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ONE LIFE TO LIVE	By : Mistress Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 9831 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters. Nor do I make any money off of writing in here.

Chapter List
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CHATER THREE
MINERVA
Thank you for your review, Black Rose. Crooks was a brave cat indeed. Sorry, I had to let him go, but it’s the kind of story, that will get a lot sadder before getting happier.

Albus is still trying to talk to me from his frame, but I can’t stand talking to him right now. I don’t know if I ever will.
- “Minerva, you have to understand.”
- “Stop. Just stop. I don’t understand. It’s your fault I had to raise my wand at him. At HIM, Albus. The one I considered to be my son. How could you make me do that? And now the other one is going to kill himself fighting that… that monster of yours. I will never forgive you for what you’ve done to those boys. Never, you hear me?”
I hear someone knocking and come to open the door.
- “Harry? What are you doing here?”
- “May I use the Pensieve, professor?”
- “Of course. What do you have there?”
- “It’s… it’s… professor Snape’s memories.”
- “Memories?” My heart starts pounding in my chest. “He gave you his memories? Why?”
- “Yes. I think it’s something about my mother.”
- “Why would he do that?” I see him looking at me with his big teary eyes. I know what he’s about to say and prepare myself mentally. He hesitates. I can’t take it anymore. I have to hear it from him. “Tell me, Potter.”
- “He… he gave them to me before he… before he died.”
There. It’s been said. My worst fear had just been spoken out loud. I feel my heart breaking into a thousand little pieces. My world crushing down before my very eyes. I close them and try to take a deep breath, but I can’t. Not enough air. Still trying to control my breathing, I hear Potter’s voice.
- “Professor. Professor Mcgonagall, are you ok?”
I try not to give into the panic and think clearly. There’s still hope.
- “Have you seen Lucius, Harry?”
- “Lucius? No, I have not. Why do you ask?”
I take a deep breath and try to calm down my pounding heart. If Lucius is still alive, then so is HE.
- “Go ahead and use the Pensieve. See what you always wanted to see, Harry.”
- “He pours Severus’ memories into a Pensieve and starts watching. I don’t know which ones Severus had given to the boy, but he must have thought that he was dying if he did. Some time passes before Potter looks up at me.
- “Professor. I didn’t know. I didn’t think that he was…”
- “You didn’t think that he was just a man? A human being with a heart that can love and ache just like anyone else’s?”
He lowers his head, tears are falling from his eyes. – “He was always so cruel to us. He hated me and I hated him in return. I didn’t know any of this.”
I allow myself to come up to him and brush his hair with my fingers. Something that I used to do with Severs, when he was a child. – “There’s a lot you don’t know about him, boy. There’s a lot that you don’t know about many in this school. I hope time will come and you will learn to see people for who they really are and not for who they appear to be.”
He stares at me for a moment, not expecting me to show that much emotion and then takes my hand into his. – “You love him, professor. That’s why you always defended him in front of Dumbledore and all of us.”
I throw a quick look at Albus’ portrait and notice with relief that he is not there.
- “Yes, I love him. He was like a son to me. He IS like a son to me.”
- “But you fought him. Fought to protect all of us.”
Guilt squeezes my heart with an iron glove – “I did. I had to.”
- “Professor. Tell me. Please, help me understand.”
- “Now is not the time for that. You have to be prepared to face the Dark Lord. Your magic is strong Harry, but you should not underestimate Voldemort’s power. He will use everything he can against you. All the dirty tricks he can think of. Anything to defeat you. You have to be strong. I will stay here and protect this school, but I want you to know that I believe in you. I always had.”
- “Thank you, professor. I promise that I will not fail you. I will give my last breath to defeat this monster. I have one thing to ask you, though. When… If… I come back from this, will you tell me about professor Snape?”
- “When you come back, I will tell you everything you want to know. I give you my word. But I have one thing to ask from you in return. If you see Lucius Malfoy die on the battlefield, will you go to the place where you left Severus and bring me his body? I know, my request doesn’t make sense to you now, but I want you to give me your word.”
- “You’re right professor, I don’t understand your request, but I promise you that I will do what you ask of me.”
- “Thank you, my boy.”
- “You’re welcome, professor.” Suddenly, he looks at the empty portrait on the wall – “I miss him. I hope I’ll be able to make him proud.”
