Remembrance and Renewal by Avatar Arkmage and Nigel Tatsuya
Chapter Sixteen:Two Snapes
"Dark Lord," Justin Kase, the interim potions master hired in Professor Snape's absence, addressed in a flat voice.
"Sspeak!" The Dark Lord commanded, fully intending to blast the younger man across the English Channel if he bore bad news, or if he were not bringing another dose of healing draught.
"I have completed the tests on the blood left on your clothing, Your Eminence." Kase droned.
"Well then, who issss our imposssster?" Voldemort tapped the armrest of his 'throne' impatiently.
"The imposter bears a significant quantity of genetic factors similar to that of Professor Severus Snape."
"Might that be from the polyjuiccce?" Voldemort asked.
"No, I formulated the tests to exclude magical alterations or enhancements beforehand." Kase reported dully, the many hours of Cruciatus curses and conventional tortures, alternating with heavy analgesic potions evident. "This individual shares many factors with your regular potions master, Severus Snape."
"He is a relative of Severus Snape?"
"The high quantity of common factors in the imposter's blood, as well as similar magical markers indicates that he is CLOSELY related to Professor Severus Snape. " Kase repeated, not flinching even slightly from the look of growing rage on the Dark Lord's face.
"A c-cousin?" Wormtail stuttered.
"A sssssibling?" Voldermort hissed. If Severus had an unknown brother or a sister, Voldemort would seek him or her out, and put an end to the sibling's wretched life, employing the most brutal means at his disposal.
"An offspring." Justin stated. "The imposter is Severus Snape's child, there is no doubt. The blood samples on the implements used in the Professor's torture, and that collected from your robes demonstrated the same results no less than three tiems.."
"Snivelly's got a whelp?" Wormtail asked in disbelief.
Voldemort cast a warning look on the cowering man, then turned back to Kase, thoroughly stunned. "An offspring? An offsping of the black snake! BUT THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! Snape has no offspring! There has to be some error!"
"I can assure you, there is no error." Justin Case said, his voice remarkably unchanged considering the circumstances. "Your attacker tonight was the male offspring of Severus Snape."
"CRUCIO!" Voldemort screamed, firing his wand at the interim potions master.
Grateful for the cover of darkness, Harry ran to the gates of Hogwarts, and made his way inside. He was glad, but found it curious, that the wards admitted him so freely. Could they sense his arrival? It would be unnerving if they wards admitted just anyone.
"Professor Dumbledore?" Harry gasped, his voice breathless both from running and at being startled at the sight of the aged Headmaster just on the other side of the doors at the main entrance.
"Harry?" Albus gasped at Harry's altered appearance, though he could see right past it.
"Yes sir, it's I..."
"Go immediately to the hospital wing." Dumbledore ordered, both because of the severed arm he saw Harry clutching , as well as the fact that he could detect Harry's injuries as well. "You will explain yourself to me. Why you have broken so many laws in the magical world, as well as a great number of school rules."
Harry staggered, rather than climbed, the flights of stairs leading towards the infirmary with Headmaster Albus Dumbledore following right behind. Though he had climbed these ever changing stairs many times before, Harry felt as though there were suddenly more of them to ascend, as though the wood had been still alive when it was constructed into the stiars, and had procreated with the other staircases in the immediate area over the years.
Either that, or else the incline of the staircases had increased by many degrees within the span of the last few hours. Whatever the case, the ascent seemed somehow more grueling than in times past. Although Harry was relieved to be back at Hogwarts once more, the Headmaster's gaze, which he felt on the back of his head like cobalt flames, made even the inside of a sinking ship seem a preferable location to be by comparison.
On one hand, he longed to tell the Headmaster about all that had transpired that evening. To cry his relief at finding his grandmother alive, if not well. To recount how frightening it had been to fight Voldemort, yet how exuberant it was at the same time to beat the Dark Lord senseless; to relish the thought that he had given the Dark Lord back just an iota of the suffering and intimidation he and other people in the magical world had endured over the years.
On the other hand, Harry wanted to force feed the Headmaster his most undiluted draft of rage. If he had only seen what Voldemort was about to do to his grandmother... and surely Dumbledore knew perfectly well what the Dark Lord was capable of. He had told Dumbledore often enough about the visions he had, and how horrible they were. How could The Order of the Phoenix only meet and not act? What exactly were they doing? Merely biding their time? Watching like a group of imbeciles while Voldemort's forces only grew in number and attacked more innocent people every day?
And what of the ministry? Surely they could do something to stopper the rise of Voldemort's forces and impose harsher penalties for those involved in the recent wave of crimes against the muggles, muggle-borns and half-bloods? They were the governing body of the wizarding world, after all. They could call all the shots.
What's more, could they not have done something before Voldemort's forces had had the opportunity to grow so large in the first place? Can they not do something now to prevent it from growing any larger than it is? Perhaps a hefty propaganda campaign against the Dark Forces? Sure it may not be the most ethical way to do things, but saving lives is more ethical than letting an army of Death Eaters eliminate anyone they deemed unfit to live is it not?
Harry was so angry, he was actually grateful that his best friends were not near him at the moment, for he would not have been good company at all. If Hermione were not safely in her muggle home right now, and were here giving Harry her customary dose of advice he never asked for, he would have told her in no uncertain terms to "shut up, Hermione!". If Ron had intervened on her behalf, Harry would have shoved him into the nearest wall, or spelled him into a conveniently placed suit of armor. If Ron had intervened on Harry's behalf, as he was more than likely to do, Harry would have still shoved him into the nearest wall. He just didn't want any advice or company at the moment.
