The Safe Parts (PG; Severus, canon characters, original characters; 2050 words)
Title: The Safe Parts
Author:
iulia_linnea
Characters: Severus, Lily, Eileen, Merlin, James, Minerva, Albus, Argus, Mrs. Norris, Hermione, Madam Rosmerta, Delly, Clutchspear, and Hissy
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2050
Summary: No amount of planning can make death less unsettling than it is . . . until one finds oneself in the "safe parts."
Disclaimer: This work of fan fiction is based on characters and situations created by J. K. Rowling and owned by J. K. Rowling and various publishers, including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books, Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made from (and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended by) the posting of this fan work.
Crushed bone is of what he was reminded as the white powder hissed underfoot, and all was a diffuse white; he could not see from where the light emanated, but it filled the vast space in which he stood.
Severus shook his head. "The fuck?"
His words were grating against the funereal silence, yet that same silence absorbed them quickly. A cold absence remained, almost like a space being taken up by the temperature of his emotions, until it entirely faded.
"Where am I?"
Severus felt every hair stand up on his arms and neck. There was no echo. Suddenly, the air felt close, almost choking.
"No, let that feeling go. It isn't real, Sev."
"Lily?"
"Hello."
"No," said Severus, as Lily as she had been appeared before him. "This isn't real."
"Oh, it is, Sev. I'm just not actually here."
"Then this isn't real," Severus retorted. "It can't be."
Lily smiled. "Your mind is having trouble with the concept of death, your own, I mean."
"I'm dead? Nonesense!"
"You see? You are having a bit of trouble with it. Would this," Lily said, appearing to shimmer apart before reforming, "suit you better, boy?"
In Lily's place stood his mother.
"Now I know this isn't real because . . . because you're not dead!"
"I do like the forest. It's not quite so forbidden when one has friends, and Ir-"
"You're not supposed to be talking to the centaurs! They're dangerous!"
"-ma visits frequently," Eileen said, folding her arms and meeting Severus scowl for scowl.
He felt the fight go out of him. "You're happy?"
"Yes, Severus."
"And Da?"
"Still buried. Very happy about that."
"Oh," Severus replied, suddenly feeling entirely fazed. "I forgot that he died. How did I-"
"The After is often disturbing to newcomers, but you'll find your way. Heroes always do."
"Merlin!" Severus couldn't help but exclaim and stare at the wizard. "You're-"
"Not dead, either, but let's just let that be our secret, eh? You needn't be dead, either, not with an ego like yours to match your skills."
Severus flushed. "I don't know what-"
"To do, yes, I comprehend you. Talk to your champion. He'll be of great assistance to you if you allow it."
"Potter!"
Severus didn't mean Harry. Standing there in the cold white expanse was a black splotch of messy hair, stupid glasses, and perfidious fuck. Severus wanted to kill him.
"Good luck with that, Snape. You don't have a wand here."
Severus held out his hands and began rushing forth, intent on throttling the poisoning garbage. "I know what you did to her! I know how you stole her from me!"
He lunged. He missed. He froze.
"Fuck!" called Severus, as a rolling heat of shame clothed him in a way that his lack of clothing did not. "No," he spat, tearfully.
And then warm, charmed robes enveloped him.
"I'm only going to tell you one time, Severus, so listen." Potter knelt down by Severus' head. "I did not dose Lily with any sort of potion to 'steal' her from you. I did not do that. What I did was grow up after our prank almost killed you, after what Avery and Mulciber did to McKinnon, after realising, finally, that Voldemort was a true threat in the world. I chose sides. So did Lily. So did you."
Potter stood up and offered Severus his hand. Severus surprised himself by taking it, and came up swinging. He punched through Potter's head, which dissipated into mist and reformed into Minerva McGonegall's hand.
"Ow!" Severus exclaimed, as Minerva crushed his fist in her own. "Please, stop!"
"Ten points from the House of Snape for stupidity in the face of truth."
"Minerva, I-"
"Have never yet come to terms with your own culpability, yes, I know. The better to pretend that it was all Potter's doing."
Severus jerked free his hand, rubbing it while he said, "And Black, Pettigrew, and Lupin's doing! They all bullied me! And Dumbledore allowed it! And you!"
As if she were nothing but a newly painted portrait being washed away by rain, Minerva ran down existence into puddles at Severus' feet. When he looked up, Albus was standing before him.
"Truth?"
"Yes, damn you!" insisted Severus.
