Antiquity's Corollary by gonnabefamous
Past Featured StorySummary: At Lily's request, Albus Dumbledore has kept a secret from Severus Snape for 17 years. When Dumbledore learns that this secret plays a vital role in the war, however, it is Snape who is left to deal with the consequences. As Harry's true parentage is revealed, both his and Snape's futures become uncertain. The two must learn to work together in order to survive. PreHBP.
Categories: Parental Snape > Biological Father Snape Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Draco, Dumbledore, Ginny, Hermione, Ron
Snape Flavour: Canon Snape
Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Family
Media Type: None
Tags: None
Takes Place: 6th summer
Warnings: Alcohol Use, Torture, Violence
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 58 Completed: No Word count: 401010 Read: 379383 Published: 28 Jun 2005 Updated: 11 Oct 2015
Dreams of Old by gonnabefamous

Chapter 12

Dreams of Old

xxx

Severus left the castle in a very strange manner. The abnormality was not in the way he physically left, but the emotional state in which he did so. More than anything, Severus was shocked by the desire he had to stay with Harry. He wanted to seat himself next to his bedside and watch him uninterruptedly, while he was awake or asleep, to make sure nothing else could happen to him. The possibility that what he was feeling for the boy was actually genuine concern nerved him… what was more, he reminded himself of someone. He reminded himself of Dumbledore.

Ever since Harry Potter had arrived at Hogwarts, Severus had loathed the very thought of him. He hated staring into the green eyes that belonged to his former wife, and seeing them surrounded by James Potter's face twisted into an expression of dumb defiance. He hated hearing the boy's voice when he would talk back, he hated every disrespectful glance the boy aimed at him. He hated that he could yell at the boy and berate him to no limit, and the child hardly even gave him the satisfaction of a response. He hated that he was glorified by the entire Wizarding world for a victory he hadn't even claimed by his own means… Lily was the only reason the detestable child was alive, and yet he received all the fame and respect of the public because she had died to save him.

Most of all, Severus hated the constant reminder that she had chosen Harry over him, James over him… she had laid down her life for two people who'd been with her only a year or two. Severus had been there for her much longer; they'd shared everything, and he had treated her well. He'd given her his devotion, his servitude, his trust… he'd even gone to dinner with her muggle family just so he could ask for her hand as she'd always dreamed would happen. He'd given her all of this, and still it hadn't been enough to resist the wonderful "James Potter". Nine months of pain and suffering during pregnancy was all James and Harry had given her, and yet she'd given the ultimate sacrifice for them.

This burden weighed heavily on Severus every day. Over the years, he'd come to accept the fact that he simply hadn't been good enough for her. He'd bitterly pushed it to the back of his mind… but he never truly forgot the significance of the pain he'd been caused by it. He still felt it; it was part of the reason for his overall malevolent demeanor. He'd always had his dark, sarcastic, often vengeful traits, but not until he'd been betrayed by Lily had they taken domination over his personality.

Yet he'd spent his years chasing after the troublemaker of a boy spawned by her and her lover, protecting him, watching out for him, and yes, occasionally prowling just to see if he could punish him. As he hadn't been able to sixteen years ago, he couldn't justify allowing death to come to the boy simply because of a harbored resentment. He deliberately took the role of guardian angel to the boy, though he would never admit it to be anything more than a desire to see him expelled. Through his cruel and sadistic ways he'd inconspicuously guided the boy through his years at Hogwarts, teaching him to always watch over his shoulder, and to learn how to deal with difficulty. Dumbledore had done his best to keep the boy out of danger, but as a great philosopher had once reasoned, it is better to be feared by your subjects than loved by them. Harry would never stay out of trouble simply because he respected Dumbledore, and Severus knew it. "Let the boy find comfort in the old man," he'd tell himself, "and I will be the one who keeps him in line."

And so Severus had done. Of course, no mistake was to be made, Severus had never liked the boy, and he had never felt anything remotely close to care for the boy. That was what was scaring him now; for the first time, he did care about what happened to Potter. He wanted to help him; he wanted to keep him safe, more out of virtue than duty. Seeing the boy so helpless and vulnerable, eyes completely devoid of anything but fear had stirred something in Severus. An almost fatherly feeling… similar to the one with which Dumbledore often fostered him.

Severus shook his head and tried to push the thought out of his mind. He certainly felt anything but "fatherly" towards the boy. He blamed his sudden attitude on the shock of the news he'd recently received. In his longing for the return of his child and wife, he was left vulnerable. There was no other explanation; he was doing little more than projecting that desire onto the nearest recipient of his fatherly feelings, and Harry had been just that.

Satisfied with this conclusion, Severus paused outside the entrance to the cave in order to clear his mind. It would not do for the Dark Lord to learn any of what he was feeling. It would take quite a bit of explaining after the story he and Kingsley had fed to him.

Feeling prepared, Severus took a deep breath and cagily stepped into the Death Eaters part time headquarters. It was completely empty, and Severus silently berated himself for taking such a long time to get there. Now he would be punished not only for his failure, but also for his tardiness.

