Disclaimer: I do not own HP
Chapter Two
Fooling Dumbledore
Filius smiled as he watched the young prodigy play the new sheet music he gave him. It was a simple piece yet he made it sound so beautiful. Young Severus had a true talent when it came to music, then again he seemed to have talent in most everything he tried. If he continued this way throughout his education he had no doubt Severus had a very bright and successful future ahead of him.
"Very nice, Mr. Snape." Filius praised his student as he finished the piece. The young Ravenclaw gave his teacher a small smile and a quick 'thank you'.
"I don't think it will be much longer before you will be able to play accompaniment for the choir."
"I would certainly enjoy that, sir." Severus replied, though the small smile he held slipped from his young face as he was now faced with a task, a task he knew he really shouldn't put it off any longer.
What he had to tell his professor was quite unpleasant and reminded him of the dark presence that loomed ahead, but he also knew that if he did nothing the future that lay before them was not one he wanted to live through again.
"Sir, can I ask you a question?"
Professor Flintwick, happy to answer any question one of his favorite pupils, replied, "Of course, Mr. Snape. What would you like to know?"
"Well, The problem is, I… well I'm having some, I guess you could call them dreams, but not exactly." Severus closed his eyes, took a long deep breath, then looked up at his teacher, colleague and friend and began to spin his web of lies. "I think I'm having visions. I've been having them off and on for a few years, usually things about my family, things that almost always come true. Like when my dad lost his job, or my mom got an owl that her childhood friend had died...It was always a few days before they happened. I never really brought it up because mum always said that kind of magic was codswallop; but since I started Hogwarts I'm having them a lot more and...and they are starting to get a little scary. I'm not sure what my next step should be. I was hoping for your advice."
Filius was certainly surprised at the boy's confession of his gift, but he wasn't the first Seer he had come across in his years. What concerned him was the 12-year-old seemed honestly worried about his visions.
"What exactly have you seen?"
Severus recited an event that did indeed happen, however, he did not personally witness but had heard stories from other Death Eaters in the years that followed, mostly because of who it was they killed. Lucius had often enjoyed gloating about this particular kill as he was only sixteen when it happened yet he was allowed to go on such an "important" mission. A high member of the board of governors refused to roll over on a ruling which would have made it more difficult for muggleborn foreigners to gain jobs in The British Ministry of Magic. They decided to make an example of him. They murdered him in front of his wife and four children.
"I-I saw a bunch of people in black robes and masks apperated in a man's home. They called him a traitor and used an unforgivable on him... They killed him Professor. In front of his family...it was horrible."
Even though Severus had not witnessed that particular event he had seen and participated in similar situations so it wasn't as if he had to fake the horror that sunk behind his dark gaze.
Filus took several steps closer to his student and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Severus, do you feel that this is truly going to happen? That someone's life is in danger?"
Severus nodded in affirmation. "It's like my other visions, at least it felt the same and all of those came true...I just don't want anyone to get hurt." And that was God's honest truth. He wanted to save as many lives as he could. He had a lot to amend for after all.
"Okay, I'm going to talk to the Headmaster and perhaps he can help us figure out who was in your vision and we can help them."
"Thank you professor. I knew I could trust you to help me." Severus replied truthfully. He quite honestly trusted FIlius more than most, including Albus. Albus saved him in one way but he ruined him in another. Filus had never shown him anything but kindness and understanding.
XXX
It was the following day that he found himself in Albus Dumbledore's office reciting to him exactly what he had to Filius. The renown wizard looked as shocked as Professor Flitwick had when Severus had told him, the Headmaster however followed it up with several questions. All very specific and Severus could see he was trying to identify who the man was so they could prevent his death.
"First of all Severus, I applaud you coming to Professor Flintwick with your concerns. It's often hard for young seers to be open to their gift especially if they do not have anyone close to them with a similar background. It can be...overwhelming."
He gave Severus a grandfatherly smile as he stroked his long, silver beard. "In your vision, did you hear any names?"
Severus shook his head, "No sir."
"That's okay, can you tell me what the man who was killed looked like?"
He vaguely remembered the victims picture from the Daily Prophet that had come out decades ago. At the time, it was front page news as it was the first of many attacks on Ministry members who supported muggle and muggle born rights. Plus he recalled Lucius saying he had steely green eyes that reminded him of the Avada Kedavra curse.
"He was tall, taller than average anyway. He had black hair, a beard and dark green eyes. His family was there too, a wife with blond hair and four little kids."
Dumbledore mumbled something under his breath Severus couldn't make out. He then reached over behind him and jotted down something on a piece of parchment.
"And the Death Eaters that attacked the man, was there anything distinguishing about them?" The Headmaster questioned the young Ravenclaw.
