Chapter 6: Worlds Collide

Like I promised, we are time jumping a few years to "Adultish" Haven. The end of Harry Potters fourth year.

Let me know what you think!

Worlds Collide

The clock chimed 9PM and Severus felt the the hair on the back of his neck stand with the ring of the chime and he twitched his foot in irritation attempting to alleave some of his building tensions.

He was sitting stiffly in one of Minerva's leather armchairs that sat in her private office of Hogwarts, and he sat staring blankly into the crackling fire ahead of him. His hearing perked and centered on the soft sound of fine China that clinked together and echoed from the room over along with a slow hiss from the kettle.

Ten steps from the stove to the living room, seven steps from the living room, to me.

He tensed his body as he counted her closing-in steps.

"Severus?" Minerva asked for his attention before appearing back in the living room as she held a cup in one hand while the other floated over her shoulder. He raised his eyes and sarcastically cocked his eyebrow in her direction as he turned his neck to look at her.

Minerva stayed silent and rounded behind him, taking her seat in the armchair beside his. She placed his cup of tea on the small table before them and settled back into her chair, watching the firelight lick against Severus's death-like exterior. His head was tilted forward and his hair glinted in the light, casting dancing shadows over his now masked expression. She noted the way he looked at his tea and how as his thumb run over each finger cracking each knuckle slowly from its resting position on the chairs armrest.

"I'm not going to poison you." She stated simply, leaning back and sipping from her own cup.

Stupid. He hissed at himself in his mind, allowing his posture to relax but would continue to ignore the tea.

"Why am I here?" Severus asked stiffly instead, moving the conversation along.

"It's about Jessica."

"Haven." His voice was an aggressive bite which received a sigh from the older witch.

He knew Minerva had gone numb to his aggression years ago and he tilted his head further from her staring eyes as she chose not to respond right away.

"Severus, with all due respect my friend, do you even know what you're doing anymore?"

He smirked darkly, "Don't I always."

"Severus.." Minerva warned in return.

He casually adjusted his position in the arm chair and extended his leg until a popping noise came from his knee. Tilting his head back slightly, he showed his dark smirk that traced his mouth when he received a genuine concerned look from the women, which only lasted a moment.

"Severus Snape. You stop right now!"

His smirk dropped and she quickly continued before he could speak.

"I am sick of this! We are alone Severus! After everything we've been through and everything

I've done, one would think you would finally relax!"

Severus pulled his leg in and darkened his glare.

"One could only wish."

His voice was emotionless and Minerva quickly dropped her attack.

"You're impossible." She said softening her tone and looking away.

"Just difficult," he said quietly before rising to his feet and pacing a few steps, placing his back to her.

His stiffening features foretold a rareness that would come with his next move something that she saw as well as she felt.

"I finally don't know what to do, and -" His voice paused as his words caught in his throat and refused to properly arrange.

"Severus?" she prompted him further after a quiet moment.

"-and, I think I messed up rather big this time."

It had been many winters since Severus first brought the girl to the door of Minerva McGonagall, and as the seasons changed and snow melted, a feeling of renewal and rebirth would claim the land one again. Harry Potter had since become a student and was currently riding out his fourth year of school. The death of Cedric was still a fresh wound on the TriWizard Tournament, the school was quiet as it's year closed up. The school was all talk about the possible return of the Dark Lord, while mourning the death of their classmate while worrying about their future.

Haven was on her way to her 18th birthday and had changed from the impulsive, fearful child Minerva had met, into a hard and rebellious soul that rarely spoke to anyone outside the darkened, protective professor. Not having restrictions in her younger years did not sit favorably for her now. She pushed hard against any form of authority and found herself in panic within four walls for any long extent of time. She sized up well with the boys, wearing her womanhood with pride and soon enough she was feared just as greatly as highest thieves. She was a violent young women of the streets now, who wore her black hair mid-bicep length and shaved bald on the side. Thin red streaks ran randomly through her hair, breaking up the darkness in a peacocking way. Her beautiful grey eyes had shifted to a continuous storm with lightning that would flash a silence into unworthy foes. Even as a child, Haven was years ahead of her age and her homeless life in London only shape her to the hardest truths of the world and it's evil.

Over the years, Severus did not get rid of Haven as he planned, but instead they would continue like they had that first day. He would slip her an envelope under the doormat the times he could get away, and she would leave him a stone she warmed with her hands before leaving it in it's place. There had come a point, against his intuition and heart, where he had given her a key and during the summer and coldest of nights, she would come around to escape the elements.

As far as Severus could tell, which with one as analytical as him was hard to trick, she had never taken a thing.

