Chapter 63: Obliviating Cornelius Fudge

Obliviating Cornelius Fudge

Before long Sage and Harry, and almost everybody else worth mentioning, were in the hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey was beside herself trying to get Severus to let her anywhere near Sage.

"SEVERUS SNAPE! You are NOT a medi-witch, and as such you know nothing compared to me in the art of healing, so I kindly suggest that you get out of my way! That boy is very obviously in shock."

Severus crossed his arms in front of his chest as he was wont to do, puffing himself up and standing tall.

"As the boy's guardian and uncle, I have every right to decide who sees to his health. As to your qualifications, Poppy, you are a very skilled healer, much moreso that I obviously, however you have never had the experience of working with a Magi. As such, I insist that you keep your distance."

"Magi or not, he needs attention-."

"This is not your concern now, see to Potter!"

"I can handle more than one patient at a time, Severus, if you can recall from your day as a student here! You sent groups of them to me at a time..."

Severus scoffed, an evil glare crossing his features, "He needs rest, that is all, perhaps a restorative, but at the moment he wishes for no assistance, and I believe he is adult enough to make that decision."

"Adult enough, he is a sixteen year old boy!"

"That sixteen year old boy has a voice of his own," Sage put in. "I am in much better shape that I normally am after a vision. Simply very fatigued. I am not in any mortal peril. I think I know pain enough to know when it merits attention."

Madame Pomfrey huffed and walked away, not willing to contend with two Snape men at one time. They were always the most difficult and unwilling patients.

Sage stood up slowly, from where he had been talking to his uncle privately until Poppy's intrusion, and went to stand by Harry and the others.

He ignored the quivering that was still going down his limbs in unending waves much like the ebb and flow of the sea. For all that had happened, he had come out undoubtedly on the top, which was something. Not to say that he did not feel as if his body were falling apart on him and that he could sleep for a good long year or two, but he had other matters that were of greater concern for him.

Sage had been tormented by Voldemort in visions and prophetic dreams that were as real as the world around him, but Harry had not. After what had transpired that day, Sage knew exactly what Harry Potter had felt and thought and gone through, which was a strange feeling in and of itself. He also knew that while he was fairly equiped for something of that magnitude, Harry was undoubtedly not.

Without warning a hand wormed its way up to his forearm, squeezing his cold limb with warm fingers.

His blue eyes travelled from the hand, to the arm, to the face of Hermione Granger.

"All right, Sage?"

He smiled down at her slightly, "I will be," he answered, touching her cheek gently. Gracefully, for still being a bit wavering, he put his other hand on her shoulder and stared at Harry.

His cousin was now sleeping, dreamlessly, but his features were still haunted. His body still held the knowledge of what happened, as did his mind, even if his sleep was not disturbed by it.

He startled, but just barely when another hand touched his shoulder as he was looking at Harry. This hand was more weathered, naturally, as it belonged to Molly Weasley. She had walked back over to them after talking to Poppy.

"You are still shaking, dear, perhaps you should sit down," she conjured a chair next to Hermione and gestured to it with her other hand. "You cannot hide that you were in much pain today, as well as Harry here."

He raised his eyebrow ever so slightly as she smiled warmly at him.

"Go on, dear," she repeated in a motherly fashion that Sage was completely unaccustomed to.

"Yes, ma'am, thank you," he replied, sitting down with as much dignity as he could muster.

She stood behind him and Hermione, regarding Harry with concern. Forgetting for a moment that her own 'real' sons were there with her.

After a minute or two, she caught that Sage had been staring at her appraisingly, without a second thought she ran her hand over the top of his head.

"He'll be all right, dear, you both will."

Sage opened his mouth and then stood up.

"I don't believe we've been properly introduced, I am Sage, Professor Snape's nephew."

"Molly Weasley, dear, Ron's mum and those two twin misfits claim me as well."

Sage let a small smile escape him.

"Nice to meet you," he said, sitting back down.

Hermione stared at him and then leaned close to his ear to whisper, "You scared us all, you know, when you jumped up and then, well, all that happened. I heard them saying that they saw things, things that you made them see from your vision. Is it true?"

He gave her a half smile, "Always on a quest for knowledge, eh? Yes, it is true. It was as if I were both there and here. I cannot explain it. Just thank Merlin that everyone will be all right."

"I already have, about ten times a minute for the last hour."

Sage could not believe that the idiotic minister of Magic, Fudge, would not believe that Voldemort was back. It surely seemed as if that were true with the rate that Dumbledore and the man were shouting back and forth at each other.

"It simply cannot be true, Dumbledore, I mean really. What sort of a scheme is this? Some play to undermine my position is it?"

