Chapter One: The Fizzle
The cauldron bubbled as the zebra fin fell into the base of the healing draught. Severus continued, absentmindedly slicing and grinding the salamander's tail.
To the very few individuals he was actually close with, they noticed an acute change in his demeanour. He didn't slouch anymore. He didn't hide or lurk as often—quite un-Severus-like. While his confidence in his ability and magic was still there and his witty comebacks were all the same, something about him was different.
That was because Severus was different but all the same. Let me explain. On a particularly humiliating day where Severus, the original Severus, was drowning his sorrows and grief due to the loss of friendship with Lily Evans, polishing off the last bit of firewhisky that he nicked from Narcissa's secret stash, in one of the many abandoned classrooms in the dungeons, our young Severus felt a peculiar intruder in his mind and soul. Being near death's door, he tried fighting back but ended up doing more harm than good by allowing that soul to merge with his own. Or it could be said it was a blessing for the down-in-the-dumps Severus.
The pain was something Severus never wished upon anyone. Severus had enemies, yes, but this pain was otherworldly, harrowing, and unimaginable. The only way Severus survived was, one, he was more drunk than a dwarf at his naming party, and two, his near mastery in Occlumency. Occlumency is a mind art; it doesn't affect the soul, but the sheer amount of information that was forced into Severus's mind would've fried anyone else's brain if not for the fact that Severus's mind was HIS.
He immediately sectioned off an area in his mind palace, a simple forest that looked eerily similar to the Forbidden Forest and the forest near Spinner's End where Severus was raised. His soul still screamed with agony as he forced his mind to keep the intruding memories to the sectioned-off area where the memories piled up into a large floating cloud.
The souls fought for dominance. Severus, having the home ground advantage, made all the wrong mistakes because his brain was occupied and his soul had been tired from all that happened at the lake. The other soul, feeling this, successfully harmonized with Severus's soul, but again, due to Severus's home ground advantage, he still became the de facto controller of the now harmonized souls, the other personality now a part of Severus. Severus was different now, but still felt like himself.
But for his mind, it was a chaotic mess. The two memories—one was Severus's massive knowledge base and the new memories were separated thanks to the old Severus's impressive effort in Occlumency. Both were separated, but the new Severus, Severus 2.0, knew that if they didn't merge these two memories in time, they would cause massive effects on his body. Split personality, obscurial, dementia—all sorts of nasty business.
Severus awoke from his knocked-out state. The two souls were one; Severus was still Severus but a bit different. He felt his mind in chaos but Occlumencied it to be still using only the minimum processing to breathe, blink, and think. He understood that he was different. But it felt as if one goes away from their home for a while, as in a holiday, and comes back. That feeling. Your home is your home; you just need a bit of time to settle back into the area. That's how Severus felt: still the same but just a bit off.
Severus, after calming down, returned to the urgent issue at hand: the other memories. He felt that now, due to him not writhing in pain and silently screaming, he could assimilate the memories clearly. Taking a deep breath, Severus entered his mind forest and jumped straight into the memories. This wasn't how usually the original Severus acted, but maybe the new soul influences made him feel secure in the memories of the other soul. Or maybe Severus stopped caring. He nearly died from the alcohol and the other soul trying to get free housing in his body.
Severus, in his mind, sifted through the memories of a teenager's life. Nineteen years of memories Severus gazed upon. Most of it was just a blurry haze. He gazed upon the love the soul had for his mother, the same love Severus has. He watched as he grew up, the memories flashing by. The other soul's personality being ingrained into Severus as he watched, learned, and experienced what the other soul had. What surprised Severus was that he was mentioned. He was given form in this other soul's memories in movies and story children's books, fiction from fans—all about a Potter. "...Seriously?" Severus thought. But he learned what his life was supposed to be. He didn't like what he saw.
The fizzling of the potion in the cauldron brought Severus back from the perfectly recalled memory. One thing that Severus stopped hiding was his genius. He was keeping it to a minimum, but he wasn't allowing others to take his efforts for themselves. Who other than Severus Tobias Snape can create spells before their balls drop? Who other than Severus Snape can recreate potions from lesser materials because he didn't have them on hand? Severus IS a genius and wasn't allowing others to steal his accomplishments any longer.
What Severus remembers from the other memories is that his mother's potion book, where he had all his experiences written, was a great boon for Severus. He remembers losing it last week. One tends to lose things when you get petrified down a flight of stairs.
He bottled up the deep blood blue potion while reminiscing. Similar to a regular healing potion, this potion can even regrow cartilage. Only the most powerful potions could regrow cartilage, and now Severus had a mildly priced potion for healing wounds that the magical community was too lazy to invest in.
Severus grimaced knowing what he had to do for this potion to take a hundred percent effect. His misshapen nose twitched with the thought process. Severus looked at the ancient grandfather clock that was too tall for the shelf, so it sat on the floor. Realizing it was nearly curfew, he decided to head back to the dorm.
