A/N: This story is mostly about Snape and- especially- Lily, but there will be several chapters focusing on other characters as well. I originally wanted to write the first chapter from Snape or Lily's perspective, since they are the main characters after all, but I just had this idea about Mary and couldn't refrain from writing this first, although Lily does play a significant role in this chapter... Please Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

The Light in the Dark Chapter 1: Mary Mary Quite Contrary

Mary Macdonald was a highly reticent girl. She had always been something of an outsider, which astounded everyone who knew her. After all, with her looks one would expect a girl like her to have many friends. Fair-skinned, with a long loose raven waterfall of curls that constituted as her hair, and icy blue eyes, she was ever the cool beauty. Unfortunately, some of the words that came out of her mouth were not anywhere near as attractive as her outward appearance. So maybe, she reasoned as she struggled to deflect the hex Mulciber had just put on her, if she had just kept her mouth shut like normal, she wouldn't be in this mess. It had all started a couple of hours ago…

Mary had a job in Hogsmeade that no one aside from the faculty knew about; she worked as one of the waitresses at the Three Broomsticks on school nights. Since students weren't allowed out in Hogsmeade on school nights, no one ever saw her at work. Mary had express permission from Dumbledore himself to work there at that particular time; he knew her family was falling apart. Her father had been a wonderful man until the day he died… which was just a few years before Mary started Hogwarts. Once upon a time the Macdonalds had been financially stable. Her father had been a Healer at St. Mungo's, and had been researching a cure for Dragon Pox. He wound up injecting a portion of the disease into himself in order to test the cure he thought he had discovered for it, only to find out that not only did his cure not work, it only caused the disease to spread much faster around the body. The other Healers could not cure him by the time they arrived; it was too late.

Mrs. Macdonald did not work; she had never finished her education and therefore she had difficulty finding employment. Mary's mother had gotten pregnant at the young age of 15; she had dropped out of school to take care of her first child before she had even taken her O.W.L.s.

("I 'ad always been rubbish a' schoo' anyway',"Mary's mother said on the subject. )

As such, Mary's mother (Whose real name was Matilda, but who the men all called Tilly when they came around, much to Mary's disgust) had much more difficulty finding work than the average witch living in Britain already did. A witch who had completed her education and had qualifications may still have difficulty finding a steady job, but it would not have been anywhere near as arduous as it had been for Matilda Macdonald, who did not even have any O.W.L qualifications.

So it was more or less up to Mary to earn most of the money for the family; Tilly, as her clients liked to call her, had given up on keeping a steady job and decided to go seek out a more…unsavory occupation. None of Mary's classmates knew of her job; she did not want anyone to even suspect that the Macdonalds were less than well off in any sense of the word. In fact, she doubted that any of her schoolmates even knew her father was dead. And God forbid any of them find out about poor desperate Tilly…

Mary had been in the middle of her shift one night when she saw something, or more accurately, someone, who made her heart skip a bit. Malum Mulciber was sitting at the bar just five feet away from her, looking her directly in the eye.

"What are you doing here MacDonald? "He asked as if he had every right to be there, or had any more right than she.

"What does it look like I'm doing, I'm working." Mary scanned the crowd, to see if there was absolutely anything she could be doing to avoid having to talk to this creep. And creep he was; Mulciber had an unusual and disturbing obsession with the Dark Arts and, rumor had it, was very experienced in them. His family was all Death Eaters, and Mary wouldn't be surprised if he went the same way. Mary herself was half-blood; she would not have called herself a Blood Traitor, but her family did not care one way or the other about blood purity and the war going on at the moment; they were too busy about making ends meet to care about that sort of thing. Both of her parents were Half-Blood, and therefore did not have much to say on the issue either way even if her father had come back to life and they weren't struggling so much right now…

"Damn right you are, "he smirked. "I'd like to order a drink."

"What are you doing here? "She wondered. "Students aren't allowed out on school nights. How did you beat the system?"

"Why are you working here? "He countered.

"What would you like to drink? "She attempted to change the subject.