That night and the few beyond, when they would both find each other at the flat, when her interest perked he would tutor her in the privacy of his home in the same fashion she called for every time. She would choose the topic and choose the book and soon would come asking questions and he would answer them. Simple. Other, more active days when she wouldn't stop walking or talking to him, he would teach her potions, chess, cooking; and in time he found himself learning things from her.

Severus had also taught her other things. Special things that could only be taught under the cloak of night. He enticed her mind and lured out magic from her fingertips then teach her how to control it. Her magic was different a training he had never found much research on before, for her training was not based on wand experience but off of building the magic from the core of her inside.

Weighing in as one of his largest mistakes, he found her magic was impulsive and driven by emotion that demanded control of both mind and body. Severus soon came to realize that a hormonal, female teenager such as Haven, with all her broken restrictions, should not have been given such violent, unrestricted abilities and very early on he corrected the problem himself.

The first time Haven showed up at his doorstep grinning with blood stained hands and magic sparking from her skin, was the first time he ever laid a hand of pure violence on the girl.

He had grabbed her by the arm and attempted to throw her across the room. He would place himself in a dueling stance with his wand exposed, which would normally silence her, but not this time. She acted quickly now and as she stumbled, she caught his wrist upon his release and pulled him toward her and off balance. A quick foot placement and a sharp twist of Havens arm and he was freed and she fell hitting her back against the floor.

Admittedly, he lost his temper against her fight, a blacking out when the corner of her view caught her leg as it pulled in and struck out to what would be devastating kick to the side of his knee with the heel of her boot. In one fluid movement, Severus caught her leg with both hands and with malicious eye contact, he sharply spun her ankle to the side, casting a sickening smile as he heard disconnecting bones erupt with a echoing snap. Her body moved with her breaking ankle and now on her belly, she grabbed towards her back pocket to retrieve her trusty knife as she let out a cry of pain.

To finish her, he pinned her under his knee by her wrist to spine, before casting a magic spell that collided painfully with her fresh broken ankle forcing her to cry out and for her consciousness to wave. In her shock he grabbed her free arm and twisted it behind her back in a painful arm lock before leaning over her and digging his thumb and index fingers into the pressure points on either the sides of her neck, making her bend with his chosen direction.

"You give too much away lass. Remember, I see through sober eyes."

He meant the majority of her fights, and the fact they consisted of drucken and high men while he was sober and scared for the worst. He grinned to himself as she attempted for a backwards head butt, and he quickly dug his fingers further into the sides of her neck forcing another cry.

"Keep trying, love," A darkness set into his words that would lessen the tightness of her neck as she realized who he was becoming..

Who he was.

He applied all of his weight on her now, and grinned a smile upon hearing her spine slowly cracking and in her breath begin to wheeze.

"Our world is that of secrets." His voice cooed near her ear as he pushed her closer and closer to suffocation, "You are no Misah, it is not you who is to expose us and you will keep the secrets of the world that I chose to bring you into. As your teacher, you will grant me that."

Severus voice was a pure hiss now, a quiet whisper that shook the bones as he watched her wiggling and gasping slowly die off and waited until she slipped into sweet unconsciousness before pulling himself away. Lifting his fingers from either side of her neck she gently got off of her limp body.

Breaking a female minor's ankle, attempting to break her spine and wrist and then knocking her out on the carpet of his home, may not have been Severus's proudest moment. But, it shaped the girl for life. There was reason behind what he had to do. She held no restrictions and letting her think he was weaker, was not going to be tolerated. He had won dominance after that, a primal feeling under the coursing magic and after a few smaller attempts to fight him, she finally submitted to his will all before turning eighteen.

He always became violent second and struck painfully when he did. His other life allowed for him to shut off to emotions and torture indiscriminately, an art he had well trained Haven's fear of, something she knew not even the full extent of, held her in place when it came to his word.

Haven's magic made her an animal, her traceless self made her seem invincible and he treated her testing as he would a snarling wolf. To remain a trusted "alpha", even among humans was the only way to keep control of her now.

Haven would go on to push and fight with others, but in quick time she fell silent and adjusted into unending loyalty and obedience to her strange, strict, teacher.

Minerva McGonagall:

She quickly found him when she arrived to Grimmauld Place. He was sitting at the kitchen table, seemingly doodling and looking quite bored. The house lay close to empty as everyone including Sirius had left for the time being, she wasn't 100% sure why he was even there.

"How are you, Professor?" She said as jollily as she would to the man as she entered the kitchen.

The Potions Professor looked up and gave her a questioning look to her preppyness, "Grand." He replied dully, looking back to the parchment and applying a few strokes to the paper.

"Good to hear." Minerva leaned over the paper and paused as she looked at a beautifully inked crow in rising flight from a tree branch.

