Chapter 67. Bloody Christmas. Part 2. Revenge
Nagini looked from Severus to the unknown man in confusion, not understanding what was happening or how they knew each other.
"Me," Severus said with a smile. He had pushed his hood back the moment he entered the house. "Glad to see me?"
"Kha! Ha-ha-ha!" He cleared his throat. "And I suggested they kill you too, but they did not take my words seriously," the wizard drawled, his voice hoarse and smug. He had been right after all, even if he regretted that he could not look his dead family in the eyes now.
"Severus?" Nagini asked again.
Severus ignored Nagini's questioning tone. He pulled out a mirror and tossed it toward the man, who looked slightly startled.
"You know, my mother never succumbed to those charms," Severus snorted. He walked to a cabinet and picked up a crown statuette. "You couldn't even last two months, and I only strengthened those charms a little."
"Eileen's mind was always well-protected."
"That's just an excuse. You were weaker than her. You always envied her, feared she might take your place as head of the family, even though deep down you knew it was impossible." The statuette in his hand flared up and burned away in an instant, leaving not even ash behind. "But you were afraid, so you got rid of her. You used a potion or some charms, made her fall in love with a Muggle, or strengthened the feelings that were already there." He turned back to the Prince, who was smiling nervously. "And even that wasn't enough for you. You decided to go all the way and cut the problem off at the root. It's a good approach. I might even respect the decision. I'd have done the same, but..." A second later, he stood directly before the flinching man. "I'd have done it with my own hands, to make sure the enemy was dead. You're an ordinary nobody who fancies himself a puppet master in the shadows. Tell me, was it pleasant to torture your own sister, Uncle?"
"Shut... *cough*... up!"
"The truth hurts, Severus Prince?"
"I..." In the next moment, he vomited blood, staining the front of his shirt.
"And when you killed your own father, what did you feel? Were you sad, or were you glad?" Severus pressed on with a mocking smile, digging into the wizard's sore spot as Prince's face twisted with rage. "All right, don't answer. To be honest, I only came to mock you. And I won't let you be reincarnated, if it even exists."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Nothing special. Someone wants to talk to you." Severus stepped aside and pointed toward the door. In the doorway stood a pale woman in a light dress, her face colder than ice. In her eyes burned a hellish flame that threatened to break free at any moment.
At the sight of her, primal terror flooded the Prince's face.
"E-Eileen?" he rasped in disbelief, staring at her like an apparition.
"In a sense. It is her magic," Severus explained calmly, heading toward the exit. "And I gave it my mother's likeness. She feels the same emotions as the real one. You could even call her an imprint of personality preserved on canvas, which she once wanted to turn into a living portrait. In any case, I will not distract you. Talk."
"Stooooop! Do not leave me." But when Prince saw that Severus was truly leaving, he turned his trembling gaze toward the pale woman still standing in the doorway. "S-sister." The moment the word left his mouth, her face twisted, and in the next instant she was right in front of him.
As soon as Severus stepped outside, he heard a heart-rending scream. Nagini trembled like a leaf, but the fear began to ebb as soon as calm spread through their bond. Severus also cast silencing charms on the house to avoid drawing unnecessary attention.
"What do you think of me?" he asked with a smile, studying the beautiful sunset, which looked especially magnificent in winter.
"I... I don't know. I thought I understood you perfectly, still, I don't condemn you. You had every right to take revenge." The short exchange was enough for Nagini to understand why he'd done it, even if it seemed too cruel to her. His anger ran far deeper, and if that phantom hadn't been there, Nagini would've bitten that bastard herself.
"Are you afraid of me?"
"Hmph. As if," Nagini answered, then hesitated, embarrassed. "You still haven't closed your mind, so I can even now feel your emotions, but..." She quickly regained her composure. "Did it have to be all of them?"
Each of them had their hands up to the elbows in blood, and each knew what really happened to my mother. You could say they all made that decision, but he was the one who came up with it and made it happen, with the silent consent of the rest.
"I see. Forgive me for doubting you for a moment."
"It's nothing. In this family of true aristocrats, there was probably only one person who might have loved my mother. He's been dead for three years now. On his way back from one of the balls, he was attacked, and only his son survived, escaping with barely a scratch. For a symbolic fee, the Ministry turned a blind eye."
"That was your grandfather?" Rowena guessed at once. Quite recently she had heard Severus speaking with an unknown man about the Prince family, specifically that the previous head of the family had died three years ago.
"That's right."
"Severus."
