The Liber Severi
Liber I - Severus Snape's True Love
Copyright (c) 2001 by Cassandra Houston
Illustrations by Gabriel (http://www.angelfire.com/art/angelgabriel/)
Author's Notes:
Most of the characters within belong to JK Rowling. Amethyst Rayne Black Snape, Lapis Meaker and some others belong to me, Cassandra Houston. I will not accept money for this book, nor any others made with the wonderful characters JK Rowling has created. I am only putting on paper my interpretation and theory of what the Rowling characters may have been like before the Harry Potter series and what they may be like after. I am not trying to insult or steal from Rowling. I am only having fun here.
If you like what you read (and I certainly hope you do), please feel free to forward a copy of this ebook along to friends, family and anyone else who may enjoy its contents.
I must take the time here to thank Gabriel. Gabriel! You are a saint and I am forever in your debt!
I now give you Severus Snape's True Love, the first in the Liber Severi series.
Cassandra Houston
Chapter Eight: Miraculous Happenings
They appeared in Sirius' living room. He was grateful that he'd gotten Bill to teach him his Cleaning spell. The place was immaculate.
Amethyst grinned, looking around. "Well." She said. "I guess people really can change."
Sirius looked at her, "And what's that supposed to mean?" he asked in mock indignation.
"Means you managed to find a floor." She said, sniggering. She dodged a playful hit and winced. "I need a hot bath." She said, "I feel like I've been in a fight or something."
"I'll bet," Severus said, grinning. "Where in the world did you learn to fight like that? I've never seen any woman do anything like that before?"
Amethyst grinned. "Well, I picked it up in the States." She said. "Americans don't use magic as much as we do, believe it or not." She said, and laughed at the looks of shock on their faces. "Think about the history and it makes sense. Anyway, they still use magic, but it's different. A lot of the Defense Against The Dark Arts I taught was in the realm of disarming your opponent and beating the bloody hell out of them. I was taught to fight in my first year at Salem by Terry Daley. He grew up in Chicago." She sighed. "He used to say he could feel the anger in me and I may as well use it to my advantage." She shook herself a little. "Where's the bath, Sirius."
He pointed and she left the room, leaving Sirius and Severus standing in the living room, looking a bit foolish.
Sirius cleared his throat. "Sit down, Severus." He eventually said. He went into his kitchen and called over his shoulder, "I could use a bender. You?"
"Yea, definitely." Severus agreed.
Sirius returned with a bucket filled with ice and bottles, which he put on the table. He grabbed one and handed it to Severus and took another for himself. He sat on the opposite end of the sofa from Severus and the two of them drank in silence. A laugh from Sirius made Severus look at him sharply.
"I was just thinking about this bit of skirt I dated about a year ago." He explained. "Actually, it was Lapis who set us up. He makes me look like an innocent little lamb. Anyway, I was so uncomfortable with her. We just sat as far away from each other as we could and looked at each other." He emptied his bottle. "And that's how I'm feeling again."
Severus actually laughed. "Guess we are being a bit tight, aren't we?" And finished his own. Then he opened another and lapsed into silence.
Sirius sighed, "All right then," he said. He took a swig and continued. "We worked well together tonight. Hell, we didn't try to kill each other, anyway. Got to start somewhere, right?"
Severus nodded, a slight smile forming. "I figured you'd try to kill me when you found out Amethyst had come up missing." He said.
Sirius shrugged. "There were a couple of things kept me from doing it. First, you looked to be beating seven shades of shit out of yourself just fine." He grinned. "Second, I talked to an old friend of mine, Bill Weasley. He let me work it all out in my head. I finally realised that my sister loves you and has since she was thirteen years old. She didn't care if you were a Death Eater. She didn't care if being with you could have gotten her killed. She just wanted to be with you. Took me over twenty years to get my head out of my arse long enough to realise it had nothing to do with me. I was blinded by my hatred of you, which was compounded by the fact that you were with my sister. And I went off half-arsed and destroyed my relationship with her." He took another drink. "I never have been and probably never will be in love. I've banged a fair few women but it didn't have any meaning, if you know what I mean. It was just, well, sex." He looked into his bottle before draining it. "I had to admit that you had goolies. I managed to keep guys away from my sister from her first day at Hogwarts until she met you. And considering the whole Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry thing, the fact that she wound up with you took me by surprise, all right. I thought the Fates were being particularly cruel. I didn't like you. I hated you. I don't think I figured out that you were not the slime ball I had you pegged for until, well, until tonight."