He wanted to act.
There was just no getting past the dark images which threatened to overwhelm him. He rehearsed his responses to the questions Dumbledore was sure to ask in his mind, more for himself than to answer to the infuriating old man at this point. If Harry had not coerced Cho into helping him, stolen polyjuice and his father's arm and arrived in that warehouse when he did, Voldemort would have...
Harry nearly exclaimed in anger when he thought of what Voldemort was about to do to his poor grandmother... Whether in defiance or in mercy Harry's mind shifted away from the horrific events at the deserted warehouse to the scenes he had bore witness too both in visions and in real life. Voldemort terrorizing innocent muggles, vague recollections of his parents dying, killing Cedric Diggory, his beloved godfather falling into that veil and most difficult for Harry to watch, the sight of Severus Snape being subjected to hours of torture at the hands of both of the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters.
Even though Harry did not know Severus Snape was his father when he first watched Voldemort give the orders to his Death Eaters to punish his potions master for being late to the meeting, he still could not bear to watch such unprovoked acts of cruelty being performed on a relatively defenseless individual. It did not matter that he hated his potions professor at the time, he just could not stand to watch such heinous acts of violence. Now that Harry was seeing these memories through the eyes of a son, his anger flared within him like an inferno fanned by oscillatory gusts of wind. After all, Severus Snape had been late to the meeting because that was the night the man had saved him from the Dursley's home.
Harry's anger turned to extreme guilt when he thought of the suffering he had indirectly caused. If he had not needed rescuing that fateful night, Severus would not have been late to the meeting and would not have been tortured for it. Furthermore, Voldemort would not have forced him to ingest the Interventio Interferous potion, some thing Harry was sure the Dark Lord did for his own sadistic pleasure than for anything other reason.
For over a week Severus had had to endure healing completely under his own power. Unable to use his magic even though he would normally be powerful enough to heal himself. Unable to use his potions when he had the best at his disposal.
Then Harry remembered with the greatest remorse on how he had asked Severus Snape to heal him. True, he did not know that The Dark Lord had forced Severus to drink the Interventio Interferous potion at the time, but that did little to quell the feelings of revulsion at the sight of his father laying in a tub of bloodied water after having done what Harry had asked him to.
That image would surely be among his most indelible. Another being the sight of his father laying on the tiles of the University locker room floor nearly seventeen years back in time. The puddle of blood slowly spreading beneath his mauled body. His iridescent, long black hair, fouled by his own blood. The young Severus Snape's tears, flowing from his eyes and mixing with the blood from cuts on his temple and scalp, matting his just washed hair. And all Harry could do in his spirit form was to attempt to offer comfort, placing a ghostly hand on the only place on his father's chest which hadn't been bruised or torn open. He could barely gaze upon his father's hurt and humiliated face, but neither could he turn away.
Just then, the staircase rose up from beneath his feet and struck Harry squarely in the head.
"Harry!" Professor Dumbledore cried, dropping down at the fallen youth's side. After determining that Harry had merely fainted, Albus lifted Harry into his arms and walked the rest of the way to the Hospital wing.
Arthur Weasley, who was still under orders to remain in the infirmary for at least another two days, stirred at the sound of some one scuffling into the darkened room. "Oh my!" At the sight of the aged Headmaster carrying a person who looked like Professor Snape into the room, Arthur tried to get up and assist him. "Let me help you, Headmaster."
"Thank you very much Arthur," The Headmaster replied, noticing how weak the red haired man still appeared. "But I can manage on my own. Get some more rest, Arthur."
"Nonsense!" Mr. Weasley said, attempting to stand anyway.
"Mr. Weasley!" Madam Pomfrey chided as she raised her head from Dr. Chang's shoulder. "You're hardly in any condition to be getting up on your own yet! Back to your bed at once!"
"Yes, Madam Pomfrey..." Mr. Weasley said, sounding more like one of the students, rather than one of the employees of the Ministry of Magic and the father of seven children.
"You're still suffering from the after effects of all those hexes." Madam Pomfrey said in a more gentle tone as she adjusted the covers around Arthur's torso. "Not only is your equilibrium compromised, but your temporal lobe is still suffering from random magical firings. You could start hallucinating."
It was then that Arthur realized that he had just seen Albus Dumbledore carrying Severus Snape into the triage area. So how was it that Severus Snape was also laying in the bed across from his? Furthermore, the Severus Snape in the triage area had both arms, while the one asleep in the bed opposite his had only one. "Er... Righto!" Arthur said, assuming that he had already begun to hallucinate. Without another word of protest, he complied with Madam Pomfrey's orders and closed his eyes, and was asleep shortly thereafter.
Madam Pomfrey's eyes grew twice their normal size when she entered the triage area and saw Severus Snape seated on the triage table, glaring at her with his... bright GREEN eyes? "SEVERUS!"
"No," Harry said, finding Poppy's gawking expression so humourous that his anger was temporarily suspended. "It's me, Harry Potter."
"Harry!" Madam Pomfrey gasped.
"Mr. Potter has apparently ingested the polyjuice potion, and has assumed the appearance of Severus Snape." Professor Dumbledore said, disappointment markedly evident in his voice.
"What on Earth for?" Poppy shouted, her shock turning quickly to outrage as she gathered her equipment and marched over to Harry. "And what have you done? You're bleeding! Oh! Let us get you sorted out then."
Harry sighed, climbing off the exam table and disrobing so roughly that he tore some of the seams on his robes, and ripped off several buttons. Whether it was because this body bore no resemblance to his own, or because he was too angry to feel any degree of modesty, not even he was sure. Harry continued ripping away at his clothes until there was nothing left to remove. With that, he grumpily clambered back on the table and let Poppy set to work.
