🄹ｅｓｓｅ 🄿ｉｎｋｍａｎ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
albuquerque) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
asgardeventide2014-03-06 11:32 am
albuquerque) wrote in asgardeventide2014-03-06 11:32 am
Fifth incantation ϟ [video]
[The video opens to a tired, very surly looking Professor Snape. He's lost weight since the last time he appeared on the network with an announcement addressed to the Travellers; his sallow face is thinner, the bags under his eyes are more pronounced, and he looks like he's aged a good few years. This city is truly starting to take a toll on him.
He's in his school office, at his desk. When he speaks, he's curt, churlish and absolutely no-nonsense.]
For those of you who are new to Asgard, or for those of you who failed to pay a modicum of attention to the previous announcements I made concerning the matter in which I'm about to address, my name is Professor Snape and I am the Headmaster of the Albus Dumbledore Academy, a school of education and tutelage, which I have established in Odin district.
The school is open for anyone eighteen years and under who wishes to pursue an education, be that in mathematics, literature, science, or any other number of subjects on offer.
Enrollment and attendance to my school is voluntary; however, should you so choose to undertake an education, allow me to make it very clear that I do not tolerate tardiness, disrespect, insolent behaviour or acts of misdemeanour. Any student who chooses to commit any such offences will be reprimanded severely. [Severus is looking straight at you, Mr. Stilinski.]
Of course, I am always in need of assistance with regards to the running and upkeep of the school, be that teachers, tutors or those who may be able to offer assistance in other ways. If you possess any useful skills that you feel would benefit the Albus Dumbledore Academy, I invite you to step forward and make yourself known.
Direct any queries or concerns to either myself or to my secretary, Miss Gallagher.
[Abrupt end of video feed.]
He's in his school office, at his desk. When he speaks, he's curt, churlish and absolutely no-nonsense.]
For those of you who are new to Asgard, or for those of you who failed to pay a modicum of attention to the previous announcements I made concerning the matter in which I'm about to address, my name is Professor Snape and I am the Headmaster of the Albus Dumbledore Academy, a school of education and tutelage, which I have established in Odin district.
The school is open for anyone eighteen years and under who wishes to pursue an education, be that in mathematics, literature, science, or any other number of subjects on offer.
Enrollment and attendance to my school is voluntary; however, should you so choose to undertake an education, allow me to make it very clear that I do not tolerate tardiness, disrespect, insolent behaviour or acts of misdemeanour. Any student who chooses to commit any such offences will be reprimanded severely. [Severus is looking straight at you, Mr. Stilinski.]
Of course, I am always in need of assistance with regards to the running and upkeep of the school, be that teachers, tutors or those who may be able to offer assistance in other ways. If you possess any useful skills that you feel would benefit the Albus Dumbledore Academy, I invite you to step forward and make yourself known.
Direct any queries or concerns to either myself or to my secretary, Miss Gallagher.
[Abrupt end of video feed.]
Video
That face, that very, very distinct voice coming out of the strange light that emanates from Neville's new bracelet is straight out of some of his nightmares. It makes him jump nearly out of his skin like he's back in his third year. Embarrassing.
It just gets worse when he actually stills long enough to listen to what Snape has to say. He runs the Albus Dumbledore Academy. Albus Dumbledore Academy.
Neville fumbles for what seems like half a minute to him, just trying to hit the button to reply with his shaking fingers. When he finds his (unfortunately, at the moment, very shrill) voice, he looks a little bit manic, color high in his cheeks:] Reprimanded severely? Is that what you're calling it now, Headmaster?
Video
At first, he's admittedly rather shocked to not only see Longbottom's name show up on his bracelet, but also his ridiculous, dopey, buck-toothed face showing up on the video.
But then, momentary lapse of shock passing, Severus' expression drops into a look of cold distaste.]
Longbottom. [He says the name as though he's just tasted something foul.]
Video
And there's something as well about the disgusted expression that settles onto Snapes face that really spurs Neville on. Brings the whole past year just rushing up to greet him, a great gale of wind blowing so fast past his ears that he can't hear anything else.
Like the fact that he has a vague recollection about Harry shouting at Voldemort that Snape wasn't on his side. Just trying to throw him off, clearly, because no one who wasn't really a Death Eater would have let them do the things they did to his students.]
I mean, why be coy about it now? You weren't before, were you!
Video | KSJFGJDFHGL NEVILLE BTW <33333333333 x ∞
Severus had done what he could to protect the students. Sent them on detentions served in the Forbidden Forest, mostly. Repeatedly. Anything in attempt to get the students away from the Carrows. But he couldn't be obvious about it, lest the Carrows suspect something. He spent hours pacing in Dumbledore's office, pacing and pacing, thinking, always thinking, consulting with Dumbledore's portrait, arguing with Dumbledore's portrait, wringing his hands together with subtle anguish, pacing some more.
