The Collision

Chapter #2; What lies beneath

Everything we've ever stolen has been lost, returned or broken,

no more dragons left to slay.

Every mistake I've ever made has been rehearsed and then replayed

as I got lost along the way.

How long he sat there, her wounded limp body in his arms, he did not know. It could have been mere seconds but they seemed to him like hours, during which he repeated over and over one single thought: "Why?" After what seemed like an eternity, he became aware of something, of someone pulling the girl's body away from him. He tightened his grip, and then his hearing ability returned in an explosion of voices: worried, screaming voices, voices he couldn't stand to hear, yet he was glad to hear at the same time.

"Let her go, Professor. Let her go." Severus opened his eyes to see Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper, trying to free the girl from his grip.

"Let her go, Severus. Hagrid will take her to the hospital wing." He felt, rather than saw the headmaster's concerned look. Then, and only then, did he realise what he had done. He retched and vomited on the grass, sweat dripping from his face.

"That's it, Albus!" He heard Minerva's voice, shrill with anger he knew was not directed at him or at the Death Eaters, but at herself for simply allowing him to go into the lion's den in the first place. "He's not going there anymore. He's not! I don't care what you say, Severus, we'll simply have to find another way."

"That will be entirely unnecessary, Minerva." His voice was a little bit too rough and wary. "All masks are down, they know I'm not with them anymore." Severus took Dumbledore's offered hand and got up gingerly.

"We'll talk in my office, after spirits have cooled down a bit," the headmaster said kindly.

"I'll join you when I get back from the hospital wing. Poppy will need all the hands she can get with the poor girl." Minerva turned on her heel and strode off as soon Dumbledore had nodded.

* * *

Upon reaching his office, Dumbledore ushered Snape in, poured him a full glass of Ogden's Firewhiskey and sat behind his desk.

"Now, tell me what happened." His expression was sober and worried. Snape swallowed the whiskey in one gulp and clenched his trembling hands together.

"They knew...I mean, the majority of the Death Eaters suspected my loyalty to the Dark Lord. We expected them to, but something in Lucius' expression...made me think that he knew what the Dark Lord's plans for me were, and that they weren't very pleasant." His voice was harsh and bitter, and his stammering gave away the despair he felt. "I'm no use now, not as a Death Eater, not as a honourable person, not even as a spy," he thought bitterly.

As though he could read his mind, Dumbledore put his hand on Snape's. "There's nothing to be desperate about, Severus. I trust you had a reason to do what you did."

"You trust me too much. I jeopardised our whole cause, endangered our plans, and for what? Because I'm weak! A coward! Like a snake, my House emblem, I took the first opportunity available to crawl under a rock!" He abruptly jumped on his feet, knocking the chair over, and turned his back on the headmaster. Dumbledore hastily followed and put a sympathetic hand on younger man's shoulder, but he remained silent. He knew better than interrupt Snape when he was in this state of mind, resentful and angry at himself.

"What could one more death mean to a Death Eater? One death compared to..." he trailed off.

"You're not a Death Eater, Severus. Not anymore," Dumbledore said quietly, and his tone made clear that he would not accept opposite opinions. "I know you don't won't to hear about it, but you paid off your sins long before this. Please, sit down."

Severus took the offered chair still avoiding the headmaster's eyes. "Now", Dumbledore continued, "what about the girl? How does she fit into Voldemort's plans? Or is she just another innocent victim that was in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

"I thought so, at first. True, Malfoy mentioned something about her being a gift, but I wasn't paying much attention, as he likes to exaggerate. But then...I...he told me that she was supposed to be a gift for you and Minerva." Dumbledore's brows furrowed. "He said that she is Minerva's daughter...but Minerva...she hasn't... oh Merlin, please tell me this isn't true." Snape looked pleadingly at Dumbledore's eyes, hoping against hope that the headmaster would reassure him, tell him that such a thing was impossible.

