Marauder crack

Dominus Snape

The story that Fleamont Potter tells James and Sirius on Sunday morning in Oxfordshire is, no doubt, the story of Dominus Snape. At least part of it. It's what Severus would call the version authorised for minors if someone asked.

Nobody asks him, of course.

Severus spends his summer days tucked into his windowless room, studying, reading, feeding his snakes, stroking them as they crawl under his bed, snaking between uncleaned potion jars and pots. Outside that room, lives Dominus, secluded in the basement, most of the time. With her.

Or actually what's left of her.

Severus believes that people should shed their skin, like the snakes and that summer shouldn't last that many weeks. Remember the days when his father left home and went to work at the hospital. When he returns, he would tell him the stories of his healings and the incredible stories of his patients. If anyone listened, Severus would have many stories to tell. He certainly has no one, not a single friend whom he can bring home.

Actually, he is happy about it. If he had them, he would have to show them all the rooms and introduce them to his father and take them to the basement, and there, tell them "This is my father, Dominus Snape, the best healer ever" and they would smile at him and shake his hand. And then his father, with that blurred look, reddened by sleep and a wobbly smile, would say "Won't you introduce them to your mother, Severus?" and he would step aside and let his friends see her.

What remains of her.

An almost unrecognisable mass. Lungs beating under the skin without fat, the heart within arm's reach, eyeless sockets, skinless legs, and his mouth ajar, as if she were still screaming, between life and death.

"This is my mother," Severus would say then. "She had an accident but Dad managed to bring her back. Dad... " would add Severus, "is the best healer of history".

He could tell the whole story, not just the official summary, the authorised for minors one. He would tell that his father woke her from the dead with his potions, sacked out from the hospital, that Ministry officials appeared at their house to take her away, that there was screaming and a wand fight and curses, that the man who entered the house shouted " YOU FREAK!" And his father rebelled and fought and did not allow her to be taken away. He now takes care of her day and night, night and day, as if she was still human. Sometimes, on special occasions, he dresses her in her old clothes and sits her at the table, and if Severus tries to avoid her gaze so as not to see her veins or pustules, his father recriminates, then knocks violently the table off, and starts talking to him about love.

-It is the only thing in the world more powerful than magic, Severus.

- Yes father.- He says recollecting what remains of the dishes and food left on the floor.

Severus thinks that love is sometimes like black magic but his father doesn't believe in black magic, so Severus doesn't say anything.

- There is no black or white magic, Severus. Only great sorcerers and not that great ones.

- Yes father.

He imagines what face his friends would make if they saw his mother and only with imagining disgust, deep horror, is glad that he has no friends.

Snakes keep him company. Amazing animals, capable of shedding their skin when the old woman is useless.

At night, before going to bed, Severus goes down to the basement to give the good night to his father. Dominus always has a blank stare and a voice that resounds with an echo, as if it came from a body far away.

- Don't you give your mother a goodnight kiss?

He approaches that formless pulp that was once his mother. He kisses her with dry lips, holding back the urge to run away. Her father looks at her lost, mad with love. Severus contains a sob and the desire to hold her.

- Good night... mom.

She doesn't look at him, but every now and then, she moves her mouth like a fish that seeks oxygen out of the water. It seems to Severus that he wants to say something, but they don't listen to her. Never.