Chapter 119: The Effects Of Magical Transference
{A/N: Here's Another Update...if Snape seems slightly OOC here but there's a reason for it...}
My Thanks To All My Readers And Reviewers...Enjoy-S.S
{"I want to stand up, I want to let go...You know, you know, no you don't, you don't...I want to shine on in the hearts of men...I want a meaning from the back of my broken hand...Another head aches, another heart breaks...I am so much older than I can take...And my affection, well it comes and goes...I need direction to perfection, no no no no...Help me out...Yeah, you know you got to help me out...Yeah, oh don't you put me on the backburner...You know you got to help me out...And when there's nowhere else to run...Is there room for one more son...These changes ain't changing me...The cold-hearted boy I used to be..."} All These Things I've Done,The Killers
Openfield, Muggle World...
The eerie twinkle of blue had been behind the eyes of Albus Dumbledore as he stood clad in a gray muggle suit with black shoes and a very sporting scarf. His lengthy beard charmed to be less of an eye catcher and his long white hair neat and resting against his shoulders. He sighed as he took in the miserable sight of Severus Snape clad in a slightly darker muggle suit also of gray with no tie. He had been much more pale than usual as he stood with every fiber of his being not to appear as weak as The Headmaster had noted he had been.
"What is this about Severus?" asked The Headmaster.
"Wishing to get to the point already Albus?" asked Snape. "And here I thought dancing around conversation was more to your style."
Dumbledore smirked.
"I see you haven't lost your sense of humor." he said. "But you still have yet to answer my question."
"It seems..." paused Snape staring straight into the old Headmaster's twinkling blue eyes. "It seems that I am forced to make a request of you."
Dumbledore arched an inquisitive eyebrow at this.
"A request?" he asked not at all use to such a thing from Severus of all people.
"Indeed." replied Snape.
"What is this request?" asked Dumbledore with a sigh. "And do be sure to keep it within reason."
"Magical transference." replied Snape with his obsidian eyes glinting a bit in malice.
Dumbledore's eyes widened.
"Severus have you lost your mind along with your good health?" he asked.
"I am simply after more time, so that I may find a cure for this...ailment." he said almost bitterly. "I do not wish to conquer the wizarding world... oh great Headmaster...only a small portion of your magical energies."
Dumbledore caught the obvious sarcasm in the younger wizard's tone but said nothing.
"Explanation." he said with a bit of glint behind his blue eyes. "I am entitled to it after all."
"No." replied Snape in an indifferent tone. "You are not...but unless you want the entire wizarding world to blame Harry Potter for my demise I suggest you consider my request sooner rather than later."
"Blackmail Severus?" asked Dumbledore. "And here I thought your life with Miss Granger has mellowed you."
"No more than surviving the war mellowed you or your horrid polices against Slytherins." countered Snape still bitterly.
"You know very well that I will not negotiate with you Severus." said Dumbledore.
"This is more along the lines of penance Headmaster, than negotiation." said Snape.
Dumbledore sighed.
It was clear that Snape had been well within his right to ask this of him, given all that was done to or rather allowed to happen to him under the older wizard's watchful eyes.
"Very well Severus." said the Headmaster.
He drew his wand and made his way over to the Potions Professor.
"This may hurt a bit." he said.
"Of course it will." replied Snape still evidently bitter. "I expect nothing less from one such as you."
Choosing to ignore that blatant character attack Dumbledore lifted his wand, The Elder Wand...Snape had not seen it up close since the defeat of the dark lord all those years ago.
"Magicis Transitus! shouted the elder wizard.
Snape found himself being struck by a kind of magical lightening as it seeped into his gray suit and into his pale chest.
The younger wizard found himself being flooded with a kind of youthful magical energy and much more than he had asked for given the circumstances.
His body felt like he had swallowed a small sun with flashes of a outstretched phoenix before his vision. He gasped as he found himself falling back onto the wet ground. He found himself feeling uncharacteristically...happy.
Once the transfer had been over Dumbledore smiled at him through ragged breath.
"Well Severus..." he began. "How do you feel now."
The pleasant twinkle still behind his unnerving blue eyes.
"W-What did you..." began Snape before he was overcome with fits of laughter. "D-Do to me?"
"I simply shared some pleasant feelings with you." replied Dumbledore. "And with the help of my transferred magic, you were able to tap into your own."
"I feel...tired." said Snape with a strange expression plastered across his sallow pale face.
Dumbledore noted with curiosity how Severus seemed to have gotten a bit younger in appearance via the pleasantness flooding through him. The old Headmaster smiled noting just how much the Potions Master resembled that unsure boy with raven hair that had come into Hogwarts for the first time at the age of eleven.
"Alright, come on my boy." said Dumbledore. "Let's get you home before you catch your death of cold."
Snape simply chuckled at this.
"Catch my death." he said amused beyond reason. "I'd say I'd very well managed that."
Dumbledore shook his head and helped the magically drunk wizard to his feet.
The Snape Residence, Muggle London, England...
