Disclaimer: see chapter one
3 Lunch break
'Mr. Snape, Sir. A file from Auror Potter, Sir!' A house elf was tugging at his sleeve. Quite obviously, he had fallen asleep again. And that only after being at work for half an hour. How pathetic. He took the file from the elf. There was a note from Potter in which he asked him for a meeting in his office after lunch.
At least something to look forward to. Although, being a squib he didn't like to mix with other wizards that much. Not that he despised Potter. He had turned out to be a very intelligent student during his last years at Hogwarts and had passed his Auror exams with honours. Then, in the final encounter with Voldemort, he had acted unspeakably brave, would even have given his life if it would have helped. But they had all been quite effective as a team that day, and the only one who had sacrificed himself in the end had been Dumbledore.
Albus. Snape sighed, wondering if Albus Dumbledore could have prevented the magic being taken from him if he had lived. The Minister probably wouldn't have dared to give the order. Actually, Severus Snape had a suspicion that it hadn't been accidental. As far as he knew, the healers in St. Mungo's were too learned and professional in that respect. But he had no proof for this assumption.
At lunch time he went to the canteen as usual. There he took a soup, bread roll and a tea. Normally, there would have been a witch behind the counter who would have been able to put a cooling spell over his soup and tea, but not today. He hesitated. There were permanent 'keeping hot' spells on the food, and without the help of a wizard he would never be able to eat without burning himself. This was only one of the disadvantages of living and working with wizards when you were a squib. You were dependend on them in many ways. He hated that because it was so humiliating.
Not that he didn't mix at all with other wizards. One Christmas, for example, Arthur Weasley had invited him for dinner. At first, Severus had pondered over the possibility of not going, but that would have been unpolite, and, what was more, as he knew that he would have to depend on some wizard acquaintances in his situation, he would rather choose some old members of the Order than strangers. Then, of course there was his longing to have, well, friends, people he could talk to apart from work, a fact he would never admit openly, though.
The visit didn't turn out too bad, but it certainly had been an unsual experience and also a bit embarrassing to say the least. Everybody, and that included the whole Weasley family, husbands of the Weasley children, grandchildren, Potter, of course, and Remus Lupin, everybody had been extremely cheerful. Too cheerful for Severus' taste, but maybe it was the normal thing to be happy on Christmas and he just wasn't used to it. Everybody seemed to avoid mentioning the fact of him being a squib politely. That, at least, was the impression, the former Potions professor got from his visit. They also didn't seem to dare to speak of 'old times', as Severus would have expected at such a family gathering, but which would have included Hogwarts as a main subject as well, of course.
The tension which had built up during the meal by that behaviour was finally broken when Arthur Weasley suggested to play chess. The adults were all crammed into the few pieces of furniture that could be found in the living room. Severus didn't quite understand why Arthur hadn't enlarged the sofas magically, but they were perhaps of the cheap kind or even the muggle type and wouldn't react to spells. Ginny and Harry were sitting next to him, Remus and Arthur were sharing another sofa opposite to them, Mrs. Weasley and some of her daughters in law were continually emerging from the kitchen or vanishing, occasionally telling the children off who were running up and down the stairs. Some of the Weasley brothers were sitting on the floor (the luxury of sitting on the sofa was clearly reseved for guests today) and playing with some of the children. As a result it was very noisy, quite a contrast to Severus' usually quiet life. He felt a bit uncomfortable, because now he was supposed to contribute to some kind of conversation and couldn't pretend to be busy eating.
Then, Arthur's proposal of a game of chess was greeted enthusiastically by the party sitting on the sofa and some other members of the family. Ron brought his old family chess board and pieces and placed it in front of Severus to play against Arthur, Harry produced his own game and wanted to play with Remus. Fred and Ginny settled on the floor and set up their game in front of the fire place. Some of the children stood by to watch. Suddenly it had become quite silent. Playing chess was obviously a family tradition.
