Chapter 30: A Revelation
Chapter 30
A Revelation
Professor Dumbledore was standing up with a tired and grave look on his face. He had been thinking about the many implications of what had happened the night before. A step in that direction by Sage, no matter how slight, spelled danger. The number of students who could be hurt by that much uncontrolled wandless magic was quite high, and they were perhaps lucky nobody had been. Yet, he could not look at it the same way that he did the Weasley twins.
Professors McGonagall and Lupin were there as well since they had been witnesses to the entire thing. They were standing in front of the headmaster's desk to the right side.
Severus let go of his nephew's arm and then crossed both of his arms across his chest. Sage did the same thing and glared downward. He felt like he was about to be attacked.
"Why did you do this?" Dumbledore finally asked him. It was not as if this particular student was in any way prone to that level of wildness. Sage never even struck him as appreciating half that much noise, let alone a party. It was more characteristic of the Weasley Twins.
Sage continued staring at the ground. Why should he need to explain himself to the man who had given him that damned case in the first place.
"Why, Mr. Snape," the headmaster repeated.
He was given no answer. Severus made a move to step towards Sage, but Dumbledore put his hand up to stop him. Sage didn't see any of it. He was staring at the ground still, and his breathing began to speed up. He was so confused and angry and scared all in one.
"YOU WILL NOT IGNORE ME!"
Sage jumped, he had never heard the headmaster raise his voice, much less yell. It snapped something inside of him. His heart was pounding. He thought of the prophecies, he thought of that case, he thought about his fate. He took a step forward.
"Do you want to know why?" Sage said loudly. "Everything has been lies, everything! And you left me with that case to figure it all out on my own, like some sick fucking joke."
He strode forward and slammed a piece of parchment down on the desk. "That's why. Because you all care because you require me to die. And if I am going to die anyway, this, all this, hardly matters."
He rounded on his uncle. "Because you took me and taught me and made me think that you cared about me and my safety. But it was all lies. I am just being used and you didn't even want to do it."
He was screaming at his uncle now. "You did nothing better than try and train me for something that I didn't ask for, just like your father did to you. You said it would be so I could control and protect myself. You lied to me. Everybody lied to me. You trained me so that I could be the one to fight Him. What if I don't want to? You didn't care about that, I'm the Magi, that's what I'm supposed to do with this…mortal fucking coil," he banged his fist into his own chest, "fight and die? You would put me right next to Him, not try to keep me safely hidden away!"
Sage looked back to Dumbledore, "Can you read that, do you know why now? DO YOU? Because I don't have a fucking choice. I am the one Merlin's prophecy talks of. Am I supposed to be happy about this!
"I can't take any of this anymore. I can't do this anymore. I did it because it made me forget for just a few hours. It gave me back my own life. And IT FELT GOOD, because nothing mattered anymore. I wasn't plagued by imagining my death or the fight that I should never have to be apart of. I didn't dream of things that were to come and I couldn't remember the atrocities I saw in my dreams.
"Do you know what else I found out in that leather case, do you? Every single Magi recorded in there other than Merlin or Ra has killed themselves. And I have stopped wondering why now that I know the prophecy. Every one of them couldn't handle it anymore and none of them were THE ONE like I am. I don't want to do it, do you understand, I don't want to do it!"
Dumbledore looked up from the prophecies and stared at Sage who was red-faced and fuming. The boy's big, blue eyes were piercing. The boy had rewritten the prophecies so that any man could see them, even if they could not see the original.
Severus was in shock. His jaw was set tightly. His hands were now in tight fists.
Professors McGonagall and Lupin looked like statues frozen with their mouth dropped.
The headmaster finished reading.
Dumbledore's face was full of comprehension. The man's eyebrows had fallen, his lips had opened slightly, and he looked down with his eyes only partly open. His sigh gave him away if his face did not. Dumbledore knew that Sage had deciphered what Merlin had written. There was little hope that he was wrong – the magic of that case was very alive. He looked at Severus and then to the other professors. He took a deep breath and read aloud what Sage had written down for all to see.
