A/N: 62 reviews! Can't tell you how happy I am! Thank you, just thank all of you for the great uplifting reviews!

I don't have time for personal responds, very sorry, but there are few things spetecular: Kurtfan5678, you're right, I did make a mistake on the school name, thanks for pointig that out!

And Aislin and everyone who reviewd, just a million thank yous!

PS Can anyone tell me what on earth is a Mary Sue?

Enjoy!

Chapter Twelve


He sat back in his chair, exhaling quietly. So, that was the truth. Potter kept his secret for him because he was ashamed.

Ashamed of his own father.

Severus gave out a hollow laugh. Potter had once again proved the justice he possessed.

Unlike what Severus had always thought of the boy, Potter had everything he envied deep insidecourage, justice and generosityyes, Severus had none of the above. He was to coward to turn his back to Voldemort, and if it was not for Dumbledore that old manhe never bothered to seek justice or not, all he depended on was the man himself- the reason for treating Potter with pity was only he was Harry Potter, son of his old archenemy, he never bothered to see the good inside the boy, did he notas for generosity- Severus let out a little snort as he came to that- he never forgave, never shared, never offeredbut did that mean Potter was a better person than him? Was it true that he, Severus, was no better than James Potter, that arrogant little bloke?

No, he replied himself firmly. No! He had courage- if risking his life behind the darkest wizard of the centaury was not courage, then what was it?

But come to think of it, a nasty little voice, just so familiar, sounded inside himself. Come to think of it, he had only suffered so many losses in a change of forgiveness. Forgiveness from his own self because the mistake he had made so long ago. The mistake which changed his whole life. He could not tolerate with the guilt and horror inside himself, and that was the only reason he endured the suffers and risks all those years. Merely for a better opinion on himself. Not because of courage. Not because of desire.

He exhaled again, swifts of memories flashing before his very eyes as he did. So clear, so real, as if he was just there yesterday

* * *

"I am ready."

He took the hand and shook it briefly. The opponent did not let go.

"May this be the finest and wisest choice in your life, Severus." A cold voice penetrated through the black veiled mask.

"Say it." A voice hissed in his ear.

"I, Severus Snape, solemnly swear on my eternal loyalty to the Dark Lord. I, Severus Snape, swear on my best use of my intelligence, my strengths, my wisdom and all I possess to satisfy the desires of the Dark Lord. I, Severus Snape"

He continued whispering, his heart pounding rapidly, but filled with eager, excitement, pride

He had made his own choice for his own self for the first time in his life. He knew this was the beginning, the new taste, the true taste of life. This was his life, not James Potter and his gang's , not his filthy father's, not anyone's

"And I, Severus Snape, hereby announce on my whole, my territory, my flesh, my thoughts, my past and my future's possession rights towards the Dark Lord. I, Severus Snape belong to the Dark Lord."

The last phrase echoed through the empty hall, chanting through Severus' head. I belong to the terror of death

"May your loyalty never weaver, Severus."

* * *

"Augh!"

He was incensing, on fire, tearing open-

"Harry! Harry, what's wrong?"

The pain was past endurance

And then he heard it. A voice, so familiar, so chilling, so invincible-

"Ready? It is ready? Very wellwell done, my boywell done" The high pitched laugh split Harry's forehead open- stop, stop it, let me die instead, nothing was comparable to this pain-

"Harry! Stop it! Harry, will you stop screaming!"

He would have done, too, if only he could possess himself correctly- but he was failing, he was accomplishing things he had no desire, things out of his control-

He was in a very dark room. The darkness dawning on him made it impossible to get a clear vision of his own hands. But he did not care- he had more important things to complete

And there it was. Standing in front of him firmly, was a wooden cabinet. He could not see anything but the thing in front of him, he had to concentrate, his life depended on it-

He pointed his wand at the small carved door fixed on the shelf.

"Reducto!"

The spell hissed out of his wand, and he, forcing the spell not to achieve such loud noise, flung the cabinet door open and shot his hands inside at the contents, the things he needed

Harry woke up with a start, panting fiercely as if he had just run miles and miles through the country. He was sweating horribly- water vapor from his own body poured down his forehead as he sat up on will. He looked around, everything was like a blur, voices and shapes surrounding him

WHAM. His vision was clear suddenly, and so was his spectacular pain on his right cheek. He looked up at the person kneeling in front of him. Ron. Ron had slapped him.

"Are you okay?"

There was a slight tremor in his friend's tone. Harry opened his mouth dryly and croaked, "Water, please."

