Chapter 114: An Unexpected Source Of Knowledge
{A/N: Here's Another Update...Late post}
My Thanks To All My Readers And Reviewers...Enjoy-S.S
The Snape Residence, Muggle London, England...
Phaeron had been tossing and turning in his sleep as the crisp black bed sheets had wound around him so tightly due to his antics that he felt as if he were being held down. Sweat had been soaking the cotton fabric and pooling about the half naked young Slytherin. His lengthy raven hair was sticking to his sallow pale cheeks as he continued to toss about locked in the confines of a very vivid night terror. He had been back in the dreadful Spinner's End house with the drunken brute slapping his grandmother around much as he always had. Phaeron felt a surge of rage as he watched Eileen Snape collapse from the weight of the blow.
{ It appeared the younger Snape had seen his fill of the abuse when a voice suddenly startled him coming from the darkness of the sitting room. The familiar scent of old leather and bitterness filled his nostrils. The unwanted sensation of heat from constant fear filled him. His heart had been pounding in his chest as the scene appeared to pause before his very eyes.
"I never did like this part." it said in almost a deep baritone drawl similar to his father's voice.
Phaeron whirled around noting the voice had come from the stairs.
"F-Father?" he asked not at all sure about this encounter.
His dreams had been vivid only when his father entered his mind via their apparent bond.
"Guess again." replied the voice seemingly amused. "Although had I lived I might have looked a good deal like him."
Phaeron did not understand, this stranger must have resembled his father but he was not him?
"W-Who are you then?" he asked with his fists balled in case this person or thing was spoiling for a fight.
Given his current mood inside and out of his dream state he was more than willing to oblige.
The voice from the stairs seemed to be coming from the figure that loomed near them.
"They never spoke of me have they?" asked the voice sounding a bit hurt by the implication. "I'd imagine bringing up what happened only served to cause him more pain."
Phaeron arched an eyebrow at this.
"Cause who more pain?" he asked annoyed. "What are you talking about?"
An exasperated sigh came and then there was silence.
"What do you say we change the setting...this place is a bit...dull." said the voice.
Before Phaeron knew it everything had shifted and he found himself suspended in mid-air looming high above Hogwarts Castle.
"W-What are we...?" he began.
"You ask a good deal of questions." said the voice seemingly annoyed in it's own way. "A trait passed down from your dear sweet mother...I'd wager...father isn't quite as inquisitive unless something is asked of him...and even then it is to minimize the risk to himself...can't blame the sly wizard really...people ask stupid things..."
"What father are you talking about?" asked Phaeron through clenched teeth.
"Don't play dumb...little brother...surely you know you're own father by now." replied the voice.
The young Slytherin was about to say something when a cloud of fog suddenly surrounded him. From the shadow of mist, he could see what looked to be a boy...one not so unlike him with short but unkempt raven hair and obsidian eyes. His nose had been like that of his father's but his jawline sharp and very familiar. He wore Slytherin colors and the traditional Slytherin uniform and tie only without the rather baggy black robe.
When the fog cleared he stood with his hands in his pockets and his eyes locked in an intense stare at his apparent younger sibling. Phaeron noted the boy...had been as much a teenager as he was with a lean build and the same pale complexion. Looking upon him with clarity, he knew without a shadow of a doubt, who's father the boy spoke of.
"I-It can't be..." said Phaeron stunned at the sight of this boy.
"I'm afraid it is...little brother." said the other teenage wizard. "Just so there isn't any doubt...let me...properly introduce myself...My name is Regulus Sebastian Snape."
"Snape?" said Phaeron still not mentally accepting the truth that had been staring him right in the face.
"Snape." said the boy Regulus, his obsidian eyes flickering with conviction. "I am sure you are wondering how I came to be and why you and I have not met in person."
"Well...actually...yes." replied Phaeron.
"First, I would like you to know that I harbor no ill will toward you...and I know that what happened with Bellatrix LeStrange was through no fault of you own." he said looking rather blankly at the younger pale wizard. "Secondly, what I am about to tell you is a rather tragic tale and one that does not require pity."
Phaeron simply nodded.
"Proceed then." he said steeling himself mentally for whatever truths this strange wizard had to offer.
"I was born during a very turbulent time in the wizarding world and Voldemort had been quite powerful...our father was about your age when he and Bellatrix LeStrange were forced into intercourse by the snake-faced despot." explained Regulus as delicately as he could possibly put it given the nature of the topic. "From this forced coupling, I was conceived."
