Disclaimer: The usual - Rowling owns all; we're just having some fun.
^^
Chapter One: The Document
Archivist Ernwhistle pushed his glasses back, and sneezed loudly. A cloud of dust now smattered his face; no sign remained of the remnants of his white curls.
Cursing under his breath, the wizened wizard bumped against a packed shelf. He was nearly pummeled by the consequent tumbling of a weighty, overstuffed folder.
"Ah, the old Potter file," he muttered, "Wondered where that had gotten to, really need to merge it with the newer one."
"Might as well do it now," he said with a sigh and began an afternoon of tedious labor, labor that would herald the start of one of Professor Severus Snape's greatest nightmares.
~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~
What Archivist Ernwhistle found on that fateful May morning would have shocked the entire wizarding world, had they ever learned about it. It certainly stunned one Lucius Malfoy who intercepted an inhouse Ministry memorandum for a certain Cornelius Oswald Fudge, present Minister of Magic of England.
Voldemort smiled gleefully at the news, much like a child who had just been granted a long awaited plaything. Indeed, in his eyes at least, he had. He almost felt like jumping up in joy.
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, former Transfiguration professor and Head of Gryffindor and current Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was however quite worried. He intensely surveyed the owled parchment with his forehead deeply creased. He had never suspected anything of the sort. The news was almost unthinkable.
~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~
All pureblood wizarding families of England had a self-updating file within the cramped archive offices of the British Ministry of Magic. Any muggleborn who was recognized as a witch or wizard, usually by their entrance into either a wizarding school or an apprenticeship, also gained a file.
Since the founding of the Ministry of Magic by an esteemed group of witches and wizards - Ursula and Angustius Malfoy, Jacob Macallister, Heather and Helena Abbott, Selene and Sebastian Potter and Roderick Weasley, among others, all though led by Gryffindor Alexander Dumbledore and his Slytherin cohort, Sylvus Ravencroft, such files had contained almost all pertinent information regarding British magical families. They held copies of any and all contracts the family or any of its members had entered into with other wizarding families or their members, as well as marriage, death and birth records within the family, records of adoptions and even a concise biographical record of each member.
The Potter family was one of the most ancient of all British wizarding families, rumored to have been around since the time of Merlin himself, with its modern branch having certainly been founded by the marriage of the granddaughter of Godric Gryffindor, Gwendolynn Marie Gryffindor, to one William Potter, half a century after the creation of Hogwarts. It was no surprise then the Potter family had accumulated three stuffed folders. It was indeed miraculous they had not collected more.
For Albert Ernwhistle, senior Ministry archivist since April 1889, three folders were more than enough. The Ravenclaw, was forced to spend an entire week, simply organizing the contents of the Potter file alone, attempting to transfer all its contents into one compact file with an extensive contents page. An entire week spent solely on this task, although he used magic and was assisted by a junior archivist and an intern.
The tedious work was halted suddenly at four in the evening when Peterkins, the new intern, exclaimed aloud, "Merlin's balls! Who wadda known!"
In his hands he held the wrinkled parchment that was going to change the life of a completely unsuspecting Severus Snape and an equally oblivious boy-who-lived.
^^
Chapter One: The Document
Archivist Ernwhistle pushed his glasses back, and sneezed loudly. A cloud of dust now smattered his face; no sign remained of the remnants of his white curls.
Cursing under his breath, the wizened wizard bumped against a packed shelf. He was nearly pummeled by the consequent tumbling of a weighty, overstuffed folder.
"Ah, the old Potter file," he muttered, "Wondered where that had gotten to, really need to merge it with the newer one."
"Might as well do it now," he said with a sigh and began an afternoon of tedious labor, labor that would herald the start of one of Professor Severus Snape's greatest nightmares.
~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~
What Archivist Ernwhistle found on that fateful May morning would have shocked the entire wizarding world, had they ever learned about it. It certainly stunned one Lucius Malfoy who intercepted an inhouse Ministry memorandum for a certain Cornelius Oswald Fudge, present Minister of Magic of England.
Voldemort smiled gleefully at the news, much like a child who had just been granted a long awaited plaything. Indeed, in his eyes at least, he had. He almost felt like jumping up in joy.
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, former Transfiguration professor and Head of Gryffindor and current Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was however quite worried. He intensely surveyed the owled parchment with his forehead deeply creased. He had never suspected anything of the sort. The news was almost unthinkable.
~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~
All pureblood wizarding families of England had a self-updating file within the cramped archive offices of the British Ministry of Magic. Any muggleborn who was recognized as a witch or wizard, usually by their entrance into either a wizarding school or an apprenticeship, also gained a file.
Since the founding of the Ministry of Magic by an esteemed group of witches and wizards - Ursula and Angustius Malfoy, Jacob Macallister, Heather and Helena Abbott, Selene and Sebastian Potter and Roderick Weasley, among others, all though led by Gryffindor Alexander Dumbledore and his Slytherin cohort, Sylvus Ravencroft, such files had contained almost all pertinent information regarding British magical families. They held copies of any and all contracts the family or any of its members had entered into with other wizarding families or their members, as well as marriage, death and birth records within the family, records of adoptions and even a concise biographical record of each member.
The Potter family was one of the most ancient of all British wizarding families, rumored to have been around since the time of Merlin himself, with its modern branch having certainly been founded by the marriage of the granddaughter of Godric Gryffindor, Gwendolynn Marie Gryffindor, to one William Potter, half a century after the creation of Hogwarts. It was no surprise then the Potter family had accumulated three stuffed folders. It was indeed miraculous they had not collected more.
For Albert Ernwhistle, senior Ministry archivist since April 1889, three folders were more than enough. The Ravenclaw, was forced to spend an entire week, simply organizing the contents of the Potter file alone, attempting to transfer all its contents into one compact file with an extensive contents page. An entire week spent solely on this task, although he used magic and was assisted by a junior archivist and an intern.
The tedious work was halted suddenly at four in the evening when Peterkins, the new intern, exclaimed aloud, "Merlin's balls! Who wadda known!"
In his hands he held the wrinkled parchment that was going to change the life of a completely unsuspecting Severus Snape and an equally oblivious boy-who-lived.