Being Severus For A Day Or Two

Thank you to those of you who have taken the time to review and comment on this story. I really appreciate you all taking the time to read this.

All canon characters belong to JKR.

Thanks as always to June for her help and suggestions.

Chapter 11 – Being Severus for a day or two

Saturday flew by in a haze of spell books and ancient scrolls. Lucius sent word from France that he would not be able to meet Severus that afternoon as he wanted to travel to his home in Bavaria. He remembered he had several volumes there belonging to his great-grandfather that might be useful. The two friends both agreed to meet Sunday morning at Hogsmeade instead.

Severus and Albus spent most of the day in the Headmaster's office while Remus looked over as many books as he could in the school library. Nothing had been found in either collection, so it was decided that Remus would come back the following day. Albus told Severus he would continue to look through his own collection of magical books and sent Severus to his rooms to get some rest. It had been a very difficult two days for the younger man.

Severus also wanted some time alone, in the hopes that he would be able to figure out what Voldemort was up to. As he sat in his room, he thought back on the last few weeks. He decided he'd been able to keep Voldemort at bay simply because he'd been happy in his relationship with Hermione. But now things were different. She might never even want to see him again and that made him quite unhappy. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths; after several minutes he began to relax. As a young man he'd taken up meditating. He'd practiced it during the years as a spy as a way to free himself of the anger and guilt of what he had done, and what he was still doing in the name of the Order, as well as to maintain his Occlumency shields.

As he felt his body becoming lighter, he realized that he could indeed feel Voldemort inside of him. He felt the darkness that he himself had let go of so many years ago, yet he felt it now, only because it belonged to his unwanted "roommate." He imagined himself an observer of a play – in his mind, he sat in a small dark auditorium, with not even so much as a pinprick of light. Then he heard a murmuring coming from behind him. He walked towards the sound until he suddenly collided with something. He placed his hands in front of him and felt a wall. As he placed his ear against the wall he heard Voldemort's voice.

"Come to play, Severus?" asked the voice.

Severus immediately became incensed at the carefree sound in the other man's tone. He wanted nothing more than to tell him to go fuck himself, but thought better of it. If he lost control of his emotions and made Tom angry, he'd never get anything out of him.

"More like, seeking knowledge," he said instead.

"Ah yes, knowledge. You always were the scholarly type, Severus, always wanting to know more about everything. I suppose you're wondering what I'm doing here," said Voldemort. He sounded quite bored which served only to anger Severus even more.

"You can't begrudge me wanting to know why I was beaten within an inch of my life, then thrown into the Forbidden Forest left for dead. Only to awaken ten years later to find you inhabiting my body."

"Yes, well, you see that was a mistake – you being found, that is. I blame the idiot, Wormtail, for that. You were supposed to be left in a small cave. I'd given Wormtail the instructions of how to get there, but my mistake. I actually mistook him for someone with a brain and a sense of direction. You are here because your soul was not allowed to die. Had you been left where I originally intended, I would have had an empty body to accommodate myself in. But you were found and taken to Hogwarts, where you were cared for by those idiots whom you'd fooled into thinking were your friends."

Here is where Severus couldn't hold back any longer.

"They were my true friends, and still are. I could have easily been taken to some cold ward in St. Mungo's, but they kept me here. They cared for me and it is because of them that I am still here. My question is: why are you still here?"

Voldemort grew angry. Severus had never shown him such disrespect.

"How dare you speak to me like that. I chose you! You should be thanking me, that I would allow you the privilege of providing your body so that I may live."

Severus began to laugh, the first time anyone had ever laughed at the Dark Lord to his face.

"Privilege? Is that what you call what you did to me? How deluded you have always been. And here I thought you'd discovered me as a spy. Instead, you were rewarding me for being a faithful servant," spat Severus.

Voldemort lunged at him, rather the sound of his voice. He found himself in the same predicament as Severus and also hit a wall.

"You ungrateful bastard," seethed Voldemort. "Against my better judgment I allowed you to enter the ranks of my Death Eaters. I should have known someone like you wasn't worthy of being my servant. Your heart is just as tainted as your blood."

"You should talk about tainted blood. You go on about Pureblood wizards and witches being the only ones worthy of practicing magic, of living this world. You who are no better than me thinking you deserve more respect."

