Chapter 4 - Snape the Adviser.
Hi! I'm sorry, but I'm going to be away for two weeks, so you won't be getting and update for that long, but I hope you enjoy this one, and I promise there is a sort of explanation in this chapter. And yes, this is extremely Cliché, but I'm the writer, so I'm allowed to be a little Cliché, I mean if the best can get away with it, the worst can have half a chance.
**********
Severus looked him in the eyes, and said, "Dumbledore, may I talk to you without Professor Snape in the room. I feel that he would find what I have to tell you is tiresome, and I'm sure he has lessons to....."
"I would rather....."
"Please, Severus, leave." Snape, feeling extremely angry stormed out. The two of them heard Snape taking some points from some Gryffindor first years for 'loitering' before they began to speak.
"Mr Snape...."
"Severus, please Headmaster." Said Severus politely, "I would prefer to be called Severus."
"Of course," said Dumbledore, "Would you like a drink? I mean a proper one."
"No thank you headmaster, I would rather get down to business. I'm sure you want to know why I'm here..."
"I am somewhat curious, yes. Especially as you managed to destroy a good part of the building."
"I apologise for that, I'll have to tell the ministry when I get back, but why I'm mainly here is to warn you of a possible future."
"A time traveller?"
"Not exactly, but maybe." Said Severus, " You see, I was sent to this world before any other for one simple reason that you, yourself defined in my reality. That this has the highest number of 'Psyxen' people in this world than others."
"Please explain."
"We believe that they have been among us for a long while, but been hiding. They aren't human, but they hadn't been on earth too long before the wars started. Only, say thirty or forty years. I don't know how you could explain them, but they are mostly human. It's just that they seem to be more powerful than anyone could understand."
"And you know how...?"
"Headmaster, as I think you will have noticed, I am a different man to your own Snape. I am an Auror, he is a teacher at your fine school, I am considerably more trusting than he is, while he still is trying to find reasons not to trust me, he is cold, while I like to think I am somewhat warmer. I fell in love with a half-blood Psyxen." He said, as if this was the last comparison. He sighed and said, "As I believe you feel, it is in love we learn to understand, while in hate we learn to set apart. Well, she's dead now, but I think I understand their true nature. They just want a bit of the world for themselves and to be treated fairly, like all people. Professor, in your world there are thousands hiding what they really are. There has been a rise in the number of non-magical pupils to your school in the last forty year, a huge amount, and that isn't just a simple chance, they attend your school, some of them may even work here, but your Minister for magic has a chance. He can offer the hand of Friendship, offer it before its too late for all of us. If you do that now, then maybe, just maybe." Severus's face did something Dumbledore had never seen a Snape face do. It looked defeated. "Maybe we could avoid the war that threatens both our world."
They were silent for a moment. Then Dumbledore said, "I was aware of the Psyxen race, but I wasn't aware of their anger towards us."
"I didn't know until they decided they would make themselves public." Said Severus amiably, "but the Ministry came down hard on them. Ever since the Ministry have tried to make them register, well, you don't want to know what they've been doing."
"My guess is that it's violent."
"Not really, but there's been a huge uproar. Lot of people who are muggle- born have been lynched, often without any proof against them, and I would believe that he-who-must-never-be-named is willing to have such a powerful race behind him. And as at least the ministry here have admitted that, well, I was sent here by my Ministry to warn you. I think Fudge wanted me to tell you to hunt them down and kill them, but I can't do that. If you can get the Ministry to listen to you, if you can make them understand, well its worth more of a chance than my world is at the moment."
"And what do you suggest I do? Do I tell everyone to admit to what they are; their family are...I can't do that, Severus, you know that there would be more mobs. You have put me in a difficult position. And I can't put my students in Danger."
"I know you couldn't. Not in Danger you couldn't help them with. Not Danger that you know they couldn't handle. But you have to understand." He begged.
"A Snape has never begged me to understand before. They have begged me to give in; one has begged me to forgive, to trust again, but never to understand. Do you know how hard it is to understand?"
"Yes." Said Severus, looking Dumbledore in his eye, "that's why I ask you to try."
"Could you tell me what you suggest?"
Severus put his head in his hand, as if he had a headache. "I don't know Professor, I don't know!"
Dumbledore smiled at him. "I know that this is hard for you, but will you tell me how you got here?"
"It's easier to understand than it sounds at first, but the Psyxen people, the people I'm talking about, well they're very highly advanced. They are using magic for things we never even considered. I know about the time turner, but they sort of made one that goes, well sideways."
"Sideways?"