The boy hurried away, leaving a crowd of people closing upon Harry. Harry began to feel warmer and recognized the crowd as his fellow Gryffindors. Then it hit him. He was getting packed for the trip to Hogsmeade, all set to go when such revolting pain sliced him in the middle of the common room

"Feeling alright, Harry?"

Seamus Finingan.

"Of course he isn't alright, he just fainted!" snapped the girl beside Seamus. Harry identified his other best friend instantly.

Hermione was in tears. "What happened, Harry? Was it- was it-" she lowered her voice to prevent the other's hearings, "one of the Voldemort dreams again? What did you see?"

Harry had no time to answer when Ron stuffed a cup of water into his right hand, a bar of chocolate in the other.

"Drink up, eat it, you'll feel better." Ron was looking extremely concerned and shaky, but his tone was firm. Harry drank the water gratefully, and took a big bite out of the chocolate which spread warmth to the tip of his toes.

"Hey, there's nothing to watch, all over, he's okay, he'll live" Ron stood up and began to sort the crowd. The people left one by one, murmuring thoughts to the others and taking short glances back towards Harry whenever they could.

When the final student had left the common room, Ron and Hermione both knelt down on the sides of Harry.

"Tell Dumbledore immediately-"

"What did you see?"

"You know it's not a playing matter, it's serious, tell that old man-"

"Did you seeHim?"
Harry held up both hands to silent his concerned friends. "It's okay, I'm fine. Just another hallucination."

Reading the looks on his two friends, Harry knew instantly they were not convinced. He sighed and told them everything he had saw, but leaving out the pain he suffered, not wanting to alarm them further

"Voldemort was happy for some reasonand I was in some kind of a rooma shop, to be exact, I couldn't see anything but some sort of instinct told me it was a shopanyways, I approached to some cabinet and blast the door open. Then I grabbed something inside, can't remember what it was"

"You took something? From an unknown property?" breathed Hermione. She was clutching on her wand very tightly, which she had whipped out during Harry's tantrum.

Harry shook his head. "It wasn't me, it was- another person, I was just seeing it from his point of view"

He did not think he could say he was Voldemort.

"Like the last time? When you were the snake and saw Dad's injury?" Ron broke into his thoughts.

Turning his gaze away, Harry muttered, "I dunno"

He wanted to get out of the room more than anything, wanted to join the other students, not to worry about a thing in the world, being perfectly happy and cheerful just because of a Hogsmeade trip

"Let's go."

Getting up weakly, he grabbed his bag on the floor, swung it onto his shoulder, and trod towards the exit without another word.

* * *

"Correctcorrect againanother perfectdoes this young woman ever make mistakes?"

He wondered out aloud, holding up the parchment he was examining. Trust Hermione Granger to incense him with her perfect when he had just recalled his little "rebirth" party

The Death Eater ceremony. The day he joined the Dark. Today. Twenty three years from today.

He forced himself to forget the memories and concentrated on the stack of awaiting work from his students. He was succeeding to throw his thoughts away when correcting the pathetic work of Neville Longbottom's when a knock penetrated hid office door. Putting his work, he voiced the permission.

"Come in."

The door creaked open- Severus vowed to wax it when he found the time, the sound was odd and chilling- and in came the most unexpected guest of all- Sybill Trelawney, Divination Professor of the school.

"Professor Trelawney! How do you do, please do sit down." He offered her a chair opposite to his.

The old woman remained standing. She looked extremely nervous and tired. Her hair was lose, stranding over her paled face, her hands were trembling seriously, and she was she was shaking from head to foot.

Severus stood up and approached. "Is there a problem, Professor Trelawney?"
Trelawney made no reply. Instead, her eyes began to bulge and rolled in her head viciously.

Severus took a step back, confused and startled. "What seems to be wrong, Professor-"

But Sybill Trelawney turned to him suddenly, making Severus stop abruptly. The woman looked at him with her big, round eyes, and without warning- she fell into his arms, tears splashing everywhere.

"Professor Trelawney!" Severus gave out a shout, completely taken back. The old woman's weight launched on him, causing him stagger a few steps backwards.

Pushing the now crying hysterically Professor Trelawney into a small couch, Severus tried desperately to struggle free from the clutch of the sobbing woman.

"I need to fetch the Headmistress, Sybill, let go-"

But Trelawney was talking to him.

Staring at him with those big, watery brow eyes of hers, she sobbed breathlessly,

"Needyou. Dark Lordplotting to kill"

"What?" Severus stared. Trelawney was clearly having a difficult time to string the words together.

"Todayis the daythe war"

"Sybill, will you please allow me out of your grip to fetch Minerva!" Severus shouted, confused and frightened from the twisted behavior of the old woman. She clasped her grip more firmly around his wrist while he glanced everywhere around the office, targeting the little pot of Floo Powder standing on the corner of the fireplace. He stretched his other arm to meet it, but was again stopped by Trelawney, who seemed determined to talk about something to Severus.

