"The serpent who eats its tail"
The dungeon cell was silent. No Aurors. No footsteps.
Only shadows.
And Severus Snape.
The shackles lay on the floor now, broken. Twisted iron like spider legs, snapped by a silent spell no one had heard. No one had expected. Not from a Beta. Not from a prisoner. Not from him.
The glass vial lay empty by his feet. Its contents already burned through every inch of him.
Ouroboros wasn't a healing draught.
It was rebirth.
A magic so old, so cursed, it had been buried beneath the Department of Mysteries and marked unspeakable. The potion had stitched Severus back together.
But wrong.
Better.
Colder.
Smarter.
And with a vengeance that glowed behind his black eyes like dark flame.
Outside the Ministry – Midnight
A silent figure emerged through a security ward.
He didn't run.
He walked.
Hair damp with sweat. Eyes bruised with insomnia.
His robes were torn at the cuffs. There was blood on his collar.
Not his.
Severus Snape disappeared into the London fog like he'd never been there at all.
Hogwarts Castle – Gryffindor Common Room – The Next Morning
James Potter slammed the Daily Prophet down on the table. "He escaped."
Sirius whistled low. "Bloody hell. Took the whole ward down with him. Nine unconscious. One obliterated."
Remus looked up from his book, brow furrowed. "I thought he was sedated."
James's fists curled.
"He's not just a Beta anymore."
Across the common room, Lillian Prince sat by the fire.
Reading.
Smiling.
Too calm.
"Got something to say?" James barked, voice low and dangerous.
Lillian didn't look up. "If Severus comes for me… he'll find what he left behind."
A pause.
"And more."
Slytherin Dungeon – Midnight that same day
Lucius Malfoy stepped into his private quarters, robes trailing silver and shadow behind him. A fresh mark burned on his inner wrist—Voldemort was rising again, and the Dark Lord's whispers were growing louder in the minds of his followers.
But even darker was what Lucius saw next.
A flicker in the mirror.
A shadow behind him.
"You're getting old," said a voice from the dark. "Slower."
Lucius spun, wand drawn—
Too late.
Severus was there.
Standing in front of the fireplace, eyes black as oil, wand raised. His voice was silk laced with steel.
"I came to return something."
He held out a ring. Twisted, scorched. The House of Prince's heirloom.
Lucius narrowed his eyes. "You're insane."
Severus tilted his head. "You made me."
"You hurt me."
"And you made him lie."
Lucius smirked, stepping forward. "Still obsessed with your pretty Omega?"
"Lillian's not yours either, boy."
"He never was."
Severus didn't smile.
"No," he said. "He was yours. Just like me."
The silence snapped like a whip.
And Then – They Duel
Silver exploded.
Green light arced like lightning between them.
Severus moved like water, like smoke, like nothing Lucius had ever faced.
Lucius shouted, "Crucio!"
But Severus caught the curse midair, bent it, and sent it spiraling back with one word:
"Reversum."
Lucius hit the wall, writhing in pain.
Snape stood over him. Cold. Unmoving.
"You taught me how to kneel," he said. "Now let me teach you how it feels to be nothing."
Back at the Tower – That Same Night
Lillian Prince woke with a start.
The bond mark on his neck—the one Severus had never activated—was burning.
He stumbled to the mirror.
His face was pale.
He whispered, breath fogging the glass:
"You're back."
The mirror didn't answer.
But deep in the stone halls beneath the castle,Severus was already there.
Waiting.
"The boy you used is gone," he murmured into the dark.
"But the man you made is still hungry."