Chapter 03 – The Bet
Snape shivered, he always hated to see people he knew be tortured and killed. Trelaway, although he never had much contact with the woman, was someone he knew. Snape cursed again for having to be at this meeting tonight.
Lord Voldemort released Trelaway's face and she fell again, too weak to hold herself. Whatever spell the Dark Lord had cast on her seemed to have take a lot of her energy and strength way. Bellatrix came swiftly to her master's side and tried to snatch his attention from the other witch.
"Snape" Called the Dark Lord and Snape hurried to bow in front of him. "Apparently the old fool had her drugged for quite some time, her memories are a mess. I want you to find out what he gave to her and take the necessary counter measures to assure I have free access to everything she knows"
"Yes, my lord" said Snape hurring Trelaway way from the meeting and in to his lab, ´yes, that's exactly the opportunity I need to find out what Dumbledore has been up to with her and perhaps even get her out of here depending on what I find.´
Snape begun to work with haste, knowing that his findings would only remain safe for a short amount of time before the Dark Lord demanded a report. If he wanted to find out something that he could use, he better be fast.
Running a few tests on Trelaway, Snape soon discovered a trace of a hallucinogen substance.
´that's odd´ he though ´why would Dumbledore keep her drugged?´
Approaching Trelaway to collect a new sample of blood Snape was surprised to hear her voice clear and calm.
"You never saw it coming"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Me, Dumbledore, the drug you just found in my blood... you never saw it coming. That's why it bothers you so much, you are a spy, you see things coming a mile way but you missed this one and now you don't know where you stand anymore, your shining leader has done something you wield as wrong and the side of the light doesn't do 'wrong'". She said matter-of-factly.
Snapes looks around quickly, making sure no one heard her say that he was a spy and Dumbledore was his 'leader'.
"Blasted woman, keep quiet, you are going to get me... us killed"
Trelaway just laughed, making Snape wonder if she was any less crazy that he always though she was.
"Don't worry, dear Severus, I see many years ahead of you. I see happiness too. Family, friends, recognition... all the things you never though you would get, they are all waiting for you."
"One of your 'visions', I presume." Said Snape, disdain dripping from his mouth. "Although I though death omens were you favourite".
Trelaway just laughed again.
"No, not mine, his" her eyes began to shine with a barely controlled rage "he kept me as his faithful dog. A pet monkey trained to vomit faux prophecies and ridiculous warnings. It was actually quite a refreshing surprise to be out of his grip".
"Listen to me very carefully, you are delusional. It's only the side effect of the spells. You will fell better once we return..."
"No, Snape. I'm not, you are the one who is mistaken... and I can prove it to you" Said Trelaway holding his hand with a stronger grip than Snape had giving her credit for.
"Let go of me"
"Your password is 'blood heritage', your favourite potion is the sleeping draught, because of the faces that people do when they take it..."
"You could easily find out any of those things at Hogwarts..."
"... and you have loved and you have lost" she added as if he never had spoken.
"She left me" he said painfully.
"She was taken from you. You saw it happen, but he took the memory from you..." Snape could not believe Trelaway's words "there is much more I can tell you on this matter. You see, legitimens is the spell that mimics, very poorly I might add, part of the seer's gift. We can see the past and the future, yes, but we also can see peoples minds, I know your mind better than you, Severus, and I have a proposition to make. Care to hear me out?"
"Why should I not just kill you right know?"
"Because I can tell you everything Dumbledore has hidden from you... and believe when I say this, it's quite a lot" Trelaway said rising to her feet and looking him strait in to his eyes.
"I have no reason to believe you, or trust you, for that matter... and even if you do know something, unlikely as it may be, why tell me? What is there for you to gain with this attitude?"
"Think, Severus, Think" Said Trelaway walking around Snape, she was starting to look like a predator, which was very out of character for her, who as always the clumsy thick glassed fraud of a teacher who pretended to be good at teaching divination to the children.
"I just woke up at the Dark Lord's feet after a 20 year slumber. I was heavily drugged by a man a regarded with respect, he destroyed my life, my reputation, everything... and even worse, he messed with my prophecies. Those are sacred to me."
"You claim he destroyed your life and yet say that messing with some..." Snape quickly chose a better word when he saw the look in her eyes. You don't hang around Bellatrix for as long as he had without realising that is a suicide to go against a woman looking at you like that. "prophecy, was the worse thing he did?"
"A seer is connected to the flux of time and the destiny of men. To tamper with a prophecy is to tamper with the very meaning of a seer's life. It is to degrade her. You change what was said and you mess with the destinies of all of those involved. You set their destinies stray. You disrupt magic itself."
"Yes, I can see how that would be a problem" Snape said with a smirk.
"You still don't believe me" it was not a question. "allow me to prove it to you"
"why?"
"Because I can, because I will take my revenge on Dumbledore though you and though others"
´Uh-oh, this does not sound good´
"Don't be afraid" Trelaway sensed his fears and made sure to put him at easy "my revenge will be sweet, for you and the others, that is, I'm afraid Dumbledore will be quite mad, but he will never know it was me..." she added with a sweet smile on her face.
