(Enchanting Melodies) Chapter 108: Outsider’s Perception (Patreon)

Chapter 108: Outsider’s Perception

25 December 1992, Hogwarts

With purposeful strides, Severus Snape traversed the empty corridors of Hogwarts. A foreboding aura surrounded him, casting a sense of terror akin to a haunting specter. His black robe fluttered like a bat emerging from the depths of a tormented abyss, while his jaw remained tightly clenched. Known for his consistently unpleasant demeanor, the Potion Master rarely displayed a pleasant mood, as numerous Gryffindors could attest to over the past decade. However, on this specific evening, his thoughts were particularly morose and filled with sinister intent.

It all started with Longbottom because, in the end, it all came down to Dumbledore’s precious boy who lived. Seriously, the headmaster really was obsessed with the boy to a point that honestly disturbed the potion master. Longbottom was constantly monitored, every single person that spoke with him was observed, his performance in class and even in Quidditch practice was reported by the professors. Severus wasn’t the only one who was uncomfortable with this new direction of leadership.

Ever since the boy stepped foot in the school, the entire castle turned into a madhouse. The Philosopher’s stone fiasco of the previous year, where one of the professors – who Severus told the headmaster numerous times was either a death eater or was possessed – put two students in the hospital, one of which was one of his Slytherins, who actually wasn’t stupid enough to follow Longbottom in his little suicide mission. At least this showed that his snakes had some semblance of self-preservation.

And now, the Chamber of Secrets was opened, and Dumbledore didn’t say anything. They had all thought it was some kind of cruel prank made with a petrification obscure family spell that some pureblood supremacist learnt and decided to use to terrorize the muggleborn population into dropping out of Hogwarts. Considering that the first attack was on Filch, a rather commonly disliked person by the student body, and taking into account the timing, it wouldn’t be likely that an actual mythical monster that was over a thousand years old would have the time to petrify the loathsome squib and disappear without anyone seeing anything.

Yet, now, with the aftermath of the Polyjuice incident, the Potion Professor knew that Dumbledore knew what was happening, that the students were in real danger, and didn’t even tell the staff about the possible fact that the chamber was open. Well, Minerva didn’t seem surprised, so he probably confided in her and Poppy Pomfrey, but Severus had a right to know that something in the school could seriously harm his charges.

The entire incident was infuriating. Sure, Longbottom and his annoying friends were punished severely. It was actually the first Hogwarts suspensions in over a decade, and the press had a field day when it was leaked, but if Severus hadn’t covered for them and destroyed the Polyjuice, chances are the ministry would have had to interfere, and the brats’ punishments would have been far more severe.

As vindicating as seeing the brats that constantly demonized Severus in their minds, and always thought that he wanted to kill them, be finally punished somewhat fairly, the issue was that the fact the incident itself happened.

The Potion master knew how horrible it could be to be a Slytherin. The constant judgement from the other students, the suspicion that was always on the front of their minds in any conversation. Slytherins needed to be united, to project strength to survive, but they also needed to unwind, and their common room was a place for that. Dumbledore essentially giving his golden boy free access to the common room and to bypass the wards entirely was just over the line. Even Minerva was outraged, and it was her precious cubs that were the ones under fire.

Although, it was funny to see that golden boy look at the headmaster with more than a little suspicion, and by the end, the brat was pretty much accusing the headmaster of not dealing with the problem before. The man had skillfully changed the boy’s mind, but that cemented the fact that one of his snakes had played the golden boy enough to make him doubt the man he considered to be his hero.

And it was Potter of all people who put a few ideas in Longbottom’s head and indirectly forced the headmaster to reveal the similarity between what was happening and the attacks that happened fifty years ago. Of course, with a small application of Legilimency, and getting the full memory of the conversation with Potter, it didn’t take long to figure out that the monster was a Basilisk. Sure, Severus wasn’t a Magizoologist by any means, but he knew snakes and he knew poisons. It was a little-known fact that Basilisks could petrify people with their gaze, and the reveal of Longbottom being a Parselmouth and hearing voices during the attacks, cemented this theory.

And that was baffling, Albus Dumbledore is letting children stay at a castle where a magical weapon of mass destruction probably still resided. Sure, the potion master could understand that the school could be closed permanently if it got out, but that did not justify the fact that it endangered the students. He had argued with the headmaster the moment he realized what the monster was, but the man chose to dismiss his warnings.

Which was why he was currently spending Christmas patrolling the castle and fruitlessly looking for any sign of the infamous Chamber of Secrets. It was probably a punishment for opposing the headmaster, who he had barely seen since the incident. Dumbledore being absent from the castle was a rising occurrence over the last school years, Dumbledore being too busy assisting to Wizengamot and ICW meetings to deal with the mundane things requiring his presence inside the castle but refusing to hire more people to deal with the menial tasks. Minerva McGonagall was doing his paperwork, to take one example amongst many.

However, with the public mess Longbottom created, the man barely stayed in the castle more than a few hours at a time, trying to do his best to stop the Wizengamot from demanding to involve themselves into school matters. The Bulstrodes had quickly settled matters, seeing that it was a waste of everyone’s time. However, the Crabbes and Goyles were milking it for all their worth, probably following to Lucius’ instructions. The longer they spent arguing, the more favors Dumbledore would have to complain to stop a formal enquiry in the school. It was funny, that Longbottom had done more damage to Dumbledore’s influence in an hour, more than Lucius had ever done in over a decade.

