Chapter 63: The Whispering Door
{A/N: Here's Another Update...}
My Thanks To All My Readers And Reviewers...Enjoy-S.S.
The Slytherin Dungeons, Hogwarts Castle, Wizarding World...
Midnight came and Phaeron Snape found himself still wide awake in his respective dorm at Hogwarts. He had been having a good deal of night terrors about the man he had come to know as Tobias Snape and what he had done to his father and grandmother. Covered in a good deal of sweat and breathing rather heavily, everyone had still been asleep despite his light thrashing in bed. The raven haired Slytherin climbed out of bed and made his way out of the boys rooms and into the common room. Alone in the darkness he took a moment to catch his breath as he noted how blurry his visions of his father's past seemed to be. He had wished that he could make sense of everything that was happening in the dreams. He knew that his father had been the raven haired boy being beaten by the drunken brute and that the woman was his father's mother Eileen trying to protect him on occasion. If there was one thing the repetitive visions did it was make him curious to know more about his father.
Some time after his mother left the school, Ursula had informed him that she had been staying in a secret place that only she seemed to have access to. Phaeron had recalled his mother admitting to him that she still had access to his father's quarters to use at her leisure if she had been anywhere near Hogwarts. Draco had told him exactly where it was located when he had given him a tour of the Slytherin Dungeons only it had been a rather large wall in place of where the entrance to the former Potions Professor's rooms would be. Ursula had heard his mother use his name to make the walls move whenever she was in the area.
The young Slytherin witch had reported this incident to Phaeron as soon as Hermione left the school but the younger Snape had been reluctant to go anywhere near it, not wishing to enrage either his father or his mother.
Given the insistence of his blurred dreams however, the boy began to see the merits behind uncovering a few of his late father's secrets. While he knew that Severus Snape wasn't actually dead, or at least that was what the man claimed when he last spoke to him, it was difficult to wrap his mind around how strange things had gotten since that day James Potter II attacked him.
Compelled by both his curiosity and the desire to make sense of his dreams, Phaeron stealthily made his way out of the Slytherin common room with little to no fuss from the Bloody Baron, who knew immediately to allow the young Snape out for the night. Of course it wasn't known to the boy who did his best to creep out of the rooms and make his way toward his father's quarters.
The Whispering Door, Slytherin Dungeons, Hogwarts...
The only living son of Severus Snape stood before a large wooden door that had shifted from stone at the approach of the raven haired young wizard. If Phaeron seemed nervous by all the changing and shifting he didn't let it show not even to himself. The door had not been guarded by a portrait like so many of the other rooms in the castle, this one was special some how...perhaps his father thought needing a portrait to guard his rooms had been again it could have been removed due to his passing by Dumbledore or even his mother in a bid to hide the existence of this place.
Phaeron felt the intense pulsing that could have only been his father's left over magic as he made his way inside the door. The wards did him no harm as he stepped into the darkened front room, almost as if he were some young muggle treasure seeker well aware of possible traps and on guard for them as he took each tentative step.
It was a strange place that smelled of herbs and fresh earth but apparently had a good deal of books and potions ingredients. Phaeron smirked at that as he made his way toward his father's private desk. He didn't want to risk alerting anyone or anything to his presence in the rooms so he chose to forgo any light source that wasn't his wand.
Slowly and carefully the younger Snape made his way over to the desk pleased that he had avoided all possible traps and sat down in his father's chair. It was strange sitting in the seat that had once belonged to a formidable war hero, especially one like his father. He felt a sense of pride that he had never known before at the association but didn't let it go to his head like Potter did with his father.
It wasn't long before strange whispering got his attention.
Again exercising caution, Phaeron approached the room in which the whispers had been coming from. As he pushed passed another large wooden door feeling a definite draft as he had, the young raven haired Slytherin made his way inside still ready for any thing as he moved about the cold stone floor.
The whispers were nothing compared to the soft green glow of what appeared to be a large silver pensive on the night stand. Phaeron ventured over toward it confused as to why it had been left out where anyone could look into it. Then he guessed that his mother must have been viewing it and possibly left it out by mistake. Still driven by curiosity, Phaeron ventured over toward the pensive. He could see the swirling black substances that appeared to be memories and not all good ones.
With some careful deduction he came to the conclusion that it had been his father's pensive.
Now eager to know more about the dour Potions Professor, Phaeron took a chance and dipped his head in. Almost immediately he was beset by a barrage of intense memories as they swirled and pulled him down...down until it was as if he had dropped from his own young body and into a world far beyond anything he had ever known.
The Slytherin Dungeons, Hogwarts Castle 1974...
A fourteen year old Severus Sebastian Snape had been just returning from being at home from the small break that had escaped Phaeron's notice. The raven haired eleven year old wizard followed his young father who seemed to be in quite a hurry. Phaeron had not known what would make his father so cautious especially when he was at Hogwarts but he had a feeling it was a big deal. It didn't take long before he got a look at four young wizards, all wearing Gryffindor house colors. One looked especially familiar, Phaeron didn't need anyone to point out a Potter.
"Snivellus where are you off to in such a hurry." he called with an arrogant smirk upon his face.
