Snakes.
Severus slammed himself into the abandoned bathroom door; frantic fingers struggling with the knob until it finally allowed him entry. He half stumbled, half dashed to the sink, wrenching the faucet handle to the right until it gave a great shudder and spluttered unclear water into the bowl. Scooping shaking hands into the liquid he gasped as the icy water collided with his face.
Repeatedly he splashed the now slightly clearer, though still freezing water to his skin as if to drive all the heat from his body, until he coughed having inhaled some of it. He felt chilled on the outside but his insides still burned and twisted around like angry serpents.
He had seen them. Evans and the Potter boy.
His elbows supported him on the sink and his hands slid into his hair, grasping large handfuls and pressing his fists hard into his head. He needed to keep his thoughts pushed far into the back of his mind but unpleasant images drifted in his head like ghosts, haunting his conscious.
Potter had ensnared Evans. They had been in the empty Potions classroom; a tangle of limbs and loose clothing. Potter's lips were buried in Lily's neck, her pale thin hands in his hair. A dangerous amount of thigh showed from underneath a ruffled skirt. Potter's hand contrasted sharply to her smooth pale leg. She was smiling.
Severus seethed; his breath hissing through teeth clenched so tight his jaw hurt. The serpents of shame and lust coiled tight in his gut until he thought he might be sick. Taking several deep breaths his hands slid down to massage his stinging eyes. He pressed hard and let his hands drop into the sink. Hesitantly the young man lifted his gaze to his own blurry reflection in the mirror.
He didn't like what he saw.
Greasy, disheveled hair, some of it sticking to his skin with sweat and water. A long hooked nose with a prominent bridge. He thought it made him look like a pale bird of prey, a crow. His eyes were solid black, the whites bloodshot and watery grey. His eyes that saw what they did. For a long moment he stared, seeing himself as he truly was, and hating every feature.
He threw his hand to the mirror to block out the sight and slid to the ground, drained, his back to wall the sink was fixed to. It wasn't supposed to be like this. He was going to tell her, all the things he had kept locked up and buried under a mask of indifference. His fear of the distance the truth might put between their friendship had done a solid job of keeping that mask firmly in its place. He had tried to hold on so tightly that she slipped through his fingers, right into Potters unworthy paws.
An ugly feeling began to boil in his veins. Potter was the cause of all his wretchedness. Potter had humiliated him, tormented him and had drug his pride through the mud but all that was incomparable to even laying one dirty finger on Lily. He shot his gaze towards his school bag that had slipped off his shoulder during his dash into the bathroom; his Potions book had fallen out and landed a short distance away. He scrambled towards the bag and fished around for a quill, one that was still slightly damp with ink. Wrenching open the book, he began to scribble a spell as fast has his hands and frenzied wits would allow. A single word escaped his lips.
"Sectumsempra."