He has to admit: this is the first time Longbottom has actually stood up to him, and Severus isn't quite sure what to make of it. Granger had mentioned that Longbottom had, apparently, finally grown a spine, though he hardly finds himself feeling in any way proud of Longbottom for it, the way Granger had tried to suggest he might.]
And as usual, Longbottom, you've demonstrated an astonishing level of aptitude at speaking of things you have absolutely no understanding of.
Just when I thought this city could sink no lower with uselessness. When in Merlin's name did the cat drag you in?
Video | screams I'm so sorry about his everything & also you are really fabulous omg
[At first, the entire DA had rejoiced over forest detentions: anything but the Carrows' dungeon and their horrible, gleeful sadism. Anything but being practiced on by classmates. Then, after awhile, they had started to boggle - it had all seemed too easy. Snape had to know that the Forbidden Forest was a walk in the park compared to the kinds of things that the Carrows liked to do, right? They eventually agreed that their shut-in Headmaster was probably just trying to feed them to the werewolves. Everyone knew Fenrir Greyback and his pack were camped out there, somewhere, and everyone knew that he had been promised kids. That night on the Astronomy Tower proved he didn't even care about changing them, about waiting for the full moon, he just liked the taste.
The Cruciatus Curse had almost seemed preferable, after that.
Neville squares his shoulders, chin up, letting a crashing, righteous anger wash over the old fear, ignoring his former teacher's unsubtle jab and his question. A year ago, two years ago, any of that would have shut him up, made him accidentally drop all the wrong things into his cauldron and leave him unable to concentrate for the rest of the lesson - because he would have thought it was true. The thing about Snape languishing in his office the whole term, though, is that he wasn't around for Neville developing into the most defiant, mouthy student in the school: one with a few deep, jagged knife wounds to prove it. (The Carrows had taken rather less well to being stood up to than he is right now.)]
Do they even know? Does anyone here even know what it was like last time you ran a school?
[Because apparently he hadn't explained it well enough to Harry and Hermione, or at least that's the great big angry thought stomping around just beneath the surface, at the moment.]
private video; ahhhh <3333 I'M SO EXCITED WE HAVE A NEVILLE
Merlin's bloody beard, this is the last thing he needs. Though his expression is cold and equally as fierce as the way he'd just switched the status of the feed, he's mentally scolding himself for not having turned the feed to private sooner. A sick twist of equal parts unease and indignation knots in his stomach at being reminded of what he'd been forced to make Hogwarts become.
And that makes him hate Longbottom all the more. If only this insolent, stupid little lout had been the child Voldemort decided to go after instead of--]
Well, well. Look who's finally managed to grow some semblance of a spine. And here I was, under the impression that your chances of growing one at all was about as likely as you brewing a Potion that didn't result in you melting the cauldron.
private video; ahaha bless ty for putting up with him!!
Surely, Snape not truly have preferred a world where he could go visit the woman he had always loved in St. Mungo's permanent residence ward, still alive but the diminished shell of her former self and nothing more. Fearful of too many people, of loud noises, unable (or unwilling) to speak in anything but choked pleas and cries after particularly horrible nightmares, unable to recognize friends or family, gaunt and wispy and twisted and completely, irreversibly insane. Knowing that it had been his own allies who stripped away her agency and dignity through a long night of the most horrible and prolonged torture imaginable. Surely.
But Neville doesn't know it was little more than whim and 50-50 chance that separates what his life and Harry's life became, he never heard the prophecy before it'd been smashed open on the floor at the Department of Mysteries, and he certainly hadn't been called into Dumbledore's office to see it firsthand through a pensieve. Instead, he just flinches as Snape switches settings on the feed, like he's sure that an angry set of fingers will make their way through the screen of light and jab at him painfully, and he finds himself momentarily stymied when nothing happens. He isn't really sure what just changed, since this is his very first venture into the things the bracelet can do, but it feels as if he's been cornered, somehow, nevertheless.
He pushes his way past the words, again, though this time he's red in the face and his voice is shaking. It's awfully difficult to just brazenly ignore a man like Severus Snape, but by Merlin, Neville is putting his best foot forward.]
They don't. You've tricked them, too. [The just like you tricked Dumbledore, and the Order, and everyone but Harry goes unspoken but it's definitely there.]
private video; chinhands at your neville :'D
There's a part of him that knows he ought to attempt to speak to Longbottom rationally, calmly, explain things to him. He knows he ought to attempt to make the boy see reason. But why would the boy believe him?
And more than that, Severus is simply too stubborn to reveal the best of himself to someone he loathes so completely. He's too stubborn to let go of his own pride. Too stubborn to let go of the desire to only ever want to find fault with the boy. Fault is all he's ever wanted to find with this idiot.]