"Mm?"
"Tell me about your past!" Nagini said firmly, right in his face, and a smile crossed his lips. The contrast was almost comical: her small, indifferent face against that serious tone.
"Alright, I do not mind telling you the story of the Half-Blood Prince. It began in a rather dirty Muggle town. On January 9, 1960, a boy was born and named Severus, after the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus."
"But your mother was an aristocrat. So why did she name you after a Muggle?"
"How should I know? I don't want to get into female logic. Or maybe it was my father's idea. So don't distract me." He poked Nagini on the nose. "And he got the surname Snape from his father. The boy's childhood could have been worse, at least until he turned one," he added sternly. Nagini snorted in displeasure but decided to stay silent anyway.
An hour later, Severus finished telling the story of the real Snape. Of course, he left out the suicide and Tobias's torture, softening it a little, but even that was enough to make Nagini spit venom at Severus's father, at Potter and his friends, at Lily, and at the Prince family. Nagini even regretted stopping him that day when he wanted to punish the Marauders, and she no longer felt any sympathy for the bodies inside the house.
Over the past six months, Severus had become the closest person to Nagini. Hearing how he had suffered was like waving a red rag in front of a bull. Nagini wouldn't have minded biting them herself, but at the same time she felt respect for him, because not everyone could endure all that and truly change, leaving the past behind.
Just as Severus finished the story, Eileen drifted out of the house, immediately fixing her cold gaze on him as he sat on the bench.
"Glad you're finished," Severus said calmly, lifting his gaze to the woman standing before him. He studied her with open interest. "Not bad. You've managed to evolve from a bodiless, vengeful phantom into a semi-material dark entity. Maybe in a couple more years you'll become truly undead."
She looked at the beautiful woman with embarrassment, hiding behind Severus's head. After all, even if Eileen was only a small part of his real mother, she was still his mother. Nagini simply wasn't ready for such a meeting.
"You."
"Hm? You can speak?" Severus asked, surprised. He'd encountered countless creatures like this at the Ministry, but never one that could talk. "Apparently I underestimated the emotions invested in that small amount of magic." Still, he had a rough idea what Eileen wanted to ask. "No." He touched his temple and withdrew something between gas and liquid: memories. He held it out to her.
The spirit stared at him without blinking, then raised her hand toward it and absorbed it. A few seconds later, a tear rolled down her cheek. Her face remained expressionless, save for a faint ripple in her eyes.
You needn't blame me. I have nothing to do with this," Severus said calmly, watching the unique specimen with interest. It was genuine, but not the sort that would drive him to dissect the being standing before him. Severus was not fond of necromancy. If anything, he disliked it. It was a natural aversion. Fire and light magic were the main weaknesses of any undead. He had used it only to give Eileen a chance at revenge, nothing more.
The 'vengeful phantom' could be called necromancy only by a stretch, for it was merely an echo of a former personality, built mostly on negative emotions. But apparently the emotions Eileen had invested in the portrait had been far more complex, and even the curse could not turn them entirely negative. Still, Severus decided to attribute this to the magic of this world. Even if it was almost identical, there could be some difference he did not know about, and that might be why the spell worked this way. But those were only his guesses, and they would require further study.
I helped you take revenge. It is time for you to return to your mistress." Severus raised a hand, about to dispel her, but she suddenly held out her palm, shaking her head. He frowned.
"I... want... to see," the creature managed with great effort, and Severus's eyes widened in surprise for the second time in the last few minutes.
"See what?"
"You fool!" Nagini snapped. "Even if she is, as you put it earlier, an imprint of personality, she is still your mother. Do you think she does not want to be near you, see what you will grow up to be, protect you, care for you?"
The accusation made Severus freeze. Eileen knew he was not her son, but the one who had *captured* his body after death, and Severus doubted it was that simple. He would not have been surprised if she wanted to kill him for it.
And yet he didn't want to clutter his mind with those thoughts today. He focused on their connection, and a few seconds later Severus stared at her in shock. The expected wave of negative emotion and bloodlust was completely absent. There was only sadness, the realization that her son had committed suicide, and amid that sadness, warmer, almost tender feelings toward Severus himself broke through. It was far too strange.
"What the hell is happening?" Severus grabbed his head, dropped onto the bench, and started thinking. He studied Eileen's "body" through the connection and tried to understand where he had erred in causing this, since it was difficult to blame this on "magic" alone. "Apparently I'm going to bed late tonight. Merry Christmas, damn it!"
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