Hoo boy, this chapter is hugely taken from GoF (all rights reserved to JKR for the text) so
warning: description of dead bodies, some torture, basically all canon-typical violence stuff
also I really have to stress this is an evil! Severus fic so if you're in for some wholesome shit, get out; find another fic
It was utterly painful.
The wounds on his chest weighed him down, the one at the neck made him choke on his own blood and the one at his head… it hurt, terribly so and though he wanted nothing more than embracing his eternal peace in death, he was stuck in the mortal plane because of his reckless decision.
(Was it really bad for him to live longer in exchange of another life; one that had greatly tortured and humiliated him in the past?)
The sharp flares of the injuries ran along his body on a regular basis, as if reminding him that his Horcruxes were nothing other than eternal pain he had induced onto himself, but that made him more determined to live, to survive and to seek revenge.
The white space was now foreign to him, seeing that the colorful doorway he once saw was now gone. The red one; it however remained but seemed as if it was demolished and repaired over and over until he could no longer discern what it actually looked like. There was only a small hole among its rubbles, and he knew that as long the hole was still there, he could make it back to the mortal world.
He had thought of many things regarding his life, and was both enraged and sad over his father's treatment onto him and his mother. If the man had loved her so much, why did he beat her? Why did the man have to show his love after her death, and what of him? Was he really the demon child the man had said?
As he huddled close to himself while waiting in the white space, Severus Prince wondered if he really was cursed with bad luck or Fate was being cruel to him for violating the orders of life.
Lucius Malfoy couldn't help but to feel worried.
The Dark Lord had once again tried to organize a party amongst his Death Eaters and from the looks he shared with his other peers, he just knew who was to be celebrated.
Severus Snape.
Lucius didn't hate the young man; on the contrary Snape had been an excellent asset to their cause. He was still proud of himself to suggest having Snape in the Dark Lord's ranks. But a simple announcement would do just fine, why would they need a feast?
Though he had reinforced his manor's security system, Lucius was anxious which was quickly noted by his pregnant wife, Narcissa.
"Don't be too stressed, dear," she had said sweetly, "how else our baby boy going to have a loving father if you have grey hair before your 40s?"
Lucius had rolled his eyes hard at that, but he really couldn't wait for his child to make his appearance.
As he oversaw the preparations with the Dark Lord and the Lestranges, they were startled by a sudden crack and Lucius frowned to see an unfamiliar house-elf nervously made its way to the Dark Lord and shook his robes.
His eyes widened in utmost disbelief. A house-elf had touched the Dark Lord's robes, and was seemingly beckoning him to follow it! Just who the elf thought it was, to order the greatest wizard in recent history around?!
But much to his and everyone else's surprise, Lord Voldemort actually went pale and he turned to the small crowd in aghast, "Put this in hold first; I have something important to see of."
As the Dark Lord left with the house-elf, Lucius barely minded Bellatrix's annoyed scoff and wondered to whom the creature belonged.
Lord Voldemort went to Spinner's End in utmost worry.
When the house elf – Minty, it called itself – told him something had happened to the Prince family tree, he was curious on why Severus Prince didn't see the matter by himself. That was, until a thought dawned on him: that Severus too was incapacitated by someone else. And that the young man needed his help.
Having the shrunken Nagini looped securely around his neck, the Dark Lord then went to the Snapes' house and was about to knock on the wooden when the brown serpent said, "I smell blood."
He stopped in his tracks. "…Was it fresh?"
"Not really, perhaps three hours or so," Nagini went on, curling herself close to him.
Turning the doorknob, Lord Voldemort shuddered as the metallic scent of dried blood filled his senses. Barely minding the mess in the living room, the man and the snake made their ascent to the second floor, dread growing in his heart with every step.
When they entered the room next to the bathroom, the Dark Lord greatly wished he had fetched Severus Prince to Malfoy Manor much, much earlier.
"Don't touch anything," he almost stammered, utterly disbelieving that both Eileen and Severus Prince had died due to gunshot wounds (and he knew it must be, he already saw enough from the Second World War) and his red eyes lightened up at the silver orb that floated above Eileen's forehead.
Severus must had casted his memory spell on her!
After watching Eileen's memory, Lord Voldemort couldn't help but to think her memory was incomplete; it only showed her death. But what of Severus'?
Shakily taking out his snakewood wand, he then tapped it against the young man's temple and muttered, "Finale memoria ostende mihi," chanting the spell for several times until the orb produced was bigger than Eileen's last memory was. When Nagini slithered onto his lap, the two then watched Severus' memory before his untimely demise.
The Dark Lord felt a rush of cold fury ran through his veins upon seeing the perpetrator before he looked back at the victims with teary eyes. What Tobias Snape had called Severus reminded him of his own childhood years, where doctors would experiment on him just because he was different.
