Lily Evans-Potter was utterly horrified over the news she got upon waking up in St. Mungo's Hospital. That she was no longer a witch, all because she thought it was a good idea to trail after Severus Snape and Francesca Zabini.
She was now at the Potters' house in Godric's Hollow; having returned home during the New Year and closely holding her son, Harry to herself. Her husband, James still had to go to work in the Ministry and checking yet again if the registry book was faulty, much to no avail.
"I will protect you," she whispered to Harry and kissed his forehead. He was after all, the only one who possessed the remnants of her magic.
Should she contact her sister, Petunia again despite their last meeting was awful? Lily Evans was nothing but vindictive, and she would make sure that Harry Sirius Potter will live well; the war be damned.
There was a figure in Severus' dream, and he didn't know what to think of it.
He was in another of his lifelong nightmares, immobilized whilst lying on the ground and no matter how hard he tried to free himself, he felt as if he was sixteen again; vulnerable and angry over his own helplessness. The figure emerged from the faceless crowd and approached him, with Severus couldn't help but to shiver in utter fright upon seeing the phantom's visage.
The person might be blurry but the messy hair and green eyes looked familiar…
"Levicorpus!" it shouted gleefully, followed by multiple roars of laughter at his misfortune that rang loudly in his head.
Severus woke up with a start, gasping for breath. His heart was hammering in his chest, and in the midst of the darkness, he lit up his wand and searched for the flask of Calming Draught he kept on the drawer beside his bed, hands shaking as he gulped down the potion and letting his Occlumency shields build up in his mind.
A faint slithering sound entered his ears and Severus turned aside to see the giant basilisk curled near him. "…Sorry that I woke you up," he spoke after putting down the flask.
The great serpent stared at him in deadpan, "You know snakes don't actually hibernate like other animals." Then its yellow eyes softened. "Bad dream?"
"Just the usual," Severus mumbled with a sigh and scratched the back of the basilisk's head, to which it closed its eyes and purred contently. He liked to hear such sound, that someone actually sought for his presence and wanted him for who he was. He wondered what would happen if the snake continued to live in Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets; it was loyal so it would wait for its actual master, Tom Marvolo Riddle - Lord Voldemort – to release it again, even if the chance was low. It might even die a lonesome death there, forever not knowing about the outside world.
No, Severus didn't want such thing to happen to his serpentine friend.
"You need to take it out," the basilisk started and he only hummed, knowing what it meant. He looked out of the windows, seeing snow falling by in the darkness and he casted Tempus onto his hazel wand to see the time.
It was 4 in the morning, 9th January 1981.
It was his 21st birthday.
Severus blinked, feeling weary out of sudden. He was just a young adult, yet the events transpired throughout his life were so terrible as if he had gone through the Muggle wars himself. Even now, he could sense the phantom sensations of Sirius Black's Fiendfyre lurking within his marred soul, waiting to strike the moment he lost all will to live.
How he wished he could remove such terrifying creation from himself, but the risk was so high he doubted he would survive the aftermath, even if he were to use the Elder Wand. The only other thing that rivaled Fiendfyre in magical power was basilisk venom due to its destructive chemical components; could he use it to fight the cursed flames? His new body might be immune to the venom, but his soul? Not a chance.
Brushing the daunting thoughts away, Severus patted the basilisk's head several times and traced the texture of its scales before letting it to sleep on his bed and he went to the potions laboratory in Prince Manor.
The room was filled with row of shelves, numerous colorful potions glittering in their vials. There were two copper cauldrons on the long table, and Severus headed there to check on the potions Marvolo had requested him to make.
The Water of Despair.
Its iridescent green color glowed within the cauldrons, but when Severus took a ladle to inspect its contents, the liquid was clear as water and he narrowed his eyes. He would need a few human test subjects to see if the potion worked as intended, doubting that rats were helpful to gauge the misery they had upon digesting the concoction.
He turned off the fire and opened a cabinet next to the shelf full of healing potions, taking out a thick-rimmed glass beaker and a roll of plastic cling wrap before tearing some of the latter to seal the top of the beaker tightly with a rubber band. He then placed the container on the table and looked at the nearby mirror, baring his teeth.
Severus watched in morbid curiosity as his canine teeth slowly morphed into slender, sharp fangs and went back to the table, holding the beaker and letting his inner self do the work.
It wasn't hard to imagine James Potter's arrogant face in place of the glass beaker, and Severus opened his jaws wide before biting through the thin plastic cover, feeling how the venom of his Animagus form dripped out of his fangs into the container. The waves of magic around him flowed by and Severus bit down harder, his emotions were boiling inside him. How he wished he can actually do it; striking Potter just like Nagini had done months ago, watching as fear shone through the bespectacled man's eyes and relished over his weakness.
