A/N: Hi-de ho there neighbor Tim…uh, sorry. Wrong show. Anyway, I finally
have not homework (Yay!) so I can write this thing. I have at least another
three chapters written up in my notebook, so I'm just typing them up now.
(Believe it or not that actually takes longer than writing it on the
computer.) Anyway, I also started working on another story (This time it's
Highlander/Stargate Sg1) so look for the first chapter soon. But in the
meantime…In Which Much is Revealed.
Chapter 15:
Severus sat at his desk, surrounded by a flood of parchment, diligently working his way through the assessment quizzes he had given to his classes. Nothing was heard but for the distant bubbling of the cauldron in the corner and the scratching of his quill on the pages. The outcome was much as he suspected. Those who did well in his class did better than those who did not. He took his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose sighed. He just wished that his life would be a little less predictable. He looked up as he heard the door to his dungeon classroom and smiled as Adam walked in.
"Hello Adam. To what do I owe this pleasure?" Adam smirked.
"I just came let you petty mortals bask in the glory that is me. I do like to share after all." It was delivered with the utmost sincerity, but the twinkle in his eye proved the jest. Severus smiled at him.
"Well here I am. Just watch me basking, bask, bask, bask!" Adam laughed.
"My you are witty today. What brought this on?"
"Stress."
"Ah." Adam stated knowingly. He sat down on one of the student's desks across from Severus. He bit at his lip as he stared at the desk, thinking of the best way to approach the subject he needed to tell Severus. He didn't need to.
"Adam? What's wrong?" Adam looked up at Severus startled, though he hid it well. Severus was looking at him concerned. He sighed.
"I do need to talk to you about the new teacher that we're getting, but not here. Let's take a walk." Severus nodded and stood. Soon they were outside, and were walking along the trail to the lake.
The moon was bright, and about half full. The stars were out with a passion and the lake glittered in the dark. There was a small ripple in the calmness, and the end of a tentacle appeared above the water, before slipping back underneath again. The two walked in silence, Adam planning his explanation, and Severus realizing that the silence was needed. They neared a rock by the shore and Severus sat on it. Adam declined the offered seat, and sat in the grass, leaning against the rock and Severus's legs. They sat for a few moments before Adam broke the silence.
"No matter how old I get, I will never stop loving the night sky." Severus smiled.
"I know what you mean, but you didn't take me out here to talk of the stars."
"True." He paused then decided to be blunt and honest, like ripping off a band-aid. He had a feeling Severus would understand. "Have you heard of immortals?"
"You mean those myths that children hear, or the real ones who live forever and live in the Game?" Adam looked up at Severus, startled. Severus was staring down at him and smiling.
"You know the truth?"
"Yes. I was adopted by a 'real' immortal…but he lost his head about ten years ago." Adam put his hand on Severus's hand in sympathy. "He told me everything once I noticed he didn't age and I confronted him. Well, that and seeing a Quickening." Adam nodded his head.
"That is pretty hard to explain without telling the truth." Severus looked down to where Adam sat.
"Why did you ask?" Adam didn't speak; he just took a knife out of the fold of his robe. He looked at it, gleaming in the moonlight, before quickly slashing it across his palm, drawing up the thick red blood. Severus jumped, but Adam cut him off.
"Just watch." Severus stared, transfixed, as the blue lightning jumped across the wound, healing it without a trace except for the residual blood. He wiped the blood off in the grass and showed his now perfect hand to Severus.
"I'm Immortal."
Severus was silent for a moment.
"I had forgotten what that looked like. It has been so long." Adam smiled grimly.
"How old was he?" Adam didn't need to say who, Severus knew.
"About 500." Adam shook his head.
"Just a baby. A mere child." Severus looked at him like he had flipped his lid.
"What? 500 is no baby."
"To me it is Severus. I am very old. Sometimes I can even feel it, the weight of the years. I'm the oldest Severus, about 5000 years. And my name is Methos." Severus's eyes went wide.
