Summary: Don't lie; lest it will come true.
warning: graphic death (but hopefully not too much) and general sad times when it comes to the Snapes'
Albus Dumbledore was worried.
The Order of the Phoenix, much to his dismay was losing its members rather quickly due to some of them were killed during the fights with Tom Riddle and his Death Eaters. Just then, they received news that the whole McKinnon family was murdered and some even said Tom was present in such event.
Even his oldest friend, Elphias Doge would furrow his brows whenever the reports came in. Albus noted sadly that some of his peers thought they would need a miracle to survive the next day. Those who seemingly continued to have high hopes that they would win the war were the young ones, those that only in their early 20s and 30s. He wondered on how long this war would last.
Albus had heard rumors that Lord Voldemort – Tom Riddle – was on his way to reach the impossible and wondered if his suspicions were true. He had a few guesses, but he didn't work on mere thoughts. No, he would need better and more concrete proof. Making slight eye contact with his promising protégé, he then dismissed the meeting with a wave of his hand.
"James, my boy," he greeted after the rest of the Order's members walked out of Hog's Head Inn. From the corner of his blue eyes, he saw Aberforth was cleaning the recently used mugs in the kitchen.
The bespectacled man nodded briefly before taking his seat, "What do you want me for, Professor Dumbledore?"
At that, Albus chuckled good-naturedly before asking James of his wife's condition, who now had to stay home as her pregnancy progressed. The young man's face lightened up at the question and Albus' smile was genuine when James told him of their child might be a feisty one.
"I'm no longer a professor, but nonetheless this conversation I want to tell you is not meant to be talked here," Albus said with a smile. Taking James' hand, the two men then Apparated to the Dumbledore house in Godric's Hollow. Upon entering the house, the older wizard then led the young Auror into one of the rooms upstairs and his blue eyes twinkled as James frowned at the stone basin on the wooden desk.
"You must have heard the propaganda that Voldemort had reached true immortality, yes?" Albus asked while taking a few glass vials filled with silver strands each from the shelves, to which James only nodded.
"Is it really true, Professor? That he was indestructible?"
"Who knows," Albus said absent-mindedly as he looked at one vial before with a hum, approaching the wooden table, "But even truth hides in unexpected places, such as rumors. And that's why I call you here, James. To defeat our enemy, we must know of their story; of what first brings them to commit such act." With that, he tipped the silver strand and plunged into the Pensieve alongside James Potter.
Unbeknownst to them, a pair of beady black eyes was watching them from the shadowed corner of the room.
Lord Voldemort couldn't help but to shudder in utmost fear as he heard what Nagini had told him whereas Peter Pettigrew was informing Severus Prince of the Order's most recent plan in their meeting place; the cottage behind the British Library.
Being in his human form, the Dark Lord tried his best to act uninterested with the conversation but the thought of Albus Dumbledore was suspecting him for having multiple Horcruxes and trying to find a way to destroy them was utter frightening and he felt as if he was nearly eleven again, when the damned old wizard came into his room in the orphanage and magically burned his wardrobe.
(Was it wrong for him to take the other children's items? That he was jealous of them since they at least had had things from their family, whereas he was left with nothing more than the shabby robe his mother wore before her death in childbirth. He too, wanted to have something valuable to call his own and was proud of being a Parselmouth even though he despised Merope Gaunt for being weak.)
He would need to hide his Horcruxes at better places, where no one would ever suspect such connections to him. He was utmost glad that his diary and the Gaunt family ring, though the latter no longer held part of his soul were with Severus who guarded them closely in person. Helga Hufflepuff's cup was in one of the Lestranges' vaults in Gringotts (he knew enough that Bellatrix Lestrange reveled in his presence as if he was some god and surely, surely she had made some dangerous traps to ensnare those who would steal another of his prized items, hadn't she? And the wizarding bank was the safest place to keep such precious item, right?).
He would need to order Bellatrix to bring it to him.
The one he was worried the most was Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem, which he put in what he thought was the room only he had known of. But upon hearing Pettigrew told about the mysterious room that was very much well-known to others, he knew he had to risk gaining the tiara back.
After Pettigrew left and the Dark Lord told Severus Prince of his worries, the young man only quirked an eyebrow and said, "If you were so concerned of your precious item, why don't you get it by yourself?"
Lord Voldemort refrained from rolling his red eyes at such comment. "I don't think I can," he muttered instead, "bet McGonagall kept applying those wards Dumbledore told her, to keep the students safe from their bogeyman."
No, he didn't want to attack Hogwarts just to retrieve his Horcrux there. The ancient castle was once his home, where he truly belonged and it was his ancestor's most sacred place. He really cared for the fortress where he found his true self and this new mission would need utmost discretion.
Severus took a sip of his tea before placing the cup onto the coffee table, "I will get it for you. What does it look like?"
The Dark Lord was utmost grateful of the young man's thoughtfulness, and he already had an inkling on how to repay him.
He only hoped Severus will like it in return.
Severus Apparated to the skirts of Hogsmeade Village within a week after the talk with Marvolo. His new satchel lined with invisible basilisk skin was filled with important items to make sure he would get in and out of Hogwarts without much suspicion. After checking precariously inside his bag for the umpteenth time, Severus then headed into the village.
His wooden cane thudded slightly as he walked and he briefly exchanged nods with other people, who still thanked him for his dragon pox cure and gifted him a few items.
Stopping at the apothecary, Severus bought a few ingredients and magical plants' seeds for his potions and to grow them in Prince Manor's gardens. The mansion's resident ghost, Septimus Prince was planning to be a botanist before his death and Severus wanted the spirit to feel some joy after being bounded to the mansion for several centuries. He made sure to have a receipt of his purchases as a form of proof.