Crack!
The jarring sound brought Severus out of his reveries and he blinked hard upon seeing the faint jagged lines on the glass beaker due to the strong force of his grip. Grimacing, he felt the fangs turned back into his teeth and carefully put down the container, using a pipette to take the yellow venom and put it in a small glass vial.
He was about to leave when he turned to the cauldrons full of the Water of Despair, briefly thinking if it was possible for him to tweak the recipe. Taking the glass vial again, he then put seven drops of the venom into one of the cauldrons, mesmerized at the sudden flare of bright yellow before turning into its original color and he casted a stasis charm onto the two cauldrons.
The day then went by as usual, the house-elves Libby and Minty giving him a set of dark blue robes and cloaks that were lined with the basilisk's snakeskin for magical protection, while the ghost of the mansion, Septimus Prince showed him a bouquet of flowers in the gardens.
"It's not much, but I hope you like it," the spirit said rather bashfully but Severus didn't mind it, his orange-red eyes softened when seeing the flowers. He had read a bit of the language of flowers and considering Septimus had lived through the olden times, he thought the gift was lovely; all were talking about the ghost's regrets and desires to be brave and willing to try something new just like him.
He was about to keep the bouquet in his room before a thought crossed his mind and he Apparated to the Snape house in Spinner's End.
The neighborhood was gloomy as always, and he barely saw anyone outside. When he was young, he would see a few children playing a snow fight or building snowmen and attempted to join them only to be laughed at and shoved away. But now the silence was welcomed, and the snow underneath his boots crunched as he walked toward the backyard of his old house.
"Happy birthday," Severus muttered and placed the bouquet onto the makeshift graves of his old self and his mother, marked only by the small sprout of his mother's buried ash wand. He wanted to move the bodies to the graveyard nearby Prince Manor, however such things might cause suspicions amongst the villagers and the ghost town of Cokeworth was perhaps the better place for it.
Maybe it could even be a lesson for the future Princes.
Heaving out a sigh, Severus leant against the grey wall of his (technically legally-acquired) house and his eyes fell yet again onto the mound of ground where his old body was laid to rest. He thought about the incidents that nearly claimed his life; the werewolf underneath the Whomping Willow, the Fiendfyre, and his father's gun. Did he even count as living anymore? Flexing his fingers only brought the idea that his soul was just the puppeteer of his new body.
But he supposed it was also a good thing. That there were no more reminders of his horrible past filled with awful scars and repulsion over being stripped in front of everyone. Severus Snape was essentially died on 16 April 1980 thanks to his father, and Severus Prince stood in his place now.
The warmth from his winter cloak and robes made him drowsy and before he knew it, he dozed off.
Lord Voldemort was grinning from ear to ear as he tried to stay afloat in the air longer.
After numerous times of scouring through the olden scrolls and tomes, he finally figured out the secret to fly. Or rather, drew the inspiration from the ghost in Prince Manor, Septimus Prince.
All he needed was to focus and control his body so that it was in a similar state as a spirit, and strongly believed in Magic; essentially using all his magical might to remain in the air and much more to actually move around. It might be daunting to some but Lord Voldemort had been developing his magical core ever since he found out about magic in his childhood years, and continued to do so even to this day.
If he could, he wanted to be the personified self of Magic but the achievements he had now was more than enough. A great lord of Magic is bound to be humble every now and then.
"Having fun up there?" he heard Nagini query from her seat in Malfoy Manor's ballroom; the place where he practiced to fly. Scoffing under his breath, he then casted a cushioning charm and let himself fall like a leaf, bowing at his serpent companion to which she looked away and hissed haughtily. If snakes could roll their eyes, he was sure Nagini would do it in an instant.
Shrinking her down and wrapping her around his arm, the Dark Lord then used the given Portkey pendant to appear in front of Prince Manor.
His steps were light and there was a genuine smile plastered on his gaunt face, how he was convinced that he made the best gift one could have and couldn't wait to show his new ability to his heir. His fingers subconsciously ran over his chest and he felt how his heart was thumping rather loudly. Was this called actual love, to want one's partner simply being happy without much care to the world? He supposed he could deal with it and knocked on the entrance doors three times.
Septimus Prince's agitated face greeted him, "Is Severus with you?"
Lord Voldemort frowned, "I thought he's here."
"No, he went out earlier with the flowers I gave him. The elves said there might a snowstorm soon. C- Can you find him?"
The Dark Lord felt his heart drop to his stomach. Where could Severus go at this time? Concealing his worrying thoughts, he gave Nagini to Septimus and returned to Malfoy Manor, taking two flasks of Polyjuice Potion laced with Lucius Malfoy's hair before going to the possible places Severus frequented.
