Chapter 2. The card chooses the wizard

Soon after the meeting with the headmaster, Severus was led to one of the rooms in the tower. Thankfully it was not a long way down. The old wooden door greeted Severus with a creak when he opened it.

The large room was filled with strange-looking items. Wooden machines to iron swords various things were scattered all over the floor. On the table sat a woman who realized someone walked into the room.

"Severus Snape?" asked a woman who had brown hair and sea like blue eyes. "Welcome to Fatum academy, here to pick your card?"

"Y Yes!" It was like picking his wand all over again. He almost bit his tongue.

The woman giggled a bit and then smiled kindly at him. "No need to be so nervous. My name is Leo by the way." She reached out a hand and shook Severus's hand.

That eased Severus's mind a little. It was not everyday Severus got a smile that spoke kindness.

"Come here, let's see what card is best for you."

Severus walked closer to the table. It too was occupied with stuff Severus never saw before.

"There are seven classes when you classify a heroic spirit," Leo explained moving the items aside. "Saber, lancer, archer, rider, caster, assassin, and berserker. Each have its strength and weaknesses. All you have to do is to put your hand on this blank card and pour out your magical powers into it."

Leo gave Severus a piece of old rusty paper card. It just looked like an old burnt paper. There was nothing drawn upon it. Concentrating Severus covered the card with his hand and started to fill it with his magic.

Nothing happened at first that made Severus thought that he did something wrong. Confused he looked up at Leo and suddenly rainbow of lights ignited from the card.

"Wow…"

Magic circles shimmered into existence. 10 golden balls emerged as if it was alive and settled inside the card.

Severus waited for some more and seeing that nothing was going to happen, he flipped the card to see a man with two black daggers and a dark hood.

"Ah! The king of shadows, killers in the dark. Congratulations, you are picked into the assassin class."

Not answering Leo, Severus just looked at the card in his hand with curiosity. "What do I do with it now?" he asked.

"Now, you should get some sleep. It is almost dark and you had a very long day."

Saying goodbye to Leo Severus walked out the door and took out the map he got from the headmaster. He wanted to learn about the card as fast as he could but Leo was right. Severus had a long day and his body agreed to it.

Dragging his body to his room which was on the fourth floor, Severus laid down and without any thought, he drifted off to sleep.

-山の翁-

Lily Evans stood in front of her former friend's house in Spinner's End. It was not that she forgot the 'mudblood' incident. It was because she heard about the passing of one Tobias Snape. Lily could only hope that Severus would be okay after losing his parents.

Slowly she walked up to the shabby house. It was a wonder how Severus lived in this place for so long.

"Hello? Someone home?"

But nobody answered. No sound was heard, not even the creaking of the stairs. Thinking Severus was sleeping late, Lily tried to open the door only to find out that it was not locked.

"Sev…?"

As seeing that there was no answer, Lily walked into the dusty living room. It looked like nobody lived in the place for ages. It almost looked like a ghost house.

Not knowing whether to walk father in or not Lily tried to call out to Severus again but was again greeted with only silence.

Lily was now starting to get worried about Severus. She knew he was an early riser. Even when his mother passed away he never ignored her calls.

Gathering up courage, Lily started to briskly walk up the stairs where it led to Severus's room. The stairs creaked in protest as she stepped on them.

Lily reached Severus's room and saw that dust-covered the door handle. Breathing deeply she knocked on the door but it was useless. With shaking hands, she grabbed the handle and turned the knob to see nobody was in his room.

Soon Lily founded out that all Severus's books, quills, and the trunk were in the room but not the boy himself. She almost panicked there and then.

"Where are you Sev…" She grabbed one of his old potion books and looked through but couldn't discover anything. Seeing that she was not going to get any more clues she headed back home, thinking where her former best friend maybe.

-산의 노인-

'First thing about what you should know about cards, step one, be the one in control.'

It was almost lunchtime as Severus read the book about cards in the fifth-floor library. He would have come earlier to the library if not from the morning events.

For some reason, Shirou and his girlfriend Rin came over to him in the morning saying that they needed to prepare him. Asking what the fuss was they told him he was going to work in the kitchens with Shirou. The problem was going into the kitchen with rags and greasy hair was forbidden.

With that, they took him out for some image change. He tried to refuse by saying he didn't like pity but boy, who would have thought Shirou's girlfriend was that scary.

He could still remember Rin's smile as she talked, no forced him to go out shopping.

'I don't want pity!' Severus he said, scowling at Rin fiercely.

Rin smiled forcefully. 'It is not pity, we just want to make you clean and prepared for cooking."

'Merlin's beard! Are you saying I'm dirty? I don't need a little girl to force me what to do!'