"You were never important enough to me to protect, not when you were so eager to sell yourself to Tom Riddle. It was war. You were a casualty. We both chose."
"Well, thank you for your sodding honesty," spat Severus, turning his back on the man, or whatever he was.
"I'd do it again, Severus, for the Greater Good."
Overwhelmed, Severus flung himself down into the bonemeal and wished himself a pile of same. Crisp footsteps approached. A boot nudged his side.
"Er, you dead, Professor Snape?"
Filch. The purring confirmed it. Severus rolled over to look at man and cat.
"Good, yer not. Get up. Potter's on us all to get you out o' here."
"I don't understand."
"Well," said Filch, burying his nose into Mrs. Norris' neck, "it's like this: we're not all dead, but you will be soon if you don't make the choice to leave, to continue."
"Why would I want to contin-"
"Professor, I've checked. You still have a pulse, but you don't seem to have much of a will to live. I can't help you there, but you need to rally if you even want to consider the question. Do you, sir?"
"Is that Granger?" Severus asked, of Filch, starting.
The man was no longer ragged in dress or appearance, but cleanly shaven and dressed in formal robes-and on his arm, a handsome woman with his cat's fur's colours.
"Mrs. Norris?"
She nodded.
"I'm not dead, am I? Because this, I have to be dreaming!"
"Don't be rude, young wizard. I've warmed your feet. Argus was so worried about you, what with that ghastly leg wound. I watched over you for him, while he was chasing after nasty students."
"'Nasty students'," muttered Severus. "Truer words have never been spoken. The fuck. What the fuck is happening to me?"
"You are in the After, the In-Between. We cats, we can see it. You wizards, you are blind to so many of the things you ought to see."
"Now, now, pet," said Filch, "be nice."
Severus shook his head, and realised, though this time without a start, that his interlocutors had gone.
"I'm doing this to myself," he said.
Again, there was no echo, but bidden by pain, he raised a hand to his throat.
"Blood."
There was blood on his hand, his throat, his materialized robes.
"Fuck!"
"Not in that condition, m'dear."
"Madam Rosmerta!"
Severus flew to his feet, missed them, and kept going. Looking down, he could see the publican looking up at him with amusement.
"Come by for a pint when you're over your," she said, waving an elegant arm about, "whatever it may be!"
Whatever it may have been, that blinding arctic expanse, became a hot, excruciating reality of pain and fear and desperation . . . until it wasn't.
"I is fixing it, there and there and there," a house-elf's voice said, in between what Severus realised had to be drops of Dittany hitting his wounds. "There and there and there, too! You is going to be well again, Professor."
"Head-master," Severus ground out.
"Oh, no, Professor Snape. You were very dead for long enough. Hogwarts knows you. You is a professor. Headmistress McGonagall is Head now. This is good. You is having a pension-and research funds!-and no more classes. I know you is liking to hear about the no students."
"Say that . . . again . . . but in . . . English."
"You're no longer required to teach, Professor Snape, but you're free to live and research at Hogwarts, all expenses paid, in addition to receiving a pension. Isn't that nice? There and there and done!"
Severus reached up to feel at his throat, which was whole, instact, and free of pain.
"That wasn't just Dittany, was it?"
"House-elves is having magic, too. Now come, Delly must be getting you inside to the safe parts until battle's end. You is no longer a part of this story, Professor Snape."
"The hell I'm not!"
Severus' words echoed, and he heard, "In there! I heard something!"
"Delly and Professor Snape is going. Right. Now!"
Delly took hold of Severus, and suddenly, they were elsewhere. The well-appointed chamber was of rock and warm and . . . and filled with tiny house-elves, babies.
"I've never seen a baby house-elf be-"
"They've never seen a wizard before, so set not a bad example, Professor Snape." With those words, Delly levitated over to the "nest" holding the young elves and announced, "I bring the honey in sticks and bits of meat and toys!"
Severus realised a distraction when he heard one; distantly, the sounds of explosions permeated and gently shook the room. "I should be out there. I should be doing something."
"You've done what you were supposed to do, Mr. Snape."
Behind him, Severus found a goblin. He was standing at the head of a spiral staircase that wound down deeply into the foundation of the castle.
"Lower those brows, young man. It can't be such a surprise to see an old castle has a tunnel system or two unknown to most."
"I suppose not. Are you here on business?" asked Severus, nodding at the leather roll the goblin held.
"Indeed, business with you, and at your request if you recall."
Dimly, Severus did. "I had plans."