"Severus," Voldemort chided as he stepped into the circle. "You're late. I would think a wise man such as yourself would do what he could to draw attention away from himself. You know," he paused. "I'm starting to think your standards are lowering. First, you let Potter get away, now you're showing up late. None of the information you've given me recently has been of help… I'm pondering your necessity to this organization."

Severus bowed low, kissing the hems of his "Master's" robes. "My Lord," he said exultantly. "If you would only allow me to stay in your service. My life is indebted to you; it is my only wish to see you rise to the top."

This was, perhaps, Severus' least favorite part of being a spy. Admittedly, he sometimes enjoyed the conniving and deceiving ways he had adapted to using around the clock. It was somehow satisfying. However, the necessary bowing and scraping was enough to make his stomach turn. He hated the false visage of servitude and worship he had to wear, and he hated the way he had to convince the Dark Lord of his loyalty.

"You know I cannot let this go unpunished," said Voldemort, affectionately twiddling his wand.

"As rightly you shouldn't, my liege." Severus said, resisting the urge to gag at the words coming out of his mouth.

"And as you know I can't stand," He laid extra sarcasm on the word, "watching you suffer, I will leave that to the people who delight in it." A twisted smirk curled around the pale man's nearly non-existent lips.

"Wormtail!" Voldemort cried out, smiling insanely at the cowering man. "You've been begging me a long time to get rid of Severus, haven't you?"

"Y-Yes, Yes I have my Lord," Wormtail said, looking back and forth between Severus and Voldemort, eyes alight with excitement.

"Choose five others in this circle, and you may go and take care of him properly." Voldemort said, turning his attention back on Severus. "You know you deserve this, Severus." He said quietly.

"Worse, my Lord. I thank you for your mercy."

"You see, Wormtail? That is the mark of a faithful servant. Be more like him, and maybe you'll actually amount to something one day…" Voldemort paused and surveyed him disdainfully. "Though, I doubt it. Take him away."

Voldemort stepped back and watched with both apathy and sick pleasure as Severus was led away to the torture chambers.

"Oh," Voldemort called after them. "And just see to it that he doesn't die. He's worth ten of you, and if you do anything irreparable, I'll make sure the loss is repaid."

Severus had a very strong suspicion that Voldemort was doing all he could to increase these men's hatred for him. He would praise Severus and shoot every one of them down so that they would be all the more cruel in their torture of him.

And so the process began.

Severus was bruised, bloodied, and battered. The bigger men used their brute strength to injure him, repeatedly punching and kicking him, pulling him up by his hair only to throw him against the wall and laugh as he fell back down again. He was cut multiple times; it was the slow process of bloodletting that weakened him most. Some of the more crafty men in the group used various curses to strike him, and there was no mercy. Before long, Severus had reached a state worse than ever before. He lied there on the floor, gasping for air, blood and fluid draining from his body, limbs twitching with every slight movement made in the room. As was their custom, none of the men did anything to help him; they left him there to fend for himself.

The door was wide open; Severus knew that all he had to do was muster up enough energy to walk through it. He pushed himself from the ground, and gripping the walls for support, he stumbled towards the light. Without anything to hold onto, however, he soon collapsed, and he knew he would not be able to get back up.

Severus fumbled for the coin in his pocket, and with what little energy he had left, he etched the initials "A.D." into it. He then slipped into the realm of unconsciousness, hoping Dumbledore would soon arrive.

Albus Dumbledore was pacing back and forth in his office. How could he have done this? He had planned to tell Severus of his relationship to Harry several days earlier. He'd had a whole story planned out; he would tell the young professor that he had only just learned of the relationship when trying to perform a new blood protection spell and it had revealed the seemingly impossible news. However, when Severus had seen Lily's memory in the pensieve, Dumbledore knew that there was no hope in still using this story. Severus was much too clever to believe him; he would have known that Dumbledore had been hiding it all these years. He couldn't stand to betray Severus' trust, and so he had taken the much lower road…. And now he was regretting it.

Dumbledore was shaken from his thoughts by the burning coin in his pocket. He reached inside and pulled it out, and saw that it was glowing with the initials "S.S." He clutched the coin and willed it to take him to the place where his former student was calling him.

xxx

Harry Potter was lying in a deep sleep, a goofy smile spread across his face. Had he been awake, he might have felt rather more confused than happy.

This was because the dream playing through his mind involved two very peculiar parties, Lily, his mother, and… Snape. The oddity was, they didn't seem to be fighting. Lily wasn't standing up for him, nor was she yelling at him. They gave off an odd vibe, a vibe that insinuated more than even simple friendship…

Lily was laughing, her face lit up with an irresistible smile. Snape was watching her in amusement, his normally hard expression softened with an enigmatic grin. Harry watched as his mother told Snape an elaborate story in great excitement, gesturing animatedly with her hands as she did so. Every once in a while, she would stop and look at Snape expectantly, and he would, with a smirk, mimic her latest hand gesture to indicate that he was following.

