A chapter inspired by Old Norse mythology

Fenris was a monstrous wolf in the myth, so I should probably have chosen the Midgard Serpent

but it didn't`t sound as good. Freyja was actually a goddess of love (and other things) in this mythology.

This is the last chapter, I hope you have enjoyed despite my dubious abilities at writing.

Choices again

One day just weeks before Gem was supposed to have the baby, Severus had another dream visitor. In his dream he was facing a building being constructed, he thought he saw the familiar outline of Hogwarts coming together. Walking forward he stepped through the opening that later would be the doors to the castle, and met a dour looking man who was standing there tapping his foot impatiently. As the man became aware of Severus he brightened a bit and said "my champion, welcome to your castle. I am sure you are a bit miffed with me, but I implore you to follow me in a small quest. I feel that my bad reputation has ended up influencing my house. I am very saddened to see what my house and my descendants have ended up becoming and I wish to try to remedy some of this, and to help you save my Slytherins".

Curious Severus indicated to the man (obviously Slytherin himself) that he should lead the way "I am glad you found my beautiful pet Fenris. I should probably have put him somewhere else, but I didn`t think it through and I ended up being banned from Hogwarts, and having no way to access the vault he was in again". Severus looked disbelieving at the back of the man in front mouthing "pet"?

"I have been hoping that I would end up managing to rectify my mistake, even after death. You are my savior, and hopefully the savior of the reputation and future of Slytherin".

As they came to the dungeons the man stopped in front of the Slytherin dormitories, and stepping inside he walked to the nearest wall. Pointing to a small relief of the Slytherin crest he said "come here when you wake and press your snake bracelet to this". With this the dream ended, and changed to a normal dream instead.

Next day as the dormitories had emptied Severus went in there, feeling a bit silly he pressed his bracelet to the place the man had indicated. The entire wall opened soundlessly, revealing a large room containing loads of books and artifacts. Feeling thunderstruck Severus walked to a desk standing in front of a big window. Here lay a big diary clearly marked Salazar Slytherin, reverently Severus opened the book at random and started reading.

After reading through the book, he exited and strode out wandering around while thoughts raced each other furiously through his head.

He`d been planning a house meeting to talk to his Slytherins about their losses, and had hoped to get some inspiration about how to go about leading them away from the dark paths their fathers had been following. He`d chosen to let the Slytherins grieve for a bit before approaching them. This dream visitation was a sign that the time was ripe for making a spiel, and the diary had given him the way to do this. Whirling round he twirled his wand conjuring a howler and gave it its instructions. The howler multiplied itself, and zoomed off to deliver itself to the recipients.

Later Severus stood in the Slythering common room looking at the bleak faces surrounding him. "I want to first sympathize with your grief, losing a loved one is never easy and the manner of your loss has been especially bad. I am here today to offer you choices, these will be hard and some of you may make different choices than others. As you might know I was once a follower of Voldemort". The audience grew wide eyed at his admission, and some shuddered at the sound of the name. "I realized early on that to follow Voldemort was to give up all pretense of working for the Pureblood cause, or retaining any pride or independence. Being a follower meant to be a slave, I hope that those who have had me as their head of house for some time has learned that no Slytherin ever becomes a slave to another. If you have learned this, you have a chance of escaping the remnants of Voldemort mania that has been gripping the pureblood society for so long.

I want you to also know that Voldemort himself was a figment of his own fantasies, the real man was an insignificant half blood like myself".

The group before him gasped loudly when hearing this, and muttered angrily amongst themselves. "The key now is to choose either the teachings of a half blood maniac who had none of the qualities that most Slytherins value. A man set out on a destructive path that ended up costing lives of purebloods, half bloods, muggleborns and muggles alike. Or the other choice is to reject being force fed the opinions of others, taking control and establishing our own views".

As Severus stopped two students had hands up "yes Mr. Goyle" Severus said. "Umm didn"t Slytherin himself go out against muggleborns".