Severus was glad, because when you play chess seriously, nobody expects you to speak much and he was actually looking forward to a silent evening, spent in concentration over a good game of chess. But when he spoke his first command as it is the custom with wizard chess, the figure didn't respond. He sighed, somehow he had foreseen that. Arthur looked embarrassed.
'Well it's an old game, you know, worn out a bit. Maybe they only need a bit of persuasion,' he tried, but stubborn chess pieces were not the reason, you obviously had to have magic in you to direct them.
Well, he could very well play it the muggle way, couldn't he? But there, Severus was very much mistaken, because when he reached out to push the piece to which he had spoken to, the little man suddenly pulled out a small dagger and stuck it into Severus' thumb.
'Ouch', he winced, 'this isn't going to work, Arthur.' By now, everybody near was watching.
'I see.' Judging by the colour of his face, Arthur Weasley was very much embarrassed. 'Hey boys, does anybody of you know how to make a chess game behave when somebody who, uhm, well... when it doesn't accept a player?'
The question was directed at his children, but it was Severus who answered instead. 'You can't, unless you want to destroy it. You can turn it into a muggle game.'
'How', Ron, who had come over from his place on the floor where he had been playing with his brotherGeorge.
'Well, maybe there are several ways, but the only one I know is to cook the pieces in camomile tea for an hour', Severus explained.
'Did you try that?' Ron asked curiously.
'Yes, when I was eight years old. Come to think of it, that must have been the beginning of my career in Potions.' He tried to smile, but didn't feel like it, because the memory wasn't a pleasant one.
'Cool', a tiny girl with red hair who looked a bit like Ginny piped up. 'Mum never lets us do interesting things, but I know that you have to start early when you want to do great things later', she added importantly. She was so small, that she could hardly look over the rim of the sofa behind which she was standing with some of her brothers or sisters or cousins, Severus couldn't tell.
'But it can also be dangerous, you know. You can hurt yourself or other people. It didn't do me any good either. I ended up in the cellar for a week with water and bread once a day.'
The girl gasped and looked at him unbelievingly. 'But that's cruel, to do that to a child!' the girl said indignantly while her companions were nodding in approval.
'Well, not all children are so lucky to be born into a family like yours, you know, with lots of understanding and ... uhm, love', Severus said to the girl.
'You mean your parents didn't love you?'. was the conclusion which followed immediately from the girl.
Feeling embarrassed already, Severus definitely didn't want this conversation to go much further, but couldn't think of a way to end it, as he knew that children could be very persistent and once they were on a track that interested them, not to be stopped easily.
'Hm, well,' he began, 'l think, they did, in their way, but they certainly didn't show it in a way a child would expect from them', he tried.
'So you didn't have lots of fun and Christmas parties like we have?' she went on.
'I guess not', Severus said, but that was not quite true. He did remember having a nice time over Christmas. But that had been after his parents had died when they had gone over to the dark side and Severus had stayed at Hogwarts on all his holidays and was able to study in the library without being harrassed by fellow students. But that, he decided, he couldn't tell the girl.
'Now, Celia, dear. Please stop bothering Severus. He is a guest, and it's not very polite to ask all those personal questions, all right?'. Finally, Molly Weasly had come to the rescue. Indeed, Severus was very thankful. The least he had expected from this night was to tell everybody about his miserable childhood.
But he wasn't relieved yet. The next challenge was about to come when another small voice demanded: 'Is it true that you have lost all your magic?' A little boy with read hair seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and was now standing at Severus' knees. He was holding a children'd book in his small hands and looked very determined, and not a bit intimidated by what wasn't the friendliest look Severus was giving him.
The older wizard decided that it couldn't become any more embarrassing and that it would be ridiculous to be embarrassed by a little child and answered, finally. 'Well, yes.'
But that was obviously not enough for the boy. 'How did that happen?'
'The healers made a mistake at the hospital'.
