Disclaimer: Harry Potter and everything else you recognize from that books, is owned by JKR and Warner Brothers and so on. I do not own anything and so I believe it's perfectly legal to borrow the characters, surroundings, etc. Only the plot of the story is mostly mine. Well, we all are affected by our environment and I'm not capable to tell you everyone who affected me to write what I wrote.
But Isabeau certainly is mine! She is mine and always will be. Bloody hell, I spend two Latin lessons to invent her character and needed one physics lesson to figure out about her looks! (To check them out, visit my webpage)
A/N: I finished this chapter in the middle of the night before I finished my German homework and only few hours after I had finished chapter 7. And I re-read it after I'd done my homework (that was when I recognised that I forgot to introduce a new DADA teacher). And I still got to repeat Geography and History. Pray tell, will this never end? When ever will I be in the need of using my knowledge about sea-floor-spreading and the constitution of the old Romans?
And my Mum is complaining about the number of my drawings of Snape whereas she was the one to order "Rasputin" and the UK-Import of "Truly Madly Deeply" and "Blow Dry"?
There is one thing for me left to say: "LIFE IS A LEMON AND I WANT MY MONEY BACK!"
Well, I'm already getting addle again.
Chapter 08 - Difficulties ahead
Aven was so nervous when he approached to the Head Table. His heart was beating fast and had to slow down his respiration every five seconds.
Would be a very bad time to pass out, boy!
He was about to sit down, when Dumbledore came over to him. He examined Aven and then smiled kindly. "Why don't you sit down on the other side of the table on your father's right side?"
Aven nodded and sat down next to Professor Snape who stared at the opposite wall of the hall.
"You okay?" whispered Aven and a weak nod was the only answer before Dumbledore spoke again.
"I have to make an announcement, students, please listen. Thank you."
Aven's heart sunk. What would they think of him when they knew? Would they treat him with more respect or with less?
"It's something about Mr. Sheldon McGraw who joined our school this school year."
Suddenly the hall was deadly silent, and Harry almost feared his fast heartbeat could be overheard. Those who looked closely could see the difference at his school uniform. Where the embroidery of Hogwarts emblem had been attached to his robes, now a family crest rested on the black fabric.
"Our dear Sheldon isn't really Sheldon."
Some of the students chuckled at the statement and others started to talk to their neighbour once again.
"Oh, I know that you think I'm not quite right in the head but just let me explain this. Sheldon Richard McGraw is actually Avenarius Severus Snape!"
The silence in the Great Hall was so utter and complete that even the candles seemed to have stopped flickering. It was just like someone had pressed the 'Freeze'-Button on the universal remote control.
"I guess by your reaction, you are well aware what that means. Avenarius is the son of our potions master and Head of Slytherin house. Aven needed to live under cover for some time, but now it's time for him to return to his true identity again."
Aven could see Hermione gasp with shock. Then she leant against Ron and tried to hide her sobs and tears. Ron glanced up at the student and lowered his head when he saw that Snape grasped Aven's left wrist. Aven turned his head towards his father and listened to his faint voice.
"See me in the dungeons after the feast?"
Aven nodded and suddenly someone at Slytherin table began to clap hands. Aven didn't have to look to guess that it was Draco. The way Severus gazed down at his house table confirmed his suspicion. The other Slytherins joined Draco's applause within seconds and the other houses considered it kind to clap hands with recognition.
"I'd like to poison him!" mouthed Aven with a shallow expression of surprise on his face.
Severus raised an eyebrow with approval.
The feast began and in the end Aven was so engaged in a discussion with Dumbledore and Flitwick - later on he believed it was about thought projection charms- that he didn't perceive when his father left. He managed to escape both wizards only to find himself discussing his Transfigurations homework with McGonagall and later on his extraordinary DADA performances with the new DADA teacher. Two hours had passed before he managed to leave the Great Hall.
---
"I never suspected how deep you were already within the family!"
Aven, on his way to the dungeons, had been spotted by Isabeau.
"I beg you pardon?"