'Little… girl?' Shirou could see something broke inside his girlfriend. He slowly started to back away from Severus's room.

'What!' Severus spat. 'Just leave me alone!'

After that he was kicked, cursed, hexed by Shirou's girlfriend and she didn't stop until Severus begged for mercy.

They first took him to the barber. Cutting his hair and buying shampoo products was not funny at all. Next, they dragged him to the cloth shop and dressed him in new black fashioned robes. Then they finally took him to Nightingale who fixed up his broken nose and teeth. She also humiliated him by giving skin lotion that smelt like lemon.

Now he was in the library sulking. Away from the monster named Rin Tohsaka. Severus shuddered, he was never going shopping with that monster ever again.

"Severus, will you come here and help me with some cooking?"

Looking up from the book he saw Shirou talking to him. Shutting the book he rose from his table and walked to Shirou.

The kitchen was on the first floor. It was clean and well organized as well but strangely there was no house elves insight.

"Eh… Shirou? Where are the house-elves?" Severus asked. He had a bad feeling about this. "Surely there should be more hands in here if we want to make food for everybody in school?"

Smiling sheepishly Shirou said "It will only be two of us. You and me. Don't worry, you can just watch me how it is done for lunch." And Severus watched. Simply said it was the most impressive thing Severus ever saw.

Shirou was not fast but precise. It looked simple but beautiful as well. Severus thought that he was looking at a flying butterfly than a cooking chef.

In just about 30 minutes of lunch was ready to be served.

"May I… have a taste?"

"Sure, go ahead."

With an audible gulp, he took a bite of curry that Shirou made. Soon he was flying over heaven.

"This… ahem… it's… okay."

"Thanks!"

That was a lie. It was too delicious that Severus couldn't stop his spoon going for another bite. Soon he had finished his lunch. It was the most satisfying meal he had in a while.

"Here, this is the recipe for dinner. Make sure to remember it okay?"

Severus took the note he was given. 'Beef stew' was written on the top. With a glance, Severus could see it was almost like potions.

The stir of the stew. The time when the ingredients were needed. How it was cut and sliced. Severus could feel his mind burn with the challenge.

"May I use the kitchen for a little bit Shirou? I would like to practice this since I'm making dinner." Severus asked politely.

"Sure! I'll serve alone just for this once."

"Thank you."

Severus could see Shirou was a kind-hearted man. He was not a man like someone in Hogwarts. He smiled a lot and wanted to help everyone who needed one.

"Oh before you cook you should wear an apron!"

Severus groaned. He, Severus Snape, who was not in these things could only glare at the apron with disgust.

"Can I please not wear this? I think wearing an apron is a girl's thing." He drawled.

"No, wear the apron. Now. Or I can bring Rin here and-."

"NO!"

Shirou smirked at the scared look that formed in Severus's face. "Well? Wear it then."

Scowling Severus reached out and wore the pink apron reluctantly. He was already thinking of transfiguring the damn thing to black.

"It looks good on you Severus." Said Shirou still smirking as he loaded curry on to the trail. "By the way, you can't transfigure it to black. It is magical after all."

Scowling more Severus just ignored Shirou and started to work on the beef stew.

-Vello nas montañas-

After a successful dinner, Severus lay on his bed reading about Heroic spirits.

'Before you learn about Heroic spirits you first need to understand the concept of a heroic spirit.' It read. 'Heroes are someone who is considered to save, destroy, and change humanity. You need to understand that not only people who save are heroic spirits. Many heroic spirits have blood on their hands and -'

That was as far as Severus could read as he heard a knock coming from the door.

"Who's there?"

"Mr. Snape I'm here to lend you your time table so can you please open the door?"

"Oh, right."

Opening the door Severus could see a man who had long brown hair reaching to his waist. His robes were white and black like some muggle priest.

"Hello, Mr. Snape, I'm George saint. You can call me Professor George." He said calmly. "This is your time table, I will meet you at eight o clock sharp. Good night." With that, he turned around and walked away from Severus's room.

Severus scanned his time table in interest.

The subjects are as followed. Card install, P.E., Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Dueling, and Health. Tomorrow was Monday so he had Charms first. It was not his best subject but he still got exceed expectations before in Hogwarts.

The subject he did look forward to was Potions and Card install whatever that means. The potion was naturally his best subject and Card install should have something to do with the cards.

He pulled out his card and looked at it one more time. The skull, the dagger, it all looked too menacing. Feeling suddenly too exhausted Severus went back to bed and turned out the lights. Real-life in Fatum academy will start tomorrow and he should be ready.

That night he dreamt about a man. A man who punished the sin of other men.

A man who soon was named 'death' itself.