Chapter 2 - Snape the Potions Master.
I'd first of all like to thank everyone who reviewed the first chapter. I should really re-edit it, but I'm glad you liked it. I'm glad that this idea hasn't been overdone yet, and that you'll enjoy my further chapters.
*********
It was much later in the infirmary when Snape and Dumbledore were sitting across the room from the other, the unexplained Snape, when the real, the known Snape allowed himself to say. "Who *is* this man?"
"Apparently you." Answered Dumbledore, "Poppy's just given him a sleeping potion. He won't wake up for a while."
"How dare that man take my name!" exclaimed Snape, in an attempt to avoid the obvious, "how dare he!"
"I have no answer for that, but I have a feeling that this has more to do with it than your name."
"He can't be me." Said Snape, thinking allowed, "There is no way that this man could be me. He was wearing *muggle*" he spat the word like it was poisonous, "clothes over his robes. He can't be me. I'd never do that."
"Severus, I don't think you fully understand the significance of this," said Dumbledore.
"He is an impostor. He is not me." Said Snape.
"I am perfectly aware of that Severus. But that is not the point."
"I think it is. I think it's someone who's disguised themselves as me, and is here, trying to....trying to......" Snape though for a moment, and ran his fingers through his greasy hair, " Dumbledore, he can't be me." Said Snape, allowing his persona of steel break down just for a second, "He just can't be."
"I think, Severus, that you are jumping to conclusions. No one has yet said that he was you, or that you were even related." Answered Dumbledore, "and I find it unlikely that anyone would want to disguise themselves as you, as very few would have anything to gain, especially as you appear to be here, alive and not particularly unwell."
"Potter's behind this...."swore Snape, as he looked as his unconscious self roll over and murmur something in his sleep, "I bet this is what he thinks is a joke."
"Severus, not every misdemeanour in this castle is planned, or is somehow connected with Harry Potter." Sighed Dumbledore.
"Well, what is it!" Snape said, raising his voice, "what is it!"
"I don't know." Said Dumbledore Calmly, "but I think asking him questions would be better than shouting at me, demanding I know the answer."
"Sorry sir." Snarled Snape, his voice quiet, but unnaturally low.
"I think you better go and get some rest," said Dumbledore, patting him like an obedient dog, "do you want to be excused from classes tomorrow Severus?"
"No." answered Snape straight away; "I'll be taking classes tomorrow."
"I though that this might have been a shock for you, you might want to wait with this man."
"Why should I?" hissed Snape, "He's a stranger."
"Well, Shall I send someone to get you when he wakes up tomorrow..."
"No." Snape got up to leave. Just as he was walking through the door he heard Dumbledore say, "don't you want to know why he's here?" Snape stopped dead in the doorway. Dumbledore, knowing that he had got his attention said, "I think we'll need you their with some Veritaserum when he wakes up."
"Well, yes. I shall come if you send a runner. On a strictly professional level."
"Of course, strictly professional. You wouldn't want people thinking you were curious about someone who looks just like you and appeared out of no- where. Professional. Of course."
"Of course," Snape repeated. He left, feeling that he had just been mocked. As he walked down the corridors and back to his office, he suddenly realised how. Muttering to himself and storming back to his office under a dark cloud he slammed the door, rocking the foundations of the dungeons, and when he realised he was all alone, far away from the eyes and ears of everyone at Hogwarts, he screamed. Just a short scream, but it was heart felt and long needed. He knew no one would hear it because the dungeon was practically soundproof and no one, no one for many years had ever come down to this dungeon.
Snape had often pondered why the feeling of loneliness bothered him occasionally. It rarely did, but when it did, it bothered him a lot. Snape knew two things that should have made him feel better, but they didn't. The first is that anyone who relies on other people to be happy obviously didn't have either any strength, or they would soon loose that strenght because people were shallow and didn't like him. Secondly that in loneliness man found purity, something that Snape still craved. The Dark mark always burned in his mind, even when he-who-must-not-be-named was debilitated, it had burned in his mind, like a secret shame that everyone could see. It was odd then that Severus Snape, a man who had was now on the 'good' side, was considered by both sides to be evil, even though he had considered himself otherwise cleansed of his sins.