Phaeron had been stunned.
"F-Father did truly rape the mad witch then?" he said.
Regulus simply nodded.
"Contrary to what you may believe...my parents loved me equally...and this was not the source of their unhappiness." said the older Snape sibling. "The reason you did not meet me before now...is because I was murdered within minutes of taking my first breath."
"W-What do you mean?" asked Phaeron stunned by this. "H-How could you have been murdered was father and Bellatrix not forced into their union?"
Regulus nodded again as he composed himself a bit of rage flickered behind his obsidian eyes.
"Mother's husband saw to my demise...it...she wasn't quite the same afterward...neither was father for that matter." he continued. "I appear in this form because it is what I used to communicate with father during the second wizarding war... He...needed a bit of guidance and I was more than happy to have some time with him...I could tell that he loved me...despite how I came about...I would have liked to have known him better..."
Phaeron felt a bit sad for his elder brother and even more enraged by the treatment of his father at the hands of the death eaters.
"Y-You said you spoke to father?" he asked coming back to line of questions despite the overwhelming emotion rising in him.
"Aye." replied Regulus with a ghost of a smile filed across his pale lips. "I told him about you...before you were born...even showed him that your mother was worth fighting for...despite my mother's constant interference."
Phaeron arched his eyebrow once more in the style of their father.
"W-Why...wouldn't you want your parents to be together?" he asked.
"Mother and father are...complicated...as you well know and it would have only served to make them...more complicated." said Regulus with a weary smirk. "No...your mother was quite alright for father...I saw it when they lost the baby.."
Phaeron had been thrown through another loop.
"Y-You know about that?" he asked.
Regulus rolled his eyes.
"It's amazing how much like your mother you really turned out to be." he said looking and sounding exactly like their father.
Phaeron shook his head.
"You know...Reg...you and I would have had a few good laughs." he said as a ghost of a smirk filed across his face.
"Maybe." replied Regulus. "Anyway...our sister is quite safe I assure you...she's been keeping me company since she got here...tell your mother that she says that she would have loved to meet her..."
Phaeron nodded.
"Now that the introductions are out of the way...what did you bring me here for?" he asked.
"I brought you here...little brother...to show you that there is a way to help our father." said Regulus there had been a sense of knowledge behind his obsidian eyes.
At the mention of this, Phaeron gave him his undivided attention.
"Tell me how." he said in a deathly serious tone.
"Look who looks like father now." said Regulus Snape with a ghost of a smile once more. "But to be serious...Have you ever heard of the Dream Stride Potion?"}
At the first lights of dawn, Phaeron Severus Sebastian Snape opened his obsidian eyes to a new and promising day. He now had the means of saving his father that he had been looking for and according to his older brother Regulus, he needed to gather the ingredients immediately.
"Thank you Regulus." he said softly as he climbed out of bed hope in his heart for the first time in a long time concerning his father's situation.
The Snape Residence, Sitting Room, Muggle London, England...
Hermione had not gotten a bit of sleep. She tossed and turned, awakening time and time again to find Severus' side of the bed as cold as it had been when she first layed down. She had been seething with rage thinking of all the things that wretched bitch Bellatrix could have been doing to her husband. The unbreakable vow had been in place but with him already dying it did little to offer comfort when faced with what she had been capable of. The bushy haired witch was seething.
Without a single thought, Hermione got out of the bed tossing the covers back as she made her way toward the loo. She could already feel how empty the house seemed after waking up with Severus for the passed six years. It reminded her of the loneliness she felt during those long nights eleven years in that kind of hell and she had barely a glimpse of what life could be like with him. Six years...six years and the dour wizard had given her two more children.
They had made a life here in the muggle world and she had been particularly looking forward to growing old with him.
As tears began to swell in the corners of the bushy haired witch's eyes, she left her bedroom unable to bring herself to make the bed. She had slept in her night gown, something she had not done since Severus' return and didn't need to be careful about the children. As if she had been in the wake of some Merlin awful dream, Hermione Granger-Snape, made her way into the kitchen.
When she arrived she had been surprised to see Phaeron in something of a good mood considering he had been a bit out of sorts after trying to kill Harry Potter the previous afternoon.
"Morning mother." he said surprisingly cheerful.
"G-Good morning Phaeron." she said rather cautiously. "Y-You haven't ignored my advice and went to kill Harry Potter any way have you?"