Harry found himself moving closer to see exactly what was going on. However, he had hardly taken one step when he felt himself being pulled from his dream. There were voices around him, noise.

Suddenly, Harry awoke with a start. The hospital doors had swung open, and he tried to sit up in his bed to see what was going on. Someone was being brought in. Harry blinked several times and had to rub his eyes quite a bit to realize that it was Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey bringing in… Snape.

Despite the sharp, stabbing pain that rang through his ribs, Harry sat bolt upright. He had known it was a bad idea for Snape to go, and he had warned him not to. Dumbledore placed Snape into the bed next to him and immediately began helping Madame Pomfrey to treat him.

"Will he be alright?" Harry asked, peeking around Dumbledore.

"We can only guess," said Madame Pomfrey gravely, pulling down various medical objects.

"Severus has come through a lot, Poppy," Dumbledore said indubitably. "I'm sure he'll pull through this."

"I certainly hope you're right, headmaster." She said, yet with a slight waver of doubt in her voice. She walked around Harry's bed.

"Take this," She said, handing him a potion. "It is a light slumbering potion. It would probably be best if you were asleep for now."

Harry didn't really want to take it. He wanted to stay awake and see what was to come of his professor. However, Madame Pomfrey was eyeing him with a very challenging glare, and he dared not to defy her. He downed the potion and allowed himself to fall back onto the pillows, slipping into another period of rest.

Once again, Harry was in what appeared to be somebody else's dream, and it involved the same two people as last time. This time, he was much closer though. And this time, they were seated at what appeared to be a small kitchen table.

The house he was in was very large, but the rooms (from what he could tell) were small and evenly spaced throughout. As he looked around, he saw that he was right in guessing that this was some sort of kitchen.

Harry seated himself at the table where they were and watched with interest. He was slightly more conscious than he had been in his previous dream, and he wasn't quite so blissfully unaware of the bizarreness of the situation.

"I don't know, Lily." Snape was saying. "You know, I spent so much time trying to convince him that I was something great, and the whole while I was overlooked for those miserable prats. Why bother now? Why waste my energy?"

"Because it's the right thing to do." Lily said gently, placing hand lightly on top of his forearm. "Dumbledore is a good man, and he has confessed to me his regrets in paying so little attention to you during your school years. But now he's trying to make amends, he's offering you this job… it's a great opportunity."

"A great opportunity to do what?" Snape said bitterly.

"To teach children Defense against the Dark Arts, of course." Lily said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "And you're the first person he came to for the job. It pays well, and it's a very respectable position. The applications are flying in, Severus, don't turn this down. You love this subject, think about it."

"But I don't want to work for him." Snape said determinedly. "I could find work somewhere else, or we could just settle down. There's no harm in not working for now, while we're young. We could just enjoy ourselves."

Lily looked uncomfortable as she shifted in her seat and let her hands drop to her lap. "That's the thing, Severus. I've already accepted a job elsewhere. I mean, I was so sure you would want to take this one, well, I didn't want to end up bored while you were off teaching all the time."

"You took another job?" Snape asked, brow lifted in surprise. "Where?"

"The Department of Mysteries." Lily said. "Dumbledore reckons it'll be a good in on the ministry if a time comes when we need one, and it would keep me out of harm's way. Most never dare to attack an unspeakable, they're too valuable."

"Right," Snape said, nodding and sitting back in his chair.

"You're not angry, are you?" Lily asked, frowning.

Snape shook his head. "Not angry. But I don't want to take that job with Dumbledore. Maybe in the future…"

"Severus, the job will be filled by then. Wait and you'll end up in Potions or something, seeing as how you have a knack for that."

"I hate potions." Snape said quietly.

"I know," Lily said with a chuckle. "But with your aptitude, that's where you'll be."

Snape murmured something inaudibly and raised an eyebrow. Lily, looking slightly peeved with him, got up from her chair and busied herself with a half-sliced apple on the counter.

Harry yearned to keep watching, to satisfy his curiosity, but his potion was wearing off and he was becoming gradually more aware of his surroundings. Try as he might, he couldn't hold on to the dream- it slipped away as he awoke. When Harry finally opened his eyes, he realized the sun was already setting; he'd been asleep longer than he'd thought. He glanced over to the bed next to him, and saw that it was empty.

"Madame Pomfrey," He said to the woman fixing beds across the room. "What became of Professor Snape?"

"Oh, he's alright. A little bruised, still, but alright. Fool of a man, I swear, he's so lucky he heals well (it's due to all those bloody potions he takes to keep him ticking)… Well, he and Professor Dumbledore seemed to think that his condition was not a serious enough matter to keep them from attending to their 'private affairs'. They are speaking in Professor Snape's quarters."

Harry nodded politely, and then rolled onto his side.

So, Harry thought to himself, that was the reason Snape hated his job. He'd hated potions, and got the subject by second choice. But what had Snape been doing with his mother there? It almost seemed like they had been… in love.

xxx End Chapter xxx

To be continued...


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