Suddenly Mulciber's wand was doing cartwheels in the air. Severus held his breath, his dark eyes glued to the two Slytherin boys in front of him. Avery was the first to turn, eyes wide and unblinking in a state of shock. His mouth flapped, like a fish out of water, trying to question his actions, but no words followed the motions of his lips. Mulciber stood frozen, seeming dumbfounded over the loss of his wand, which landed some odd feet away in the grass. Severus' jaw clenched, despite all of the students carrying on around them, their outburst was obviously internal, and he felt a sense of foreboding. Some form of dread clenched at his muscles and made him rigid. Regret nagged in the back of his mind, he ought not to have done such a thing. But he reminded himself sternly, of the green eyes he adored. Severus swallowed the lump that had tried to climb up his throat, his Adam's apple bobbing evidently. With a sudden jolt, Mulciber looked over his shoulder at Severus. His fingers only tightened around his wand, feebly aware of the students now hurrying to other classes.

"What was that about, Severus?" the question sounded innocently imploring as Mulciber turned all the way to finally face the black eyed young man.

"I told you I needed a bit of practice, and you've gone and ruined it." he added, his brows knitting in blunt frustration. In that moment, Severus seemed to catch his breath.

"I suggest... you find an alternate outlet." his voice was silky. But inside he felt his stomach tightening and churning unpleasantly with bile. Venom stoked him, and yet there was the issuing realization of how real his actions were. Reality was suffocating in this moment, but he couldn't back down now. He'd made a commitment to this path, this choice.

Mulciber seemed to be calculating. His brows were knotted up in a flare of anger, fists clenched. His lips curled unpleasantly while Avery stood between them, his eyes darting back and forth nervously. How much of a lackey he really was idly dawned upon Severus, and he had the faint recognition of Pettigrew. The silence stretched, but Mulciber's contorted anger slowly melted into an amused smirk.

"Oh I see." he announced, looking all too pleased with himself while he turned his back on Severus. He took a few steps, and knelt down to pick up his wand. Severus watched, confusion and frustration pent up inside of him. Mulciber stood and faced him, brandishing his wand absently with a breathy chuckle.

"You're a bit emotional today, aren't you Snape? Over that mudblood from yesterday? You did always used to spend a lot of time with her, for someone of her kind-"

"Don't use that word." Severus snapped with his wand suddenly pointing at Mulciber again. His own conviction might have surprised him. But that word. It had tempted to ruin his life forever, it stained her cheeks with tears, and it tarnished his purest intentions meant for her. He couldn't stand it now. It left a bitter taste on his tongue and it grated his ears. Mulciber however, seemed to brush the comment off.

"Don't be daft. You cut all ties with that filthy little mudblood. For the better, I say." Mulciber mused with a devilish gleam in his eyes. Avery moved from between them, chuckling under his breath.

"Yeah, Snape. Don't get so riled over a mudblood. Pretty face must have had you hypnotized, huh?"

Severus clenched his jaw, his brows knitting together. Mulciber jabbed Avery in the shoulder approvingly.

"Oi, you're right, mate. She was awfully pretty for one of them. Snogging her could have been a thrill, eh?" he commented ruefully before looking at Severus again, an antagonizing grin set on his mouth.

"Was that it, Severus? You wanted to roll in the mud with the mudblood?" he teased with a lifted brow.

Anger surged through him. How dare they barbarically refer to Lily in such a manner! His black eyes hazed in a bitter anger he had not felt flare so high before, even compared to the ordeal he had been put through only yesterday. Letting his black eyes rake over them both in disgust, admitting them beasts to himself, Severus felt his lips curl in disdain. In these flash of brief moments, he deduced they were his enemies. These sickening young men, with habits he had mimicked to fall into their crowd, so as to adorn power similar, whose poison he had shared, did little to quell the fury that shook him. There was only one thing left for enemies in Severus' opinion.

"Sectum sempra!" he hissed while his wand arm lashed out.

