A Different Kind of Magic--UNDERGOING EDIT

This has got to be one of my very favorite chapters so far. No warnings, only a wonderful chapter I am positive you will love too. Enjoy and thanks to those who read and especially those who review I appreciate them more than you know!!

Five points to the person who gets the movie reference in their review for an idea I snatched. I will write a personal fanfic of choice for the person who tells me where Severus' line comes from during the chess scene. Hint; a British sitcom.



Chapter 57- Power of Innocence

The sturdy black cauldron bubbled away merrily under the careful ministrations of an almost cheerful Severus Snape. Brewing potions was so old hat to him; he could do it with his eyes closed. The familiar feel of a chopping board and sharp knife was soothing under the steady rhythm of his hand, mincing various ingredients for his current batch of Blood Replenishing potion. Apparently he and Hermione had used up almost the last of it. The start of the term marked the usual initiation of the first years, and inevitably, a drain on Poppy’s stores.


Three ancient wood crates were stacked neatly against the wall, filled with the other potions that had been on his list to brew for the day. It was child’s play really. The anticipation of something that felt close to home had caused him to rise before the break of day. His only inconvenience had been the use of all things Muggle in his work. Severus was determined not to rely on Hermione’s magic unless absolutely necessary.

Hermione was in the tiny kitchen preparing the mid-day meal. Snape’s potions lab was right off the small dining nook and she could have sworn she heard humming. Pressing one ear to the door, sure enough, she heard a toneless hum coming from the room.

Weird. Severus hums?

He didn’t normally, but when content and lost in thought, he did. It was nothing in particular; just indicative of having had a magnificent wank the night before and a mundane pleasure before him. For once there was no pressure on him. It felt nice for a change.

Hermione gathered Teddy to the table and paused before rapping on Severus’ door. She hated to bug him, but the sharp angles of his skeletal frame needed some desperate padding. Hermione had a bruise from him bumping into her the night before. “Severus, time for lunch.”

“Yes dear,” came the muffled reply.

Did I just hear him say yes dear? Nah, she shook her head. She was definitely hearing things.

Much to her chagrin, Snape emerged from his lab wearing his traditional black robes and stuffy twenty layers of clothing. She had wondered how long it would take him to get around to wearing all that shite again. Sometimes she didn’t mind it, but didn’t understand how he could stand wearing all those layers.

The truth was, it was a protective measure for Snape. His own father had always made him feel so broken and exposed in his own home. The boy that was Snape was often forced to strip naked and stand in a corner for punishment for hours on end. Snape’s father had many years to condition the boy to his way of thinking. Old habits die hard. The first thing Severus had done upon being hired at Hogwarts was go out and shop for three days straight just to procure the perfect measure of authority he felt the role of Professor deserved. Thus, the great black bat of the dungeons had been born.

Out of the mouths of babes, Teddy piped up over a drink of milk. “You look funny.”

Severus was in a humorously good mood for once, so he merely tweaked the corner of his mouth in amusement. “Thank you Teddy,” he replied most gravely.

“Why do you wear all them clothes?”

“When I was a little boy, I asked too many questions and my mum made me wear them for the rest of my life as punishment for being a bothersome child.”

“Oh,” was the only reply. It bought approximately two minutes of peace.

“Why do you have such a big nose?”

“I don’t know Teddy, why do you ask such puerile questions?”

“What does pue- pue-“

“Puerile. It means a pointless, obtuse inquiry which has no logical answer.”

The poor kid stared at him in extreme confusion. The look on his face was almost as satisfying to Snape as when he had had the rare moments when Granger had been stumped in Potion’s years ago. It was hard to derive satisfaction from confusing a four year old child, however.

“Teddy, just eat your food.”

“Okay Mister Snape.”

It boggled him how Lupin’s spawn could inhale more food than two grown men at every meal. Then again, he supposed it wasn’t so surprising considering the vast quantities of power the child channeled, untapped. It was almost a frightening prospect.

“Miss Hermione will you play guys with me when you’re done eatin’?”