"And how is that?"
"Well, Dumbledore got in the way of a lot of people's lives. He took away happiness not only from you but from many others, as well as he delivered happiness to those who were not meant to have it in the first place. He decided to play god and used my prophecies to do so. Well, that only makes it fair game for me to give destiny a push from the other side and, who knows, maybe it will flow back in to its natural course".
"You are not convincing me"
"And how about this. I'll tell you where the prove is. All you have to do is go to the school and get it... if what you find there is not enough to convince you, I will follow you wherever you want me to, but if it is enough, than you will have to you bow before me in from of all the Dark Lord's followers and publicly apologise for ever doubting my abilities"
"It's a bet then?"
"Oh, yes. And just for good measure I'll give you my word as a witch that I'll not let anyone know your secrets"
"You give me your word as a witch? Just like that? No strings attached?"
"None what so ever"
Snape carefully weighed his options. She was not likely to come with him, even if he could get her out of there. Her word as a witch bounded her to his secrets, not that it would stop Voldemort, but it was insurance.
"Still... why?"
"You are one of those whose happiness has been stolen, by making you happy now I get to foil Dumbledore's schemes and bring your destiny to a path closer of the one it should have taken. Everybody wins. Destiny is corrected, I get revenge and you get back something that was stolen from you"
"I see"
"No, you don't. That will take some time. Right now all I ask are a few hours of your time, enough to go back to the school grounds, get the evidence and come back... and also, I need a promise.
"A promise?"
"Don't take revenge in your hands just yet"
"Hum?"
"When you find what I'm sending you to get. When you see what it is and realise what I'm saying. Don't take revenge in to your own hands. Came back and I promise you will not regret, It will only make your revenge even more complete. Do I have your word as a wizard?"
´She seems dead serious about this. Either she is very mad and I am doomed or she is the real thing and Merlin have mercy on those upon she exacts her revenge´
"You have my word. Now tell me where in Hogwarts do I have to go"
Chapter 04 – The Knowledge
Snape hurried through the hallways of Hogwarts, thanking every deity he could remember for Dumbledore absence. He would not have the ability to explain himself at the moment, by all means he should have brought that bloody woman back with him.
What kind of madness had possessed him to accept those stupid terms? And who exactly was that woman? She was nothing like the Trelaway he could remember gliding around the school in her permanent state of euphoria.
Lost in his thoughts he came to halt in front of a solid wall.
Let's see then. What did she say? Oh! Yes´ he got his wand and tapped in the bricks in front of him in the order Trelaway had told him to. ´I'm making a bigger fool out of me by the minute. This has got to be some elaborate joke of some sort´
Snape muttered to himself even though he knew it was very unlikely to be any sort of joke.
The wall folded within itself and a doorway came in to view. It led in to a small room covered with shelves. Snape's eyes grew wide, there carefully store upon the shelves were dozens of pensieves. He walked in muttering a lumus spell and notice that there were name tags attached to each pensieve. It didn't take very long for him to find a few with his name.
´At least the old man is organised. Good thing he kept them all together´ he though as he picked the first one to see what this as all about.
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A couple of hours later a very pale and shaken Severus Snape emerged from the room. His feet were not fast enough to carry him out of Hogwarts and beyond the apparition wards. He made the whole journey in record speed and fell on his knees in front of Trelaway.
"I'm sorry. I'll never doubt your power again, tell me what you need of me".
"Tell me, dear, what did you see?"
"Don't you know?"
"What I see are signs, spectral images... I learn what has to be done or how it needs to be done... but is not always clear. I'll tell you what I know, then you'll tell me what you saw"
"Go on..."
"The proofs of the crimes committed against many people were in that place. A place which held the dark deeds of Dumbledore, where your pain was stored, there was a piece of you there and the foundation stone of our alliance, metaphorically speaking. So what was there, in those memory boxes? That much I can see" she answered the unspoken question Snape showed in his face.
"Memories, as you said. So many of them... I loved once and she loved me back. We had a beautiful story together... stolen from us... Sibil, she was pregnant!" Snape had tears running from his eyes now. He laid his head on her lap, still kneeling in front of her, and let the tears flow as he remembered the one he loved, the one that Dumbledore took way from him... Lily Evans, and their child... Merlin, Harry! The brat was his child! But why? "why?"
"Oh! To best serve his plan, to ensure your coming here, becoming a spy. A happy man with a muggle-born wife and a child would not do, isn't that right?" Said Trelaway holding his chin up so she could dry his tears "but there is so much more... and I don't know everything yet. That is way I need your help. I can feel the fates of so many changing, shifting as we speak, any prediction now has every possibility of being proven wrong, there is no telling of the future just now, for we just changed it. We are now at a very delicate and dangerous moment, anything could go wrong. Will you help me?"
"I need to be with my son"
"And you will be, but not now, now you would only get your memory stolen again and would be right back where you were before you met me, alone in the woods..."
"metaphorically speaking" Snape finished.
