Snakebite
Severus Snape had lost his marbles.
The rumour had quickly spread like fiendfyre throughout Hogwarts. The students gossiped, and the professors picked up on it. Everyone thought it was a given, due to the misfortunes that fell upon the boy. Although some felt pity, none sympathised with the poor boy.
“This morning he woke me up really early, asked me if we were in hell!” Evan Rosier exclaimed, “I think he’s seriously gone insane.”
“Ha! Maybe begging outside the Gryffindor dorms for Evans really messed him up,” another laughed.
“I always thought he was a bit bonkers in his head.”
“Maybe it’s all the grease that got into his head!”
The group of Slytherins laughed as they walked down the halls. Severus may have been a Slytherin by name, but he could never truly become one of them. They couldn’t care less about the mishaps he experienced.
***
Where was Severus when all of this happened? Of course, he was hidden in the Room of Requirement.
Severus had come to learn about this secret during his Professor days. He also discovered that on the Marauder’s map, that the room concealed his presence from it. Practically nobody knew about the existence of this room during this time, so it was a room that perfectly suited his needs.
For some reason, the moment he entered the room, it had become like a dark academia library. It was a tall room, with books spiralling all the way to the top. It had a cozy but intimidating atmosphere, with a bed, a ladder, a desk, and a lamp being the only other furniture in the room. The room could only be described with one word, elegant .
Looking at the room in awe, he gently browsed through the books. Some that caught his eyes were Potions for Concealment, Against the Light Arts, Defensive Charms, and Soul Rifting. He took them out and laid them carefully on his desk.
All the books circling the room were highly unusual. He browsed through many books, and all the books in there he had never seen or heard of. They also leaned more towards the dark side of magic.
Throwing his thoughts away, he took the most interesting book; the Soul Rifting book, off his desk carefully, and opened it.
The first page immediately caught his eyes.
Sometimes a soul is caught in a rift of time and space after death. The cause is SCRIBBLED OUT , and it is a very rare occurrence. The person who falls in this strange rift becomes immortal, and is only able to die the way they died in their previous timeline. On their body would be a small mark, giving a clue as to what they died from.
Severus was excited at first, finding something on his unusual time travelling, but his mood immediately dropped when he saw the most important was crossed out. Half of the page had been ripped out as well, and as he skimmed through the other pages, they didn’t mention the soul rift through time and space.
At least he found out what had caused his death, and the new shocking fact that he was immortal! Unfortunately, being practically immortal was not good news for him. He had planned to kill himself, rather than live this miserable life over again.
Thinking carefully, perhaps it wouldn’t be so difficult. If he wanted to die, all he needed was a snake to die, since that was how he died in his last timeline.
Luckily for him, he knew the perfect spell to help his purpose. He grabbed his ebony wand from his robes, waved the wand and shouted, “ Serpensortia !”
A silvery snake emerged from the wand immediately. It had a shine to it, and an elegant air. Snape realised it was a black mamba, one of the deadliest muggle snakes.
He couldn’t tell whether the snake had any wizarding power surrounding it, which was common for snakes that were conjured by a Serpensortia by a powerful wizard.
As he observed the snake, it just stared curiously at its conjurer. The snake looked at him with wide eyes, but it didn’t have any killing intent. It slithered around the tense raven haired boy, before curling up into a ball on the carpet beside the bed after it was satisfied with its findings.
The poor boy was in disbelief. He conjured the snake to bite him, not ignore him.
Severus walked up to the snake, callously yanking it from the ground. A large hiss emerged from its neck, as it unravelled in his grasp. He held the snake firmly, but not too firm that it was incapable of movement. It kept hissing, but it didn’t seem to have any intention to bite him.
“Bite me,” the boy commanded frustratedly.
The snake stopped hissing aggressively, and just looked at him curiously.
Getting a bit flustered, he grabbed the snake by its head as he forcefully opened its jaw, and he put his finger in its mouth.
“Bite.”
The snake hesitated, and looked at him as if he was crazy. It was nothing new, since it was a look he had constantly gotten so far during his time here.
The snake hissed softly. Severus didn’t know whether he was deluded, but he was certain the snake hissing was asking if he was really sure.
He nodded at the snake, “Yes, I want you to bite me,” hoping the snake would now give in.
The snake hesitated, and opened its jaws wide before it carefully sunk its fangs into Snape’s hand.
The raven haired boy swayed, and was immediately knocked out onto the carpeted floor. The same darkness that once tried to engulf him before appeared before him once again.
⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒
“What do you mean you can’t find Snivy on the map?” Sirius impatiently grabbed the map from James as he tried to find the boy.
“Padfoot, it’s like he disappeared out of thin air.”
“Maybe he went off Hogwarts grounds,” Remus suggested helpfully.
Sirius snorted before t
hrowing the map away to Remus who was sitting on his bed, “I doubt that. He wouldn’t go outside if he didn’t need to.”
“Wormtail, what do you think?” James turned to the pudgy boy.
The pudgy boy was snacking on cookies, with his cheeks so stuffed he looked like a chipmunk storing nuts in its cheeks. He gave a casual shrug as he continued stuffing his mouth.
“Well that was helpful.” Sirius scoffed.
“I just don’t get it. He disappeared so quickly,” James scratched his head, before a thought lit up in his head, “Maybe he went to stalk Lily!”
“Prongs… I’m afraid that would mean he’s still in Hogwarts,” Remus sighed as he pointed to Lily’s name on the map.
“....”
Sirius crossed his legs. “Let’s drop it. For now.”
James' mouth dropped. “What do you mean leave it, Padfoot?”
Sirius gave a smirk in return. “I’m not saying we should completely leave it out.”
“Padfoot, what do you mean?” James asked curiously.
“We can always force it out of him when he comes back from wherever,” Sirius said, with a glimmer in his eyes.”
The other boys nodded, wondering where he was going.
“For extra secrecy, we can lure him to the Forbidden Forest. Practically no one ventures there right?”
“Don’t tell me-” Remus cut through.
“I’m not done!” Sirius put his hand over Remus’ mouth before continuing, “We can lure Snivellius and practice some spells on him,” Sirius heavily emphasised practice, with a suggestive tone. “There’s been some new spells I’ve been wanting to use on someone,” he continued.
The curly haired boy grabbed a page from a potions notebook from his robes, piquing everyone's curiosity. “I happened to find these new spells written by Severus.”
Everyone except Remus had their eyes light up.
“You’re a genius! What a great idea!” James said excitedly, “And we can get Death Eater information out of him. You’re a genius, Padfoot!”
Remus just sighed tiredly, “I won’t help you with this, but I’ll be there.”
“W-we will give him what he deserves,” Peter said, trying to join into the conversation.
James slapped Peter on the back, and grinned.
“You’re right about that, Wormtail.”