Voldemort now realized that he wasn't going to win this one with respect for his blood. It was obvious to him that he'd lost Severus long before the war. The Potions master had just confessed to being a spy, and thus asking him nicely to vacate his body wouldn't work. Voldemort was going to have to fight for it.

"I wonder, Severus, how is Hermione these days?"

It was Severus' turn to lunge towards the voice that now taunted him. It was still frightfully dark, yet as his anger grew there came a sort of illumination. The black now turned to lighter tones of gray and red. He pounded his fist at the wall that separated him from Voldemort, wanting nothing more than to wring his neck, something he couldn't do in this place that was only inside his mind – not a physical reality.

"I'll kill you for what you did to her, you filthy animal!"

At this the Dark Lord laughed. "Silly Severus. You can't kill me. Not unless you want to die yourself." Now he pretended to sob. "Think of how poor Hermione will feel if she loses us. Then again, she might not even care. After all, I did give her a rather good pounding."

It was now that Voldemort made his move. Severus' uncontrolled anger was enough to give him the power to take over his body once more. With one good jolt, he found himself once again in control of Snape's body. Quickly, Voldemort stood and strode to the mirror. He noticed his face had a slight bruise, no doubt due to the Mudblood trying to defend herself. He smiled, remembering Severus' reaction after what he last said.

"Oh Severus, so easily rankled." He patted his body and found Severus' wand. A quick spell took care of the bruise. When he looked at the time he noticed it was now Sunday morning.

Severus had meditated for a short time, but his time inside of himself confronting Voldemort took longer than he'd realized.

Voldemort of course wouldn't have realized how much time passed, since really time meant nothing to him once he was deep inside of Severus' body; those ten years in an unconscious state only meant he had ten years' knowledge to catch up on. The bits of Severus' life he'd picked up now and then in the past weeks hadn't given him any indication of time one way or the other.

Voldemort-as-Severus once again stepped outside Severus' rooms. He began to walk down the hall and stopped as he heard what sounded like Muggle balloon springing a leak.

"Pssssst!"

Voldemort turned several ways looking for the source of the noise.

"Psssst, Professor," called someone from the far corner of the hall.

Voldemort approached slowly.

"Who's there?" he asked.

"It's me, sir, Mr. Filch." Filch slowly walked out of the niche in which he was hiding and looked both ways. "I was wondering, if you, um...had that thing you were going to give me."

Voldemort looked down at the scraggly looking man. "Thing?" he asked.

Filch looked around again. "Yes, you know the thing you said would help me with the ladies, sir?"

Voldemort arched a brow, "Oh, yes, that thing." He cleared his throat wondering just what the hell the other man was talking about. "I...I'm not quite finished with it. You see, I'm, uh...I'm still missing a...key ingredient to finish making it...the, thing that you wanted."

"Ah, right, no worries, sir." Filch smiled, a smile that made even Voldemort cringe. "I'll leave you to it then. I'll come by tomorrow maybe?"

"Yes, tomorrow, it should be all finished tomorrow." Voldemort swept past the odd man.

"I'll see you tomorrow then!" yelled Filch.

Voldemort walked a little faster wanting to get away from the man as fast as possible. As he rounded the corner he was met with yet another staff member. She looked to be dressed as some sort of nurse or medi-witch. He thought hard to see if he'd heard her spoken of before. Then remembered her face slightly. She looked older now, but he thought he remembered her name now too – Poppy something or other.

"Severus, I'm glad you came back early. I was hoping you had," Poppy looked around to make sure no one was around. "I was hoping you had the... um...thing we spoke about the other day."

Voldemort's eyebrows shot up. 'What the hell?'

"You said you would have it ready by the weekend," whispered Poppy.

"Yyyyeeeesss, yes, I remember, but ah...I realized I'm missing a key component for your...item."

Poppy smiled, "Oh well, then perhaps tomorrow I can stop by and pick it up?"

"Perfect, tomorrow then. I'll be waiting." Voldemort quickly moved around the medi-witch and walked even faster. He had to get out of the castle before he was accosted by some other fruit loop not worthy of his time. As he walked down the steps that led to the school gates, he thought he was home free, until a mountain stepped in front of him.