"You did. Wise." The goblin opened his case, and several parchments unrolled themselves as a pot of ink and a fancy quill levitated towards Severus. "I am Clutchspear. I have the honour of settling your affairs."
"I'm not dead, Clutchspear."
"No, not entirely, but you did say that should things come to this, you wished to pretend to be to avoid . . . complications."
"Complications."
"Yes, now this document," Clutchspear continued, "is to do with selling your home and returning its contents to you."
That sounded find to Severus. He hated Spinner's End. He signed.
"This document gives me the authority to secure your pension."
Severus signed that, as well.
"The last has to do with various legal matters, enumerated. Would you care to reread the document, sir?"
Severus blinked. "This is in my hand."
"Yes," agreed Clutchspear. "It will all come back to you presently, I'm certain. After your day, rest is called for, I would say."
Severus elected not to read and signed. Clutchspear gathered his things, nodded, and climbed slowly down the stairs. When he was no longer in sight, the stairs turned watery, shimmered, and then froze into stone, leaving no sign that they had been there.
He yawned, and then felt a tug at his robes.
"You is the Severus?" a little house-elf asked him.
"I am Severus," he told her.
Her pillowcase was pink. It was as good a guess as any.
She beamed at him, her ears quivering in apparent happiness. "I am Hissy. I have space in our nest near me. You is welcome to it."
"I am welcome to it?"
"You . . . are welcome!" Hissy exclaimed, pleased to have worked out how to properly speak to the wizard in her care. "You will come sleep now. You are very tired!"
For the first time that Severus could remember doing so, he chuckled. He felt happy. He could tell doing something was making Hissy feel happy. He took her tiny hand and allowed himself to be led to the nest, where he gently arranged himself and then felt all the elflings curl up against him.
"We is keeping you warm, wizard!" several of them cried.
"No, we are keeping him warm," admonished Hissy.
"That's right," affirmed Severus, wondering again if he were dreaming.
It was weird, what was happening. It was entirely unexpected and odd, what had happened. He didn't truly know what was real, and being honest with himself, he didn't give a damn at the moment.
"'M tired," he murmured.
"Then sleep, Severus Snape. Your elves are here."
As sleep took him, Severus felt that nothing else could: he was as safe as he had ever been. The last thing he heard before the welcome darkness enfolded him in its warmth was Delly's voice.
"What good elves you is, and what a good wizard!"
Author:
iulia_linnea
Characters: Severus, Lily, Eileen, Merlin, James, Minerva, Albus, Argus, Mrs. Norris, Hermione, Madam Rosmerta, Delly, Clutchspear, and Hissy
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2050
Summary: No amount of planning can make death less unsettling than it is . . . until one finds oneself in the "safe parts."
Disclaimer: This work of fan fiction is based on characters and situations created by J. K. Rowling and owned by J. K. Rowling and various publishers, including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books, Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made from (and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended by) the posting of this fan work.
Crushed bone is of what he was reminded as the white powder hissed underfoot, and all was a diffuse white; he could not see from where the light emanated, but it filled the vast space in which he stood.
Severus shook his head. "The fuck?"
His words were grating against the funereal silence, yet that same silence absorbed them quickly. A cold absence remained, almost like a space being taken up by the temperature of his emotions, until it entirely faded.
"Where am I?"
Severus felt every hair stand up on his arms and neck. There was no echo. Suddenly, the air felt close, almost choking.
"No, let that feeling go. It isn't real, Sev."
"Lily?"
"Hello."
"No," said Severus, as Lily as she had been appeared before him. "This isn't real."
"Oh, it is, Sev. I'm just not actually here."
"Then this isn't real," Severus retorted. "It can't be."
Lily smiled. "Your mind is having trouble with the concept of death, your own, I mean."
"I'm dead? Nonesense!"
"You see? You are having a bit of trouble with it. Would this," Lily said, appearing to shimmer apart before reforming, "suit you better, boy?"
In Lily's place stood his mother.
"Now I know this isn't real because . . . because you're not dead!"
"I do like the forest. It's not quite so forbidden when one has friends, and Ir-"
"You're not supposed to be talking to the centaurs! They're dangerous!"
"-ma visits frequently," Eileen said, folding her arms and meeting Severus scowl for scowl.
He felt the fight go out of him. "You're happy?"
"Yes, Severus."
"And Da?"
"Still buried. Very happy about that."
"Oh," Severus replied, suddenly feeling entirely fazed. "I forgot that he died. How did I-"
"The After is often disturbing to newcomers, but you'll find your way. Heroes always do."