Severus nodded thoughtfully. He was keeping up with Sirius' drinking. He replaced his empty bottle with a full one, opened it and tapped it with his long fingers. "I remember the day I met Amethyst." He began slowly. "Dumbledore told me I was to tutor some third year and I was not real pleased with the idea. Somehow I thought I had better things to do. When I saw she was your sister, I thought to myself 'Great. I'm dead when he finds out.' I didn't like you; I didn't like your group of friends. I'll admit, I was a bit jealous. I'm no athlete, and the girls flocked around you lot like crazy. I was a scholar and no sex symbol." He drank long from the bottle. "Amethyst was scared to death of me, I think, but I don't think it was anything to how scared I was of her. She always said she wasn't beautiful, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone as beautiful in my life, and I am not sixteen anymore. She was, at the time, however, terrible at potions." They both smiled at this. "I don't think that girl could have made a cup of tea without fucking it up."
Sirius laughed out loud at this, "She couldn't. Trust me." And they both laughed. The alcohol was doing its job.
When the laughter died down, Severus continued. "I gave up on potions making with her and moved into theory when she damn near blew us up. We had plenty of talks about potions and eventually everything else under the sun. I was falling for her. And in most ways that meant I was falling for Sirius Black's sister and that was not a good thing. But I just couldn't stop it. Believe me, I tried." He killed the bottle and went for another. "By the time that year ended, there wasn't much I could do except hope she'd get over this crush on me over the summer. But she sent me an owl and we met and I just couldn't go back. I showed her the Dark Mark when I first got it. We'd promised to be honest, but I was scared to death. I knew how you and your lot felt about Death Eaters in general and me in particular. I couldn't believe it when she told me she loved me whether I was a Death Eater or not." He finished the bottle and reached automatically for another. He drained it and spoke again. "I offered to modify her memory, even. She told me she'd rather I killed her than take her memory of me." He looked at the expression on Sirius' face. "I don't think I could have made myself do it, even though I did know how." He said simply. "I thought we couldn't hate each other more, then you came to me telling me she was dead. My shock was the only thing that saved your life that day." He said, matter-of-factly. "Then you went to Azkaban and I spent the next twelve years hating you. By the time we met in the Shrieking Shack I had no trouble at all with the idea of turning you over to the Dementors. None whatsoever. All because you would even suggest I had something to do with Amethysts death. Every time I saw you after that, I thought about Amethyst and I thought you just might have been right. That my being a Death Eater killed her." And he looked towards the bath. "Lupin almost killed me with the news she was still alive." He said. He took another bottle and silence reigned again.
Sirius broke it. "I still don't know what came over me. Barking mad I was. Voldemort was everywhere and I was terrified that something horrible would happen to Amethyst." He said, weakly. "I can't say I'm sorry enough. I can never make up for what I did to you two."
Severus began to speak, but stopped himself, took a drink, drew a deep breath and tried again. "Why don't we just try and put it behind us as best we can." He said. "We can chalk up all the unforgivable things we've done each other to being stupid and young. We're older now. If nothing else we need to at least pretend to get along."
Sirius nodded. "We will never be mates, I don't think." He said slowly.
Severus smiled. "Never say never, mate." He said. "I thought I would never fall for a Gryffindor."
They laughed together again. "Ohhhhhh, what wonderful opportunity for blackmail", brought them back to reality. Amethyst was out of the bath. She'd tended her wounds and washed and dried her hair. She'd even repaired and cleaned her robes. "Sirius Black and Severus Snape drinking and laughing together."
Severus grinned at her. "And just who do you think would believe you?"
Amethyst bit her lip. "Point made." She said. She walked over to the couch and lay with her head in Severus' lap and her bare feet in Sirius' lap. "I see you haven't killed each other." She yawned.
