Chapter 14: A Revelation and an Offer

Chapter 14

A Revelation and an Offer

The next day Sage was surprised to find that nobody was really making a big deal about him having prescience. Apparently, prescience did not seem like very much compared to the visions. Not even a close second place. At lunch, he sat with Ron and Hermione toward the middle of the table where there were only other students to their left side. Ron was mostly asking him for help with his Transfiguration essay and Hermione was smirking because she didn't have to help him for once. Harry, Fred, George, and Oliver were sitting at the other end of the table on the far right by the door to the hall talking animatedly.

"I have to get a good grade on this essay, because I can't do any of the practicals. With my essays, I'm done for."

Sage glared at him. Hermione cracked up. "What?" Sage exclaimed now glaring at her.

She giggled, "You look just like Professor Snape."

He scowled in response. She giggled a bit more before finally looking back down at her own book.

"You do, you know," Ron said.

Harry nodded his head at Oliver Wood who had just finished talking. He tossed the orange he was holding up and then caught it, repeating the process a few times in deep thought.

George poked him. "Can't hurt to see. Besides, the professors are all here, so it's not as if you'd get a curse thrown at you for it."

"Yeah, worst you'll get's detention," Fred put in.

"A'right, here goes," Harry said. He pulled his arm back and launched the orange as hard and as fast as he could toward his target.

"Quiet Weasley, or I won't help you with your homework," Sage snarled.

Suddenly, he put his right hand up to the side of his head. He caught it. He looked at the orange in his hand. It had come barreling straight for him head from Harry. What the hell! He thought.

At the head table Snape had jumped up, but Dumbledore was quick enough to ease him back down. But Sage, on the other hand, did jump up and looked pointedly at a gleeful Harry Potter.

"What did you do that for," Sage questioned. Harry came running up to him and slapped him hard on the back.

"That was wicked," he exclaimed. Then he sat down. "You couldn't have hardly even seen that coming from there."

Sage looked at him poisonously and then sat back down to figure out what he was on about. "What are you playing at," he asked the green-eyed boy.

"Really, I'm sorry I threw that at you, but I kinda knew you'd catch it, you know, just a hunch."

His blue eyes bored holes into Harry's face and his voice was low, harsh, and calculated, "Bugger off, I'm not some kind of lab experiment Potter."

Harry did not seem to care about the glance or what Sage had said. He just kept smiling and nodding. "Just talking to me back in the dorms later, okay. I'll explain the entire thing."

Sage almost threw Harry into the common room after lunch to demand an explanation of his foolish behavior. Harry sat down in the chair by the fireplace with a grin and Sage stood by the mantle with his arms crossed. He couldn't figure out why Potter was still smiling. If he were Potter, he'd be scared, he was a lot bigger, smarter, and more powerful than the skinny boy. Ron, Hermione, and Oliver Wood all came up and sat down around the fire too eager to see what was going to happen. Sage greeted them with a glower. They were probably just there to make sure he didn't kill Harry.

"Now what is this all about?" He questioned.

Harry leaned forward excitedly, "You ever play quidditch?"

"What?"

"Quidditch. Have you ever played?" Harry grinned widely looking at Wood.

"Potter, what does quidditch have to do with the damn orange you threw at me?"

"Everything," Wood said suddenly. Sage narrowed his eyes at him and the older boy sat back in his chair and got quiet. Sage looked back to Harry.

"Well, yah see, ummm, well, just tell me if you've ever played and I've explain everything."

"I'll do the demanding here. I'm the one that got an orange thrown at me."

Hermione suddenly spoke up, "Harry, he's lived with Snape his entire life. He hasn't been around enough people to play quidditch."

Sage stared at her and then harumphed. "Pretty presumptuous on your part," he said to her.

Harry was suddenly on the edge of his seat. "So you have played?"

Wood grinned. Ron was perplexed. Sage crossed his arms. Hermione was gaping.

"Of course I've played Potter. Not with a whole team, but I've played."

"Are you any good?" Harry couldn't help but ask the question.

Sage's look could have sucked Harry's eyes right out of his sockets. Hermione's eyes opened wide as she looked at the two of them. Ron was asking Wood what was going on.

"Any good? Am I any good. Obviously you don't know about-."