"You're Methos! My father spoke of you often. You were his favorite myth." Methos smiled.
"I'm every immortal's favorite myth, well except for those who know me. They just think I'm annoying." Severus laughed. Then he got serious again.
"Why are you telling me this, Ad- Methos?"
"You can call me Adam if you want. You're going to have to in public anyway."
"Adam. From what my father has told me you never told anybody who you were unless it couldn't be helped, or they already knew."
"Or if Cassandra was coming to town and I really didn't want to loose the person." Severus tried to look at Methos's face, but he had turned away.
"This is really bad, isn't it?" Methos nodded.
"I met Cassandra a long time ago. I mean a real long time ago; about 3000 years. I wasn't the same then as I was now, and my brothers and I did some pretty bad things to her and her village."
"Brothers? I thought immortals had not blood relations?"
"We were brothers in everything but blood, united for a common goal…getting revenge on the mortal man."
"Revenge?" Adam chuckled with grim humor.
"Yes revenge. Well, that's what it was for me. Silas followed me wherever I went, so he was one of us. Kronos loved the thrill of the hunt, while Caspian loved the bloody torture." Severus's eyes bugged. "I know. I didn't like him either. We were always after each other, though nothing too bad.
"But that's not the problem. The problem is that Cassandra hates me with a passion I have not seen in many centuries. I am worried that she'll try to take my head the first time she sees me. She won't hesitate to tell about my past, especially if you already know of immortals. She'll try to turn people against me; she's done it before, to try to kill me."
"Adam, the other teachers like you. They wont believe her lies." Adam looked at Severus, his eyes unreadable.
"Severus, everything she will say about me, that I haven't already told you, is true." Severus just stared back at Methos, finally sliding down to sit on the ground next to him, his arm around Methos's shoulders.
"Well," he stated decisively, "She isn't going to drive me away! You're the first friend I've had in a long time that I actually like enough to seek out. You're the first to understand about truly dark paths and does not still walk them." Methos looked sideways at Severus. He caught the look. Instead of answering verbally, he lifted his arm, so the sleeve fell away. There, black and malicious, was the dark mark, branded on his forearm. He lowered his arm, covering the vile thing once more. "I was young, I was stupid, I was picked on at school and felt that nobody cared. I was power hungry and ambitious. I was also very wrong. Not many who go down that path leave. I was one of the lucky ones. Or, at least, one of the smarter ones. Now, however, when I go to the meetings I am so afraid it almost seems not worth it." He looked at Methos and whispered.
"I am a spy, Methos. A double agent. I play a dangerous game, and every day I run the risk of falling again. I just climbed out, Methos. I don't want to fall." Methos squeezed Severus's hand.
"I won't let you fall. Will you help me make sure Death stays dead?"
"Of course, Methos."
The two sat like that enjoying the closeness of each other and their friendship until the stars began to fade in the sky.
The Next Day:
Once again Methos sat at his desk, though this time not looking at his notes. He sat staring out the window, his eyes glazed over as he thought about the night before. He had told Severus and he was still his friend. Methos smiled. He really did like Severus. His attention was drawn back to reality when the students started to enter his classroom. It was the Gryffindor 5th years (who else) and his role call went relatively quickly.
"Today class we will be talking about Myths. We will cover them all in the next few weeks." He paused, and then smiled a little Mona Lisa smile. "We will start with Immortals." The smile deepened. If Cassandra was coming he was going to let these kids know exactly what she really was, even if they don't recognize it.
"Who knows what an Immortal is?" A few hand were in the air, but none as fast as Miss. Hermione Granger's. "Yes, Miss. Granger."
"According to the myths an Immortal is a human who doesn't age. He or she dies once and when they revive they live forever, healing from all wounds. It is possible for an immortal to die and when they do it angers the heavens so much they send lightning to punish the victor." Methos raised his eyebrows. She had certainly read up on this.
