Apart from Bella all the other characters belong to JK Rowling.
This is a prequel to my other story The Snape Family Saga New Beginnings. This will not be a long story but will fill in the background of Snape and Bellas relationship.
Snape stalked through the hallways of Hogwarts in a menacing fashion, his robes billowing behind him as walked. The meandering students quickly melting back against the walls to avoid their most hated professor who seemed completely unhindered by the unconscious Hufflepuff student in his arms. He could not believe it, his first class of the new school year and already one potions accident. He knew word would fly like wildfire around the school in a matter of hours and while it would do nothing except enhance his already fearsome reputation he could really do without the disapproving comments he knew he would receive from the medi witch he was on his way to see or the parchmentwork such an incident required.
With gritted teeth he burst through the infirmary doors prepared for the older womans tirade but instead of the familiar face of the resident medi witch he found himself staring at the silhouette of a young woman who plunged him back into the past and took his breath away. Stopping abruptly without thought or consideration to his student he tried to catch his breath and think logically. Lily Evans was dead, even now he could not think of her as Lily Potter to him she would always be his childhood friend and not the wife of his schooltime enemy. She could not be standing, alive in the middle of the Hogwarts infirmary. Shaking away the vestiges of irrational hope from his brain, he studied the young woman objectively, her hair was a slightly darker shade of red than Lilys and it was worn longer than she ever had and even braided he could tell the curls were wilder. She was perhaps an inch or two shorter and her figure a little fuller, more of a classic hour glass, compared to his friends slimmer line . Even though she was dressed in the traditional uniform of a medi witch he spied a delicate silver chain circling her ankle, an item of jewellery Lily would never have owned. Despite all this he desperately needed to see her face. He deliberately stripped his face of all emotion, his usual blank mask dropping skillfully in place in an instant.
"Where is Madame Pomfrey? We have an injured student."
Mentally he held his breath as she spun round on her heel. Even as he viewed her objectively he had to admit there was a distinct similarity, the face was the same heart shape and the petite nose had a smattering of freckles but thankfully the eyes were not the same vivid green instead hazel orbs gazed curiously at him. An easy, genuine smile tugged at her full lips but then faltered just as quickly as Snape glared unblinkingly at her. His mouth curled into his trademark sneer as he stalked past her and unceremoniously dumped the student on the nearest bed.
"Well ... " He asked impatiently. As he looked her up and down in a deliberate attempt to intimidate her he noticed with interest that her eyes were flashing dangerously, something else that unnervingly reminded him of his Lily.
Drawing himself up to his full imposing height he stared her full in the eyes but instead of flinching away she met him head on, hazel on black.
"She was called away on an emergency a few minutes ago." She answered coolly her voice in direct contrast to the fire in her eyes. "May I pass a message on?"
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" The question was out of his mouth before had time to think about it.
"I could ask you the same thing!" She had no idea what made her say it, she was normally a very affable, easy going person but there was something so antagonistic about this pale skinned, dark, imposing man.
How dare she, "I am Professor Severus Snape, Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House." His answer was abrupt and authoritative.
"Well Professor" She said mockingly. "I'm Bella-Donna Nickosta, the new trainee medi witch."
Snape couldn't help but smirk nastily.
"You find something amusing Professor." There was a dangerous undercurrent to her question.
"Bella-Donna! Otherwise known as deadly nightshade, you were named after a poisonous plant. How ... unusual." His silky voice was low and precise, he knew he was being deliberately rude but he felt an urgent need to punish her. She'd made him hope, made him remember and then brought him crashing back to his bleak reality.
"My friends call me Bella." She forced a bright smile but her eyes remained hostile. "You can call me Miss Nickosta!"
The silence was deafening as they metaphorically circled each other like caged predators. It was only when the patient groaned that the impasse was broken. Bella moved towards the bed and started to cast a diagnostic spell over the prone teenager. "What happened?" She asked quietly.
But before Snape could formulate an answer he heard an exasperated sigh behind him "Oh Severus its only the first day of term you surely can't have a potions casualty already."
Snape rolled his eyes before turning to face Madame Pomfrey "As usual my students are incapable of following the simplest of instructions." He responded bitterly.
"Maybe a more approachable teacher would have better success!" Bella commented softly as she moved around the bed twirling her wand.
Snape, who had excellent hearing, transferred his glare from Madame Pomfrey to her trainee.
Poppy watched the two with interest as the temperature in the room dropped by several degrees. "I see you two have met." She said to the room in general.
Snape turned sharply on his heel "As I am no longer needed I shall take my leave. I trust you will inform her Head of House about her condition. Good day." And with a swirl of robes he exited without another word.
Madame Pomfrey bustled around her patient verifying her trainees test results.
"Is he always so rude?" Bella couldn't resist asking
"Who Severus?"