Both Albus and Poppy gasped when they saw Harry's side. Not only did he have dried blood and dark bruising from his armpits to the area just above his pelvis, but a few of his ribs were obviously broken. Welts were protruding defiantly from his skin, many of which were bleeding, hence the considerable quantities of blood soaked through his discarded robes.
Even Harry was surprised when he saw his own injuries. He hadn't felt much pain from any of them, and hardly thought about his injuries since the fight. He wondered if that was one of the flaws of the polyjuice IV, or if his adrenaline levels were just too high for his natural instincts of self preservation to kick in. Noticing where both Albus and Poppy were looking, Harry offered absently: "that was from when Wormtail and Voldemort blasted me..."
"VOLDEMORT! WORMTAIL!" Dumbledore's eyes weren't twinkling at all but seemed to have taken the appearance of two roaring blue pulsars.
"I suppose I should explain from the beginning huh?" Harry muttured, as Poppy threw a drape across his lap and went to gather more equipment.
"Hermione?" Dr. Hyperione Granger whispered, peering around the door into her daughter's immaculate bedroom.
"Hullo, Mum." Hermione looked up from her copy of the Daily Prophet. She lay on her four poster bed with her pastel duvet wrapped around her, which was odd, as the night was not particularly cold.
"What's wrong, dear?" The bushy haired woman queried. She sat on the edge of the bed, and smoothed the mane of unruly brown hair back from her daughter's face. "It's 4:12 in the morning, whatever are you doing awake at this hour? Are you feeling unwell?"
"No, mother, I'm not sick. I can't sleep, actually. I'm so worried about all that's happening in the magical community now." She flung the daily prophet toward her mother. "Just look at what that witch said, here in paragraph two: 'They're attacking mudbloods.'"
Mrs Granger looked mildly confused at the term 'mudblood.' "Mudbloods?" Mrs Granger marvelled briefly at the moving pictures, before realizing what the pictures depicted. She dropped the paper to floor in shock. "...!"
"It's a filthy way some people in the magical community refer to some one like me, a person with magical abilities born to non-magical parents." Hermione explained. "The latest attack was in Hixvilleshire, muggleborns and their families are being attacked,that's only twenty-seven kilometres away!"
Dr. Herman Granger, who had woken up when he realized that the warmth of his wife's body was absent from his bed, listened from the doorway, his brown eyes wide with fear.
By the time Harry had finished explaining the night's events in their entirety to Albus Dumbledore and inadvertently to Madam Pomfrey, he was both physically and emotionally drained. Harry's tone had become so flat that the harried nurse was sure that the headmaster had performed some sort of mind trick on the hapless youth, but Harry was merely too worn out to inject any degree of emotion into his tone.
"Harry," the Headmaster sighed, lowering his white haired head, "I do not think you fully comprehend the ramifications of your actions..."
Harry's temper flared once more, but it showed comparatively little outwardly. His words and demeanor reminded both Madam Pomfrey and Headmaster Dumbledore frighteningly of Severus Snape. "And what about the ramifications of sitting on our arses and doing nothing?"
"Har..."
"Every day we sit back and watch Voldemort carry on, is another day more innocent people will die!" Harry said, tossing his still long hair as he spoke in such a manner that would leave little doubt as to his paternity. "If The Order lets them carry on, it could mean half blood families like Seamus Finnegan's get offed! And where does that leave people like Hermione and her parents? Not to mention the muggles the Death Eaters seem to be attacking randomly these days for the sport of it!"
"Come now, Harry, are you suggesting we just fortify our side and ambush them?" Madam Pomfrey asked derisively.
"Better that than they ambush us or any more innocent people!" Harry shouted back, momentarily forgetting that everyone else in the hospital wing was supposed to be asleep at the moment.
"MR. POTTER!" Madam Pomfrey shushed Harry through her teeth.
"Yes I must insist that we discuss this at length at a more appropriate time." Albus watched as Madam Pomfrey administered another healing potion as she held her wand over Harry's side, causing all but the most severe bruising to fade. "After you've rested." Albus selected a set of hospital gowns from a nearby cabinet and helped Harry put them on. He had done this so often for Severus that he knew exactly which of the gowns would best fit him...or at least his body.
"Shouldn't you give him a smaller set of gowns for when the Polyjuice wears off?" Madam Pomfrey asked.
Albus nodded, retrieving another garment from the cabinet.
"If I change back..." Harry muttered to himself, knowing that he had resembled Professor Snape for the better part of the night. Just what alterations had his father managed to work into the Polyjuice IV anyhow?
Madam Pomfrey spelled the beds in such a way that a vacant one was placed next to Severus Snape's. Harry leaned against the Headmaster for support, and allowed the old wizard to lead him toward the empty bed.
"Professor Dumbledore?" Harry whispered, his green eyes falling on the sleeping form of Severus Snape. "I would like to bid my father good night before I go to my bed."
"Very Well," Albus said, carefully easing away from the wounded youth, after seeing to it that the boy was securely holding the bed rails for support. "Good Night, Harry."
"Night..." Harry whispered to the headmaster as he cautiously lowered himself into the chair beside his father's bed. If Harry had felt no pain earlier in the midst of his rage with his injuries untended, he felt it tenfold now. Even though had been healed as much as he could be at that point, the agony was nearly unbearable now, and Harry could hardly keep from gasping each time he moved too much in any given direction.
