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. and I suggested they kill you too, but they did not. khm. take my words seriously." the wizard drawled, his voice hoarse with smugness. He had been right after all, even if he regretted that he could not look into the eyes of his dead family now.
"Severus?" Nagini asked again.
Severus ignored Nagini's questioning tone. He pulled out a mirror and tossed it at the slightly startled man's feet.
"You know, my mother never succumbed to those charms," Severus snorted contemptuously. He walked to a cabinet and picked up a crown statuette. "You could not even last two months, and I only strengthened those charms a little."
"Eileen always had good protection for her mind."
"That is just an excuse. You were weaker than her. You always envied her, feared she could take the position of head of the family, even though deep down you understood it was impossible." The statuette in his hand flared and burned away in an instant, leaving not even ash. "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 feelings that already existed." He turned back to the nervously smiling Prince. "And even that was not enough for you. You decided to go all the way and cut out the problem at the root. It is a good idea. I even support your choice. I would have done the same, but." One second later he was right in front of the flinching man. "I would have done it with my own hands, to be sure the enemy was dead. You are an ordinary nobody who imagines himself a puppeteer in the shadows. Tell me, was it pleasant to torture your own sister, eh, uncle?"
"Shu. khm. t up!"
"The truth hurts, Severus Prince?"
"I." In the next moment he vomited blood, staining the upper part 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, do not answer. To be honest, I only came to mock you. And I will not let you go to reincarnation, 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 any iceberg. In her eyes burned a truly hellish flame that looked ready to break free at any second.
At the sight of her, animal terror flooded Prince's face.
"E-Eileen?" he rasped in disbelief, staring at her like an apparition.
"Relatively. It is her magic," Severus explained calmly, heading toward the exit. "And I gave it my mother's image. She feels the same emotions as the real one. You could even call her an imprint of personality preserved on the canvas, the one 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 a 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 an aspen leaf, but the fear began to ebb as soon as calm spread through their bond. Severus also did not forget to put silencing charms on the house so it would not draw 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 do not know. I thought I understood you perfectly, but. I do not condemn you. You had every right to take revenge." That short exchange was enough for Nagini to understand why he had done it, even if it seemed too cruel to her. His anger was much stronger, and if that phantom had not been there, Nagini would have bitten that bastard herself.
"Are you afraid of me?"
"Hmph. As if." Nagini answered, then hesitated, embarrassed for a moment. "You still have not closed your mind, so I can still feel your emotions, but." She gathered herself quickly. "Did it have to be all of them?"
"Each of them has 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 brought it to life, with the silent consent of the rest."
"I see. Forgive me for doubting you for a moment."
"It is nothing. In this family of true aristocrats there was probably only one person who might have loved my mother. He has 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 a couple of scratches. For a symbolic fee, the Ministry closed its eyes to it."
"That was your grandfather?" Nagini guessed at once. Quite recently she had heard Severus speaking with an unknown man about the Princes, and that the previous head of the family had died three years ago.
"That is right."
"Severus."
"Mm?"
"Tell me about your past!" Nagini said firmly, right in his face, and a smile appeared on his lips. The contrast was too comical, her small, indifferent face and that serious tone.
"All right, 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 he was named Severus, after a Roman Emperor, Septimius Severus."
"But your mother was an aristocrat. So why did she name you after a Muggle?"
"How should I know? I do not want to get into female logic. Or maybe it was my father's idea. So, do not distract me." He poked Nagini on the nose as he added it strictly. Nagini snorted in displeasure, but decided to stay silent anyway. "And he got his surname from his father, Snape. The boy's childhood could be called not the worst, at least until he turned one year old."
An hour later, Severus finished telling the story of the real Snape. Of course, he left out the suicide and the torture of Tobias, and he softened it a little, but even that was enough to make Nagini spit real 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.
In these almost 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 would not 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.
And just as Severus finished the story, Eileen drifted out of the house, almost at once fixing her cold gaze on him as he sat on the bench.
"Glad you are finished," Severus said calmly, lifting his eyes to the woman standing before him. He examined her with open interest. "Not bad. You managed to evolve from a bodiless vengeful phantom into a semi-material dark entity. Maybe in a couple more years you will become real undead."
At the same time, Nagini 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 was simply not ready for that kind of acquaintance.
"You."
"Hm? You can speak?" Severus asked in surprise, because in the magistrate there were countless creatures like this, but it was the first time he had seen one that could talk. "Apparently I underestimated the emotions invested into that small amount of magic." Still, he roughly understood what Eileen wanted to ask. "No." He touched his temple and pulled out something between gas and liquid, memories, and held it out to her.
The spirit stared at him without blinking, then lifted her palm toward the "something" and absorbed it. A few seconds later a tear rolled down her cheek. Her face still showed no emotion, only a faint ripple in her eyes.
"You do not have to blame me. I have nothing to do with this," Severus said calmly, watching the unique specimen with interest. It was genuine interest, but not the kind that would make him want to dissect the being standing in front of him. Severus was not fond of necromancy. If anything, he truly disliked it. It was a natural aversion. Fire was one of the main weaknesses of any undead, along with light magic. He had used it only to give Eileen a chance to take revenge, nothing more.
The "vengeful phantom" could be called necromancy only with a stretch, because it was merely an echo of a former personality, built mostly on negative emotions. But apparently the emotions Eileen had invested into the portrait had been completely different, and even the curse could not turn them entirely negative. Still, Severus decided to attribute it 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 needed research.
"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 put out her palm and shook his 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 slightly. 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 did not want to clutter his head 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 among that sadness, warmer, almost tender feelings toward Severus himself broke through. It was 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 gone wrong to cause this, because it was hard to blame it on "magic" alone. "Apparently today I am going to bed late. Merry Christmas, damn it."
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