บท 15: Chapter 14: The truth
Draco woke suddenly and then opened his eyes a little groggily.
"Hello," a voice Draco recognised greeted him.
Draco flinched without realizing it.
"Professor..." gasped Draco, but hesitated and stirred in his bed, wringing his hands.
This was strange to Draco, he was facing a young man who looked like Snape, but the person in front of him had to be only about 15 or 16.
Severus raised his eyebrows in confusion and intrigue at what the young wizard in front of him had suddenly called him.
While Draco couldn't take his eyes off the young Snape.
'This must be a bad dream, or a cruel joke' thought Draco but slowly his mind began to clear and he remembered that now he was no longer in his timeline.
'Hermione!' thought Draco, but before he could look for the Gryffindor he had gotten himself into all this trouble with, Severus' voice spoke to him again causing him to stare at him.
"Well it looks like you've had enough time to clear your head, now, how about you tell me the truth about what's going on," Severus said.
Draco looked at him doubtfully and nervously, but he didn't respond, his gaze quickly moved from Snape and he looked for his "Partner" in all this mess.
Finally, Draco saw Hermione lying on another bed staring at him, she seemed to want to say something to him but for some reason, she couldn't speak.
Severus snorted.
"You know, it's not polite to ignore someone when they're talking to you," he said coldly.
Draco took a shaky breath.
" This isn't the way things were meant to be..." muttered Draco nervously under his breath, but Severus could hear him.
'Oh, so something went wrong. Good, we're making progress. Looks like he's easier to deal with than the young witch' Severus thought with a faint smile.
"You can trust me, if you tell me what's going on maybe I can help you," Severus said.
"I..., I can't!" replied Draco as he gave Hermione a nervous look.
"Why can't you...?" asked Severus.
"Is it because of her?" he added coldly, pointing his wand at Hermione.
Draco stared at him.
"No, no, it's not that, I really can't tell you," Draco answered quickly trying to stop him from doing anything against her.
Draco may not like Hermione, but he needed her, they both needed each other now.
Severus snorted tiredly and a little irritated, but he quickly calmed his emotions.
'Looks like this isn't going to be that simple' Severus grumbled internally.
"How about you start by telling me your name? I'm Severus Snape, come on, now you."
"Draco..." he replied weakly and nervously.
"Draco what?" asked Severus as calmly as he could.
"That..., that I can't say," answered Draco and in that instant, Severus' patience began to run out.
"Very well, you asked for it," said Severus, raising his wand and pointing it at Draco.
But the instant he did this, Hermione got up from the bed using the little strength she had and weakly grabbed his arm.
She knew what he was about to use... "Legeremens", and she had to stop him.
Severus paused to look at the young witch weakly grasping his arm, while Draco looked nervously at the two of them.
She gave Severus a pleading look, he almost believed she had thought he would use some dark magic on his friend.
But her eyes showed a different kind of concern, she knew perfectly well what he was about to do.
'Interesting...' thought Severus looking at the weak witch in front of him.
Thinking about it for a few moments Severus sighed tiredly and lowered his wand, causing her to relax noticeably, and instantly the witch's body collapsed in exhaustion.
Severus quickly grabbed her and helped her lie back down.
If he wanted to he could have easily dodged the young witch and cast the same spell on Draco, but he was impressed by the young woman's willpower since she shouldn't be able to move yet.
For a second he remembered Padme and his heart contracted in pain, but he didn't think much more about it, he had already accepted his past and decided to move on.
For now, Draco and Hermione posed no danger to him in their current state, so he had time to get them to talk.
Maybe being more aggressive would work, but it was just by looking into Hermione's brown eyes that he gave up on that idea.
They were annoyingly similar to Padme's.
"You know, you're not making this easy for me," Severus complained, and with a quick flick of his wand, he cast a spell on Hermione causing her to be able to speak again.
"Sorry... There are just some things we can't honestly tell you," Hermione sighed and said finally seeing that she had no choice but to go with the truth.
While Draco just nodded.
" Fine, I understand..., then for now tell me everything you can tell me, and don't try to fool me again," Severus hissed in warning that he would not tolerate her lying to him a second time.
Hermione gave Draco a quick glance and he just nodded at her as if agreeing to her doing that.
It was then that she began to tell him as much as she could.
Severus listened to everything attentively without interrupting the young witch's babbling, even as he had more and more questions as he listened to her.
"So... Are you from the future?" asked Severus with a look in his black eyes full of interest.
"Yes," she replied, nodding a little more relaxed after many minutes of talking, that seemed to have released her from a great burden she was carrying.
Severus pressed them for more information, urging Hermione to continue.
He noticed that the young witch liked to talk a lot, he thought at first that it would be the young Lucius-like wizard from whom he would get the most information.
But he had never been so wrong.
Severus listened attentively, nodded, and politely interjected here and there into the mess of things she was telling him.
Hermione tried to tread carefully when asked about the details of the future, she knew there was a lot of information she couldn't give Severus, she could tell him some general details, but only that.
Severus insisted that she keep telling him more, but she would only answer the occasional question from him.
"Hmmm, so you two managed to get back to the past with the help of my future self?" asked Severus.
