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PATH to DARKNESS by Tyde
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Chapter Two – Barriers
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Concocting a potion to fool a magical creature that had been made by the great wizards who had created Hogwarts was never going to be an easy task. Severus sat in his father's library day in and day out desperately searching for something that might give him false bravery or chivalry but all he could come up with were potions for asking a witch to marry you or improving your manners at the dinner table. Frustrated beyond anything he'd ever felt before he headed off to Diagon Alley via floo powder determined to find something that would help him out. He told his mother that he going to look at the new broomsticks in Quality Quidditch supplies and might he go alone? Jyliana agreed as Severus had been going to Diagon Alley with her since he was a little kid but was careful to mention that he didn't accidentally go into Knockturn Alley for it was a place filled with dark evil magic and that one always gets corrupted going into such a place. Severus just rolled his eyes and promised. Every time they went to Diagon Alley she would say the same thing – it was like she thought he was stupid or something.
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Severus's floo powder trip brought him straight to the fireplace in Flourish and Blotts, surely this giant bookstore would be able to satisfy his need. The young boy searched through all the sections from Herbology to Demonology but still walked out of Flourish and Blotts empty handed. 'Surely the Apothocary would have some idea of where I can start, right?' he thought to himself. The bell above the door jiggled and giggled as he entered the potion supplies store. Mr Gilpinni looked up at the boy walking towards his counter with a determined look on his face.
'Excuse me sir, I was wondering if I could ask your opinion on something?'
'Depends on what you're asking Master Severus'
'What if one wanted to trick a magical being into believing something that wasn't true? Is there a potion for that?'
'Just what exactly were you planning to trick? A vault door at Gringotts perhaps?' Mr Gilpinni's stare, Severus was sure, contained essence of fire.
'N-n-o sir, a..um..well, a..ah, a talking parrot actually' Severus felt his face flush and cringed at his own ineptness. Mr Gilpinni looked at Paxen Snape's son with an amused look on his face.
'A talking parrot? Don't talk such rot, there isn't anything of the sort, not here nor in the muggle world.' A smile played on his lips.
'Right then, ah..must have misunderstood something Dad said then..er, thanks anyway Mr Gilpinni'
'Did you need anything else Master Severus? Your school supplies perhaps?'
Severus was feeling more and more uncomfortable every second he spent in the shop under the potion dealers gaze and he scooted out without a word, his head down, too embarrassed to catch anyone's eye.
Paxen Snape's only son wandered along the shops of Diagon Alley not exactly sure where he wanted to go. His throat tingled and he thought he could do with a ice cream. Finding only two knuts and a sickle in his pocket he sighed and headed to Gringotts to get some money out of his vault. Pockets weighed down considerably by some galleons and sickles later he headed off to Florean's only to catch out of the corner of his eye a sign blinking:
Opernickelmeier's Potions – Confunding Magical Beings A Speciality!
Severus trotted over to the shop window not noticing that he'd crossed the line between Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley and was firmly ensconced in dark wizard territory. 'It's almost like the shop owner knew what I was looking for' the young boy said to himself. As he entered the shop he didn't notice a swish and flick of a wand that changed the sign back to Putridious's Particularly Potent Potions – Every Dark Wizard's Dream. A cackling sounded from the bell above the door and Severus felt a chill run down his spine. The shop owner Mrs Cruella Putridious looked with mirth at the boy. He gulped and looked around him a little uncertainly. The ingredient containers were covered in spider webs and he noticed jars labelled Banshee Toenails and Milk of Basilisk. He remembered his father mentioning that milk of basilisk could only be collected by a parsel tongue. 'Everyone knows that parsel tongues were always bad wizards, what sort of shop in Diagon Alley would stock an evil ingredient like..' The young boy stopped his thoughts mid sentence when he glanced out the window and saw the shop fronts of Borgin and Burkes and a shop called Slithering Situations which seemed to stock a large amount of snakes and creepy crawlies. As Mrs Putridious reached for Severus's shoulder to turn him around he abruptly high-tailed it out of the shop and back into the well lit surroundings of Diagon Alley. Gulping down a Berrilicious Beetroot drink from Florean's he flooed back to his parents place in Coluber Crescent. Still shaking from his encounter of the potion shop in Knockturn Alley he returned to his room. He figured if it was that hard to find a potion to trick the hat into sorting him into Gryffindor then he'd just have to try his darndest, the muggle way, to make the hat believe he was brave and noble!
The rest of the summer holidays seemed to crawl by as Severus eagerly awaited his first day at Hogwarts. He'd spent the last week in his room as his mother couldn't stand to have him underfoot. He'd been hovering around her in the kitchen while she made potions and had been upsetting the family owl by tying giant packets of sweets to his feet to see how much the owl could bring to him when he was running low of supplies at school. For at least ten minutes every day he would put himself into a trance by muttering 'I am courageous and brave' in a hope to instil it in his nature to fool the hat. This was usually interrupted by Bekla the owl dropping surprise gifts of spiders and other creepy crawlies in his lap.
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After setting his owl alarm to go off at 11.30 that night Severus sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He promised himself he would do this..he just had to get out of bed first. He silently pulled the covers back and went to his closet to pull on a jumper and some running shoes. He stashed his wand in his pocket and then opened his second storey window. A loud screech emanated from the old wood that had swollen in the joints and he cringed visibly. He listened, with his heart pounding in his ears, to see if his mother or father had woken up to the sound. He couldn't see but his mum did wake up, only to roll over and go back to sleep assuming the loud screech was only an owl.
The young boy climbed out the window and started to shimmy down the drain pipe. He inched down slowly not wanting to make noise and also not wanting to become a pancake on the ground. To his relief it was not long before he felt solid ground beneath his feet and he released his death grip on the pipe. He headed south down Coluber Crescent towards the Emerson Woods that circled his village. It was a fair walk and he found himself quite scared as his wand only provided a thin beam of light on the ground in front of him.
An owl hooted nearby and he shook a little. He'd grown up with owls but in the dead of night a hoot of a lonesome owl could still freak him out. After what seemed like a day but in actuality was half an hour he came to the end of Emerson Woods. There was a slight breeze he hadn't noticed before and it made the leaves rustle and it sounded like a snake hissing at him. He shook off the fear and charged right into the woods.
It was rumoured that in the south part of Emerson Woods there was a haunted cave. Flashing the beam from his wand around eventually he found the dank chasm in the side of a hill covered in trees and heather. He crawled into the cave and settled down for a night of rustling bushes and distant werewolf howls.
You see Severus thought that if he could spend a night in the haunted cave without screaming or running home then he would have gained enough courage to be selected for Gryffindor. What he didn't realise was that in wanting so desperately to be in Gryffindor he was showing his cowardice to the world. He didn't have the courage to except whatever the hat would tell him. This cowardice, albeit determination, would place him in a house that he never dreamed he would be a part of.