Disclaimer: Rowlings did it all. In this chapter I created Saquina Hassan.
This is the sequel to 'Runaway'. For a better understanding of the story I recommend reading it first. Don't fear. It is good (if I say so myself) ;p
Hope you like it and this one too. I give you
CRUMBLING MYTHS
Look who's back!
The castle walls were looming over them both.
The older of the two smiled, observing the part of the ancient structure he could at the spot they were standing.
The younger one didn't raise his eyes from the ground in front of his feet.
"Here we are!" The enthusiastic man declared. "I haven't been here in years. This is beautiful! Come on!" With long red hair balancing over the shoulders, the man walked in long confident strides.
When he noticed the boy wasn't following him, he stopped and looked back.
"What's the matter? You said Hogwarts. This is Hogwarts." Damn Slytherins. Couldn't they just act normally? Or simply do what they said?
The boy didn't raise his eyes from the cold ground but started to walk again.
They had apparated in Hogsmeade an hour before. Arthur Weasley had offered to buy dinner there, but the dirty runaway Slytherin boy had refused to enter the Three Broomsticks. He had insisted on being taken to Hogwarts. Then he had refused to utter a single word on the way to the Wizarding and Witchcraft School despite Arthur's attempts to break the silence.
"Come on. When you're with your mates you'll feel better."
"What do you know?" The boy muttered and passed him by.
"Well, I don't know much but I hope" Arthur said. "You'll be alright."
"What do you care? You'll get your reward, whether I'm okay or not."
"I'm not certain about that. I should have taken you to your parents."
"They'll pay you anyway. A Snape always pays his debts."
Instead of feeling reassured, Arthur felt a shiver running through his spine. Maybe he should forget this reward business. Still, there was this little house he wanted to buy. He truly wanted to marry Molly soon.
"Come on Severus, get in."
Severus climbed the stairs with a sulking face.
It was dark already and everybody was probably in the great hall at dinner.
"So, what do you think?" Asked Arthur. "Do we wait here, or go to the great hall?"
Severus looked at him with goggled eyes. "We certainly don't go to the great hall! I don't want them to see me like this!"
Well, this had been the strongest reaction of the boy since leaving London. Better than nothing, Arthur guessed. He could deal easily with a hot headed youth like most Gryffindors. He studied the muggle clothes the boy was wearing.
"Do you want me to transfigurate your clothes?"
Severus looked uncertain.
"Are you any good at it?"
"Enough. I guess."
"Why would you do that?"
Arthur looked at Severus, a hint of impatience starting to crawl inside of him.
"I'm trying to help you! What do you think?"
Severus shrugged.
"Okay then." He closed his eyes waiting.
Arthur Weasley pulled his wand from his left sleeve and performed a spell:
"Mutare vestimentum." The boy's clothes turned into a black robe. "I'm not so good as to create all the Slytherin emblems. I don't believe I even know them. But I think you're better this way. Maybe after a bath, you could look nice."
This granted him a dark glare.
"Who is there?"
They both turned in the direction of the female voice.
"Professor McGonagall." The Red haired man smiled at the handsome woman who had arrived at the entrance hall. "Do you remember me? I'm Arthur Weasley."
"Who can forget a hair like yours?" Answered the witch walking to them in a kind of feline, fluid motion. "And the boy?. Oh Merlin! Snape."
Severus found something very interesting to look at, on the floor.
"I found him in London." Explained Weasley.
"Diagon Alley?"
"No. Muggle London."
McGonagall stared at Severus.
"All this time?"
"I didn't ask." Answered Weasley when Severus didn't deign to. "He doesn't seem to be very talkative."
"He'll talk to the headmaster." She stated.
Severus seemed to be developing some form of autism.
McGonagall pointed the stairs for him to climb. Severus ignored her, preferring the paving rock flag in front of his feet.
"Severus Snape!"
Sighing, Severus looked at her.
"Come with me." She told him.
Severus followed her after a last weary, insecure glance at Arthur Weasley.
Arthur was left in the stairs, confused, not certain at all he wanted to see the progenitors of the Snape boy. If he could take the boy as a sample of what he'd find.
It was weird, this place. He had studied there for a year and yet it seemed foreign to Severus. Not that he found anything that he didn't expect. Those were the same ancient walls, the same moving stairs, and the same moving paintings. Still he had not expected to be there again. Last time he'd put his feet there had been at the end of school year and he was felling odd.
