Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Severus Snape appeared in exactly the same place where he had been standing. He blinked. Everything looked the same two years in the past as it had in his present. Was he really that unvaried and… predictable? Haven’t I moved a single item in these quarters in two entire years? No wonder I’m single and lonely, I can’t stand change!

Glancing around, he didn’t see a trace of himself anywhere. The clock by his bedside told him it was about half an hour before dinner. The front room is the obvious place to find myself, he mused.

He waltzed out of the bedroom and saw his other self sitting at the desk near the back of the room. His double was grading papers. He was bent over an exam, and his hair formed a curtain that hid his features. Severus approached Severus.

“Ahem,” he said, to get Severus’ attention.

Snape looked up from his grading and dropped his quill. His mouth dropped open while he stared unbecomingly at his doppelganger, who was standing in front of him with a smirk on his face.

“What the devil?” Snape exclaimed as he quickly stood and pulled his wand out.

Severus put up a hand to stop him. “I assure you, I am not a Polyjuiced enemy. I have come from the future to speak with you.”

Snape pushed his wand into his double’s chest. “Prove it!” he demanded.

Severus rolled his eyes. He had anticipated his own disbelief prior to his time travel. He looked to himself with a bored look. “As a child, I used to sleep with a tattered stuffed hippogriff. When mother threatened to take it away from me, I ran away. She found me huddled under the porch, clinging to the stuffed animal an hour later.”

Snape lowered his wand slowly. “Why have you come here? You know the dangers of being seen when time traveling! Why would you risk our sanity?”

“I’ve come to warn you that you are heading down the wrong road.”

“Perhaps you could have done that about twenty years ago, before I took the Dark Mark,” Snape replied dryly.

Severus smirked. “This is a much more serious matter than that.”

Snape regarded Severus curiously. “What are you on about?”

“You are about to lose the most important thing in your life, Severus. I’m here to knock some sense into you.”

“Most important thing… what are you speaking of? My wand? I assure you, it never leaves my side.”

Severus rounded the desk and stood nose to nose with himself. “I’m speaking of Hermione, you obtuse git. I really didn’t think I’d have to explain this to you. You know you have feelings for her!”

Snape’s eyes widened. “Hermione? Is she in danger?”

Severus stepped back. “Yes. She’s in danger of marrying that Weasley whelp.”

Snape sat down heavily. “She’s going to marry? Weasley, no less?” His eyes snapped up at his twin for confirmation.

“I just left her wedding. Do you know what the worst part is? You could have stopped it!”

“Well, why didn’t you?” Snape asked caustically. “Why didn’t you stand and shout that their bonding was a mistake?”

“I said you could have stopped it. By the time I got to the point that they were to be married, it was too late. She is in love with him.”

Snape put his head in his hands. “I knew it was too good to be true. She could never have feelings for me.”

Severus grabbed his twin and shook him. “That’s just it, you dunderhead, she did have feelings for you! Think about it! She sits next to you at dinner and talks to you endlessly.”

“Minerva assigned her seat to be there, she has no choice.”

“She has feelings for you; you are just too self-absorbed to see it. You think that no one could ever care enough for you to be attracted to you, but I assure you, she does!”

“How do you know this?” Snape asked curiously. His eyebrow arched speculatively at Severus.

Severus stood and glared at his counterpart. “I have had a long time to evaluate my past history with Hermione. I was blind not to see that she had feelings for me. She practically threw herself at me, but I was too dimwitted to acknowledge her. She finally gave up on me, probably thinking that I had no interest in her. She couldn’t have been further from the truth.” Severus bent low and placed his hands on the arm of Snape’s chair. “She never knew that I dreamed of the two of us together, to the point that I thought of nothing else for a very long time.”

Snape swallowed and pushed himself back into his chair, trying to distance himself from his doppelganger. “I’m at that point right now,” he admitted.

“Then you must do something about it!” Severus cried.

Snape pulled himself closer to Severus. “I don’t know what to do!” He glared at Severus, challenging him to find a solution to his problem.

Severus stood again and began to pace. “If you don’t do something, she will assume there is no future for us. She will throw herself at Weasley and fall in love with him. They will marry and history will have repeated itself.” Severus stopped and glared at himself. “Is that what you want?”

Snape stood now and closed the distance between himself and the other Severus. “Of course I don’t want that! He’s not worthy of her. He’s a cretin! She’d have to spoon feed information to him just to make him understand her. What kind of future would that be for her?”

Severus’ face fell. “I know. I’ve worried about that myself. Once the spark and newness of their joining has faded, she will realize what she has done. How can she ever be truly happy with him? They have little in common.”

“Not like Hermione and me… we have so much in common, sometimes it makes me pause. I never thought I would meet someone as close in interests as her… especially after Lily.”

Severus arched an eyebrow. “Lily was suited to me also, but not like Hermione. There is something—unique—about her. She has combined compassion with brilliance. It is an intoxicating combination.”

Snape snarled. “It doesn’t matter how well-suited we are, she’ll marry another.”

“Have you not been listening to me?” Severus snapped. “You can change all of this!”

“How?”

Severus put his hand up to his nose and let his fingers squeeze it as he began to pace again. “You need to make a move, sir. Unless you show some interest, she will continue on this path of destruction.”

Snape’s shoulders fell. “Then I have lost already.”

Severus’ eyes snapped to Snape’s. “Whatever are you going on about?”

“I have tried to do something. I cannot bring myself to say anything.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” Severus growled. “Don’t you think I have your memories? That’s why I’m here. She cares for you. You cannot fail!”

Snape’s eyes narrowed. “How can you be so sure?”

“I told you, for the past seven months I have been lost in the memory of her flirting with me. I assure you, she will not reject you.”

Snape frowned. “I suppose if I do not try, I will lose more than my pride.” He gave Severus a determined look. “I will do it.”

Severus clapped himself on the back and smiled for the first time in a long while. “You will be magnificent.”

“I highly doubt that,” Snape murmured under his breath.

“You should ask her to stop by your room after dinner tonight. The sooner you start the more secure I’ll feel about our future.”

“And what will you be doing during all of this?”

“She must not see me. I will Disillusion myself, so I might observe. Is that agreeable?”

Snape gave a curt nod.

Severus rapped himself on the head with his wand and suddenly took on the characteristics of his surroundings. Snape smiled.

“That was always one of my best abilities,” he told himself.

“Yes,” Severus answered. He looked himself over, noting that he matched his surroundings flawlessly. “I think this will do quite nicely.”

“Shall we?” Snape asked.

Severus nodded before realizing his twin couldn’t see him. “Indeed,” he said finally.

Snape and Severus left the room and headed for the Great Hall and Snape’s first attempt at a pick-up.