Cleaning up his potion supplies and making sure the ancient potion room wasn't riddled with a mess, Severus made his way to the dungeons. Hogwarts was indeed a beautiful palace. It's unfortunate that the old Severus disliked the place that was supposed to keep him safe and protected. Well, the new Severus was a bit more forgiving. Remembering the stories his mother told Severus about the castle still brought fondness for the hunk of magic rock to Severus's chest.
"Where's Snivellus?" Severus heard the empty air whisper before turning the corner, recognizing the voice.
"The map says he's here somewhere," Black responded.
"Give it here, Padfoot," James snatched the map from Black's hand under the invisibility cloak.
Unknown to them, Severus was right above them on a broom, standing on his two feet, wand at the ready.
The Marauder's Map was an item Severus wanted. He had an idea of how the four crafted it, probably a legacy item from the Blacks or the Potters that the four enchanted with the help of the wards in the castle. Where they found the ward stone was a mystery to Severus, but he thinks that the old fart Dumbledore has something to do with it.
"Where is the git? The map should be right. It hasn't been wrong since we fixed up the enchantments," James loudly whispered, still invisible.
"Maybe he's on another floor or the map's not functioning properly after the hex Snivellus cast on us," Black proclaimed, completely disregarding the attempts at secrecy, throwing the cloak off of the two.
"We have to find him and get back for what he did to us in DADA and Lily. She's still crying over the git," James spoke, clearly not caring about whispering.
"Somnium Ultima," Severus silently cast, knocking out both the teenage boys snoring as they fell.
He floated down on the broom and first cast Somnium again to make sure they both didn't wake up as he looted their bodies. Severus was now very interested in Potter's cloak. Now knowing it is a Deathly Hallow from the tale of the Three Brothers is shocking to Severus. He wants to see if the cloak is mystical or if it's just a well-crafted cloak. He knew there would be some protection put in place by House Potter due to its importance.
He cast κριτική [kritikie] [review], a Greek spell that lets one see the enchantments and spells on an item. An obscure spell that Severus had to search for in the library, learning Greek for it was a pain but Severus was already fluent in Latin so it wasn't too time-consuming.
Severus couldn't lie to himself, so he knew, looking at the cloak's enchantments, that he had no clue what was happening with them. He left the cloak alone on the two sleeping beauties. The map, on the other hand, he cast κριτική [kritikie] [review] again, now looking at the runes for the Marauder's Map.
To Severus's surprise, the runesmanship and enchantment were in-depth and complex, something surprising to Severus since he never thought the Marauders were capable of something to this level. He had to give them props for the map and for their little furry secret.
There was a small location charm that was easily erased from the rune and enchantment formation with no effect on the map. It was surprising how refined the map was. Maybe they got help with it or they actually put some effort into making something. Who knew.
He closed up the rune formation and looked at the map, showing that no one was near them. Severus had an idea. He looked at the sleeping bodies of Black and Potter.
"Incarcerous," Severus conjured using his voice for the reimagined jinx.
He wanted to leave the two bullies with a surprise, making sure that the rope was wrapped in a promiscuous way. Bondage wasn't Severus's forte, but the shoddy bondage would humiliate the poor fools. He levitated the lads' corpses to the opposite hall of the feast hall and started making his way back down to the Slytherin dorm.
Severus greeted the awake paintings. They were kind souls that resided in the paintings, allowing Severus to smile a genuine smile as he lurked back to the dorm, dodging Filch and Mrs. Norris with the help of HIS map now.
Autopiloting into the hallway where the dorm was located, Severus whispered into the wall, "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb."
Contemplating the password, which to him was a bit long, the door dramatically opened to Slytherin house.
Severus enjoyed the green and dark ambiance as he walked into the common room. Before, he would've rushed to his dorm, having no part in the activity, but due to the agreement made a few days prior, Severus strolled to a seat near the lake's window next to a magical fireplace where he sat. A house-elf conjured a warm cup of milk to the stand beside his seat. Thanking the invisible elf as he dipped a biscuit that was given into the warm milk and enjoyed the view of the aquatic creatures outside.
"Severus, great to see you out and about," Narcissa greeted as she sat across from Severus.
Severus offered her a biscuit as he finished chewing so he could reply.
"I was just enjoying the nightlife of the castle and finishing on the potion I mentioned to you, Narcissa," Severus replied as he grabbed another biscuit.
"You didn't have to make up a potion, Severus. I told you I would've recommended a well-known healer to fix you up. It would've been a gift from me, Severus." Narcissa replied, clearly disheartened about Severus's choice.
"As I already told you, Narcissa, I'd rather trust in my own abilities rather than someone foolishly waving their wand near my face, but as always, I appreciate the offer." Severus spoke with a small smile appearing as he spoke.
Narcissa huffed, "Well, if that is what you want. Lucius is finally coming back to England after dealing with the family business in France." Narcissa lightened up her mood as she spoke.
He responded with a nod and a sip of his milk.
Severus still hasn't met Lucius since the accident, but Lucius still writes to Severus as if he's a friend, so Severus is still treating Lucius as a friend because no one usually goes to that length for someone that's not a friend.
"Oh, I forgot to ask, how are the OWLs going for you?" Narcissa exclaimed.