" 'From the dawn of time they came, moving silently down through the centuries, living many secret lives, struggling to reach the time of the gathering, when the few who remain, will battle to the last. No one has ever known they were among you... until now.' Every immortal myth begins with that very statement. You can always tell an Immortal Myth because of it.
"In conjunction with that, there are many immortal myths, some of which might be familiar to you; The Highlanders, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, not to mention the Greek and Egyptian, as well as Roman and Norse gods and goddesses. The myths have a common format as well; all are written as a mortal human watching the Immortal in a chronicle of sorts. We will be exploring the major myths in depth later, but I want to give you a brief summery of the myths we will be covering.
"There are the Highlanders, Duncan and Conner, who are Scots the 16th and 17th centuries, both womanizers yet gentleman, and the best swordsmen most have seen in centuries. Pretty handsome, too," He waggled his eyebrows, and the girls in the class giggled. The boys just looked confused.
"Next there will me Ramirez, the wise old Egyptian, and teacher of Connor, the elder Highlander.
"There's also the story of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and yes I do mean the ones in the Bible. There are the four, War, Pestilence, Famine and Death. And talking about the Horsemen leads us to the next Immortal, the witch, Cassandra. No," he held up his hand, "She was not a which like the one who would go to school here, but more of a shaman, it's complicated. We'll go into that later.
"From there we will go onto the Immortal Thief, Amanda, and wrap up the unit with the oldest myth, the myth of Methos the Immortal, the oldest of them all. This is the most frequent, yet the most elusive myth of them all." He smiled at them. "That will also be covered another day." He went to a shelf and pulled a box of scrolls down.
"These are brief summaries of all the lists, an outline of the Immortal myths, if you will. You will be receiving a similar scroll at the beginning of each unit, and they really are a great study-guide. Most of the information will happen verbally, so I expect you to take notes." He passed out scrolls as he talked, noting that Hermione grabbed the scroll with barely concealed excitement. 'An academic. She's smart…I'll have to watch what I say around her.' He thought even as his voice continued to speak about the requirements, projects and grading of this unit. It was all over too soon, and the students were as reluctant to leave as he was to give them up, but sacrifices had to be made.
In Triple W…
"Say Fred?"
"Yes Geroge?"
"Hogwarts has started, hasn't it?"
"Yes George."
"Hmmm."
"Hmmm?"
"Hogsmead weekends will be starting soon, we'll get to see Ron, Harry and Herm."
"Wicked! Say George?"
"Yes Fred?"
"We haven't heard from that new teacher yet, have we?"
*Blink. Pause*
"No…I don't say we have…you don't think he's forgotten us, do you?"
"Nah. Never happen, some one forget us? Perish the thought."
"Good."
"Though…"
*Thoughtful silence. Sly look*
"What are you scheming?"
"What makes you think I'm scheming anything?"
*Stare. Blush*
"Oh. Right. Twins. There is no hiding anything from you, is there."
"Now why would you want to hide anything from me?"
"For the cause."
*Revered silence*
"The cause…ok, so here's what we do…"
The two bent their heads and for long into the night bumps and thumps could be heard from the two devious red-headed twins.
TBC.
A/N: I'm sooooo sorry that took so long; it took forever just to find time to write it. I hate it when that happens. For those of you wondering, the cause is "To Prank." (Come on, what else would it be.) No, Severus's 'father' is no one we know, just a handy little plot device. So here in my world, Snape was adopted, is gay, has a beard and glasses (yay!) is a pre- immie, and a very understanding man…OoC? Oh hell yeah, but I like mine better.
Ok, so he didn't tell Severus about the Horsemen, but you know what…I didn't feel like writing that part…it always ended up sounding stupid. It doesn't matter, though, since Severus will now stick by Adam no matter what. (I'm not a good angst writer.)
There will be more. I hope to have the next chapter done by Saturday, (crosses fingers.) look for it then. I want to thank all of you who have reviewed, you guys are great. Also, soumi, I don't know if you realized this or not, but I LOVE YOUR HIGHLANDER/LOTR CROSSOVER!!!!! It really is great. Read it all of you. Ok, now that I'm done promoting other people's works, I will promote my own.
