The Year of the Revolution II. The Discovery of Friendship

23. Devotion

Sev had the second break in the routine. On Friday afternoon, after school, when he went home to empty his backpack and change books to go to the Library to study, as he had resumed the habit of doing so to see Lily from afar, 'The snakes rarely stop by there,' he found inside a sealed envelope, without addressee or sender.

Before opening it, he thought, 'At what time of day have I left my backpack lying around and someone has put it in? It can only have been this morning in Herbology class, during which I have repeatedly moved around the greenhouse, but in those cases I always leave it closed, and that's how I found it when I picked it up. Therefore, whoever it was, went to the trouble of surreptitiously opening it, putting the letter in, and leaving it as it was, so that I wouldn't even notice it myself at the time.'

He was alone in the bedroom, but anyway, he climbed into the four-poster bed and closed and warded the curtains before opening it to read, rather unsettled, because the sword of Damocles hanging over him. 'It could be a threat or blackmail.'

When he opened it and began to read, he was stunned. The very long letter was from Parkinson.

Snape:

I must apologize for my impertinences in Potions and the little scene I made for you. I will regret doing it for the rest of my life. The insults I dedicated to you stick into me like daggers.

'This, although I would never have expected it from my classmate, I believe it at face value, since Lily already told me in a letter the expression of regret that she appreciated when Slughorn subtracted my points and invited her to change places, also warning me that perhaps the girl felt something deeper for me than a mere whim.'

But what came next seemed really incredible to him, Parkinson told him his whole life.

As you already know, I come from a family of the Sacred Twenty-eight, of the most pure blood and very wealthy, very close to Voldemort. In fact, almost all of my older uncles and cousins are Death Eaters.

'That she mentions the Unmentionable by his name already shocks me greatly.'

But my parents, from a young age, when they met in the circles they frequented, discovered in each other that they were contrary to the ideology of the supremacy of blood purity and this affinity made them fall in love. They did not have the courage to turn their backs on their families, and when with the uprising of Voldemort and the organization of his army their respective relatives joined him, they posed as sympathizers, although they did not allow to be marked. So they find themselves in a golden cage, living daily with enemies.

They had previously trained thoroughly in Occlumency, Legilimency and Projection...

'What's that?'

...and they instructed me and my two younger brothers in these Arts since we showed our gifts for magic.

'Booaaah... she may have read me...'

They did it as if it was a game, while educating us in the dogma of blood purity so that we wouldn't give ourselves away to the rest of the family.

When I was trained enough and reached the right age to understand it, my parents told me the whole truth, that Voldemort's supporters, far from being powerful, are actually his slaves, that the ideas of blood purity are a fallacy, because very bright warlocks are Half-bloods or Muggle-borns. Rather, not mixing was creating a very harmful inbreeding.

It was difficult for me to adapt to the new perspective, but the relationship with my parents was always very close and I trusted them, so I ended up agreeing with their ideas, because what they had tried educating me like that and equipping me with the weapons to hide my true convictions was to preserve my integrity until I finished my studies.