"Firewhiskey,"He answered immediately.

She returned with his drink a few minutes later. "Anything else?"

"You know, I hear that in these fancy restaurants waitresses are supposed to call customers sir,"Mulciber mused.

"And I am pretty sure you have no place being here right now, yet here you are. "Mary slammed the glass onto the table, almost breaking it.

Mulciber tsked tsked."Now now now, you wouldn't want me to complain to the manager about a particularly surly waitress, would you?"

Mary glared in response; he had the upper hand here and they both knew it.

Mulciber grinned mockingly." Now, would you like to rephrase that question?"

"Would you like anything else…sir? "She spat, humiliated.

"Well,"his lips twitched once more. "There are many things I would like, but… I think I will tell you those when your shift is done. What time do you get off?"

Mary looked at the clock; it was now 8:15P.M. "Half an hour, "she lied; in reality she got off at 9:30, but surely he wouldn't wait that long; students had to be in their common rooms by 9:00. Although, if he had no qualms about sneaking off to Hogsmeade, he probably wouldn't have a problem with being out of bed after hours. Still, there was no way he'd be willing to wait for over an hour for her, so she should be able to shake him off.

Mulciber did not seem at all perturbed by this; on the contrary he only smiled serenely. "I can wait until then."

Mary continued on with her shift and was relieved to see that by 9:00P.M Mulciber had already left. She had managed to evade him by serving other customers instead, so the rest of the night should be a breeze. It would be a bit of a walk to go back to the castle and enter her common room, but she should be able to start finishing the rest of her homework by 10:00P.M., which would hopefully only take about two more hours or so(she had already started much of her homework before her work) and then she could go to bed.

Half an hour later Mary had just exited the pub when a voice said, "you've been a bad, bad girl Mary Macdonald." Mary screamed and whirled around to find Mulciber standing right behind her. Gathering her bearings, she demanded, "You! What the hell are you playing at? I thought you went back to the castle."

"I told you I could wait, "It was then that Mary noticed his breath reeked of alcohol. "You were the one who lied; you said your shift would be over almost an hour ago."

"Well of course I lied, "Mary laughed coldly. "Who would ever want to spend more time than necessary in the company of an arrogant freak like you?"

" Tut Tut. That was a rather naughty thing to say now wasn't it Mary?" Mulciber did not seem out off by her insult.

"The truth can hurt sometimes, "Mary snapped and started to walk away. Mulciber grabbed her and before she could as much as yelp he kissed her, causing her to drop her wand. Mary had already had her first kiss when she was much younger, but that did not make the experience of kissing Mulciber any less repulsive. His breath stank and he tasted terrible. She kicked him between his legs, causing him to let out a yell and curl up in the fetus position.

"You," she snarled. "Are the most terrible kisser on the planet. No girl would ever want to kiss a man like you: you are vile, vulgar, and quite frankly you make me sick. No one could ever love a mutant like you, and a mutant is what you are Mulciber; I assure you I am nowhere near naive of the evils of this world and the cruelty in it, but you are the epitome of scum. Even the cruelest of human beings are not like you; you are scum beneath even their shoes. I highly doubt a mutant like you is even human." And with that being said, she turned on her heel and left. She soon broke into a run. That was by far the worst thing she had ever said to anybody in her entire life, although it did occur to Mary that she could be rather cold sometimes. It fleetingly occurred to Mary that she may not be as good a person as she liked to believe; in over four years of magical education, when had she ever said hello to somebody without being spoken to first, or complimented any of her classmates? She was not a friendly person; she did not have time for friends between school work and actual work. She had to make sure she did not wind up like her mother. She had to escape her life as soon as possible, and the best way to for that was to work hard and focus on what mattered most: Her studies and earning enough money so her family could survive, and maybe one day she would earn enough so that Tilly would not have to work again…or at least, so that she could find a better job than the one she had now, if you could even call such an occupation a career. That's all her life was really: Learn, work study, work, taking care of the family, and, occasionally, sleeping and eating.

