บท 235: Chapter 235: Vengeful Ruby
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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.
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10 August 1994, Cokeworth, Britain
Severus Snape found himself in a sorry state indeed. He couldn't help but chuckle as he took a large gulp of Firewhiskey. Dumbledore had royally fucked him with his last stunt, and he had lost practically everything because of the old man's need for control and secrecy.
It was no secret that Severus was Dumbledore's spy. Even though people thought he was manipulating the man somehow, convincing the man of his desire for repentance while still being sworn to the Dark Lord, the old man was definitely the one holding his leash.
It was a position that the potion master despised but had learned to work around it over time. In the same manner, Dumbledore was in charge, he had also provided Severus protected by the man's plans for him. The defeater of Grindelwald needed him for something, and Severus took advantage of that as much as he could.
He did as the man instructed. He controlled Slytherin house and subtly made the blood purity rhetoric fade away. He antagonized the students of other houses. He limited the intake of NEWT students by adding more restrictions to entering the course. He did his best to look after the Longbottom brat and make sure he didn't get himself killed when Quirrell was still in the castle.
He did that and more.
He didn't like it, but he had no other choice. The potion master had resigned himself to playing the role of the triple agent in the war between Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort.
It wasn't what he expected to become when he was still in school, and wasn't that a bitter thought?
Still, he was patient, and the moment Dumbledore was outed from the castle, he gleefully gave his letter of resignation to McGonagall's stunned face. Yes, he was being selfish; Minerva had more than enough on her plate, and he had just given her the task of finding a new Senior Potions Professor, and that was a rather hard thing to do.
Most Potion masters had no interest in teaching anyone without there being a massive form of recompense. They preferred apprenticeship, because of the prestige that it would bring them, but teaching children was just a bad idea. Potions were dangerous, very easy to mess up, and could have unpredictable effects on the user if something was done incorrectly.
Slughorn had been the only one who thought that by staying in Hogwarts, he would make very strong political connections. He was right, of course, but during his tenure in the school, he has barely made any progress in his research. Everything came with a cost, and research was something no potion master, would sacrifice.
It was funny, for all of Dumbledore's obvious machination at stifling magical research, he never really tried to do anything with potions. New potions were necessary as diseases evolved and mutated. It was always better to find more efficient ways of brewing certain healing elixirs and the former headmaster hadn't wanted to risk it. Not that he could have done anything; whenever new potions were published, its instructions could easily be replicated immediately to verify it, which were published everywhere, and could be reproduced by any other potion master. Of course, for research to be valid, it would have to be registered with the potions guild and they dealt with the financial side of the discovery.
Severus Snape was Britain's rising star in the world of potions. Even now, he had amassed a small fortune from the earnings of his published potions. And yet, he hadn't published any new works for years, because of how little free time he had in the castle. Dumbledore had literally destroyed Severus' career, even if the price was not going to prison. The headmaster's wand subtly glowing in front of him was a very good motivator to accept the man's offer.
Truth be told, he hadn't even been involved in many attacks as a Death Eater. He was their potion master, brewing healing potions every day, with the occasional weird request that he just never asked what they would be used for. The Dark Lord had respected his professionalism with some sort of amusement. The point was that other than revealing the prophecy to the Dark Lord, Snape's contribution to the war was as a support member, nothing more. However, Dumbledore had known about the prophecy, and speaking of it would have got him kissed by the dementors, considering that it ended up getting Frank and Alice Longbottom killed.
He didn't even know why he had joined the Death Eaters. Maybe it was because, before their spat, Lily's plan involved him becoming her spy in the Death Eaters, just she would have infiltrated Dumbledore's order. Even after not speaking to each other in their last year of schooling, Snape followed her plan without even thinking about it.
And what did that say about him?
Was he always destined to be a follower? At first, it was Lily, then the Dark Lord, then Dumbledore. Was there something fundamentally wrong with him?
Not that it mattered now; Lily was dead, and Severus now had the first chance at truly being free. Albus Dumbledore might have burnt any bridges the potion master had in Britain, by vouching for him so much during his trial. He was looked at with suspicion by everyone; they thought that he was complicit in every shady deal the man had ever been part of.
Not that he expected Dumbledore to stay silent for long. Men like Dumbledore always came back… Severus had no intention of being there when he did return. America was looking good as a place to settle down. MACUSA might be a bit of a pain to deal with, but that was nothing to someone who worked with Dumbledore for years. And they didn't really care about politics outside their continent, so Severus could technically get a new start he dreamt about.
If only Lily was there to see him… Would she have been proud or disgusted? It was hard to tell with her.
The potion master's thoughts were interrupted by a family soft voice, "Well, I never thought you'd ever return here, Sev."
Severus stiffened and turned, with a mixture of both hope and revulsion, "You're supposed to be dead."
Standing in the front room, was Lily Potter. She looked older, more mature than the image of her that had haunted his dreams for years. Her hair, still that vibrant shade of auburn, fell softly around her shoulders, and her eyes, those incredibly green eyes, bore into him with an intensity that made him feel small, just like they did when they were younger.
He had no doubts that this was her. Lily snorted, "As if something like that would have gotten rid of me."
"So, you're still alive after all this time. You left your son to rot with your sister. You left him to be manipulated by Dumbledore. It was only pure luck that Arcturus Black became interested in the boy's affair and protected him."