Severus thought about what OWLs he had left. They had a four- to five-day break after an OWL, and mostly the classes during this period were self-study classes. He changed after the history exam, so now he only had DADA soon, COMC, Herbology, Potions, Arithmetic, and Runes left to complete. He'd taken every OWL but didn't receive a time-turner from Slughorn, probably due to him not particularly caring about the sneering half-blood that was a leech to his perfect muggle potioner. Even though it was Severus who had been tutoring his favorite student in potions since the beginning.
Enough contemplating. "I've got DADA, COMC, Potions, Herbology, and Runes left to do," Severus said, noticing his silent contemplation was being rude to Narcissa.
"How are your exams going? You're not 'humbly' asking for potion help. Seems you're doing well, Narcissa," Severus grinned, referring to Narcissa's pleas for help last year.
Narcissa's eyes narrowed as she smiled. "I recommend not teasing the queen of Slytherin, Severus, or do you want to end up on Zibinee's radar?" Narcissa teased.
Severus shuddered, thinking of the worst.
"Though I'd love to see you squirm, young Severus, I have to get some sleep tonight. And again, Severus, it's really good to see you out and about. Have a good night," Narcissa spoke her piece as she left for her dorm.
Severus polished off his drink, waiting for the common room to be flushed out. While waiting, he took out the map and studied the runes again. "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good," Severus thought. Surprisingly, the map folded to life. He watched as hundreds of names shifted about. He focused in on Dumbledore. The map was a very interesting creation. Severus doubted that the Marauders created the map from scratch. He could be wrong, but what he thought it was a heirloom of either the Blacks or Potters, and then the fools enchanted it decently. Severus wasn't going to let his feelings get in the way.
Done watching the old manipulator, "Mischief managed," he thought, still surprised that the map could listen to intention. Severus liked the code for the map. He didn't want to change the fun code but he did add his own runic locator so he knew where it was at all times. Runes were eerily similar to coding from the other's memories, so the runes that Severus implemented were very basic in structure but efficient, and he didn't bother with the rest of the runes.
The common room now was nearly empty, the few seventh years huddled together discussing. Severus got up and made his way towards the bathroom. He took out his dead wand and silently placed a Muffliato charm as he walked towards the bathroom. When he first changed, magic was a big problem for the first hour because Severus could control magic to a master's level but his wand was dead so it couldn't be projected outside. He could do it without, but it would be unfocused and too wasteful of his magic.
The old Severus did something rash but brilliant. The dead unicorn hair in his legacy wand was dead, so Severus ingrained his own magic into the ebony, making grooves for his magic to be guided through, burning away the unicorn core that never listened to Severus. The new wand was just a piece of wood that Severus's magic would pass through with a bit more effort than a regular wand. The byproduct of this was that Severus's magic capacity was growing from his continuous use of basically a piece of wood.
Severus stopped dwelling on the useless facts as his magic swept the bathroom. Luckily, no one was inside. He walked toward the farthest mirror. He finally gave his face a clear look. His lightning-shaped nose bridge made Severus chuckle. The mismatching teeth were not very noticeable, just a bit misshaped. But kids will be kids and try to tear you down one brick at a time. He kept taking deep breaths, knowing what he was planning would hurt. Pain wasn't a stranger to Severus Tobias Snape, but he never hurt himself on purpose.
He grabbed the mismatching cartilage that he called a nose. He didn't bother to take out his wand. He forced magic into his hands, into his nose, took a deep breath, and verbally spoke, "Epexy Ultima."
Craaaackkkkkkk
Severus crumbled under the pain. He let out moans of pain as he lay on the floor, not caring, clutching his nose as tears glazed his eyes.
He reached for the counter where he placed the potion, popped the cork with a smidgen of magic, and gulped down the modified healing potion. He kept the nose in place as the potion did its job.
Laying on the bathroom floor, Severus was humbled. His body wasn't healthy. He needed to start training his body due to his magic being so potent. Without a good vessel for his magic, he'll end up wasting his own potential that Severus fought tooth and nail for.
The pain was reducing to a bearable level. Searching his memories now, this was the seventh time his nose had been broken. He'd broken it once at home, glazing over his boiling emotions that were erupting at the thought, and once every year at Hogwarts. A school where children are supposed to feel safe and comforted, especially for someone like Severus whose home life wasn't a home—it was just a surviving situation.
Severus let out a few chuckles as he got up from the damp floor. At least now, Severus was going to change his own situation for himself and try to help out the younger years in this school of bullies. Severus wasn't going to overlook the fact that he himself partook in it. Dispelling his negative thoughts, Severus looked into the mirror.
What was looking back was a moon-kissed young adult, stooping over the basin. He wasn't magically going to become gorgeous, but at least now Severus looked decent. His previously malnourished face was finally back in harmony as his, albeit large, nose balanced his sharp features. Maybe after drinking a few nutrient potions, he'll finally not be repulsive to look at.
Taking his first deep breath through his nose since forever made Severus feel ecstatic, the pain still stinging but being able to breathe through one's nose is a godsend.