McGonagall was walking in front of him without looking back to check if he was following. She probably had eyes in her back.
Severus wished for Johnny's sling to test his theory. He found himself smiling, thinking about the composed teacher screaming holding the back of her head and her rich, brown hair, always combed in a strict ponytail. He didn't think he'd be in bigger trouble than he was already.
They stopped in front of a stone gargoyle and McGonagall whispered some words to it, eyeing Severus suspiciously.
She might as well be. As Severus eyes found a new flag to observe under him, his ears kept open and listening. And he could pride himself on his keen, vampire enhanced hearing. Chocolate cake? Now if you were a powerful sorcerer, one of the most famous in the whole word at it, headmaster of a renowned school such as Hogwarts, would you choose such a password? Severus smirked to himself as the gargoyle became alive and jumped to the side to let them pass.
A passage had been hidden behind the gargoyle's stone wings. Now they could see them and started to climb them. And climb. And climb. And climb. Maybe the gargoyle should have distributed brooms instead of showing the stairs.
Then Severus bumped against McGonagall.
Hold on there, Snape!" She warned him. "Don't you have eyes to look at where you are going?"
Severus knew better than to answer her.
"I wonder if you have a tongue." She said exasperatedly. "Maybe you left it in London."
Severus had left his innocence in London. Nothing would ever be the same now but he wouldn't confess that to her either.
Facing a mute student, McGonagall opened the heavy oak door in front of them.
"Get in."
"Isn't the headmaster dining?" Asked Severus proving he could speak.
"He was already finished. Will you get in?"
Severus walked into a large oval room, full of books and strange objects. His eyes were caught by the bright red colour of a big bird on a perch behind a large oak desk. Only after that, did he noticed that an old man with a long white beard, dressed in a purple robe, was also behind the desk, putting down his quill and looking at him.
"This is the student who's been missing." Said McGonagall." The one who disappeared during summer."
"I know." Said Dumbledore who was observing Severus.
Under the scrutiny of those deep blue eyes, Severus couldn't keep his cool. He changed his weight from one foot to the other and swallowed hard.
"Minerva, if you would leave us alone."
"Certainly. Would you wish me to call on Hassan? "
"Yes. Thank you. Please tell Saquina to meet us here."
Saquina Hassan was teacher of astronomy and head of Slytherin house. Severus knew her solely from her appearances at the Slytherin's common room and dorms to discipline some overly mischievously student or check on curfew hour. He knew Albus Dumbledore even less. Only from the teachers' table at the great hall, where he loomed over them as a king.
"Seat." The 'king' ordered.
Severus did, mechanically, his eyes glued at the front of the headmasters' desk. He could hardly breathe expecting a bashing. It had been some time, he realised, since he had had to explain his actions to an adult figure. That had been solely Jen's problem. For him the last months had been of anarchy and freedom. He saw the walls of the large room by the corners of his eyes and felt claustrophobic.
Dumbledore's first words startled him.
"Are you alright?"
Severus raised his eyes tentatively, then nodded.
The headmaster rose from his chair causing Severus to jump from his looking at the door.
"Easy! Hold on there!" Dumbledore sat again. "There! Now sit."
Blushing, Severus slumped on the chair.
"It's okay." Assured Dumbledore. " You're safe now. Calm down."
Severus nodded once more.
"Where have you been?" Asked the headmaster.
When he didn't get an answer Dumbledore changed his question.
"Why did you ran from home?"
Severus touched his chest with his chin. He had ran from the Potters house and there was no way he was going to tell this 'kingly' wizard the reasons.
"How did you get here?" The headmaster tried once again.
Fortunately, the room's door was opened and an old Arab witch came inside.
"Headmaster. Minerva told me Snape arrived."
"Yes." Dumbledore confirmed pointing the boy, hidden by the chair's high back. "He is here."
The Slytherin's head of house observed the dirty boy, hiding his face with his oily hair.
"Where have you been, boy?" She asked.
"We've been through this already" Said the headmaster when he saw the boy shrinking on his chair. "I think Severus is tired. Maybe he should eat something and sleep. We can talk tomorrow."
"Yes." Hassan agreed somewhat reluctantly. "He will rest. His bed has been in the second year dorm since the beginning of school year. His gear is not, though. The boy didn't arrive from his parents home and brought none of his personal items."
