Author's Note: This story was born from a roleplay idea, centered around the character of Snape. Only later did I think to make Lily and James significant as well. Please read and review my first major fanfic! Thanks!
And of course, I don't own any of the characters, settings, objects, etc. Only the plot.
-Part 1 – The Plan-
"Keep them in the village." A high, chilling voice pierced the cold air of a Scottish forest. "By whatever means necessary. Show them our might."
A group of young people knelt before the cloaked form of the speaker. Some of them bowed their heads in awe, others looked up at him, drinking in his sinister splendor with reverent eyes. One dark-haired girl dared to speak, her voice hushed, but shaking with excitement.
"And, master - if we find mudbloods?"
The cloaked figure gave her a terrible smile, with the air of a teacher addressing a favorite pupil. "Kill them. We have no mercy for filth."
-
Four boys, all barely of age, stood before the Headmaster of Hogwarts in his office. One held out a meticulously crafted lunar chart.
"Are you sure it's safe, professor?" Remus Lupin stared down at the full circle denoting the night's moon. "I don't want to take any risks."
Headmaster Albus Dumbledore smiled warmly at him. "You have nothing to worry about. The shack is right there, you needn't even return to the school. And I'm sure your friends will stick to your side." The other three boys nodded vigorously. "There. You have fun in Hogsmeade, boys."
-
The crisp, breezy afternoon in late November made a chilly setting for the last Hogsmeade trip of the month. The students of Hogwarts ventured out wrapped in layers, eager for the excursion outside the familiar castle walls.
A gangly seventh-year Slytherin stood alone in an alley of Hogsmeade village, staring through a frosty window at the wares of Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop. A few display quills scribbled furiously on pieces of parchment. He was eyeing one in particular that could translate whatever was written with it into 73 languages. He wondered if it could help him with his upcoming Ancient Runes quiz.
He felt around in his pockets, but besides his wand, only a few knuts met his fingers. He sighed wistfully. His family just had to live among the muggles, where there was no wizarding money to be had. It was bad enough that he had to carry his father's muggle name. To his pureblood friends, Severus Snape would always be on a lower tier, not quite on the level of their perfect lineage. At least they had finally forgiven him for associating with the muggle-born Gryffindor Lily Evans. Nevermind the fact that they were neighbors and had been friends since they were children. Her parentage was unforgivable to most of his fellows. But ever since his accidental slip two years ago, when he had called her that horrid name, she had grown cold. He regretted it every day.
The other Slytherins told him she would have no place in a perfect wizarding world. They said he had done the right thing, that by cutting his ties with the muggle-born he had improved his own standing. He would give up all of their praise just to talk and laugh with her again. Her bright green eyes could pierce the coldest depths of his heart, and it haunted his dreams to think of those eyes admiring that prat James Potter.
After staring at the quill for a few more minutes, Severus tore himself away. Thinking realistically, he knew he couldn't afford it. For now, he was doomed to a life of simple quills, secondhand robes, and borrowed books. But someday, he would be great. Then Lily would look up at him in awe, and he would save her from her low status. Together, they would bask in his glory.
The crunch of footsteps in the snow shattered his daydream. A short, stocky figure approached, its features obscured by the green and gray scarf wrapped up around its neck. Severus did not recognize his housemate and cohort until he was quite close.
"Avery? What's going on?"
"Snape! It's the chance we've been waiting for!" the figure replied, pulling down his scarf. "Want to get in good with the greatest rising power in the wizarding world? Come on!" Avery tugged on Severus's arm, leading him to the edge of the forest.
Severus ground them to a halt on the village outskirts. "Where are we going?" he demanded.
Avery grinned like a hungry fox. "A bunch of Hogwarts alumni got a chance for a test of worth with a great wizard. He's gonna be legendary, Snape! Anyway, they're offering to let us help!"
As Avery continued into the woods, Severus followed blindly. He thought of his dream for himself and Lily. Could this be the first step?
The boys stopped at the clearing full of cloaked witches and wizards, some of whom Severus half-recognized. The tall blond pretty-boy at the head of the group had to be Lucius Malfoy, who had been the star of Slytherin in Severus's first year. The hauntingly beautiful woman beside him was Narcissa Black; Severus remembered that she had been Lucius's devoted girlfriend in school. The others he didn't recognize: a pair of menacing and oddly similar-looking men, and another woman, a darkened version of the fair Narcissa. As Avery and Severus stood waiting, several more of their housemates arrived for the mysterious meeting. Mulciber and Rosier, two friends of Severus's, fell in behind him.
"Some gathering, eh, Sev?" Mulciber whispered, nudging him. "Too bad your girlfriend couldn't make it. I guess she's too busy wallowing in the muck with the other pigs."
While the other boys laughed at the joke, Severus scowled. He had pretended at first that his friends mocked Lily out of loyalty to him, because she had never returned his affections in a romantic manner. But he was only deluding himself. He could follow his friends to fame, fortune, and power, but if they didn't accept Lily, would it ever be worth it?
