Chapter 3: Conversations

Disclaimer: Nothing Harry Potter is mine. All of that belongs to JKR, I don't intend to make any money off of this.

(The Day Before the Letter...)

Sage stood apprehensively inside the doorframe of Severus' study at their manor home. It was their first night not being at Hogwarts after what had happened a few days prior. Severus stood silently with his arms crossed.

"Sit," he ordered.

They had barely talked after what happened in the headmaster's office and while Sage knew that his uncle would always be receptive to him when he needed him to be, he was not going to act like that every day. Such a turn in his uncle probably would not have pleased him anyways.

After he was seated and staring up at the man, Severus sat behind his desk as well. Their eyes met and locked for a few moments.

"I believe that you and I must discuss some things in light of what we now know. Some things must change, Sage."

He continued as Sage nodded, "It appears as though Voldemort is indeed coming back if we are to believe the prophecy. This means that everybody's safety is compromised, especially my own and most likely yours. We must both keep up appearances. You said that you do not wish me to die. That you do not wish yourself to die. Then I suggest that you heed my words very carefully. You know that I must act my part as a Death Eater, which has dramatic consequences for us both. I cannot tolerate any more of your cheek, especially in public. I am giving you your warning now, and you will not hear me warn you once more. If you do not curb your mouth and your actions, the consequences will be swift and severe. I remind you once more that this is a matter of life and death. Do you understand me?" His eyes never moved from his nephew's ice blue eyes.

Sage was resolute when he answered, "Yes sir, I understand."

Severus pursed his lips and narrowed his stare onto Sage. His looked conveyed the importance of what he was saying, if his words had left any doubt. He allowed his head to nod slightly in approval, as if he were nodding to himself.

"Further, your attitude will need to change towards your learning. It will no longer be learning, it will be *training*. Your *life* will be invested in it, and I expect and demand your effort to reflect that. As the structure of our efforts together are changing, so must the demeanor of those efforts. As these are now training sessions, you will think of me as your professor, and I am going to think of you as my student. I find that I have allowed you too much space in our tutoring sessions this year because you are my nephew, and that must change. As such, whenever we are in public, that is the way that we are going to interact. Do you understand that?" He steepled his hands in front of him.

"Yes sir."

"Fine then. Now, I understand that you do not like the way the other students do not have respect for me. You feel that if they knew more about me, that they would respect me more. I am going to call to your attention to the fact that you have disrespected me more this year alone then in the last five years of your life combined. This cannot continue, and I will not allow a bunch of teenaged, self-righteous Gryffindors to foil all of our efforts. You, above all of them, have more of a reason to respect me because you do know.

"Perhaps you have forgotten what I told you that first day that I started tutoring you, but you are going to treat me the way you did before you came to Hogwarts. If I tell you to do something, I expect you to do it immediately, without question. Your ability to trust me and obey me could one day save both of our lives.

"And again, I am giving you your warning now. If you fail in this, the consequences will be swift and severe. You take advantage of the fact that I do not believe in those tactics that were used on me, but if you continue to take advantage of that, my beliefs on that matter might change. I turned out just fine and so did your father. It was not always pleasant, but it got the point across. Now, if I must do that to you to ensure both of our safeties, do not think it beneath me to do so. If I have to do that, I will like it far less than you will. So don't push me. Are we clear on that?"

Sage was visibly getting pale. His hands were clammy and his stomach churning. He did not doubt the seriousness of Snape's words.

"Clear sir."

Severus leaned his head in closer and narrowed his stare to accentuate his words. His dark eyes bored into Sage's. They could both feel the enveloping seriousness of the conversation in the thickness of the air.

"I expect much better from you, Sage. I am very serious about all of these things. Now is the time to act as befits you, and it is also the time for you to listen to me. As I said, I was chosen to teach you and prepare you, and I will. You will not be alone. But, I am not going to coddle you either, if that is what you think. You have no time for self-pity, none. We must both get passed these lesser feelings.

"Our task becomes much harder with so little time. I am going to make you stronger and tougher. You are going to learn from me what you must become. I must teach you how to be calculating and how to think quickly. You must learn how to make judgments about people and how to read people's characters. You must be able to command respect with a look, and I will teach you that.

"I am going to ask you to do two things until I instruct you further. No matter what, when you are talking to a professor or they are talking to you, you will look them in the eye. Never take your eyes off of someone, especially someone you perceive as an enemy. That moment is all they may need to vanquish you. Second, no matter what, you will control your facial expressions when doing this. You must show no weakness. If your powers don't strengthen, we may need some reliance on bluffing."

Sage caught himself playing with the hem of his robes and scratching his arm. He intertwined his fingers and placed his hands in his lap in an effort to stop fidgeting. "I'll do that, sir."

"Next, there will be no more passivity from you. You need to assert yourself more to your peers. Not like Malfoy, who is a pompous ass like his father. But you must never allow anybody to use you, take advantage of you, or walk all over you. As a Magi you must respect your power and respect others, all of the time. If you allow your abilities to go to your head, you are a liability, you become weak. You will not allow your powers to master you, you must master them. There is a fine line you must walk and you had better start learning to walk it now.