She had a serious look on her face at the implications resulting in her son's new found happiness.
Phaeron grinned, looking a lot like his father in the process.
"No...and to tell you the truth...not killing that prat Potter was a very wise decision given what I know now." he replied pleasantly.
It had not been lost on Hermione that her son apparently found Severus' hidden stash of toffee nut bars. She supposed they would have to be eaten by some one. The younger Snape took a deep breath and bit into the bar again.
"They given all that's happened...why are you in such a good mood?" she asked.
Phaeron smiled a truly pleasant smile. A smile she had not seen on her son since the day Severus returned home and the boy had been eleven years old.
"Phaeron?" she asked concerned for her elder son's sanity. "Have you gone mad?"
Phaeron narrowed his obsidian eyes at her.
"No mother, I am not mad...I am quite sane in fact." he said. "I may have found a way to help father...with a bit of help of course..."
Hermione's amber eyes widened for a moment then noted the unwavering confidence behind her son's gaze. She had not raised Phaeron to be a fool and he had been just as cynical as his father in matters of truth. His father's life was nothing he would dare joke about even if he had found it amusing to see her reaction.
"Phaeron...I know you want more than anything to help your father but..." she started and was cut off.
"It's simple mother." said Phaeron almost as excited as he had been simply discussing equations with her or potions work with his father. "All I have to do is successfully brew The Dream Stride Potion."
Hermione's amber eyes widened a second time a the mention of this. Severus had spoken to her about a potion of the like some years ago during the second wizarding war, although he had told her that it wasn't a definite consistency to the brewing technique and the ingredients were hard to come by.
"Phaeron...that's...how do you know it will work?" she asked immediately batting away the thousands of questions filling her mind.
"It'll work." replied Phaeron determined. "You just have to trust me...and I could use a little help getting the ingredients."
Hermione nodded numbly.
"I need 3 Canis Roots, Imp stool, One Jarin Root, Vermina's Tapor, and 6 Spriggon taproots."
Hermione's ears caught the last three ingredients.
"Phaeron...Jarin Root is highly poisonous!" she nearly shouted, which would have awoken the other sleeping children.
"Mother...I only need the end of the root and that part is non-lethal...it simply creates the illusion of death." explained Phaeron.
"I know what it does Mr. Snape." replied the bushy haired witch feeling her temper rise. "Six Spriggon taproots...do you know how dangerous and not to mention rare a Spriggon is?"
"And they make their home in the forbidden forest the same as many other magical creatures." replied Phaeron. "But I need the taproots to save father."
Hermione considered this for a moment.
"Vermina's Tampor?" she said at a loss with this ingrediant. "I've never even heard of it."
"I suspect Dumbledore knows where I can find it...he's got all sorts of restricted knowledge...and if not...I could always use the Room of Requirement." said Phaeron hopefully.
"Phaeron I know that you want to help your father but The Dreamstride Potion has never been attempted let alone brewed." she said with concern in her tone. "How can you even be sure it will work?"
"It will work." said Phaeron with determination behind his obsidian gaze.
The bushy haired witch studied her son for a moment. He had been determined to exhaust all options before closing the matter of saving his father's life. She admired his Gryffindor Esq, loyalty...something he definitely got from her genes. He had been right about the Dreamstride Potion of course. Severus had always intended to be the first wizard in history to successfully brew this but Voldemort and the wizarding wars got in the way.
Hermione sighed. It seemed Phaeron had also inherited his father's Slytherin ambition. He would peruse this matter or he'd go mad thinking about it with or without her assistance, and to tell the truth she needed to believe there was still hope for Severus. Even if there wasn't much of an out look.
"Alright." she said conceding as she took a seat at the breakfast table. "Tell me everything."
Phaeron brought his mother a cup of coffee and nodded.
"Well...mother...you're not going to believe this..." he began.
Hermione listened and despite how strange this tale began it started to make a good deal of sense. By the time Phaeron had finished his tale, she had understood why the Dreamstride Potion had been the best option. It had been strange that the idea had been inspired by her husband's deceased elder son with Bellatrix LeStrange but it had been worth a shot...given what they had to look forward to.
After their talk, Hermione gave Phaeron permission to return to Hogwarts and she summoned Draco and Lucius Malfoy through the loo. She had quite the story to tell them and figured their help would be invaluable when it came to getting the ingredients that had been all too rare. She just hoped this would be enough to finally save Severus.