Tell all your friends about Harry Potter and the Oldest Immortal, and be kind and please review. *Grin*
Chapter 15:
Severus sat at his desk, surrounded by a flood of parchment, diligently working his way through the assessment quizzes he had given to his classes. Nothing was heard but for the distant bubbling of the cauldron in the corner and the scratching of his quill on the pages. The outcome was much as he suspected. Those who did well in his class did better than those who did not. He took his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose sighed. He just wished that his life would be a little less predictable. He looked up as he heard the door to his dungeon classroom and smiled as Adam walked in.
"Hello Adam. To what do I owe this pleasure?" Adam smirked.
"I just came let you petty mortals bask in the glory that is me. I do like to share after all." It was delivered with the utmost sincerity, but the twinkle in his eye proved the jest. Severus smiled at him.
"Well here I am. Just watch me basking, bask, bask, bask!" Adam laughed.
"My you are witty today. What brought this on?"
"Stress."
"Ah." Adam stated knowingly. He sat down on one of the student's desks across from Severus. He bit at his lip as he stared at the desk, thinking of the best way to approach the subject he needed to tell Severus. He didn't need to.
"Adam? What's wrong?" Adam looked up at Severus startled, though he hid it well. Severus was looking at him concerned. He sighed.
"I do need to talk to you about the new teacher that we're getting, but not here. Let's take a walk." Severus nodded and stood. Soon they were outside, and were walking along the trail to the lake.
The moon was bright, and about half full. The stars were out with a passion and the lake glittered in the dark. There was a small ripple in the calmness, and the end of a tentacle appeared above the water, before slipping back underneath again. The two walked in silence, Adam planning his explanation, and Severus realizing that the silence was needed. They neared a rock by the shore and Severus sat on it. Adam declined the offered seat, and sat in the grass, leaning against the rock and Severus's legs. They sat for a few moments before Adam broke the silence.
"No matter how old I get, I will never stop loving the night sky." Severus smiled.
"I know what you mean, but you didn't take me out here to talk of the stars."
"True." He paused then decided to be blunt and honest, like ripping off a band-aid. He had a feeling Severus would understand. "Have you heard of immortals?"
"You mean those myths that children hear, or the real ones who live forever and live in the Game?" Adam looked up at Severus, startled. Severus was staring down at him and smiling.
"You know the truth?"
"Yes. I was adopted by a 'real' immortal…but he lost his head about ten years ago." Adam put his hand on Severus's hand in sympathy. "He told me everything once I noticed he didn't age and I confronted him. Well, that and seeing a Quickening." Adam nodded his head.
"That is pretty hard to explain without telling the truth." Severus looked down to where Adam sat.
"Why did you ask?" Adam didn't speak; he just took a knife out of the fold of his robe. He looked at it, gleaming in the moonlight, before quickly slashing it across his palm, drawing up the thick red blood. Severus jumped, but Adam cut him off.
"Just watch." Severus stared, transfixed, as the blue lightning jumped across the wound, healing it without a trace except for the residual blood. He wiped the blood off in the grass and showed his now perfect hand to Severus.
"I'm Immortal."
Severus was silent for a moment.
"I had forgotten what that looked like. It has been so long." Adam smiled grimly.
"How old was he?" Adam didn't need to say who, Severus knew.
"About 500." Adam shook his head.
"Just a baby. A mere child." Severus looked at him like he had flipped his lid.
"What? 500 is no baby."
"To me it is Severus. I am very old. Sometimes I can even feel it, the weight of the years. I'm the oldest Severus, about 5000 years. And my name is Methos." Severus's eyes went wide.
"You're Methos! My father spoke of you often. You were his favorite myth." Methos smiled.
"I'm every immortal's favorite myth, well except for those who know me. They just think I'm annoying." Severus laughed. Then he got serious again.