"Don'tDark Lord"

Then, as suddenly as it came, the eyes of the woman became clear again, and so did, evidently, her mind.

Snapping her head up to meet Severus' shocked eyes, she asked sanely, "Oh! What am I doing here? Professor Snape?"

Severus was speechless. "You"

The old woman stood up and looked around. "Must have gone to the wrong placewanted to catch a bathroom, but looks like I am much mistaken"

She continued muttering to herself. Severus stared soundlessly.

Then, suddenly, she turned to him and stated, "Forgive me to interrupt you, Professor Snape. Old mind works absentlyI must hurry along. Good day to you."

With that, she made her exit in a rush, leaving a very confused Severus.

* * *

"Where shall we go first, then?" Harry asked loudly to his two friends, mainly to stop them from shooting him worried glances, as if expecting him to fall over and scream hysterically anytime. They were patrolling along the roads of Hogsmeade, having a whole afternoon to themselves in the beautiful village.

Harry caught Hermione changing concerned looks with Ron, whom were both on the either side of him. Then she opened her mouth, "Harry, are you sure you're-"

"Yes, I am." Harry could not help sounding a little annoyed- the last thing he wanted to do right now was to think about Voldemort and his party, why did not his friends understand?

"Right." Hermione gulped nervously. Harry could not take it anymore. Turning angrily towards the girl, he said impatiently, "Will you two stop it? You're acting like I'm going to drop dead any minute! Why can't you even act normal? I-"

"We're sorry! Sorry, Harry! We were just- just-" Hermione looked afraid. "Just worried, that's all. Sorry."

Ron, too, nodded firmly with anxious by Hermione's side.

Harry felt ashamed of his outburst already. Turning back towards the sunlit road, he muttered, "Let's go."

The three walked for a while in silence. Then after turning around a corner, they approached a dim, long corridor. The was not much sunlight illuminating the shadowy place. Something made Harry felt a twinge of familiar

"What is this place?" wondered Ron out aloud. They walked slowly down the cold alleyway, looking around.

There was only one little store standing at the end of the corridor. It was very dark, damp and gave Harry shudder as the three approached closer. The windows of the store was broken, leaving a little old fashioned wooden door greeting them in the middle of the small wooden cabin.

Harry looked up at the poster pinned onto the wall of the store:

Knockturn Fraudway

"My gosh!" Hermione, too, was reading the sign. Harry looked at her, "What's the matter?"

Ron glanced nervously at Hermione as she backed away silently, her eyes still fixed upon the sign.

"Hermione- what's wrong?" exclaimed Ron worriedly. He exchanged anxious looks with Harry.

"Let's- let's get away from here. Knockturn Fraudway- the branch store of Knockturn Alley! It's dark, evil"

And at her words, Harry started to recall the time when he was still a second year, he had traveled wrongly by the Floo Powder and ended up in a weird place named Knockturn Alley, where Hagrid had saved him from a couple of would-be hackers. The place, as far as Harry could remember, was filled with Dark Art supplies and horrible creatures.

"What's it doing in Hogsmeade?" said Harry as he, too, backed up anxiously.

"No idea," Hermione whispered gravely, "but I won't go inside even if you paid me thousands of Galleons- word spreads out some wizards never come back out once they enter."

Ron gave a hoarse laugh, "Oh, come on, Hermione, how thick are you? Do you really think there're ghosts are something inside-"

But he was cut off by a bang of the front door of the little store. The door was slammed open and a man- was it even human? Harry did not know- stepped out and looked at the three.

As the eyes of the thing sweep among Harry, Ron and Hermione, Harry could never find anything less like a human.

He was very tiny, about the same size of Dobby the house elf; it was hooded with black all over, but his hands were clearly visible for he held a wand in the right and a wooden staff in the other. His hands were dried up, wrinkled like an old man's, but with raw, reddish skin- in fact, the only person Harry had witness possession such human skin was none other than Lord Voldemort himself.

Harry and the other two froze in their tracks, and for a while the thing and they just stared at each other. Then-

"Catch ya, you little filthy thieves!" a loud voice- much louder than what you would expect coming from such tiny creature- boomed from behind the hood. He had a very strong American accent. Holding up his wand, the thing pointed it directly at Harry, Ron and Hermione. Harry caught Hermione gasping.