One of the four wizards simply stood off to the side aloof in his approach neither menacing nor attempting to harm the raven haired wizard known as Severus Snape. Phaeron watched the four boys curiously. One had looked like a plump humanoid rat and the other with long curly dark hair and a wolfish grin seemed to zero in on Phaeron's father from the moment he arrived.
"Yeah Snivellus, where do you think you're going?" he added still smirking.
Snape realized that he had been cornered at the four of them surrounded him at once. As Phaeron watched he could tell something was off about the way his father had been behaving. His seemed to have been a good deal exhausted and possibly badly injured but that didn't stop the other boys, the Marauders from indulging in their favorite pass time.
Phaeron watched his father draw his wand.
The elder Snape had managed to hex two of the four Marauders before he was hexed by James Potter I and Sirius Black.
Sirius Black's waving of his wand sent Severus Snape flying into a nearby wall It was a minor attack but when grouped with Snape's other injuries he quickly fell unconscious. The young wizard known as Lupin had been highly concerned fearing that Sirius Black had just murdered their long time rival.
"Snape." said Lupin scrambling over to check on the downed wizard. "Snape can you hear me?"
"Oh leave him Mooney." said Sirius. "Snivelus is as resilient as a cockroach."
Lupin checked Snape's pulse and glared at his friend.
"Padfoot you idiot, He's not breathing." replied Lupin.
Hearing this even James Potter was filled with a sudden sense of fear.
"Shit." he said. "We have to get him to the infirmary...if he dies...that could mean Azkaban for the lot of us."
As proof of his resilience, Severus Snape started breathing again conserving his energy as he listened to the bickering of his enemies over what to do with him. Sirius suggested they leave him there for someone else to find if only to avoid association with trouble. Lupin argued that he could be seriously hurt but the other's over ruled him.
"Worm-tail, Prongs, and I say we leave the greasy git." said Sirius. "Come on Mooney, would he go out of his way to help you...he did after all just hex you."
Lupin looked at his three best friends and then back down at Snape. While it was true that he would have left him there the situation still terrified Lupin. Suppose they walked away and the sod died?
"Come on Mooney." said James Potter with a hard look on his face. "You're either with us or against us."
Succumbing to the pressure of not wanting to be outcast among his friends, Lupin reluctantly left Severus as the other's had instructed him. The Marauders vanished while Severus lost consciousness once again.
Phaeron had been furious at the treatment of his father by everyone around him. It seemed even here in Hogwarts the younger Severus was treated like a second class citizen. The younger Snape became enraged that Dumbledore and none of the other instructors had come to the ailing boy's aid.
The memories shifted to a time later that year when Severus Snape had been taken to task for cursing Worm-tail and leaving him to his own devices afterward as the young wizard's life hinged near death. Dumbledore had been present for that, scolding Severus and telling him how disappointed he had been in him.
The whole scene made Phaeron's blood boil. He had seen first hand why his mother had mistrusted the old Headmaster. Even more so why his father had seemed to radiate hatred for the old wizard. }
Phaeron pulled out of the pensive not wishing to have anyone come looking for him least of all The Headmaster, he took his leave of his father's quarters with a silent promise to return in the future.
Later...
Phaeron sat quietly as everyone else enjoyed their breakfast. Ursula took notice and arched an eyebrow at him. He didn't seem to note her concern still lost in thought and occasionally glancing up at the staff table. He met the twinkling blue eyes of the Headmaster who seemed puzzled as he studied him.
"It appears that the younger Mr. Snape is upset with you Albus." said Professor McGonagall.
Dumbledore nodded taking a sip from his goblet and looking over the Slytherin table.
His blue eyes met those of obsidian once more.
He wondered just what had been on the young Snape's mind as he looked at him with increasing malice from his respective house table.
Ziare had noticed Phaeron's distance and constant aggravation at the Headmaster.
"Hey man...are you alright?" he asked concerned about his friend.
Phaeron looked at his friend and nodded.
"I'm fine." he said.
"Are you sure?" asked Ursula. "You look like you want to hex Dumbledork."
"I do." replied Phaeron. "But I don't feel very much like getting expelled."
The raven haired wizard turned his attention back to his meal without another word. Ziare and Ursula both seemed to take the hint that he didn't feel like talking and kept quite for the rest of the meal. Before everyone cleared out of the Great Hall, Phaeron's obsidian eyes once again found their way back to the staff table and to Dumbledore. His hatred radiating off him openly, now.
The young raven haired Slytherin had not liked what he had seen in his father's pensive that after noon either. More acts of cruelty on the part of Albus Dumbledore against his father ranging from different ages. The older wizard always seemed to catch Severus Snape's retaliation and punish the young wizard for wither he was guilty or not, meanwhile the Gryffindors always seemed to skirt by perfectly unscathed and with their reputations in the old man's eyes intact, given their hand in the long standing feud that seemed to define much of their time at Hogwarts.
It seemed the injustice done to his father had begun even when the dour man was just a boy. Phaeron was beginning to understand why his mother had been so angry when it came to anything having to do with Severus Snape and the wizarding world. Still, he didn't doubt that there was something more within his father's memories that he wanted to view. He made it a point to get to know as much about the dour wizard as he could and what better account than from the man's first hand knowledge.
After breakfast Phaeron made his way back to his father's quarters.
Over the next few weeks both Ziare and Ursula saw less and less of Phaeron as he continued to view more of his father's memories.