"I'm talking about Slytherin house."
"Yeah... sure," nodded Aven and Isabeau stepped closer. She was much smaller than he was but she was still very impressive.
"May I have a look?" she asked and pointed at the family crest.
"Of course."
She looked at it closely and smiled. "Well, that's funny. They explained the meaning of it to me but I never saw it before."
"You...?" Aven was stunned. "You know its meaning?"
"Of course, don't you?" asked Isabeau surprised.
"No... but why do you?"
"I am a relative of yours. My grandmother's sister married your grandfather," explained the young woman if it was the most normal in the world. "You don't know very much about your family, do you?"
"No, unfortunately not!"
"Come with me, I will show you something!" The young Snape followed the shorter girl as if he had no will of his own. She led him down to Slytherin house.
xXx
"Hey Raven, come over!"
Aven turned and looked at the tall adolescent obviously calling after Isabeau.
"I said it once and I say it again: Don't ever call me like that again!" answered Isabeau.
"Raven!"
The blonde girl turned and gave him the finger. "Told you to not to call me Raven. My name's Isabeau! 'N now sod off!"
Aven followed her to a room with only one bed in the centre, a small desk and bookshelves and a wardrobe.
"What...?"
"Single room. An advantage of money and kinsfolk. Here, look!" She held out a large piece of parchment with a family tree.
"Juliet Carmen O'Neill married Augustus Martial Snape?" asked Aven surprised.
"Yes. And their only son is Severus Caius Snape," replied Isabeau
"They are rather fond of the names of roman emperors, aren't they?"
"Considering 'Augustus Martial', 'Severus Caius' and 'Avenarius', I guess they are fond of any roman name. But they sound rather interesting, don't they?"
"What business brought you here?" Aven turned at the sound of his father's silky voice and had to fight to not to loose his posture. Hell, he was sixteen, not six!
"Isabeau just gave me some information on my family."
Snape stepped closer and looked down at the family tree. "You seem to have to add someone on this one, don't you?"
"Yes sir!" Isabeau answered servile but without loosing her dignity.
"You see, it's hard to find any wizard with at least one parent from a pureblood family who isn't at least a far relative of yours."
"Of course, sir."
"So, I'll leave you. See you later, Avenarius."
Aven nodded and Isabeau smiled at her Head of house, who left instantly.
"So, he is your...?"
"Grand cousin. You are my cousin in second degree."
"Nice to meet you, I guess."
Isabeau laughed softly.
"You are funny!" she smiled.
"Oh, I'm beginning to feel uncomfortable. It seems I don't know anything, do I?"
"We will start at the family crest. Look, the snake is your totem, so to say. It's considered as some kind of a guardian to your family. In every crest of a wizard family the wand is in some central point. In your case the snake is curled around the ward and the foil. The foil shows that your family has fought in the ancient wars. Something less important is the flower, it's just for the looks. It's a lily in case you want to know. Your crest colours are black and a very dark green. I'm not certain about the bay around the crest, but perhaps it's attributed to the victory in some war."
Aven took of the crest and looked at it. Isabeau was right. The diamond snake in the centre curled around a silver foil and an ivory wand. The background was diagonally parted into two, the right edge was made from obsidian and the left upper edge was made from a deep and dark sapphire. The bay around the crest was from made from brown green amber.
"Wow. Thanks," marvelled Aven and smiled at his distant cousin. He didn't dare to consider her as a friend, yet.
"Be careful. Many of those idiots out there want to be friends with you now. Don't spill out any of your secrets to any of them and don't spill out any of you secrets to me. I cannot promise to not use them against you!"
---
"I don't believe it, Ron!" cried Hermione, her sobs muffled since she hid her face in Ron's robes. "Where is Harry? This couldn't be Harry, could it?"
"I don't know. First he is Sheldon McGraw and now Avenarius Snape. What will he be in three weeks? Father Christmas?"
Hermione chuckled slightly, the tears running from her eyes madly. Both of them were so insecure about what to believe. They had been upset when they unravelled Sheldon's secret, or when they had thought they had. And now they felt like they were going insane.