However, Dumbledore's expression rapidly changed from bad to worse, from worry to ultimate horror. He clasped his hands to his mouth and muttered "Dear God, no..." He was interrupted by the door opening with a bang that echoed through the room. There, at the threshold, stood Minerva McGonagall, paper white, lips pressed in a thin line, clutching something in her hand. Never in his entire time in Hogwarts had Snape seen her this horrified. She staggered a few steps, reached Snape and gripped his arm with violence he would never have expected from her.

"What did they do?" she yelled, now crimson faced and shaking. "Tell me! What did the bastards do to her?"

"Minerva!" Dumbledore separated her from Snape, and again she was paper white, looking twenty years older. Her feet buckled, and she fell to the floor, tears pouring like a flood threatening to drown them all. Snape quickly summoned the strongest Calming Potion he had at the moment, hoping that it would be enough to ease the hysteria and erratic sobs he could hear from the other side of the room.

"I need to know, Albus. I must know! Oh, my God, what did I do? What did I do?" Dumbledore held her in his arms like a small child while Severus forced her to drink the potion. Soon her sobs quieted and Minerva got a hold on herself. Seeing her face when she got up made Snape instantly wish he had died with the girl in that dungeon. Minerva's face showed weariness, guilt and despair Severus had thought only he could feel.

Still standing by her side, Dumbledore was the first to break the silence, "There's no way you could be sure that that girl is..." He was cut of by a voice that didn't resemble Minerva's usual confident one at all. It was a sarcastic and bitter voice, like his own, Severus thought.

"I'm not sure. I don't need to be, Albus! There's no mistake. Here." She opened her hand to reveal a silver chain with a medallion. The medallion had a Sphinx engraved on it, the emblem of the Animagi dating from the Middle Ages. And, Snape realised with horror, the Sphinx could be found on McGonagall's crest too. The same Sphinx was on Minerva's ring; he'd seen it a thousand times, so there was no way he could've mistaken it. His gaze wandered from Dumbledore to Minerva, terrified at what he saw there.

Minerva held her face in her hands, and when she raised her head her eyes were empty and her voice hollow. "I owe you an explanation, Severus. It was never my intention to keep this a secret, but the has never before been a reason for me to talk about this."

"Minerva, this may not be an appropriate time...you're still in shock..." Dumbledore cautioned.

"This time is as good as any!" she insisted. "And you thought you had a shameful secrets, Severus. You think you have a reason to poison yourself with grief!" Minerva looked away. "Once you told me I should have a child of my own," she started. Severus remembered the occasion quite vividly.

"Minerva, get a child of your own!" Severus snapped. "And stop treating me like I'm one." The moment these words left his lips, he regretted them, but it was too late to take them back. He had just retreated from another Death Eaters meeting, and, as always after such events he wasn't inclined to listen Minerva's grumping or to see her worried face. Volatile tempered as he was, this remark definitely didn't fit into the category of the most insulting things he had ever said to her, but, as she turned away he instinctively knew that this remark had wounded her much more deeply than he would have expected it to.

"I had a child I loved as my own once," she retorted quietly, "but she's lost to me, and to the whole wizarding world."

He wanted to apologise, an act he rarely did, but she raised her hand to stop him and left without another word.

"And, as I told you, I can only hope not to see the child ever again. Because, I knew that occasion wouldn't be a nice one. And it's not." Minerva laughed but the sound died in her throat. "Yes, I had a child once. Not mine, but nevertheless I loved it like it was mine. A girl, who I named and raised, just as I raised her father, my brother. Our mother died in childbirth, and my father died with her. Technically, he was still alive, but he gave up. He was a coward; it was so easy to pass the burden to a seven year-old child, namely me. But, as always, I knew what my duty was. McGonagall women are known for their strength, and I took over the responsibility to raise Leonidas. We were so close, Leo and I, although I was seven years older. Leonidas was my brother and my son at the same time. Right after I graduated from Hogwarts, Albus gave me a much-needed job as his assistant. No one could've been happier than me, because this meant I could be with my brother throughout his education, as he was just about to start his first year. Maybe I allowed him too much. He was my weak point and he knew how to use it; maybe this is just another mistake of mine. Regardless, I didn't object when he, after graduation, announced that he was joining the Ministry forces to become an Auror. Soon he became Alastor Moody's much-praised protégé. The Gryffindor in me was so proud...I was a fool," she sighed.