"Only that there were 5 of them, sir. One I think was a woman as her laugh was really high pitched, but they were all wearing black robes and masks."
Albus Dumbledore felt as though 'lady luck' was smiling upon him, to bring this boy with such amazing talent to him. There was no doubt he would be quite helpful in their cause to rid the world of Tom. He would have to be sure to see that young Mr. Snape develops his gift further. Waiting until his 3rd year to take Divination would not cut it, he would need to arrange for a private tutor.
He was pretty sure the man Severus described was Byron Picks, a very up and coming, open minded young man within the Ministry. Albus quite liked his way of thinking, plus he was such a personable young man.
"Thank you Severus, I think I know who the man is and we will take precautions to help him and his family." The wise old wizard told the lad.
Severus gave a rare true smile. He had made a rendering for one of his sins. A man's life would be saved. A wife would not lose her husband, children would keep their father. One life saved, hundreds to go.
XXX
Weeks had passed and Severus had not heard anything further from Professor Flintwick or the Headmaster regarding his 'vision'. He had spent his time as he usually did, doing his school work, researching in his free time and spending as much time as he could with his best friend. He had reluctantly gone to a school quidditch game, at Lily's request. He sat with her in the Gryffindor stands, though he made sure to represent his own house wrapped in his blue and silver Ravenclaw scarf. It was Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor and while Lily cheered enthusiastically for her house team, Severus simply smiled at her excitement but offered no enthusiasm of his own.
It was a couple of days after the game, they had been in the library working on a Transfiguration essay when out of the blue Lily decided to ask her best friend a question. "Can I come with you to your next piano lesson?"
Looking up from his parchment he gave his friend a curious look. "I suppose. Why would you want to?"
Lily smiled and replied, "I'd like to hear you play."
"Oh, okay. If you really want to, sure."
"Great."
XXX
Severus had a migraine, which was annoying as he hadn't had one since he had been "re-born". It was so bad, he gave up and went to the hospital wing instead of class.
"Well, hello Mr. Snape. Not feeling well this morning?" Madam Pomfry asked at the young Ravenclaw.
"No, woke up with a bad headache. It just doesn't seem to want to go away."
"Okay, why don't you have a seat and I'll have a look."
Severus nodded and sat down on the edge of the bed, he closed his eyes as the medi-witch ran several diagnostics with her wand. He just wanted her to give him a really strong pain reliever so he could get on with his day, but he knew Poppy much too well to think she would let him go with a simple potion without running a battery of spells first.
"Severus, why don't you lay down and I will get you a pain potion, okay."
He happily laid down and as he waited for her to return its potion his mind went to what he considered a happy place. A field of tall grass, a light breeze brushes across his skin. It was quiet, it was calm, it was peaceful. This was his mind's eye, where he went to when he needed to clear and refocus his 's the one place he felt truly relaxed.
"Mr. Snape."
At the sound of his name his eyes fluttered open and his moment of serenity was gone. What he wasn't expecting to see, however, was not only Madam Pomfry, but Professor Dumbledore as well.
"Here you are." She gave the first year a nervous looking smile as Severus took the potions from her.
"Is everything okay?" He asked, though by the concerned look in both of their sets of eyes, he was sure it was not.
"I just wanted the Headmaster to confirm something for me. Do you mind?"
Severus just shrugged. "I suppose not."
Albus raised his wand and spoke the spell which did confirm what Poppy had already suspected. It was not a typical test to perform but when several others did not give a concrete reason for he migraine, she decided to perform a neurological spell. It's very rarely used outside of St. Mungos as such cases are usually from an ongoing illness or trauma.
"I'm sorry, but what's going on?" Severus asked, at this point starting to get a bit worried himself. His headache had already started to dissipate, but he had a feeling this was not an ordinary migraine, not by the looks they were currently giving him.
"Severus, have you ever been diagnosed with epilepsy?"
The young in bodied Ravenclaw's brow crinkled in confusion. "No. Why in the world would you ask me that?"
Madam Pomfrey and Dumbledore looked at each other and then back at the eleven-year-old. "Because that migraine was most likely caused by the seizure you suffered last night." The medi-witch softly explained.
The former spy's eyes widened in pure shock. Why in the world would he have had a seizure? This made no sense at all.
"We are going to call floo call your mum and have her meet you at St. Mungos."
If they were having him go to St. Mungos, he knew this was serious. He was starting to panic a little. "Okay, but we aren't connected to the floo. You're going to have to call her on the muggle phone if you want to get a hold of her right away. I can give you the number."
"Yes, thank you, Severus. We will do that."