Not wanting to wake Severus, Harry sat quietly, just observing his father's sleeping form and taking the simplest pleasure in merely watching the man's rising and falling chest. He was alive. His precious father was still alive despite how Harry had endangered his life earlier in the evening. His breathing was very laboured though, and Harry was quite sure that he might not have been able to sleep without the aid of the muggle tranquillizers Dr. Chang had given him earlier.
Harry's eyes came to rest on his father's left arm, which now ended at his heavily bandaged elbow. As the sleeves on Severus's gown were short, Harry could see where his sallow arms had been split open from his own magic just hours before; those grotesque, newly sutured wounds marred his father's already scarred arms further, leaving virtually no patches of blemish free, alabaster skin.
"Oh, father." Harry said only in his mind. "You've suffered so much..." Harry could not even continue that thought. He lowered his head onto his father's chest and allowed himself to cry silently. When Severus didn't stir, Harry gently wrapped an arm around his father's middle and just held him as he wept. It felt so good to be holding his parent once more, somehow so comforting. His parent once lost... and never to be lost again, Not if it were in Harry's power. How could he have nearly thrown it all away for just a few minutes of pleasure whilst being healed by his father? It was a gamble with odds too high.
Unbeknownst to Harry, Severus had awakened and was looking down at Harry in awe. Who was this person who looked just like him? Severus, in his heavily sedated state, decided some one had been experimenting illegally in human cloning, and had just neglected to inform him about it.
'No wait, this wasn't a clone.' Severus thought as consciousness seeped into the vague mist of slumber. 'This was, this was...'
"I'm so sorry, father." Harry whispered just before he dozed off, taking a welcome break from the day's carnage in the safety of a parent's arms. He had explored his father's chest and had rested his head in an area with only fading bruises on it, causing Severus only a negligible amount of discomfort.
In fact, Severus found the contact was nearly soothing, even comforting. In the back of his mind, the memory of his earlier nightmare threatened. Was he capable of hurting Harry, as his own father had him? Severus resigned himself to the fact that he would have to distance himself from his son in order to protect him...
But not jsut yet. Severus was in far too poor a condition in the immediate future to abuse Harry. For now, with only a sleeping audience bearing witness, he could take comfort in contact with his precious angel once more. He could take pride in his son's accomplishments. Enjoy his every gentle breath over the fabric of his hospital gown. Severus looked around the room to make sure no one was awake, then he wrapped his right arm around his precious child. "Good night, Harry." Severus said silently.
Because Dr. and Dr. Granger feared for their daughter's life as well as their own, they insisted Hermione accompany them to their dental offices the following morning. Their offices were part of a large muggle hospital, and at first Hermione balked at having to follow her parents to work, but warmed to the idea once her mother enticed her with a code to access the expansive medical library on the floor below the dental clinic.
"You can compare potions to traditional muggle herbal medicines, dear." Hermione's father added, "just think of the revisions and reports you could turn in to your professors with that knowledge.
Hermione perused magazines in her parent's clinic for about an hour before heading downstairs to the medical library.
As she was kneeling close to the keypad whilst entering the code into the lock to the Medical Library, the ambulance bearing Draco Malfoy pulled up just outside the hospital...
"I would like to see my father please." Draco Malfoy implored in a manner far more polite than was customary of him. For a young man who had previously had no contact with the muggle world, the entire experience was frightening. All Draco knew was that non-magical people were little more than dirty barbarians who reproduced like insects, and went to war more often than Mudblood Granger, The Red Weasel and Happy Pottyhead annoyed him in classes.
Now these filthy muggles had the power to either kill him or to heal them. They could cut him open and do whatever primitive thing they did to heal people, or they could remove a vital organ or two, then leave him to die. They could force a healing potion into his arm, or they could do the same with poison.
Yes, Draco had no recourse but to be as nice as possible to these muggle healers and hope that they did not become wrathful and kill him.
"Of course, Mr.. Uh...uh..." the intern said, reading Draco's chart, "Mal-foy. But we'll have to get you sorted out first. I'm Dr. Payne by the way."
Draco's storm grey eyes grew wide. "Dr. Pain!" He mumbled to himself.
"Nice to meet you, Draco Mal-foy." the doctor, who looked to be in his mid to late twenties shook the frightened teen's hand.
Dr. Payne and Draco went over Draco's recently concocted 'medical history.' To uphold the secrecy of the magical world, St. Mungos had provided Draco with an alternate back story to relay to the muggle medical staff. Draco went on to Dr Payne how he and his parents had attended a football (or soccer) game in Beretaniashire between Hixvilleshire and their home team. When a very sketchy goal was scored by the Hixvilleshire team, some hooligans from the Beretaniashire side protested with a few well aimed Molotov cocktails, fists and beer bottles. Because the Hixvilleshire team had brought their own football hooligans, a spectacular melee ensued.
"So you and your family were caught in all the fighting?" Dr. Payne asked, scribbling notes rapidly.
"That's right, Dr. Pain." Draco replied, rolling his eyes at just how violent muggles seemed. Fighting at a sporting event indeed! Not even at the Quidditch World was there such violence. "We tried to reach the exits, but got trampled by mudbl- people trying to get out as well."
"What an unfortunate situation. Well good job you're here for treatment then. Some people are so ashamed of hooligans supporting their home team, that they seek no medical attention at all when they get hurt in a riot...even though their injuries were due to no fault of their's. Oh well, let's see what we've got here then..." The doctor opened a nearby cupboard and pulled out a muggle hospital gown. "Now change into this, and we'll get started."
"Uh... Dr. Pain?" Draco said, looking at the unfamiliar garment and turning it backwards and forwards. "Which way does this thing go?"
