Disclaimer: Nope, not mine, sorry! ;P

Chapter I

Revelations

"HEADMASTER!" A well-known voice bellowed, alerting the Order members who'd been having a meeting in a large room adjacent to the office of Hogwarts' current Headmistress. They got to their feet as one, wands drawn and hurried to the office, wanting to apprehend the murderer and traitor.

Something in the tall, dark man's furious demeanour stopped them from hurtling the first curses and hexes they could think of, as the wizard strode across the office to face the portrait of a startled, but very awake-looking Dumbledore. They'd been under the impression that the painting had been damaged or poorly crafted, as it hadn't opened its eyes or spoken for the past few months – ever since it had materialised in the office. It took a moment to get over the shock – a moment that made any hope of them cursing Snape right there and then without second thought quite a vain one. The man was oblivious to their presence, or perhaps he had no room to care. He was in such an emotional state as none had ever seen him.

Furious didn't cover it. And there was pure agony in his dark eyes as he confronted the old warlock.

"WOULD YOU…" He broke off to gain at least some modicum of control over himself as his voice shook with rage. He took a deep, harsh breath and his black eyes glared fire at the canvas as his fists unclenched only to clench again at his sides. "WOULD YOU CARE TO EXPLAIN, SIR, HOW IT IS AT ALL POSSIBLE THAT AN ORPHAN, MUGGLE-BORN BOY, WHO'D BEEN RAISED AT A MUGGLE ORPHANAGE, HAPPENS TO BE YOUR SON AND ALSO MY GOD BE DAMNED PSYCHOTIC DRUNK OF A FATHER?!"

"Severus…"

"Would you care to explain how Tobias Percival 'Snape' had come to even be at an orphanage? I mean, I could understand if you'd given him away if he'd been a couple of years old – that kind of evil, depravity and penchant for cruelty might have been visible by that time – and if that had been the case, I'd rather be surprised you hadn't outright killed the horrid wretch! But certainly you could not have known when he was just three months old? Even Voldemort had probably resembled a human being at such an age!" The man's hatred – pure and powerful – for his father sent a chill down the shocked observers' spines, but most were too astounded by the implications of Snape's first statement to even try to imagine what could have inspired the strong emotion.

"Severus…"

"DID YOU KNOW," Snape spoke over Dumbledore's second attempt at interrupting the angry torrent of questions and accusations, "that your son had been abusing your grandson almost from the moment I'd been born?"

"Severus…"

"DID YOU KNOW," Snape overrode him again, raising his voice even more, his hands and whole frame shaking with barely-controlled emotions, the magic – tangible as it crackled around him – just barely kept from running wild, "that I'd been beaten to the brink of death on a regular basis and that I hadn't had a bone that hadn't been broken or any place on my body that hadn't been severely injured by the time I was three? It's all in my hospital records. Have you any idea I'd been a regular patient at Saint Mungo's all the years until I came to Hogwarts?" Severus demanded.

There'd been no law protecting children from child abuse when the man had been one. At that time, children were as good as their parents' property, and they wereto do with them as they pleased.

"Severus…" Another feeble attempt from Dumbledore's portrait, but Snape was unrelenting.

"DID YOU KNOW THAT I'D BEEN SITTING IN A POOL OF MY OWN BLOOD THE DAY I RECEIVED MY HOGWARTS LETTER? That that piece of parchment, even as I'd held it in bloodstained fingers that had made it almost illegible, had been my only hope? My only hope at survival? Because at that point any hope of life had been effectively and very literally beaten and bled out of me?"

"Severus, please…" The old warlock cried in distress, now in clear agony himself, but to no avail.

"DID YOU KNOW I WAS YOUR GRANDSON, WHEN I HAD TO STAY AT THAT WRETCHED HOUSE WITH THAT ABOMINABLE MONSTER OF A FATHER AND THAT PATHETIC COWARD OF A MOTHER, WHOM I HAD TO PROTECT, BECAUSE SHE'D BEEN TOO WEAK HERSELF? DID YOU KNOW IT, WHEN YOU SENT ME THERE, EVERY YEAR, DESPITE MY BEGGING AND PLEADING?"