"I will adress this after Miss Parkinson has asked her question".

"How is it that you didn`t die, or go mad as those in Azkaban did"?

"I will answer the second question first, I was chosen by Hogwarts itself to be a champion for the house of Slytherin. Hogwarts removed my mark from Voldemort, and replaced it with this" he thrust out his arm showing them the snake arm-ring. He then walked up to the wall, and pressed the ring to the relief again. As the wall opened again he said "as to what Slytherin meant I recently found his diary. In it he said that he only reason why he was against muggleborns going to school was because he felt it was too dangerous to them. He thought they would be better off not using magic, and staying away from the wizarding world". He picked up the diary again and read out in his smooth baritone "my darling sweet was pounced by mistrustful muggles and killed outright when they saw her using magic. After the loss of my precious darling I feel that Hogwarts is no longer safe for muggleborns to go to. They would be better off if we suppressed their magic, and kept the teaching of our arts within pureblood circles". Severus closed the precious book and looked out at the thoughtful faces and said "I leave with the task of thinking through this. What is it to be a Slytherin, is it to think for oneself or to follow blindly as a slave to another".

Baby Snape

As spring rolled by Gem got even more big and round, but her magic didn`t resurface. One day Larry asked his mother whether she missed her magic, and would be sad if she never got it back.

"Yes Larry I miss it a bit, but if losing my magic was the price I had to pay in order to save you and Severus I will never regret doing so. I love you two very much, and any magic in my life is provided by being with you two and now this little one" as she said this she caressed her big stomach.

Severus came in at that moment and asked concernedly "is my little girl acting up today".

"No your little boy is doing fine, he kicks and flails as he should". Ignoring her words Severus came close enough to place his hand on her big stomach and said "hush now pumpkin, be good to your mother". Gem felt the baby quieting and said "that it listens to you and gets quiet when you tell it to does not necessarily mean that it is a girl darling".

"It is definitely a girl, I`m so sure that we should just name her here and now" Severus said with a satisfied smirk. "It`s a boy, and we`re not naming him until he is born" answered Gem stubbornly.

"What names have you thought about" asked Larry not wanting to be left out. The two adults smiled conspiratorially at each other and started tossing joke names between them, making Larry laugh helplessly and say "that poor kid is going to be so embarrassed at having you two pretend jokesters as parents".

Suddenly Gem bent over shrieking loudly "is it the baby, is it coming"? Larry asked

"If it is, it is a bit early. Let`s get up to the infirmary" Severus said and lifted Gem carefully.

As they got there Madam Pomfrey led them to a free bed, but as Severus laid Gem down she forcibly ushered them out. "I want to be with my wife" Severus said crossly.

"Absolutely not, I will not have you here; you will wait somewhere else where you cannot get in the way". Protesting determinedly Severus was firmly led out of the infirmary, and the nurse closed the door on him. Severus stood there for some moments gaping like a fish, before Dumbledore suddenly popped up and led him and Larry away. "You know Poppy my boy; she is a bit old fashioned. She does not believe in men being allowed in the birthing room".

Severus and Larry felt as if a week passed, but finally the head of Madam Pomfrey appeared in the floo. "You may come through" she said before vanishing again. Severus jumped up and almost stumbled in himself in his haste, Larry followed sniggering slightly at his dad. As they appeared in the infirmary they saw Gem sitting in a bed with a small bundle in her arms, Severus all but ran to her. She looked up at him and said "you were right Severus; it was a girl after all". She then held up the bundle and Severus took it with reverence. Larry walked up to his ma, and she drew him down to her hugging him tightly. Severus stood there looking at his small daughter, his face full of wonder. As he looked up at his wife and son he asked "what should we call her".

"In the old Norse myths there was a goddess of love called Freyja, I thought that would be a good name". Kissing his daughter softly Severus breathed "Freyja, goddess of love. It is a fitting name for this beautiful little thing. Thank you my dear wife for bringing me a fabulous son, a beautiful daughter and especially your love".

THE END