Chapter 10: Years Between
Warning: This story may contain traces of: OOC-ness, spoilers, tortures, magical spells, AU, swords, powerful spells, badly written but still very awesome duels, family, severitus, spouts of random insanity now and again, rambling author notes and minor character bashing. Engage at your discretion.
THE OTHER WARNING: This author is currently not very busy, bored out of her mind and suffers from severe cases of bad humor. Take the WARNING seriously, just not the author in general.
You'll be surprised at how much people and places can change after a few years.
The world outside the safety of Hogwarts was in turmoil. Utter turmoil.
A dark wizard by the name Lord Voldemort surfaced, with his charismatic charade and growing number of followers, had swept the wizarding world into a fierce and violent storm.
First came the warnings, on ministry supply trains, on muggle-born officials' offices and paperworks, nothing major that the ministry couldn't brush came the raids, few and far between, but they still happened. On muggle business companies, on slums and universities. Not on family dwellings. Not yet anyway.
The Auror office was swarming with all the reports that kept coming in, about a man with bone white skin and red eyes, about a green mark hovering above burning buildings: a skull with a snake slithering out of its mouth.
No matter what they seem to do, the hooded figures kept escaping, and the innocent people kept dying, with the trained wizards one second later than they should have been.
The outside world was afraid, most for death and pain, others in fear of recruitment and change, of killing, of torturing, of being a murderer because someone urged you to make a terrible decision, and you were powerless to disobey him.
But there was a small amount of wizards that were happy. Not the students at Hogwarts, but for the willing followers of this Lord Voldemort, it was like Christmas arriving early.
Some joined Voldemort in fear, for fear of what would happen to their families and their children if they chose to oppose the powerful wizard.
some joined when they were promised gold, power, prestige, respect. they were bribed and threatened and coaxed into the Dark side for something they always wanted but didn't have enough courage to seek.
And some submitted after the Voldemort promised to restore the Old Ways to the wizarding world.
Many pureblood families go way back, all the way from the medieval times or even perhaps further and often kept to the traditions the ministry preached as evil. They watched in silent protests as their world abandoned Samhuinn and Yulemas, abandoned the offerings to the dead and the prayers to Hecate and Loki and Isis. They instead went to the muggle ways of pumpkin and costumes and candies and present under trees wrapped in crystal baubles.
This angered the old families that still worshiped the Greek goddess Hecate, the Norse Trickster Loki and the Egyptian Queen Isis, that still made offerings on the last day of October to help their long gone loved ones find their way home. The ministry almost obliterated their family magics, so the only way to keep them is to destroy the opposition first.
The best defense is the best offense, as the ancient Romans would say.
So they killed and murdered and destroyed. Everyone had the power to kill, but not even Voldemort were prepared to be killed.
Inside Hogwarts, the safe haven for magical children that would one day shape the world, things were far from calm.
There were two types of not-calm surrounding Hogwarts. One was the unrest fueled by what's happening outside, while the other was fueled by the hormones and pranks inside the castle walls. But still, Hogwarts' trouble was very different from the trouble brewing outside.
The easy version:
Ministry: Call the the aurors, Lord voldemort is trying to break into the archives!
Aurors: They are wiping us out! Ten men firing spells and ten more making paper planes out of the Minster's paychecks!
Hogwarts: Call the rest of the Marauders, Black is breaking into Filch's office for his dungbombs again!
Random Student 1: Which Black?!
The Original Student: The one with the mental issues you dumbo! Now hurry, the door is cracking!
The Black that Has Mental Issues: I do not have psychological illnesses you hideous author. Now help me get my bomb back!
The Hideous Author: Who are you calling hideous you mutt?!
Etc.
Ahem, as I was saying before I got carried away:
The unrest in the two 'worlds' were as different as you can possibly achieve, most of the times. One is stifling and seemingly never ending, while the other causes mass panic and whacking of heads with hard-covered books. Most of the time.
In the middle of the both storms, four boys stood. All attractive, all intelligent, all powerful, and they 're all capable of great things. Great things always comes at a high price. and all the heroic princes all have distressing stories to tell.
Third and fourth year went by quite peacefully for almost every student of Hogwarts. They were unaffected by the brewing chaos outside that threatened to turn into a full sized war. Pranks were pulled, girls were snogged, teachers were annoyed, students were irritated and friendships were built, or made stronger.
Not all of them were free though.
Sirius Black and Severus Snape had the worst summer out of the four of them. Though granted the summer after fourth year involved a lot of blood and tears. Sirius' parents didn't harass him much when he got himself sorted into Ravenclaw, they were especially proud when his school exam results came crashing through the window, always by an eccentric owl that screamed Dumbledore's influence.
Walburga and Orion generally left him alone to his own devices when he came home, with usually only books and animagus practices to keep him company. His brother still followed after him whenever possible, but the times he spent with Regulus were growing steadily less over the years, at home or at school. The times he saw his cousins were almost none existent.
Cissy became Narcissa Malfoy, posh and perfect, the ideal Pureblood wife. Andy became Dromeda Tonks, a master healer and the only one bothered to keep contact with him anymore. Though thanks to Severus Narcissa still acknowledged Andromeda as her sister and not a disgraced stranger. What worried him and Sev the most was Bella.
Or Bellatrix Lestrange, to be more precise.
Bella had broken off all contacts to her person, save for her two sisters and Severus whom she now nicknamed Vera for his exceedingly long hair, the minute after her wedding ceremony. His aunt and uncle didn't seem worried, but he couldn't help but feel anxious, like Bellatrix had done something she'll soon regret.