"Leonidas was very brave, and always so optimistic, but he risked too much. Then, tragedy struck. The Dark Lord rose anstarted to gain followers, and the time of terror began. During a time when people were afraid to make friends, terrified of facing the loss that would most certainly follow, Leonidas got married. I remember him telling me, 'This time is as good as any, Minnie. Don't worry, I'll protect my home well.' But not as well as he thought. He used the Fidelius Charm, and with that put his wife and unborn child in the hands of a traitor. One night the Death Eaters paid a visit to his home and find his pregnant wife alone. Leonidas was on one of his many missions. Skylar knew nothing; he never talked about his job to her, but did this ever stop the Death Eaters from wreaking havoc? He returned just when they were about to leave, just in time to see that his own partner, the person he trusted with his life, had betrayed him. Skylar was badly injured, the mediwizards were helpless with such injuries, but they managed to save their unborn child, my niece, the one who is now lying in the hospital wing. Leonidas appeared at my door in the middle of the night, holding the baby. It's true, history does repeat itself; just as Leo and I weren't enough to pull our father from the abyss of despair, his daughter wasn't enough to ease Leonidas' pain and disappointment in the wizarding world. He wanted revenge, and it took him four years to find and kill all the Death Eaters involved in the murder. During four long years, not once did he visit his child, nor sent me word that he was still alive. Or sane. People begun saying that he had became as bad as the ones he fought, cruel, using the Unforgivables. Even Alastor Moody himself thought of him as "Mad Leonidas". Then, one night four years later, all of a sudden, Leonidas appeared at my door looking as if he had passed through fire and storm."

"Leo, you're alive!" a younger Minerva cried. Then the pure joy on her face was suddenly replaced with anger. "Where have you been all this years? Not once did you visit..."

"Its over, Minnie. I've avenged my wife and come for my daughter." He spoke like a very tired man, tired of living and suffering.

"Your daughter? You haven't been around enough even to name her, Leonidas."

"Old debts had to be paid!" he cut her off. "Now, give me the child. There's a long way ahead of us."

"Long way? What do you mean, Leo? Where are you taking her?" Anxiety filled her heart as she watched her brother, this stranger, reach into his pocket and pull his wand out. It was snapped in two. He threw the pieces at her feet.

"Away from all this, away from the world that made her an orphan even before she was born."

"You're not serious, you cannot mean..." Minerva's voice trembled.

"Far away, if I could leave the Earth I would've done so. The farthest point is still too close to this twisted world." Finally he lost his temper. "I'm taking her away from this. I don't want her to be a witch. I don't want her to know..."

"Don't want her to be a witch! Leonidas, spend the rest of your life as a Muggle if you wish, but don't deny your daughter her inheritance. The McGonagalls never..."

"I'm sick of this pure blood, proud to be a wizard nonsense. It was the wizards that did this to her, to me, Minerva!"

"So, you're running away just like our father did, are you? And who you might hurt in the process doesn't mean anything to you." She barely stopped herself from yelling.

"I'm saving her life. What future could she hope to have here?"

"No, Leo, you're endangering her life. Barring her from a magical education, from her past, will leave her defenceless. I won't allow it." He moved forward, but she pulled her wand at him. "Step back, Leonidas. Don't make me use it against my own brother." He moved away and left, casting a last glance at the tall figure of his sister. "I don't have a sister anymore, but I will have my daughter."

"After that I went to court, and won easily enough. I had a job, was a respected member of the community while Leonidas was considered insane. No one would trust him with a child, not even his own. I was so relieved. Given time, I thought, Leonidas would come to his senses. I knew I was wrong when he spoke to me, saying, 'You've won the battle, Minerva, but I will win this war of yours.' True to his words, he kidnapped Persephone that very same night in spite of all my efforts to protect her, and vanished without a trace. The years he spent as an Auror enabled him to hide from both the wizard and Muggle detectives I hired. I hadn't seen my niece since. Until now."