-
Narcissa Black fidgeted, uncomfortable with the bleak forest and the awed hush of the younger group. She whispered to Lucius to get on with it. Lucius cleared his throat and addressed the small crowd in a proud and haughty tone. "Some of you may recognize me. I am Lucuis Malfoy, and I am a pureblooded descendant of a powerful line of witches and wizards true to our kind. From your presence here, I assume that you all are also concerned with ensuring the purity and supremacy of the wizarding race."
Narcissa noticed a few of the recruits looking away nervously, including the sallow, long-haired boy in the front.
"We are here to represent the interests of the most powerful wizard of our age, a visionary leader whose prowess and plans already strike fear into the hearts of the weak-minded masses. The bleeding hearts, blood traitors, and mudbloods dare not speak his name. But we who are loyal to his cause may safely address him – the Dark Lord Voldemort." Lucius smiled an icy grin and pulled back his sleeve to reveal a tattoo raised from his skin like a fresh scar. The youth gathered around, marveling at the sign of the skull and snake.
Narcissa turned away and crossed her arms. Lucius played the Dark Lord up like a god, as if he were Merlin himself. She followed the cause because Lucius did—it kept them together and it made her family happy. In all honesty, though, she cared less about having pureblook children than she did about having Lucius's children. But if that meant supporting his extreme hero, so be it—to a point.
"Tonight," Lucius began again, with more vigor, "we will storm Hogsmeade. The Dark Lord wishes for us to detain the students and distract the professors of Hogwarts. We cannot do this alone." He pulled a dark cloak and an eerie faceless mask from the air. "Whatever we can do to assist the Dark Lord, we must." His fellow graduates conjured their own disguises, as well as extras that they passed around with flicks of their wands. "They will feel our might," Lucius exclaimed.
Narcissa's sister Bellatrix, her dark-haired double, broke in with a jaded laugh. "And the mudbloods most of all."
Lucius hushed her, but Narcissa turned again, shamed by her unconscious disgust. "Lucius," she mumbled. He held her around her shoulders. "I can't do this. It's a noble cause, but I haven't got the stomach for it. You'll have to carry on without me." She kissed him briefly, then disapparated with a dull crack.
Severus, holding a cloak at arm's length like a sack of rubbish, shared her apprehension. But he stayed.
-
Back in the unsuspecting village, one James Potter couldn't believe his luck. On the opposite side of the old wooden table in the Three Broomsticks, none other than Lily Evans sat sipping a butterbeer. His good fortune didn't end there—this was not their first date, not the second or third, but the fourth! And that only counted the official ones, not the evenings sitting in the common room, or mornings over breakfast in the Great Hall, talking and laughing and making up for the lost time of all those years Lily had spent hating him.
Lily couldn't believe it either, but since she had warmed to Potter the year before and finally accepted a date earlier in their seventh year, James has turned out to be a perfect gentleman and a stunning conversationalist. They could lose hours discussing the highs and lows of various classes, their plans for the future, even topics as abstract as magical ethics. James had even toned down his mischievous ways since Lily had conceded to be his girlfriend, something not even the title of Head Boy had done.
Today, James planned to take the relationship just a little further. He was finally going to make a move to which Sirius had been egging him on since that fateful first date (a picnic by the lake preceded by weeks of planning). He was after a kiss.
Lily, of course, suspected it. Already she was impressed that James had managed to wait so long. But along with her suspicion she had just a little desire to play with her boy's emotions. He was clearly nervous, and she reveled in his faltering. She wanted to tease, where is that patented Potter confidence now?
At that moment, James had his confidence further shaken as Sirius Black knocked on the window beside the couple, making a kissy-face. Peter Pettigrew snickered behind him, while Remus Lupin simply waved to James and rolled his eyes. With a smile, Lily waved them inside. "Hi, how are you all?"
Sirius plunked himself down beside Lily. "I'm great, Red. How about you?"
"Oh, I'm fine. James and I have just been talking about getting out of here." She grinned at her beaux, who had been hoping, as she knew, to get her alone. "Would you like to join us on a walk? I know a path that goes out to some old caves—it's pretty neat."
Remus, sitting next to James, checked his wristwatch. "Keep the time in mind," he muttered. He intended the comment for his friends, but it was Lily who replied.
"Remus, you know we don't have to be back at Hogwarts until eight," she said, smiling.
"Yeah, but the sun sets at four."
Lily laughed. "What, are you afraid of the dark?"
He looked down and summoned a sheepish smile. "You could say that." Next to him, Peter gave a knowing nudge.
"We'll be back in the village when it gets dark," Lily assured him, prompting the group to rise and head for path at the edge of Hogsmeade.
"That's what I'm afraid of," Remus whispered to himself, but he followed along with his friends.