"There is no possibility that Harry could be Snape's son, can it?"
"I don't know," answered Ron. "It could be a cover up. That would match his new appearance. They could have changed it to introduce Harry as Snape's son. On the other hand, Harry told us that no one had changed his appearance. He told us that he wasn't Harry Potter anymore." Ron sighed.
"He could have lied to us. But he didn't look like someone who lied. I'm so confused - I'm so tired of all of this!" Hermione curled up against Ron's chest.
He stroke her hair, the view in his eyes as distant as Harry Potter.
xXx
A knock on the door interrupted Severus' thoughts and he stopped pacing.
"Come in."
The door opened and Aven stepped in. "You wanted to see me?"
Great Aven, that was the most idiotic sentence running around your head, wasn't it?
"Have a seat, I'd like to ask you something!"
Aven sat down and looked at his father with surprise. He seemed to be nervous!
"I know that this sounds really silly and I don't want you to feel thronged, but I'd like to ask you whether you would like to....um, to.. well.. no, forget it."
Severus paced the room and finally stopped to drop on a tall armchair.
Aven smiled and decided to not to ask. Instead he tried to change the subject. "Isabeau warned me of some of the students. The only name she mentioned was Draco and herself."
"She is right, I guess. Malfoy is certainly bad company, as are most of the others from Slytherin. But you have to watch out every time!"
"Constant vigilance!" mused Aven. "That's what Moody told us during the fourth year. Well, we believed it was Moody, then!"
"Right," sighed Severus. "Right. But I don't understand why she warned you of herself."
"She said that she could not promise me to not use my secrets against me."
A smile played around Snape's lips. "That's something different. Whereas you have to watch out that Draco and his kind do not find out about you being Harry Potter, you have to watch out that Isabeau doesn't use your secrets against you to improve her rank one day. Clever girl and a true Slytherin, I daresay."
"Oh, I believe your heart is bouncing around with the highest delight at the very thought of this meanness," snorted the young man.
Severus expression became stern. "That's no meanness."
"Of course not, it's Slytherin!" Aven replied.
"She isn't running around spilling out other people's secrets. She has a strategy. Those beneath her don't have to fear her, she treats them with more respect than most of the others do. Those who are stronger than her aren't in any apparent danger, either. Only those equal to her and those who are in her way to the top have to fear her psychological sinews of war."
"Wow, that's really a difference!" teased Aven.
"It is, but I never expected you to get into the niceties of Slytherin behaviour, anyway!" Severus leaned forward and sneered challenging.
Aven leaned forward as well and thought of a proper reply.
"Must I be a disappointment and perhaps even a shame if someone finds out? But you can still foist it on my Mum, can't you?"
Severus stared at the stone floor and Aven sensed that he had made a mistake.
"I... I didn't mean to say something wrong. I never intended to assume you as cowardly or anything else."
"That's no matter of my reputation. I just was thinking about... Lily." He sighed and starred at the ceiling. "I... I..."
"I miss her, too. And I never really knew her," said Aven.
"Would you like to stay down here with me?" asked Snape.
Aven stared at him and tried to find out the meaning of his words.
"Would you like to..." Snape broke off.
"I... I don't think I'm ready," stumbled Aven and suddenly found a certain black spot on the floor very interesting. "I'm sorry!"
"Don't be! I'm already very happy that you are wearing the family crest. I hated it when I was young and I believed that I never would want my child to wear it one day... but I gave it to you anyway."
"You gave it to me without any note. I had only a vague idea about the thing and certainly didn't know what to do with it," complained Aven. "I asked one of the house elves and she told me what it was and that she would be delighted to remove the embroidery on my robes if I wanted to wear it."
"And you did."
"I recalled that it was only a question and no order. For a moment I thought that it would be the best to refuse. Then I nodded and handed her my robes."
Severus looked weary and worn out. "I hope Lucius will get a good telling off when he tries to impress the Dark Lord with some knowledge about you. Really would enjoy the look on his face when he is told that I already informed 'our' master about this and that I didn't tell everyone else because I mistrusted some of them. Arrogant prat he is!"
