When History Repeats Itself

by RejaNuha

During his 7th year of teaching, Snape notices the familiar symptoms of abuse in one of his 7th year students. Can he stop what happened to him and his mother from happening to this young woman? Or will it bring back too many buried pains from his past?

1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

He really did not want to do this but since no one else seemed to notice, he felt he had to intervene.

Snape sat at his desk, looking over the first essays of the term from his 7th year potions class. In his hands was the essay of 7th year Hufflepuff, Alison Montgomery. Alison's first year at Hogwarts was Severus' first year as teacher and for that reason he held a slight bias towards the students in that year. After all, when he was finding his feet as a teacher, they were finding theirs as students and he could not deny the symmetry. Besides, they were not that far apart in age.

At the end of the year when this class had finally graduated and moved on from Hogwarts, he hoped to have a small sense of accomplishment. Things would officially be 'full-circle' as the first class he helped raise from first year dunderheads went out into the wizarding world a little less incompentent... Thanks to him.

Alison was no more special in his eyes than any other student. She had always made good marks and was not lacking too much in potions, but she was part of one of his least favourite houses. He did not know which was worse- Hufflepuff or Gryffindor?

As a general rule, he had always graded their first essays of the year a bit harsher than normal. The thinking behind it being that they were all so lazy from the summer break that one harsh mark and a few harsh words would snap them back into their 'learning' frame of mind but it did not seem to work with Alison this time around. He had been particularly cruel to her within the first month because he expected better of her. She was not her normal self. She was not bouncing back like usual. Instead, her grades had become worse than he had ever seen.

He would not have said anything if he had not recognized the symptoms. However, he had seen the signs before. It was a long time ago but clear as day to a person who knew what to look for. He thought about going to Dumbledore but the meddling old fool would probably insist that Severus handle the situation himself. So he did what he thought was best. He confronted her.

A/N: I know- short chapter- probably the shortest I've ever written but it is a start. This will not be an overly long fic. I'm working on one of those now... 25k words in and I'm still only at the very beginning of the journey. Grueling! Anyway, updates should not take long.