31. Snape's woes

Snape sat in his office slash room wondering, not for the first time, where it had gone all wrong. He could pinpoint the moment thanks to his occlumency. Truthfully, it had all gone wrong when in a moment of candid youthful anger he had insulted the love of his life with the most despicable insult of all. Lily, how he misses the woman he had spent his youth pining after. Even after death he could not let go of the love he felt for the amazing witch. 

Now with the new year having started, Snape had to deal with Lily’s children. Children she had with that despicable James Potter, the boy that had bullied him relentlessly in his youth. Worse, one of the children, Harry James Potter, looked like the spitting image of that man. The only saving grace being the kid had inherited Lily’s lovely eyes. 

On the other side of the spectrum however, was the girl that made Snape’s heart ache in remembrance. Sophia Lily Potter looked just like her mother at that age. She is also as clever if not more than said mother. At the very least, Snape could take solace in knowing that some of Lily’s talents weren’t sullied by Jame’s genes. 

That however, wasn’t the thing that had Snape sighing this time around with a hand massaging his temples trying to stave off the headache he could feel coming. No, instead it was his good old friend’s daughter. Silver Malfoy, daughter of Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Malfoy ne Black. A girl with a talent for all things magic like none he had seen before. The same girl that had somehow managed to explode a troll. 

Snape had nothing but compliments for the girl. She wasn’t only talented but dedicated as well. How many talented witches and wizards had Snape seen wasting their talents by abusing them to just coast by Hogwarts with a passing grade? It infuriated him, especially those with talent for potioneering. Such an example would be the weasley twins. That pair had an innate talent for potions but they opted to waste it by crafting prank items.  

With a sigh Snape refocused on the matter at hand, Silver Malfoy’s performance. From the retelling of the four witnesses. The girl hadn’t just exploded as a troll, she had also somehow matched the thing in raw strength. Snape wouldn’t have believed such a tall tale if not for the piece of torn robe attached to the troll’s club. One that fit perfectly within Silver’s torn robe sleeve. 

Something was really out of place and it was nagging him something fierce. Not only him but the other professors too felt it. They had spent the last hour in an emergency meeting talking about it. In the end no conclusion was found and so it was decided that they would wait for the girl to wake up before making a decision on the matter. 

Even so, Snape couldn’t stop thinking about it. Especially so when madam Pomfrey had declared that the girl was in fact that and not some magical creature trying to pass for her. That and the fact the girl’s healing was abnormally fast. Madam Pomfrey had found micro fractures along her legs and arms that were gone in a matter of minutes. The woman had calculated a bit and it painted a strange picture. 

At that speed the girl’s arms and legs must have suffered either a full fracture or extensive fissures for it to take this long to fully heal. It made sense if she had taken a hit from the troll head on. Even so, it made all of the faculty members worry. Afterall, the only recorded instance of such healing without the use of potions was that of rituals. 

Snape knew of such rituals, especially so since the dark lord had taken part in a few. The thing is, those rituals tend to have rather steep prices, most of which were unavoidable. The most common price would be that of lifespan, also the most unavoidable one. The faster the user healed the shorter their lifespan would be. At the speed the girl healed… well… she wouldn’t live past twenty. 

That is precisely why Snape found it hard to believe the girl had partaken in such a nasty ritual. Lucius would not have allowed it in any way shape or form. Callus the man might be but he loved his family still. There must be another answer and this is precisely why they had opted for the wait and see approach. 

With that bit of thinking out of the way for the time being Snape decided to focus on another and perhaps more pressing problem. The troll, how had it gotten inside the castle? To put it simply, Hogwarts isn’t a castle for nothing. The thing is fortified with magic defences everywhere. No one could come in or out without the headmaster becoming aware of it. That is, as long as said headmaster stays in the office. 

No, this felt like an inside job. Someone would need to know that the headmaster wouldn’t be at his office at this time, which to be fair wouldn’t be all that hard taking into account he would be at the dining hall. Even so, it didn’t mean it would be any easier to sneak a troll in. The defences would have lit up as they had done many times before should a dangerous creature attempt to enter the castle. 

In other words, someone had to disable those defenses. The only ones capable of such a thing would be the professors. Professors that had been teaching for years upon years within these very walls. He didn’t want to think of any of his fellows as traitors and thankfully he didn’t need to. Afterall, there is always a class that has to change professors on the yearly. 