She had never even bothered trying to make friends at Hogwarts; what was the point? They would never get her in life anywhere. She knew some people had tried to reach out to her when she first got to Hogwarts, had tried to befriend her. She had never been truly mean to any of her classmates before tonight; she had only remained distant and acted a bit cool with people. Cold, perhaps, but not actually mean. Soon it seemed most of her classmates realized that she just did not seek companionship and so they ignored her and she them. Everyone except one. Lily Evans.

Lily Evans, who reminded Mary so much of her father it was haunting. She was polite to everyone she knew, regardless of whether she liked them or not; although quite frankly Mary doubted Lily really disliked anybody. Except, perhaps, Mulciber and Avery(she had noticed Lily give them dirty looks a few times, although she had never seen Lily lash out at them like she just did) in which case she totally understood her dislike of them. She had seen Lily yell at James Potter before, but only when he was beginning a bully. The rest of the time she acted perfectly civil towards him, and a few times Mary even swore she saw her smile at him or laugh at a joke he just said. She even somehow managed to act civil towards even Mulciber and Avery. Never friendly, but civil at least. It did not help that Lily Evans was practically the spitting image of her father, with that long auburn hair and those vivid green eyes.

Mary had always been polite towards Lily, but had never tried to engage her in conversation despite sharing a dormitory with her for several years. That wasn't to say that Lily had never tried to talk to her though; Lily, even after all these years, still acted kindly and friendly towards her, and Mary would be lying, she realized now as she walked up the hill past the Whomping Willow, if she had said she had not enjoyed Lily acting as if she actually…well, cared about Mary and viewed her as a friend, making time to ask her how she was.

Mary had reached almost reached the castle when she heard a voice and felt her body go still. "That wasn't a nice thing you said to me before Mary." Mulciber had followed her back to the castle. "I think you ought to be taught a lesson Macdonald. You probably think you can say whatever you want just because you've got a pretty face. Let's see if you still can when people can't even see it." It was then that Mary noticed her hair was growing at an alarming rate; it was flowing past her hips and her fringe had grown down to her eyes now. In fact, it wasn't even the hair on her head that was growing like this; it seemed that all the hair on her body was growing at an alarming rate. She screamed, trying to move but found herself stuck to the ground. She reached for her wand when she remembered: she had dropped it when Mulciber had accosted her earlier. Mulciber smirked, dangling her wand in front of her face. "You probably won't be able to see soon, but being the generous soul that I am, I think you would like to see your wand one last time before you look like a yeti. That will learn you not to disobey me, and will hopefully serve as a lesson towards everyone else… I must say, that Lily Evans has always been a rather pretty girl, but she really has become quite the alluring young woman as of late…"The last thing Mary saw before her hair and her eyelashes grew so that they covered her eyes was Mulciber licking his lips hungrily.

Mary felt a surge of anger. "Don't you dare harm her, you bastard!"

"Oh? What are you going to do to me, yeti?" Mulciber taunted.

Mary cursed angrily at him, using all of the swear words she had learned from the men that visited her mother, which were fairly impressive swears, but this did nothing to daunt Mulciber. He only laughed harder.

Soon the hair covered Mary's mouth and she could not even scream. Mary's face was now immersed in hair. The only part of her body that was not covered in hair was her nostrils; the physical pain was as painful as her emotional turmoil.

"Mulciber! What are you doing!" Mary realized could not tell who possessed the voice, only that it was a male and he sounded very familiar.

"Teaching Macdonald a lesson Lupin,"Mulciber answered calmly. "She was quite rude to me earlier."

"LEAVE HER ALONE!"Mary heard a second voice she recognized as Lily Evans'. She then felt a pair of arms around her, attempting to lift her up, but she was stuck to the ground. White hot pain stabbed every inch of her body. Mary wanted to cry. "Take the curse off of her!" Lily shouted at Mulciber.

"Hmm, I don't really feel like it."Mulciber pretended to think about it.

"Malum Mulciber, we are prefects and if you don't take the curse off of her we will-"

"Ooh, the big bad prefects are going to take off house points! "Mulciber pretended to be frightened. "I'm really scared now."

