Chapter 1: Accepting Consequences

Hello All! Thanks for taking the time to consider reading my fic! A few start of term notices for you all. If you have not read the first story in this series, you should read that first. It is called "Snape's Student revised" and it can be found easily by clicking on my pen name above. I started this fic series pre-OtP and it's AU! If you like the story, drop me a note and tell me if you have a few spare seconds.

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Please check out my other fics God of the Underworld and The Cursed Escape which are also both being updated!

Accepting Consequences

Severus looked his nephew and shook his head in frustration and slightly with sadness. He steepled his hands in front of him, tensing the muscles in his jaw purposefully.

Sage was slouched in the chair in front of his desk looking thoroughly absent. His hands were shoved in the pockets of his khaki pants, and his eyes were glazed over, not their usual shining blue. It was evident that he had not slept. His white skin appeared even paler because of the black shirt he was wearing. The color in his lips had even seemed to have drained away.

Severus sighed, "I understand that this is difficult, Sage, but you need to accept responsibility for what you've done."

"I know, sir," he answered mechanically, only moving his mouth.

Severus stood up and Sage made no inclination that he had even noticed, which was very uncharacteristic of him. Severus stopped in front of him, and Sage pulled his long legs in towards his body.

"There are consequences for all of our actions no matter how much anyone may sympathize with our reasons or situations. I'm incredibly disappointed that you didn't bring this to me right away. Instead you behaved in a completely deplorable fashion. I thought we had a better understanding than that. I cannot believe that you would not come to me with this."

Sage raised an eyebrow slightly, the frowned, "I know that I should have, but you are not the most approachable person, uncle."

"On another day, I might have chosen to reprimanded you for your tone and suggestion. Instead, I will remind you that sometimes in life we have to do things which are difficult because they are the right things to do. You will find that, most often, the right thing to do is the most difficult. If our will fails us, we cannot hope to have any strength at all."

Sage exhaled sharply at the idea, a slight huff of amusement.

"Can we discuss the consequences for my actions now, sir?" Sage asked, monotonously. He wished to push aside the lecture that he knew was coming.

Severus reached forward and grabbed his chin. "You push too far, Sage. I suggest that you mind your attitude. I am exerting as much patience as I have, and you may not wish to wear it thin quite so quickly. I assure you that there are plenty, a plethora in fact, of things that I am holding back."

Snape released Sage's face from his grasp.

"I know it was wrong, uncle. I am not purposely trying your patience."

"And I have grown very weary of trusting your word, nephew. It holds no meaning because you have no standard for yourself."

Sage ignored the comment looked down, "I'm not feeling so well, sir. I'd just rather get on with this."

Sage took in a deep breath, hoping it would soothe the bile boiling in his stomach. Even though his slouched posture made him look relaxed, he was horribly tense. He was being quite successful, however, at concealing the fact that he kept shaking.

Severus slammed his hand down on the desk, "Perhaps that will teach you not to smoke pot and get drunk off 100 proof vodka, because Merlin knows that you did not heed me after I caught you the last time," Snape said, starting off speaking in his normal voice, but by the end of the sentence he was yelling.

Sage stared at his uncle's stomach, not looking up, not looking down, but looking completely unemotional. The expression on his face was as flat as a piece of parchment. Inside he felt as if he were being ripped apart. Never in his entire life had he ever felt this way. Not when his mother had killed herself, not when he had been alone in the room with her dead body. Not when he was taken to the ministry and treated as if he were some Dark creature, even though he was only seven years old. Not when his uncle's mother had died, and he had feared that he once again would be alone. Never in a hundred years had he ever thought that his uncle would still want him and be able to look after him after his mother had died. Not when he saw his father's murder over and over again in his visions. Sage felt a sick emptiness inside now. It felt as if his entire consciousness had been severely interrupted or sucked dry. He no longer felt whole.

Severus glared down at him, fighting back the desire to slap Sage right out of his stupor. It was maddening. Sage didn't seem to have any conception of what he had done, and if he did, he did not seem to find it that thought consuming.

"You do not even realize, do you," Severus said finally, keeping his voice as even as possible.

Sage scoffed, the corners of his lips turning up distastefully, "You do not even realize, uncle," he muttered.

