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PATH to DARKNESS by Tyde
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Author's note: Might I say, feeling a little down in the dumps, until Emily sparked up my day. I swear to god if you ever find me dying on the side of the road an IV drip of story reviews would have me up and bouncing with the best of them. To answer your question Em (mind if I call you Em? :oP I have a friend called Emma and I call her Em so it's just something I do when I 'meet' someone else called Emily or Emma), I update as much as I can – lately it's been a chapter a (working) day, although this one makes two chapters today! It's a time zone thing. I'm just waiting for the writers' block to hit me in full force. I know where the story is going..it's just a matter of how to get there!
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Chapter Seven – A Surprise
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'Out of my way Severarse.' The Slytherin prefect shoved the boy face first into a wall as he breezed past him in the hall. Severus heard a slight cracking noise and to his horror discovered his nose was bleeding and probably broken. Damien Sniggflabbin stopped and sneered. 'Oh no, ickle Severarse got an ouchie? Get your Mudblood dripping face away from me, you might infect me or something.'
Despite the pain in his face he tried his best to stand up to the bully. 'What did you call me?'
'Mudblood, you git. Macnair said your grandmother's a Muggle, doesn't make you pure then, do it? Purebloods always go into Slytherin. Never had a Mudblood in the whole history of the school in Slytherin house, Salazar would rather have died before allowing that. What's your excuse Severarse? Wanted to be amongst the great? What'd you trick the hat or something?'
I tried he thought bitterly. Now he was beginning to regret that decision if it meant being landed in Slytherin house with this wanker as a prefect. But instead something rose up inside of him, something he was beginning to recognise not as courage but pure unadulterated determination. 'Push off Sniggflabbin and go annoy someone who gives a crap. Frankly, you bore me.' He then turned around holding his head up high and walked down the hall to find the staircase that lead to the infirmary. Sniggflabbin just stood in the hallway with his mouth agape. 'Maybe he will make a decent Slytherin after all' he mused.
After Madam Ixilee fixed his nose he headed straight to the Owlery to send an owl to his parents. If nary a Mudblood had been in Slytherin before then why was he chosen as the first? Or more importantly was someone in his family telling fibs?
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It was several nerve wracking days before he received a reply back from his family. He was surprised to see that it wasn't his father or his mother that replied but it was the scrawly handwriting of his Muggle grandmother that shined up to him from the page in a cyan-coloured ink. It started off just the way any parchment letter from your grandmother would:
My Darling Severus
I hope you are well and that they aren't working you too hard. Your grandfather and I are missing you a lot and so is the cat. I received an owl from your parents that contained your letter you sent. They thought as I was the cause of the teasing that I should reply to you. Severus, we always strove to tell you the truth as a little boy but I begged your grandpa not to tell you my secret as it would only confuse you. It scared us that you were sorted into Slytherin. Not because as that prefect says you were a 'Mudblood' but because it was finally time to tell you the truth. I never wanted to tell you, I wanted you to go through life thinking that your grandmother was just a hapless Muggle that had fallen in love with a wizard. I didn't want you to know that I was a Squib.
I was an embarrassment to my parents as a child as I struggled to keep up with their home teachings when I wasn't accepted into Hogwarts. They hid me in the house during school terms and told all their friends that I'd been sent to Beaubaxtons Academy instead as I was a fluent French speaker. Your parents don't know that I'm a Squib, they are quite happy to accept that I'm a Muggle. Your grandfather has told the story many times of when your father was born and he 'told' me that he was a wizard. It used to amuse him. I ask that you keep this a secret as I have done all my life and tell no one. Being a Squib takes away your ability to have magical ability but it doesn't take away your magic blood. I know how cruel school children can be but I'm sure you can come up with something that will make them believe the truth that you are pureblood and put this nonsense to rest.
Yours in Merlin
Paracita Glovenok-Snape
Severus smiled I'm a pureblood, I always have been and Grandma is a Squib his mind whirled. How could he prove to Slytherin house that he was pureblood without revealing his grandmother's secret?