"Se…"

"DID YOU KNOW IT WHEN I WAS TORMENTED HERE, AT YOUR SCHOOL, AND NO ONE EVER LIFTED A FINGER TO HELP? DID YOU KNOW IT, WHEN YOU SENT ME HOME AFTER I'D TRIED TO COMMIT SUICIDE THAT NIGHT IN THE SHRIEKING SHACK? WHEN YOU'D PURPOSELY FLOO-CALLED MY FATHER AND TOLD HIM EVERYTHING? THE WHOLE MISERABLE TRUTH? HAD YOU ANY IDEA THAT I'D BE UNCONSCIOUS WITHIN FIVE MINUTES OF STEPPING OUT OF THE FLOO WHEN YOU LET HIM TAKE ME HOME THAT NIGHT?" Snape demanded; the raw pain in his voice and face absolutely heart-wrenching.

"SEVERUS, CHILD, PLEASE LISTEN TO ME…" Dumbledore had become more persistent, as he tried to stem the flowing accusations.

"I'VE SPENT THE PAST 20 YEARS DOING NOTHING BUT LISTENING TO YOU! NOW YOU'LL LISTEN AND, FOR ONCE IN YOU LIFE, ANSWER! TRUTHFULLY!" Snape yelled. "DID YOU KNOW I WAS YOUR GRANDSON, WHEN YOU DID VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER TO PUSH ME TOWARDS VOLDEMORT? DID YOU KNOW IT, WHEN YOU'D BEEN SO FOCUSED ON GETTING SOMEONE INTO HIS RANKS – SOMEONE YOU BELIEVED WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO LAST THERE AND WHOSE CONSCIENCE WOULDN'T ALLOW HIM TO TAKE THE EASY WAY OUT?" Snape paused for breath, stopping the pacing he'd started in an attempt to rail in his emotions. He looked at Dumbledore with cold eyes. "Did you know that, when you'd made your plans and fully intended to use me for your own gain in the upcoming war? Did you know that, every time you sent me to Voldemort, knowing full well that I might not return, or that if I did, I'd be having plenty of new scars to add to my already impressive collection – even with all of my father's childhood legacy having been removed by a friendly Healer at Saint Mungo's before I ever entered Hogwarts? Did you know I was your grandson, when you told me to repeat half of Trelawney's prophecy to Voldemort, in the hope that he'd 'mark' his 'equal', never having told me who the families endangered were, claiming that both were safe, but that Voldemort had to choose one, nonetheless? Did you know it then? Then, when you made me responsible for the death of the one person I'd ever really loved besides you? When you just as good as made me Lily's killer?" Tears flickered in those black eyes, but the wizard blinked them away and swiped what he couldn't with his sleeve, before turning an angry gaze at the Headmaster.

"Did you know it, when you made me stay at Hogwarts all these years, knowing full well that this castle, with all its memories, was the last place I wanted to be? Did you know it, when you asked me to go back to Voldemort? When you asked me to spy again? Knowing full well what it entailed?" Snape turned away for a moment, but Dumbledore didn't say anything this time, made no attempt to deny anything, or to calm and console the young, black-haired wizard. At length, Snape turned to the portrait again, but despite his best efforts, he hadn't composed himself… Not at all. Tears had welled up in his large, dark eyes, but he managed to keep them from falling. His face showed anguish, love, the unbearable fear and pain of betrayal and only a small glimmer of hope. In a quiet, barely audible, but clear voice, he uttered the last question.

"Headmaster, did you know that I was your grandson when you asked… when you… when you begged me to end your life that night on the Astronomy Tower? When you begged me to kill the one person alive that I cared about? A person whom I loved as the father mine had never been to me, and respected as the man to whom I'd willingly given my life, my loyalty and my very soul? A person whom I'd believed was the only one to care about me? Did you know the truth then, when you asked that of me? When you asked me to make that one sacrifice I could not make? When you demanded that I lose my soul to the devil, just as I'd hoped I might finally gain it for myself, by dying of the unfulfilled Vow to Narcissa, but staying loyal to you and the Order, dying for the cause, and at last finding the freedom I'd never had in my whole life?" Severus looked into the Headmaster's blue eyes with his own piercing black ones. A lone, silent tear slipped down his cheek, followed by another… and another… "Please…" He whispered hoarsely, in much the same way as Dumbledore had done on the Tower. "Please, DID YOU KNOW?" The last words were pronounced carefully, as the man tried to keep himself from choking. The previous rage was gone, drained, just as any other emotion but sorrow… and hope. Hope of denial. Hope for some comfort. Hope that the betrayal he'd perceived hadn't truly been… or at least had not gone far… But it was ridiculous! If Dumbledore had known, even if he'd miraculously found out only just before his death, the betrayal would still be more than Severus could bear. More than he could ever comprehend, much less forgive…