Still, all this enjoyment at Dumbledore’s misery came at the cost of more patrols, in a practically deserted school, which was a waste of time. The issue was Severus often liked to use the holidays to focus on his research, and not just walk around a castle aimlessly looking for an invisible threat.

Severus’ inner rant was interrupted by a familiar voice, “You know, you could do with a little less scowling. No wonder the students are utterly terrified of you.”

It was Aurora Sinistra, the Astronomy Professor at Hogwarts and probably one of Severus’ few true friends. She was a couple of years above him in school, but she did help him learn the ropes of their house as a fellow Half-Blood. She always gave him a helping hand whenever he was about to make a blunder, and she had heard him rant many times about Potter and his idiotic friends.

The Potion master’s scowl lessened, “Yeah, I know. I always hated this time of year.”

“Ah,” the woman took a deep breath, “It’s been over a decade Severus. I know you miss Lily. Merlin knows that I miss her too. But you need to move on, and to stop being stuck in the past the way you’ve been.”

“It’s not that simple,” Severus answered while sighing.

No, it really wasn’t. Almost everyone thought that Severus was pining after Lily in school. In a way, it was true. Lily Evans was smart, beautiful, charming, and he was attracted to her. He might have even had feeling for her at one point, but Severus knew her before she went to Hogwarts, and he could say that she was one of the most terrifying people he had ever met.

The Lily Evans that everyone knew, the golden girl of Gryffindor, that valiantly showed up purebloods with her talent, defiant to everyone’s expectations, was a lie, one that she crafted the very first day she came to the castle.

She was brilliant. Oh, by Merlin, she was a brilliant witch. She had even some basic control over her magic at the age of eight, making flowers bloom wandlessly, which was extremely rare. She was devious, vindictive, cunning, so much so, that Severus was sure the only reason she didn’t join him in Slytherin is that she understood what would have happened to her if she was sorted there.

And that mask that charmed her professors, that James Potter fell in love with, grew over the years, but in the shadows, with Severus, she learnt dark magic. She was even more proficient than him by the time they graduated. Honestly, Severus was sure that if it wasn’t for the Dark Lord’s overwhelming power and support, Lily Evans would have ended up as a new Dark Lady.

Severus didn’t understand why she chose to get involved with Potter. He didn’t know if she was in love with him or wanted to use him in some way. He didn’t question her motives, but they did get into a fight when he complained to her that she chose Potter, the immature bully that went out of his way to harass Severus for no particular reason. They said some things that they never could take back, and in the end, their friendship was in tatters.

But without Lily, there was just something missing in his life. He foolishly joined the Death Eaters, thinking that servicing the Dark Lord might have helped fill that void, but it didn’t. He just saw a monster that wanted to see everyone in the world suffer.

Aurora seemed to have taken his pause as some kind of grief and grabbed his shoulder, “I know it probably is, but she’s dead. Come on, I haven’t seen you once speak to her son outside of class. Her legacy is in her castle, one of your own snakes. I know he looks like Potter, and you hated that ass, but I haven’t heard of him bullying anyone. When I look at him, he reminds me of Lily.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” he muttered under his breath.

Yes, the Potter boy. He looked like a clone of his father, but the truth was that he acted like his mother. He could tell he was like her. It was in the eyes, you see. They held this cunning, this intelligence inside, that was hidden from the world. The boy was probably more brilliant than his mother, when it came to magic, but was very good at cultivating a good image of himself. He had even heard rumors that his invitation to the Court of Slytherin the following year was essentially guaranteed.

The boy who had survived the infamous fire of Godric’s Hollow, a fire that Severus would bet anything was started by Lily. The arcane nature of the fire was just like her. She liked to experiment with her magic and her son seemed to share the same ‘hobby’.

Yeah, an attack like the one in Godric’s Hollow shouldn’t have fazed Lily at all; the Lestranges and Barty Crouch Jr. couldn’t hold a candle to Lily. The rest were run of the mill Death Eater grunts. Severus knew Lily’s capabilities, especially when it came to wards. She would have had hundreds of escape scenarios, yet she chose to commit mass murder, killing herself in the process, only for the sake of her son’s survival.

There was something else that Severus wasn’t seeing, and he was waiting for the shoe to drop. And it all revolved around her son. Severus had tried to subtly antagonize the boy, to see any hidden motives. He tried to make him a pariah, but the boy didn’t seem to care, and his friends still stood by his side, attracted by his brilliance. The Potion master had hoped to spare them the grief of having an Evans as a friend, but that didn’t work.

Harry Potter was his mother’s son, and that terrified Severus to the core.

“What?” the astronomy professor asked.

“Sorry, I was just lost in thought. You’re right, I should move on. Please excuse me, there’s a potion that I need to finish urgently for Poppy and my patrol is over.”

Severus went down the stairs to the dungeons. He arrived at his lab, trying to do his best to not hyperventilate. He took a gulp pf calming potion that he always had in hand. It has been a while since he actively thought about Lily. Damn Aurora for bringing her up.

At least his useless patrol was over. There was more faculty than students currently in the castle. Any chance of the Heir of Slytherin striking before the end of the year was null. Severus was honestly tempted to just dose every resident of the castle with some Veritaserum and interrogate them. That would probably convince Dumbledore that the Heir wasn’t in the castle, and Severus could spend his holidays in peace.

The Head of Slytherin hoped this issue would be resolved quickly and the idiot who petrified people to support this stupid blood-purity policy, would be expelled promptly. But if that wasn’t possible, he wouldn’t mind seeing Dumbledore struggle for the first time.

After all, who wouldn’t want to witness the suffering of man who forced them into servitude at wand point?