Lily's expression softened, a rare glimpse of vulnerability crossing her features, "I didn't leave him by choice, and I regret not finding a way back sooner, but now that he's practically a grown-up… Black messed with the ritual I was using to defend us. It's what's caused the fire and I ended up trapped. Black finally died the last summer, and I was able to escape."
The potion master couldn't help but gape at the explanation, but his mouth moved before his brain could stop it, "Black was alive?"
"Yes. I suppose you knew him as the smiling killer. He's dead now..."
The relief he felt couldn't be described in words. Sirius Black had almost fed him to a werewolf. Bullying or not, this was straight-up attempted murder, something that Dumbledore swept under the rug for the possibility of having the future head of the Black family under his banner.
Still, that relief did not stop a pit from forming in his stomach, "Why are you here, Lily? We hadn't spoken in years, even before your disappearance. Are you here to kill me?"
"Kill you? Are you out of your mind?"
"Just stop, Lily. Stop pretending. We both know that you would gladly sacrifice me if it benefitted you. I suppose you could be here to punish me for some reason. Did you want me to look for you or something? Are you blaming me for not helping you more? How should I have known what would happen to you?"
The witch looked hurt for a fraction of a second before steeling herself, "I am not unreasonable, Sev, nor am I cruel."
"How could I have known that? You weren't exactly nice in school. You dabbled in magics that the mere mention would have made most wizards cringe. And we didn't exactly part on the best of terms. We weren't even friends for years before your disappearance. You cut out all contact, removed me from your life…"
"Do you seriously think I had any choice in that?"
"How could you not? It was your decision."
The redhead's eyes seemed to space out slightly, "No, it wasn't. I wasn't allowed to tell you before. They wouldn't have let me."
"Who are they?" Severus returned with a confused look.
"In the summer before my third year, an organization contacted my parents. Apparently, they were impressed by my talent and wanted to offer a scholarship of some sort. It was small, at first, just a few extra books, but then they offered instruction on Occlumency and Legilimency, then duelling lessons… I saw it for what it was, but my parents were convinced that this would be the best opportunity I could have. They were all so nice, but then when I refused to learn the blood-boiling curse, they took me aside and threatened my parents, my family, if I didn't cooperate. I had no idea who they were, at the start. They just called themselves the foundation."
The potion master thought back and tried the remember if he had ever heard of an organization with this name, "I've never heard of it before."
"It wasn't their official name. It took some time to know where they came from. They had to be funded and had too much knowledge of my transcripts and I assumed they got them in the ministry. Apparently, Hogwarts had to submit the transcripts of students who take more than three electives to the ministry to see if they qualify to get a time-turner. They were never accepted, but the foundation had gotten my transcripts from there and considered me a suitable candidate. I tracked down who had access to the records by breaking into the Department of Magical Education in the ministry using a bit of Polyjuice that I brewed, and saw who could have accessed it, and had the funds and resources that the foundation had. I found only one, the Department of Mysteries."
"The Unspeakables? Aren't they researchers?"
The redhead chuckled bitterly, "Yes, they are. I was stuck there for years until after I graduated from Hogwarts and confirmed it. Anyway, they groomed me and gave me tests and instructions of some very obscure magic. I thought they wanted me to become a public figure under their control. I had no idea. They had me stop associating with you… In turn, I ended up biding my time. They couldn't do anything the moment I was involved with Potter, since that would have brought them Dumbledore's attention. The old man has always been a little too interested in James. When we got married, they were laid off entirely, but they weren't happy about it. They made their anger known by arranging for my parents' car accident. Nobody realized what happened. No one but me. I had just wanted to stay away, to be free at first. But ever since that day, I started to work on the background to bring them down. I played with magic that even they wouldn't have dared to use. What happened in Godric's Hollows, the fire, it was just an accidental leak to what I had planned on unleashing on their precious little headquarters."
"And how did you plan on doing that?"
"The werewolves. I worked for years as a way to stop them and discovered a way to alter the curse. It should have made them stronger, and fiercer, but in exchange, they would never spread their curse or have any children. I convinced Remus Lupin to become my first patient. The side effects almost made him feral, and he disappeared to deal with the effects, far away from civilization. He regained his mind after my disappearance, and it was too late by then."
That explained a lot. Lupin's disappearance after their graduation. Dumbledore had planned on using him to bring werewolves to his camp, only for Lily to have thought of that before him and had something that might benefit her in exchange. Severus had no doubt that this was a very edited version of the truth to paint Lily as a victim of some sort. There were probably dozens of safeguards to prevent any transformed werewolf from betraying her… Still, he knew she was brilliant, even if she kept most of her progress to herself.
"You didn't answer my question. Why are you here, Lily?" he simply uttered.
"I'm going after them now. They took away my childhood. They killed my parents. They definitely had a hand on the attacking force on Godric's Hollows. The Lestranges and Crouch simply didn't have so many people under their command. Inevitably, they would have started to go after my son. I won't let that happen. Not on my watch. I thought you would have a little compassion left for me to help me with that."
"You want me to attack the Department of Mysteries, to destroy a mysterious foundation."
The redhead chuckled, "I don't know if they have any other name, but I did learn that what they did to me was a sanctioned project in the department. They called me Project Athena… And yes, I want your help in destroying them."
"Lily," Severus started, his voice laced with caution, "you're asking for something... drastic. The Department of Mysteries doesn't take kindly to intruders. I'm already under investigation…"
"Don't worry, Sev. I have a plan."
For some reason, Severus was both comforted and terrified by that simple statement.
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