I can only shake my head to those words. If only he would know the truth. I stroke his messy hair again and adjust his glasses. – “If it’s of any comfort, then let me say that I am already proud of you. You have grown to be a strong wizard and most importantly, a good man.”
- “Thank you, professor. I need to go now.”
- “Go. I will see you in a bit.”
Smile lights up his face and I see an eleven year old boy again, full of hopes and a dream to find good friends and escape the tortures of that dreadful people Albus placed him with.
“Good luck” I whisper, as he turns and walks out of the office.
I take another look at Albus’ portrait and see him looking at me – “What, couldn’t face him one last time, Albus? No wise words of any kind?” I throw spitefully.
- “You have changed, Minerva. I don’t recognize you anymore.”
- “Yes, I have changed. The woman who loved you and believed you for all these years is dead now. You killed her with your lies. I have followed you blindly for so many years, driven only by feelings that I had for you. I tried to justify your every move, no matter how wrong and how cruel.”
- “You are not as innocent, as you want to believe.”
- “No, I am not. I stood by your side and watched for years the unkindness and torture these boys were going through and didn’t do anything to change it. Even after your betrayal, I stayed loyal to you. And what did you do? How did you repay me for all that loyalty? You made me doubt him. You made me believe that he turned to the dark side and raise my want on him. On someone I used to call my son. I will never forgive you for that and if he dies… if one of them dies tonight, I will destroy that frame of yours with my own hands. You will never show your face in this school ever again. It will be as you if you never existed.”
I walk out of what is now my office and shut the door behind me. I have to forget about my own feelings for a while and do my duty. There’s still a lot of kids at this school that need my protection and I will do exactly that. On my way, I see Molly and professor Flitwick.
- “We have to put a protective shield around the school and summon the guards.”
- “Are you sure it will work, Minerva? You understand that they won’t be able to keep You-Know-Who from here indefinitely.”
- “They have been put here for a reason, so let them do their job. And his name is Voldemort, Filius. Given the chance, he will kill you anyway, so you might as well use it.”
We go outside and I raise my wand – “Piertotum Locomotor.”
With that, the stone guards are brought to life and we now have more chances to withstand Voldemort’s Death Eaters. Then, we all raise our wands and place the strongest protective charm around the school. “Protego Maxima” “Fianto Duri” and “Repello Inimicum” are said in unison, by all the professors that stand by me. Hopefully, this barrier will be enough to protect all of us.
Now, the only thing we can do is to wait. As if on purpose, time goes extremely slow and I can’t help, but wonder if my boy is still alive. It might sound selfish, but I can’t help myself. I know Molly would understand me now. She had lost her son too. Except unlike her, I don’t have anyone to share my pain with. No one would understand.
Like no one understood a little boy all those years ago. Confused, scared and angry, he was like a wild animal that has gotten pushed away by everyone who encountered him. For a few month, I was just watching him. He seemed to be doing a good job staying out of everyone’s way. No one wanted to have anything in common with a weird kid. No one, except for one little girl from my house that seemed to be just as weird and misunderstood as he was.
It made me happy to know that they had each other. Without realizing, I became very fund of those two. They made a good couple. Even though they got sorted into a different houses, they always managed to find each other in between their classes.
I was not the only one who noticed their close friendship. Horace Slughorn could not be happier with his talented student. He bragged about the boy to me every time we met at lunch. And as good as Severus was at potions, Lily’s abilities in this area, could only be compared to the ones of Neville Longbottom’s. Thanks to Severus though, she managed to get a passing grade.
She showed an undeniable talent in charms though and passed the class in her first year with flying colors. Severus was good at it too, but pretended to be needing help, so he could spend some more time with her. By the end of the year, I noticed that their friendship was no longer just a friendship to him. It grew into some sort of obsession, but she didn’t seem to mind, so I thought that the best thing to do at the time, was to leave them alone. I guess I always hoped that within a few years, their friendship will blossom into a beautiful romance. Unfortunately, that was never going to happen.
Everything changed, after they returned to their second year. Everyone could see the change right away. She was not a scared little mouse anymore. She seemed to be more aware of her powers, showed more confidence, which made her more approachable and the first thing I saw when they all came back from their summer break, was Lily in a group of her new friends. Who I didn’t see though was Severus. I asked Ogg (the gamekeeper at Hogwarts) about him, but he said that he didn’t see him among the others.