"Why are you telling me this, Ad- Methos?"
"You can call me Adam if you want. You're going to have to in public anyway."
"Adam. From what my father has told me you never told anybody who you were unless it couldn't be helped, or they already knew."
"Or if Cassandra was coming to town and I really didn't want to loose the person." Severus tried to look at Methos's face, but he had turned away.
"This is really bad, isn't it?" Methos nodded.
"I met Cassandra a long time ago. I mean a real long time ago; about 3000 years. I wasn't the same then as I was now, and my brothers and I did some pretty bad things to her and her village."
"Brothers? I thought immortals had not blood relations?"
"We were brothers in everything but blood, united for a common goal…getting revenge on the mortal man."
"Revenge?" Adam chuckled with grim humor.
"Yes revenge. Well, that's what it was for me. Silas followed me wherever I went, so he was one of us. Kronos loved the thrill of the hunt, while Caspian loved the bloody torture." Severus's eyes bugged. "I know. I didn't like him either. We were always after each other, though nothing too bad.
"But that's not the problem. The problem is that Cassandra hates me with a passion I have not seen in many centuries. I am worried that she'll try to take my head the first time she sees me. She won't hesitate to tell about my past, especially if you already know of immortals. She'll try to turn people against me; she's done it before, to try to kill me."
"Adam, the other teachers like you. They wont believe her lies." Adam looked at Severus, his eyes unreadable.
"Severus, everything she will say about me, that I haven't already told you, is true." Severus just stared back at Methos, finally sliding down to sit on the ground next to him, his arm around Methos's shoulders.
"Well," he stated decisively, "She isn't going to drive me away! You're the first friend I've had in a long time that I actually like enough to seek out. You're the first to understand about truly dark paths and does not still walk them." Methos looked sideways at Severus. He caught the look. Instead of answering verbally, he lifted his arm, so the sleeve fell away. There, black and malicious, was the dark mark, branded on his forearm. He lowered his arm, covering the vile thing once more. "I was young, I was stupid, I was picked on at school and felt that nobody cared. I was power hungry and ambitious. I was also very wrong. Not many who go down that path leave. I was one of the lucky ones. Or, at least, one of the smarter ones. Now, however, when I go to the meetings I am so afraid it almost seems not worth it." He looked at Methos and whispered.
"I am a spy, Methos. A double agent. I play a dangerous game, and every day I run the risk of falling again. I just climbed out, Methos. I don't want to fall." Methos squeezed Severus's hand.
"I won't let you fall. Will you help me make sure Death stays dead?"
"Of course, Methos."
The two sat like that enjoying the closeness of each other and their friendship until the stars began to fade in the sky.
The Next Day:
Once again Methos sat at his desk, though this time not looking at his notes. He sat staring out the window, his eyes glazed over as he thought about the night before. He had told Severus and he was still his friend. Methos smiled. He really did like Severus. His attention was drawn back to reality when the students started to enter his classroom. It was the Gryffindor 5th years (who else) and his role call went relatively quickly.
"Today class we will be talking about Myths. We will cover them all in the next few weeks." He paused, and then smiled a little Mona Lisa smile. "We will start with Immortals." The smile deepened. If Cassandra was coming he was going to let these kids know exactly what she really was, even if they don't recognize it.
"Who knows what an Immortal is?" A few hand were in the air, but none as fast as Miss. Hermione Granger's. "Yes, Miss. Granger."
"According to the myths an Immortal is a human who doesn't age. He or she dies once and when they revive they live forever, healing from all wounds. It is possible for an immortal to die and when they do it angers the heavens so much they send lightning to punish the victor." Methos raised his eyebrows. She had certainly read up on this.
" 'From the dawn of time they came, moving silently down through the centuries, living many secret lives, struggling to reach the time of the gathering, when the few who remain, will battle to the last. No one has ever known they were among you... until now.' Every immortal myth begins with that very statement. You can always tell an Immortal Myth because of it.