"We have reached a mutual understanding, love." Severus said, stroking her head.
"Yup." Sirius said. "We mutually understand that we both love you."
Amethyst, who'd been falling asleep, jerked awake. "I'm sorry. I must have been dreaming. I thought you said something about mutually understanding that you both love me." She sat up. "Severus Snape and Sirius Black do not mutually anything!"
"Well we do now." Sirius said. "If we could work together tonight as well as we did, I'm sure we can do it again, someday."
Sirius suddenly grabbed Amethysts bare foot and began tickling the bottom of it. When she tried to get away, Severus held her down. "Stop! Stop!" Amethyst screamed, laughing harder by the minute.
"Not until we have your word that no one will ever know Severus and I are beginning to get along." Sirius said, smiling.
"Severus!" Amethyst screamed.
"I am in complete agreement with Sirius, love." He said, looking down at her with a grin. "We have reputations to protect, you know."
They tickled her until she agreed and stopped immediately. She jumped up and turned to face the two men on the sofa. She was smiling, but trying to look stern. "I think I liked you two better what you each wanted the other dead!" She huffed. She turned and stomped into the kitchen where they heard her banging around. They looked at each other.
"You think she's looking for a knife?" Severus said, still grinning.
"You know her." Sirius said.
"Probably." They said together and they both laughed.
Amethyst reappeared, carrying three steaming goblets. She carefully put them on the table in front of them. They both eyed it, still trying to control their laughter. Sirius was on his knees and Severus was full length on the couch. Severus sat up and Sirius stood. "What is it?" they asked together, which sent them off again into gales of laughter.
"You've both gone mad." Amethyst said, as if stating a simple fact. "It is a combination Wakefulness draft and Sobriety potion. You two need to wake up and sober up if I'm going to take my two favourite men to breakfast." She raised her glass. "To miraculous happenings," she said, still eyeing them as if they were mad.
Sirius and Severus looked at each other a moment, then each reached for a glass.
"To miraculous happenings" they said, together.
Liber I - Severus Snape's True Love
Copyright (c) 2001 by Cassandra Houston
Illustrations by Gabriel (http://www.angelfire.com/art/angelgabriel/)
Author's Notes:
Most of the characters within belong to JK Rowling. Amethyst Rayne Black Snape, Lapis Meaker and some others belong to me, Cassandra Houston. I will not accept money for this book, nor any others made with the wonderful characters JK Rowling has created. I am only putting on paper my interpretation and theory of what the Rowling characters may have been like before the Harry Potter series and what they may be like after. I am not trying to insult or steal from Rowling. I am only having fun here.
If you like what you read (and I certainly hope you do), please feel free to forward a copy of this ebook along to friends, family and anyone else who may enjoy its contents.
I must take the time here to thank Gabriel. Gabriel! You are a saint and I am forever in your debt!
I now give you Severus Snape's True Love, the first in the Liber Severi series.
Cassandra Houston
Chapter Eight: Miraculous Happenings
They appeared in Sirius' living room. He was grateful that he'd gotten Bill to teach him his Cleaning spell. The place was immaculate.
Amethyst grinned, looking around. "Well." She said. "I guess people really can change."
Sirius looked at her, "And what's that supposed to mean?" he asked in mock indignation.
"Means you managed to find a floor." She said, sniggering. She dodged a playful hit and winced. "I need a hot bath." She said, "I feel like I've been in a fight or something."
"I'll bet," Severus said, grinning. "Where in the world did you learn to fight like that? I've never seen any woman do anything like that before?"
Amethyst grinned. "Well, I picked it up in the States." She said. "Americans don't use magic as much as we do, believe it or not." She said, and laughed at the looks of shock on their faces. "Think about the history and it makes sense. Anyway, they still use magic, but it's different. A lot of the Defense Against The Dark Arts I taught was in the realm of disarming your opponent and beating the bloody hell out of them. I was taught to fight in my first year at Salem by Terry Daley. He grew up in Chicago." She sighed. "He used to say he could feel the anger in me and I may as well use it to my advantage." She shook herself a little. "Where's the bath, Sirius."