XXX
Severus stared out the window and onto the busy muggle street below. He had been at St. Mungos for several hours now and all they had told him, after running hundreds of tests, is that they needed more tests. His mum had come, obviously quite worried, but she had gone home over an hour ago to tell Tobias, who should have been back home from his temp job by now, what had happened. She had said she would be right back, but who knew where the drunk muggle was. Probably at some seedy pub somewhere. Knowing his mum she was most likely still out searching for him.
"Hello Severus."
The young Ravenclaw turned to see his head of house enter the room.
"Hello Professor Flintwick."
"How are you feeling?" He asked sitting accioing the chair by the bed, so he could sit next to Severus by the window.
"Okay, my headache is gone at least."
"Well, that's good to know. I'm so sorry you're having to go through this. I imagine it's a bit scary."
He supposed for a typical eleven year old it would be, but he wasn't very typical, in any sense.
"I'm more frustrated than anything else. I wish they would just tell me what was going on."
"I actually saw one of the healers in the corridor talking to your mum, so I'm sure you will know soon."
So his mum was back. He wondered if she found Tobias. Or if he even cared at all. Most likely he would have called him a weakling for being ill, or something similar.
"I was quite worried when the Headmaster told me what happened to you. I...well, now don't tell anyone I said this but you are one of my favorite students."
Severus couldn't help but smile. That was a high honor coming from Filius.
"Thank you, sir."
Just then the door creaked and in walked his mum. He noticed she was suddenly sporting a black eyes. She hadn't had it when she left. Bloody Tobias. He was a big part of the reason Severus hated muggles for as long as he did.
"Oh, hello Professor Flintwick." She muttered, her gaze going to the linoleum floor. "Could you excuse us for a moment please."
The Charms professor sighed but complied. "Of course. I should be getting back to school anyway. Severus, I will see you soon. Don't forget we have our lesson on Saturday."
"Yes, sir."
As Professor Flintwick left, Eileen sat down in the chair he had just vacated. "Lessons?" She asked her son. She wasn't aware he was giving him lessons on anything. "Did you join the choir?"
"No," he said with a snorted laugh, "He's teaching me how to play the piano."
"Oh." She thought that odd, she had never known he desired to learn.
"So by the look of your eyes I see you found your lazy, good for nothing husband and he was, as always, too plastered to be bothered with anything but seeing to his addiction."
Eileen shook her head, while she understood her son's anger, that wasn't how she got the black eye. At least her husband had not directly caused it. That however wasn't something she wanted to talk to him about at the moment.
"Severus, the healers cannot figure out exactly what caused you to have a seizure in your sleep. They think you may have Epilepsy, though they can't say for sure. They have been monitoring your brain activity and, well, I can't use the same technical terms they did, but they said you have had a couple of small one while you have been here."
Severus didn't understand how that was even possible. How could he be awake and have a seizure and not know it?
"Usually the condition is caught in infancy," She went on, but it can appear later in life though in that case it is usually due to trauma of some sort. I-I thought, maybe it was from when your father knocked you down the stairs a few weeks before you went off to school… but aside from a broken arm, you seemed fine and I healed that right away. I didn't think you hit your head. Plus it was months ago… still, I...I don't know."
Oh yes, that was certainly something. He had no memory of that happening in his previous life and so it had caught him completely off guard. What was worse as there really was no reason for it, he just said "he felt like doing it."
Tears had suddenly wheeled up in Eileen's eyes. "You could have died, Severus. It happened in the middle of the night, no one knew…"
Severus reached over and placed his hand softly atop his mums. "It's okay mum. I'm okay and if I do have Epilepsy, I will figure out how to deal with it."
Eileen had never been a very good mother. She knew she should have left Tobias long ago but she had nowhere to go. Her parents had died in a horrible lab accident when she was a teenager and her Gran just a year after she finished Hogwarts. She had always felt so trapped. She did know one person, a friend she made long ago, but she honestly didn't even know if she would be able to find him at this point.
XXX
A day later Severus was allowed to return to Hogwarts, but with very strict instructions. He was given anti seizure potions to take every morning, as well as one for emergencies. The way it was explained to him was that it acted like a rescuer inhales did for asthmatics, but for the brain. He was also not allowed to be on a broom, so, no more flying lessons, not that he needed them anyway. He was also told that stress and lack of sleep increase the risk so he would be meditating daily and making sure he did not stay up too late.
In all he didn't feel it changed his life all that much. Lily on the other hand...she become rather like mother hen. She had apparently been utterly distraught when she found out what had happened and had refused to leave his side when at all possible. He wasn't objecting to her mother too much at this point but he hoped she chilled out a bit after a while.