A look of recognition suddenly came over Ron's face. "Gods, gods," he stammered, interrupting Sage. Everyone's eyes were now glued on Ron. "He's, he's… I should have remembered before…it's, it's…wicked."

"Ron, what's wrong," Hermione asked patting him on the shoulder. Oliver thought that Ron had finally lost it.

"Jace…Jace Snape…I'm such an idiot…He's your father!?"

Sage was looking at Ron like he was some kind of a freak, but he nodded as an answer to his question. Ron tore up the stairs calling for them to just wait for him a minute.

Wood abruptly jumped up, "Jace Snape! Jace Snape is your father? He's related to Professor Snape? He's Snape's brother?"

Sage gave Wood the same look and nodded again.

"I never would have thought," Wood said to himself in shock.

Ron came tearing back down the stairs with a huge binder in his hands, looking more excited than Hermione and Harry had ever seen him. Fred and George wandered over when they heard all the noise.

"Ron, what's going on?" Harry asked him. "Oliver?"

Ron was nearly jumping up and down. "Harry, guys, don't you see. His father is Jace Snape."

Fred and George looked at each other in amazement, then to Sage, then to Ron. Wood was still in shock. Hermione and Harry were so confused because they had no idea what was going on.

"Harry, Hermione. Jace Snape was a famous quidditch keeper. Really good, maybe the best ever-."

"No, the best ever," Wood finally said coming out of shock. "Undoubtedly."

"Anyways," Ron continued, "He was recruited right out of Hogwarts, never even played as a reserve. He played for the Cannons. Known for his clean games. Like, he was almost never scored against."

"Never scored against Ron, not once after he left Hogwarts," Wood chipped in again and then he continued. "Brought England to the world cup for the first time in a century. The game lasted for 2 days before the snitch was finally caught. No one scored against him. We won 350 – 0. We won twice in a row. Never happened before or since." Wood bowed his head.

Harry stood in absolute awe. Hermione had never been silent for that long. Finally, they all stopped talking and looked at Sage. The anger had fallen off his face and was replaced by a look of distant sadness.

"We would have won the fourth too if he hadn't been killed," Sage said quietly.

Wood nodded and then looked at Hermione and Harry,

Ron opened the binder and began showing them his quidditch cards. He flipped to a page in the back and there were all 9 cards of Jace Snape. All the boys began admiring them. Hermione stared to but then noticed Sage knead his hands before finally sitting down in a chair with his eyes down, looking at his knees. He buried his hands in his hair and stared at the floor. Hermione walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Sage, how did he die?" She asked. All the boys once again turned their attention back to Sage.

Sage looked up blankly, "Voldemort."

Everybody gasped. Harry whispered back silently, "Voldemort?"

The minutes ticked by and nobody said anything or moved. Wood was the first to step forward.

"We threw the orange at you today to test your reflexes to see if maybe prescience would make you a good quidditch player. But I don't need to see you play, I don't think any of us do, for me to offer you the position of keeper for next year after I leave."

Sage looked up as if he had never thought of the idea of playing quidditch at Hogwarts. For the first time, everybody saw a real smile on his face. A smile that made up for the sadness in his eyes. Wood stuck out his hand and Sage stood up and shook it.

"You can start practice with us whenever you want."

Fred, George, and Harry all followed Wood and shook Sage's hand.

"I'll give you my copy of Which Broomstick in case you need to get a new broom," Harry said sincerely.

Wood suddenly broke out in laughter, and Sage just quietly rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"What?" Harry asked, "Whad I say?"

Sage, still shaking his head said, "I'll be right back."

Wood was still laughing at Harry with all the others when Sage came back. Hermione was the first to notice that he was carrying that odd shaped hard leather case she had seen in his room that one night.

Wood composed himself. "Harry," he said, "Jace Snape was worth so much because of quidditch that he bought out the Nimbus Company about a year before he was killed. I'm sure Sage doesn't need a new broom."

"Wow," said Ron and the twins at once.

Sage slung the case onto the table in front of them. They gathered around him while he opened it.

"Wicked!" the Weasleys all said.

"Prototype model, one of two that exists outside of the factory. Might be marketed in the next five years," Sage said.

"Who has the other one?" Wood asked.

Sage smirked and then it turned into an evil grin when he said, "My Uncle Severus, of course."