'Did you sue them for that? But money wouldn't help, I guess, would it?' Now, Severus was a bit at a loss. He clearly had underestimated the child. What would a boy at that age know of sueing and recompensation? 'Well,' the boy went on, 'but you can still read, can't you? Can you read me a story?'
That was certainly more like a little boy, Severus thought, and although he felt very uneasy regarding the boy's request, because he certainly had never done the like before, he said yes. The boy did not hesitate, took the older wizard's hand, pulled him from the sofa and directed him in front of the fireplace where a pile of cushions and, as Severus now realized in sudden horror, 7 more children were waiting for the 'storyteller'.
'By the way, my name is Rupert', the little one informed him. Severus gulped. There was no way out of it now. On the other hand, it couldn't do any harm to read some stories to some nice children, could it?
'Pleased to meet you,' he said in a mock formality and bowed. The other children said their names, too. Before he could begin, the was a bit restlessness between the children and also a bit of giggling.
When he looked up from the book where Rupert, who had obviously been chosen as the speaker of the party, was now indicating the stories they had chosen for this performance, the little boy said 'Don't worry about them. They didn't believe I would dare to ask you, you know. But it wasn't my idea, you see. My grandmother said we should ask you because you have such a nice voice.'
Severus was flabbergasted. So this was Molly's doing. He had been tricked by a grandmother and her grandchildren. He turned to see if he could detect her somewhere in the mass of mostly read haired Weasleys and found that she was standing next to her husband, smiling broadly at him. He only shook his head and gave her what he hoped looked like a disapproving glare, but knew at the same time that she wasn't a woman who would be intimidated easily by that. Not Molly Weasly who was mother and grandmother to such a huge family and had also managed to play a prominent role in the fight against Voldemort. How she had accomplished that (the family part of her life) he had no idea. And now he had ended up reading to her grandchildren, because he had 'such a nice voice'. He couldn't believe that, but stopped wondering because the children had started to argue about which story should be read first, and he had to get started.
3 Lunch break
'Mr. Snape, Sir. A file from Auror Potter, Sir!' A house elf was tugging at his sleeve. Quite obviously, he had fallen asleep again. And that only after being at work for half an hour. How pathetic. He took the file from the elf. There was a note from Potter in which he asked him for a meeting in his office after lunch.
At least something to look forward to. Although, being a squib he didn't like to mix with other wizards that much. Not that he despised Potter. He had turned out to be a very intelligent student during his last years at Hogwarts and had passed his Auror exams with honours. Then, in the final encounter with Voldemort, he had acted unspeakably brave, would even have given his life if it would have helped. But they had all been quite effective as a team that day, and the only one who had sacrificed himself in the end had been Dumbledore.
Albus. Snape sighed, wondering if Albus Dumbledore could have prevented the magic being taken from him if he had lived. The Minister probably wouldn't have dared to give the order. Actually, Severus Snape had a suspicion that it hadn't been accidental. As far as he knew, the healers in St. Mungo's were too learned and professional in that respect. But he had no proof for this assumption.
At lunch time he went to the canteen as usual. There he took a soup, bread roll and a tea. Normally, there would have been a witch behind the counter who would have been able to put a cooling spell over his soup and tea, but not today. He hesitated. There were permanent 'keeping hot' spells on the food, and without the help of a wizard he would never be able to eat without burning himself. This was only one of the disadvantages of living and working with wizards when you were a squib. You were dependend on them in many ways. He hated that because it was so humiliating.
Not that he didn't mix at all with other wizards. One Christmas, for example, Arthur Weasley had invited him for dinner. At first, Severus had pondered over the possibility of not going, but that would have been unpolite, and, what was more, as he knew that he would have to depend on some wizard acquaintances in his situation, he would rather choose some old members of the Order than strangers. Then, of course there was his longing to have, well, friends, people he could talk to apart from work, a fact he would never admit openly, though.