When Bella nodded Madame Pomfrey regarded her carefully for several seconds before making a decision. "We need to wait for Miss Symonds to come to, why don't we have a cup of tea and a chat."
Madame Pomfrey bustled around her office making tea the traditional muggle way while considering what to say. She'd witnessed more between the two than she was prepared to let on and looking at her assistant as the Slytherin had looked at her she knew why he'd been so hostile. But how did she explain to this poor girl that she looked like a dead woman. Finally she sat down.
"Severus is ... complicated. He is a very private person and keeps to himself as much as possible given his profession. He is cold, unapproachable and austere. He will only ever let you know what he wishes you to know. But ... the Headmaster trusts him implicitly and the Slytherins have never had such an effective Head of House." Madame Pomfrey decided not to burden the young woman with her real thoughts, at least until she'd sought counsel from the Deputy Head. Minevra McGonagall had known Snape from boyhood through into manhood just like she had and her insight would be beneficial, together they could decide what to say, if anything. After all Bella would only be around for a year and how much interaction would she really have with the potions master.
Bella didn't quite know what to make of what she'd just been told. Despite the negative description of Snape, which all seemed to support her own first impressions, the medi-witchs tone was one of tolerance and even irritated affection. But before she could dwell on it any longer or think about asking any more questions the monitoring spell they'd cast alerted them to a change in their patient.
"Well Miss Nickosta your first real patient awaits." And just like that the sharing moment was gone.
As Bella tended to the third year student her mind kept wandering to the surly professor, surely someone who taught children couldn't be as bad as he first seemed. She decided to reserve judgement until she'd got to know him better, maybe he was just having a bad day.
Over the next few days Bella had plenty of time to explore what would be her home for the forthcoming year. As the September weather was still pleasant she spent every free hour wandering the grounds or reading overlooking the lake by wand light after the students curfew. She and Madame Pomfrey took it in turns to oversee the infirmary during mealtimes, so on the few occasions Bella ate in the great hall she used every opportunity to covertly study the grim Professor who had so angered her on that first day. And if she was honest between mealtimes and the other glimpses she caught of him around the school nothing she saw changed her opinion. Yes, he was frostily polite to his colleagues and superiors but the venom in his voice and actions to students, other than those in his own house, mirrored his distasteful attitude towards her. It didn't take her long to realise that he was the most hated professor in the school, she heard students everywhere complaining about his teaching methods, impossible homework assignments, harsh punishments and perfecting standards.
With a slight pang of disappointment Bella was starting to accept that he really did have no redeeming features when she stumbled across a group of students one night after curfew in what appeared to be a wizarding duel. There were students from three of the houses, only the Ravenclaw colours were missing, and it seemed that these older students were hexing to cause real injury. They were older students, a mix of male and female, all with a number of painful gashes and other telltale signs of hostile magic. Bella was considering whether to step in herself or go for help when she caught a glimpse of a menacing black figure stealthily approaching from the opposite corridor. His face was paler than usual and his expression grimmer than she had ever seen and as his robes billowed Bella could well understand why so many of the children referred to him as the greasy bat of the dungeons. As he grew nearer she saw him determinedly draw his wand and she sank back into her darkened corridor to see what would happen next. She was intrigued when he didn't automatically wade into the fight, instead he hung back in the shadows intently watching the action for a few moments, then at the precise second a natural lull in the casting happened he stepped out of the darkness. Just the sight of his appearance, wand drawn, was enough to ensure complete silence. He just stood there as one by one each student lowered their wand, the Gryffindors looked furious, the Hufflepuffs petrified and the Slytherins smug. The silence became unbearable as Snape turned slowly, his black eyes seeming to penetrate to the mind of each student before moving onto the next. His gaze returned to a scared looking Hufflepuff wearing a prefects badge.
"Braithwaite, what is the meaning of this?" The quietly spoken question was laced with controlled fury.
"Uhm ..." But the teenager seemed incapable of formulating in a coherent sentence in the presence of the feared potions master.
"Excuse me Professor ..." Started one of the oldest looking Slytherins, eluding a quiet confidence in the presence of his Head of House "but we found them threatening a second year Slytherin so we stepped in and challenged them."
"Thank you Mr Fenchurch." Snapes tone was silky and deliberate. He knew there was more to this and inwardly cursed his final year pupils, why couldn't they just have reported it instead of this cloak and dagger dueling. It was hard enough for Slytherins to secure suitable employment once they left Hogwarts unless they had influential family greasing the wheels, a disciplinary record for organised fighting would hinder them even more.
But before Snape could formulate an appropriate response one of the Gryffindors rashly spoke out, his voice was full of bravado but it barely disguised the slight quiver in his voice.
