-Albus Dumbledore-
I had not planned on taking Severus Snape out of Azkaban; no doubt he deserved it entirely; but everybody changes their mind once in a while. The fact that Azkaban even exists is wrong, though, but as everyone reminds me, it's for the good of the world order. I think that there are other ways of imprisonment, and torturing murderers is acting no better than them.
Why, Severus Snape? Because for some reason, I felt that it was my duty to take him out of this mess. Probably because of everything that wasn't criminally right about him added up; he didn't show any signs of fighting, he had been against the Death Eaters for some time now, and as he claims, he had come to join us. I'm sure he wasn't born to be a killer; nobody is. I believe that everyone can change, and Severus DID want to.
But he did murder many people, and I agreed that he should be punished for it. I was ready to accept him having a lifetime in Azkaban, but the last thing he said to me changed my mind... He yelled something at me, and I didn't much understand him... But the way he said it was as if I had told him something to make him assume that I would protect him, and the way he was pleading with me was just... thought-provoking... As if he really did regret what he had done, and that I alone would see.
I'm not sure if this makes any sense, but I knew I had to help him out, help him to change as he so wanted to do. But, understand; I couldn't just let him go punishment free... One; because he still had all those deaths to pay for, and two; the minister would never let off a convict just like that.
Presently, the minister was assisting me in taking Severus Snape to a ministry room, where we would bring him to his senses and propose a more suitable payment other than Azkaban, in which he would carry out with for the rest of his life as he would have in that awful prison.
"Albus, I still don't see why you're doing this," the minister huffed alongside me, pushing Severus towards the center of the hall that we were guiding him down. "But you obviously have a good reason for it..."
"And I do," I said to him over the mad boy's muttering, completely oblivious to the fact that we were there as far as I could tell. "And I will explain myself presently..." I hurried forward to open a door, and closed it behind me as we entered the room. The minister directed Severus to a couch indifferently, and turned to face me after he had seated himself in a far chair.
"Now, Albus," Claude said. "You know fully well what this man has done, and his sentence is appropriate."
"Oswald, I am sure you understand that he has asked to join us by his own free will," I said. "And so should be given a different punishment."
"What do you propose?" Oswald asked.
"From what I've recently heard of him, he's been rebelling against the other Death Eaters, and had been steadily slowing them down," I said. "Why don't we let him continue that, only with our permission? Except, instead of killing those men, we may have him take them back to us so they can have a trial..."
"You already know we've got Aurors to do all that!" Oswald intervened.
"Yes, but the Aurors don't have the insiders experience of the Death Eater mind... He could come of use," I said calmly.
"He can't be trusted," the minister said, shaking his head. "I won't allow it."
"Then let him serve a short suspension first," I suggested.
"What do you have in mind?" the minister asked.
"He's been abusing his privileges as a wizard... Why not... let him live a short term as a muggle?" I said.
"How do we do that?" Claude asked, interested.
"We ban him to muggle England," I said. "Keep a close watch. If he causes no trouble, and proves himself a changed man, we can take him back and do as I suggested before."
"How long will he be in muggle England?"
"As long as it takes to prove to you that he has paid enough and will never kill for pleasure again," I said. "And if he doesn't prove trustworthy in the end, we need not take him back. What is one man, anyway? Besides, exile from our own kind is still better than Azkaban... What do you say?"
"I say that sounds like a fair plan," Oswald answered. "Two years minimum exile. Agreed?"
"Two years is quite a long time if you're thinking about him in terms of usefulness to the ministry," I said.
"Two years is plenty short enough time. It takes that long to decide if one is changed, anyway. And it will be for the same amount of time as he was a Death Eater. More appropriate than any other amount of time," Claude said.
"All right, then," I replied. "Two years in muggle England. If he passes your judgment after that, he returns to us."
"Right," Claude confirmed.
"Now, I believe we should get Severus in his right mind, wouldn't you say?" I suggested.
"Of course," the minister grumbled. "I say; after a week of Azkaban, it's a surprise he's this bad already."
"You underestimate it's influence, Oswald," I said. "We ourselves could never know what is going through the minds of the prisoners..."
-Severus Snape-
"Severus..."
"Go away."
I THINK HE'S COMING TO.
"Severus..."
"No, you're dead, you're not real."
SEVERUS.
"Severus..."
"It's your fault, you know, it's your fault your wife's dead and it's your fault you're dead too, because you wouldn't have lasted much longer, anyway."
IT'S NO USE, ALBUS, HE WON'T SNAP OUT OF IT.
"Ha ha! And he won't!"
"Shut up, bastard, you're not real."
"How can I not be real? You're talking to me. You see me. Look at me."
"I am looking at you, and you look like a corpse!"