“Um, what do you mean by ‘guys’, Teddy?” She exchanged a bemused glance with Severus.

“You know the game where you move the pieces around on the board and they smash each other to bits? That’s fun!”

“Wizard’s chess?” she wondered aloud.

“Yeah, my Daddy taught me how to play that.”

“Teddy, we don’t even have a set here to play.”

“Yeah we do. My Daddy brought me his set and put it in my room.”

Snape let out a huge, undignified snort. “Hogwash. A four year old child cannot possibly know the intricacies of Wizard’s chess.”

“Wanna make a bet Mister Snape?” the child deadpanned.

Severus blinked a few times. Teddy had instantly lost the childish look and was looking him in the eye as a man would have. It was unnerving to say the least. He pursed his lips in mock contemplation. “You’re on, little man. What’s your wager?” He waited for him to ask what a wager was, but much to his surprise, Teddy knew already.

“If I win, you have to make me a Fizzy Lifting potion so I can play broom tag with Miss Hermione.”

“And if I win, you spend the day in my potions lab scrubbing cauldrons and stirring ingredients.”

“You’re on Mister Snape.”

Cheeky little sod. They shook on it.

--

Severus begrudgingly admitted the set before him was gorgeous. The black pieces were solid obsidian, gorgeously black with solid bases and intricately carved details. The white pieces were, shockingly, ivory. Hermione exclaimed at their exquisite rarity and beauty. She explained that ivory was outlawed in the Muggle world because of over harvesting of the elephants tusks.

Ivory was apparently easily procured in Wizarding circles. A mere tap of the wand, a few combined ingredients and it was easily transformed, but difficult to carve because it lacked the soft luster of its original counterpart. That is the trait that made this set so special; it would have taken a master hundreds of hours to painstakingly carve the delicate features on each piece.

“Are you sure your father has given permission to use this set, Teddy?” Snape asked dubiously.

“Yeah. He said it’s enchanted to put them back together when the game is over. Daddy used to play a lot before he was teaching all the time.”

“If you say so.”

Teddy went first, and the beginning of the game went by rather swiftly. Severus clucked internally at the silly moves the child was making. He obviously had no idea what he was doing. With only four chess pieces left on the board, the boy was doomed. Snape began to set up for the kill.

In one brilliant move, Teddy flipped pieces from one side of the board to the other in a complicated pattern and smugly looked up at Snape. “Checkmate.”

“You can’t do that! It’s illegal!” he thundered, gesturing rabidly over the board.

“Don’t look so mad Mister Snape. It’s not your fault I know more about Wizarding chess than you.”

Why that little shit I’ll-

Snape rose formidably, doing his damnedest to intimidate the little waif. “I will have you know that I was a champion at Wizarding chess in my day, and that is not a legal move. You cheated.”

Hermione stifled a giggle.

“What’s so funny Miss Granger?”

“Nothing.”

“He cheated!”

“No Mister Snape. If you look in the rule book it says right here it’s the Phoenix move. When my rook is right there-“ he pointed to a spot on the board, “and your king is there with the pointy guy over there-“ he pointed to another spot, “it is a legal move for me to put my guy over here and jump into that other square to checkmate your king.”

“Give me that!” he snarled, ripping the rulebook from Teddy’s grasp.

“Merlin’s pointy hat, Severus, you don’t have to be a prat.”

“I am not being a prat. This ignorant little shit is trying to pull one over on me.”

“Severus! You do not call Teddy names like that!”

Teddy’s lip began to tremble and a few fat crocodile tears ran down his face. “I didn’t cheat,” he whispered. “You’re just a big grumpy old git just like my Daddy said you were.” The lad ran into Hermione’s arms, sobbing in earnest.

“See what you did? You made him cry. He’s just a little boy for crying out loud.”

Her admonishing gaze told him he was in the doghouse for the rest of the day. “What a load of codswallup! You know as well as I do that the boy cheated, and now you are rewarding him for this illicit behavior? I don’t have to sit here and take this rubbish from you. Balls to it!” Snape stormed from the table, placing his hands under the board and flinging them straight up, upending the chess board as he went. The chess pieces flew to the floor, rolling in all directions.