Severus and Sirius had taken upon themselves to escape their respective homes whenever they could, usually to James' mansion that he calls a cottage. Him to escape the suffocating air of the Black family and the praises for Voldemort, Severus to get away from the cold depression that had fallen over Prince Manor when his grandmother were killed in a raid, pointed directly at him.
The summer before fifth year, a year later dubbed by a somber Sirius as the year everything changed, when the raven the wolf and the soon to be mutt met on the Knight Bus, the air was depressing enough to seemingly weigh down even the most energetic of things.
It was then they heard of Fenrir Greyback.
Fenrir: son of Loki, the Norse god of magic, mischief and fire, The Great Wolf.
Fitting, since Greyback and his pack were responsible for almost a quarter of the werewolf population in the world. Remus Lupin was turned by Greyback personally when he was four, just because Remus' father badmouthed werewolves and Greyback happened to be within earshot.
The werewolf had taken an usual by not quite unexpected interest over young Remus here. And by what Remus had told them over the roar of the triple-deckered bus, Greyback was undoubtedly in league with Voldemort, and though recruiting him would be fun.
It was only through the animals in the forest and the hiding skills he had honed to near perfection with the Marauders that he managed to avoid a direct confrontation with the Alpha werewolf.
Greyback had been persistent over the summers, though none were more persistent than Lord Voldemort himself.
"I saw Voldemort," they said simultaneously when the three of them saw James and Charlus Potter at the front hall of Potter cottage. There was a long silence of shock and word processing, then Sirius and Severus looked at each other with the same horrified expressions, and everyone burst into chaos.
Questions were fired in every direction possible, much like the Potter's hair. Mr. Potter for information, Mrs. Potter for their well being, James for overall curiosity and Remus for how the hell did you survive?
A question they all liked to know.
The one that met the darkest wizard in a century in better circumstances would have to be Sirius, where Walburga actually invited Voldemort to dinner.
Sometimes Sirius hated the connections and prestige that came with being a Black. He'll be immensely grateful to it after Voldemort attacked Hogwarts, but right now, he hates it.
As much as he despised that stupid lord with the handsome face and the red eyes that felt so much like Severus'. so cold, he grudgingly admitted that Voldemort was good, very good. So good that he manipulated at least a dozen Slytherins in the room and none of them even thought about tricks.
Charismatic and confident, proud and intelligent. Voldemort had won the hearts of many nobles that night at the dinner party, and also pushed said nobles into a ravine without end to fund his own benefits, or at least dangled them above it, waiting for the drop. None of them noticed, except him.
He wasn't a Ravenclaw for nothing, no matter how much Severus teased him about it.
He saw through Voldemort's act later then he should, though he couldn't shake off the feeling that the wizard had let him to. Dared him to speak up and oppose him in front of so many people.
Thankfully, he did grew up in a pit of snakes, and went to school in a nest of eagles, so he wasn't stupid.
Voldemort was powerful, not only with wands, but with words as well. He could spin them into a web of lies that any self respecting spider would be proud of, a web so transparent that it could ensnare a dozen pureblood nobles, not even aware they've been caught like flies.
When Sirius finished, the moon was high in the sky, and the room was lit by the comforting glow of candle lights and they bathed in the smell of hot chocolates. The adults already retreated to give the four friends some space.
But they should have stayed.
Voldemort had a name other than 'flight from death,' a truly insignificant name of Tom Riddle. Severus' mother had gone to school with Riddle, and his grandparents despised everything about the boy and made no secret of it.
It seemed Voldemort came back to say the same thing, 30 years later.
He couldn't find Augustus Prince when he slipped though the wards, though he did find his wife and his grandson, both reading in the gardens when a shadow towered over them.
Severus refused to give details, though anyone who looked can see the twin bruises around his wrist, and how much he favored them. Voldemort came alone, and he saw death at the age of fifteen. Prince Manor went unscathed, though Voldemort had left his message crystal clear.
It wasn't reported in the newspaper, but everyone who is anyone knew.
Prince Manor's wards increased tenfold and Severus sought revenge.
So that's why Dad went berserk one morning when the daily reports came in, James said when Sirius finished his second trip to the bathroom after his imagination got the better of him.
As head of the Auror offices, lieutenant under the famous Alastor Moody, reports and constant vigilance was always present in Charlus Potter's life. When one morning he received an urgent message from Wizamungot from the head of the Prince family, and put two and two together about James and his summer wars with Sirius Black, rushed off without even thinking about breakfast.
That was the first time he had seen his father take off like that, but it won't be his last.
He had seen his father so little these days. He left home early and came back later, sometimes dripping blood on the floor, sometimes coming home tired but relieved and sometimes he staggered though the door the next morning, paper and wands weighing him down.
James really hatted himself when his father came home injured and covered in blood, usually not his own. The only thing he could do was transfigure clocks into cushions and make bandages and pace the room until his mother comes home.
He really wished Remus was there whenever his father collapsed, waving his wand about and summoning pain numbing charms he couldn't produce no matter how feverishly he tried. Or Sirius, with his prowess at defensive spells that there would be no need for his father to get hurt in the first place. Or even better Severus, where a potions could instantly stop the blood and mend the bones.
He couldn't help but feel useless whenever he encountered something like that and no one was around.
A burden.
He couldn't be more wrong.
Heavy stuff, next chapter will be lighter but it was a war.
Sorry I'm late but family dinners are just diabolical. The Talk was much worse. Like I've said, Raven's Flight was like a humor/friendship/comfort story while its sequel is much darker. Much, much darker.
Pay attention to detail, is my advice to all of you reading.
Do any of you have any suggestions on what to call Severus Animagus form? Review please!