"Remus, I am going to go get a teacher, "Lily was saying now. "Keep an eye on this sicko for me and see if there's anything you can do to help Mary."

"Okay, "the other prefect responded and Mary realized with a jolt that it was Remus Lupin.

"Moony, what's going on?" Yet another voice spoke. "What's this blighter doing here? What happened to…her?"

"BLOODY HELL!" One more new appalled voice exclaimed. Mary would have groaned if she could; was the entire bloody school there?

"Mulciber cursed Mary; Lily and I were doing our rounds when we heard screaming and came by to see what was going on. Mulciber has refused to take the curse off her and Lily went to get a teacher. We tried taking Mary to the hospital Wing but Mulciber's curse doesn't allow her to move. "

Mulciber laughed sadistically.

"You sick twisted son of a bitch," One of the voices growled.

"Don't you dare insult my mother, Black, "Mulciber retorted and Mary realized Sirius Black was here with them. Now there was only one voice she did not recognize.

"What is going on? "A shrill voice demanded, and then gasped at the sight of Mary.

"Mulciber won't take the curse off of her Professor McGonagall," The unidentified voice informed her.

"Mulciber, take the curse off of Miss Macdonald this instant!"

A reluctant sigh. "Yes, Professor."

Nothing happened for a moment. Mary then stood up, but unsuccessfully, as she fell back down again due to the hair in her face obscuring her vision and blurring all of her other senses too, it seemed. Her body felt like it was burning.

Mulciber laughed cruelly, which resulted in McGonagall scolding, "MULCIBER! You are in enough trouble as it is, I would hardly think that something to laugh about! Why did the hair not shrink?"

"I don't know Ma'am," He answered. "This is the first time I've ever used the counter curse for that spell before."

Even in her blind condition Mary could see McGonagall frown. "Very well. Miss Evans, Potter, Black, and Lupin, take Miss MacDonald up to the Hospital Wing. Later, I shall question why , Potter, you and Black were here out of bed. But for now, help Miss MacDonald to the hospital wing. Mulciber, I shall be taking you to your head of house to speak about this."

Mary felt a pair of arms around her waist, gingerly lifting her up. Behind the hair, she screamed in agony .

"Up you get Mary, "She heard a consoling male voice saying as another pair of arms gripped hers. "Everything will be all right. Just walk, we're right here." Mary had no idea what was happening on their walk to the Hospital Wing; she was only aware of the sounds of Potter's, Black's, Lupin's, and Lily's consoling voices guiding her in the right direction. Mary disliked it almost as much as being under the physically pain inducing curse itself; one would think she were a baby, learning how to walk for the first time, the way they were doting on her. When at last they reached the Hospital Wing, Mary heard Lily, Remus, Sirius, and James explain to Madam Pomfrey what they had gathered had happened. Mary could not provide any information; the hair shielding her mouth prevented her from speaking.

She still had the ability to- however limited- breathe through her nose and hear though. "You all may go now; I shall administer some painkillers and a dreamless sleep potion so she does not wake up during the night; removing all this hair is not going to be a pretty experience. Although, I am sure the physical pain of that curse was even worse than this is going to be… the levels of pain from that curse is roughly a third as bad as the actual Cruciatus… the only problem is I am going to have to get rid of some of the hair on her mouth in order to administer the potion.. I would recommend leaving now: She will probably scream something awful being as this will hurt quite a bit for a few minutes. "

"I'd like to stay with her, in that case then, ma'am. "Mary heard Lily's voice and felt a cold hand wrap around her furry one. It felt good partially due to the fact her palms were sweating uncontrollably underneath all the hair, which had exerted a substantial amount of heat throughout her body.

"Me too, "James Potter added, who was then seconded by Black and Lupin.

The nurse was silent for a moment before relenting.

The next thing Mary knew she felt as if someone had ripped a particularly large and sticky piece of duck tape off of her mouth. She let out a tortured cry. She felt the grip on her hand tighten. It continued on this way for what felt like ages but in reality was only a few more minutes before finally Madam Pomfrey murmured, "The pain is over now. I shall now administer the necessary potions so that she won't be awake for the rest of this. You may go now."