As he walked, Severus couldn't help but to wonder what Miranda Selwyn, the one who previously bonded with Septimus had done that brought the other man to commit suicide, and if her descendants still lived to this day. Knowing the wizarding community, they must be.
He met a few students who knew him during his school years and they all expressed their desire to be under his tutelage after graduating from Hogwarts to which he dismissed them, saying that he might be the youngest Potions Master in the present, however the older ones had more knowledge and experience; making them the better teachers to learn from.
Besides, he didn't think he would do well in teaching; shuddering when the disastrous Boggart incident flashed in his mind.
Entering the Honeydukes shop, Severus used the crowd to his advantage and put on the Invisibility Cloak before going to the cellar and crawled into the secret passageway leading to Hogwarts.
(He really ought to thank Peter Pettigrew for giving him the Marauders' Map.)
His rather skinny stature allowed Severus to crawl quite easily and by the time he reached the exit, he checked to see if he was still hidden under the Cloak before going out.
Severus instinctively gulped in fear upon realizing he was nearby the Defense against the Dark Arts classroom and hurriedly went to the seventh floor. Thanking the stars that it was a visit to Hogsmeade day for the students, the castle was fairly deserted and Severus took great care to ensure his cane didn't make any noise (no, the Silencing Spell didn't apply to items) when heading to his destination.
He almost heaved out a relieved sigh when he saw Barnabas the Barmy's tapestry and quickly walked back and forth whilst thinking three times, 'I want to hide something of utmost importance.' When the door appeared, Severus swiftly entered the Room of Requirement and began searching for Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem amongst the treasure and trash in the magical room.
"Wonder how long Marvolo had to find this," he mused to himself as he pushed aside a set of withering scrolls. In fact, upon hearing how Marvolo used the Hogwarts' Founders' prized items as his Horcruxes, Severus couldn't help but to applaud on his ideas. Considering such objects were greatly revered by the wizarding community, no one would dare to destroy them. Marvolo even expressed a desire to make Godric Gryffindor's Sword as another of his Horcruxes thus completing his quest to be the greatest wizard who possessed all four legendary objects.
Severus frowned when he saw an old tiara placed on a bust and curious, he took out the black notebook Marvolo had given him, focusing his magical senses on the Dark Magic aura around the book before taking the discolored crown to compare them.
He smiled after making the comparison and checked the diadem's inscription as Marvolo told him before putting it in his satchel and made his way out of Hogwarts from the same place he entered just as quick.
Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure, indeed.
Eileen Snape couldn't help feeling worried.
Reading the Daily Prophet she secretly subscribed ever since she heard of the mysterious attacks around Britain, she thought that maybe her husband, Tobias had a point when he got the gun. Still, she hoped she didn't have to use such item.
(She even hoped that Tobias might stop getting himself drunk and focused on getting a better job so that they could move to the big town where it was safer.)
As it was, Tobias really was in search for a job and had gone since morning, stating that with his qualifications, it might be harder for him to get a decent place to work at. But his determination to try really made her smile and when she heard the knocks on the wooden door, Eileen didn't think much of it.
Her onyx eyes widened in utmost fright as she saw a black-masked person pointed a gun at her and her fingers brushed against the Prince family's Portkey pendant Severus had given her before her attempt was foiled by a sudden gunshot.
As she fell onto the floor, all she could think of at that moment was that how she truly regretted not following her husband or staying at Prince Manor like her son always wanted.
Tobias Snape sensed there was something wrong the moment he stepped into the house he lived with his wife, Eileen in Spinner's End, the joyful news of him getting a job in the library left forgotten.
Sure, Eileen was quiet and unassuming as long as he had known her but the silence he felt across the place was foreboding. The smell of the food in the kitchen did nothing to soothe his worries and furrowing his brows at the mess inside the living room, Tobias went to the safe where he put his gun and unlocked the safe without much noise before checking the safety was on.
Tobias headed upstairs whilst avoiding the creaky steps and his curiosity piqued when he heard someone sobbing, though it sounded like it was a man's cries instead of a woman's. Wondering what it could be, he rushed into his and Eileen's room with his weapon held tightly in his hand.
It was the damned boy.
The boy – their son – was crouching next to Eileen with teary eyes, his pointy stick a wizard called a wand was in his hand and a silvery orb floated ominously above Eileen who lied down on their shared bed.
Eileen, who had her eyes closed and a bleeding hole on her forehead.
Tobias knew he should rein in his anger, but all reasonable thoughts left his mind the moment he pieced together what had happened in his absence.
"N- No," the boy stammered as he backed away from him, shaking his head with his disguised eyes wide in utmost horror like he too, knew what Tobias now thought of.
"DIE, YE DEMON!" Tobias shouted and shot his son at the chest. "Always knew ye a freak, much more than yer ma was! Ye dare kill yer ma, sully her for yer experiments?! Don't think so!"
Everything was a blur afterward, but all Tobias knew was that he had killed Eileen's murderer and her death was avenged. Checking his wife's body for any additional injuries, he then glanced at the floating orb and he frowned upon hearing whispers from it. Leaning forward, he noted that he could see Eileen inside the orb and watched what it showed him.
Tobias turned to his son with dawning horror after a few minutes, at Severus who now slumped motionless against the wall and had his disguised eyes glazed over, the wounds on his forehead, neck and body spewed out blood which trickled down onto the wooden floor.
"No," he croaked in terrifying realization of what he had done. "No…"
Tobias Snape then did what he could think of at the moment.
He ran away.