"It goes across worlds rather than back and forwards in them." Said Severus, almost as if he had memorised it, "They call it the Reality crosser. The finest minds had been working on it for ages, and finally they got it working. James had offered to go instead of me, but they decided that I should go. They said that I knew what to say. But I don't."
"Excuse me, did you say James as in James Potter?"
"Yes, why..."
"I must ask you not to mention him to Snape. They had a...disagreement in their youth, a disagreement that has lasted all of Snape's life. He would not like to know that James lives in another place that he could reach."
"I understand sir. I didn't like him much at first, but somehow we got to be quiet good friends. I wonder if him and Sirius are up to their tricks, or if Remus managed to calm them down..."
"Severus, I must explain. Here, James Potter died fifteen years ago, while Sirius Black died last year. Remus is still alive, but I doubt if he would recognise you as a friend."
"We never became friends here, did we?" said Severus, "I'm sorry to hear that they are dead. How did Lily take it..."
"She died here as well. Fifteen years ago as well. She died barely a few minutes after James. Voldermort killed them, and he killed Sirius a year ago."
Severus was silent for a moment, as if he had suffered great pain. "He killed them?" Dumbledore nodded. Severus, his face unreadable, looked up at Dumbledore and asked, "What happened to James and Lily? I have to know."
"They were hiding from him, but someone betrayed them to Voldermort, Peter Pettigrew in fact, and well, he went into their house and killed them. But their boy Harry survived."
"Well, at least someone's alive!" exclaimed Severus in a vain attempt to feel cheerful "Was he all right?"
"Yes." Smiled Dumbledore, " But we got distracted. You were saying how you got here."
"Oh, yes, well, with the help of some of our friends at the Ministry, and some Psyxen researchers, we managed to get here, but I was meant to land about fifty yards to the left, on the pitch. Well, I'm glad I didn't now. But this does prove one thing, and that the multiple Universe theory is correct. It wasn't some strange past or future we were seeing. You see, I'm not too sure about the technicalities, but according to the main researcher, to get me here they had to weaken the barriers between universes. I was lucky that around here its relatively weak, or I might have died. I must have travelled for hours to get here, but it seemed like days." Severus seemed agitated. "All I remember is the sensation of being ripped in half, and hearing voices from everywhere in my head, images suddenly going through my mind. Some I recognised from my own past, others, others were other peoples, but it seemed like being in pain forever until I remember myself being, well, put together again as I fell into the lake. I must have created a huge magical surge as I came through, to which I do apologise for."
"Well, I do forgive you, but how are you meant to get back?"
"I was told that they'd contact me when they thought my job was done, " said Severus, "But if I needed to contact them, I could always use my wand, which I understand why I can't have, but Professor, I suppose I couldn't have it back?"
"Severus, could you do one thing for me before you leave?"
"What?"
"Roll up your sleeves."
Severus, a questioning look on his face, rolled up his sleeves. Dumbledore looked at his arms. They were bare, untouched by the dark mark. They looked like the arms of a man who had worked hard all of his life, but wasn't particularly muscular. Dumbledore let a blank smile float briefly across his face and said, "Well, you can have your wand back, but I don't advice you to leave the grounds. If the Ministry find you, what you fear may come true."
"I know Professor, but where should I sleep tonight. I don't think the Infirmary is exactly appropriate, as pupils could walk in any moment, and as you said, we can't afford to have all this go to the Ministry until you figure out what to do."
"I'm sure Snape wouldn't mind sharing with you, just until we get this sorted out." Answered Dumbledore, patting his hand.
"I don't know if Snape is really that keen on the idea." Said Severus, "I'm not sure if we'd get on..."
"You IareI him Severus, I don't see how you couldn't agree on something."
"That's why I think he won't want me there. We like our privacy. Sharing a room isn't one of the things that Severus Snape likes to do, especially with his own thoughts."
Dumbledore allowed himself another smile, and said, "Severus, I shall send for Professor Snape as soon as his lesson is over. I'm afraid that there is no other quarters empty for you, but you will have to share for a while."
"Thank you, sir." Said Severus, with the slightest of slight nods.
*********
It was later when Snape reported to Dumbledore's office. As he opened the door he threw himself a dirty look, and then looking over at Dumbledore said, "You wanted me?"
"Ah, yes Snape, our Visitor here, he will need a bed for the night, and we have decided that the infirmary is an inappropriate place to keep him. I would like him to stay in your quarters."