Mary felt some liquid pour into her mouth, and then blacked out.

When Mary awoke, sunlight was streaming through the windows and her body felt extremely sore. She looked around realizing she was in the hospital wing. It took her a moment to remember the events of last night and immediately lifted up her hand to see if there was any hair left, an action which left her feeling both relieved and regretful. Relieved because her hand was as hairless as it was before- although, she knew that all parts of the human body had hair on them, regardless of whether or not it was visible- and an action she regretted because it seemed simply moving her body was extremely painful due to how sore she was. She moaned.

"Ah, you're awake I see. "Madam Pomfrey bustled over.

"How long was I out for? "Mary inquired.

"It's midafternoon right now, "Madam Pomfrey replied. "So you were out for less than 24 hours."

A sudden thought occurred to Mary. "My homework-I never got to finish-"

"It's all right dear, you are excused from classes for today and tomorrow as well, "Madam Pomfrey assured her. "After that is the weekend, so I am sure between now and Monday you will have plenty of time to catch up on all of the work you have missed."

Yet another thought occurred to Mary. "Will I be able to go to work today?"

"Absolutely not, "Madam Pomfrey said firmly.

"But my family-"

"Will be able to survive just a couple of days without extra pay, "Madam Pomfrey assured her." Moreover, I am sure that when –and only when- you are better you can make up for the lost hours somehow. In fact, the Headmaster has already notified your employers about this little predicament and that you shall be missing work tonight and tomorrow. For now, all you can do is rest. You're too sore to even get out of this bed. Although, when you are well enough to walk again-which hopefully will be in a few hours- I would like you to examine yourself to make sure all of your hair proportions are exactly the way you want them to be."

Mary gave a reluctant sigh and closed her eyes before asking, "Is school over yet?"

"I believe that in roughly fifteen minutes classes will have finished for the day, "the nurse answered." And therefore in approximately 20 minutes Lily Evans shall come in here to give you your homework. She came in here during lunch time when you were still unconscious to see how you were doing as well as to deliver the homework from your morning classes. She told me to expect that she would drop by after school to deliver your work from your afternoon classes."

Mary nodded and silently griped about missing work and school because of Mulciber. She had never liked him; in fact, she had somewhat disliked him even before last night; she had found him to be rather annoying. Now, if anyone had asked Mary for her opinion on him, she would not have hesitated to say she hated him; Mary was not exactly the forgiving type and it was not unknown for her to hold a grudge against someone for years. Mary knew in this instant she would never drop this newfound grudge against Malum Mulciber. It was his fault she would be behind on her schoolwork. It would be his fault if he told the whole school about her job and people started speculating what Tilly did for a living.(Although, Mulciber thankfully didn't know that little piece of information, so hopefully nobody would draw that particular conclusion.) It was his fault her family would have to get by for a few days without the extra money she sent them.

As Mary mulled over this, she heard the door to the Hospital wing open and she opened her eyes. Lily Evans entered the room, carrying some books and worksheets. "Hello, how are you? "She greeted as she laid the books and paper on the table next to Mary.

"…Fine, "Mary lied.

"I brought you some homework from your classes today, "Lily answered. "I went through your trunk to get your books-"

"You what?!"Mary exclaimed sharply, heart pounding. She had a couple of photographs she would die if anybody saw that she kept hidden at the bottom of her trunk. One of which was a photo of her and her mother standing in front of her rundown house…if you could even call it an ordinary house really, what with its condition and all of the men who came and went…

"I-"Lily clearly had not expected this reaction.

"What did you see? "Mary demanded.

"I-I saw some books and…a photograph, "Lily confessed, deciding that lying would only make the situation worse.

"What was the photograph of? "Mary whispered.

"A pretty young girl who looked a lot like you…standing in front of a…small house in poor condition… with a pretty woman who looked almost exactly like her, except grown up, "Lily replied cautiously.