"Merlin!" Severus couldn't help but exclaim and stare at the wizard. "You're-"
"Not dead, either, but let's just let that be our secret, eh? You needn't be dead, either, not with an ego like yours to match your skills."
Severus flushed. "I don't know what-"
"To do, yes, I comprehend you. Talk to your champion. He'll be of great assistance to you if you allow it."
"Potter!"
Severus didn't mean Harry. Standing there in the cold white expanse was a black splotch of messy hair, stupid glasses, and perfidious fuck. Severus wanted to kill him.
"Good luck with that, Snape. You don't have a wand here."
Severus held out his hands and began rushing forth, intent on throttling the poisoning garbage. "I know what you did to her! I know how you stole her from me!"
He lunged. He missed. He froze.
"Fuck!" called Severus, as a rolling heat of shame clothed him in a way that his lack of clothing did not. "No," he spat, tearfully.
And then warm, charmed robes enveloped him.
"I'm only going to tell you one time, Severus, so listen." Potter knelt down by Severus' head. "I did not dose Lily with any sort of potion to 'steal' her from you. I did not do that. What I did was grow up after our prank almost killed you, after what Avery and Mulciber did to McKinnon, after realising, finally, that Voldemort was a true threat in the world. I chose sides. So did Lily. So did you."
Potter stood up and offered Severus his hand. Severus surprised himself by taking it, and came up swinging. He punched through Potter's head, which dissipated into mist and reformed into Minerva McGonegall's hand.
"Ow!" Severus exclaimed, as Minerva crushed his fist in her own. "Please, stop!"
"Ten points from the House of Snape for stupidity in the face of truth."
"Minerva, I-"
"Have never yet come to terms with your own culpability, yes, I know. The better to pretend that it was all Potter's doing."
Severus jerked free his hand, rubbing it while he said, "And Black, Pettigrew, and Lupin's doing! They all bullied me! And Dumbledore allowed it! And you!"
As if she were nothing but a newly painted portrait being washed away by rain, Minerva ran down existence into puddles at Severus' feet. When he looked up, Albus was standing before him.
"Truth?"
"Yes, damn you!" insisted Severus.
"You were never important enough to me to protect, not when you were so eager to sell yourself to Tom Riddle. It was war. You were a casualty. We both chose."
"Well, thank you for your sodding honesty," spat Severus, turning his back on the man, or whatever he was.
"I'd do it again, Severus, for the Greater Good."
Overwhelmed, Severus flung himself down into the bonemeal and wished himself a pile of same. Crisp footsteps approached. A boot nudged his side.
"Er, you dead, Professor Snape?"
Filch. The purring confirmed it. Severus rolled over to look at man and cat.
"Good, yer not. Get up. Potter's on us all to get you out o' here."
"I don't understand."
"Well," said Filch, burying his nose into Mrs. Norris' neck, "it's like this: we're not all dead, but you will be soon if you don't make the choice to leave, to continue."
"Why would I want to contin-"
"Professor, I've checked. You still have a pulse, but you don't seem to have much of a will to live. I can't help you there, but you need to rally if you even want to consider the question. Do you, sir?"
"Is that Granger?" Severus asked, of Filch, starting.
The man was no longer ragged in dress or appearance, but cleanly shaven and dressed in formal robes-and on his arm, a handsome woman with his cat's fur's colours.
"Mrs. Norris?"
She nodded.
"I'm not dead, am I? Because this, I have to be dreaming!"
"Don't be rude, young wizard. I've warmed your feet. Argus was so worried about you, what with that ghastly leg wound. I watched over you for him, while he was chasing after nasty students."
"'Nasty students'," muttered Severus. "Truer words have never been spoken. The fuck. What the fuck is happening to me?"
"You are in the After, the In-Between. We cats, we can see it. You wizards, you are blind to so many of the things you ought to see."
"Now, now, pet," said Filch, "be nice."
Severus shook his head, and realised, though this time without a start, that his interlocutors had gone.
"I'm doing this to myself," he said.
Again, there was no echo, but bidden by pain, he raised a hand to his throat.
"Blood."
There was blood on his hand, his throat, his materialized robes.
"Fuck!"
"Not in that condition, m'dear."
"Madam Rosmerta!"
Severus flew to his feet, missed them, and kept going. Looking down, he could see the publican looking up at him with amusement.
"Come by for a pint when you're over your," she said, waving an elegant arm about, "whatever it may be!"
Whatever it may have been, that blinding arctic expanse, became a hot, excruciating reality of pain and fear and desperation . . . until it wasn't.