The One, he will be a great Magi, a Sage to rival my powers. He will face great physical torment. The closer he comes to the Light, the more he will be tormented by his own demons and the Dark. He will stand in the Last Fight. The triad will begin with him, united by their shared blood, but he will stand alone before the fight ends. He will be expected to do what took over one hundred wizards before him during the last reign of darkness. He will be witness to death, destruction, and grave loss and it will all touch him with the worst pain known to mankind. During the Last Fight, as one side falls, he will meet his death. He will not have seen his 20th year.
If he shall rise over darkness, all those male born of his line will share his gift.
As darkness falls, the Pheonix shall rise and all will be saved.
Dumbledore looked up at Sage. He could no longer be angry with the boy over what had happened. Sage was just a child and he had given him that case without the knowledge of what it contained. He had left a child alone to read his own death written by fate. He had allowed Sage to read his destiny, he had sentenced him to that too early. Had he known he never would have let him read it.
"I didn't ask for this!" Sage said. "And I won't do it."
The headmaster shook his head and sighed. He looked at Sage lightly. "You must. It is your path."
"Why? Because free will is a joke?"
Dumbledore closed his eyes. He could only guess at what the boy had been subjected to since he had read the case. He could only guess at what visions or dreams he had. "You know why already, Sage, that is why you are so upset."
The boy was huffing in and out rapidly. He said, "I don't have a choice. Because whether I do this or not, people will die. People I care about will die. If I don't fight Him, He will come here, and he will kill you."
Sage was staring at Dumbledore, his face quivering with emotion.
"He will kill you to get to my uncle who betrayed Him."
His voice finally began to falter. His arms and his body began to shake. He looked at Severus who was now standing absolutely still, his face showing his shock, his mouth open.
"He will kill you slowly, torturously."
He turned to McGonagall and Lupin. "And he will kill you and you as well."
His gaze flew back to the headmaster as he said part in acidity, part in fear, and part in anger, "And he will kill me or use me. If I do nothing. And even if I do fight Him, he may still kill you all." He paused to regain his breath, which had suddenly lost him. He was beginning to feel faint again, but he forced it off of him. He ignored the fact that his body was shaking in protest, that his mind was swirling against him as well.
"In the end He will kill me, even if I kill Him as well. It doesn't matter what I do, people who I care about will die, many of them. I am going to kill people. I am going to have to kill people in order to try and save others. I don't want this. I do anything to deserve it. My life is a painful joke with a cliché punchline." Sage began to lose color and started to look a little tipsy. He began to crumple to the floor.
Severus, anticipating a vision, grabbed him, eased him down to the floor, and knelt down next to him with his hand on one shoulder. The boy was sitting there in pain with his hand against his head…hyperventilating.
But Sage was not having a vision, he was having something Sage thought even worse. His whole being was completely breaking down, falling apart, rebelling against him. Before Severus knew what was happening, Sage had grabbed on to the middle of his chest, burying his head.
Sage's voice was barely audible as he said, "I can't do this. I can't. I don't want them all to die." His voice began to falter even more as he began to cry. "I just want to sleep again…"
Severus could feel how hot his nephew's head was right through his robes. Now he felt an immense guilt for how he had acted the night before. He had known something was wrong, but he was so angry that he tried to yell and demand it out of the boy. The question, 'What do I do?' flew through his mind. A knot settled in his chest. His own head was pounding with a mounting migraine. He too, began to feel like he needed to empty his stomach. Finally his mind locked on to what his body was telling him. His body knew what he was feeling, the emotion he was experiencing, but he did not know. There were many things crossing each other in his mind. For the first time in a long time, he clearly felt that he was needed and that he himself…needed.
He wrapped his arms around his nephew shieldingly. He heard Sage sob, "I'm sorry. I don't want you to die." Sage's body was shaking violently against him. He looked down at the boy's head, it's tufts of black hair were quaking too.
Severus distinctly thought he felt his heart lurch. His mind tried to grab on to what was going on. His nephew was crying, sobbing, because of what the scroll said. He frowned as his heart lurched again. Sage was upset beyond description because he did not want the people he cared about to die. His entire chest felt flattened. His nephew, whom he had just been angry at beyond his own comprehension, had just sobbed into his chest that he did not want his uncle to die.
Suddenly normally stoical Potion's Master looked up, "Do you mind? I don't think he would want everyone to see this. Give him some privacy." The other three adults nodded mechanically and Dumbledore ushered them into another room off his office.