Lord Voldemort went to close Severus' glassy eyes but found he was unable to; the rigor mortis had set in. Still, he put the young man's memory into a small glass vial alongside Eileen's as a proof that dangerous Muggles should be exterminated. He then checked the body to see if there was any item as a keepsake and when he saw the ring that held the Resurrection Stone, he wallowed on the loss of his heir before taking it, the amethyst purple necklace and the Prince family's Portkey pendant before cleaning the room.
As his fingers brushed against the black stone, the Dark Lord was worried on what to tell the Princes' portraits in the mansion before he frowned and ran his hand slowly along the ring's golden band. Closing his eyes, he then focused on the item's magical aura and was astounded to feel a pulse of life behind the numerous protective spells.
In a stroke of luck, Severus Prince had made a Horcrux of himself. The purple spider too, thrummed with life and he went to find back the glass bracelet Severus wanted to give his mother that had fallen off the cabinet before his 'death'. The item also hummed under the charms in his hand.
He couldn't help but to wonder how many Horcruxes Severus had made and that he too, was in his way to reach the unthinkable.
"Minty," he called and the house-elf reappeared, its green eyes went wide at the two bodies inside the room.
"Mistress Eileen! Master Severus!" she wailed but Lord Voldemort silenced her with a quick flick of his wand.
"I… I'm sorry about Eileen," he started, to which the elf tried hard not to cry, "but… tell the others that Severus is still alive; I just need to find him. Don't tell them what you saw, understand? As for who did this-" He glanced at the young man's prone form, "-I will find him."
"R- Really?" the elf stuttered after he lifted the spell, "M- Master Marvolo… really will do that?"
"Yes." And he meant it.
Tobias Snape would pay for his misdeeds.
The elf sniffed, "M- Minty w- will do as Master Marvolo s- said." She then left with a crack and the Dark Lord took Nagini before levitating the bodies into the house's backyard and buried them.
After conjuring an owl, he wrote a letter to Lucius Malfoy and ordered his Death Eaters to find the damned man as quickly as possible (even putting a part of Severus' memory that showed the man's face), seeing that it had been hours since the murder happened and the man might have left the country already.
Much to his dismay, Eileen Prince's actual murderer was unknown but it was not as if he couldn't use Legilimency on those Muggles. Flicking his wand, he sent the owl onto its way while he and Nagini went to find where Severus Prince's soul could be hiding. The Dark Lord doubted the young man would hide where he initially died but he also must be nearby, if his instincts were correct.
Lord Voldemort was approaching the other side of the neighborhood when his red eyes fell onto the huge oak tree close to the playground and he frowned at the sight of it.
Back on Christmas, the tree stood tall and healthy amongst the cold snowy ground but now… even he could tell something was wrong with it. The entirety of the oak tree was black as if it was scorched and when one of its wilted branches fell onto the ground, he knew he had found what he sought for especially with the waves of Dark Magic circulating in the air at the moment.
"Severus?" he began, walking toward the tree carefully and placed his hand on the blackened trunk.
It was a long wait, but when a translucent form finally appeared from the tree, Nagini's cry of pure anguish pretty much summed up what Lord Voldemort felt. If Slytherin House in Hogwarts were to have a modern version of the Bloody Baron, what he witnessed certainly counted as one, albeit much more tragic than the Baron's death was.
The silvery blood that ran down the spirit's clothes and body was dripping onto the ground, and those eyes… Those orange eyes were dull and filled what Lord Voldemort knew he once possessed and now hated: they were full of vulnerability.
"…Y- You came," Severus spoke.
The Dark Lord knew what had to be done, and he had the perfect victim for it.
Tobias Snape had forgone his desire to live a good life.
He had been on the run ever since that horrible day, and with his meager possessions he was ready to leave Britain altogether, perhaps going to somewhere remote.
Eileen's death was already bad enough, but it was the boy's – Severus' – eyes full of sorrow and disbelief had haunted his dreams. And oh, how Tobias regretted his impulsive tendencies but how was he supposed to know it was not the boy's fault? That he was the most suspicious among them?
How he wished he could turn back time and made amends with the boy just as Eileen had wanted on so many occasions. That he would be the wiser man and be proud of his family instead of resenting them.
The airport was fairly busy and Tobias had just freshened himself in the loo before something hit him and everything went dark.
When he woke up again, he was bending over on the floor in a stone chamber with a man whose alabaster skin looked unnatural under the light, his eyes glinted evilly. There was also a brown couch that faced the opposite way and Tobias wondered who the man was, though he had a clue on why he was here.
With his hands and legs bound by ropes, Tobias tried to hide his discomfort by wiggling but a slash onto his cheek made him stop as he looked at the thin stream of blood running down his face, briefly frowning when the ghostly man siphoned his blood into a glass vial.
Why did he hate wizards again? Oh right, because of him afraid they would kill him? Well, they certainly would at the moment as he had murdered one of them.
Murder; great Scott how he wished he hadn't done it.