"Oh, you've never been hospitalized before huh? The opening of the gown should be in the back." Dr Payne said as he made to leave the room. "Tie it at your neck."
"Dr. Pain?"
"Do you need some help?" The young doctor said, watching the pale youth struggling with the buttons on his unfamiliar muggle-type jacket.
Being that the mediwitches and mediwizards at St. Mungos only healed him enough to save his life and to assure that a muggle hospital would still see fit to admit him, Draco still found it very painful to move. He could neither lift his arms very high or stand with his weight fully on either leg, and could therefore not easily remove the tattered muggle street clothes the staff at St. Mungos had dressed him in. "Yes." Draco said with a resignation entirely alien to him. Although it repulsed him to do so, he did not wish to chance the muggle healer's enmity and he added: "please."
Cho Chang awoke and slowly raised her head off of her grandfather's chest. Her chocolate brown eyes immediately fell upon Professor Snape, who was shivering violently in his sleep, and appeared to be missing an arm. Oddly enough, there was another Professor Snape in the bed immediately next to the first.
As full consciousness gradually materialized, she deduced what events must have transpired. "So it wasn't a dream after all." Cho thought with growing apprehension. If one of the Snapes was indeed Harry, what did he do to end up in the infirmary? And if Harry had committed some sort of crime whilst in Snape's form... and if the real Snape had been hurt by what Harry did, then Cho had been an accomplice... it was she who helped Harry find the polyjuice potion, after all. She had not even tried to talk Harry out of whatever he had planned to do. Cho was also a guilty party. "Oh, Harry! What have you done?"
"Bloody HELL!" Fred Weasley exclaimed as he entered the hospital wing with the remainder of the Weasley family.
"Now Fred," Arthur warned, his voice still heavy with slumber. "There's no cause for you to use profanity."
"And speak more quietly," Molly chided, smacking Fred's arm. "People are still sleeping."
"Look!" Ron sputtered, motioning toward the two Professor Snapes laying unconscious on their beds.
"I didn't know the greasy git had a twin!" George commented rather loudly.
"BE QUIET!" Molly smacked him in the back of the head.
At that, Harry was startled awake. He blearily scanned the room, wondering what had woke him. At seeing Ron and the rest of the Weasleys staring back at him, Harry smiled widely. Before the Weasleys, Harry had thought that functional, large family units were an elusive entity that existed only in paintings, idealized movies and the greatest works of fiction known to humanity. Arthur, Molly, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny had taught Harry otherwise. Well, perhaps not always Percy, but still. Their cozy home, their cohesiveness, and the love that they had extended to Harry over the years proved to Harry that real loving families did indeed exist.
Harry eagerly sat up and prepared to greet them, and realized almost immediately that he still resembled Professor Snape, The long silky hair he felt falling about his shoulders further attested to that fact.
"The greasy git's gone mental!" Ron whispered to Fred and George, who all had never seen Professor Snape with a wide grin before.
"Maybe that's not him!" Ginny piped as she smacked Ron in the back. "That must be Professor Snape's brother! The Snape who teaches potions is probably the one that is still asleep."
"Oh yeah." Ron said, rubbing the stinging area on his back, and wondering why it seemed that the other Professor Snape appeared almost happy to see all of them.
Harry swallowed hard. He knew he had blundered and would have to come up with a convincing explanation.
But not just yet. Maybe no explanations were needed after all. He did his best to turn his smile into a sneer, which seemed to convince the group of redheads that he hadn't been smiling at all, and had just neglected to finish sneering properly.
Harry breathed heavily with relief when Ginny leaned over her father and gave him a big hug. Her action prompted the Molly, Bill, Fred, George and Ron to follow suit.
As the Weasleys began chattering with one another, Harry looked over to his own father's bed. As he still looked like Professor Snape, Harry concluded that it shouldn't raise too many suspicions if he went back into the chair between their beds and had his own "visit" with his father.
He stopped when he noticed that his father was shuddering violently as he slept. What kind of assailants were attacking Severus Snape's dreams? Harry wondered silently as he decided it best to return to his own bed to observe the man's actions.
Young Severus Snape lay upon the blissful threshold between wakefulness and slumber. He had spent the better part of the day making speeches and engaging in 'intelligent conversation' with prominent members of the wizarding community at the party his family had thrown at Snape Manor that evening. Save for the exquisite food, lavish decor and garish dress robes everyone sported, there had been nothing particularly enjoyable about the party. Indeed, if Lucien had invited a whole graveyard's worth of corpses to the gathering, it would have been as exciting as a muggle music concert by comparison.
Yes, Severus knew that these gatherings were for the sole purpose of impressing Lucien Snape's humbug friends and colleagues. Nothing more. Tomorrow, Lucien Snape would surely cut lucrative deals with apothecaries all over Europe and receive offers he could consider later in the week. Tomorrow, Mervidith Snape would be the talk of aristocratic witches throughout the wizarding world, and would receive the usual invitations to exclusive clubs and gatherings that Severus knew she secretly despised. Tomorrow, Severus Snape would be returning for the start of his Seventh year at Hogwarts.
As sleep gradually overcame the young man, he could not help but notice how his father resembled two of the guests at the party. Namely the Aristocratic Mr. Malfoy and his son Lucius, who had left Hogwarts just a few years six years earlier. Lucius looked so much like Lucien in fact, that Severus was sure if Lucius were to bleach his hair several shades or so lighter, the two men would look like twins. Even though Lucius was at least twelve years younger than Lucien, the age difference was negligible in the wizarding world, and the two still looked like brothers nonetheless.