But that was the thing about sins. They tend to come back to haunt you. There was no such thing as forgiveness, just not immediate anger. That's what his father had taught him. 'Never forgive, never forget. A man's sins are as much a part of him as his good deeds, moreso in fact." Well, his father had shown his mantra of hatred and coldness to his mother. Snape rarely thought about the past, but it was a pity Mother had to kill herself when she did. It was awful for eight year old Snape to find his mother dead, hanging from the rafters by her neck, swinging ever so gently, blood dripping down onto his neck as he looked up at her, smiling gently, sanguine dropping from rope that had cut into her neck. Poor mother. Father had paid though. He'd killed him. It might seem heartless now, but there is no such thing as a heart when you are faced with the man who drove your mother to kill herself and made you spend most of your life in misery. Snape honestly couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed. Not a self-satisfied laugh of shaddenfreuder, but a proper laugh at something that was actually funny.
It was probably best not to think about it. Snape slipped into his black nightgown and ignoring the whispers from the shadows, lie on his hard bed in his Spartan room, alone, unable to sleep.
********
Snape hadn't slept last night, but that was exactly an unusual circumstance. He prided himself on his lack of need for sleep. But even Harry Potter noticed that he looked unusually ruffled that morning as he took his NEWT class. But that didn't stop him from being as foul as usual.
"Potter, what are you doing!" he snapped as he cut his lotus roots, "don't you realise with pieces that big the potion won't be ready 'til Christmas! Cut them smaller boy!"
"Yes sir." Snapped Harry, keeping his eyes low.
"Ten points from Gryffindor!"
"Yes sir." Snarled Harry, giving an exasperated look to Hermione. She rolled her eyes in agreement.
Snape ignored her blatant disregard for his authority for the second time in so many hours. He looked to find something wrong with her potion. "Miss Granger, do you know what's wrong with this potion?" he shouted.
"No Professor...."
"Does the fact it is too dark worry you at all? Do you think that the shade doesn't matter? Do you know that a single ounce more of scaled bogwreath can kill a man? Do you want to try this potion on your cat?"
"No sir." Said Hermione quietly, now put back in her place.
"Well, next time I advice that you follow my instructions fully."
"But sir...."
"But nothing! Ten points from Gryffindor for your impudence!"
Hermione remained extremely poker-faced for the rest of the lesson. As Snape returned to his desk, he heard Harry whisper to her, "Hermione, you're a prefect, did you see the man they pulled out of the lake?"
"No," she whispered back, "but I heard he looks just like..." She motioned her head at Snape.
"I know, that's probably why he's got that bug up his....."
"Ten more points off Gryffindor, and if I hear you speaking from your place again Potter and Miss Granger, You will have detention with me for a week. An experience I belief none of us wish to have."
"Yes sir." Intoned Harry and Hermione simultaneously before falling into dumb silence.
In the end, Snape was forced to give Hermione five points because of the quality of her potion, but his mood improved as a runner ran in and said, "Excuse me, Professor Snape, he's awake..."
"Ah, Good." He said, taking off his dragon skin gloves, "Tell Dumbledore I'll be there in a few moment..." Snape saw the class had suddenly become very slow on leaving the classroom, an event that hadn't happened since he had left Hogwarts. "Go!" he snapped, "don't you have my essay on the uses of Bogwreath to ruin?"
The class suddenly left very quickly as he took his pre-prepared bottle of Veritaserum off the shelf (he wanted to use it on Potter to find out why he really hadn't handed in his homework, and of course he had lied to Umbridge about it's existence. He wasn't an idiot) and put it into one of the various pockets of his long, black robes. Storming along the corridors in a way a man with purpose can only achieve he pushed pupils and teachers alike, aside with the vigour of a man who knows he can act in this manner because he has a decent excuse.
He pushed past the first year Slytherin's, and noticed how the little Slytherin he had almost saved the other day stared at him, not noticing that the rest of the class were filling into class. Snape, although wanting to reach the infirmary quickly said to the little girl in a particularly calm voice, "Go into class Miss Todd. You're late. You don't want to lose house points, do you?"