"I'll ask Minerva to transfigure a night shirt and a shampoo for him." Said Dumbledore, raising slowly from behind his desk. "You know your way to your common room."
Severus didn't need another incentive. He jumped from his chair and climbed down the stairs, passed the gargoyle and ran through the stone corridors. All he wished was for some shadows to hide into, but this part of the castle was too well illuminated. He noticed the paintings watching him, pointing and whispering some gossip about him to each other, as he ran as fast as he could. He had been training in those last months, running all over London with his friends, doing more exercise than he had ever done in all his life in the wizarding world.
As he started descending to the dungeons, he welcomed the shadows and mingled with them slowing his pace. He'd been able to avoid the other students presence so far. Severus almost laughed then. He seemed able to do anything! He'd cheated an auror into bringing him here. That with the threat of Azkaban looming over his head. He'd ran half the school's length unnoticed. He hadn't asked Slytherin's common room's password.
"Merlin, I'm so stupid!" He diagnosed and kicked the secret wall that wouldn't open just for his beautiful eyes.
For some five minutes he sat there, his back against the wall, thinking, sulking, panicking in diverse order and at the same time. When he heard steps approaching he rose and tried to hide in the nearest shadow.
"Snape! Get back here!" Ordered Hassan, who had arrived with Minerva McGonagall.
Sulking, He did as told and approached them.
Grasping the password from Saquina Hassan's whisper, was harder than it had been with the Gryfindor's head of house. It should be. She was a Slytherin after all. Still Severus was pretty much convinced the word was 'rising'.
He got inside the common room behind the head of his house trying to pass unnoticed. He didn't need to worry so much. Minerva McGonagall dragged all the attention of the students in there. They dropped everything, legal or otherwise, they were doing and stared at the attractive but tough teacher and then at each other wondering what was going on or which of them was in trouble.
"Don't you have things to do?" Asked Hassan.
Immediately, each Slytherin conceived something, so they could seem occupied.
Severus had already run to the boy's dorm.
When his class mates arrived later, they found him asleep. Thankfully, despite their curiosity, they left their questions to the next day.
You know how it goes; Please review
Until next time
Hugs Aliera
This is the sequel to 'Runaway'. For a better understanding of the story I recommend reading it first. Don't fear. It is good (if I say so myself) ;p
Hope you like it and this one too. I give you
CRUMBLING MYTHS
Look who's back!
The castle walls were looming over them both.
The older of the two smiled, observing the part of the ancient structure he could at the spot they were standing.
The younger one didn't raise his eyes from the ground in front of his feet.
"Here we are!" The enthusiastic man declared. "I haven't been here in years. This is beautiful! Come on!" With long red hair balancing over the shoulders, the man walked in long confident strides.
When he noticed the boy wasn't following him, he stopped and looked back.
"What's the matter? You said Hogwarts. This is Hogwarts." Damn Slytherins. Couldn't they just act normally? Or simply do what they said?
The boy didn't raise his eyes from the cold ground but started to walk again.
They had apparated in Hogsmeade an hour before. Arthur Weasley had offered to buy dinner there, but the dirty runaway Slytherin boy had refused to enter the Three Broomsticks. He had insisted on being taken to Hogwarts. Then he had refused to utter a single word on the way to the Wizarding and Witchcraft School despite Arthur's attempts to break the silence.
"Come on. When you're with your mates you'll feel better."
"What do you know?" The boy muttered and passed him by.
"Well, I don't know much but I hope" Arthur said. "You'll be alright."
"What do you care? You'll get your reward, whether I'm okay or not."
"I'm not certain about that. I should have taken you to your parents."
"They'll pay you anyway. A Snape always pays his debts."
Instead of feeling reassured, Arthur felt a shiver running through his spine. Maybe he should forget this reward business. Still, there was this little house he wanted to buy. He truly wanted to marry Molly soon.
"Come on Severus, get in."
Severus climbed the stairs with a sulking face.
It was dark already and everybody was probably in the great hall at dinner.
"So, what do you think?" Asked Arthur. "Do we wait here, or go to the great hall?"
Severus looked at him with goggled eyes. "We certainly don't go to the great hall! I don't want them to see me like this!"