He pointed and she left the room, leaving Sirius and Severus standing in the living room, looking a bit foolish.
Sirius cleared his throat. "Sit down, Severus." He eventually said. He went into his kitchen and called over his shoulder, "I could use a bender. You?"
"Yea, definitely." Severus agreed.
Sirius returned with a bucket filled with ice and bottles, which he put on the table. He grabbed one and handed it to Severus and took another for himself. He sat on the opposite end of the sofa from Severus and the two of them drank in silence. A laugh from Sirius made Severus look at him sharply.
"I was just thinking about this bit of skirt I dated about a year ago." He explained. "Actually, it was Lapis who set us up. He makes me look like an innocent little lamb. Anyway, I was so uncomfortable with her. We just sat as far away from each other as we could and looked at each other." He emptied his bottle. "And that's how I'm feeling again."
Severus actually laughed. "Guess we are being a bit tight, aren't we?" And finished his own. Then he opened another and lapsed into silence.
Sirius sighed, "All right then," he said. He took a swig and continued. "We worked well together tonight. Hell, we didn't try to kill each other, anyway. Got to start somewhere, right?"
Severus nodded, a slight smile forming. "I figured you'd try to kill me when you found out Amethyst had come up missing." He said.
Sirius shrugged. "There were a couple of things kept me from doing it. First, you looked to be beating seven shades of shit out of yourself just fine." He grinned. "Second, I talked to an old friend of mine, Bill Weasley. He let me work it all out in my head. I finally realised that my sister loves you and has since she was thirteen years old. She didn't care if you were a Death Eater. She didn't care if being with you could have gotten her killed. She just wanted to be with you. Took me over twenty years to get my head out of my arse long enough to realise it had nothing to do with me. I was blinded by my hatred of you, which was compounded by the fact that you were with my sister. And I went off half-arsed and destroyed my relationship with her." He took another drink. "I never have been and probably never will be in love. I've banged a fair few women but it didn't have any meaning, if you know what I mean. It was just, well, sex." He looked into his bottle before draining it. "I had to admit that you had goolies. I managed to keep guys away from my sister from her first day at Hogwarts until she met you. And considering the whole Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry thing, the fact that she wound up with you took me by surprise, all right. I thought the Fates were being particularly cruel. I didn't like you. I hated you. I don't think I figured out that you were not the slime ball I had you pegged for until, well, until tonight."
Severus nodded thoughtfully. He was keeping up with Sirius' drinking. He replaced his empty bottle with a full one, opened it and tapped it with his long fingers. "I remember the day I met Amethyst." He began slowly. "Dumbledore told me I was to tutor some third year and I was not real pleased with the idea. Somehow I thought I had better things to do. When I saw she was your sister, I thought to myself 'Great. I'm dead when he finds out.' I didn't like you; I didn't like your group of friends. I'll admit, I was a bit jealous. I'm no athlete, and the girls flocked around you lot like crazy. I was a scholar and no sex symbol." He drank long from the bottle. "Amethyst was scared to death of me, I think, but I don't think it was anything to how scared I was of her. She always said she wasn't beautiful, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone as beautiful in my life, and I am not sixteen anymore. She was, at the time, however, terrible at potions." They both smiled at this. "I don't think that girl could have made a cup of tea without fucking it up."
Sirius laughed out loud at this, "She couldn't. Trust me." And they both laughed. The alcohol was doing its job.
