A House Homecoming for All

WARNING: THIS PARTICULAR CHAPTER CONTAINS SOME REFRENCES TO CHRISTIANITY AND CONCEIT IN THE SAME SENTENCE - ORTHADOX BELIEVERS BE WARNED. I DO NOT WISH TO OFFEND ANYONE AS I LIKE MANY CHRISTIAN PEOPLE - BUT ANYONE CAN SIN.

Snape found a cave similar to one Black might\'ve preferred at one point or another - it may\'ve well been the very same he\'d sepent some time in around Hogsmeade in fourth year. He decided he didn\'t rightly care and collapin ain a heap on the most heavily shadowed end. He\'d been half scampering, half walking for miles and it seemed critical that he regain some semblance of a normal mind before he continued onward, most likely to his death. On that note, Snape closed his eyes and leant against the cold supplementary rock for support.

Snape had always been accustomed to the cold. It wasn\'t long before the sly remnants of fall permeated through the dungeons and elaborated itself into an atmosphere reminiscent of a fre freezer. He\'d spent the majority of his life down there in the dungeons and in some deformed dependence, he yearned to have stayed there forever for protection alone, even from her. She led to all of this, no matter how much he loved her - it was a choice between the life he\'d come to accept and adapt to, unwillingly but with relative prosperity, or a girl who\'s fate was sealed.

It would not have been so difficult had there not been that lingering power still screaming a refusal in the back of his mind; although he knew she was still probably unconscious and safe in the Infermary by now, he couldn\'t help but feel as though he was under her thumb and all of it was planned; some Slytherin suspicions aren\'t easily assuaged even by those who hold its name. He\'d always missed the sea since he\'d been excommunicated from his own family at age eleven; although prestigious in their inherent wisdom for potions, the patriarch elder Snapes were twice as sour as Severs and eviscerated that he was never to come for summer or Chistmas break again after he\'d set the house aflame one night - his first magical quota.

Prior to the vivid conflagration etched into his mind as a permanent reminder of his own inept handling of magic, he\'d enjoyed the walks along the beach with his mother, passoing by the hotdog stands with their backs facing tthe salt ridden wind; a subdued strip of honky-tonks along the sidewalk pricked his interest but he was always chastised for his sordid fascination for particular parlours most... unchildlike.

And their nighttime monologues would be litanous and beautiful in comparison to the gutterred drunks along the bar; but those times at Weston Super Mare had dissipated into a tragic wilderness to far to breech the laws of reality even with a time turner - he knew he\'d never have them. And perhaps that was why he still clung to Jess, as if she was his mother, the only one who\'d pleaded to let him stay and remain on speaking terms witboy boy to estranged from the common beat, pulse and drive of even wizarding humanity that it seemed criminal to pose this threat of combustion upon anyone.

It seemed ironic that he should find someone who\'d willinging sebmerge in his flammatory gaze and scruples and come out of them unscathed and ready for more obtuse exposure into the depths of such a tarnished mind. But he had and at times like these - moronicallyientient times - he tended to wonder if his mother would be aghast or impressed, or even happy for him. He hoped so and he also hoped that the reincarnation of her was still alive.

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The next morning, Jessica saw dawn for the first time with its lecherous tenticles rushing over in great licks to the azure gas above. However, it was not so much a great fanfare as one would expect a dawn to resmenble in the magical world, but a great semi-grey red foreboding thing that set Jess\' brain into action upon asking Pomphry here Snape was as soon as she bustled. Her brow creased and even her skirts seemed to sing an aria of tragedy.

\"Miss Slytherin, I fear the worst for Severus,\" she mumbled and sat down at the foot of the stiff memdical gurney, too tentitively for even one at death\'s door.
Jessica\'s lip trembled beyond her own volition and she choked back a moan bitterly; she didn\'t want Pomphry of all people to see her cry.

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He\'d always known the prophesy behind redemption and yet never had the good fortune to see it materialize before him in a flash of stringent cruelty and bias. He\'d been of them too, on a much more personal level well aqauinted since early childhood along with those who professed to be saved. He\'d read about them long before ten, at an age already full of youthful ambition and embarrassed brazeness, that too was quashed when he\'d been privvy to one of them in person and had first caght sight of hysterical fancy antiquated in some obscure and revered scripture.

The man tossed himself down the street as though he was being shoved mercilessly by some unseen force, limbs scrawled around him and slapping into the sides of buildings and their doorknobs - at first, the boy merely thought he was dunk and disorderly until he reailsed that the man was simultaneously checking to see if one was onlocked under the guise of a savior. Not too many grown wizards, let alone child ones, were familiar with the muggle bible or its fundaments; but Severus had always been a bit exceptional in most every manner of speech and conduct from an early age and it was a blatant stroke of luck to be blesed by this meandering boor around the same time as his self-induced introduction to such things as Christ. He\'d already been saved, he said, and moved on to the next door and then with a faint glimmer of disappointment, he tried the next with a rap on a window for good measure.