"Leave us, Marvolo," someone said from the couch and Tobias froze.
That voice. That cold, rather haughty but was also resentful voice.
No, no, no. It… it couldn't be.
He wanted nothing more than to take back his wish of having Severus came back to life.
"P- Please, have mercy," he begged right after the other man left the room.
The cold voice laughed, the shrill sound rang across the chamber eerily. "Mercy?" he said before stopping abruptly. "…Do you really think you deserve it?"
Tobias' visage went paler.
"For years," the phantom – no, Tobias refused to believe it was Severus who was speaking – continued, "Ma and I had talked and pleaded to you that we were – are – not so different from Muggles, apart from having magic, of course. But you rejected us over and over, especially me. Or should I say, a demon child?"
"B- Believe me, i- if only Eileen had told me earlier about her heritage…" Tobias pleaded, "I- I would never do such thing. Yer ma… she sees… saw hope in me while everyone else told me I'm a deadbeat."
"And you broke it," the voice hissed and Tobias felt he was bending forward further as if something was forcing him to, and his spine immensely hurt due to the pressure. "You broke her trust, her hope but she still saw something good in you."
Tobias closed his eyes in fear of what the phantom would do but after hearing a whoosh, he cracked an eye open only to see the ropes around his wrists and legs were cut away. Blinking hard, he slowly raised his head to see a hand was holding a wand from the couch.
A hand with very pale skin, much like that Marvolo man's but there was something off about it. And Tobias wanted to run away.
Except… he couldn't move. He was still slumped forward on the floor, and whenever he tried to move his fingers or even made a slight movement, a sharp rush of pain filled his body.
He was immobilized and he was afraid, afraid, and afraid of what the other man could do to him.
"Too bad I'm not as good as her," the voice went on.
When a bright green flash of light headed toward him, all Tobias hoped for was Eileen would forgive him or otherwise.
Lord Voldemort smiled widely as he gazed upon three vials full of blood on his desk in Malfoy Manor's library.
It really was a hassle to bait the Order of the Phoenix into some of the skirmishes with his Death Eaters but he had managed to get Albus Dumbledore and James Potter injured thanks to his heir's wondrous severing spell, which was important to the next step of his plan.
Speaking of his heir, he was a bit disappointed that the damned Muggle didn't suffer a lot before his death, though that was more of Severus Prince being sympathetic for the man than anything else.
That Tobias Snape really had loved Eileen Prince at some point, and even the Dark Lord had to admit it was much better than his parents' life story.
It was 30th April when Lord Voldemort, Nagini and their guest of honor went to the forest nearby Prince Manor with a satchel and a small bassinet, a large cauldron full of a special concoction floated precariously behind them. The moon shone brightly in the dark sky and after the Dark Lord placed the cauldron onto the ground and lighted it up with his wand, he smiled fondly at the small body in the bassinet.
"You will have a new body soon," he said before carefully putting the child into the regenerative potion.
The cowardly wolf had made a suitable sacrifice for Lord Voldemort to create a small body alongside the venoms from Nagini and the basilisk, but it was merely a foundation so that his heir would have a better, unblemished one. Though the gigantic serpent also wanted to be present in the ritual, he declined its request since its gaze might accidentally kill the body they painstakingly had tried to build.
After chanting some ancient words, Lord Voldemort took out a small pouch from his satchel and untied it before speaking out loud, "Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!"
The dust of Tobias Snape's bone flew from the pouch into the cauldron, turning the potion into bright blue.
However, as Lord Voldemort was about to proceed with the next step, he paused. Severus Prince had no servant. All he had was an equal, from the loyalty bond his family was well-known of. And he doubted Peter Pettigrew would be so willing to give some of his flesh to him.
Though, if the Dark Lord really had to bow down to someone, he didn't mind if it was Severus Prince. It would have to be Severus since the young man had proved many times over that despite the challenges in his life, he was a trusted man. And what was the loss of a hand compared to his credibility? It wasn't as if he couldn't replace it.
Steeling himself, Lord Voldemort held his yew wand in his right hand whilst putting his left hand over the cauldron. After saying the ritual's next words, he casted Sectumsempra and bit his lower lip in pain as the severing spell cleanly cut his hand whole, in which it fell into the bubbling potion with a plop. Gritting his teeth, he then took the three vials full of blood and used his wand to uncork them.
"B- Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken… you will resurrect your foe," the Dark Lord panted before pouring the liquids into the cauldron as well. Nagini hissed softly beside him as he cradled his injured arm.
Because the severing spell meant to hurt people as long as it was not healed, he barely minded as the potion turned snow white and was about to apply Vulnera Sanentur onto the stump of his left hand when a voice spoke, "Don't."
Looking upward, Lord Voldemort saw the outline of his heir rose from the cauldron, whose orange-red eyes glittered under the moonlight.
Severus Prince had lived once again.