Snape looked at the other version of himself, looking at him quizzically. Snape's mouth fell open, looked at Dumbledore as if to question his order, and then shouted, "Iwhat! I"
"I would like you to share your quarters with Severus here." Repeated Dumbledore, as if he couldn't understand Snape's objection to his request, "I'm sure there's a spare bed around here that you can put in your rooms."
"But Professor, I need quiet in my rooms, I have my lesson plans, marking..."
"I'm sure Severus can be quiet enough," said Dumbledore, an odd twinkle in his eye, "and it will only be for, at the most, a few nights."
"But Professor..."
"Professor Snape, I will talk to you alone, Severus, would you mind waiting outside?"
"Yes professor," said Severus, getting up from his seat and walking out of the door, closing it behind him quietly.
"Severus, please sit down...."
"No Dumbledore, I refuse to let him stay in my rooms. I need my privacy to work."
"It's only a few nights Severus, I don't see what's wrong with that..."
Snape tried to think of an argument, but couldn't think of one. But he decided to speak anyway, "It is out of the question!"
"Severus, You haven't let anyone into your quarters since you joined Hogwarts, what are you doing down their that's so secret that no one can see it?"
"Nothing professor...."
"Then I don't see the problem, you will allow the other Severus to stay in your quarters until we find another place for him to stay, and that is final."
"Oh, so it's Severus now?" sneered Snape.
"Professor, you are being irrational now..."
"Of course I am! I refuse to have that... cretin stay in my rooms!"
"You realise you're talking about yourself?" Snape suddenly felt flummoxed by this statement of the obvious. He sighed, and Dumbledore finished, "I expect you to look after the other version of yourself and for him to turn up to breakfast tomorrow at the teachers table alive and well. Good day."
*********
Author's notes.
1/It reads a little like a Greek Tragedy's Chorus,(especially Euripides's ones.) so I do apologise for the unnaturalness of the speech, but I thought it was the best way to go about this.
2/In case you haven't noticed, I call the second sSnape "Severus" to help clear up confusion. Or create more. I don't know how it works yet. Snape always refers to himself as "Snape" In his POV.
3/How do you get Italics to work? If it doesn't work in this then please tell me how they work! I need to know!
4/For some reason I thought it was best to show that Severus never became a Death Eater in this world (as if we didn't know that already), and I thought Dumbledore would be curious. So I wrote it in. Please don't shoot me.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy this offering before I go.
Please read and review.
TBC
Hi! I'm sorry, but I'm going to be away for two weeks, so you won't be getting and update for that long, but I hope you enjoy this one, and I promise there is a sort of explanation in this chapter. And yes, this is extremely Cliché, but I'm the writer, so I'm allowed to be a little Cliché, I mean if the best can get away with it, the worst can have half a chance.
**********
Severus looked him in the eyes, and said, "Dumbledore, may I talk to you without Professor Snape in the room. I feel that he would find what I have to tell you is tiresome, and I'm sure he has lessons to....."
"I would rather....."
"Please, Severus, leave." Snape, feeling extremely angry stormed out. The two of them heard Snape taking some points from some Gryffindor first years for 'loitering' before they began to speak.
"Mr Snape...."
"Severus, please Headmaster." Said Severus politely, "I would prefer to be called Severus."
"Of course," said Dumbledore, "Would you like a drink? I mean a proper one."
"No thank you headmaster, I would rather get down to business. I'm sure you want to know why I'm here..."
"I am somewhat curious, yes. Especially as you managed to destroy a good part of the building."
"I apologise for that, I'll have to tell the ministry when I get back, but why I'm mainly here is to warn you of a possible future."
"A time traveller?"
"Not exactly, but maybe." Said Severus, " You see, I was sent to this world before any other for one simple reason that you, yourself defined in my reality. That this has the highest number of 'Psyxen' people in this world than others."
"Please explain."
"We believe that they have been among us for a long while, but been hiding. They aren't human, but they hadn't been on earth too long before the wars started. Only, say thirty or forty years. I don't know how you could explain them, but they are mostly human. It's just that they seem to be more powerful than anyone could understand."
"And you know how...?"
"Headmaster, as I think you will have noticed, I am a different man to your own Snape. I am an Auror, he is a teacher at your fine school, I am considerably more trusting than he is, while he still is trying to find reasons not to trust me, he is cold, while I like to think I am somewhat warmer. I fell in love with a half-blood Psyxen." He said, as if this was the last comparison. He sighed and said, "As I believe you feel, it is in love we learn to understand, while in hate we learn to set apart. Well, she's dead now, but I think I understand their true nature. They just want a bit of the world for themselves and to be treated fairly, like all people. Professor, in your world there are thousands hiding what they really are. There has been a rise in the number of non-magical pupils to your school in the last forty year, a huge amount, and that isn't just a simple chance, they attend your school, some of them may even work here, but your Minister for magic has a chance. He can offer the hand of Friendship, offer it before its too late for all of us. If you do that now, then maybe, just maybe." Severus's face did something Dumbledore had never seen a Snape face do. It looked defeated. "Maybe we could avoid the war that threatens both our world."