When Severus could catch Lucien in a good mood, he would be sure to ask just how closely the Malfoys were related to the Snapes. Pure blooded wizard families in Britain tended to be at least distantly related to one another, whether by blood or by marriage. It was not even unheard of for second cousins to marry when more suitable partners could not be found.
Yet the resemblance between Lucien Snape and Lucius Malfoy was uncanny. Save for the fact that Lucien's hair was almost white, while Lucius had very light blonde hair, both men wore it in almost the same length and style. Lucien's eyes were the colour of a frozen ocean while Lucius had eyes the colour of a stormy sky; yet their glares held the same intensity and in many cases the same malice...
Brothers... Severus mused. The haughty, vain and humbug Lucius Malfoy, brother of the ill-tempered and abusive Lucien Snape.
Severus could not recall when he had succumbed to slumber, but he was abruptly awakened by a coarse hand cupped over his mouth, and the sensation of his hair being grasped roughly. Panicking, he tried to move, but found that his arms and legs were being restrained by at least three sets of burly hands.
Severus immediately recognized his assailants. There were guests who had been at the party earlier. He also noticed that they all smelled heavily of firewhiskey and other hard liquors.
"So, you are the great Severus Snape!" One of the men spat. "Your reputation precedes you!"
Although he tried to respond, Severus's words were absorbed into the large hand over his mouth. The man grasping a chunk of Severus's long hair tugged it sharply as he went on. "My name is Malcolm Oduruss, President of the Oduruss Potion Supply Company. Do you have any idea how much business you have cost us over the last five years or so?"
The seventeen year old just shook his head as much as the burly hand over his mouth allowed.
"Deals with the apothecaries in the United States! Deals with the apothecaries in Japan and the rest of Asia! We had exclusive formulations no other potion brewers could concoct, and we could sell them to the apothecaries for hundreds of galleons! Until some one who could brew something nearly identical came along!" The man shouted, yanking on the lock of hair for emphasis. "It took some doing to discover who was breeching our secrets, and selling comparable potions for a song, but some of your customers develop very ready tongues when you pay them off. And what did we find? YOU..!" The man said derisively. Without preamble, he reached under Severus's teal nightshirt and clutched his target firmly. "You!" He scoffed as he tightened his grip. "Why, you're little more than a boy!"
Severus shrieked, and struggled fiercely under the men's grasp, but one of them punched him squarely in the nose, then followed it with a blow to the chest.
"Once we had a lead on who our little saboteur was, we got in good with your father." another man continued, stopping only to chant a spell which caused a magical knife to appear, "and he played his part well, inviting us to his little party so we could persuade you to stop your operations from your school in a more... agreeable fashion."
How Severus wanted to protest that he hadn't made all that many deals with the apothecaries. How could his selling a few bottles to occasional markets in North America and Asia hurt a larger corporation like Oduruss?
The man waved the knife threateningly close to Severus's cheek. "But we'll let you in on a little secret... When you were making your eloquent speeches today, none of us were paying a whole lot of attention to what you were saying..." the man lowered the knife to Severus's chest, which was rising and falling rapidly now. "We were watching you!" With that, the man slashed through the thin fabric of the youth's nightshirt, slicing deeply into his flesh as well.
Severus struggled fiercely and screamed into the man's vigorous hand. The attacker holding Severus's legs drew his wand and aimed it at the door, and uttered a silencing, then a locking charm. The youth continued to scream and shimmy regardless. He suspected what they had planned to do, and they most certainly would not be gentle about it.
"Your daddy won't hear you," Mr Oduruss taunted, producing his own knife and cutting through one of Severus's sleeves. "We made sure to lay in wait just inside the wards, until he and your mum were in bed before coming here! Don't worry though, they'll see you in the morning after we've had a bit of fun with you." Mr, Oduruss roughly slashed through the youth's other sleeve, making a deep gash along his thin, sallow arm. "You won't be able to tell your mummy and daddy what we did to you though, as we'll be sure to kill you, and mop up all the evidence when we've amused ourselves sufficiently." The rancorous man made a final cut through Severus's undergarments, leaving a deep, bleeding gash along his hip.
Divested of any protection whatsoever, Severus frantically made another attempt to break free. To his surprise, his assailants apparently released him, and subsequently broke out into peals of laughter. "Go on, Snape Jr!" one of the thugs teased. "Take your best shot! Go call your daddy! Maybe we'll do him too! After all that firewhiskey, even he's enticing."
Not caring that he was naked, Severus made a desperate run for the door, rather than trying to fight back. Mr. Oduruss merely cast a leg locking charm, sending the youth crashing to the floor. The men roared even louder.
"Oh how the mighty Severus Snape has fallen!" Mr. Oduruss said, lifting the charm and kicking the youth firmly in the side. When Severus doubled over and clutched himself, Mr. Oduruss kicked him in the face, knocking him backwards onto the carpet.
They allowed Severus to make another attempt to flee. He made it as far as the door before the assailants pounced on him again.
Severus staggered to his feet when they let him up, but walked directly into the third goon's knuckles.
"Hey Snape!" one of the other thugs mocked as he grabbed Snape's long hair and proceeded to drag him back toward his bed. "You really must be a virgin! Because you do not seem to know that a carpet in not the most suitable place for activities of this sort! Yet you seem to love returning to the floor. What do you wish to do, give us all rugburn?"
Severus tried once again to break free, but found himself being tossed callously onto the very bed he had fallen asleep in just hours before. Before he could make another attempt at flight, the men were on him, pummelling him with a relentless barrage of fists.
