(A/N: Despite the impressions this chapter may make, it is not by far the last Chapter. Oh, no, gentle reader, this is going to be a long, long and very exhausting story, so just hold on, sit tight, and think of Blighty.)
Chapter 5: I Can Make You a Man
It was now 5 o clock, and Severus Snape had had enough. "I've had enough!" he said out loud to his empty classroom. And, putting his money where his mouth was, he stormed out of the classroom, slamming the door behind him, and stormed through the hallway to Dumbledore's office. "Rabid owls, rabid Lucius Malfoy, rabid Draco Malfoy, pestering colleagues, man-handling Hagrid, and, to top it all, being ogled by Hermione Granger!" he grumbled to himself as he practically flew through the corridors. He stopped abruptly when he noticed that he was already outside Dumbledore's office, having been so absorbed in how he was being mistreated, that he had not consciously seen any of the way he had come.
"Chocolate Frog," he said, and clambered up into the office. "Albus!" he cried as he entered. "We need to have a word." Dumbledore, who had been petting Fawkes, looked up, and Snape was loathe to note that his eyes began to twinkle wildly as soon as he had recognised him.
"Ah, Severus," he said, bumbling slowly back to his chair behind the desk. "You seem rather agitated. What is the matter?" Snape growled inwardly. The old fool knew, and yet he had the nerve to pretend he didn't.
"Actually, Albus," he said, "I was hoping you could enlighten me. You see, the fast few days rather unusual things have been happening."
"Oh, really?" Dumbledore said innocently, levitating a pot of tea over a few cups. "Tea?"
"Yes, thank you," Snape said. "Two lumps and cream, please." He was nearly angry with himself for taking this peace offering, but then, it was tea, and he could not resist. He sighed.
"Do sit down, Severus. You appear to have had a trying day." Dumbledore said, letting a tiny famille rose china milk jug hover in mid air.
"Thanks." Snape sat down, and picked up his cup of tea.
"Now, tell me all." Dumbledore said, leaning back in his chair, annoyingly smug.
"Well, two days ago, I was sitting in my study, quietly grading essays, when Lucius Malfoy burst in and told me I was the Dark Lord's daughter....." Snape started, and he told Dumbledore about all the odd and awful events of the past few days, not even omitting the Granger incident. "......and somehow I get the feeling that you know more about this than I do, so please, if you know anything, tell me." he finished, plonking lumps of sugar into his fifth cup of tea.
"Well, Severus........I certainly don't think I've ever seen a person consume so much tea in such a short period of time," Dumbledore said. "Except of course...." He chuckled to himself knowingly. Snape raised an eyebrow at this. "But I digress." Dumbledore continued. "Yes, I do know something about this.....shall we say, situation."
He paused for a moment, looking up at the ceiling. "I am going to tell you something that I should have told you a long time ago." he finally said, lowering his gaze to meet Snape's. "About forty years ago, before his physical transformation, Lord Voldemort begat a daughter with an English witch. She kept it a secret, and raised the daughter by herself, until she was grown up, and had to start her own life. She became an Auror, and a very good one, as well. Then, her father came to claim her, and drew her into his, then small and secret, organisation. This was around the same time that a young man called Severus Snape also joined."
Snape looked at Dumbledore, thoroughly confused. He clasped his cup of tea like it was a piece of driftwood and he was a sailor, lost at sea. Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at him amusedly, cleared his throat, and went on.
"They fell in love, and ultimately, as the organisation grew and became more and more powerful and also more and more violent, she confessed to him how much she abhorred her father's beliefs, his lust for power, and his lust for blood. The Death Eaters' practises were too much for her to stand, and she could feel her delicate, good mind and soul beginning to break under the strain. But she could not leave- her father would murder her, or do something even more atrocious. He would be too disappointed in her to let her live. Despite the fact that Severus' views were entirely different, his love for her was so strong that he was willing to sacrifice himself for her."
By this point, Snape was looking nearly physically ill. Dumbledore paused to take a sip of his tea, smiling benignly at the appropriately green-faced professor. "He suggested to her to trade bodies. He would willingly carry out her tasks, and she would be able to disappear from the Death Eaters organisation, being only a junior, and unimportant member. Of course, she at first refused, but he insisted, and in the end she agreed. I offered her a job at Hogwarts, where she would be relatively safe from her father, lest he find out. And so...... You are Voldemort's daughter, Severus." Dumbledore leant back in his chair again, looking at Snape expectantly.
"Aha." Snape said. "And why don't I remember any of this?"
"I modified both your memories, so that you could not betray each other." Dumbledore replied.
"And how did we trade bodies?" Snape inquired.
"Polyjuice potion. You're not a potions professor for nothing."
"Right." Snape said. He took one last sip from his tea, and glared at Dumbledore. "You do realise that everything you've just told me is a load of nonsense and entirely untrue?"
Dumbledore stared at him for a few seconds. "Well, yes." He said, then picked up a small, battered tin box and held it out to him. "..........lemon drop?"
(A/N: The answer to all your burning questions will come, my gentle readers, and all shall be revealed! And not only revealed, but also explained. Sort of. But before that, it must first complicate further. That is what happens in the next chapter, so stay where you are, because it will find you anyway, where-ever you may run)