"In conjunction with that, there are many immortal myths, some of which might be familiar to you; The Highlanders, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, not to mention the Greek and Egyptian, as well as Roman and Norse gods and goddesses. The myths have a common format as well; all are written as a mortal human watching the Immortal in a chronicle of sorts. We will be exploring the major myths in depth later, but I want to give you a brief summery of the myths we will be covering.
"There are the Highlanders, Duncan and Conner, who are Scots the 16th and 17th centuries, both womanizers yet gentleman, and the best swordsmen most have seen in centuries. Pretty handsome, too," He waggled his eyebrows, and the girls in the class giggled. The boys just looked confused.
"Next there will me Ramirez, the wise old Egyptian, and teacher of Connor, the elder Highlander.
"There's also the story of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and yes I do mean the ones in the Bible. There are the four, War, Pestilence, Famine and Death. And talking about the Horsemen leads us to the next Immortal, the witch, Cassandra. No," he held up his hand, "She was not a which like the one who would go to school here, but more of a shaman, it's complicated. We'll go into that later.
"From there we will go onto the Immortal Thief, Amanda, and wrap up the unit with the oldest myth, the myth of Methos the Immortal, the oldest of them all. This is the most frequent, yet the most elusive myth of them all." He smiled at them. "That will also be covered another day." He went to a shelf and pulled a box of scrolls down.
"These are brief summaries of all the lists, an outline of the Immortal myths, if you will. You will be receiving a similar scroll at the beginning of each unit, and they really are a great study-guide. Most of the information will happen verbally, so I expect you to take notes." He passed out scrolls as he talked, noting that Hermione grabbed the scroll with barely concealed excitement. 'An academic. She's smart…I'll have to watch what I say around her.' He thought even as his voice continued to speak about the requirements, projects and grading of this unit. It was all over too soon, and the students were as reluctant to leave as he was to give them up, but sacrifices had to be made.
In Triple W…
"Say Fred?"
"Yes Geroge?"
"Hogwarts has started, hasn't it?"
"Yes George."
"Hmmm."
"Hmmm?"
"Hogsmead weekends will be starting soon, we'll get to see Ron, Harry and Herm."
"Wicked! Say George?"
"Yes Fred?"
"We haven't heard from that new teacher yet, have we?"
*Blink. Pause*
"No…I don't say we have…you don't think he's forgotten us, do you?"
"Nah. Never happen, some one forget us? Perish the thought."
"Good."
"Though…"
*Thoughtful silence. Sly look*
"What are you scheming?"
"What makes you think I'm scheming anything?"
*Stare. Blush*
"Oh. Right. Twins. There is no hiding anything from you, is there."
"Now why would you want to hide anything from me?"
"For the cause."
*Revered silence*
"The cause…ok, so here's what we do…"
The two bent their heads and for long into the night bumps and thumps could be heard from the two devious red-headed twins.
TBC.
A/N: I'm sooooo sorry that took so long; it took forever just to find time to write it. I hate it when that happens. For those of you wondering, the cause is "To Prank." (Come on, what else would it be.) No, Severus's 'father' is no one we know, just a handy little plot device. So here in my world, Snape was adopted, is gay, has a beard and glasses (yay!) is a pre- immie, and a very understanding man…OoC? Oh hell yeah, but I like mine better.
Ok, so he didn't tell Severus about the Horsemen, but you know what…I didn't feel like writing that part…it always ended up sounding stupid. It doesn't matter, though, since Severus will now stick by Adam no matter what. (I'm not a good angst writer.)
There will be more. I hope to have the next chapter done by Saturday, (crosses fingers.) look for it then. I want to thank all of you who have reviewed, you guys are great. Also, soumi, I don't know if you realized this or not, but I LOVE YOUR HIGHLANDER/LOTR CROSSOVER!!!!! It really is great. Read it all of you. Ok, now that I'm done promoting other people's works, I will promote my own.
Tell all your friends about Harry Potter and the Oldest Immortal, and be kind and please review. *Grin*