The girl seemed almost curious at the notion, but slunk inside, risking an apologetic smile. Snape sighed to himself. The first years seemed to get stupider every year. He was certain that someone had slipped Slytherin house the retard. Typical. He wondered which Family Miss Todd had come from. He hadn't heard of it before. She was probably from a family so inbred that she was the first one not to be born with webbed toes. Definitely mentally deficient.
He burst open the doors to the infirmary to be met with the stares of Madam Pomfery, Professor Dumbledore and MacDuff.
"I apologise for my lateness, "said Snape, coldly, "I had to stop and help a first year out."
"Well, now you're here." Said MacDuff, "we can question Snape two."
Snape dislike his name being used like that, but allowing his mouth to coil into a distasteful sneer, he passed the bottle of Veritaserum to MacDuff.
He looked at the bed where 'Snape two', as MacDuff had dubbed him, lay. He was tied to the bed with leather straps, his long black greasy hair tumbling like algae over his rock like complexion. His eyes were black with rage and misunderstanding, but as he had been gagged he couldn't say what it was. As he looked at Snape, himself, he cocked his head, and the he lost the animal-like look in his eyes. It was replaced with something far worse. It was replaced with longing, pathos and a wish to know what's going on. His clothes had been taken, and replaced with the standard nightdress. To Snape, he looked just like a madman as he tried to chew through the bonds and struggled out of the leather manacles.
MacDuff removed the gag and holding his wand to the head of 'Snape two' he said, "Now, we don't want to hurt you, but we will if you force us to."
"Ah, you want me to come nice and quietly," sneered Snape Two, "you don't want to try and kill you, for instance."
MacDuff wasn't too sure about this sentence and carried on, "Look, I know we haven't exactly been great to you, but if you answer a few questions....."
"I will answer anything you ask me to answer truthfully." Said the second Snape simply, and without a trance of irony in his voice, "I have nothing to hide." He looked up to Dumbledore, "I'm sorry for the mess I made of Hogwarts Professor Dumbledore, but I didn't exactly know where I was going to land, and that's the problem with the technology, it's not as precise as the people who make it."
"I understand...Severus." Said Dumbledore, patting the greasy black hair, "now, we're just going to give you a drink, then we can talk some more."
MacDuff poured some of the Veritaserum into a cup, and placed it to 'Snape Two's' lips. 'Snape two' sniffed the concoction and throwing MacDuff a suspicious look said, "This is Veritaserum."
MacDuff turned red with embarrassment. 'Snape two' sighed and said, "I'll drink it if it makes you feel better, but I doubt if you'll get the response you'll want." Then, before anyone could complain, 'Snape two' grabbed the cup between his teeth and drank it down.
Throwing the cup to the floor from between his teeth he grimaced and said, "Ech, awful stuff, but necessary. What did you want me to tell you?"
********
I think this is a better place to put Author's notes, so here they are.
1/ The name comes from the name of an episode of Red Dwarf where one character manages to clone himself and finds that he really hates the other version of himself. This is going to be a lot different, but I like the name too much to dismiss it.
2/ For some reason I'm convinced that Snape is kind of emotionally devoid, or at least trying to suppress the emotion when he talks about the way his father died. Keep in mind how his father died. It will come back into the plot at some point in a very obvious way.
3/I'm sorry I went on about the little Slytherin girl, as she probably will be called the rest of her life, but she's one of my muses, and I can't help but write about them.
4/ Yes, I spelt Shaudenfreunden wrong, but that's because I can't spell. I promise that as soon as I find out the spelling, I will put it in. But if you say it phonetically, it should be about right.
5/ The fact that Snape calls a pupil a retard is a reflection on his character, rather than an attempt to insult people, so please don't take it the wrong way. Please don't. But the joke about webbed toes is half amusing.
6/ Yes, this is intentional Cliff hangerism, but I think it's a good way to keep your attention. Also, I'm bad at endings and didn't want this to get too long.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you review.
