Susan Bones had strawberry blond hair. The color of the sunlight. She had soft brown eyes and a innocent face. She was a kind person and when the Aurors came to speak with her, she offered them something to drink. "My parents are at work now, I was just cleaning."
"No problem Susan. My name is Gideon, and this is Desmond."
She nodded at both of them. "Have a seat."
"Susan, we just came to ask you a few questions about last night." Desmond prodded gingerly. "Can you tell us who called you down?"
She shook her head. "The voice was familiar but I don't remember it." She was fidgeting with the hem of the chair she was sitting in. She was lying.
Or trying to protect someone. "Do you remember where you heard this voice before? School perhaps?"
"No. Defiantly not school."
"Do you like school, Susan?" Gideon asked kindly. "I use to teach, in America. Defense Against Dark Arts."
Susan smiled. "We get a new one of those every year. Yes, I do like school."
"What's your favorite subject?"
She blushed. "I don't really have one...Potions is the hardest..."
"Snape teaches that right?"
"Uh huh."
"Greasy haired git..."
"He's not that bad!" She defended quickly.
Gideon didn't have to glance at Desmond to knew he caught the change in her voice. Susan was quick to defend Snape which meant there was something more beneath the surface. Gideon spoke. "Susan do you know who or what 'Little Day' is?"
No answer.
"Susan, do you understand who we are?"
"Yes, your Aurors. Professor Moody told us about you last year." She looked up. "You kill Wizards."
"Dark Wizards."
"Wizards nonetheless."
Gideon sighed. "You seem like the kind of girl that likes things simple. You'd rather all this intrigue be left to Harry Potter or someone like that, well Susan I'll be honest with you. One of your teachers disappeared last night. Now we need to find out anything, anything that might help us find him."
She looked at her shoes. "Me."
"What?"
"I'm Little Day. Professor Snape calls me that because he says my hair is the color of a new day."
"Anything else you can tell us?"
"We're friends." She looked straight into his eyes. "He's not mean with me. He's never been mean to me. During my free time I go into his office and wait for him and we talk."
"About?"
"Anything. Schoolwork, Quidditch," Susan giggled. "Boys."
The mental image of Severus Snape talking to Susan about boys made Gideon laugh too. He began to ask another question but there was a knock at the door.
Susan stood and answered it.
It was a House Elf who called himself Dobby. He was out of breath and whining. "Master Auror! You must come quick! The Death Eater! He's coming into the school!"
"Snape." Desmond said, looking up at Gideon.
Gideon didn't acknowledge him. He was already out the door and racing towards Hogwarts. Desmond was soon after him. Neither Auror noticed Susan as she pulled on her cloak and stole away into the evening to follow them.
It had not been difficult entering Hogwarts. No secret incantations, no clever curses or hidden charms; Snape had been able to stroll in like if he was still a teacher.
You are still a teacher... Something in the back of his mind told him, so why are you doing this?
'Because I following my master's orders' he thought in reply.
But he's not your Master, Severus. Don't you remember? You redeemed yourself.
"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a Q-Tip." Snape replied bitterly. He remembered a friend of his, an Auror friend had once reported to work wearing a Muggle shirt with that inscription. He had laughed and it had stuck with him. Odd, how such an silly thing had been conjured up now.
It's because you once enjoyed a good joke... and because you are more like that friend then like Jackie...you're not a bad guy...
"What did I say!" He hissed. He was getting annoyed with that small voice. It had been with him since he had drunken the potion that had kept him alive. It had been constantly nagging at him and conjuring up faces.
Like Quirrell's? You know why you helped him that night...it was because once you would have gladly died for Voldemort...it's because you knew the only difference between him and you was that you had found out the truth in time to save your life.
As he walked up the steps towards Dumbledore, the voice was getting louder, more passionate and it was getting harder to ignore. The voice was saying words like 'mentor,' 'father,' 'family,' and 'love.' Yes, it was true, Dumbledore loved him and there had been a time when that ancient old man could make him; Severus Snape, the man who made the nations tremble, feel like a child again. A child, who had just won a contest and was looking up at a father who had nothing but pride for him.
"Don't forget what you are now, Severus." He whispered to himself as he arrived at the door to Dumbledore's rooms. In his mind, he played back to a time, as a Death Eater, he had snuck into these rooms to save the Headmaster's life. Countless other memories played over and over in his mind about those rooms, some joyous, others grim but all shared the same thing: Dumbledore always looked proud when he saw him. Inhaling, Snape pushed opened the doors...
And came face to face with his own reflection.
He was a little dumbstruck. This large, ornate mirror had never been in the room before. Snape examined it for a moment, on the top of the mirror something was inscribed:
Erised stra ehru oy ube cafru oyt on wohsi
It wasn't Latin, or any other language he was familiar with. He read the inscription again and then regarded the image again. It was a perfect image, exactly the same.