Hermione had been puzzled when Albus Dumbledore appeared at her front door with a surprisingly giddy Severus Snape in tow. She opened the door looking rather suspiciously at the Headmaster. Dumbledore for his part said little to nothing as he escorted a woozy Severus toward the family sofa. The Potions Master burst out laughing noting how old the Headmaster must have been when his mother attended Hogwarts.
"You are a really really old sod." he said between fits of laughter.
Hermione looked at the Headmaster.
"What have you done to him?" she asked.
Dumbledore simply smiled at her in that unnerving pleasant manner.
"Nothing that can't be tempered with time." he replied in his usual evasive way.
Hermione had half a mind to draw her wand on the old goat.
"It's alright love." said Snape with a pleasant smile. "I've bought us a bit of time is all."
Dumbledore took his leave not wishing to hear what hysterical rant Hermione Granger-Snape had been about to spiral into.
"SEVERUS SEBASTIAN SNAPE WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?" she shouted.
"Shhhhhhhhh!" he said putting a finger to his lips. "You'll wake the baby."
Hermione narrowed her amber eyes at the giddy Potions Master.
"Dumbledore did more than give you a bit of magical energy I'm sure." she said.
"I supposed so too...does that make you part Slytherin for coming to the same conclusion?" he asked with a smirk.
The bushy haired witch had been about to roll her eyes when Sidney came into the room.
"Papa!" he said rushing over toward the giddy wizard.
Snape turned his attention to his young son.
"Sidney." he said getting off the couch and dropping down to his knees to capture the small boy in a hug.
"You seem really happy today." said the boy observant.
"Do I?" asked Snape impressed with his son's observation skills.
"Yes." replied Sidney with a sobering expression. "Does that mean you aren't sick anymore?"
Hermione's eyes widened.
"W-Who told you, your father was sick." she asked mentally going down the list of suspects.
"Regulus." replied Sidney.
"Regulus?" asked Hermione trying to trace where she had heard the name.
"R-Regulus?" he asked his smile disappearing for the first time since he arrived. "H-How is...how do you know about Regulus?"
Hermione vaguely recalled a R.A.B. being the younger brother of Sirius Black.
"Regulus?" she said as it all began to click for her mentally. "Do you mean Regulus Black, as in Sirius Black's brother?"
Sidney shook his head.
"Regulus Sebastian Snape." he said proudly.
Snape couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Regulus, your father's son?" she asked.
The Potions Master got to his feet meeting her amber eyes only briefly.
"Yes." replied Sidney. "He says he's my big brother, and Phaeron's big brother too...so I suppose he's older than all of us even Shiloh."
Snape nodded.
"He would have been a good deal older than the three of you." he said his voice soft as he thought back to all those pleasant moments that surrounded the impending fatherhood that awaited him as a youth. "I believe he would have been about thirty-nine now."
Hermione's eyes widened.
"Thirty-nine?" she replied stunned. "T-That's three years older than me."
Snape smirked.
"Well of course, you would have been a very lovely step-mother I'm sure." he said unable to resist the quip.
Hermione narrowed her eyes at her husband but she could tell he had been a bit saddened by the topic of his elder son.
"What happened to him Papa?" asked Sidney.
Snape sighed knowing he wouldn't be able to escape this conversation now if he tried. Hermione had been just as curious as Sidney had been about the fate of his eldest child.
"Regulus was conceived under...extenuating circumstances." said Snape rather delicately. "His mother and I were quite young and in the middle of a wizarding war."
"Did you love her?" asked Sidney. "You loved mother when we were born."
Snape looked at Hermione who arched an eyebrow as if she wanted to know the answer to that question as well.
"Well...I..." Snape started unable to put into words what he felt for the deranged witch Bellatrix at the time. "As I said...things were rather complicated...I suppose I thought I did at the time."
Hermione smirked noting his very Slytherin like answer.
Snape sighed.
"Regulus was killed shortly after he was born." he continued noting the looks of concern on both Hermione and Sidney's faces. "It was done by Rudolphus LeStrange at the behest of The Dark Lord, Tom Riddle."
"Voldemort." said Sidney rather bitterly.
Snape cringed a bit forever use to the pain that came associated with use of that name via his dark mark, which had no longer been an issue.
"Well I'm glad that snake faced git is dead." said the boy with a flicker of malice behind his dark eyes.
"Me too." replied Phaeron as he stepped into view.
It seemed no one had noticed his arrival as he headed toward his parents.
"We've learned that the Spriggons are located in the eastern quadrant of the forbidden forest." he said serious.
"Spriggons?" asked Sidney looking between the adults and his older brother.
"Indeed." replied Snape. "They are vastly powerful ancient forest creatures capable of elemental and nature magics."
Hermione had heard only a little about them during her time at Hogwarts, mostly due to the books being in the forbidden section of research in the library. She had not doubted that Phaeron acquired the books via his father's quarters in the Slytherin dungeons.
"I suggest we find a sitter and get to the forest before dusk." said Hermione.
Snape nodded.
"I-I think that would be wise." he replied before becoming a bit dizzy and nearly losing his footing.
Phaeron and Hermione caught the Potions Professor before he hit his head on the hard wood floor.