Xandra The Blue.
I'd first of all like to thank everyone who reviewed the first chapter. I should really re-edit it, but I'm glad you liked it. I'm glad that this idea hasn't been overdone yet, and that you'll enjoy my further chapters.
*********
It was much later in the infirmary when Snape and Dumbledore were sitting across the room from the other, the unexplained Snape, when the real, the known Snape allowed himself to say. "Who *is* this man?"
"Apparently you." Answered Dumbledore, "Poppy's just given him a sleeping potion. He won't wake up for a while."
"How dare that man take my name!" exclaimed Snape, in an attempt to avoid the obvious, "how dare he!"
"I have no answer for that, but I have a feeling that this has more to do with it than your name."
"He can't be me." Said Snape, thinking allowed, "There is no way that this man could be me. He was wearing *muggle*" he spat the word like it was poisonous, "clothes over his robes. He can't be me. I'd never do that."
"Severus, I don't think you fully understand the significance of this," said Dumbledore.
"He is an impostor. He is not me." Said Snape.
"I am perfectly aware of that Severus. But that is not the point."
"I think it is. I think it's someone who's disguised themselves as me, and is here, trying to....trying to......" Snape though for a moment, and ran his fingers through his greasy hair, " Dumbledore, he can't be me." Said Snape, allowing his persona of steel break down just for a second, "He just can't be."
"I think, Severus, that you are jumping to conclusions. No one has yet said that he was you, or that you were even related." Answered Dumbledore, "and I find it unlikely that anyone would want to disguise themselves as you, as very few would have anything to gain, especially as you appear to be here, alive and not particularly unwell."
"Potter's behind this...."swore Snape, as he looked as his unconscious self roll over and murmur something in his sleep, "I bet this is what he thinks is a joke."
"Severus, not every misdemeanour in this castle is planned, or is somehow connected with Harry Potter." Sighed Dumbledore.
"Well, what is it!" Snape said, raising his voice, "what is it!"
"I don't know." Said Dumbledore Calmly, "but I think asking him questions would be better than shouting at me, demanding I know the answer."
"Sorry sir." Snarled Snape, his voice quiet, but unnaturally low.
"I think you better go and get some rest," said Dumbledore, patting him like an obedient dog, "do you want to be excused from classes tomorrow Severus?"
"No." answered Snape straight away; "I'll be taking classes tomorrow."
"I though that this might have been a shock for you, you might want to wait with this man."
"Why should I?" hissed Snape, "He's a stranger."
"Well, Shall I send someone to get you when he wakes up tomorrow..."
"No." Snape got up to leave. Just as he was walking through the door he heard Dumbledore say, "don't you want to know why he's here?" Snape stopped dead in the doorway. Dumbledore, knowing that he had got his attention said, "I think we'll need you their with some Veritaserum when he wakes up."
"Well, yes. I shall come if you send a runner. On a strictly professional level."
"Of course, strictly professional. You wouldn't want people thinking you were curious about someone who looks just like you and appeared out of no- where. Professional. Of course."
"Of course," Snape repeated. He left, feeling that he had just been mocked. As he walked down the corridors and back to his office, he suddenly realised how. Muttering to himself and storming back to his office under a dark cloud he slammed the door, rocking the foundations of the dungeons, and when he realised he was all alone, far away from the eyes and ears of everyone at Hogwarts, he screamed. Just a short scream, but it was heart felt and long needed. He knew no one would hear it because the dungeon was practically soundproof and no one, no one for many years had ever come down to this dungeon.
Snape had often pondered why the feeling of loneliness bothered him occasionally. It rarely did, but when it did, it bothered him a lot. Snape knew two things that should have made him feel better, but they didn't. The first is that anyone who relies on other people to be happy obviously didn't have either any strength, or they would soon loose that strenght because people were shallow and didn't like him. Secondly that in loneliness man found purity, something that Snape still craved. The Dark mark always burned in his mind, even when he-who-must-not-be-named was debilitated, it had burned in his mind, like a secret shame that everyone could see. It was odd then that Severus Snape, a man who had was now on the 'good' side, was considered by both sides to be evil, even though he had considered himself otherwise cleansed of his sins.