XXX
Eileen's leg bounced nervously as she waited anxiously in the muggle cafe for him. She had written a letter, not knowing an address she simply put his name, thankfully the owl was able to locate him. He wrote back and said he would be willing to help and to meet him at the small café in the London Underground. Jules was an amazing guy in a lot of ways, he was extremely intelligent but due to his status as a squib he never did get the credit he deserved. They dated, in secret for a few years, but one day, out of the blue, he wrote her saying he had to leave the country and that was the last she heard from him. A year later she married Tobias and a year after that she had Severus.
"Ellie".
She looked up at the sound of her nickname. She hadn't been called that in years.
"Jules." He looked as handsome as ever, a little older, obviously but it was still very much him. Standing she felt almost magnetized to him. She wrapped her frail arms around the only man she ever truly loved. She had never cared he couldn't do magic, there was much more to a person than that. So much more.
"What happened to you?" He asked, looking at his tiny, shell of a woman. She had always been on the thinner side, but she looked emaciated.
"A lot...I-I just...I didn't mean to, I'm so scared, Jules."
"I know, it's okay, love. Come. Let's talk."
Jules Baker met Eileen when she was fourteen and he was sixteen, in Hogsmeade village. He had been hanging out there selling muggle things to the wizard kids and made a pretty good prophet off it too. They had written to each other back and forth for several months when they finally decided to officially start dating, though in secret. It was very taboo for witches and wizards to date squibs, even more so than dating a muggle. Never really understood why.
He had even considered asking her to run away with him when she finished school but… well, he made some poor business decisions and had to get out of the country pretty quickly. When it was safe to return he had looked her up but found out she was already married and had a kid, so he left her alone. When he received her letter, he saw this as his way back into her life.
It was past midnight and the café was nearly deserted, just them and the lady behind the counter remained so he wasn't worried about anything accidentally being overheard.
"I was telling him our son was in the hospital and he was screaming at me because he was hungry...I-I just lost it, Jules. I pulled out my wand and...it was just a stupify but his head edge of the brick mantle and...when I checked his pulse...he was dead."
"What did you do with his body?"
"I put a freezing charm on it and dragged it down to the basement." That was how she had gotten her black eye. After killing her husband with a spell she couldn't bring herself to use her wand again so she went over to grab his hands to drag him and she smacked her eye on the same place on the mantle he had hit his head. She had also gotten some bruises on her arms, hips, and legs, in the process of getting him down the basement steps.
"Okay. You can incinerate him, right?"
She nodded, she did know that spell.
"So what we are going to do is we are going to shave his head and then incinerate his body. We need to get some polyjuice and I will impersonate him for a while so we can keep up appearances. Then after a while we can figure out a way to fake his disappearance."
All Eileen could do was nod in agreement. If it wasn't for her son, she wouldn't have cared what happened to her, but she needed to be there for him, now more than ever.
XXX
Severus read through the letter his mum had sent him as he ate his breakfast. It was really good news, just quite shocking.
My dear son,
I want you to know that I have finally decided to leave your father. He had been talking about wanting to work for his uncle in the U.S anyway, so when I told him I was not putting up with his abusive behavior any longer he took the position and is leaving on Monday. I know you probably don't care to hear it, but he did say he hoped you were okay. I am sorry I made you suffer at his hands for so long, but I promise you from now on things are going to be different.
Love,
Mum
"Sev." As Severus folded the letter and placed it back in its envelope he turned to Lily who was holding his potion medication. "Don't forget." She said wiggling the vile.
Severus sighed but took the vile from her and drank it down. "I appreciate your concern for my well-being, Lily, but I'm not going to forget, you don't need to remind me every time."
Ever since he had returned from St. Mungos Lily had insisted she sit beside him, at his house table, for every meal.
"I'm just looking out for you, Sev." She huffed, annoyed that he would be the slightest bit bothered by her smothering.
"I know, and I appreciate that, but I'm a big boy. I know it's scary but I need to learn to deal with this by myself. Lily, I know you're my best friend but you've been treating me like a baby." He said it as softly and gently as he could. He didn't want to make her mad at him but he needed her to get the point.
With a sad sigh, her shoulders drooped, "I'm sorry, I… I was just so scared. If anything ever happened to you… I don't know what I would do."
Reaching down, Severus took her hand in his, her emerald eyes moved up to reach his. "Trust me Lily, I understand your feelings, more than you could possibly know, but please don't worry so much. I'm going to be okay. Lot of people with epilepsy live normal everyday lives, and I am not different. I promise, I'm going to be fine."
In response she dropped his hand and pulled him into a bone crushing hug.
XXX
A/N: Hello all. Sorry it's been forever but here you go. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. There's some serious curve balls in there for sure