No, Snape realized. The reflection wasn't wearing a mask.
The image seemed to know what he was thinking because the mirror Snape smirked at him, amused. Then he lifted up his left arm and held it for Snape to see. With a soft chuckle, the mirror Snape pulled back his sleeve to reveal an arm void of the Dark Mark. The image dropped his arm and returned to staring at Snape. Then the robes began to change; from black to another color, a softer color but no less deep. Navy blue, the color of Auror robes.
Snape cursed at the mirror and stepped away from it. Pulling his wand, he heard the low growl of a familiar beast. He smiled.
"Ah, hello Remus."
The werewolf was quick to pounce and the initial force of the beast weight threw Severus off guard. He felt Remus' claws rip into his shoulders.
He cried out from the intensity of the wound and then recovered, shouting a curse and sending a fire ball out against Remus.
Remus jumped off but wasn't deterred. He reared up on his hind legs and howled.
Snape smiled. "That may have scared me as a boy, but now your hide shall adorn my walls." Then Snape swung around and sent Gideon who had tried to sneak up from behind crashing into a wall. "Not polite to sneak up on someone, Gid."
Remus took the chance. He charged and sent Snape into the large fireplace. He landed on his right arm and lost his grip on his wand. Remus took a swipe at his mask and pulled it off.
Snape threw his weight into throwing Remus off and succeeded. He stood groggily and pulled a dagger from his belt.
"Watch out for the blade it's laced with poison!" Gideon shouted. His wand was trained on Snape but Remus kept moving in and out and he didn't dare risk harming the werewolf.
Severus glanced at Gideon, "Take all the fun out of being a villain why don't you?" He pulled out a second blade and sent it flying at Gideon. Remus tried to lunge at him but Snape jumped out of the way.
"Isn't it time to end this game, Severus?"
He turned at took Dumbledore into his sights. "Yes, Headmaster, I believe it is. Where is the Stone I seek?"
"Beyond your reach, Dark Prince."
"Where? I grow tired of these games."
"I know you do, Severus." The Headmaster said in confident tone but one that Snape had never heard in regards to him; it was a tone laced with pity. " I know you are very tired and very weary. You have played both sides; hero and villain, good guy and bad, loyalist and traitor. In fact, you've played them for so long I think you have forgotten who you are."
"Silence, old man! I'll hear none of your tricks!" Snape hissed but his hands were betraying him. He was shaking again.
"I think you've forgotten which crown you truly serve. You don't know if you're the Dark Prince of the Potions Master of a school,"
"I warn you, if you don't shut up..."
"If you're the Death Eater who has orphaned hundreds or the Head of a school House...and the unlikely friend to one small girl."
"Be quiet!"
"You don't know if you're a 'god' or just a man." Which each sentence Dumbledore was speaking, Gideon had inched toward Severus.
"And I'm sorry, I've pushed you do that." Dumbledore finished.
"I said silence!" the force of Snape's rage was too much for even him. He swung around and caught Gideon's arm, forcing him against the wall. He raised his dagger above his head with every intention to kill Gideon Mallory, the man who had protected him countless times, to run him through.
"Professor."
Snape felt every muscle in his body tense as his blood ran still. He knew that timid, frightened voice by heart. "Little Day..."
Snape brought the dagger down. It happened so fast Gideon barely had time to react. Snape's body stiffened. The Auror had forced the dagger into Severus' side, it wasn't a fatal wound in itself but the poisoned that Snape used was.
Snape looked at him with a sort of twisted respect and then pulled away from him. His hands were around the hilt of his dagger, now buried deep within his gut. He looked at Dumbledore. "Well done, Albus. A game well played." He glanced at Susan. "Using my weakness against me." And with that said he sank to the floor, again.
Gideon walked over to the fallen man. "Is he..."
"Dead?" Albus asked. He glanced at Susan.
"No. Snape is Lycaon cour, a wolf's heart." Susan said softly, without emotion. "He was born with a natural immunity to most poisons. It's a gift, like Parselmouth, but not as rare."
"How did you know?"
"He told me once." She answered. "But he told me to keep it a secret because, like Parselmouth, it's usually associated with the Dark Arts."
"Why is called Wolf's heart?" Gideon asked.
A low, throaty answer came from Remus. "Because werewolves have the same immunity."
"So he's going to live?"
"But he is going to wake up with a nasty headache and a blood thirst so help me get him into bed."
"What are you going to do?"
Dumbledore's face darkened. "First, I'm going to flush out the effects of whatever dark magic is affecting him, be it from the Tear or Voldemort." He sighed. "Then, I'm going to see where his loyalties lie."
Remus had retreated into a back corridor as Gideon and Dumbledore lifted Snape's limp form unto their shoulders. Susan had gone to the mask that been torn form Severus' face. She had seen everything. She picked up the ivory facade and held it with both hands. Then, she followed the men.
