Title: A New World, A New Life

Summary: Someone is attacking and capturing Britain's magical populace; and it's not Voldemort.

Author's Note: This story will mostly be from Severus's point of view.

End of Author's Note:

Timeline: October 31,1981 .

Chapter One: The Start

Severus Snape was watching the #4 house on Privet Drive, keeping an eye on his colleague, Professor McGonagall, who was also watching the house; waiting for Dumbledore's arrival. The Headmaster had just finished tinkering with his Dark Mark and left for Gringotts afterward. He knew the moment the old man mentioned 'blood wards' and 'relatives of Lily's', just where Potter was to be placed, and that was to be with Lily's only sister Petunia. Although why Dumbledore would place the boy with someone who hated magic with a passion, Snape had no idea.

He shook his head at McGonagall's very poor attempt at being a cat. She was way too domesticated by Dumbledore to play a feral cat out on the streets. The old tabby didn't know the first thing about cat behavior to really pass for one.

Suddenly the old cat jumped up and began to run around in circles, biting at her tail. A few seconds later she laid down on her side, her tail twitching in irritation before her head dropped and she went perfectly still. A red squirrel scampered down from a tree and over to McGonagall's tail and plucked something from her, place it into its jaws and scamper back up the tree. Then a stray, scraggly door trotted over to her, picked her up by the scruff of her neck and trotted back to the house next door to his.

Curious, Snape went out to back of the house, cast an invisibility spell on himself and then an eavesdropping spell to the neighbor to see what he was going to do with McGonagall.

"Hello Baggy, what have you brought me today?" the neighbor asked, scooping the unconscious McGonagall up onto his lap and then started petting her side.

The dog, Baggy quietly 'woof'ed a few times.

"Watching the house?" the neighbor asked.

Baggy quietly 'woof'ed again and sat down.

"Sitting perfectly still and glaring, huh? That is unusual behavior." the neighbor said, and did a quick inspection of McGonagall's posterior, which caused Snape to snort in amusement. "Well, she's a girl." the neighbor sighed and fished around his left pocket for a bell collar and placing it on McGonagall. "And judging by the tingling in my hand, I'd say she's one of them magicals. The British magicals really have no idea on how to blend with the major populace. Send her off to cargo bay C with those other idjits. She makes, what, our 157th magical?" the neighbor questioned, placing McGonagall into a cage, which was then wheeled off into the house. The neighbor placed his hands behind his head and sighed. "Bloody arrogant magicals." he grumbled. "Think they're so clever with their 'wards' and 'Fidelus Charms'. A high concentration of energy like that was bound to be noticed by the satellites. It's the only country that still believes they're completely hidden. But, their naivete makes it easier for us to spot and capture them, dunnit?"

It was then that Snape felt a sharp pain in his rear, and he reached around to pluck a little red dart from his behind. Whatever the dart contained worked fast as he soon felt woozy and his vision began to blur.

"Just like the guy over the fence thinks he's being clever with his invisibility spell." the neighbor chuckled wickedly and Snape saw him stand up and turn in his direction before everything went black.

.

When Snape woke, he found himself lying on a bed in a small room. The room was dimly lit, was oval in shape, a thin archway where he could see a toilet and was missing a whole wall.

He sneered at the sheer stupidity of the neighbor placing him in a room with a missing wall. He could easily escape. Although Snape didn't want to admit that the neighbor had him worried a bit when said neighbor presented that he knew knowledge of the wizarding world, but here he was already making a mistake. Snape checked his person to see if anything was missing, before proceeding to make his escape. However, upon reaching the opening, he was stopped by an invisible wall that shimmered when he ran into it. It also made a soft hum when it shimmered.

"Well, well, if it ain't Snivellous." sneered an all too familiar voice.

"Severus? Is that you?" came another familiar voice.

"Black? Lucius?" Snape asked, squinting his eyes to see two other rooms across from his, each with only one person in it and sparsely decorated like his own. One occupant was sitting on his bed, facing him, and the other had been lying down before also sitting up and turning in his direction. The one directly facing Snape look very put out, and had curly black hair. The other that was lying down had long blonde hair and looked very aristocratic.

"Yes, it's us." answered the blonde.

"How did you two get caught?" Snape asked.

"I was stung from behind with a red dart." the curly black-haired one grumbled in reply, embarrassed that he'd been caught with such a tiny thing.

"I hate to admit it, but so was I. Along with several others from both sides." the blonde stated. "What about you?" he asked.

"Same here. Who else was caught, and how do you know they're from both sides?" Snape asked.

"Bellatrix and the Lestrange brothers were screaming about ten minutes ago. Macnair, Crabbe, Goyle, Shacklebolt, Mad-Eye Moody and Black were brought in shortly after I woke. Nearly all of them had red darts in their rear." the blonde answered.

"I don't suppose you didn't see the one who caught you, Snivellous?" growled the black-haired one.

"As it turns out, Black. I did." Snape sneered back. "He also captured McGonagall in her cat form." he added, delighted to see Black's surprised look before bringing out his wand and sending a blasting hex at the invisible wall. But it only shimmered and hummed at the impact. He did this four more times, each blast more powerful than the last, but the wall just shimmered and hummed with each blast, and he soon tired from expending so much magic.

"Don't bother with trying to blast your way out. It won't work." the blonde, Lucius stated, having also done the same thing when he arrived until he couldn't even perform a simple lumos.

"If you really did see the guy who caught you, Snivelous, then describe him." Black said, not moving from his bed.

"I would, but since you have no knowledge of muggle fashion terms, what's the point?" Snape sneered and sat down on his bed to rest.

Just then, the neighbor walked past them with an empty crate down a hall he couldn't see.

"That's the guy." he said.

"What's so hard to describe?" Black questioned in contempt. "Black hat, blue shirt, black vest, black shoes, light brown trousers. Simple." he smirked.

"Any muggle could wear that combination of clothing. And considering the sheer numbers of muggles against our country's magicals, we would have never found him." Lucius stated in annoyance.

"Of course, it would never occur to a Gryffindor that he might'nt even be in the British Isles to begin with." he drawled.

Their captor walked past them again, the once empty crate now filled with large, thick slabs of glowing, humming crystals. "Thank you for powering my crystals." he said, not even pausing in his stride.

"Just what exactly do you want with us?!" Black shouted. "Are you a Death Eater?! I bet you are! Why else would you be holding us prisoner?! Only a slimy, rotten Death Eater would -" His room was suddenly flooded with a thick mist that Black started coughing until Snape could no longer seem him within clouds. Then a loud thump was heard and the clouds were quickly cleared to reveal an unmoving Black on the floor.

"What happened?" Lucius asked.

"I think Black was just killed." Snape answered before the neighbor and a small group of four people came down the hall guiding an all-too familiar unconscious red-head on a floating stretcher. The unconscious red-head was followed by a pair of red-headed twins and a man of African descent. The unconscious people were all lying on what looked to be conjured stretchers, but the flickering, small, red and blue lights proved otherwise. Each stretcher was connected by a small chain, and had one person tending to each member of the Order. Snape signed to Lucius if he could see what was going on. Lucius shook his head no.

"This is the last bunch we can hold in the brig, Captain." said the neighbor. "We can always come back for the rest. Unless we give them cell mates, otherwise the brig is full. This makes it 127 magicals not in animal form, and 4,028 magicals disguised as animals, and about 146 magicals disguised as bugs. We have a good starting population on our hands to drop off at the new world."

"Copy. Reports have also come in about infants being abandoned on doorsteps by an old man in colorful robes. He'd just placed one by the name of Harry Potter on Number Four Privet Drive. Mardi's people have been gathering them and taking them to Jareth's place for placements. Would you like to remain behind and help out?" came the Captain's reply.

Snape and Lucius looked at each other, pondering on why the Headmaster would be abandoning infants on doorsteps.

"Any idea on who this old man is?" the neighbor asked as he and the his group were walking past them again.

"According to Jareth, he's called Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. He's a Headmaster of a school that's located in Scotland near the Loch Ness. The man considers himself important and is very full of himself and practically does whatever he wants . . ." the voices faded out.

An hour later, after much pacing; and learning that Black wasn't dead but was knocked out with a gas, Severus Snape caught wind that they were finally leaving for the new world. Lucius had inquired one of the passing people about the new world and they learned it was as it sounded: a new world. A new world where the magicals who preferred to stick with old traditions of Magick could be placed on one side of the new world, whereas those who preferred to lead solitary lives would be placed somewhere else, and those that wanted to change yet remain traditional were to be placed in another area. They were to be the only populace on the new world, and the future of their race was entirely in their hands.

The captain of their voyage had made a stop with the neighbor, and Snape inquired about those who didn't want to go to the new world, and if there was someplace else where he didn't have to make a living from scratch, and inquired about their names.

"For now, I am Captain Kegs. This is my brother and First Officer, Chugs. And you are aboard my ship SS Liopleuridon." Captain Kegs said. "You wish to remain on Earth?" he asked.

"Yes, very much. My life's down there. A horrible life, but a life nonetheless." Snape answered eagerly. He did not want to start a new life from scratch. If the neighbor Chugs had managed to capture Dumbledore and brought him on the ship, then Snape would prefer to remain behind.

"Well see, within a month's time we'll be approaching a docking station known as The Academy. I'll be granting shore leave for you magicals in small groups so you don't over-run the place in a possible hostile take over." said the Captain and he and his brother left for their duties.

.

Chapter Two: A Month Later

Severus, Lucius and a handful of other magicals were putting on what the Captain had said were magical restraining suits in order for them to walk around the ship; and so that they could be taken down to the port for a brief shore leave for some quick exercise and to look around. However, none of them were expecting the port station to be in the middle of space! Nearly all of them didn't believe what they were seeing and opted to return to the ship and back to their 'rooms' at the audacity of such ridiculous stunts to fool them, Lucius being among that crowd. Others didn't care to believe whether if their location was real or not, they were getting restless in their cramped quarters and were delighted to get the exercise. The ones that had opted to return to the ship had allowed others to take their place, and for every return another would take their place.

Severus Snape, and about two others truly believed what they were seeing and found the whole thing fascinating. And when learning that their ride was going to be docked here for a week, they decided to explore and maybe do a bit of shopping.

Severus was especially delighted to see that they had a potions store and made a beeline for it and was in heaven. He found plants that were rare on Earth, but were actually quite common in this station. He found books about new potions, an ingredients locations guide for plants, care guides for the animals and insects that were needed for potions, and a breeders guide for plants, insects and animals. Looking the books over however, he noticed that each one was marked with numbers ranging into thousands. What was more bizarre was that it stated credits, and not galleons. The book on new potions was 25,000 credits, the care guides were 1,000 credits each, the ingredient location guide was 5,000 credits and the breeder's guide was 30,000 credits. He had a few galleons on his person and went to the teller to see if he could make a purchase with his gold.

"Sure, you can even trade them in for credits. What kind of gold do you have?" the teller asked.

"Wizarding gold, from Earth, British Isles, Gringotts." Severus answered.

"Ah, Gringotts's gold pieces weigh about 6 ounces, so that would give you 60 credits. Ten credits per ounce, 100 credits per pound. How much do you have, and how many do you wish to convert?" the teller asked, inputting everything down into an electronic computer.

"I have about 10,000 gold pieces on me, and I would like to convert half into credits, please." Severus answered.

The teller did a quick transaction and provided Severus with a card that doubled as an ID, and with that, Severus was able to buy his new books, some ingredients and a new cauldron. Now, he hoped that the captain would allow him to brew in his cell.

The teller was kind enough to provide him with a map of his current location, and Severus discovered that there were greenhouses, insect-keeping and a small farm nearby and he opted to head in that direction.

The insect-keeping he found to be slightly interesting as it detailed the roles of each organism, all of which helped maintain the environment they were in. The soil creatures helped break down organic waste and turn it into nutrition for the plants, others like cockroaches and beetles helped clean up leaf litter by eating it and also turn that into nutrition for the plants, the ants (depending on the species) cropped leaves for their nests, to be used as building material for their tunnels, hunted down critters that were dangerous to their environment and were overall the main society of their tank-world. There were predatory critters within as well to maintain the ant population.

The reason Snape found all this interesting was because the plants these creatures were providing life for was a rare potion plant, and how healthy it was and was flourishing. The plant was being grown in what the Herbologist called a terrarium. And the lesson that Snape learned in this was that these tiny creatures were vital to the plant's growth. Hogwarts Herbology was not this in-depth about plants. It only covered things like trimming, watering, fertilizing, feeding and re-potting. Nothing about soil keeping. It didn't even cover how the plants helped their own environment in that they produce oxygen, food, medicine, landmarks, temperature regulation. The plants also provided life to other life-forms . . . why didn't Hogwarts have a Philosophy class?

Then he went on to the small farm where some of the plants from the greenhouse/insect-keeping were used as food. The greenhouse not only grew potion ingredients, it also grew food items like fruits, vegetables and herbs. The farm had bunnies, rabbits, hares, mice, rats, otters, turtles, fish, crustaceans, fowls, and some sea creatures like squids, octopus, starfish, clams, crustaceans, even stingrays! The stingrays he found mesmerizing . . . he'd never seen creatures like them before.

His stomach growled and he checked his map to find the nearest eatery. He felt like such a tourist he would have normally felt embarrassed about it, but since he was on a completely different world where no one knew him or of his reputation, he didn't feel inclined to act how he was conditioned.

The eatery was a large place, with three floors. Each floor had at least three kitchen areas where he could see the food being prepared. Some of the cooks looked to be professional with the whole chef getup, others looked to be like Sushi chefs in that they were tossing and twirling their knives and cooking utensils like toys, others looked to be just plain cooks that once worked in roadside restaurants. Not only that, but these cooks also looked between the ages of teen to professional adults. Some may be students that were taking cooking classes, which could explain the teenagers, while the adults could be both graduates and actual professional cooks, or just regular people who knew how to cook and knew how to handle knives.

There was one small section on each floor where kids were also cooking, but they were being supervised and didn't handle the knives by themselves. Not even the little pink plastic ones. They all had little plastic toys called E-Z Bake Oven's and were making little brownies, cookies, ice cream, scrambled eggs with/without cheese . . . it was a nice way to get younger children to know how to measure properly, and learn the different cutting methods, how to stir, learn precaution, know when not to touch something that's been freshly out of a freakin' cauldron and burn their throats . . .! Snape did a few more shopping after he ate before heading back to the ship and back to his brig quarters.

Among his purchases he'd bought nautical books, mechanical books, books about metals, some world history books, natural history books, geology books, potion books, magical theory books, stuff to occupy his time besides books like; pencils, pens, notebooks, note pads, drawing pads, paints, oils, some new clothing, and a few snacks.

.

Severus Snape was sitting in the galley conversing with crew members when the Captain announced that they were approaching the new world. And not wanting to start a new life from scratch, Severus had informed the Captain about a Vow he made concerning Harry Potter, and about Dumbledore's belief about a Dark Lord returning from the dead and all sorts of other things. He even admitted that he was a spy for Dumbledore and that, although not exactly wanted, but was needed on Earth - Great Britain to be exact. All in all, he practically begged to not be left on the new world, and the Captain allowed him to remain on board and even gave him his own proper quarters. He just had to wear the ship's uniform as it also prevented him from using magic outside of the brig. Severus was very, very thankful that he was still able to brew some potions. Not a lot, mind you, but some like medicinal potions, hygiene products, spices, salad dressings and soup.

He was grateful that he didn't have to brew everything by himself. The neighbor, whose name he found was Chug, was fairly good potions brewer, if a little 'show-y' with his techniques. But he was pretty good to make so much medicinal potions that Snape was occasionally left to read up on research and learn a new hobby that tied with his potions.

The Captain and Chug were generous enough to take baby Potter off his hands without breaking his Vow to protect the child, in that Chug took the child in himself. The ship had other families on board, so it was only logical that there be a school on board as well; even a nursery. So Snape was free to research and brew some potions and learn new things.

The Captain had also removed his Dark Mark, while Chug got in contact with the Goblin King and fixed his finances, properties and other things regarding his vaults and Prince family name.

He also decided to remain on board as it was fulfilling his greatest dream to travel, research and brew potions. Every now and again, his Captain would return to the New World where the stolen magicals now resided to check up on their progress. The population grew a bit for the ones that wanted to remain traditional yet explore new things. The hard-core purists had reduced a quarter of their population via inbreeding too much, and the last group had broken off into sub-groups. There were those who stuck to potions, others stuck to wand making, others were spell-crafters, rune masters, and lived a rural life style that kept in balance with the New World.

He was surprised to learn that the Dark Lord and all the Death Eaters were down on the New World living peacefully in all three sections. Apparently the Dark Lord had approached the Captain and Chug about a place of refuge for his people when he heard that they were gathering beings to escape the war, and they complied.

The Captain and Chug later told Snape that the people consisted of an equal number of Light, Dark and Grey magicals. There were no 'creatures' below to help them with their magic, in order to teach those who believed them to be nothing but filth. Until they were reduced in numbers, only then would the ship return to Earth and gather more beings to help restore the balance. The Light side had people who were more open-minded, but a few who were greatly dedicated to their false 'Light Lord' to also teach them a lesson about balance.

He was glad he decided to remain on the ship.

Overall, Snape was enjoying his new life.

.

A/N: I would like an epilogue piece to this, but can't think of one. Something that has to do with Dumbledore and the greatly reduced magical population (that he doesn't know about . . .yet). All I know is that Knockturn Alley is boarded up and abandoned, Hogsmeade is empty; almost all of Diagon Alley and the Ministry is empty. Gringotts being the only place that is still full and functioning, but is lacking in business due to a massive decrease in clients. And Hogwarts' staff members has been reduced to two; Dumbledore and Trelawney. (Yes, Hagrid was taken as well. Being a half-giant, he was placed in a cargo hold.)