"Does that mean I'm not real? You didn't kill me, Severus. I'm right here."
HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WE'RE HERE, HE'S TALKING TO A DEAD PERSON!
"You're right; damn, maybe I'm not imagining this... but I can hear voices..."
"They're what's not real!"
"Perhaps you're right. Why would they be in our house?"
SEVERUS, YOU'RE NOT IN YOUR HOUSE.
"Yes you are, look around you!"
"I can see, but these voices are so clear..."
LOOK AT HIS EYES, IT'S AS IF HE'S DRUNK OR SOMETHING, HE CAN'T SEE US.
"You're mad, that's why, but you can-"
WAKE UP.
"-and forget-"
SNAP OUT OF IT.
"-so-"
"Father, you're fading..."
"You better not let me-"
IT'S NOT REAL, IT'S NOT REAL.
"Our house... It's-" My eyes widened as the picture blurred and for a few seconds, another scene came into focus, one where both the Minister of Magic and Dumbledore stood above me.
"It's not-"
The house came back.
REAL.
"Where are you? I can't see you anywhere..."
"Right here, you insolent little fool!" He charged at me.
WHAT IS HE DOING, HE'S PITCHING HIMSELF LIKE HE'S POSSESSED.
"You killed-"
"Off!"
"-me-"
WHACK!
The room came back into focus, but he was still there. I clutched the sides of my head and blinked several times, kicking at my father's arms that were still reaching for my neck.
"I think you've done it, Oswald, I think he can see us!"
"Of course I can, get him off me!" I shouted.
"Severus, there's nobody on you-"
"Can't you see he's trying to kill me, he's trying to avenge his death, it was all his fault, though-"
"Listen!"
I turned about and grabbed the couch arm in an instant moment of sickness and vomited over the side on the carpet. I couldn't feel him anymore, he wasn't there, I don't think he was, was he?
I turned slowly around to survey the room and the people in it. Only Claude and Dumbledore.
"Sorry about that," I uttered finally.
"Yes you should be," the impostor said.
"Still here, still here! My God, you are real!"
"Yes-" Claude started to say, but I interrupted.
"Not you, of course you are, but there he is, see him, see? He's standing there in the corner, there, look! He's real and he's back!" I said, panicked, pointing to a corner of the room. The others looked calmly on me. "It's a living corpse, look at him!"
"Now, don't you worry, there's nobody else in the room," Dumbledore said assuringly.
"Just look, there he is! Come for revenge! You won't let him kill me!" I said.
"What's one more death, right son?"
"No!"
"Severus, calm down! He's not real," Dumbledore said, shoving me down on the couch.
"This lunatic isn't worth the time, Albus," the minister grumbled.
"It's all right, Severus!" the corpse said sweetly. "They can't see me, but YOU can, and you're all that matters to me, because when you're busy dying they'll just think you're crazy!" He dove for me and I screamed aloud.
Silence except for my short breaths. He was gone. No, he was never there in the first place.
"Where am I?" I asked after a long while. "I want out of here."
"Yes, and now you'll GET out of here-" the minister snapped, grabbing my arm, but Dumbledore calmly intervened.
"Of course you do," he said. "And I suggest plenty of rest in your new environment..." He eyed Claude, who nodded agreeably and sat back down in his chair.
"What are you saying?" I asked wearily, standing from the couch.
"Here," he answered, taking out his wand. "Let me explain..."
We were suddenly apparated to a familiar spot I knew as the Leaky Cauldron... Just outside it.
"This is where you'll be suspended until further notice," Dumbledore explained.
"The Leaky Cauldron?" I asked dryly.
"Muggle England," he corrected, waving his hand toward the street.
"But-"
"Severus," Dumbledore interrupted seriously. "It took a lot of work getting you out of Azkaban, and I don't believe you'd be wanting to go back very soon. You will learn to live like them, and you would do best to behave yourself, am I clear?"
"But-"
"Good-bye, then. Hope to see you well, soon!" Dumbledore said, raising his wand again. I blinked. "And as I suggested before, plenty of rest will get you settled in no time."
"What is this..." I started, but he had already disapparated. "Suspension? To Muggle England? For how long!" There was no reply of course, only a few stares from passersby. It was happening too fast... "Dumbledore..."
I didn't have to search my robes to know I was wandless, but maybe someone in the Leaky Cauldron...
I tried to open the peeling-painted door bur it was locked. I kicked it a few times and the old lock fell to pieces, the door swinging open.
Nothing was there, save for a dusty table and a crumpled once-white sheet, yellowed with age. It seemed I would be stuck here for a long time... Damn.
