Seeing you through different Eyes
Chapter Two
Severus Snape gingerly diced kidney stones of a goat and poured them into a great simmering cauldron.
"CALLICUTT! It isn't that difficult! Why can you not get it right for ONCE?!" Roger Callicutt lowered his head in shame as the ritual of the infamous Professor Snape told him of his hopelessness in Potions and, quite possibly, life.
"Oh...enough! I'm sick of this. Class is dismissed!" Snape bellowed as he began messaging his temples in disgust. 'Why can't anyone understand?' he thought angrily, 'Someone did understand, Severus, and they just graduated with honors with a degree in potions,' a voice inside his head nagged at him as students silently exited the classroom.
"Damn it to hell," he muttered as waved his wand and uttered a cleaning spell on the room. 'Damn that Hermione Granger! Insufferable know-it-all Gryffindor! What does she know?! Nothing! She's just studious. She doesn't really understand the delicate art that is potion-making!' he pondered bitterly.
He punched the cold stone wall of the room irritatedly harder than he had intended.
"Arrrrg! Shit!" he examined his hand bitterly as he stalked into his office and threw himself down on the large chair behind his desk, the bright and sunny day outside.
"Glowering, Severus?" drawled the whisper-like voice of Lucius Malfoy. Snape's blood ran cold, his face paled, and his hand began sweating uncontrollably.
Slowly he turned to look at the now-hideousness that was Lucius Malfoy. His face had been severely disfigured in the war by Hermione Granger, but somehow, he had been the only deatheater that escaped the clutches of the Order of the Phoenix. The flesh over one of his right eye had melted down to cover it most of it, the rest had was red with broken blood vessels. His nose had been broken, so it was purple and knotty. A large, grotesque scar ran down the right side of his face and neck, it was a mere freckle compared to his mouth. His lips were completely severed off, leaving nothing but two thin scarlet scores around his gums.
He swallowed, trying not to appear as disgusted and terrified as he was.
"Lucius."
"Did you think I wouldn't come find you Severus?" his tone sounded amused...like he was speaking to a child. Snape clenched his fists bit his tongue to keep from saying something he knew he would regret. Instead he subtley reached for the wand he had placed in the pocket of his robes minutes earlier, but was horrified to find that it was dreadfully absent. His eyes widened in panic as Lucius pulled Snape's wand, along with his own, from his robes.
"Looking for this, Severus?" he smirked evilly, "I don't believe you will be needing it." An eager smile crossed his face as he shouted "Imperio!"
Suddenly, Severus's mind went blank. He felt blissfully unaware of what was going on, as something told him to walk out to the Forbidden Forest. All he was aware of was the hard stone beneath his feet, and the burning, almost painful urge to walk as fast as he could to the Forbidden Forest. 'FASTER!' Something told him urgently. Before he realized what was happening, his feet were soaring across the Hogwarts grounds until he was deep in the Forbidden Forest.
"Finite Incantatem!" Lucius ordered quietly, a grim smirk on his face.
"Just do it, Malfoy! Kill me and get it over with!" he shouted with fury.
"NO! I'm not going to give you the easy way out Severus! WHY DID YOU BETRAY THE DARK LORD? WHY DID YOU BETRAY ME! YOU WERE A SPY THE WHOLE TIME I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY FRIEND! CRUCIO!" he bellowed.
Suddenly, Snape felt as if his body were being torn into thousands of pieces from the inside out. He fell to the ground writhing in pain and screaming in agony, as Lucius Malfoy watched with sheer pleasure and malice.
"You know nothing of pain, you shit!" he screamed with insane fury.
"Crucio! Crucio!" he screamed again and again, intensifying the pain with each blow.
Blackness was taking over Snape's body. Slowly, his limbs were going numb and he could feel his sanity slipping away. When he finally thought that was it, he was going to die from the gore of it all, Lucius murmured quietly...
"Finite!" he paused as Snape gasped and trembled, still in severe agony from being hit with crucio multiple times, "How do you feel Severus? You don't look at all well," he said innocently as he approached Snape's crumbled body and kicked him hard in the abdomen. "When I am done, you will not be any bother to me any more. You will be completely and utterly useless. I had thought of killing you. It was oh, so tempting, but then I looked deeper into the situation. What does Severus Snape need the most to be of benefit to Dumbledore and his happy crusade of do-gooders? Then it occurred to me. His sight!" he bent down on one knee and smile at his ex-fellow deatheater and friend, "VEDENTERIOUS!" he shouted, and ran to the Hogwarts gates, and disapparated.
Blackness.
Everything was black.
Severus Snape, too in pain and too tired to think clearly, gave in to the darkness, and unconciousness.
Three hours later, Madam Pomfrey was enjoying a brisk walk when she saw a black heap in a mass on the ground, and went over to investigate it. As she got closer, she realized, to her horror, that it was a person. She quickly ran over to see that it was none other than her co-worker, Professor Snape.
"Snape?! Wake up, man!" with great difficulty, she turned him over and gasped in horror. His pupils were pure white, "Damn it Severus...how could this happen to you?" she muttered quietly as she levitated his limp body and walked him into the infirmary, laid him down and sent a house elf for Professor Dumbledore.
"How could this have happened, Albus?" a very concerned Madam Pomfrey questioned.
"Lucius Malfoy did it somehow. I'm not sure exactly how yet, but I'm sure we will find out soon.
Madam Pomfrey set to work healing the minor cuts and bruises that covered his body and muttered some spells to help with the after-effects of crucio. She stopped to look at the face of Severus Snape. He always tried to look so forceful, so dominant, but now, he wouldn't even be able to teach his classes.
"I don't know what spell was used to do this, so I don't know how to heal him properly."
"It appears to be an original spell. In all of my years, I haven't known anything that could do this. I suppose a bright light spell or something of the sort could, but his eyes just look...dead."
"Would you two shut up? I have a ghastly headache," Snape muttered as he struggled to sit up, "What's on my eyes? Why can't I see? What happened?"
Madam Pomfrey and Dumbledore exchanged nervous glances. Finally, Dumbledore spoke up.
"I take it you do not recall what has taken place, Severus?"
"If I could 'recall what has taken place' I wouldn't be asking you, now would I?" Dumbledore smiled. It was the same old Severus. That was a good sign.
"It appears you have been the victim of multiple crucio attacks and quite possibly, imperio," Dumbledore stated seriously, "I am afraid, son, that you have also been subject to a blinding curse that neither Madam Pomfrey or myself am privy to."
Silence.
Snape did nothing but clenched his fists.
The silence was unnerving, and finally Madam Pomfrey could take it no longer.
"The good news is, the bruises and cuts you received during crucio are healing up quite nicely," she said as cheerfully as she could.
"Bruises? Cuts? You mean to tell me that I cannot see, and then you celebrate the healing of bloody bruises and cuts?!" his tone was deadly quiet and his body began to tremble, but not from being subjected to crucio.
"JUST GET OUT! LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE!" he roared maliciously.
Quickly Madam Pomfrey and Dumbledore exited the infirmary sadly. When they reached the halls, Dumbledore spoke gravely.
"We'll have to get someone to watch out for him. He has nowhere to go where he can be taken care of, and we need someone to teach potions."
"Can you think of anyone, Headmaster?"
"Yes, didn't Hermione Granger just graduate? I believe she majored in Potions. She would be an excellent candidate to watch over Severus, without him knowing, of course, and teach that class. I don't believe she has found employment yet."
"I will owl her immediately, Albus."
"Good, the sooner the better."