A Chance at Life

A Chance at Life

Chapter 2: Unexpected Changes

January 9, 1968

Severus Snape was not a typical 8-year old boy. His intelligence and maturity alienated him from most people: children tended to make fun of him and adults didn’t know how to act around a child that won’t let himself be babied.

But in some ways Severus was just like any other child. It was his birthday and things could not have started off better that morning. He had not even minded eating the stale bread and bland oatmeal for breakfast that morning, he was so happy.

Tobias, (his father, though Severus refused to call him that when he didn’t have to) was working until 5pm so Severus and Eileen were free to celebrate his birthday for once. Tobias did not believe in wasting money in useless things like presents or parties, especially not in a son he considered a disappointment and a waste of space. Though he came from a pureblood linage, the family fortune had been squandered away many generations ago. As a result the Snape family was seen as a disgrace, each Snape failing to regain the family honor through the years. This had made Tobias a very bitter and unhappy man, often taking out his frustrations out on his wife and son. His son, Severus, hated him with a passion thus it was a joyous occasion for Severus to be able to spend a birthday with his mother and not have to worry about Tobias’ temper.

Severus was only grateful for his mother’s love and though he resented his mother’s weakness she meant the world to him. At the moment, Severus and his mother had just finished a simple but somewhat time consuming numbing paste, which they usually don’t dare do, so it was quite a treat. Severus knew how much his mother must have had to save up to buy the ingredients and he couldn’t have asked for a better birthday present.

It was time for lunch by the time they had finished with the paste. They went to the kitchen together, removing their potions aprons and placing them on the backs of their chairs since there was no need to hide them at the moment. The kitchen was small and rundown, like all the rooms in the undersized house, but it had a clean and welcoming feel to it that was missing from the rest the house. This was the one place in which Eileen and her son spent most of their time together.

Eileen and Severus went over to the kitchen sink and scrubbed their hands clean. She motioned Severus to the table and began preparing their meager bread and cheese lunch. “Guess what?”

She mother asked him mysteriously.

“What?” He repeated with an amused smirk.

“I was able to save up for a proper present this year.” Eileen told him proudly.

“Really!” Severus exclaimed happily, a broad smile showing his missing right upper canine.

“Yes indeed,” his mother said with a smile. She laid out their lunch and then took her seat with a wink. She then retrieved her ebony wand from her dress pocket and accioed a small present wrapped in bright green paper into the palm of her left hand. Eileen put her wand on the table and cupped both hands beneath the present, stretching out her arms and presenting it to Severus with happiness shining on her face.

Severus stretched out his right arm and accepted it. “Can I open it now?”

“Go ahead.”

Severus unwrapped his present with great care. He had never gotten a properly wrapped up present before. His mother had always sneaked him extra food or a sickle to spend on sweets for when it was safe to do so. He loved sweets as much as he did potions but it was a luxury that was usually only possible a few times a year, if that.

“A Chocolate Frog!” He had never felt so happy in his life. He had gotten his two favorite things on the same day!

But suddenly everything came to a crushing halt. They heard the front door slam open and they looked at each other in dread.

Tobias was home early.

“Hide it! Quick!” His mother whispered to him and he stuffed his present into his pants’ pocket quickly, for once thankful of his baggy clothes, his shirt being large enough to cover up the slight bulge in his pocket.

His mother had just picked up their potions aprons looking for a place to hide them when Tobias walked through the kitchen door.

“What the hell is going on around here?!.. First I get fired from work and now I have to come home to see you turning our son into a damn pansy! What have I told you about teaching him potions, uh?!!!” He yelled, roughly grabbing and shaking Eileen by the arm. “Answer me, dammit!”

Severus had never hated Tobias more. He wanted to interfere, to do something but he knew that it would only make things worse, so he left. He ran to his room and shut the door, trying to shut out the sounds coming from the kitchen. He always had to wait there for his mother to come get him once it was safer.

So he crawled under his bed on his belly and tried not to think.

He tried not to think of the squashed birthday present in his pocket. He tried not to think of his mother’s weakness…or his own. He tried not to think about his life and most of all…he tried not to think of the tears that were being soaked up by his shabby shirtsleeve.

HPSSHPSSHPSS

About an hour later he woke up to the sound of his bedroom door opening.

“Sev…” He heard his mothers whisper. “Your father is quite angry about loosing his job again. Try to get out of the house without being seen and don’t come back until after 9pm. Be careful honey.”

The door closed again and he heard Tobias yelling for Eileen and stomping up the corridor towards his room. A minute later the door banged open and Severus could see Tobias’ grubby, booted feet. He shrunk further under the bed and held his breath.

“Eileen, where did you hide that good for nothing brat! ... Answer me! I swear…” His yelling faded as he stalked out of the Severus’ bedroom once more and Severus allowed himself to breathe again.