"Hello there, Professor," said a cheerful Hagrid.

Voldemort stopped and slowly looked up at the half-giant. He swallowed hard.

'Good lord, he's as big as the castle,' thought Voldemort. He took a step back from the hairy man, and then remembered him to be the stupid oaf Hagrid. The schoolboy Tom Riddle had gotten Hagrid expelled from Hogwarts, by accusing him of using his Acromantula Aragog to kill that moaning chit Myrtle.

"I was hopin' to get ya before ya went off," said Hagrid as he looked around. "I wondered if you had...uh..."

Voldemort sighed. "The thing?"

Hagrid smiled and nodded.

"No, I don't have it, I am missing an ingredient. Come by tomorrow and it will be ready for you," said Voldemort as he walked past the odd hairy giant.

"Thank you, Professor!" yelled Hagrid after him.

Frustrated beyond belief, and wondering just what Severus could possibly be giving these odd people, he Apparated to Hogsmeade. Voldemort walked down the street towards Flourish & Blotts, muttering the entire way how if people knew what bloody morons the staff at Hogwarts were they wouldn't send their children there.

As he approached the doors of the bookstore, he heard his name being called. He turned and saw Lucius.

"Severus!" Lucius waved to him and crossed the street. "There you are."

"Lucius, if you are going to ask me for the thing, whatever it is I don't have it and won't have it until tomorrow."

Lucius furrowed his brow. "Good heavens, Severus, what are you talking about?"

Voldemort shook his head and waved dismissively. "Nothing, I'm sorry. I just had a difficult time getting out of the castle, that's all."

Lucius tapped his cane on the ground and smiled.

"I know what that's like, to a degree. I almost missed our appointment today. Who knew that pregnant women could be so...amorous."

This piqued Voldemort's interest. If Ginny was to be his, then this was good information to know. Soon it would be him enjoying the pleasures of Ginny's body, pregnant or not. He looked at the blond wizard, wondering if he should just kill him and be done with it, or if he should allow him to serve him once more.

Lucius was the only person left he could trust. The servant had never hesitated in all the years he was a Death Eater, to follow an order.

As they walked, Lucius noticed something odd. Severus hadn't asked about Hermione, which was something he expected his friend to do first and foremost.

"I almost forgot. Draco wanted to send his thanks for the cream you sent for the baby's rash."

"It was no problem," said Voldemort quickly.

Lucius continued to walk along with him, now knowing for certain that it was not Severus he was talking to. The real Severus had sent the baby vitamin potion, not cream for a rash. Lucius wondered if he should make Voldemort aware that he knew it was him or wait and see if he said anything. Better still, maybe the best thing to do was play right into his hands.

"You look like you need several drinks. Why don't we have a few and remember the good days when things were less complicated." Lucius opened the door and allowed the man inside; now knowing this was Voldemort-as-Severus. They walked to a table in the back set apart from the rest and sat down.

"I have noticed that things now have changed quite a bit," agreed Voldemort hesitantly.

Lucius sighed as he waved at the waitress. He ordered them two firewhiskeys to start.

"It's rather early to be drinking something that strong," said Voldemort. He'd never been much of a drinker and remembered the last time he came here with Lucius.

"Oh, come now, Severus, you can't be serious. I remember you practically lived on coffee and firewhiskey during the school year. Teaching all of those infernal Mudbloods isn't easy, after all." Lucius could drink just about anyone under the table, even though Severus wasn't far behind. But this wasn't Severus. And Lucius Malfoy was determined to get answers.

A large bottle of firewhiskey was placed in the middle of the table along with two tumblers. Lucius poured them both a fair amount and slid one glass in front of Voldemort. Picking his own glass up, he smiled.

"Cheers."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Severus is helping his friends out by making them some special potions for them, so they really are asking him for their stuff. Too bad Voldemort has no clue. I thought I would fluster him a bit. He needs some aggravation.

Lucius will get him nice and drunk, it will serve its purpose. You know how some people get very talkative when they are drunk, especially people who aren't used to drinking.

The HP books haven't given Poppy Pomfrey's age, but she was the school nurse when Remus Lupin began attending Hogwarts (1971), so it's possible she was a student when Tom Riddle attended (1938-1945).

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thanks for reading.