TRICK OR TRUTH?
CHAPTER 2
This story was a little joke, already complete, but I found it fitting to show a further meeting between the two of them after reading the essay headed"The chapter that made us fall in love with… Severus Snape"on Pottermore. As if we hadn't already fallen, eh?
So, I decided to add this further vignette – a flash fic of exactly 450 words - because, of course, I share Snape's annoyance… but also his undying desire for truth and justice, as well as a mixed feeling of affectionate gratitude and aggravation toward the woman who created such a wonderful man.
Put the blame on Lady Memory for informing me about the text … along with my thanks for her friendly preview! And many thanks, as always, to Whitehound, who edited it with special care.
"It's too little too late!" said a voice that she hadn't heard for quite a long time and that, in spite of the angered tone, sounded more like a whisper than a shout.
Slowly, the blonde woman turned her swivel chair, no longer looking at the page on the screen that she had just written, but assessing the man who had spoken.
"It's so lovely to hear your voice again! It's been ages since I've had the pleasure, you know, and I just…" she eventually said, stumbling a bit on her words.
"You just…" the wizard mimicked, sparing her the effort to continue. "You 'just' used me again, didn't you?" he went on, each word tinged by his distinctive voice and disillusioned sarcasm.
"I've really missed these exchanges…" she went on, undaunted. "After all, you've always been 'the greatest instigator of the story's events' * to me."
Rather than answering that admission with an angrier retort, and absolutely not flattered by that epitaph which anyway he had already read on the screen, he stood silent and thoughtful as if he were really pondering her words.
"That, I was," he sighed. "And yet, there are those people, many people, whom you have seldom acknowledged, who understood the truth from the start… I don't really see the point of such a 'walk inside'**now."
"Why, Severus, you're here; that's the point, of course. Those fans are not the only people who need to keep you alive," she admitted, blushing.
He knew that, and remembered the time – so many years ago – when he had asked her to end the trick and tell the truth. Useless attempt, obviously, but…
"Mphh…" he muttered after a while, "I suppose I should tell you more about the whole story then, and maybe you could finally give a better shape to it. For one thing you, like Dumbledore, always misunderstood why I wanted to keep my choices and my commitment secret.
"Plus, those people are still fantasizing about what happened to me after my encounter with Nagini. They deserve more than… this," he ended, pointing at the computer on which the woman had been writing her article until his Apparition had interrupted her.
The look he cast at the piece while speaking led Snape to miss her mischievous glance, full of triumph.
Then, as he started to explain his story in detail, still unaware and looking away as if dubious, even then, as to the wisdom of such disclosure, she pressed Enter and uploaded what she had written to her website.
"For now, dusting off old news will be enough," she thought. There were so many years yet to come, and all the time necessary for the true Tale of her Prince.
* Quote from "The chapter that made us fall in love with… Severus Snape" on Pottermore.
** Quoted from the same essay "A walk inside Snape's memories transformed him in Harry's mind from sniping Potions master to 'the bravest man he ever knew.' We take a closer look at the chapter from Deathly Hallows that changed everything."