrayal; even the strongest man has his own limits and that incident had broken the boy's heart.
A shudder ran along his spine and he grimaced even more. It would be the equivalent of people using his most cherished ability, Parseltongue to humiliate him: Tom Marvolo Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort. Even if the comparison seemed absurd (seeing that he was technically the last of the Gaunts, a family descended from Salazar Slytherin and thus making him the rarest wizard in existence), they were similar enough that the Dark Lord couldn't help but to sympathize with the sullen young man.
Could history somehow repeat itself with their encounter back in King's Cross Station? A poor half-blood wizard wanting to shed his unwanted Muggle side and was a prodigy in obscure branches of magic?
He flipped the pages to see if his suspicions were correct and was proven right when he found a sentence scribbled at the end cover of the book, written in the same penmanship as the recipes and spells:
This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince.