Fifth incantation ϟ [video]

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[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.]

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[A very noticeable pause. 'They'? Who is 'they'? If anxiety hadn't already been sparked, it's definitely spiking now.

And not because he has anything to hide with regards to how he's managed the school here. But… he hasn't been forthcoming about his past. To anyone. Barring, that is, those who already know, and Ellie.

Perhaps that's a huge and misleading oversight on his part. Or perhaps that's a huge and garishly idiotic oversight on the part of everyone else. It's not, after all, like anyone has actually questioned his intentions or motives, nor have they requested any semblance of a background check of his credentials. Not that he has any motives. Not beyond wanting to provide structure and education to the youth of Asgard.

But of course, Longbottom is going to think otherwise. And why wouldn't he?

Still, Severus is exceedingly protective of his school and of his students; his school has become his only livelihood in this awful place. The only thing that keeps him sane. The one good thing he's been able to contribute after years of having to live a double life. This school has been the first and only thing he's been able to build up for himself in years without his past haunting it. It's the first and only chance he's ever truly had to move on from all of that.

And now-- That could all come crashing down.

The dark expression on his face turns suddenly venomous. Longbottom ought to be very, very grateful that Severus can't throttle him with his bare hands right now.]

If you in any way jeopardise the running of my school, I will hold you personally responsible.

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[Oh, Merlin. Neville's shoulders bunch up and his face goes white, but despite the slight shaking that's probably made embarrassingly obvious by the fact that the video is coming from something balanced on his wrist, he manages to not let out the squeak that's lurking just beneath the surface.

He feels ludicrous. He's not afraid of physical pain anymore, not after last year, but the fact that Snape looks like he very much wants to choke the life out of him is terrifying. Like the Boggart from what feels like a thousand years ago coming to life right in front of him.]

I-- I'm not afraid of you, Professor. [Seemingly bolstered by his own words, and the fact that they hadn't come out at too high a pitch, Neville manages a nasty glare at the image of Snape hovering before him. He draws himself up, and the quaking ceases, at least for the time being.] The Carrows have been trying to shut me up all year, and it didn't work out for them, either.

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[Mention of the Carrows sends Severus' anger spiking several degrees higher.]

It seems to have escaped your notice, you insolent little fool, that had I possessed motives of ill intent while assuming post as Headmaster at Hogwarts, I would have allowed the Carrows to do a great deal more.

It seems to have escaped your notice that had I motives of ill intent, I would have been directly involved in the Carrows' agenda. Had I motives of ill intent, I would not have thought twice about pointing my wand at your dimwitted face and torturing you just as your parents were. After all, what would have stopped me from doing such a thing?

And yet, I didn't. Instead, I made certain to assign students to extended and frequent detentions in the Forbidden Forest, as far away from the Carrows as possible.

What might that suggest to you, Longbottom? And please, try not to strain yourself thinking too hard about it.

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[Neville manages another strangled laugh. Like an angry bark, a near-violent ha! for the least funny thing he's ever heard in his life. He'd gotten Harry's text. He'd heard the feeble excuses. He knows now why they're defending the monster in front of him and it's not enough. Nothing will ever have been enough.

But that's not even what sets him off. What really gets him going is as your parents were. A throw-away comment, like it didn't mean anything.

It means everything.]

More. You could have let them do more. More than what? More than torturing First Years with Unforgivible Curses? They'd have done more than sticking the students that bothered them with knives? More than stringing them up in the dungeons, than beating them, than denying them going to Madam Pomfrey just for fun? They'd have managed more than kidnapping kids to use as hostages against their families without your protection? More than teaching all of your favorite Slytherin students how to torture the rest of us and then giving it to them for homework?

I'm so glad your motives helped everyone out so much! And to find a way to restrain yourself from torturing me personally, well, I'm impressed. Where should I send your bloody medal?

[Now he's really on a roll. His free hand, the one without the bracelet, flies up over his head, gesticulating wildly as he builds up momentum and splotchy color returns to his face. He's finally letting every horrible thing that's been building up inside of him since September just explode out in some great big mess of hurt and denial of Harry's defense, an accusation that he needs to have justified because the world won't work for him in any other way. Every memory of lying awake in a hammock and listening to his classmates cry themselves to sleep, only to wake back up screaming from nightmares, fuels the fire behind his words. Every night spent waiting for his friends to return from detention, with or without their sanity, never knowing whose broken, hollow shell he'd be visiting in St. Mungo's for the rest of his life. Or if he'd be the one pressing empty candy wrappers into someone else's hand, uncomprehending of the world around him.]

You sent all the muggle-born students out to get hunted like animals or locked up in Azkaban. You turned Hogwarts into a training camp for Death Eaters and then you sat in your- in Dumbledore's stinking office all day and- and what, told yourself how much good you were doing by not joining in the fun? How much suffering you saved us with your noble intentions? How nice it'd been of you to send under-trained students out into the Forbidden Forest, where the Centaurs shoot to kill, with You Know Who's werewolves and giant spiders running about? Yeah, thanks. Thanks a whole bunch. If you want to know where you can stuff your bloody motives, I'll be happy to tell you.

[At no point does Neville look directly at the feed. His eyes roam, up towards the ceiling, just over where Snape's shoulder seems to be hovering before him, towards the wall to his left, focusing on nothing as he builds up into something between speaking and shouting. All of this is spectacularly simple if he just imagines he's talking to the Carrows instead: they'd never gotten under his skin quite like Snape. His rant finally drops off and turns low, hissed and practically venomous, breath coming in big gasps like it hurts.]

You want know what it suggests to me? It suggests that you're a great big ruddy coward.

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Don't you DARE call me a coward!

[It's Severus' turn to finally explode. His voice booms over the video, vicious and snarling, almost shrieking. His face has twisted into ugly and furious anger. Each of Longbottom's accusations, each horrible, awful reminder that comes spilling out of that repulsive boy's mouth sends shame and guilt and disgust needling deeper and deeper into him.

If Longbottom were standing before him right now, if Severus could get his hands on Longbottom, he wouldn't think twice about grabbing the boy by the scruff and throwing him across the room.]

I was operating on Dumbledore's orders! Dumbledore's orders! [He's so furious, spittle is flecking from his lips as he shouts.] I spent hours in his office consulting with his portrait, pleading with him, asking for his advice on how to best to handle protecting Hogwarts and its students. I told him of all the things the Carrows were doing, how they were torturing the students, injuring them, harming them, forcing them to use Unforgiveable Curses on each other. And the only way I could protect the students was by sending them on detentions to the Forbidden Forest. On Dumbledore's orders!

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[And for once in his life while facing Snape, Neville doesn't quail, doesn't back down - he seems, if anything, bolstered by the effect he's having. Snape should not have brought up his parents.]

Well that's a bloody likely story, isn't it!

[Because Neville doesn't really know Dumbledore at all. He never got called into the Headmaster's office, never got tutored, was never given kind words or cruel truths directly. Because he's always only seen the friendly old protector, never the brilliant manipulator with a weakness for power and an eye for the long game. Because it's easier by far to believe Snape is a horrible, sadistic monster than to consider for half a second that Dumbledore, the man his gran had always told him to trust, would throw the children he'd given up his life protecting to the wolves like that.

For all of Aberforth's bitterness, his grumblings and gruff insistence that they give up their fight every few weeks, it was easier to see two brothers with an unresolved personal vendetta between them than to admit to himself or anyone else that he had spent a year enduring torture and leading an army in the name of a man who would have been willing to allow every nightmare he'd ever had to come to life. For any reason.]

You are a coward. You're a coward and a liar!

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[Severus opens his mouth to bite back with something horrible. Something cruel and nasty and so spiteful that it would most assuredly solidify just how much of a cruel and nasty person Severus can be.

But then--

You're the reason my family was in danger! he suddenly remembers Lily screaming at him in the mirror world. You put James- and my son in danger, you bastard! And if it wasn't about my son, then you still told Voldemort knowing full well it was about someone else's child! What kind of person-?

Severus snaps his mouth shut. He glares at Longbottom with a savage and spite-filled icy hatred before abruptly ending the feed.]