Mary was silent for a moment before the words came out of her mouth before she could stop them. "I live there you know…that's me in the picture, and my mum."

"Oh."Lily did not know what to say.

"We've been living there for years….have to, since my dad's not around anymore to take care of us…"and with that being said Mary spilled her entire laugh story to Lily. She told her about her father, how they were evicted from their home, about her job in Hogsmeade, and about what Tilly did for a living now. Mary was disgusted when felt tears roll down her face. Mary Macdonald never cried. Ever. Not even when Mulciber had hexed her. She immediately lifted up her arm to wipe away her tears on her sleeve, and when she was done she slowly looked up and saw the Lily had tears streaming down her face too.

From then on, Mary had a friend at Hogwarts who knew about her home life and never told her secrets. Ever. And her name was Lily Evans.

As for Mulciber, while he did get punished for his deeds, some people, or at least Lily, felt he got off far too lightly.

"You won't believe it, "Lily said the next day when she arrived to give Mary her homework after school.

"What?" Asked Mary. The headmaster had arrived earlier that day in the Hospital Wing to hear Mary's –who was now entirely 100%back to normal-recollection of the events that had transpired in Hogsmeade with Lily, Remus, James, Sirius, and Professor McGonagall to hear their sides of the story as well. She hoped Lily was going to say Mulciber got expelled.

"Here is the list of rules Mulciber violated as follows for what he did the other day: He was out of bed after hours, out of school grounds at night without permission, disobeyed prefects, sexually harassed you, and used Dark Magic on you. I would think that at the very least the combination of all of those offenses should warrant suspension, wouldn't you?"

"Right, "Mary said slowly.

"Well, it's not like he's receiving no punishment at all, but I still think more action needs to be taken: he's only getting three months of detention." Lily informed her.

Mary scowled. True, three months of detention was severe, but wasn't what he did to her worth more punishment than that in addition to all of those other offenses.

"I know, "Lily agreed. "If I were in charge, not only would he be suspended for a week, but when he came back he would have detention every week day for the rest of the year."

"Wow Evans, you would sure make one strict headmistress, "Mary remarked. "Why wouldn't you just expel him and be done with it?"

"Because I don't think expulsion would be so bad in his case,"

Mary gaped at Lily. "How could that not be bad?"

"Well, "Lily explained. "It would of course, be very difficult for him to pursue his magical education, but he would no doubt be able to do it. Oh, I'm sure at his next school the teachers would keep an eye on him, and his parents would be disappointed in him and may punish him further, but that would be all that would happen really. I'm not saying expulsion would not be serious,-because it would be- but as a pureblood wizard from a wealthy family he would not have any trouble continuing his education, and apart from maybe his parents disciplining him, nothing would happen really. However, if he were not only suspended, but punished even further than that, he would hopefully be much more disciplined at the end of the year than he was at the beginning. "

Mary was stunned at the intelligence and thought behind that explanation. "I have to admit, you may have a point."

Lily blushed. "Thank you. Anyway, who knows? Maybe Mulciber will get better. "She sounded so innocently optimistic in this that Mary didn't have the heart to express her skepticism. She remembered a time when she was vaguely like that.

A/N: I like to think that after the Mary incident took place Mulciber lied to all of his friends that Mary had just randomly gone up to him, saying these nasty things so he had hexed her. I think this being as I believe that even at this point Snape wouldn't be so messed up that he would find it socially acceptable for Mulciber to sexually harass a girl and then hex her after defending herself. Also, Mulciber would probably be too embarrassed to admit his failed attempts at "seduction" to his friends, so he would want to make Mary seem like she was just begin unjustly mean to him for no reason, and that therefore-in his opinion- he was in the right to use that curse on her. I think that this explanation would explain Snape and Lily's interactions during that brief scene in DH where Mary is mentioned; Lily would not realize Snape had only heard one side of the story, and Snape would not realize there was more to it, hence him dismissing it off as "just a laugh."

Questions: What do you think of Mary? Of Lily? Of Mulciber? Was Mulciber punished too harshly, not enough, or just right?

Please review!:D