InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "This world has many flaws."

Severus Snape (bittersnark) wrote in beyondthepages,
@ 2010-03-20 18:08:00

Entry tags:

!complete, 2023 08, ariana silver, severus snape

RP: I Do Hope The Idiot Won
Characters: Severus Snape & Ariana Silver
Time/Date: Mid-morning, 20 August 2023
Location: The Shrieking Shack then the grounds of Hogwarts
Warnings/Rating: None yet
Summary: Severus does something he didn't expect... wakes up.
Status: Complete

There was pain and blood and the agony of Nagini’s venom racing through his veins. Despair and anger and frustration that after all his successes he was going to fail now. All because he’d relaxed too much, gotten too comfortable at Hogwarts and failed to ensure that morning that he had a vial of the antidote to Nagini’s venom in his robes. He’d never expected to live through the war, had never even been sure he wanted to but Potter needed to succeed and to do that he needed the information only Severus could give him.

But then Potter was there. How and why Severus didn’t know, didn’t care. He had one last chance, one last hope to atone. He grabbed hold of the boy’s robes and gave him his memories.

'Take... it... Take... it...'

Too many though, not just the ones Potter needed but others... memories of Lily, of Albus. Did he mean that? He didn’t know and didn’t have the strength to consider it. Just enough to make one last request. One last plea for someone to see more than what was on the surface. He didn’t expect anything to come of it. Potter was as Gryffindorish as his father, as Gryffindorish as Black, and they rarely looked below the surface when it came to searching for answers. Only the obvious for them. But then, if they were the type to search harder and deeper for answers, they’d have been placed in Ravenclaw or Slytherin.

'Look... at... me' he whispered.

Blackness swirled in front of his eyes, the pain receded and the poison sang through his veins. He knew death was coming. He had done what was needed though; it was all in Potter’s uncertain hands now as he slipped into blackness and then nothing.

So the last thing he was expecting was to suddenly be dragged gasping back into life. He was aware of peripherals - hard floor, the cool air of the room, the smell of dust and neglect - as he dragged in sharp breaths, one hand scrabbling at his neck only to find... nothing.

Well, not nothing but certainly not what should have been there. Not a wound, not blood but slick scars. His hand dropped to the floor and his eyes closed again. He was so tired and that weariness was warring with his need to know what was happening. Necessity won, of course. Necessity had always been the winner in everything he did. It was how he lived his life. He did what was necessary. His likes or dislikes rarely came into the matter.

He opened his eyes and forced himself to sit up. He blinked as he looked around. He was... right where he had been. In the Shrieking Shack. He looked down and it took a moment to realise what the large black stain on the floor underneath him actually was. His hand drifted up to his neck and the slick scars there as he stared at the bloodstain. The old bloodstain if he was any judge.

He pushed himself to his feet, swaying as his head reeled. He stumbled over to the window and peered through it, muttering a curse as the dirty glass hid more than it revealed. Hogwarts. That's where he needed to go. Surely there would be answers there. Presuming, of course, he wasn't arrested the moment he was seen. But then again, that would give him any number of answers in and of itself.

He staggered out of the room and down into the tunnel that led to Hogwarts. He had to stop several times to lean against the wall of the tunnel and catch his breath. He knew what was causing the weakness but unfortunately he didn't exactly have anything to deal with the after effects of blood loss. A tiny voice in his head wondered why, if the terrible wounds left by Nagini had been healed, the blood loss hadn't also been healed. He was too tired to consider it at the moment though as he staggered up into the shadows of the Whomping Willow then, after freezing it, out onto the grounds. The castle seemed unchanged as he slowly made his way towards it. Hopefully that meant Potter had actually managed to fight his way past his natural imbecility and win.

He'd find out soon enough.

(Post a new comment)

teases_muggles
2010-03-20 03:53 pm UTC (link)

Ariana had been on her way back from picking up a few things in Hogsmeade. While the foreign students were visiting, they'd be sitting through some of the classes, so she'd thought it would be nice to try to make some of her lessons a little France and cold-white-north centric to help the public relations aspect of things along.

With her bag shouldered and her mind already on lunch (and then helping out the other professors with some of the classroom cleaning they were all going through), she very nearly missed the fact she recognized the man she'd just passed, and that he shouldn't exactly be walking on the road between Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, because he'd been dead for ... a very long time.

So she'd been mistaken. Clearly. She glanced over her shoulder and ... no. There was absolutely no way that could be anyone other than her former potions professor.

And there was no way that could be her potions professor, because he was dead and generally speaking, the dead didn't take to having strolls a quarter of a century after they'd died.

She realized she was staring, and she should say something, but she really couldn't wrap her mind around it. Unless someone had used polyjuice, and even then, why? Moreover, how'd they get a bit of him to put in it? Disinclined to think about that, her nose still wrinkled at the thought before she cleared her throat. "Sorry, for staring, but you remind me of ... a professor I had. When I was very, very young."

(Reply to this) (Thread)

bittersnark
2010-03-20 09:04 pm UTC (link)

Severus had been wary when he heard the person coming up behind him but their lack of hurry had made him curious and he'd let things be. He had his wand and that would be protection enough if things went poorly. He only needed time to apparate away and he'd learned to do that in almost any condition so his current weariness and weakness would not hinder him much at all.

He tensed when she turned to stare at him, his mind working away when he saw the confused and baffled expression on her face. She was vaguely familiar as well. Something about the eyes and mouth. He set that thought to simmer in the back of his mind. From her words, she was a student but he'd had enough of those that he didn't remember all of them.

"Is that so?" he said dryly, dragging his stubbornness around himself to keep himself upright and alert. "And which professor might that be?"

He attitude was interesting and either spoke of Potter having succeeded and wizarding society having drifted back into its usual complacency or the woman being psychotic enough to enjoy the Dark Lord's success. He wasn't sure which one he preferred to be perfectly honest.