"Perhaps you had a little bit too much to drink tonight," smiled Aven. This usually wasn't something expected to be heard from Severus Snape's lips.
"I didn't drink anything. And you know it."
Severus turned a little bit and placed his legs on his right armrest, and so he lazily hung over the armchair. This confused Aven.
"But perhaps I should consider to drinking something. The night has just begun."
"What's wrong with you?" Now, Aven really worried about his father's condition. Was that a bead of sweat on his temple?
"Nothing, I just feel like celebrating the evening and Lucius Malfoy being an idiot!"
The once dignified wizard jumped up and strolled over to a cabinet. When he opened it Aven could see a battery of bottles of different size and shape. Severus grasped one and it shattered into a thousand pieces when he accidentally dropped it on the floor. Aven hurried to his father who obviously was in pain.
"Is he summoning you?"
"He is angry with them," whispered Snape, his eyes filled with pain and fear. "He is just so angry with them. He is punishing them with great pleasure but this doesn't ease his anger."
Aven helped him to lie down on the sofa and tried to conjure a wet towel. He didn't care when he got soaking wet when a wet all over towel appeared on his shoulders. He simply wrung it out above the floor and for a moment he hoped that some house elf would come to clean up before Severus could complain about the mess Aven was making in the living room.
When Severus was breathing steady and his face was cleaned off all the sweat, Aven had time to wonder about the fact that he didn't feel anything.
"When he is angry... how does it come that my scar isn't hurting?" asked he.
"Once I brewed some potion to erase the connection between a Death Eater and the Dark Lord. As it didn't work I gave up. Lately I renewed my efforts on this task and obviously worked. I spilled some of the potion into your glass tonight. The potion didn't break your connection to him but it prevents you from feeling his feelings and vice versa. Unfortunately it's certainly not permanent."
"I'm happy about every little improvement of the situation," assured Aven and sat down on the floor. He rested his back against the sofa and closed his eyes. One bony hand fell from the sofa and rested flat against the boy's chest. "You look really bad, lately. You haven't recovered since you went to inform him then, did you?"
"Cannot eat properly since he revived and it's getting worse these days."
"You will starve to death soon."
"Unfortunate but conquerable deprivation. If you are too weak to stand the strain you have to die. Death Eaters aren't abrogated, they are killed once they aren't needed anymore or if they are to weak. Doesn't matter then, if you are killed by the Aurors or the other Death Eaters."
"But it's an honour to die by Voldemort's hands, isn't it?"
"Depends on the point of view and the circumstances. If it's because I became too nasty, I at least know that my life was worth something."
Aven looked up when his father's hand relaxed and breathed slowly and steadily. He had fallen asleep. Aven stood up and when he placed his father's hand on the sofa, he caught sight of the Dark Mark. The flesh around it was reddened and burned at the edged of the tattoo.
That gives a whole new meaning to the expression "burning rage".
Aven pushed aside the sarcastic thoughts and concentrated on conjuring a woollen blanket. It actually worked but he stared annoyed at the pale-blue and white sheep pattern.
"One cannot have everything!" he muttered and tugged it around his father's lean form.
A new form of hate against Voldemort formed in Aven's chest. How could Voldemort dare to affect Severus' life so deeply that the man almost broke because of the strain?
"Sleep well, father!" he whispered and left for his own chambers.
athenakitty - Um, I guess we haven't met Ron for some time and after Harry vanished he has changed a lot!
Pure Black - Thank you.
Starr Light1 - I don't really know yet but I have a vague idea!
Tabitha78 - Yes, Severus will explain everything. As soon as I found out why Aven is Severus son.
Please review this!
The next chapter: I'm not sure, first possibilty is 'Secrets and surprises' or I will have a little interlud. What's currently supposed to be Chapter 09 is very much and perhaps I'll have to put the development of the characters and their relationships in Chapter 09 and the rest will be in Chapter 10.