The visit didn't turn out too bad, but it certainly had been an unsual experience and also a bit embarrassing to say the least. Everybody, and that included the whole Weasley family, husbands of the Weasley children, grandchildren, Potter, of course, and Remus Lupin, everybody had been extremely cheerful. Too cheerful for Severus' taste, but maybe it was the normal thing to be happy on Christmas and he just wasn't used to it. Everybody seemed to avoid mentioning the fact of him being a squib politely. That, at least, was the impression, the former Potions professor got from his visit. They also didn't seem to dare to speak of 'old times', as Severus would have expected at such a family gathering, but which would have included Hogwarts as a main subject as well, of course.
The tension which had built up during the meal by that behaviour was finally broken when Arthur Weasley suggested to play chess. The adults were all crammed into the few pieces of furniture that could be found in the living room. Severus didn't quite understand why Arthur hadn't enlarged the sofas magically, but they were perhaps of the cheap kind or even the muggle type and wouldn't react to spells. Ginny and Harry were sitting next to him, Remus and Arthur were sharing another sofa opposite to them, Mrs. Weasley and some of her daughters in law were continually emerging from the kitchen or vanishing, occasionally telling the children off who were running up and down the stairs. Some of the Weasley brothers were sitting on the floor (the luxury of sitting on the sofa was clearly reseved for guests today) and playing with some of the children. As a result it was very noisy, quite a contrast to Severus' usually quiet life. He felt a bit uncomfortable, because now he was supposed to contribute to some kind of conversation and couldn't pretend to be busy eating.
Then, Arthur's proposal of a game of chess was greeted enthusiastically by the party sitting on the sofa and some other members of the family. Ron brought his old family chess board and pieces and placed it in front of Severus to play against Arthur, Harry produced his own game and wanted to play with Remus. Fred and Ginny settled on the floor and set up their game in front of the fire place. Some of the children stood by to watch. Suddenly it had become quite silent. Playing chess was obviously a family tradition.
Severus was glad, because when you play chess seriously, nobody expects you to speak much and he was actually looking forward to a silent evening, spent in concentration over a good game of chess. But when he spoke his first command as it is the custom with wizard chess, the figure didn't respond. He sighed, somehow he had foreseen that. Arthur looked embarrassed.
'Well it's an old game, you know, worn out a bit. Maybe they only need a bit of persuasion,' he tried, but stubborn chess pieces were not the reason, you obviously had to have magic in you to direct them.
Well, he could very well play it the muggle way, couldn't he? But there, Severus was very much mistaken, because when he reached out to push the piece to which he had spoken to, the little man suddenly pulled out a small dagger and stuck it into Severus' thumb.
'Ouch', he winced, 'this isn't going to work, Arthur.' By now, everybody near was watching.
'I see.' Judging by the colour of his face, Arthur Weasley was very much embarrassed. 'Hey boys, does anybody of you know how to make a chess game behave when somebody who, uhm, well... when it doesn't accept a player?'
The question was directed at his children, but it was Severus who answered instead. 'You can't, unless you want to destroy it. You can turn it into a muggle game.'
'How', Ron, who had come over from his place on the floor where he had been playing with his brotherGeorge.
'Well, maybe there are several ways, but the only one I know is to cook the pieces in camomile tea for an hour', Severus explained.
'Did you try that?' Ron asked curiously.
'Yes, when I was eight years old. Come to think of it, that must have been the beginning of my career in Potions.' He tried to smile, but didn't feel like it, because the memory wasn't a pleasant one.
'Cool', a tiny girl with red hair who looked a bit like Ginny piped up. 'Mum never lets us do interesting things, but I know that you have to start early when you want to do great things later', she added importantly. She was so small, that she could hardly look over the rim of the sofa behind which she was standing with some of her brothers or sisters or cousins, Severus couldn't tell.
'But it can also be dangerous, you know. You can hurt yourself or other people. It didn't do me any good either. I ended up in the cellar for a week with water and bread once a day.'