"C'mon, which one of you did it? Huh? Wanted to come back and feed your bloody greed once more, didn't you? Ha, but old Metcho me here ain't that stupid"

Harry swallowed. "Excuse me, but we were just passing by-"

"Passing by? Passing by! Ha! Likely, isn't it? Like you would bother coming into this damn old alleyway! Like you actually wanted to buy something from me store! A likely tale, filthy mudblood!"

And with that, he spat onto the ground, jumping up and down as he spoke.

"Sir, we were really just walking along the road, we didn't steal anything-"

Hermione's pleads wee, apparently, no use.

"An utter lie! A downright, filthy, unworthy, useless lie! Think you can lie to me? Huh? Think you can lie to old Metcho? Oh, no, young lady, Metcho has things and powers you wouldn't have dream of, things you wouldn't even think of"

Harry stared at the old- thing?- man. He had never seen someone as mad as the old fraud now standing before him.

"Look, we're students, okay?" he exclaimed, running out of nerve and patience, " We're here for a trip! How are we supposed to break into your shop, anyway, if it's really protected by your spectacular powers and stuff?"

The words had its effect on the Metcho. Relaxing, he turned to Harry, "Well, yes, filthy little jerks like you won't be able to get past me traps and everythin'"

Ron was instantly relaxed, for he questioned incredulously, "Someone broke into your store?"

Metcho sighed and leaned against the doorway. "Yesjust last week. Some night, me got pissed off by me wife, came back here and found valuable ingredients missing"

"Ingredients?" asked Hermione, whose face was still very white but seemed less stiff.

"Ingredients, yes, very rare ingredients for potion making. Illegal, to say, but those brainless laws never found its way to stop me, ya know"

"Have you caught the person who did it yet?" Harry frowned. Potion makinghe was beginning to see something

Metcho laid his wand down and pocketed it. "Do I seem like I caught the bastard? Jumping every time someone comesno wonder no one buys anythin' from me store again. Oh," his face suddenly beginning to glow with excitement and eagerness, "what would I do when I get the hold of those little scumbagsrip their tongues off, chop them fingersha!"

The mad laugh of Metcho's echoed through the chilling air. Harry cast Ron a nervous glance and Ron cleared his throat.

"Um- Mr Metcho? We uh, better get goinggood luck on finding the thieves, though."

Metcho waved carelessly to the three and muttered, "Go, go along! Better get back to the other jerks, ya'll be lost before ya know it, with pitiful brains like yours"

Then he went back into the store, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Weird, is he?" muttered Ron as the three hurried out of the dark alleyway.

"Mad, I'll say." added Harry.

Once they got back out into the main road, the sun shined on them again and warmth spread like electric through their bodies. Harry urged them to get as fast as possible from Metcho and his store, in case he suddenly blasted out of nowhere, convinced they had stolen something from the Knockturn Fraudway.

"Let's go to the Three Broomsticks, shall we? A Butterbeer might lighten things up"

They were deeply in conversation about the scene that had happened just a few minutes ago, when, after entering the Three Broomsticks, Hermione gasped.

Harry glanced at the way she was looking at, and saw- Cornelius Fudge, sitting merrily and drinking a Butterbeer all by himself.

"What's he doing here, all alone?" mutter Hermione as the three edged anxiously around Fudge's seat, careful not to acknowledge him their arrival. They were about to reach an empty table when-

"Harry! Harry potter!"

Harry shot a desperate look at his friends and turned. Fudge approached the three, looking directly at Harry, but making no signs of noticing the other two.

As he smiled widely and shook Harry's hand, Ron and Hermione scowled at him, not bothering to make it not too obvious.

"Nice day, is it? What a coincidence, meeting you here!" that overly cheerful stupid face, Harry snarled at his not-a-thing-to-worry tone.

"Yes, nice day it is, but if you excuse us, Mr Fudge, we would like to get a table." He snapped, not caring if he was rude.

Fudge continued smiling in the way Harry abhorred, "No, no Harry. We must have a word, too many misunderstandings between us, don't you think so?"

"You're damn right there is." Harry heard Ron breathing behind him.

"We must go, excuse us, Mr Fudge." Harry said flatly.

The Minister made no attempt to step aside and make space for the three. Instead, he clasped his hand around Harry' shoulder, "Just one quick word, Harry. Come on, you have all day here in Hogsmeade, don't you? Won't waste you too much time, just a few minutes. Not here, of course, outside, a moment please?"

Harry glanced over his shoulders and saw Hermione exchanging confuse looks with Ron. Then Ron nodded a little at him, a if to give him permission and encourage him to go on.

"Okay." Harry muttered, and followed Fudge over to the threshold of the bar, "Lead the way, please."

A/N: How's that? Sorry if it's kind of boring...better chapters coming up~ REVIEW PLS~