Harry Potter & How Time Began

Chapter 32 - Severus

It was night. The pale moon hung in the sky and bathed the grounds of Hogwarts like a spot light on a stage. The freezing wind hit the astronomy tower, breathing through Severus's cloak. He wrapped it tighter around him like a bat holding his wings tight to its skin. His blackish eyes looked at the darkness, the moon reflecting in them, the only light that was left in Severus Snape. He felt the cold, but he ignored it; as he did as a child in his bed. Here was the last time he saw Dumbledore and here the last part of the world that had faith in him fell and died.

What a dark chaos the world has become-he thought.

"How dark indeed" A voice said behind him. He turned and found a women with velvet blue eyes and smoke leaving her lips. He frowned, how did she read his mind? "You're gifts are great, but not as good as me , Severus"
"Who are you?" He angered.
"Come on Sev, use that brain of yours" She sadistically mused, taking her pipe out her mouth, walking towards him. He grabbed his wand.
"Cause fighting always fixes a problem" She waved her hand over the pipe, putting out its light and put it in her pocket.
"I demand, that you tell me who you are, this instant" He pointed the wand at her head.
"Who am I? Where have you seen that face before? All these questions running through your mind like a annoying treadmill repeating over and over, a dull ache in your skull as the feeling of the unknown scares you, I scare you Sev. Who am I? Where have you seen that face before?"
She grabbed the front of his cloak and pushed him out , his back against the railing. With every ounce of his strength he tried but it felt there was nothing inside him, nothing to conceal or hide. She looked through him , saw everything , the darkness the light and the those velvet blue eyes sunk into his soul and grabbed hold what was left. She shook him from the inside, his heart thundering as a storm brewed like a temper rising.
"Who am I?" She asked again.
He panicked, his black eyes unable to let go of hers. His arms and legs lost feeling, the cold wind that breathed once now battered his neck and spine. With that gust of freezing wind, the blonde hair that casted across her like a shadow lifted and he saw.
"Where have I seen that face before?" She muttered.
Like a dream the voice entered his brain and straight through to everything. Children laughing at a prank, teenagers at each other's throats and adults crying over prophecy.
"Horatia" He breathed out.
Like that he felt sick to his stomach, she let go, he slid down to his feet.
"I don't understand"
"You don't have to" She replied, standing above him. "I know of the plans you made with Dumbledore"
He darted his eyes upward.
"Only him and I-"
"He told Me" She interrupted. "I know you work for both sides"
"You are of no importance to hold information like that" He stood up.
"I'm the only importance at this moment, I should be your only concern"
"And you an auror of nothing but shame and heartbreak on your face, I'm supposed to believe, a witch that fell of the face of this earth, only returned with a single piece of information with nothing to offer but sarcastic smoke filled comments and unflattering remarks and that should convince me to believe you?"
"I know you gave Harry the sword" She stated. "Sent by a Doe" He looked at her. "A doe for a flower that wasn't yours to pick?" She added. "I know also that you do it for her and for Dumbledore, because deep in that hollow shell you call a body, lied a deformed heart that every now and then beats the way we all do"
"Have you always been this sickening" He replied. Picking himself up.
"No I just keep that part of me for you" She placed her hands on the railing.
"I know why you had to kill him" She says out the blue. "I have to hand it too you many if not all couldn't have done what you did, Dumbledore was always so complimentary to you- I don't think we knew the same Severus Snape"
"Nor do I think that he and I knew the same Horatia McGonagal" Severus replied through his teeth.
"That is true" She nodded. "Now the third question in your mind, what have I been doing?"
"You work for the ministry" He answered curtly, straightening his black robes.
"Of course, don't we all" She raised an eyebrow at him.
"Before you graduated a very circulated rumour of you went around that you got a job in the department of mysteries, you must be used to rumours being spread about you" He drawled, composer regained.
"Yes well, the rumour was true. I'm sure that the rumours of me were spread by yourself. As you do so brilliantly you like to spread misery were ever you go" She fired back. "You started the one of Lucius going to propose if I'm not mistaken"
"Still crying over the past?" He mocked with a laugh in his throat.
"No, no that's your job I wouldn't take that from you. No I'm just clearly stating that you hate when people are happy because you, yourself can't be" She laughed back at him.
"You're a fool, like every stupid girl when she sees a pretty face, handing her life away to some idiot with shaky hands and are shocked when their glass hearts shatter on the floor" He shakes his head. "I tried to intervene , save you from your self-destruction but you chose the latter and I am now not the only one spreading misery"
They stared at each other. Anger fuming from both of them.
"You killed Dumbledore" She said, catching him by surprise."Because you knew he was dying and that the Malfoy boy couldn't and shouldn't do it" she added.
"What job does the department of mysteries have you do exactly? Snoop around like dog with its nose in the air looking for clues?" He turned his back on her, placing his hands on the railing.
"And you're job, to play a two faced snake, convincing it's two companies over and over again" She chuckled at that. "You know Sev you are no different from when you were a child, always looking for the scraps from the big table, to use against its occupants" Horatia shook her head , walking over and standing not far from him.
"You will never sit, if you never try and be better than the rest" He sighed exhaustedly.
"And are you? Was all the lying to them and yourself worth it? Losing it all? Losing Dumbledore? Losing Lily?"  She asked incredulously.
"Do not speak to me as though I've asked your advice" He snapped.
"And you do not pretend as though we are strangers" She answered calmly. "I know you better than you think"