"of course"
Snape felt defeated. A pawn in a game he knew nothing of the rules, just when he though he could see the end of the tunnel, some one came and showed him it was all a game of mirrors and he was now even more lost than before. He could not trust the Dark Lord, that had been obvious for some time, and know he learns he could not trust Dumbledore either... and what about Trelaway, could he trust her? Could he trust any of it?
"You need more proof". Once again it was not a question. "You are a potion master, brew a potion, take his blood, make your own proof"
"I will"
At the moment the conversation was cut short by the arrival of a Death Eater. "The Dark Lord has sent for you two"
"Very well" said Snape regaining his wits "lead the way". He followed the man out with Trelaway close behind him.
"Well" the Dark Lord said "Severus, I wish to hear your report on the seer"
Snape knelt in front of the Dark Lord considering how to go about this business, when a voice echoed trough out the meeting and every single person in the room held still as Trelaway spoke, holding out her hand to Voldemort.
"The one who will reign in the dark has been mislead,
He seeks in the future what can be only found in the past,
In the blood of your family is where immortality rests"
The Dark Lord got up and approached her, reaching for her hand.
"But be ware of blood shed for family's blood is also red,
The most wanted prize is already in your hands, be aware,
careful where you tread, for magic..."
Trelaway was suddenly knocked sideways, on top of her stood Bellatrix with a club in her hands.
"You don't touch him, whore." She yelled, her eyes shining with madness.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, woman?" Screamed the Dark Lord.
"No woman touches my lord." Said Bellatrix putting on a sweet face for the Dark Lord.
"Who touches me or who I touch is a matter of my choosing, not yours. Don't you dare forget who is the master and who is the dog. Crucio"
Bellatrix fell back screaming as Trelaway set up slowly on the ground, looking around as if trying to understand what was going on. Snape hurried to her side and aided her to stand up.
"Continue" ordered the Dark Lord to Trelaway.
"Continue?" She looked lost.
"My lord, if I may" said Snape.
"What?" the Dark Lord snapped.
"She cannot continue. A prophecy cannot be controlled or delivered at a desired moment. It has a mind of its own and..." Snape could see the anger building up inside the Dark Lord.
´Oh! Merlin, this is going to hurt´ he saw the Dark Lord start to raise his wand when a hand held his arm.
"Don't" said Trelaway "He is right. The prophecy has to be spoken at its own time, no one can change that" The Dark Lord didn't looked pleased, his hand held his wand more firmly.
"But spare the pain, and I'll tell you what the prophecy is about"
"You know what is says then?" Asked a more amused Dark Lord.
"Not it's exact terms. I should have been allowed to speak the whole prophecy for that, but I can... sense, what it was about."
"Go on, child, enlighten me"
"As long as you have a descendent in the wizarding world, you'll live".
"A descendent in the..." Voldemort suddenly became very agitated. "Yes, yes, I see... so that is what that blasted book meant! Snape, I need a potion to help me impregnate a woman".
"Of course, my lord, I just need a sample of your seed..."
"What?"
"Your... seed, my lord"
"He can't give it to you" Trelaway cut in. "He has none left. His body has flaws."
Voldemort looked at her as if deciding how long he would hold her under a crucio spell but just a fraction of second before he cast the spell he decided against it. For her to know he could not breed, she must have some kind of power and if she was a true seer he would need her sane enough to make sense of the blasted prophecies Bellatrix eventually allowed her to deliver. He threw another one curse at Bellatrix who was still on the ground and started to leave the room.
"There is something else you might want to know" Trelaway added.
"Make it fast and make it good, woman, I'm at the end of my patience with you".
"I do see something. The details are lost to me, but you do have a child, a user of magic. A child that carries your blood"
"Impossible, I've known"
"No, she ran. You took the mother of your child against her will and she ran from you, but she conceived a child that night. She was a squib"
"And the child survived?"
"You came back didn't you? By all means you should be dead, but you're here. That can only mean that your blood still flows in the wizarding community."
"And how do you suppose I find this child of mine?"
"The woman... she cought your attention on a muggle site... she was buying something... something colourful... flowers, your mother's favourite flowers... and her parents were with her, her mother was a witch..." Trelaway was staring in to the night air as if seeing the scene taking place right before her, but the Dark Lord remembered something by then.
"and her father was a muggle. Yes, I remember that one, Merlin, It was almost40 years ago!"
"I can't see her clearly, she has departed from this world and I do see that she had a child, but I can't see past that".
"Well, It doesn't matter. I remember something that will help me find her. Malfoy!" Called out Voldemort summoning a piece of parchment and a quill.
"Yes, my lord" Malfoy answered with a bow.
"Go to this place and find a muggle police station near by" said Voldemort writing a few words down. "Bribe, kill, make up a story, whatever it takes, get me all the rape reports they have from this period of time. One of those women had my child and the time has came for daddy to go home!" his laughter filled the room bringing chills to everyone. Snape couldn't help noticing that Trelaway was the only one not shivering, she had a sly smile on her face.