In one precise flick of his wrist, Mulciber was sent tumbling back, unable to mutter his counter spell as the tearing pain of a blade went through him. In the abandoned court yard, he crumpled on the grass, howling in pain and clenching at his stomach. The vivid red of his blood seeped into his uniform shirt and matted it heavily against his skin. The red streaks marring his body savagely made him convulse on the ground, grunting in furious pain. Avery let out a cry of surprise and turned his wand on the black eyed young man, who proceeded with nothing more of a simple flick of his wrist, sending his wand flying through the air. In long strides he came to Mulciber, glaring down from his cold obsidian eyes at the boy who laid gasping in the grass, staring venomously and yet frightfully at his fellow Slytherin, who was now towering over him.

"Filthy... blood traitor!" Mulciber spat up at him.

Severus simply stared, acutely aware of the rise and fall of his chest as he took deep breaths. His fingers taught around the wooden wand in his hand, clenched so tightly his knuckles had turned white. His thoughts simply swum in anger, boiling as he stared rigidly down at the boy bleeding out in front of him. All the while keeping his furious glare on Mulciber, he pressed his foot to the wand lying in the grass beside him. A small voice in the back of his mind softly sneered, What were you so afraid of?

"Never..." he seethed quietly, his black eyes narrow. "Never refer to Lily in such a manner." Severus warned the limp boy on the ground, and pushed down his weight a slight. There an unmistakable crack, earning a satisfied sigh from Severus. Withdrawing his step he looked down to see the wand snapped, not through all of the way, but it was indeed cracked, wood splintering up defiantly. Turning to look at Avery, his brooding stare visible between the curtain of ebony hair, he gave him an apprehensive frown and looked ahead.

"I suggest you get the nurse."

Now striding through the halls and towards the dungeons, Severus felt his own pulse throbbing loudly in his chest. He had to hurry from the scene, he did not wish to be caught there. No doubt Avery would be too much a bumbling imbecile to get much information across, and if Mulciber had any dignity, he would not pass on who had done this to him. A smirk tilted the corners of his lips at the very thought of it. Perhaps it was a dark thought, but there was a significant swell of pleasure within him. He would not let anyone utter such foulness about Lily. His steps became twitchy very slightly as he turned the corner now. His black eyes were wide and probing as his gaze continued to the ground, his heart sinking into his stomach. Lily. This whole attempt had been to protect her, to defend her and prove himself to her. And yet, he had sullied his intentions with a curse to maim Mulciber when he spoke such things about Lily. Severus halted, groaning in detest of himself. He could not reveal this revel to her as a triumph. If anything, she would most likely be upset over his tact. Blanketed by the shadows in the corridor and left to his lonesome, Severus leaned against the stone wall and slid down. Now he really had done it. The size of his victory now seemed much less significant. He was now reduced to an enemy of the aspiring followers of the dark lord, still without any shred of light from Lily. Rubbing his face carefully in his palms, Severus tried to contemplate the sickly hot sensation holed up in his stomach. He was not brave, but he was trying to be. For her. All he had ever done was for her. So why was he failing so miserably?

He took a shaky breath and held it in. His dark stare remained on his shoes. He was more than sure he had just started a fight he could not win, rivaling the surge of confidence he had felt when defending Lily, trying to keep those foul words from sullying her, or ever reaching her. His long fingers gripped at his knees uncomfortably, no longer intending on appearing in the dungeons for class. Potions was his best subject, and he was more than sure he knew more than Slughorn did. He scoffed in bitter amusement, placing himself above the head of Slytherin house's status in standards of knowledge. How droll. And yet how correct. And yet as he sat there amongst his own shadow, Severus leaned his head back against the unforgiving stone wall, staring into nothing. His fathomless black eyes held a faint amusement as his lips quirked into a joyless smirk. Those boys outside, one whom he had hexed out of such white fury, had never been his friends. Severus swallowed hard, trying to shove down some of the fear attempting to strangle him again, glad to had rid himself of people who made the only one he loved hate him.

Sitting in silence, trying to find some solace within himself concerning his rash decisions, Severus was blind to the accomplishment he had made. For the first time in years, he had defended Lily to his friends. And while they could no longer be called comrades, there was a sliver of new found solid strength within him, aching to grow into more.