Well, this had been the strongest reaction of the boy since leaving London. Better than nothing, Arthur guessed. He could deal easily with a hot headed youth like most Gryffindors. He studied the muggle clothes the boy was wearing.
"Do you want me to transfigurate your clothes?"
Severus looked uncertain.
"Are you any good at it?"
"Enough. I guess."
"Why would you do that?"
Arthur looked at Severus, a hint of impatience starting to crawl inside of him.
"I'm trying to help you! What do you think?"
Severus shrugged.
"Okay then." He closed his eyes waiting.
Arthur Weasley pulled his wand from his left sleeve and performed a spell:
"Mutare vestimentum." The boy's clothes turned into a black robe. "I'm not so good as to create all the Slytherin emblems. I don't believe I even know them. But I think you're better this way. Maybe after a bath, you could look nice."
This granted him a dark glare.
"Who is there?"
They both turned in the direction of the female voice.
"Professor McGonagall." The Red haired man smiled at the handsome woman who had arrived at the entrance hall. "Do you remember me? I'm Arthur Weasley."
"Who can forget a hair like yours?" Answered the witch walking to them in a kind of feline, fluid motion. "And the boy?. Oh Merlin! Snape."
Severus found something very interesting to look at, on the floor.
"I found him in London." Explained Weasley.
"Diagon Alley?"
"No. Muggle London."
McGonagall stared at Severus.
"All this time?"
"I didn't ask." Answered Weasley when Severus didn't deign to. "He doesn't seem to be very talkative."
"He'll talk to the headmaster." She stated.
Severus seemed to be developing some form of autism.
McGonagall pointed the stairs for him to climb. Severus ignored her, preferring the paving rock flag in front of his feet.
"Severus Snape!"
Sighing, Severus looked at her.
"Come with me." She told him.
Severus followed her after a last weary, insecure glance at Arthur Weasley.
Arthur was left in the stairs, confused, not certain at all he wanted to see the progenitors of the Snape boy. If he could take the boy as a sample of what he'd find.
It was weird, this place. He had studied there for a year and yet it seemed foreign to Severus. Not that he found anything that he didn't expect. Those were the same ancient walls, the same moving stairs, and the same moving paintings. Still he had not expected to be there again. Last time he'd put his feet there had been at the end of school year and he was felling odd.
McGonagall was walking in front of him without looking back to check if he was following. She probably had eyes in her back.
Severus wished for Johnny's sling to test his theory. He found himself smiling, thinking about the composed teacher screaming holding the back of her head and her rich, brown hair, always combed in a strict ponytail. He didn't think he'd be in bigger trouble than he was already.
They stopped in front of a stone gargoyle and McGonagall whispered some words to it, eyeing Severus suspiciously.
She might as well be. As Severus eyes found a new flag to observe under him, his ears kept open and listening. And he could pride himself on his keen, vampire enhanced hearing. Chocolate cake? Now if you were a powerful sorcerer, one of the most famous in the whole word at it, headmaster of a renowned school such as Hogwarts, would you choose such a password? Severus smirked to himself as the gargoyle became alive and jumped to the side to let them pass.
A passage had been hidden behind the gargoyle's stone wings. Now they could see them and started to climb them. And climb. And climb. And climb. Maybe the gargoyle should have distributed brooms instead of showing the stairs.
Then Severus bumped against McGonagall.
Hold on there, Snape!" She warned him. "Don't you have eyes to look at where you are going?"
Severus knew better than to answer her.
"I wonder if you have a tongue." She said exasperatedly. "Maybe you left it in London."
Severus had left his innocence in London. Nothing would ever be the same now but he wouldn't confess that to her either.
Facing a mute student, McGonagall opened the heavy oak door in front of them.
"Get in."
"Isn't the headmaster dining?" Asked Severus proving he could speak.
"He was already finished. Will you get in?"
Severus walked into a large oval room, full of books and strange objects. His eyes were caught by the bright red colour of a big bird on a perch behind a large oak desk. Only after that, did he noticed that an old man with a long white beard, dressed in a purple robe, was also behind the desk, putting down his quill and looking at him.
"This is the student who's been missing." Said McGonagall." The one who disappeared during summer."
"I know." Said Dumbledore who was observing Severus.
Under the scrutiny of those deep blue eyes, Severus couldn't keep his cool. He changed his weight from one foot to the other and swallowed hard.
"Minerva, if you would leave us alone."