"Cornelius if you refuse to see the truth for what it is, I will simply have to take action without you."

Fudge stepped up to Dumbledore as if he were much more powerful than he really was.

"Are you saying that you will defy the ministry?"

"I am saying nothing of the sort. So long as you view the Dark Lord as the enemy, resurrected or not, we are still on the same side. But mark my words, this will be the greatest mistake you will ever make as minister of magic."

"Hah! I hardly believe that is for you to decide Dumbledore. The Dark Lord, back? This is the raving of a madman, perhaps what they say about you is true. You are getting slow, old man, allowing a Parseltongue within this school without alerting the proper authorities. Foolishness, absolute foolishness, but do not think that I am not wise to your ways."

"My ways! What does any of this have to do with Voldemort!" The headmaster snarled.

"He simply cannot be back! Yet you believe the ravings of a boy who came back portkeyed with a dead body of a competitor and the visions of his cousin. The Dark Lord is gone, Dumbledore, GONE! Do you hear me?"

Suddenly Snape strode out irritably, tired of hearing the argument. He yanked up his sleeve and thrust his arm straight out under Fudge's nose.

"There, the Dark Mark! It is not as it was awhile ago when it burned black, but it is still visible. It cannot burn unless the Dark Lord summons his followers, which he cannot do if he is gone or dead or whatever you say!"

"Lunacy! Did you draw that with charcoal on your arm, Snape, at the bidding of that old fool?"

Without a thought for what anyone would advise him, Sage jumped up and uncovered his own arm.

"There, do you see. My Uncle is no liar, Minister. Surely you cannot say that I drew this on my arm with coal, it still burns bright orange around the edges as if it were just branded into me. It is smoking still, by Merlin. You cannot ignore this!"

The room stood frozen in time as Fudge gaped at he Mark in front of his face, it was indeed still charred and smelled of burnt flesh. Ron, Harry, Bill, and Mrs. Weasley were all staring open-mouthed.

When time unfroze, Severus nearly tackled him to the ground, to keep him from saying any more. He had already made what could have been a very fatal mistake, by showing Fudge the Mark on his arm.

Within an instant Dumbledore swooped down on the them, his wand drawn.

"I am sorry, Ron, Harry, but this is knowledge you cannot possess as of yet."

And without another word, Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic was unceremoniously obliviated of all his memories associated with Severus and Sage showing their Dark Marks, as too were Ron and Harry.

During the few minutes that they were knocked out from the Obliviate, Severus began a barage on Sage about his complete and utter indiscretion.

"By the Gods, boy, how many times, how many have I told you to never show that to anyone? Do I have to beat it into your thick, thick head!"

"No, sir," he answered, backing away.

Dumbledore put an end to it when he yelled, "Enough! We only have a few precious minutes left to quell this situation before the three of them wake up. The lecture can wait for later, however, the explanation cannot."

Both of them looked up to see Bill Weasley with his wand out in front of him, shielding his mother protectively.

"Death Eater, the boy," she muttered.

"Mr. Weasley, you may put your wand down now. I assure you that no matter how strange this appears, there is no threat."

Slowly, he lowered his wand.

"How did he...He was not of age before you-know-who was killed...When..."

"He recei-."

"No, headmaster, it is not for you to explain. It was not your foolishness that created this situation. Sage can explain it."

He gave the boy a push.

Exhaling softly, Sage said, "Voldemort killed my father when I was a little over a year old. He was going to do the same to me, but my mother told him the secret that they had been keeping. That I was a Magi. He would not kill me, because of the power that I would grow to possess, so he marked me as his instead. The next year he vanished. I did not get this when I was capable of any choice in the matter," he finished nearly in a whisper.

There was silence until Mrs. Weasley nearly sobbed, "Oh you poor dear." Then she enveloped him in a very maternal hug, during which Sage was absolutely as stiff as a board, looking fairly mortified.

A/N

When I have a precious spare moment I will respond to all of the reviews you have all left to me. But I wanted to say to Aellyr, Villette, Linden, VD, Eline, Kristen ;-), Slytherin Romantic, Bookwitch, Belle Mortis, LucAndSnapeRock, Emily ;-), Oihane, Ibk, Misty Cherry, Melockerty, Emma, Elalien, Migard's Keeper, ?, Issy Snape, elena_t, Willowleaf, and Lady J THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH FOR REVIEWING. You all have no idea how hard it is to be motivated to write when you are in graduate school. I appreciate every spare moment you give me in order to leave me a review!

BTW – ONLY 88 More reviews and I willl have 500!

Another BTW – If any of you enjoy the show Stargate SG-1, I now have a stargate fic. You can find it under my author name if you click on it. ;-) lol.

Thanks, Sage