"Please," Severus begged, "Do not do this."
Mr. Oduruss drew his knee back and slammed it into the youth's groin. "You did not stop brewing your illegal potions when we asked you nicely to do so. Tell me why we should not take our payment?"
Searing pain ripped through Severus as he started gagging and coughing. When he thought he could bear no more, Mr Oduruss kicked him again. Severus screamed, and continued doing so as the sharp pains resonated throughout his body.
"I'm a boy! I'm just a boy..." Severus choked out.
"We've noticed!" One of the thugs shouted appreciatively.
Severus gathered what little breath he was able, and prepared to ask the men how could a simple boy like himself be a threat to any corporations. The words died in his throat when Mr. Oduruss rolled Severus onto his stomach and proceeded to disrobe.
Just then, Lucien Snape kicked the door in. Suffering from a bout of insomnia, Lucien had meant to see if Severus was still awake. Because the party had been so successful, Lucien was still in a good mood, and wanted to share a cup of freshly prepared cocoa with his son. At finding Severus's door magically locked and silenced, Lucien suspected the worst, for Severus wasn't allowed to do magic outside of school yet.
All of his suspicions had been correct.
One of the men aimed his wand at Lucien. Infuriated, Lucien ducked under the blast and dove into the man's legs, knocking him to the floor. In a swift motion, Lucien drew his wand and ripped open the man's jugular vein.
Mr Oduruss and his two remaining thugs took aim, but Lucien was so incensed that none of them had any time to act. The pale man swung his body sideways and scissor-kicked one of the thugs to the carpet. On his way down, he struck the other thug in the knees, sending him reeling as well.
Mervidith Snape, who had been rudely awakened by the commotion now resounding throughout the house, entered Severus's room and screamed at the sight that met her. "Sevvie!" She was at his side a fraction of a second later. "Oh Merlin, you're bleeding! What happened!"
Mr Oduruss made to grab the lithe woman, but Mervidith picked up one of Severus's text books from a nearby shelf and slammed it into the man's jaw, knocking out two of his teeth.
Lucien adopted the behaviours of a wild animal,and hurled curses and hexes almost indiscriminately. Even Mervidith had to gather her son and pull him out of the way. Severus went willingly, appearing to be so in shock that he couldn't escape on his own.
There was something inhuman about the way Lucien carried on. Not even Mervidith had ever seen her husband behave in such a feral, unbridled way. The thugs were granted no quarter to regroup. Indeed Lucien allowed them no opportunity to get off the floor and struck each of them down in turn.
Lucien withdrew a cord from the curtains and wrapped it around one of the thug's legs. It was the thug whose jugular vein he had severed, and the blood ran out of his neck in a grotesque stream.
"SEVERUS!" Lucien rounded on his son after beating Mr Oduruss's face until it was only barely recognizable as human. "Get over here and fight these animals! Teach them the penalty for violating you!"
But Severus only withdrew to a corner in the room. He had drawn his knees to his chest, buried his face in his arms, and was sobbing.
Exasperated, Lucien stomped over to his son and yanked him out of the corner by the wrist. He threw Severus onto the bed and examined him roughly, as though the boy were nothing more than a carcass to be readied for the cauldron. "Well that's good, they didn't violate you! What on Earth are you crying for?" Lucien shouted at last. "Go! Go and fight them like a man!"
When Severus didn't move, Lucien hauled him over to where the men still lay on the floor. "Kill THEM!"
"Father," Severus whimpered, the blood from his own injuries dropping to the floor and mingling in the carpet with the greater quantity of blood from his assailants. "They're already dead..."
"Well he's not dead yet!" Lucien screamed at the sound of Mr Oduruss's rasping breaths. "Kill him!"
"LUCIEN!" Mervidith shouted. "Sevvy's not allowed to do magic outside of school!"
"Who said he needs to use magic?" Lucien picked up one of the knives that had been used earlier to remove Severus's clothes and handed it to the traumatised youth. "Kill HIM!"
At the sight of what his father had put into his hand, Severus cried out. He dropped the knife to the floor, shaking even more fiercely.
Lucien removed his belt and struck Severus sharply in the back, leaving a bright red welt. "What are you waiting for? Kill him! Make him pay for trying to use you like his personal toy!" He brought the belt down once more across Severus's back.
"LUCIEN!" shrieked Mervidith. "How could you be so cruel! Our son is already hurt!"
"And he will continue to be hurt until he learns to fight back!" Lucien shouted, threatening to strike Severus again.
"Okay... fa-ther" Severus sobbed as he picked up the knife and moved it slowly to Mr Oduruss's neck.
"DO IT!" Lucien yelled again, bringing the belt sharply between Severus's shoulder blades. The seventeen year old screamed again.
Mervidith had seen enough. She stomped over and punched Lucien with such force that he was sent reeling. He ended up upsetting one of Severus's bookshelves as he went down.
"Lucien," Mervidith said, gathering some towels, and kneeling beside her son. "Look at him!" She pressed a towel to one of the deeper gashes. "He needs medical attention!"
"What for? They didn't rape him!" Lucien rubbed his bruised cheek as he spoke. "And what are we supposed to tell the staff at St. Mungos when they try to call the aurors?"
"Great Merlin, Lucien!" Mervidith said, desperately trying to halt the bleeding from the gash along her son's right arm. "They still hurt him!"
Severus collapsed to the floor and curled into a protective ball. He had always hated when his parents quarrelled, particularly since it invariably resulted in his mother being beaten to within an inch of her life. He especially hated it when they fought over him.