Severus watched on resolutely, as if blinking would ruin this visual memorization of a famed thing which brought so many their pinnacles of insight into why they exist; he was, for the moment, unaware as to the debauched farce of a devout Christian he was mentally tallying, and stood there clutching a bookbag to the side of his stomach in defense. There was something ominous in the man\'s movement\'s which cued him though; some help a bookbag would do but it would have to suffice in the picture of such absurdity. At last, as each house was megerely escavated upon its exterior, there came a latch that lifted and with it, a staggering man who entered; Severus heard a scream and ran back to his mother.

Before the news broke out the next day, both Severus and his mother had gone back to that same house where Severus had looked on fearfully and it was the first time he\'d ever truly cringed. The woman was pulled out on a levitating gurney by solemn mediwitches just after the man touched by the swift clean breath of God had been hastefully escorted to Azkaban, hopefully to become the wretched fifth before the ressurection he so admired. He\'d sniffed against his mother\'s middle and cowered behind her frame as he willfully forced himself to stare at the woman who he\'d heard scream and then had run off like a scittish colt afraid of a ride to test his courage.

He\'d looked up at her for reassurance before seeing a similar vestige of resentment pass through their onyx depths and a smile pasted between her stubborn lips. That was the day that Severus had discovered out something which not only personally affected him which most men don\'t realize until thier mid life, but the psyche of those around humanity, the innocent and guilty alike - he anulled his childhood bond of belief to the black and white counterpoint melodies of daily life, of that customary learning by osmosis we all depend upon at first.

He knew that there were no saved and guilty, there were only the sinners, just in varrying degrees of treachery and bound to equally discriminating domestication of purgatory. Those who embraced the dark sin they comendeered with every stolen fruit or mortal crime and competed for that pitch; those who yearned for the sweet condemnation of eternal bane and blight were only fooling themselves more than anyone else, even a child.

Even a child could see that no one could become so dark and so heavily entrenched in that perniciousness; they wanted to be so black they became a shadow, ever stalking good behind its back until it\'s luck turned and it was the leader for one short moment... bleak enough to provide the ground for so much unpronounced havoc. But none came and Severus knew of this and believed in the power of his own commandment, to never believe in such arrogant subterfuge in the streets or anywhere else for that matter. And Severus remembered.

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Jessica woke up again with a start as she felt something warm and squishy jiggling about on her lap. The window was open from above her head and it smelled far too early for her likely. Prying one eye apart she stared at the shrivelled looking baby in a strangled awe for something so grotesque, but petted its head nonetheless and thought of her dreame moe more.

\"I suppose Dobby was one person who had nothing to do with any of us, eh, Madam?\" Pomphry, still thinking she was remaing inconspicuouos lurking in the sshadows behind a transparent bedspread, sighed and came into view.

\"That seems right... you shouldn\'t worry though-\" Pomphry balked and pulled a face, smoothing her apron reflexively and picking up the halfling soon after.

\"Of course I should worry - I\'m perfectly fit to go off and help and you know it... but, I had a dream,\" Jessica frowned and sat herself upright, staring fixedly across the medical hall in order to concentrate her thoughts.

\"I think I have to stay here and find Dobby in order to stop this whole debacle-\"

\"Miss Slytherin, I really don\'t-\"

\"You and I kno know this won\'t end well... and if that scarce house elf\'s the key to ending all of this mess, then I\'ll be sorted into Hufflepuff before I don\'t take action!\" Jessica shouted the last bit for good measure, garnering a raised eyebrow and half-grin from the matron.

\"You\'ve been spending too much time with Severus, I see,\" she smirked and watched as Jess struggled to her feet after a day\'s rest, still stiff and limping mildly.

\"Well, I like Severus,\" Jess mumbled and stooped to retrieve her slippers carefully aligned next to her bed. A thousand things were working in her brain and she couldn\'t help but want to slap Pomfry for being such a useless bastion in the long run. She knew Severus and where he would run to first... probably Tiera.

Then it struck her as if someone had lit a divided wick in her mind - one for herself, and the other comendeered by Severus. Tiera\'s faith had always driven her - that was most likely what had attracted the hardheaded girl to the Dark Lord to begin with; she must\'ve thought that by gaining his loyalty and reciprocating accordingly, she could eventually convert him with random excerpts from the Bible.

Well... it was just a guess after all - but she definately knew religion played an integral part in the hyppocritical drab\'s botched job of things. From the corner of her eye, she spotted two eyases and hoped beyond hope that they were messages comfirming both Andrew\'s and yes, Tiera\'s safety. She glanced at Pomfry who looked back glumly, bouncing the halfling upon her thigh mindlessly. Then it was time to move.

A/N: Please let me know what you think of my subtle subterfuge regarding Snape\'s relationship with his mum and Christianity.