Teddy’s sobs came louder from the folds of Hermione’s robes as he clutched her. “He’s so mean I never wanna talk to him again!” he cried between hiccoughs.

“Severus Snape you will come back here right now and apologize to this child!”

“I will do no such thing,” he answered coldly, turning to deliver his point home just as he entered the kitchen.

Hermione’s icy glare met his own, as well as that of an impish face peering from the folds of her robe. Teddy stuck his tongue out at him and smiled.

He had manipulated the entire thing. Continuing his dramatic exit and slamming the door to his lab, Snape finally let loose the knowing sneer that erupted from the depths of his frown lines. The child had a cunning heart of pure Slytherin gold.

Severus couldn’t have asked for more perfect companions. He could almost imagine they were a little family going about their day. It was hard to believe such a powerful, intelligent kid came from the loins of his diseased father. They were all misfits in their own way. The exiled, shunned Death Eater has-been, a brilliant young Healer in training who had wasted herself on caring for him, and a seemingly innocuous youngster who could hold the key to the world’s salvation. Fate made for strange bedfellows.

It suited him very nicely. His little family. Severus hummed away as he started on the child’s Fizzy Lifting potion. He would never admit Lupin’s brat was right and he was wrong, but he’d make it up to him. The book had clearly indicated the move was added just last year. It was no wonder he had never heard of it.

Yes, it was a nice thought. Just him, Hermione and Teddy.

It didn’t occur to him that it was an odd train of thought. His life had changed so much he accepted what came, good or bad, and had only recently decided to make the best of it. I’m going soft in my old age.

Wicked thoughts of how he would take advantage of Hermione that night kept him company for the rest of the afternoon while he puttered in his lab. Life was good. For today.


--


Sex was not forthcoming that night. Or the night after. It really put him in a bad mood. Snape wanted to make love to his beautiful girl and she wouldn’t let him touch her because of the chess incident even though he had made Teddy the potion.

He was caught by surprise when Teddy came to him in the middle of the night sobbing.

“Mis-mis-mister Snape. I-I-I had-had a bad-bad-d-dream an it was s-scary!” Teddy cried hysterically. It was the child’s first nightmare since coming from the Weasley’s home.

Severus had no firsthand experience comforting a child this young. Snivelling first years were one thing. He could usually push the crying females onto an older student to deal with. A tender little boy terrified him. What if he did or said the wrong thing? He could scar the child for life.

He didn’t get a chance to think because Teddy flung himself into Snape’s bed. The little head burrowed itself into the crook of his arm and eventually quite crying. Severus stared down at the furry little head of the sleeping child. He was such a fragile little thing. It was hard to believe he had been so strong in the face of a murderous lunatic like Malfoy. It burned his heart that Teddy had endured the same brand, only on his back.

Severus slowly relaxed as Teddy’s breaths evened out in deep sleep. This wasn’t so bad. As long as the child wasn’t crying hysterically he could deal with this. He protectively covered up the boy and draped a bony arm over his chest. Hermione found them that way the next morning and she smiled. Deep down, the old blow-hard was a big old softy. He had just stolen another chunk of her heart.

When Severus woke up there was an odd feeling in his chest. It felt like warmth and light and electric all at once. The mildly intoxicating feeling made him feel high. Slowly opening his eyes, he saw Teddy sitting next to him concentrating intently with his little hands placed over the man’s heart.

“What are you doing?” he yelped, shoving the child back onto the bed, breaking the connection.

He sprang out of bed, checking himself for any signs of damage.

Teddy had a curious look on his face, like he wasn’t quite all there. He didn’t answer.