" Severus, that's.. marvalous." She said trying to find a word that didn't make her sound like a complimenting teacher to the man, as she slid the pad from under his fingers to examine the detail of the inked lifting crow.

"What do you want, Minerva?" He asked dropping his hand to the table, watching her look over his sketch.

"I was wondering if we could talk sometime?" Minerva said returning to the point and handing the

man back his drawing.

"We're talking now."

"I meant about, Jessi-"

"Haven."

Minerva furrowed her brow and looked at the man who sat in front of her who looked at the crow he drew.

"Why do you encourage it, Severus?" The women asked quietly.

"Each to their own." He responded dully, dipping the quill in the well.

An anger began to spike inside the elderly witch.

"And what does that mean?" she asked sparsely.

"It means, if I humor her, she'll humor me, and I can go on being something besides a bother to her."

"And what do you choose to be?" Minerva said crossing her arms.

Severus didn't respond but instead stood to his feet and quietly side stepped around the women on his way out of the kitchen.

Minerva quickly stood and turned to face her old student, "Do you even see what you're doing to her, Severus?"

Her question stopped him in his tracks and he turned around slowly raising his eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

"Look at what you're doing to her, Severus."

"What am I doing to her, Minerva...?" he asked dangerously.

"You don't understand Severus. She was a child! A child that needed a home with nourishment and love or -"

"Or, she would end up like me." Severus finished dryly and Minerva gave an irritated glare.

"No, Minerva, clearly you don't understand. Kids like her, They don't stand a chance... I didn't make her hard nor did I make her cold, the world did all of that."

"You would know." Minerva spat.

"What do you want me to do, Minerva? " He took a step towards her, "Invite her into my home and become the loving father everyone forgot I could be?!" Severus voice was harsh and raising.

"Well, that sounds be better than forcing her to the streets!"

Something in him broke and so did his temper. "Don't you understand, Minerva? She isn't forced. It's her own goddamn, choice! I could go on, about times I pushed her to stay when the rain fell or the temperature dipped. It's all her choice and always has been."

"What if the Dark Lord finds-"

Minerva stopped as Severus bit his cheek and looked away. It was a thought he tried very hard not to lull over.

"I can't make her do anything Minerva," Severus sighed defeated. "Unlike you and Albus, my emotional detachment might be the only reason she hasn't run off yet."

"Unlike Albus and I, you can make her see." Minerva explained gently, trying to coax Severus out from behind his walls.

After a moment of thought and a glance around the empty room from the man, she seemed to have succeed.

"What are you expecting me to make her see, Minerva?" he asked blankly, staring off to the side.

"That magic can be used for more than just getting rid of pain."

Severus:

Severus walked down his street slowly. School had ended and he was ready for the summer

break away from the brats and loud noises and chaos. Suddenly, he caught the scent of black magic in the cloudy, rainy air and slowly picked up the pace while darting his eyes around the empty street. At his flat, he quickly stepped up the stairs and uttered passwords.

"Seeverrrusss" The purr of Bellatrix sang from behind him, freezing his movements.

He looked up either side of the street before resting on Bellatrix, who stood at the bottom of the stairs, a smile on her face.

"Hello Bella."

She smiled a toothy smile.

"You've been a very, bad boy, Severus." She cooed stepping up the stairs, sliding her hips side to sides.

"I'm not doing this now." He spat, turning around to open the door.

Her hand landed on his shoulder and he allowed her to turn him back to her. She slid her fingers over his chest and his lip curled angrily when she stepped into his personal space.

"Bella -"

Bellatrix rested her other hand on the threshold and held tightly between her fingers, sat the white envelope from under the matt.

"What's wrong, Graverobber?" She teased, leaning against him slightly while tapping the paper against the wood.

"Don't call me that." He growled as Bellatrix leaned heavily against him her fingers gripping his coat.

She gave a laugh and narrowed her eyes at him, "Trying to bury the past now are we?" and Severus snapped his fingers around her throat silencing her.

"Thank you for picking up my mail." He hissed with his mouth inches from hers as he plucked the envelope from her loosening fingers before turning around and slamming the front door in her face.

Severus Snape

"Severus.. After what Minerva has brought me and what Remus has said, I have agree with them." Albus carefully said as the entire Order sat silently around him waiting for his response.

"And what does that mean?" His eyes flashing warning, his glare resting on Albus.

Severus swallowed hard as he knew what he was about to be told as Albus leaned over the table and looked straight at his young potions master, "Severus Snape-" He started sternly, watching the man fall back against his seat, crossing his arms irritably his eyes flashing. "You came to me years ago promising me-"

"Fine. I'll do my best." His voice was short and his voice was lined with controlled anger.

"Thank you." Albus said before dismissing the man early.