That however, made things weirder. Not only had professor Quirl warned everyone about the troll. Snape had a hard time believing the bumbling fool could pull something like this. Not to mention he couldn’t figure out a motif for it either. What use would it be to sneak a troll into the castle?

Right then and there Snape had an idea of what could be accomplished. The answer was found with the event that had knocked Silver unconscious from magic exhaustion. What if this had been an assassination attempt. Afterall, it is well known that Harry Potter was the one to vanquish the dark lord. What if one of his followers had attempted to kill the boy through alternative means. It made sense, afterall, the boy had almost died. 

That of course was only conjecture and Snape lacked the necessary information to settle it as the truth. For all he knew he was barking up the wrong tree. Either way, it didn’t help him in finding who had let the troll inside the castle. 

Frustrated Snape decided to brew some potions instead to try and clear his mind of all these thoughts. Madam Pomfrey had asked for another batch of cure for flu either way. The only problem being that he had brewed the simple potion so many times he could do multiple batches at the same time with his eyes closed and a hand tied behind his back. In other words, it didn’t help in the least bit to distract him from the thoughts that had been plaguing him. 

With yet another sigh Snape looked to the side where he had a photo of better times. It was a moving photo from third year at hogwarts. It was of himself and Lily sharing a butterbeer in hogsmeade. In it Lily smiled brightly at the camera without a care in the world. While him… well, he could admit, at least in the safety of his own mind, that he looked like a love struck fool. Even so, if asked… well he wouldn’t admit this was the thing with most value in his possession, at least not out loud. Either way, to him this was the thing he cherished the most.

Maybe, once the Potters graduate he would get a picture with Sophia if nothing else perhaps that would be the thing that would finally let him let go of Lily. Who was he kidding, he knew better than anyone else that he wouldn’t be able to let go, no matter what. At least he could take solace in the knowledge that he would do his very best to prepare the kids for what the world would throw at them. If he is a bit harsher on Harry than necessary… Well, who would call him out on it? 

With the potion brewing done, snape began the tedious process of bottling them. Many a wizard would just use magic but he had found long ago that doing so would mess the potions up. Don’t misunderstand, they would still work but their quality would degrade. Once that bit of annoyance was done he decided to take them to madam Pomfrey himself. That way he would get to check up on Silver. 

The girl looked better, her skin gaining some color from the deathly pale it had been just a few hours ago. Magic exhaustion, a rather nasty thing he wouldn’t wish on any of his students. Precisely because it is far worse for those without fully developed magic channels. Thankfully, the girl hadn’t caused any irreparable damage. On the contrary, the experience would strengthen her magic capabilities. That is at the cost of a nasty soreness that would last up to a week. 

“How is she?” Snape asked Madam Pomfrey.

“Healthy, although her overstressed magic channels seem to not benefit from her enhanced healing. Besides that, I couldn’t find anything wrong with her. Then again, with how crazy her healing is, I wouldn’t be surprised if it healed before you brought her to me.” At that Snape just hummed. It made sense despite how baffling it still was. 

“And the others?” He hadn’t been there when the other four were brought in as he was called by Albus to discuss the incident. 

“Just scared. Harry twisted his ankle and Ron had a few small cuts from random debris but otherwise they were fine.” Well, overall good news. It has been a few years since the last student death in Hogwarts and every single professor would rather keep it that way. Truthfully, Snape was double, no, triple  glad that none of the kids had died. 

He couldn’t imagine what would have happened should Silver die under the school’s watch. All he knew was that Lucious would have raised hell. Truthfully, he would have done the same if either of the twins died. Even so, Snape swore to himself that he would keep a closer watch on them from now on. 

With his business in the infirmary done he opted to go back to his office cum apartment. Back there he opted for some reading. His chosen material this time was one of the many books about the beast he had around. The things were useful twice over. Once for the knowledge about possible potion ingredients they held, and twice for his preparation as a teacher in defence against the dark arts, a post that Albus still refused him. 

While reading a peculiar bit of information caught Snape's eye. This one book was one of the older ones. Because of this it had information on some of the extinct magical creatures. The one that caught Snape's attention was an extinct vampire adjacent race called nosferatu. Even more so a very rare variant of that species called a day walker. The more he read the more his mind connected the creature’s abilities to that of…

“Merlin’s soggy beard, I have to report this to Albus right now.” And so Snape power walked towards the headmaster office with his black robes swishing majestically on the nonexistent wind.