But that was the thing about sins. They tend to come back to haunt you. There was no such thing as forgiveness, just not immediate anger. That's what his father had taught him. 'Never forgive, never forget. A man's sins are as much a part of him as his good deeds, moreso in fact." Well, his father had shown his mantra of hatred and coldness to his mother. Snape rarely thought about the past, but it was a pity Mother had to kill herself when she did. It was awful for eight year old Snape to find his mother dead, hanging from the rafters by her neck, swinging ever so gently, blood dripping down onto his neck as he looked up at her, smiling gently, sanguine dropping from rope that had cut into her neck. Poor mother. Father had paid though. He'd killed him. It might seem heartless now, but there is no such thing as a heart when you are faced with the man who drove your mother to kill herself and made you spend most of your life in misery. Snape honestly couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed. Not a self-satisfied laugh of shaddenfreuder, but a proper laugh at something that was actually funny.
It was probably best not to think about it. Snape slipped into his black nightgown and ignoring the whispers from the shadows, lie on his hard bed in his Spartan room, alone, unable to sleep.
********
Snape hadn't slept last night, but that was exactly an unusual circumstance. He prided himself on his lack of need for sleep. But even Harry Potter noticed that he looked unusually ruffled that morning as he took his NEWT class. But that didn't stop him from being as foul as usual.
"Potter, what are you doing!" he snapped as he cut his lotus roots, "don't you realise with pieces that big the potion won't be ready 'til Christmas! Cut them smaller boy!"
"Yes sir." Snapped Harry, keeping his eyes low.
"Ten points from Gryffindor!"
"Yes sir." Snarled Harry, giving an exasperated look to Hermione. She rolled her eyes in agreement.
Snape ignored her blatant disregard for his authority for the second time in so many hours. He looked to find something wrong with her potion. "Miss Granger, do you know what's wrong with this potion?" he shouted.
"No Professor...."
"Does the fact it is too dark worry you at all? Do you think that the shade doesn't matter? Do you know that a single ounce more of scaled bogwreath can kill a man? Do you want to try this potion on your cat?"
"No sir." Said Hermione quietly, now put back in her place.
"Well, next time I advice that you follow my instructions fully."
"But sir...."
"But nothing! Ten points from Gryffindor for your impudence!"
Hermione remained extremely poker-faced for the rest of the lesson. As Snape returned to his desk, he heard Harry whisper to her, "Hermione, you're a prefect, did you see the man they pulled out of the lake?"
"No," she whispered back, "but I heard he looks just like..." She motioned her head at Snape.
"I know, that's probably why he's got that bug up his....."
"Ten more points off Gryffindor, and if I hear you speaking from your place again Potter and Miss Granger, You will have detention with me for a week. An experience I belief none of us wish to have."
"Yes sir." Intoned Harry and Hermione simultaneously before falling into dumb silence.
In the end, Snape was forced to give Hermione five points because of the quality of her potion, but his mood improved as a runner ran in and said, "Excuse me, Professor Snape, he's awake..."
"Ah, Good." He said, taking off his dragon skin gloves, "Tell Dumbledore I'll be there in a few moment..." Snape saw the class had suddenly become very slow on leaving the classroom, an event that hadn't happened since he had left Hogwarts. "Go!" he snapped, "don't you have my essay on the uses of Bogwreath to ruin?"
The class suddenly left very quickly as he took his pre-prepared bottle of Veritaserum off the shelf (he wanted to use it on Potter to find out why he really hadn't handed in his homework, and of course he had lied to Umbridge about it's existence. He wasn't an idiot) and put it into one of the various pockets of his long, black robes. Storming along the corridors in a way a man with purpose can only achieve he pushed pupils and teachers alike, aside with the vigour of a man who knows he can act in this manner because he has a decent excuse.
He pushed past the first year Slytherin's, and noticed how the little Slytherin he had almost saved the other day stared at him, not noticing that the rest of the class were filling into class. Snape, although wanting to reach the infirmary quickly said to the little girl in a particularly calm voice, "Go into class Miss Todd. You're late. You don't want to lose house points, do you?"