His search at the cottage behind the British Library and Hogsmeade drew no results, and as Lord Voldemort Apparated at the forest in the edges of Spinner's End, he was sure that Severus would be either at the withered oak tree by the river or in the dreaded Snape house. Not waiting any further, he was about to enter the house when he saw something black amongst the snow in the backyard.
"Severus!" he shouted and cradled the young man; who even though was warm, the sensation was not enough to dissuade the coldness. His disguised blue eyes fell onto the bouquets of flowers Septimus Prince mentioned earlier and he grimaced. He should have known that Severus Prince was a very sentimental person especially to those he cherished, or perhaps it was his depressive thoughts that had led him to take a nap in the midst of a snowstorm.
Going back to Prince Manor, the house-elves quickly took their master to his bedroom while Septimus helped him to warm by the fireplace and a cup of tea, Nagini curled beside him. "Please don't be harsh on him," the ghost slightly pleaded by the tone of his voice but the Dark Lord remained silent.
Was Severus having a conflict over himself, especially his new body? But it would make sense, to suddenly having to use a new body that he was not familiar with no matter how close it was to the one he previously had. And for not the last time, he cursed Tobias Snape for traumatizing his son.
Sighing, he put his cup aside and heard the pitter-pattering steps of Libby the house-elf. "Master Severus is awake now, Master Marvolo," she informed, "but the basilisk is in there too."
Lord Voldemort clicked his tongue but decided that Severus deserved a piece of his mind for making him worry and he went to his heir's room, knocking on the door. He huffed in slight amusement upon hearing his ancestor's great serpent too was chiding the young man over his reckless behavior.
"Come in," it said and he entered the room, seeing Severus smiled apologetically at him in his bed. The basilisk had curled into itself at the corner of the room, and for a brief moment he wondered if there was an enchantment inside the mansion that allowed the room to be more spacious than it was on the outside.
"I swear, I didn't meant to do that," Severus started, and the Dark Lord noticed he shirked slightly into the sheets. "The cloak and robes were warm, and…"
"Do you like your new body?" he asked.
At that, the young man frowned, "…Huh?"
He repeated the question.
"I… I don't know. But I guess this is the price of making Horcruxes, eh? Once the original body is dead, it will take forever for one to get used to a new one. I don't hate it; it just… felt wrong at times."
Lord Voldemort pondered over the statement. Could this be the very reason for Severus taking over in killing Harry Potter as the prophecy told? That he was bound to lose his body if he were to murder the child. But if he was correct, Severus only had three Horcruxes, right?
"How many did you make?" he queried, "The Horcruxes."
Severus' orange-red eyes flickered for a second before he waved his wand at the desk, where a pouch flew out of the drawers and fell onto his lap. He untied the pouch and let the items spill onto the sheets, with the Dark Lord's eyes widened at what he saw.
There were five objects, and he instinctively knew all of them contained a piece of Severus Prince's soul. Then he realized something was missing.
"The glass bracelet…" he muttered.
"Francesca held it. I too planned to make some fake ones and hid them like you're going to do. But maybe the places I have in mind were too obvious so I didn't bother with it anymore."
Lord Voldemort looked back at the items and recognized a few of them; the amethyst spider necklace, the golden ring holding the Resurrection Stone, and the slender dagger he remembered from the time Severus made the memory book and destroyed his memories of Lily Evans.
The other two objects were the red box that once held Rogue the raven's burnt feather and a regular stone locket. "My mother's portrait is also one," Severus said before keeping the items back into the pouch.
For a moment, the Dark Lord wondered with a slight shiver down his spine: how many people Severus Prince had killed? The ones he could accurately think of were Sirius Black and Tobias Snape. But then he shook the thought away; all that mattered that Severus will be with him indefinitely and if he remained loyal to the young man, they both could rule over wizarding Britain until the end of time.
And so, he demonstrated his flying ability to a wide-eyed Severus, sensing his intrigued gaze trailed after him with each stunt he made. Severus then repeatedly rebuking his act, accusing him of putting feather-light charms on his robes but upon closer inspection, Lord Voldemort could tell Severus' curiosity was piqued by his glinting orange-red eyes and his heart swelled in great triumph.
After all, who could guess that beneath the grim, dour façade of Severus Prince was someone who wished to have an equal that had a great mind and treated him well? The Dark Lord was then proven correct when not long afterward Severus showed him the cauldrons filled with the Water of Despair.
'You could have it all, Dumbledore,' he mused darkly, red eyes glittering with the iridescent green from the potions, 'but alas, your ignorance will be your downfall.'