That was it, Severus just could not find it within himself to let it pass, even after what had happened. He reached down with the speed of a snake striking its prey and grabbed his nephew by the collar and tie. He kicked him in the shin. "Get up! Get up and say that again to my face!"

He hauled Sage straight out of the chair and pulled him so that there were only five inches between them. Even though Sage was a tall boy, Severus dwarfed him by about half a foot.

Sage's eyes turned wide.

"I don't realize, do I? Look me in the eyes and say that again, boy."

Sage looked at him, but said nothing. His pulse was beating visibly through his neck, hard and fast. Perhaps he should not have said that, even if he felt it. Some things were much better left unsaid, especially to his uncle.

"What don't I realize, Sage? What! I don't realize what you are going through? I don't realize what the Prophecy means for you? Do you think that I want you to die! Do you think that I do not know what it feels like to live with the knowledge that life is too short and that death could come any day? Do you?" He yelled. Then he shook Sage by the collar. "Answer me."

Sage didn't answer for a moment. He could feel his uncle's hot, angry breaths on his face. "I don't know, sir," he answered finally. Rather, he lied.

"Foolishness. I know what it feels like to feel death right behind you. I know better than you do, Sage. I had death stalking me every day for a year before the Potter brat drooled and the Dark Lord vanished. Every meeting, I steeled myself for my eventual torturous end. Can you even fathom what He does to people who he suspects of being unfaithful? Every day I wondered if that would be the day that He would find out that I had betrayed him, that it was I that was sharing his secrets. When I set out to right my wrongs, I knew that it was not likely that I would survive for very long, a few years at most. I had seen people ripped apart and killed for the mere suspicion of infidelity. I wasn't that much older than you are now."

"I understand that, sir, but you chose that. I, I didn't chose this. I've never even done anything to deserve this-," he stopped dead in his thoughts. He mentally kicked himself for allowing his train of thought to run away with his mouth. He should have been more careful with what he chose to say.

Severus's eyes turned incredibly dark, cold, and harsh. "Say it! Go ahead and say it."

"I didn't mean it, uncle. I didn't," he said shaking his head.

"You've never done anything to deserve this like I did. Is that what you wanted to say? Was that what you were thinking? That it would be okay if I died trying to right my wrongs, because I had done certain things. Because I made one stupid decision when I was your age?"

"No, sir," he answered quietly, his voice wavering. Why does this have to happen now?

"You let me know, Sage," he hissed, "You let me know at my gravesite after I die in this war, because Merlin knows I will, if it was okay that I died."

With that Severus released Sage collar, pushing him backward away from him.

"After everything, Sage. You make me SICK! What comes out of your mouth."

Sage's face was pink it was so flushed. His grabbed his uncle by the back of the man's robes gently as he started to walk away.

"I don't want you to die either," he whispered, his eyes glossy with water. Hadn't he just said that he didn't want his uncle to die the day before? How could his uncle not understand that he wasn't feeling like himself?

The professor turned back around, "What?"

"I don't want you to die either, Uncle Severus. Why would I want you to die?" He asked, as a tear finally escaped and fell down his face. "You're all the family I've got. Everyone else has already died or been killed." He neither counted Draco or Potter.

Severus grabbed him by the face, a thumb on each of Sage's cheeks. "Then listen to me. I do not want you to die. I do not want anything to happen to you. I did not give you this prophecy, and I do not know if it will prove to be true. But I would willingly, willingly, die for you or with you, like I should have done for your father. I will do everything in my power to protect you and protect us, but you must do one thing, Sage. You must listen to me and do as I say. This marks the beginning of the War, and you need to grow up very fast. There is no time, none, for self-pity. We barely will have enough time to prepare if you are right about Pettigrew. A year, maybe two at the most, before He finds a way to come back. Do you understand?"

"Yes," he answered quietly.

"I want you to swear to me, swear, that you will not smoke anymore of that, ever."

"I won't, sir, I promise."

"Good, as for those consequences that you were so eager to get to. You are grounded, restricted, for the entire summer. No flying, no trips, nothing. You are going to work with me, and you are not going to be out of my sight."

Sage nodded, trying to compose himself again, wiping his face of tears.

Severus pulled his watch out of his pocket. "And we will know soon enough what the formal consequences are going to be, as well. The headmaster will be here shortly to discuss that."

"I'm sorry I've made things so difficult for you, sir."

"It seems as if difficult lives run in the family as well," he muttered.

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