"I is fixing it, there and there and there," a house-elf's voice said, in between what Severus realised had to be drops of Dittany hitting his wounds. "There and there and there, too! You is going to be well again, Professor."
"Head-master," Severus ground out.
"Oh, no, Professor Snape. You were very dead for long enough. Hogwarts knows you. You is a professor. Headmistress McGonagall is Head now. This is good. You is having a pension-and research funds!-and no more classes. I know you is liking to hear about the no students."
"Say that . . . again . . . but in . . . English."
"You're no longer required to teach, Professor Snape, but you're free to live and research at Hogwarts, all expenses paid, in addition to receiving a pension. Isn't that nice? There and there and done!"
Severus reached up to feel at his throat, which was whole, instact, and free of pain.
"That wasn't just Dittany, was it?"
"House-elves is having magic, too. Now come, Delly must be getting you inside to the safe parts until battle's end. You is no longer a part of this story, Professor Snape."
"The hell I'm not!"
Severus' words echoed, and he heard, "In there! I heard something!"
"Delly and Professor Snape is going. Right. Now!"
Delly took hold of Severus, and suddenly, they were elsewhere. The well-appointed chamber was of rock and warm and . . . and filled with tiny house-elves, babies.
"I've never seen a baby house-elf be-"
"They've never seen a wizard before, so set not a bad example, Professor Snape." With those words, Delly levitated over to the "nest" holding the young elves and announced, "I bring the honey in sticks and bits of meat and toys!"
Severus realised a distraction when he heard one; distantly, the sounds of explosions permeated and gently shook the room. "I should be out there. I should be doing something."
"You've done what you were supposed to do, Mr. Snape."
Behind him, Severus found a goblin. He was standing at the head of a spiral staircase that wound down deeply into the foundation of the castle.
"Lower those brows, young man. It can't be such a surprise to see an old castle has a tunnel system or two unknown to most."
"I suppose not. Are you here on business?" asked Severus, nodding at the leather roll the goblin held.
"Indeed, business with you, and at your request if you recall."
Dimly, Severus did. "I had plans."
"You did. Wise." The goblin opened his case, and several parchments unrolled themselves as a pot of ink and a fancy quill levitated towards Severus. "I am Clutchspear. I have the honour of settling your affairs."
"I'm not dead, Clutchspear."
"No, not entirely, but you did say that should things come to this, you wished to pretend to be to avoid . . . complications."
"Complications."
"Yes, now this document," Clutchspear continued, "is to do with selling your home and returning its contents to you."
That sounded find to Severus. He hated Spinner's End. He signed.
"This document gives me the authority to secure your pension."
Severus signed that, as well.
"The last has to do with various legal matters, enumerated. Would you care to reread the document, sir?"
Severus blinked. "This is in my hand."
"Yes," agreed Clutchspear. "It will all come back to you presently, I'm certain. After your day, rest is called for, I would say."
Severus elected not to read and signed. Clutchspear gathered his things, nodded, and climbed slowly down the stairs. When he was no longer in sight, the stairs turned watery, shimmered, and then froze into stone, leaving no sign that they had been there.
He yawned, and then felt a tug at his robes.
"You is the Severus?" a little house-elf asked him.
"I am Severus," he told her.
Her pillowcase was pink. It was as good a guess as any.
She beamed at him, her ears quivering in apparent happiness. "I am Hissy. I have space in our nest near me. You is welcome to it."
"I am welcome to it?"
"You . . . are welcome!" Hissy exclaimed, pleased to have worked out how to properly speak to the wizard in her care. "You will come sleep now. You are very tired!"
For the first time that Severus could remember doing so, he chuckled. He felt happy. He could tell doing something was making Hissy feel happy. He took her tiny hand and allowed himself to be led to the nest, where he gently arranged himself and then felt all the elflings curl up against him.
"We is keeping you warm, wizard!" several of them cried.
"No, we are keeping him warm," admonished Hissy.
"That's right," affirmed Severus, wondering again if he were dreaming.
It was weird, what was happening. It was entirely unexpected and odd, what had happened. He didn't truly know what was real, and being honest with himself, he didn't give a damn at the moment.
"'M tired," he murmured.
"Then sleep, Severus Snape. Your elves are here."
As sleep took him, Severus felt that nothing else could: he was as safe as he had ever been. The last thing he heard before the welcome darkness enfolded him in its warmth was Delly's voice.
"What good elves you is, and what a good wizard!"