They were silent for a moment. Then Dumbledore said, "I was aware of the Psyxen race, but I wasn't aware of their anger towards us."
"I didn't know until they decided they would make themselves public." Said Severus amiably, "but the Ministry came down hard on them. Ever since the Ministry have tried to make them register, well, you don't want to know what they've been doing."
"My guess is that it's violent."
"Not really, but there's been a huge uproar. Lot of people who are muggle- born have been lynched, often without any proof against them, and I would believe that he-who-must-never-be-named is willing to have such a powerful race behind him. And as at least the ministry here have admitted that, well, I was sent here by my Ministry to warn you. I think Fudge wanted me to tell you to hunt them down and kill them, but I can't do that. If you can get the Ministry to listen to you, if you can make them understand, well its worth more of a chance than my world is at the moment."
"And what do you suggest I do? Do I tell everyone to admit to what they are; their family are...I can't do that, Severus, you know that there would be more mobs. You have put me in a difficult position. And I can't put my students in Danger."
"I know you couldn't. Not in Danger you couldn't help them with. Not Danger that you know they couldn't handle. But you have to understand." He begged.
"A Snape has never begged me to understand before. They have begged me to give in; one has begged me to forgive, to trust again, but never to understand. Do you know how hard it is to understand?"
"Yes." Said Severus, looking Dumbledore in his eye, "that's why I ask you to try."
"Could you tell me what you suggest?"
Severus put his head in his hand, as if he had a headache. "I don't know Professor, I don't know!"
Dumbledore smiled at him. "I know that this is hard for you, but will you tell me how you got here?"
"It's easier to understand than it sounds at first, but the Psyxen people, the people I'm talking about, well they're very highly advanced. They are using magic for things we never even considered. I know about the time turner, but they sort of made one that goes, well sideways."
"Sideways?"
"It goes across worlds rather than back and forwards in them." Said Severus, almost as if he had memorised it, "They call it the Reality crosser. The finest minds had been working on it for ages, and finally they got it working. James had offered to go instead of me, but they decided that I should go. They said that I knew what to say. But I don't."
"Excuse me, did you say James as in James Potter?"
"Yes, why..."
"I must ask you not to mention him to Snape. They had a...disagreement in their youth, a disagreement that has lasted all of Snape's life. He would not like to know that James lives in another place that he could reach."
"I understand sir. I didn't like him much at first, but somehow we got to be quiet good friends. I wonder if him and Sirius are up to their tricks, or if Remus managed to calm them down..."
"Severus, I must explain. Here, James Potter died fifteen years ago, while Sirius Black died last year. Remus is still alive, but I doubt if he would recognise you as a friend."
"We never became friends here, did we?" said Severus, "I'm sorry to hear that they are dead. How did Lily take it..."
"She died here as well. Fifteen years ago as well. She died barely a few minutes after James. Voldermort killed them, and he killed Sirius a year ago."
Severus was silent for a moment, as if he had suffered great pain. "He killed them?" Dumbledore nodded. Severus, his face unreadable, looked up at Dumbledore and asked, "What happened to James and Lily? I have to know."
"They were hiding from him, but someone betrayed them to Voldermort, Peter Pettigrew in fact, and well, he went into their house and killed them. But their boy Harry survived."
"Well, at least someone's alive!" exclaimed Severus in a vain attempt to feel cheerful "Was he all right?"
"Yes." Smiled Dumbledore, " But we got distracted. You were saying how you got here."
"Oh, yes, well, with the help of some of our friends at the Ministry, and some Psyxen researchers, we managed to get here, but I was meant to land about fifty yards to the left, on the pitch. Well, I'm glad I didn't now. But this does prove one thing, and that the multiple Universe theory is correct. It wasn't some strange past or future we were seeing. You see, I'm not too sure about the technicalities, but according to the main researcher, to get me here they had to weaken the barriers between universes. I was lucky that around here its relatively weak, or I might have died. I must have travelled for hours to get here, but it seemed like days." Severus seemed agitated. "All I remember is the sensation of being ripped in half, and hearing voices from everywhere in my head, images suddenly going through my mind. Some I recognised from my own past, others, others were other peoples, but it seemed like being in pain forever until I remember myself being, well, put together again as I fell into the lake. I must have created a huge magical surge as I came through, to which I do apologise for."