A/N: Yeaaah... We're getting somewhere, right? Heehee? Nyeh... More to come! :D
I had not planned on taking Severus Snape out of Azkaban; no doubt he deserved it entirely; but everybody changes their mind once in a while. The fact that Azkaban even exists is wrong, though, but as everyone reminds me, it's for the good of the world order. I think that there are other ways of imprisonment, and torturing murderers is acting no better than them.
Why, Severus Snape? Because for some reason, I felt that it was my duty to take him out of this mess. Probably because of everything that wasn't criminally right about him added up; he didn't show any signs of fighting, he had been against the Death Eaters for some time now, and as he claims, he had come to join us. I'm sure he wasn't born to be a killer; nobody is. I believe that everyone can change, and Severus DID want to.
But he did murder many people, and I agreed that he should be punished for it. I was ready to accept him having a lifetime in Azkaban, but the last thing he said to me changed my mind... He yelled something at me, and I didn't much understand him... But the way he said it was as if I had told him something to make him assume that I would protect him, and the way he was pleading with me was just... thought-provoking... As if he really did regret what he had done, and that I alone would see.
I'm not sure if this makes any sense, but I knew I had to help him out, help him to change as he so wanted to do. But, understand; I couldn't just let him go punishment free... One; because he still had all those deaths to pay for, and two; the minister would never let off a convict just like that.
Presently, the minister was assisting me in taking Severus Snape to a ministry room, where we would bring him to his senses and propose a more suitable payment other than Azkaban, in which he would carry out with for the rest of his life as he would have in that awful prison.
"Albus, I still don't see why you're doing this," the minister huffed alongside me, pushing Severus towards the center of the hall that we were guiding him down. "But you obviously have a good reason for it..."
"And I do," I said to him over the mad boy's muttering, completely oblivious to the fact that we were there as far as I could tell. "And I will explain myself presently..." I hurried forward to open a door, and closed it behind me as we entered the room. The minister directed Severus to a couch indifferently, and turned to face me after he had seated himself in a far chair.
"Now, Albus," Claude said. "You know fully well what this man has done, and his sentence is appropriate."
"Oswald, I am sure you understand that he has asked to join us by his own free will," I said. "And so should be given a different punishment."
"What do you propose?" Oswald asked.
"From what I've recently heard of him, he's been rebelling against the other Death Eaters, and had been steadily slowing them down," I said. "Why don't we let him continue that, only with our permission? Except, instead of killing those men, we may have him take them back to us so they can have a trial..."
"You already know we've got Aurors to do all that!" Oswald intervened.
"Yes, but the Aurors don't have the insiders experience of the Death Eater mind... He could come of use," I said calmly.
"He can't be trusted," the minister said, shaking his head. "I won't allow it."
"Then let him serve a short suspension first," I suggested.
"What do you have in mind?" the minister asked.
"He's been abusing his privileges as a wizard... Why not... let him live a short term as a muggle?" I said.
"How do we do that?" Claude asked, interested.
"We ban him to muggle England," I said. "Keep a close watch. If he causes no trouble, and proves himself a changed man, we can take him back and do as I suggested before."
"How long will he be in muggle England?"
"As long as it takes to prove to you that he has paid enough and will never kill for pleasure again," I said. "And if he doesn't prove trustworthy in the end, we need not take him back. What is one man, anyway? Besides, exile from our own kind is still better than Azkaban... What do you say?"
"I say that sounds like a fair plan," Oswald answered. "Two years minimum exile. Agreed?"
"Two years is quite a long time if you're thinking about him in terms of usefulness to the ministry," I said.
"Two years is plenty short enough time. It takes that long to decide if one is changed, anyway. And it will be for the same amount of time as he was a Death Eater. More appropriate than any other amount of time," Claude said.
"All right, then," I replied. "Two years in muggle England. If he passes your judgment after that, he returns to us."
"Right," Claude confirmed.
"Now, I believe we should get Severus in his right mind, wouldn't you say?" I suggested.
"Of course," the minister grumbled. "I say; after a week of Azkaban, it's a surprise he's this bad already."
"You underestimate it's influence, Oswald," I said. "We ourselves could never know what is going through the minds of the prisoners..."
-Severus Snape-
"Severus..."
"Go away."
I THINK HE'S COMING TO.
"Severus..."
"No, you're dead, you're not real."
SEVERUS.
"Severus..."
"It's your fault, you know, it's your fault your wife's dead and it's your fault you're dead too, because you wouldn't have lasted much longer, anyway."
IT'S NO USE, ALBUS, HE WON'T SNAP OUT OF IT.
"Ha ha! And he won't!"
"Shut up, bastard, you're not real."
"How can I not be real? You're talking to me. You see me. Look at me."
"I am looking at you, and you look like a corpse!"
