Disclaimer: If I was the actual author of Harry Potter, I would NOT be putting my stories on any website with the word fan in the name...
Severus Snape sat by the lake in early February, thinking. He hadn't been himself for over a month now. If he said why, it would happen again, and he was willing to do anything to stop that, for this far exceeded anything his parents had ever done to him.
"What are you doing all by yourself, Sev?" Lily Evans, his best friend and secret crush said, coming over and sitting down right beside him.
"The same thing I've been doing since the week after Christmas break," he replied, "thinking."
"'Bout what?" she asked in the most annoying way she could. She had been trying to get a straight answer out of him since he had started "thinking" in his spare time, not studying, talking, or complaining.
"I've told you already," he said, "I can't tell you."
"Why not?"
"Because—it's something very, very bad and I don't want to be forced to repeat the experience!" he said agitatedly. "And I also don't want to pull you into it!"
"I'm not going to give up, you know," she replied. "It's pretty obvious that you've been threatened by somebody not to tell something. So now that we've got that covered, who is it, and what can't you tell me?"
"I'm not going to say anything," Severus said quietly, "they'll know."
He looked around and saw Bellatrix talking to some friends nearby. He started trembling at the sight of her.
"How will they know?" Lily whispered. "Are they in earshot?"
"They know Legilimency. They could check back at any time to see if I told anyone," Severus replied quietly, not meeting Lily's eyes. Since he had promised not to tell anyone, he'd had time to think about it. He almost wished he had suffered through a few more Cruciatuses. At least then, Bellatrix would have less to threaten him with.
"What if you told me what happened, just not who did it?" Lily suggested. "Then you won't be telling on whoever it was, and I can help you get over it."
"You're going to get it out of me, one way or another, aren't you?" Severus asked his best friend.
"Yes, so you might want to tell me in the way that might not get whoever did it mad at you," said Lily.
"I don't think it's possible not to upset them, but alright," Severus sighed. "I've got to tell someone eventually or I'll go insane. But not here, somewhere where nobody can hear us."
"The dungeons?" Lily suggested.
"NO!" Severus shouted quickly as his eyes widened and he began to tremble harder. "Not there!"
"Alright, we don't need to go down there!" Lily said. "God, you'd think you'd been—wait…No! Sev, please tell me you weren't—"
"Shhhhh!" Severus quieted her. "Don't say anything here."
"Where then?" Lily asked urgently.
"I've got some Calming Potion in my dorm; I'll grab that and show you exactly where it happened. No one will look for us there."
Review!