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The Christmas break couldn't come quick enough for Severus. Just like on the first day of school he leapt out of bed and triple checked his trunks were packed up and locked shut. The thought of going home to his parents for the break filled him with an immense delight. He patted his back pocket to see that he had the last letter he'd received from his grandfather in there. For the past month they had been owling back and forth trying to come up with a solution to his Mudblood problem. Crispin had suggested a few lame ideas that Severus brush aside instantly in his mind. Tell them it was a joke? Why would a pureblood Slytherin joke about having any Muggle relatives? It just wasn't the done thing. Begging Puckranter to use the hat to reassess which house he belonged in only solved his house issues? It didn't gain him any respect. That's why Severus had snuck out very early in the morning and headed down to the Hogsmeade Owl Post Office to send an urgent owl to London. He organised the owl to bring the reply back to the edge of the Forbidden Forest behind the groundskeeper's patch of pumpkins. He'd smiled to himself all that day, glad that he hadn't been caught but if he'd looked closely at the Transfiguration teacher at breakfast that morning he would have noticed a twinkle of recognition in Dumbledore's eyes.
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At the first dinner after coming back from Christimas holidays the students were surprised to learn that Headmaster Puckranter had retired and Professor Dumbledore had been elevated into headmaster status. A new teacher, Professor McGonagall, was welcomed and the students informed that she had taken over Transfiguration and was the new Head of Gryffindor house. She seemed rather sever with her hair all scraped back into a bun but had a charming smile when the occasion called for it. A murmur went around the hall when Dumbledore announced she'd once been a Magical Creatures Liaison. They couldn't imagine why it was that she would give up being that to teach a bunch of snot nosed kids. She spoke over 16 different languages including several mountain giant dialects and a fair deal of elvish. Being a Magical Creature Liason must have been so exciting and she couldn't have been doing it for long, she only looked to be in her mid to late 20s Lily thought. The auburn haired girl thought she detected a hint of sadness in McGonagall's eyes when Dumbledore said the word giant and she sensed there was something more than just 'an opportunity to teach the further generations of witches and wizards' in her reason behind changing careers.
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'Check it out. Looks like Snape got a wicked old wizard's chess set for Christmas. You don't see 'em like that in the shops no more. Who made it Sev? Looks like an heirloom' Macnair was practically drooling on Snape's chess board and the pawns in a panic had turned their swords into umbrellas and were sheltering under them.
'My Grandma did.'
'Codswallop. She's a Muggle. They can't make wizard chess sets.'
'My Grandma is NOT a Muggle Goyle you big oaf. At least my real grandmother wasn't.'
The voice of Lucius Malfoy dripped from the shadows 'What are you talking about Snape? Paracita Glovenok is the biggest Muggle in Mugglesville.' As he spoke a strange smoke emitted from the fireplace in the common room.
'Paracita Glovenok isn't my real grandma you git.' Months of teasing from both Slytherins and Gryffindors had toughened his skin a bit and he felt more confident shouting down someone like Malfoy. 'She's my step-grandma. Dad's mum died after he was born and grandpa hired a Muggle nanny which was Paracita. My real grandmother's name was Miliana Joxer.'
'Miliana Joxer? THE Miliana Joxer? But she's a Slytherin legend. Took out a whole Mudblood village with the flick of her wand before she was captured and killed by the Aurors in 1929'. Piped up a third year that went by the name of Crabbe.
'That's right. The year Dad was born, he was only a few months old when she died.' It took a few minutes for this new information to sink in. Several of the Slytherins looked at Snape with a look of respect registering in their eyes.
'Wow, you really are a Slytherin Snape, through and through. Listen we're right sorry for all the hoo-har before. You know how it is..Mudbloods and all' Sniggflabbin stumbled through his apology. 'Er and your nose and..um, listen we're real sorry, k?'
Snape sighed with relief. He acknowledged Damien's grovelling with a flick of the wrist. It had worked, it had seemed so easy, they believed him and it was due in no small part to a certain article he'd purchased through the Knockturn Alley catalogue some weeks back. The confounding powder, when sprinkled liberally on a fire, worked by confusing the people's brains in the room to accept whatever the spell caster said to them. The confusing effect of the powder lasted for only two minutes but once they had been told these new 'facts' the memory of this truth was ingrained forever. Severus Snape had just participated in his very first act of dark magic and it made him shiver with delight.