The girl gasped and looked at him unbelievingly. 'But that's cruel, to do that to a child!' the girl said indignantly while her companions were nodding in approval.
'Well, not all children are so lucky to be born into a family like yours, you know, with lots of understanding and ... uhm, love', Severus said to the girl.
'You mean your parents didn't love you?'. was the conclusion which followed immediately from the girl.
Feeling embarrassed already, Severus definitely didn't want this conversation to go much further, but couldn't think of a way to end it, as he knew that children could be very persistent and once they were on a track that interested them, not to be stopped easily.
'Hm, well,' he began, 'l think, they did, in their way, but they certainly didn't show it in a way a child would expect from them', he tried.
'So you didn't have lots of fun and Christmas parties like we have?' she went on.
'I guess not', Severus said, but that was not quite true. He did remember having a nice time over Christmas. But that had been after his parents had died when they had gone over to the dark side and Severus had stayed at Hogwarts on all his holidays and was able to study in the library without being harrassed by fellow students. But that, he decided, he couldn't tell the girl.
'Now, Celia, dear. Please stop bothering Severus. He is a guest, and it's not very polite to ask all those personal questions, all right?'. Finally, Molly Weasly had come to the rescue. Indeed, Severus was very thankful. The least he had expected from this night was to tell everybody about his miserable childhood.
But he wasn't relieved yet. The next challenge was about to come when another small voice demanded: 'Is it true that you have lost all your magic?' A little boy with read hair seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and was now standing at Severus' knees. He was holding a children'd book in his small hands and looked very determined, and not a bit intimidated by what wasn't the friendliest look Severus was giving him.
The older wizard decided that it couldn't become any more embarrassing and that it would be ridiculous to be embarrassed by a little child and answered, finally. 'Well, yes.'
But that was obviously not enough for the boy. 'How did that happen?'
'The healers made a mistake at the hospital'.
'Did you sue them for that? But money wouldn't help, I guess, would it?' Now, Severus was a bit at a loss. He clearly had underestimated the child. What would a boy at that age know of sueing and recompensation? 'Well,' the boy went on, 'but you can still read, can't you? Can you read me a story?'
That was certainly more like a little boy, Severus thought, and although he felt very uneasy regarding the boy's request, because he certainly had never done the like before, he said yes. The boy did not hesitate, took the older wizard's hand, pulled him from the sofa and directed him in front of the fireplace where a pile of cushions and, as Severus now realized in sudden horror, 7 more children were waiting for the 'storyteller'.
'By the way, my name is Rupert', the little one informed him. Severus gulped. There was no way out of it now. On the other hand, it couldn't do any harm to read some stories to some nice children, could it?
'Pleased to meet you,' he said in a mock formality and bowed. The other children said their names, too. Before he could begin, the was a bit restlessness between the children and also a bit of giggling.
When he looked up from the book where Rupert, who had obviously been chosen as the speaker of the party, was now indicating the stories they had chosen for this performance, the little boy said 'Don't worry about them. They didn't believe I would dare to ask you, you know. But it wasn't my idea, you see. My grandmother said we should ask you because you have such a nice voice.'
Severus was flabbergasted. So this was Molly's doing. He had been tricked by a grandmother and her grandchildren. He turned to see if he could detect her somewhere in the mass of mostly read haired Weasleys and found that she was standing next to her husband, smiling broadly at him. He only shook his head and gave her what he hoped looked like a disapproving glare, but knew at the same time that she wasn't a woman who would be intimidated easily by that. Not Molly Weasly who was mother and grandmother to such a huge family and had also managed to play a prominent role in the fight against Voldemort. How she had accomplished that (the family part of her life) he had no idea. And now he had ended up reading to her grandchildren, because he had 'such a nice voice'. He couldn't believe that, but stopped wondering because the children had started to argue about which story should be read first, and he had to get started.