"Well, I do forgive you, but how are you meant to get back?"
"I was told that they'd contact me when they thought my job was done, " said Severus, "But if I needed to contact them, I could always use my wand, which I understand why I can't have, but Professor, I suppose I couldn't have it back?"
"Severus, could you do one thing for me before you leave?"
"What?"
"Roll up your sleeves."
Severus, a questioning look on his face, rolled up his sleeves. Dumbledore looked at his arms. They were bare, untouched by the dark mark. They looked like the arms of a man who had worked hard all of his life, but wasn't particularly muscular. Dumbledore let a blank smile float briefly across his face and said, "Well, you can have your wand back, but I don't advice you to leave the grounds. If the Ministry find you, what you fear may come true."
"I know Professor, but where should I sleep tonight. I don't think the Infirmary is exactly appropriate, as pupils could walk in any moment, and as you said, we can't afford to have all this go to the Ministry until you figure out what to do."
"I'm sure Snape wouldn't mind sharing with you, just until we get this sorted out." Answered Dumbledore, patting his hand.
"I don't know if Snape is really that keen on the idea." Said Severus, "I'm not sure if we'd get on..."
"You IareI him Severus, I don't see how you couldn't agree on something."
"That's why I think he won't want me there. We like our privacy. Sharing a room isn't one of the things that Severus Snape likes to do, especially with his own thoughts."
Dumbledore allowed himself another smile, and said, "Severus, I shall send for Professor Snape as soon as his lesson is over. I'm afraid that there is no other quarters empty for you, but you will have to share for a while."
"Thank you, sir." Said Severus, with the slightest of slight nods.
*********
It was later when Snape reported to Dumbledore's office. As he opened the door he threw himself a dirty look, and then looking over at Dumbledore said, "You wanted me?"
"Ah, yes Snape, our Visitor here, he will need a bed for the night, and we have decided that the infirmary is an inappropriate place to keep him. I would like him to stay in your quarters."
Snape looked at the other version of himself, looking at him quizzically. Snape's mouth fell open, looked at Dumbledore as if to question his order, and then shouted, "Iwhat! I"
"I would like you to share your quarters with Severus here." Repeated Dumbledore, as if he couldn't understand Snape's objection to his request, "I'm sure there's a spare bed around here that you can put in your rooms."
"But Professor, I need quiet in my rooms, I have my lesson plans, marking..."
"I'm sure Severus can be quiet enough," said Dumbledore, an odd twinkle in his eye, "and it will only be for, at the most, a few nights."
"But Professor..."
"Professor Snape, I will talk to you alone, Severus, would you mind waiting outside?"
"Yes professor," said Severus, getting up from his seat and walking out of the door, closing it behind him quietly.
"Severus, please sit down...."
"No Dumbledore, I refuse to let him stay in my rooms. I need my privacy to work."
"It's only a few nights Severus, I don't see what's wrong with that..."
Snape tried to think of an argument, but couldn't think of one. But he decided to speak anyway, "It is out of the question!"
"Severus, You haven't let anyone into your quarters since you joined Hogwarts, what are you doing down their that's so secret that no one can see it?"
"Nothing professor...."
"Then I don't see the problem, you will allow the other Severus to stay in your quarters until we find another place for him to stay, and that is final."
"Oh, so it's Severus now?" sneered Snape.
"Professor, you are being irrational now..."
"Of course I am! I refuse to have that... cretin stay in my rooms!"
"You realise you're talking about yourself?" Snape suddenly felt flummoxed by this statement of the obvious. He sighed, and Dumbledore finished, "I expect you to look after the other version of yourself and for him to turn up to breakfast tomorrow at the teachers table alive and well. Good day."
*********
Author's notes.
1/It reads a little like a Greek Tragedy's Chorus,(especially Euripides's ones.) so I do apologise for the unnaturalness of the speech, but I thought it was the best way to go about this.
2/In case you haven't noticed, I call the second sSnape "Severus" to help clear up confusion. Or create more. I don't know how it works yet. Snape always refers to himself as "Snape" In his POV.
3/How do you get Italics to work? If it doesn't work in this then please tell me how they work! I need to know!
4/For some reason I thought it was best to show that Severus never became a Death Eater in this world (as if we didn't know that already), and I thought Dumbledore would be curious. So I wrote it in. Please don't shoot me.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy this offering before I go.
Please read and review.
TBC