"We were only protecting our first years, they're second year had one of each of ours ..." He pointed furiously at the Slytherins before gesturing between the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. " ... cornered in the second floor toilets demanding money." The teenager was breathing hard as he tried to explain what had happened.
Everyone else started to add their own comments.
"SILENCE." Again Snape didn't need to raise his voice to get their attention just the steel in his tone was enough for them to obey instantly.
It was typical Slytherin behaviour, only let on what is of benefit, self preservation was top of the list for snakes. Yet again Snape found himself balancing a fine line, support his own at the detriment to everyone else while in private punish the guilty. He already had his suspicions over who the second year was, the boys father had just been publicly stripped of his relatively high profile job and after several nightmares the unhappy child had confessed to Snape he'd heard his parents arguing about money.
Arranging his sneer in place he turned on the outspoken Gryffindor "How very brave of you, a seventh year to point your wand at a second year. How very ... Gryffindor!" He turned to the still trembling Braithwaite. "And just like a Hufflepuff to blindly follow where someone else leads."
At that moment a yellow eyed cat came creeping around Snapes feet followed by the shuffling, wheezing caretaker.
"Perfect timing Mr Filch." Snape greeted him oily. "Please see the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors safely to the infirmary. I need them fit and well to serve their forthcoming detentions." He regarded each of them with nasty satisfaction. "Fifty points will be taken from each house for your two houses for serious lack of judgement and a further fifty each for being out of bed after curfew."
He ignored their collective groan, one thing he never felt guilty about was taking house points, he just saw it as a way of equalling out the playing field as the Slytherins never seemed to be awarded as many as the other houses throughout the year.
As they followed Filtch dejectedly towards the infirmary Snape took great pleasure in announcing "Detentions will start tomorrow evening at 7pm in the potions classroom. No exceptions, no excuses. Anyone not wanting to suffer more than necessary will be prompt."
Silently pacing up and down in front of his own pupils, he waited until he was certain the others were out of hearing before he started his tirade.
Bella fully expected the Professor to offer some words of approval for their actions and was preparing to visit the Headmaster the following day to explain all she'd witnessed so the matter could be investigated properly. But what happened next completely threw her plan into chaos.
"Which part of your tiny Slytherin brains thought any of this was a good idea." The fury in his voice wiped away the smug looks from his students faces. "Where's your cunning, your supposed intelligence?" His eyes pierced the soul of each child stood in front of him. "I want the name of the second year NOW." It only took a moment for the self preservation to kick in as all of them offered up the name.
It was as Snape thought and while he had an understanding of Marcus Flints predicament he had to find a way to reach the boy and use his influence to reign in his bullying tendencies. But for now he had to issue some severe discipline. His seventh years would soon be leaving the relative protection of the school and this year was his last chance to sway their loyalties for the future war the Headmaster was sure was still to come.
"You should know better, brawling like common criminals in school corridor. I taught you better than this. All you had to do was report them to me, not everything is solved with your wands. The other houses punishment will seem like a picnic on a summers day compared to what I have in store for you. For your sheer stupidity you will report to my office at 9pm sharp every night for the next two weeks and by the time I've finished with you, you won't even have the energy to think never mind duel."
One of them looked like they were about to argue until Snape took half a step forward, his face contorted in pure anger. "Line up and return to your common room." He waited a heart beat for them to organise themselves. "MOVE." As one they marched down towards the dungeons, no-one spoke a word as they could still feel the presence of their Head of House keeping pace behind them.
Now that he believed no-one could see him he allowed his mask to slip slightly. He sometimes wondered if the Headmaster realised what an impossible task he'd given him, how hard it was to convince his students that he was really on their side while subtly managing their behaviour. Tonight he hoped he'd convinced them he was punishing their lack of thought behind their attack and not the actual duel so that while he had them exclusively in his clutches he could try to give them some options. But he was tired, physically and mentally. There didn't seem to be one moment in the day when he wasn't having to make snap decisions that could alter the delicate balance in his world. Added to that was the weight of his own private projects, another way of trying to atone for his tortured soul. Like his research on the effects of the cruciartus curse, he'd worked fervently for months on an antidote only for it to explode spectacularly this very evening.
The bizarre snake of teenagers dressed in green followed by a black bat were heading straight for Bellas corridor. Not wanting to be discovered in such an awkward position she slipped back into the shadows of the alcove behind the suit of armour. Once they were safely out of sight she walked slowly back to her rooms full of confusion over what she'd just seen, his response to his Slytherins in private was in direct contrast to everything she'd been led to expect from him. The man had suddenly become interesting.
She was still trying to understand what his agenda was when he walked into the infirmary the following day with yet another unconscious student in his arms, this one a male Gryffindor. Without a word he sailed past Bella, deposited the student on the first unoccupied bed and promptly collapsed in a heap at her feet.