And what are you basing that astoundingly brazen accusation on, Longbottom? What proof do you have that I've tricked anybody here in Asgard?
private video; omg everything is beautiful and nothing hurts
Neville lets out a bitter sort of half-laugh, a sound which taken such an effort to squeeze out that it had nearly choked him. A day and a half ago he had carried Colin Creevy's corpse into the Great Hall and lay it down among 50 others just like it. Dumbledore's Army, mostly underaged, half-dead. They knew what they were getting into, they knew the potential cost, they volunteered, but-- It's still awfully hard to think straight, and whatever vicious sense of victory, whatever weightless elation had pooled up inside of him when Voldemort finally lay defeated at Harry's feet was now draining rapidly out.
It felt like Snape had poked the leak into place, with this post, with his horrible questions, and Neville had no problem taking it out on him after seven years of being made absolutely miserable by the old Potions Master at every opportunity.
He's sure that the flicker he saw in Snape's expression was a trick of the light, as well. That it gets replaced so quickly with the sneer, an expression Neville is so much more familiar with, cements that assumption. Makes him jerk his chin up in defiance, temper flaring up and making his own lip curl back. He can't understand how Harry and Hermione could have let this happen.]
The fact that they'll let you anywhere near them, for starters!
[He halts after that, though: his eyes suddenly twitching downwards, catching sight of the notification of a private text.]
private video;
His nostrils flare angrily and his lips twist into a dangerously thin line.]
That's your "proof", is it?
[A pointed pause.]
And what other startling revelations of proof do you have at hand? I suppose bothering to actually question any of the students who attend my school hasn't crossed your dimwitted mind. Why would it? You so clearly have a far better understanding of everything you're accusing me of than I.
private video;
No, but they've started asking me. [Well, a fellow teacher had done in any case, but that's close enough that Neville won't bother correcting it.] So I suppose I'll see whether or not you've been lying to them, won't I?
private video;
private video;
private video;
private video;
private video;
private video;
private video;
[text; private]
My name is Evelyn Carnahan, and I am one of Professor Snape's colleagues here in Asgard. I hope you'll forgive the forwardness of this question, considering we haven't been properly introduced, but I was hoping you might tell me a bit of what it is you're talking about.
If there is reason to be concerned for Professor Snape's ability to serve as headmaster, I would like to be aware of it.
[text; private]
The Headmaster before him was named Albus Dumbledore. Professor Snape killed him and then took his place. He hired two Death Eaters to teach and to torture the students who did not agree with him or who acted out.
no subject
Everyone in Asgard has skeletons in the closet; one could make excellent arguments against her teaching Egyptology, for instance. But overseeing the torture of students is something more than mere skeleton.]
Please forgive my ignorance, Mr. Longbottom. [She did her part of the introductions and Snape already mentioned the boy's name; she supposes she can skip to using it.] While I do know both Albus and Professor Snape, I'm not familiar with Death Eaters. Could you tell me a bit more about them?
no subject
Professor Dumbledore is from the past. He might not know yet. [Because he's not sure he can trust Harry and Hermione to have told him anything, anymore, and he feels the need to make that clear to Evelyn right away. He is, after all, under the impression that Snape has been putting forth a false front and will be trying to discredit everything Neville says as soon as he can.] Death Eaters are witches and wizards who use very dark magic. They are blood purists and they'd like to subjugate all Muggles. [That's as detached as he can make it, at the moment, because he has a lot of feelings about Death Eaters and none of them will help him maintain rational conversation.] People who haven't got magic, I mean.
no subject
A group to which I'm afraid I belong--or would, I suppose, if we were of similar worlds. Magic, so far as I know, works rather differently where I'm from.
[She's doing little more than stalling now, and she knows it. The thought that Professor Snape would do such harm to the children with whom he was charged is sickening, however, and she doesn't want to commit herself aloud to an opinion on the matter quite yet.]
And so Professor Snape hired these bigots and allowed them to mistreat students? Do I understand correctly?
And if so, why on earth did he do such a thing?
no subject
That's it, yeah. They were trying to train us to be Death Eaters like them. Part of class was to practice Unforgivible Curses on students who got detention, even first and second years. If you refused you got practiced on instead, or worse sometimes.
Because he's a Death Eater as well. Thats why he killed Professor Dumbledore, who made Hogwarts just as well a safe place for students who've got one or both Muggle parents. Professor Snape changed that right off.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
Video
Neville, it's more complicated than that.
[But isn't it always?]
private video
private video
He hasn't made it there yet.
private video
And terrified by the thought that Longbottom could in fact jeopardise his school. And the career Severus has established for himself here. The school has become his livelihood.]
Enough has already been said publicly for all and sundry to hear by that dithering idiot. Don't make it worse.
private video
You have a funny way of saying 'thank you', Snape.
private video
private video
private video
private video
private video
private video
Video
But the closest he can bring himself to kindness is a rather hot:]
You don't know what it was like, Harry.
Video
Elsewhere.
[And then he closes this specific feed.]