The Redemption of Severus Snape

Part 44

A/N: Yorkshire Dialect Poems can be found here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2888?msg

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Severus rose late on Christmas morning. A small pile of gifts sat on the small table next to his armchair, most of them were from his colleagues. He picked up a small rectangular package wrapped elegantly in silver paper with a green ribbon that was charmed to look like a coiled snake; it was from Lucius and Narcissa. Lucius had a gift for Potions-making. His skill didn't approach Severus', but he had some skill nonetheless. Lucius' specialties were poisons, anti-dotes, and anti-venoms. Snape flicked his wand and the snake unfolded itself with an audible hiss and settled on the table as a harmless green ribbon. He tore off the expensive silver paper and threw the wadded bundle on the floor. An old, very rare, and very expensive book of obscure anti-venoms for poisonous creatures lay in his hand.

Most people would think such a book to be a thoughtful and practical gift for an academic like Snape, but Severus knew better. This book was a warning. Lucius was terrified of Nagini; he'd confided in Severus that he thought Nagini to be a species of man-eating snake that had been long thought extinct. It was commonly called the 'wizard's serpent', not because of its popularity as a magical pet, but because of its preference for hunting magical people. This was a particularly large species known for its high intelligence, resistance to magical spells, and its ability to sense magic at great distances.

In the past, many dark witches and wizards attempted to keep wizard's serpents as familiars, but were usually eaten by their virtually uncontrollable pets. Their numbers had spread across Europe all the way to Southern England via animal trafficking. During the mid-sixteen hundreds, when the Great Plague of London was claiming muggles victims, there was a great rise in deaths from these snakes and a plan was formed to eradicate them. A slow-breeding creature, their numbers never recovered and they were thought to have become extinct.

Severus had already begun researching possible anti-venoms for Nagini's poisonous bite. He'd frightened Wormtail into providing him with a sample of Nagini's venom. The standard anti-venom used by St. Mungo's would be ineffectual with this particular snake's venom, assuming that Lucius' suspicions were correct, and Lucius was rarely wrong. The great Potions master, Zygmunt Budge, postulated that each individual wizard's serpent had slightly different venom, making a viable broad-spectrum anti-venom almost impossible to brew. Severus had just finished brewing a prototype potion for Nagini's venom when Dumbledore rushed in asking if he could help Arthur Weasley. Severus' anti-venom needed refinement, but was sufficiently potent to save Arthur's life; adding further credence to Lucius' theory.

He set the book down and turned to set the wad of silver paper alight when he noticed a large object propped against his portrait wall. He inspected it, and judging by its shape, it appeared to be a portrait wrapped in plain green paper and tied with a silver bow. He lifted a small card from it and read the familiar neat script inside.

Merry Christmas Professor Snape,

I hope you like it.

P.S. Hermione charmed it for me.

~ Lindsay

Thankfully the card was small and Miss Gray was unable to engage in her usual verbosity. Severus ran his hands gently over the paper, tracing the corners of the package. It had been wrapped by hand. He took out his wand and flicked it at the wrappings, which neatly came undone without damage. His jaw dropped in awe of what he saw. Nothing would've prepared him for a magnificent gift like this. He saw himself brewing what appeared to be a very complicated potion as evidenced by the vast number of ingredients laid out before him. The subject's face was angled slightly to the side. The hair on the fully visible side of his face was tucked behind his ear. The figure in the portrait stopped with a look of deep concentration on his face. He ran the tip of his index figure along his lips; then dropped his hand suddenly and looked as if someone not included in the scene had caught his eye. The figure's expression changed instantly as he turned his head toward the unseen person. The figure's eyes flashed with a look of mischievous glee and a devilish smile crept into his features. The portrait was clearly Snape and the likeness was very good. There were minute "improvements" in his features that subtly changed his overall appearance. The result was far from handsome, at least in the conventional sense, but it was clear that the artist viewed her subject very differently from most other people.