Lucien exhaled deeply and stomped over the closet. "For Merlin's sake! Put on some clothes, you're nearly an adult! You're too old to be naked in front of your mother." he yelled as he threw Severus a clean nightshirt.
Too afraid to risk infuriating Lucien Snape further, Severus sat up and pulled his arm into one of the sleeves. The other sleeve eluded him and he scrambled to don the garment. The more he struggled, the less cooperative his clothes seemed, and soon the pale blue nightshirt was stained in splotches of bright red and was stuck to his skin where the bleeding was still heavy.
"Ohh!" Mervidith groaned, forestalling her son at last. "Heal him!"
"Bloody heal him yourself!" Lucien snapped, slicing one of the corpses on the floor all the way from the neck to the pubic bone.
"And what are you doing?" Mervidith asked, laying the clean towels on Severus's bed.
"What?" Lucien retorted, running out of the room and returning shortly thereafter with a stack of clean containers. "Surely you don't think I'm going to let these...beasts... go to waste."
"You're not going to call the aurors?" Mervidith asked in horror as she wrapped Severus in a blanket and assisted him to the bed.
"No, I most certainly will not call the aurors!" Lucien replied, mimicking Mervidith's tone as he proceeded to place the corpse's internal organs into jars. "What would you have me tell them? 'I caught the President of Oduruss Potions Supply Company and his board members about to rape my son, so I killed them?'"
"That is what happened. And besides, these are high profile wizards, people are bound to come looking for them..." Mervidith said, concentrating her magic onto one of the gashes.
"We have the perfect cover!" the pale haired man replied, cutting chunks of flesh and placing them into one of the jars. "These miscreants left the party relatively early, and a lot of the guests saw them leave! If they came back to molest their host's kid and were killed by said host, it's their own error!"
Mervidith inhaled deeply and leaned into Severus's bed after healing one of the larger gashes on Severus's body. Because her wand had been broken by ministry officials many years before, Mervidith could only get away with performing small acts of wandless magic. These acts took a heavy toll on her, but she stubbornly persevered. After a few seconds of respite, she began channelling her energies for another wound.
"Oh! Enough!" Lucien shouted, stomping off to Severus's loo to wash his hands. "I'll heal him."
Lucien made quick work of Severus's wounds. After applying salves to Severus's lesser wounds, Lucien hastily pulled another clean night shirt over the youth's body. "Come and help me, boy! Destroy all evidence that these whoresons were ever here!"
"Can you not let him rest?" Mervidith protested. "He has to leave for Hogwarts in the morning!"
"Why do YOU not rest? No one invited you in here." Lucien grabbed Mervidith by her nightgown and threw her out of Severus's room. "You sapped a lot of your own energies healing the whelp after all."
"And you! Help me harvest these potion ingredients," Lucien ordered, handing Severus a pair of gloves and a set of scalpels. "Human ingredients are something a potion master doesn't have access to every day, after all."
Severus took one look at the bodies on the floor and shivered, the memories of what these men had attempted to do still fresh in his mind.
"You!" Lucien shouted, taking his belt and proceeding to beat Severus again. "You will do as you are told! These things are not men anymore! They are potions ingredients! We do not have the opportunity to acquire human ingredients very often. They do not deserve a proper burial, they are things! Anyone who tries to molest any son of mine is a thing!" By this time, Lucien had Severus leaning over his desk as he beat the boy relentlessly with his belt. Within seconds, he was breaking the fabric of Severus's nightshirt and leaving red stripes all over his exposed flesh. "So get over your petty fears and get to work!"
As always, Mervidith ran into the room and tried to protect her son. "What kind of father are you? What father beats a son who is already hurt?"
Lucien then turned on her and beat her mercilessly, accusing her of encouraging her son's cowardly behaviours.
"Only an inhuman father would beat a child who is already hurt!" Mervidith screamed as Lucien backhanded her once more. "If you loved your son, you wouldn't beat him! Especially now! He needs us both!"
Severus tearfully held the knife to Mr. Oduruss. His eyes were so full of tears that he could not see what he was doing, but he knew human anatomy enough to go by feel alone. His mother's screams continued to fill the silence as she was now the one being brutally assaulted.
"Please, father." Severus whimpered, incoherant. "Stop..."
Severus awoke to the sensation of a cold substance entering the intravenous tube in his arm. He opened his watery eyes, and was met with his own face smiling upon him ... with bright green eyes.
"Oh father!" Harry said, his smile looking so strange coming from what appeared to be Snape's own face. "We've been trying to wake you for hours! I'm so glad you're conscious again."
"How are you feeling Professor Snape?" Dr. Chang asked, withdrawing a needle from the IV line.
"Fine..." Severus lied. "Never better."
Heedless of anyone who might be watching, Harry threw his arms around Severus's neck and hugged him gently so as not to exacerbate the man's injuries. "You were like that for hours! You looked almost dead! What was going on? What's wrong?"
"Nightmares..." was all Severus offered as explanation, even as tears clung to his dark lashes.
After Dr. Chang completed her check on Snape, she moved on the next patient. Harry leaned close to his father. "Would you like to tell me about your nightmare? I have them too and..."
"NO!" Severus shouted loud enough to draw the attention of people in the immediate area. He waited until they turned away before continuing. "I do not wish to speak about my... nightmares. But I am curious..." he paused as he met the boy's bright green eyes, then lowered his voice to a tone just below a whisper. "What have you done, Harry?"
"What?"
"Why do you look like me now?" Severus asked diverting the topic into safer territory, his voice even softer now.
From across the room, Ron Weasley gazed in wonder at the two Snapes End Part Sixteen