"Certainly. Would you wish me to call on Hassan? "
"Yes. Thank you. Please tell Saquina to meet us here."
Saquina Hassan was teacher of astronomy and head of Slytherin house. Severus knew her solely from her appearances at the Slytherin's common room and dorms to discipline some overly mischievously student or check on curfew hour. He knew Albus Dumbledore even less. Only from the teachers' table at the great hall, where he loomed over them as a king.
"Seat." The 'king' ordered.
Severus did, mechanically, his eyes glued at the front of the headmasters' desk. He could hardly breathe expecting a bashing. It had been some time, he realised, since he had had to explain his actions to an adult figure. That had been solely Jen's problem. For him the last months had been of anarchy and freedom. He saw the walls of the large room by the corners of his eyes and felt claustrophobic.
Dumbledore's first words startled him.
"Are you alright?"
Severus raised his eyes tentatively, then nodded.
The headmaster rose from his chair causing Severus to jump from his looking at the door.
"Easy! Hold on there!" Dumbledore sat again. "There! Now sit."
Blushing, Severus slumped on the chair.
"It's okay." Assured Dumbledore. " You're safe now. Calm down."
Severus nodded once more.
"Where have you been?" Asked the headmaster.
When he didn't get an answer Dumbledore changed his question.
"Why did you ran from home?"
Severus touched his chest with his chin. He had ran from the Potters house and there was no way he was going to tell this 'kingly' wizard the reasons.
"How did you get here?" The headmaster tried once again.
Fortunately, the room's door was opened and an old Arab witch came inside.
"Headmaster. Minerva told me Snape arrived."
"Yes." Dumbledore confirmed pointing the boy, hidden by the chair's high back. "He is here."
The Slytherin's head of house observed the dirty boy, hiding his face with his oily hair.
"Where have you been, boy?" She asked.
"We've been through this already" Said the headmaster when he saw the boy shrinking on his chair. "I think Severus is tired. Maybe he should eat something and sleep. We can talk tomorrow."
"Yes." Hassan agreed somewhat reluctantly. "He will rest. His bed has been in the second year dorm since the beginning of school year. His gear is not, though. The boy didn't arrive from his parents home and brought none of his personal items."
"I'll ask Minerva to transfigure a night shirt and a shampoo for him." Said Dumbledore, raising slowly from behind his desk. "You know your way to your common room."
Severus didn't need another incentive. He jumped from his chair and climbed down the stairs, passed the gargoyle and ran through the stone corridors. All he wished was for some shadows to hide into, but this part of the castle was too well illuminated. He noticed the paintings watching him, pointing and whispering some gossip about him to each other, as he ran as fast as he could. He had been training in those last months, running all over London with his friends, doing more exercise than he had ever done in all his life in the wizarding world.
As he started descending to the dungeons, he welcomed the shadows and mingled with them slowing his pace. He'd been able to avoid the other students presence so far. Severus almost laughed then. He seemed able to do anything! He'd cheated an auror into bringing him here. That with the threat of Azkaban looming over his head. He'd ran half the school's length unnoticed. He hadn't asked Slytherin's common room's password.
"Merlin, I'm so stupid!" He diagnosed and kicked the secret wall that wouldn't open just for his beautiful eyes.
For some five minutes he sat there, his back against the wall, thinking, sulking, panicking in diverse order and at the same time. When he heard steps approaching he rose and tried to hide in the nearest shadow.
"Snape! Get back here!" Ordered Hassan, who had arrived with Minerva McGonagall.
Sulking, He did as told and approached them.
Grasping the password from Saquina Hassan's whisper, was harder than it had been with the Gryfindor's head of house. It should be. She was a Slytherin after all. Still Severus was pretty much convinced the word was 'rising'.
He got inside the common room behind the head of his house trying to pass unnoticed. He didn't need to worry so much. Minerva McGonagall dragged all the attention of the students in there. They dropped everything, legal or otherwise, they were doing and stared at the attractive but tough teacher and then at each other wondering what was going on or which of them was in trouble.
"Don't you have things to do?" Asked Hassan.
Immediately, each Slytherin conceived something, so they could seem occupied.
Severus had already run to the boy's dorm.
When his class mates arrived later, they found him asleep. Thankfully, despite their curiosity, they left their questions to the next day.
You know how it goes; Please review
Until next time
Hugs Aliera