Snape crept closer to the bed and leaned down, inspecting the child’s eyes. Teddy was not in there. He instantly recognized the faraway look in the child’s eyes. Something incredibly vague and powerful was gathered there. His senses informed him the air was crackling with static electricity and magic. The feeling in his chest lingered, warm like hot cider or the slow burn of whiskey; it wasn’t entirely unpleasant, simply different than anything he had ever felt before.
Not daring to wake the boy from his trance, he wondered what the boy had been doing to him. Obviously he had proven his ability to heal major wounds, even if the efforts had been haphazard. Teddy had saved his life. Severus decided he wanted to continue and see what the boy had been trying to accomplish.

He lay back down on the bed and gently repositioned the small hands over his chest as they had been. As if there had been no interruption, the indescribable feeling began again. A solid glow of soft light flowed from under the hands on his chest. Oddly, Teddy’s hands weren’t hot or cold on his bare skin, simply warm and clammy.

The real action was happening inside of him. A battle was raging, powerful magic warred against an invisible blockade of resistance. The power mounted in intensity, the glow becoming greater with each passing minute. A great pressure was building at the same time. Snape felt like he was going to suffocate or his heart burst. He desperately tried to pry the boy’s hands from his chest but they were bound there like two Muggle beams of steel soldered together.

He willed himself to relax and conserve his breaths. It would not do to struggle. He needed to ride out whatever was happening to them both.

An incredulous professor gaped as Teddy’s eyes took on a golden hue, the light emanating from his dilated pupils. His chest was now a great balloon, ready to burst. The sensation turned heady, his mind forming hallucinations of a great battlefield where an ancient battle raged. Wizards and witches warred on rocky highland ground, large stones channeling long-dead magic into the sky and back down at the enemy. The other side held aloft stones of a translucent nature, bright zigzags emanating from the center of each one to rage against the light branding them from the sky.

In the center of the battle stood a small child. Warring figures swirled around him, but the child was untouched. As the dream Snape drew closer he could see the outline of the child’s face. It was a small boy, about four years old. He stood in a calm center, the eye of a tornado. A little finger beckoned to him, indicating he come closer. Snape reached the center of the battle and looked down at the boy. He was staring at Teddy Lupin. Teddy reached out his hands and took the larger man’s in his own. The boy’s mouth opened to speak but all that came out was an angel’s song. It was faint and difficult to hear with human ears, but its heavenly sound was etched indelibly on his brain.

That which was taken from you, held captive in the realm where you wandered. We are here to return it safely to you, oh great war hero from distant past. You are guardian of the child, bringer of the chosen, herald to the future. Reclaim your place at his side, the love of another will guide your way. Without you he surely will perish. The light is the way.

An eruption of raw power scorched through his body, the dam of resistance broken at last. He cried out, but not in agony. It was the return of precious magic to his soul. It blazed through every vein, artery, muscle and nerve. The unrestricted flow quenched the bottomless pit that housed his despair. Life once again pulsed through him.

The flow gradually ceased, and Teddy’s hands fell limply to his sides. The lad’s eyes fell closed and he collapsed on top of Severus. Concerned for the boy, he laid the small form back on the bed and checked his pulse. Both his breathing and pulse were normal. The child was asleep. He was probably exhausted from the massive amount of energy that had been channeled through his body. Severus had very rarely seen that display of power even from the most formidable wizards and witches of his time, and it had nearly killed them. This miracle before him was the tender age of four and had probably not even realized what he was doing. On top of that, he had merely become exhausted, not burned to a crisp.
Instinctively falling back on old habits, Severus ran his hand up and down the boy in a wandless diagnostic spell. He breathed a sigh of relief. The lad was fine.

Realization dawned. Teddy had gifted him with the return of his magic! The sweet feel of magic hummed through him. It had stabilized, but felt stronger than before the coma.

Severus was in complete awe. There truly was something to this Prophecy, if the vision he had witnessed was to be believed. No one he knew had ever regained their magic after they were bereft.

Hermione came into the room just then. “Hi sleepyhead, I see you’re awake.” He did not respond, and she frowned. “What’s wrong with Teddy? Why is he still asleep?”

He reached up to take her hand as she came close to the bed. “You are never going to believe what just happened,” he breathed, still studying the face before him.

“Try me,” she replied, crossing her arms.

“I think you’d better sit down.”