When the laughter died down, Severus continued. "I gave up on potions making with her and moved into theory when she damn near blew us up. We had plenty of talks about potions and eventually everything else under the sun. I was falling for her. And in most ways that meant I was falling for Sirius Black's sister and that was not a good thing. But I just couldn't stop it. Believe me, I tried." He killed the bottle and went for another. "By the time that year ended, there wasn't much I could do except hope she'd get over this crush on me over the summer. But she sent me an owl and we met and I just couldn't go back. I showed her the Dark Mark when I first got it. We'd promised to be honest, but I was scared to death. I knew how you and your lot felt about Death Eaters in general and me in particular. I couldn't believe it when she told me she loved me whether I was a Death Eater or not." He finished the bottle and reached automatically for another. He drained it and spoke again. "I offered to modify her memory, even. She told me she'd rather I killed her than take her memory of me." He looked at the expression on Sirius' face. "I don't think I could have made myself do it, even though I did know how." He said simply. "I thought we couldn't hate each other more, then you came to me telling me she was dead. My shock was the only thing that saved your life that day." He said, matter-of-factly. "Then you went to Azkaban and I spent the next twelve years hating you. By the time we met in the Shrieking Shack I had no trouble at all with the idea of turning you over to the Dementors. None whatsoever. All because you would even suggest I had something to do with Amethysts death. Every time I saw you after that, I thought about Amethyst and I thought you just might have been right. That my being a Death Eater killed her." And he looked towards the bath. "Lupin almost killed me with the news she was still alive." He said. He took another bottle and silence reigned again.
Sirius broke it. "I still don't know what came over me. Barking mad I was. Voldemort was everywhere and I was terrified that something horrible would happen to Amethyst." He said, weakly. "I can't say I'm sorry enough. I can never make up for what I did to you two."
Severus began to speak, but stopped himself, took a drink, drew a deep breath and tried again. "Why don't we just try and put it behind us as best we can." He said. "We can chalk up all the unforgivable things we've done each other to being stupid and young. We're older now. If nothing else we need to at least pretend to get along."
Sirius nodded. "We will never be mates, I don't think." He said slowly.
Severus smiled. "Never say never, mate." He said. "I thought I would never fall for a Gryffindor."
They laughed together again. "Ohhhhhh, what wonderful opportunity for blackmail", brought them back to reality. Amethyst was out of the bath. She'd tended her wounds and washed and dried her hair. She'd even repaired and cleaned her robes. "Sirius Black and Severus Snape drinking and laughing together."
Severus grinned at her. "And just who do you think would believe you?"
Amethyst bit her lip. "Point made." She said. She walked over to the couch and lay with her head in Severus' lap and her bare feet in Sirius' lap. "I see you haven't killed each other." She yawned.
"We have reached a mutual understanding, love." Severus said, stroking her head.
"Yup." Sirius said. "We mutually understand that we both love you."
Amethyst, who'd been falling asleep, jerked awake. "I'm sorry. I must have been dreaming. I thought you said something about mutually understanding that you both love me." She sat up. "Severus Snape and Sirius Black do not mutually anything!"
"Well we do now." Sirius said. "If we could work together tonight as well as we did, I'm sure we can do it again, someday."
Sirius suddenly grabbed Amethysts bare foot and began tickling the bottom of it. When she tried to get away, Severus held her down. "Stop! Stop!" Amethyst screamed, laughing harder by the minute.
"Not until we have your word that no one will ever know Severus and I are beginning to get along." Sirius said, smiling.
"Severus!" Amethyst screamed.
"I am in complete agreement with Sirius, love." He said, looking down at her with a grin. "We have reputations to protect, you know."
They tickled her until she agreed and stopped immediately. She jumped up and turned to face the two men on the sofa. She was smiling, but trying to look stern. "I think I liked you two better what you each wanted the other dead!" She huffed. She turned and stomped into the kitchen where they heard her banging around. They looked at each other.
"You think she's looking for a knife?" Severus said, still grinning.
"You know her." Sirius said.
"Probably." They said together and they both laughed.
Amethyst reappeared, carrying three steaming goblets. She carefully put them on the table in front of them. They both eyed it, still trying to control their laughter. Sirius was on his knees and Severus was full length on the couch. Severus sat up and Sirius stood. "What is it?" they asked together, which sent them off again into gales of laughter.
"You've both gone mad." Amethyst said, as if stating a simple fact. "It is a combination Wakefulness draft and Sobriety potion. You two need to wake up and sober up if I'm going to take my two favourite men to breakfast." She raised her glass. "To miraculous happenings," she said, still eyeing them as if they were mad.
Sirius and Severus looked at each other a moment, then each reached for a glass.
"To miraculous happenings" they said, together.