Dumbledore closed his eyes and that was answer enough, but still Severus held onto Hope. Isn't she quite the mother of fools? Yet, it is said that all mothers love their children... But Severus' mother hadn't. Why should Hope be any different? Why shouldn't she just be a source of further pain and suffering, just as Eileen had been the cause of additional pain and suffering for Severus, for as long as she'd been alive…

Albus opened his eyes and looked straight into Severus' beseeching ones, knowing that he would hurt him, knowing that that look of love and trust that still lurked in their pained recesses would be irretrievably lost to him after this…

"I did know, Severus. I knew you were my grandson from the moment I'd read of your birth in the Daily Prophet."

The collective gasp of horror from the Order members did nothing to alert the pair of their presence.

The anguish in Severus' eyes, the unimaginable pain as denial failed, would have broken Albus' heart, were he alive, but he pressed on. The moment of truth had come.

"I knew you were abused as a child." He said, causing Snape to flinch away as if he'd just been hit. "I did not know to what extent, but I suspected it had been terrible when you arrived – tiny, emaciated, haunted and afraid – on your first day at Hogwarts." Severus closed his eyes, to block out the Headmaster, he shook his head in denial, stifling a sob. "I sent you back to him nonetheless, I drove you to Voldemort and then sent you repeatedly to this second tormentor, knowing full well what it would cause you. What it would cost you." There was a long silence, broken only by Severus' harsh breathing.

"What did I ever do to deserve it?" Severus whispered a question he'd been asking ever since he could remember; eyes closed, trying to understand, trying to find reason in this.

"Nothing." Came the solemn, grim reply. "No child could do anything to deserve the treatment you'd received and you, Severus, you especially, because you have a good heart. Despite everything you've suffered, every cruelty and every pain you've endured, you've retained your good heart, your compassion and integrity, your sense of fairness and desire for freedom – freedom for yourself, but most importantly for those who've been denied it, just as you have been. Your strength in facing what you have, your ability to endure, your endless resources, resilience and intelligence, your strength of will and determination, your bravery in doing what must be done in the fight for what you believe is right, your unwavering loyalty, once you've pledged yourself – these are your strengths, and they would never have developed, not like they have, if your circumstances had been different. Those past events have moulded and made you into the person that you are. The extremely powerful wizard and strong, confident man you have become." Dumbledore spoke softly, proudly, but not without the underlying sadness and regret. "Everything you've been through has shaped your destiny and you will soon face the final trial – and you will come out victorious, because you are who life experience and your innate good character have made you."

Snape looked at Dumbledore, tears still in his eyes, a flicker of disbelief, anger and hatred burning somewhere in the back, but muted by the hurt that came first and foremost – overwhelming everything else.

"Nothing I can say will make it any better. Nothing I say can warrant your forgiveness for what I have done. I am well aware of that, Severus, but I need you to know that I am sorry. Had it been my choice, I would never have allowed you to get hurt. I love you too much; I always have and always will – no matter how it may seem to you or anyone else. I've only ever wanted what was best for you. I had no choice but to act the way I had. You are strong and you will rise above this, and you will be all the stronger for it – that I know – and once you do and once you are, you will fulfil the prophecy that had been made for you, years before you were born…"

"Prophecy?" Severus said in disbelief, he felt like he was in a daze. He could no longer feel anything, not really. "All that… A prophecy?" He repeated. "All that to fulfil a prophecy?"

"Prophecies need to be helped along, as you very well know, they…"

Severus laughed hysterically.

"I had to live through hell, for a prophecy! Lily had to die, for a prophecy! Frank and Alice have been rendered insane, because of a prophecy! My mother had been killed by my father, because of a prophecy? Or was that for a prophecy? Had her death been a requirement, or just a side effect? An accident or miscalculation, perhaps – like Alice and Frank Longbottom? There'd been no need for them to suffer, after all. Voldemort had already chosen the 'Chosen One' at that point!" Still hysterical, Severus laughed at the unintended joke at the end of the last sentence. "Chosen the 'Chosen One'!" He chortled quite insanely.

"Severus!"

But the man didn't hear him, he just laughed and laughed, until he collapsed to the floor, and his laughter slowly transformed into weeping and the kneeling man buried his face in his hands.

TBC…