He waited a few more minutes and then got out from under his bed warily. He strained his hearing trying to make sure Tobias was nowhere near and walked over to his trunk at the foot of his bed. He carefully retrieved a coat as quickly and silently as he could and walked over to his bedroom window. He hurriedly opened it and slipped out, closing the window but leaving it open a fraction for when he came back from the park.

He always waited out his father’s fits of temper at the park near his house. It was calm, almost always deserted, and Severus enjoyed looking at the pond at night time. The water seemed like an obsidian mirror he had seen in a book once, beautiful and enchanting unlike anything he’d ever seen.

He put on his oversized coat while kneeling under his windowsill and as he slinked his way around the house he realized his gums here tingling and his stomach was aching in a peculiar manner. He was used to hunger pains but this was different. He had never felt anything like this before, almost like if he were hungry but somehow the hunger felt more acute, deeper somehow. But he tried to ignore it for now and just headed for his favorite bench at the park.

However, it seemed today was simply meant to be a disappointment. There was someone already sitting there. He looked like a teenager, around 16 or 17, but on the short side, no taller than 5' 6" (168 cm) perhaps. He was dressed all in black: trousers, boots, robe and even his cloak. Though he looked young he had a rather imposing air. Just sitting there doing nothing his visage was closed off… cold.

Severus sighed cursing his bad luck and went to sit under his favorite tree instead, close to the far edge of the park. The tree was perfect, standing opposite to a tall shrub and a big boulder on the side, producing a natural barrier on three sides and hiding him quite effectively from anyone that may wander past.

Sitting under his tree with nothing to do he became aware of his stomachache once again. He also touched his gums; they were still tingling but not hurting at least. He touched them hesitantly but couldn’t find anything wrong, though it did seem that his new canine was already on its way. There was nothing he could do about his stomach so he just ignored it as best he could and sat going over potions ingredients in his mind to pass the time.

He spent the rest of the day there, sitting under his tree and getting up every once in a while to get a drink of water or to stretch out his legs as needed. By the time the sunset came about his stomachache was beyond what he could stand and his gums and even his teeth were aching by then. He just remained under the tree being as quiet as possible and wished the pain away with everything he had.

He didn’t know how long he remained there, twisting around in pain; but all of a sudden everything stopped. Then just as quickly everything seemed to be rushing at him from all sides. He became aware of the soft rustling of the leaves and the gentle wind going through his hair. Something…..something inside him was changing, he didn’t know what it was but he felt awake.

He felt hunger, a need for something….something that was nearby. He could feel it, what he needed was there…somewhere near the middle of the park. He absently felt a dull pain in his mouth and could distantly hear a faint hiss escape from his mouth but could not really bring himself to wonder why this should worry him. All he knew was that he had to go….had to feed…

He soon found himself near the pond, he knew his hunger could be assuaged there, but something told him that he needed to do it fast. If he didn’t strike quickly his prey would escape.

Another sharp pain in his belly prompted him to move. He silently moved in on his meal trying to be stealthy but when he saw the teen standing up to leave he panicked. He needed him! He needed it!

He struck in a starved frenzy.

He could almost hear the blood in the man’s veins, flowing, rushing…calling to him. He could feel the man struggling to push his face away but he just had to bite…had to drink…..had to end the ache.

Severus was in heaven when he tasted the first drop of that wonderful liquid. It was breathtakingly good. It tasted sweet…so sweet, but slightly tart, like a strawberry that’s not quite ripe. He drank; he drank as much as he could, as quickly as he could. He had to drink while he still could, he didn’t want to hurt again…Faintly, he realized his prey was no longer struggling…he could calm down, he was not going to run away…and then he heard something….

Severus slowly came to his senses. He looked up, someone was saying something…

“Child,” he heard and then he realized what he was doing. He became aware of the blood in his mouth and his hold on the teen’s arm. Disgusted by his actions he let go of the wrist and tried to run back to his tree but the teenager caught him mid leap. He struggled but was not strong enough to push him off and though he tried to bite his captor’s hands all he managed were a few light nips instead.

“Child, I won’t hurt you,” he heard the gentle voice once again but refused to let himself be fooled just because he sounded kind.

“On my magic I swear I won’t hurt you intentionally, but I reserve the right to act in self defense,” the teenager then vowed, surprising Severus into stillness. He couldn’t find anything wrong with the phrasing and he was tired from struggling so he decided to listen… for now anyways. Sitting there on another person’s lap was quite uncomfortable and Severus was eager to get out of there, the sooner the better.

The teenager tried to get him to talk but Severus had always found that you learned more by keeping silent than trying to talk your way out of things. So he waited…until the teenager threatened him with the DRCMC. He really didn’t want to go there. His mother would be beyond worried and who knows what Tobias would do to him…if he allowed him back to begin with. He doubted that Tobias would be willing to deal with a blood sucking creature, especially if it was his; one more thing for Tobias to add to his long list of faults.

“All right,” he said concealing his fear with anger and waited for him to finish introducing himself.