They both nodded.
"Interesting..., and you also say that telling me more about my future self could be... dangerous" added Severus very intrigued with the new developments.
Professor Snape had made it very clear to Draco and Hermione that no one from the past could know about the details of their own future and that only in the worst-case scenario could they tell someone about what led them to the past and their goal.
But he forbade them to tell details about their future to anyone, they must never do that.
Something that irritated Severus as he had many unanswered questions and doubts, but he let it pass considering the honesty with which they began the present.
'If they really did time travel, that means...'
'Had been given another chance...?' wondered Severus.
They told him that they had travelled around 22 years into the past and he determined that their time travel was the cause of that wave in the Force.
But when he felt that wave in the Force, he was in another galaxy, which leads him to think that maybe... just maybe...
'His time travel affected not only this galaxy...' Severus thought with renewed hope.
'The force surely worked in mysterious ways' he said to himself as he thought of the many possibilities of these events.
He now knew more than anyone that this was true, now that he thought about it, it was the Force balancing itself, using him as a way to correct the chaos these two caused by travelling into the past.
Maybe he was overthinking it, but it made sense, it made a disturbingly large amount of sense.
It was all connected, Draco and Hermione's time travel with the help of the Snape from the future, then Vader dying and staying in the Force, and then ending up in the body of a young Snape who was dying for creating all this chaos.
The merging of his souls as Snape and Vader that formed him and now his encounter with those who caused it all.
'Such a drag' Severus thought a little frustrated at the thought of all that was going on, but he also knew that this could be a good thing, it was an opportunity.
Part of him was overjoyed at this news and he knew that it was his Vader self that was unleashing all these emotions.
Just the possibility of seeing Padme again changed everything.
Without realizing it, his body unconsciously released a bit of Force which slightly affected the atmosphere around him.
This made Hermione and Draco flinch.
Severus noticed their carelessness and quickly controlled the Force he had unconsciously released but still, a great contemplation weighed on his brows as he leaned back in a chair in the room.
"Well, I guess that's all you will tell me. Now you can rest and then leave and get on with your plans," Severus said as he rose from the chair ready to leave the room.
He now had a lot of things to consider and contemplate.
"Wait!, leave?, didn't you hear what we told you about the Dark Lord, don't you plan on helping us?" Draco asked dryly, he had been quiet most of the time since they started talking.
'Snape sure was going to help us' Draco thought fully trusting his favourite professor.
"Draco..." Hermione tried to say, trying to remind him that the Snape in front of them was not the professor they knew.
And the reality was that they knew that the Snape in front of them had probably been thinking about joining Voldemort and his followers until recently.
But she could not tell him this.
At least she knew that young Snape was smart enough not to do such a thing after hearing what the future held for the magical community under Voldemort.
"You mentioned that you knew many things about my past, things that my future self let you see..., so you should know by now that if it weren't for what you told me, I would still be looking forward to joining Voldemort's side right now," Severus commented, causing them both to nod.
Although the truth was that their time travel had already changed the future, as Vader should never have made contact with Snape and he shouldn't exist, but that no longer mattered because here he was now and nothing could change that.
"And just because I know the evil that Voldemort represents for the future doesn't change the fact that he didn't do anything to me, clearly I'm not interested in joining him now but neither am I interested in seeking to kill him," Severus added.
And it was then that the realisation that he was now actually with a Snape of about his age and not the professor he could always trust came crashing down on Draco like a ton of bricks.
"But you..., you helped us get here, so you must understand that this is something your future self wants," Draco stated with hope in his eyes.
'Snape couldn't leave us alone in this, could he?' thought Draco.
"Yes, I'm sure my future self would have had a good reason to help you come to the past..." nodded Severus.
"But still, I'm not my future self," he clarified, making Draco slightly desperate and pissed off.
"No!, you have to help us, if you knew..." began Draco but was quickly interrupted by another voice.
"Draco stop it!" shouted Hermione before Draco could say something he shouldn't have.
Severus on the other hand looked at the two with interest, he knew there must be a very good reason why the Snape of the future decided to help these two young wizards, something for which he would want to take down Voldemort, but they didn't mention anything about their lives.
And now that Draco was about to say something that they were so reluctant to tell him before, he was interrupted by Hermione.
But Severus didn't really care about the future Snape's reasons, everything was different now, even him.
"Granger, he needs to know!" shouted Draco, mentioning the witch's surname for the first time.
They had only told Severus that Draco was a pureblood wizard and that she was a Muggleborn, but never mentioned their surnames.
However, Severus could guess that Draco was related to Lucius Malfoy.
"Draco, it's not an option!" Hermione said seriously as she glared at Draco.
Draco stared defiantly at Hermione for a few seconds, but finally, he gave up and huffed angrily.
He couldn't do anything if she refused, Professor Snape had made them take an unbreakable vow that they would only tell things about the future that they both agreed to.
This intrigued Severus a little, but not too much, he already had so many things to think about.
"Well if that's all..." said Severus not caring too much about the conflict between the two of them.
With the information they already gave him, he now had enough to start thinking about what to do from now on.
"Wait!"
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