"This part, is the difficult part. You must not allow yourself emotional liabilities, or not many. I cannot ask you to have no attachments, because I would not want that for you. But, I will tell you that those you care about will be those that will be a way for your enemies to certainly get to you. They will be the ones that are attacked first. Your friends and attachments will be used as weapons against you, because they will always be an easier target. When the time does eventually come, you will have to leave them, in a very acute sense you will have to disown them. For your good and theirs.

"Next year, I am going to expect you to spend your time working on your abilities. As such, you will spend most of the time you are not in classes with me. You can practice your intimidation skills and help me with the first, second, and third year lessons, or work on refining your skills as a Magi. I am going to test your advancements daily, and you will be most sorry for any unsatisfactory performances.

"If you do not wish to spend most of your night prepping ingredients for me, I do not suggest you disappoint me.

"You must also get used to not getting a lot of sleep each night. Next year you can have six hours a night. You can have three hours a day to spend with your friends. Other than that, your time will be spent with me or doing what I ask you to do. If you find this objectionable, I remind you that regardless of what we may like or what we want, this has turned into a serious situation. Our lives depend upon these next few years."

Severus searched Sage's eyes trying to see into what he was experiencing, but the boy's eyes were impregnable. The difference a few days of intense of knowledge of his future had on the boy was remarkable. Severus was not sure whether or not the change was for the better. Only time would be able to show him if this new demeanor meant that Sage was devoted to his new cause or if he was devastated about his new cause. As Sage nodded that he understood, Severus shook his head.

"Verbalize your answers. Nodding is something Longbottom does. It is not something you will do any longer."

Sage stared back at him, his frown lines showing slightly. His lips were slightly parted as if he wanted to say something but thought better of it. Finally, he answered, "I understand, sir."

Sage stared out over the water, a book sitting closed next to him. The grass was cool against his hands, the fading sunlight a last reminder of the warmth of the day he had spent inside.

His chest felt heavy and tight. Everything that he had clung onto was being torn away from him. Every semblance of a normal life, wrenched from within his fingers. If he had thought his life was demanding, solitary, and prematurely serious before, the effect had intensified twenty-fold.

His entire existence had been spent within himself and when it finally seemed as if he might be able to live half within and half out, live a semi-normal life, he was struck with the fact that it was no longer possible. It had never been possible.

What he had opened up to withdrew back inside, a piece of his personality that served no purpose in what 'life' he had moving forward. Laughing, pranks, snowballs, brooms, falling in love…there had been room for none of that budgeted into his destiny.

It seemed inevitable that he was regressing back into the Sage that was comfortable in his solitude, the Sage that craved that solitude, who had spent a childhood of pain much ignored and a youth mostly alone. The Sage that was used to burying emotions because he did not know what else to do with them. Because there was no one to hear them or help him with them.

This time, however, that solitude it was different.

He felt all of these things inside himself, but what he did not find was contentment in it or motivation, as he had previously done. All he found was emptiness. Things within him were dying before he had even been able to pinpoint what they were. They were pieces of him that had been brought to life and were now dying without nourishment, without cultivation. He had no desire to save them. If he did, he would only have to leave them behind anyway. His life was not his own. It never had been. Whatever was happening to him was meant to happen. He did not see any reason to try and change things. His life was simply something that had been written down on a piece of parchment centuries ago and he was the obligated actor.

A/N

Haa Haa! And the winner is V. Darkshadow with the first review!

VD - I'm glad that you like the interaction that Sage has with Hermione. There will be some of that in this fic, we will see how disillusioned Sage is through his actions with her, but there will be a lot of Sage interacting with Severus. It is his responsibility, as he sees it, to keep Sage on track. Sage will need lots of that in this story. You will also find that Sage takes his uncle's words to heart, most of them. Oh and the yule ball will be interesting. It may mark a turning point. ;-) hah hah

Jasmin Flower - Lots of Snapey-ness will ensue shortly. In fact, that is the prime thread that runs through this story. If Sage had to go from Snapey-ness to Sagey-ness (A character more like his father and more like a young Severus) in the last story, he will have some definite identity problems in this story. There will be lots of subtle things involved about Sage's character. Sage and Severus will spend a lot of time together in this story and if you like Sev as the ruthless potion's master, you will like a lot of what happens.

MCMish - Glad you like Sage's interactions with Snape and Hermione because this fic will be centered even more around this than the last one. There will also be a lot of Sage alone. It'll give you a chance to get to know him more. A lot still needs to be revealed about his character. As Dumbledore said at the end of the other story. there is much that has not yet been revealed to us. And you are right, Sage is 15, and he's not quite ready to get married. ;-)

Previews:

Sage will develop some hauteur worthy of a Snape. He'll also have some rather select words with Karakoff which will lead into a continuing bitterness between the two.

Sage will be affronted by Moody in DADA class about his knowledge of the Unforgiveables, which will result in him casting one of them, and subsequently walking out of the class not to return for the entire semester. (Which of course Severus will find altogether amusing because he hates Moody almost more that he hates Sirius Black).

Draco will spy on some of Sage's tutoring sessions with Snape because of his jealousy of the attention Severus gives Sage, confront him about it in front of a bunch of Gryffindors, and cause some trouble. Lucius will make an appearance.

Read it, Review it! Let me know what you liked best about the chapter!