He almost scoffed when the teenager said he was 19, there was no way he was an adult; he barely looked like he could be out of Hogwarts! He kept his thoughts to himself though and only gave his first name in return.

He finally lost his patience however when ‘Harry’ tried to make him believe he was only trying to help. Though he had no idea what this ‘man’ wanted he just wanted to get out of this mess as soon as possible and go home.

When ‘Harry’ finally realized that Severus was not going to believe his lies like any other snot-nosed brat he said, “We’re gonna be here all night if you can’t trust me a bit. What must I do to get you to believe me?”

Severus thought silently, trying to find a request that would reveal his true intentions. Something that Harry would definitely refuse to do and thus prove him a liar. He then remembered something he read in one of his mother’s old books, a spell that showed when someone lied: “Ostendo sum verum.”

Predictably, Harry tried to mislead him, “And just where did you learn about that spell?”

Severus rolled his eyes since Harry couldn’t see him in their current position. Did ‘Harry’ really thing he was going to be sidetracked so easily?

He hated to be thought an idiot but had to give it to Harry when he came up with a good excuse about why he won’t do it.

“… I am currently without a wand. A rather unfortunate accident I must say. Or hadn’t you wondered why I’m restraining you purely by physical means?”

“Makes sense I guess…” Severus answered quite unhappy. His plan had failed and he had no idea what to do now.

“Here’s an idea: I’ll take you home tonight and we’ll continue this discussion tomorrow afternoon. Besides, if you are what I think you are, you are going need to feed again tomorrow and given that I’m the only one that knows about this particular craving of yours, I volunteer to be dinner for another day. What do you think?”

“That you will never be accused of eloquence,” Severus snapped. “Did you have to make it sound so disgusting?” Really, if 'Harry' was going to pretend to be an adult he could at least try to speak like one.

His life officially sucked…and now the buffoon was laughing his head off for some reason.

He really had no other choice but to do as Harry wanted at this point. Especially since it looked like he knew what was wrong with him. Severus had no idea what was going on, the only creatures he knew that drank blood were vampires but he had never even seen one so he was quite perplexed as to what could be happening to him. So he accepted Harry’s terms.

Once they had gotten up Severus took the chance to examine his subjugator more closely. He was as short as he had first thought, with a slender body built, narrow shoulders and small hands for a man. He had short unruly black hair, high cheekbones, bright green eyes, and a faint scar that looked like a bolt of lightning on his forehead. Tobias would have taken one looked at him and declared him a ‘pansy’ in a second.

Severus however was no fool, for all his delicate appearance the person standing in front of him with a perfectly blank face was powerful. It was not the in-your-face kind of power but a more subtle and dangerous kind that puzzled him. Whether teenager or man, this person embodied enough contradictions to keep him off balance. He realized this man was dangerous but at the same time something inside of him, the same something that he had felt awaken, told him that this man was not a danger to him.

'Harry' smiled and told him, "Come on, let’s get you home. Which way?”

Severus glared at him and started walking away from the pond still puzzled. 'Harry' then turned his head slightly towards him, “If you plan to hide recent events I suggest you try to retract your fangs before we get to our destination.”

Fangs?...He lightly ran his tongue over his upper teeth and sure enough he felt two fangs instead of his usual canine, even his old gap had been replaced by a fang. He was surprised he hadn’t felt the difference, he hadn’t even had a problem speaking clearly.

“Retract?” He asked, not sure what he meant.

“Your fangs are retractable; just try to picture your fangs shrinking to a normal size. They will still look a bit pointier than usual teeth, but that’s all.”

Severus knew that he had to get his teeth back to normal before he got home so he focused on ‘retracting’ his fangs and pretended to ignore 'Harry' as much as possible. He finally managed to retract them by the time they got to the creek; they will reach his home soon.

When they were finally near his house 'Harry' asked, “What time should I pick you up tomorrow?”

“Be here at 5.” Severus ordered and walked off without another word. He had too many things to think about and just wanted to get away from him now that he could.

He looked back when he didn’t hear the distinctive crack of apparation. He had assumed that 'Harry' would apparate from there but when he looked back he saw no one there.

He felt a shiver crawl up his spine and it had nothing to do with the cool night air.

He sneaked back into his room through his bedroom window and changed his clothes quickly in case his mother came in to check on him. He knew he was dirty from rolling around on the soil and he even had a few drops of blood here and there. He didn’t want to worry his mother and it was better to avoid questions for now. Thinking up a lie wasn’t a problem but he’d rather not do it if he didn’t have to. Not to mention that he didn’t know what was going on with him anyways.

Severus didn’t know what to think of 'Harry.' His power was obvious and it was just as obvious that he wanted something from Severus. Whether he had arranged for things to happen this way or if he was just taking advantage of Severus’ condition, he didn’t know. But one thing he knew was that whatever 'Harry' wanted with him he was going go be extremely careful in his dealings with him...no matter how much his heart was telling him Harry could be trusted.