"Does that mean I'm not real? You didn't kill me, Severus. I'm right here."
HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WE'RE HERE, HE'S TALKING TO A DEAD PERSON!
"You're right; damn, maybe I'm not imagining this... but I can hear voices..."
"They're what's not real!"
"Perhaps you're right. Why would they be in our house?"
SEVERUS, YOU'RE NOT IN YOUR HOUSE.
"Yes you are, look around you!"
"I can see, but these voices are so clear..."
LOOK AT HIS EYES, IT'S AS IF HE'S DRUNK OR SOMETHING, HE CAN'T SEE US.
"You're mad, that's why, but you can-"
WAKE UP.
"-and forget-"
SNAP OUT OF IT.
"-so-"
"Father, you're fading..."
"You better not let me-"
IT'S NOT REAL, IT'S NOT REAL.
"Our house... It's-" My eyes widened as the picture blurred and for a few seconds, another scene came into focus, one where both the Minister of Magic and Dumbledore stood above me.
"It's not-"
The house came back.
REAL.
"Where are you? I can't see you anywhere..."
"Right here, you insolent little fool!" He charged at me.
WHAT IS HE DOING, HE'S PITCHING HIMSELF LIKE HE'S POSSESSED.
"You killed-"
"Off!"
"-me-"
WHACK!
The room came back into focus, but he was still there. I clutched the sides of my head and blinked several times, kicking at my father's arms that were still reaching for my neck.
"I think you've done it, Oswald, I think he can see us!"
"Of course I can, get him off me!" I shouted.
"Severus, there's nobody on you-"
"Can't you see he's trying to kill me, he's trying to avenge his death, it was all his fault, though-"
"Listen!"
I turned about and grabbed the couch arm in an instant moment of sickness and vomited over the side on the carpet. I couldn't feel him anymore, he wasn't there, I don't think he was, was he?
I turned slowly around to survey the room and the people in it. Only Claude and Dumbledore.
"Sorry about that," I uttered finally.
"Yes you should be," the impostor said.
"Still here, still here! My God, you are real!"
"Yes-" Claude started to say, but I interrupted.
"Not you, of course you are, but there he is, see him, see? He's standing there in the corner, there, look! He's real and he's back!" I said, panicked, pointing to a corner of the room. The others looked calmly on me. "It's a living corpse, look at him!"
"Now, don't you worry, there's nobody else in the room," Dumbledore said assuringly.
"Just look, there he is! Come for revenge! You won't let him kill me!" I said.
"What's one more death, right son?"
"No!"
"Severus, calm down! He's not real," Dumbledore said, shoving me down on the couch.
"This lunatic isn't worth the time, Albus," the minister grumbled.
"It's all right, Severus!" the corpse said sweetly. "They can't see me, but YOU can, and you're all that matters to me, because when you're busy dying they'll just think you're crazy!" He dove for me and I screamed aloud.
Silence except for my short breaths. He was gone. No, he was never there in the first place.
"Where am I?" I asked after a long while. "I want out of here."
"Yes, and now you'll GET out of here-" the minister snapped, grabbing my arm, but Dumbledore calmly intervened.
"Of course you do," he said. "And I suggest plenty of rest in your new environment..." He eyed Claude, who nodded agreeably and sat back down in his chair.
"What are you saying?" I asked wearily, standing from the couch.
"Here," he answered, taking out his wand. "Let me explain..."
We were suddenly apparated to a familiar spot I knew as the Leaky Cauldron... Just outside it.
"This is where you'll be suspended until further notice," Dumbledore explained.
"The Leaky Cauldron?" I asked dryly.
"Muggle England," he corrected, waving his hand toward the street.
"But-"
"Severus," Dumbledore interrupted seriously. "It took a lot of work getting you out of Azkaban, and I don't believe you'd be wanting to go back very soon. You will learn to live like them, and you would do best to behave yourself, am I clear?"
"But-"
"Good-bye, then. Hope to see you well, soon!" Dumbledore said, raising his wand again. I blinked. "And as I suggested before, plenty of rest will get you settled in no time."
"What is this..." I started, but he had already disapparated. "Suspension? To Muggle England? For how long!" There was no reply of course, only a few stares from passersby. It was happening too fast... "Dumbledore..."
I didn't have to search my robes to know I was wandless, but maybe someone in the Leaky Cauldron...
I tried to open the peeling-painted door bur it was locked. I kicked it a few times and the old lock fell to pieces, the door swinging open.
Nothing was there, save for a dusty table and a crumpled once-white sheet, yellowed with age. It seemed I would be stuck here for a long time... Damn.
A/N: Yeaaah... We're getting somewhere, right? Heehee? Nyeh... More to come! :D