The girl seemed almost curious at the notion, but slunk inside, risking an apologetic smile. Snape sighed to himself. The first years seemed to get stupider every year. He was certain that someone had slipped Slytherin house the retard. Typical. He wondered which Family Miss Todd had come from. He hadn't heard of it before. She was probably from a family so inbred that she was the first one not to be born with webbed toes. Definitely mentally deficient.
He burst open the doors to the infirmary to be met with the stares of Madam Pomfery, Professor Dumbledore and MacDuff.
"I apologise for my lateness, "said Snape, coldly, "I had to stop and help a first year out."
"Well, now you're here." Said MacDuff, "we can question Snape two."
Snape dislike his name being used like that, but allowing his mouth to coil into a distasteful sneer, he passed the bottle of Veritaserum to MacDuff.
He looked at the bed where 'Snape two', as MacDuff had dubbed him, lay. He was tied to the bed with leather straps, his long black greasy hair tumbling like algae over his rock like complexion. His eyes were black with rage and misunderstanding, but as he had been gagged he couldn't say what it was. As he looked at Snape, himself, he cocked his head, and the he lost the animal-like look in his eyes. It was replaced with something far worse. It was replaced with longing, pathos and a wish to know what's going on. His clothes had been taken, and replaced with the standard nightdress. To Snape, he looked just like a madman as he tried to chew through the bonds and struggled out of the leather manacles.
MacDuff removed the gag and holding his wand to the head of 'Snape two' he said, "Now, we don't want to hurt you, but we will if you force us to."
"Ah, you want me to come nice and quietly," sneered Snape Two, "you don't want to try and kill you, for instance."
MacDuff wasn't too sure about this sentence and carried on, "Look, I know we haven't exactly been great to you, but if you answer a few questions....."
"I will answer anything you ask me to answer truthfully." Said the second Snape simply, and without a trance of irony in his voice, "I have nothing to hide." He looked up to Dumbledore, "I'm sorry for the mess I made of Hogwarts Professor Dumbledore, but I didn't exactly know where I was going to land, and that's the problem with the technology, it's not as precise as the people who make it."
"I understand...Severus." Said Dumbledore, patting the greasy black hair, "now, we're just going to give you a drink, then we can talk some more."
MacDuff poured some of the Veritaserum into a cup, and placed it to 'Snape Two's' lips. 'Snape two' sniffed the concoction and throwing MacDuff a suspicious look said, "This is Veritaserum."
MacDuff turned red with embarrassment. 'Snape two' sighed and said, "I'll drink it if it makes you feel better, but I doubt if you'll get the response you'll want." Then, before anyone could complain, 'Snape two' grabbed the cup between his teeth and drank it down.
Throwing the cup to the floor from between his teeth he grimaced and said, "Ech, awful stuff, but necessary. What did you want me to tell you?"
********
I think this is a better place to put Author's notes, so here they are.
1/ The name comes from the name of an episode of Red Dwarf where one character manages to clone himself and finds that he really hates the other version of himself. This is going to be a lot different, but I like the name too much to dismiss it.
2/ For some reason I'm convinced that Snape is kind of emotionally devoid, or at least trying to suppress the emotion when he talks about the way his father died. Keep in mind how his father died. It will come back into the plot at some point in a very obvious way.
3/I'm sorry I went on about the little Slytherin girl, as she probably will be called the rest of her life, but she's one of my muses, and I can't help but write about them.
4/ Yes, I spelt Shaudenfreunden wrong, but that's because I can't spell. I promise that as soon as I find out the spelling, I will put it in. But if you say it phonetically, it should be about right.
5/ The fact that Snape calls a pupil a retard is a reflection on his character, rather than an attempt to insult people, so please don't take it the wrong way. Please don't. But the joke about webbed toes is half amusing.
6/ Yes, this is intentional Cliff hangerism, but I think it's a good way to keep your attention. Also, I'm bad at endings and didn't want this to get too long.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you review.
Xandra The Blue.