That was odd. Severus I knew, would never pass the chance to come back to school and see Lily. By the end of first day, I was already warried sick. I asked Lily if she saw him and she told me that she hasn’t seen or spoken to him for a whole summer. She said that she even went to his house, but his mother told him that he was sick and couldn’t come out. She said that she even sent him an owl, but never received a reply back.
I didn’t know what to think. I told Albus about it. All he said that my obsession with this boy, will not gain me an ability to have my own kids and with this, the topic was dismissed. I returned to my chambers, tired and sick with worry. I remember that night well. I couldn’t go to bed for the longest time. I considered to owl his parents, but only the Headmaster had a right to do something like that.
Plus, Albus would get upset with me if I went over his head. Our relationship was a little shaky at the time and I didn’t want to ruin it completely. Consumed with my thoughts, I didn’t notice a strange sound at my door. In a few minutes, my feline senses detected it. That was weird. As far as I knew, I was the only animagus on the school grounds, so it could only have been someone’s familiar that was wondering around the castle at this hour.
Completely prepared to deduct points for letting their animal out of sight, I opened the door. What I saw on my porch, made my heart stop for a moment. All the articles of animal cruelty that I’ve read in the newspapers, could not prepare me for what I saw in front of me. At first, I didn’t even know what to make of this bloody mess. All I knew that it was some kind of animal. I was even afraid to pick it up, so I levitated it to my room and placed a clean towel on my bed, before lowering it down.
My friend Poppy, taught me a lot of healing spells when we were students, so I started to remember all of them. I saw a few broken ribs, sharp bones sticking out of the wounds and performed a bone mending spell before making any attempts to do anything else. Little thing winced, but didn’t make any sound. I thought that it was trying to stay brave and not cry, but when I looked closer, I saw that his jaws was duct taped tightly to each other, so it would be impossible for the poor thing to make any sounds at all.
Carefully, I made some cuts and removed the duct tape from its mouth, noticing big drops of tears running down from the dark eyes. I took another look at its eyes and realized that it was not just an animal, but Animagus. Gods, how could I not see it at first? – “You’ll be ok, little one. I promise, I’ll make you better.”
Only after I washed all the dirt and blood from it, I saw that it was a little feline. Black Panther cub. Attempt to stroke its back, brought out another wince and a loss of consciousness. It scared me. Little thing must have had more broken ribs than I noticed at first. I continued my inspection of its little body that was curled up in the fetus position. I straightened up little legs, finally noticing a reason of its reaction to my gesture.
The tail was missing. Instead, a bloody stump at the end of its back. I couldn’t hold my tears. How was this even possible? How could someone do something like that? I needed a Scele-Gro. Without wasting another minute, I went to Poppy.
She was surprised to see me at this time of night, but promised not to say anything to anyone if I explain what happened. So I did and returned with the potion to my little patient.
It was still unconscious when I came back and I had to pour the potion into its mouth and hold the head up, to make sure the potion gets swallowed. After some time, the potion started working and I saw some changes. I knew the process was going to be slow and painful, but it had to be done, before its first transformation back into a human form.
I didn’t get any sleep that night and just kept sitting and watching the little thing. I had to make sure to give him (after a closer inspection, I found out that it was indeed a he) a sleeping potion. Rest was all he needed now. Sitting there, looking at him, I couldn’t help but guess who it was in front of me, even though, deep inside I think I already knew the answer.
I remembered Horace telling me that Severus spilled his ink once, when he was writing a potions assignment, but was so concentrated on finishing his essay on time, that didn’t clean it off and no matter how many times he washed his hand after, the stain would always remain there. Not even a scourgify spell could take it off completely.
With shaking hands, I picked up his little paw, turned it up and recognized a faint purple stain on his footpad. It was at this moment that I promised myself that I will always love and protect him. I didn’t know who it was that did this to him, but I would find out. And when that time comes, I’d make sure they pay dearly for what they did to this child.
I saw him wince and cry out a little in his sleep and I stroked his head, running my fingers through his black soft fur. – “Sleep little one. Sleep and don’t worry, I won’t let anything bad happen to you anymore. No one will hurt you. Not on my watch. I give you my word.” If I only knew what the future will bring.
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ONE LIFE TO LIVE