Deep within the dungeons, in the drafty potions class room, Mary MacDonald came panting inside. She uttered a strained 'sorry' between breaths and flung herself into a stool beside Lily. Turning a concerned stare on her exhausted friend, Lily blinked back surprise and simply rose a hand tentatively to Mary's shoulder.

"Are you alright?" she whispered in a mild tone of disbelief.

Still breathless, Mary nodded so fervently that her brunette pigtails flapped wildly. Lily's lips quirked into a half smile while Slughorn stuttered slightly over the lesson in question, his great mustache twitching in tufts of air as he went on. Though Lily was satiated having Mary appear without anything being truly the matter, her green eyes roamed the class again, like they had been doing the entire class. She couldn't focus. She couldn't help but notice that Severus wasn't here, although he had never missed a class. A knot of worry unearthed itself in the pit of her stomach while she chewed her bottom lip. Mary suddenly slid her cauldron unceremoniously onto the table, startling Lily out of her long stare at the empty seat. Sensing the slight unease, the brunette beside her arched a brow, but Lily dispelled it with a quick nod of her head.

"Right then, let's prepare the ingredients." she suggested with an unwavering grin.

Amid chopping her mandrake root into thin precise slices, Lily's brows were furrowed into what may have been mistaken as focus. Rather, as her partner was distracted with using the mortar and pestle to grind amaranth petals into a fine dust, Lily let her green eyes glance around the class again. Not even a late entrance. He just wasn't showing up. Mixed feelings tangled in her chest making it feel tight and heavy as she stared determinedly down at her mandrake root. Had he decided against the prospect of seeing her? Or was it that late last night he decided the effort wasn't worth it? The red head's heart strings gave an awkward twang at the sheer thought, and she sliced one of her roots at an awkward angle. Cursing under her breath, Lily settled herself into the rhythm again, the chopping against the desk all too loud in her ears.

There was the constant flickering of guilt in her green eyes while she worked with Mary. Just yesterday, she'd lost her best friend completely to what she'd been struggling to keep him from. Their relationship had been strained for some time, but she never suspected that it would really happen. Not seeing him here made the reality of it all weigh down on her shoulders. Some students were still casting her looks and whispering amongst each other, their eyes wide with wonder. Lily didn't have too much trouble ignoring them, but her thoughts kept pooling back to the tall Slytherin boy she'd known growing up. Should she feel remorseful for casting him off? He'd apologized, but it wasn't just the name that made her keep him at an arm's length. It was everything collectively. Hanging out with sadistic bullies, not caring if her friends were jinxed or hexed, nor caring if people with her kind of blood were targeted, aspiring to join the dark army, failing to recognize the brutality of such ambitions, and to top it off; calling her filth. Even in the heat of a moment so terrible, she didn't think something like that could slip from his mouth. A subtle surge of anger flared up inside of her, and she hastily poured her slices into the cauldron, desperate to put this from her mind for now.

"...and right when class ended!" Mary droned on. Lily suddenly stared, surprised that the other girl had been speaking at all. A faint pink shade fell over her cheeks.

"What was that?" Lily interjected, her eyes not meeting Mary's as a refusal to admit she hadn't been listening.

"I said, while I was in arithmancy my ink well was transfigured into a bundle of hairy spiders." she repeated, a visible shudder going through her as she obviously relived the memory. Lily crinkled her nose slightly at the thought.

"Did you hex them?" she asked, brushing a crimson tendril away from her face.

"No, the professor transfigured it back, but I can't stand to touch it anymore..." Mary mumbled.

"I meant the ones who did it to you." Lily added cheekily with a soft smile.

"What? Of course not!" retorted her friend, slightly taken aback. But Lily laughed softly and shrugged her shoulders, mumbling a 'I would have' while flipping through her potions text book.

Mary frowned defiantly at the girl beside her and jabbed her in the rib with her elbow. Lily let out a soft squeak of discomfort and glared at her before Mary added, "I bet you wouldn't have. It was Avery, I just know it. I heard him and Mulciber snickering, and they even dashed out of class!" Mary confirmed with a strong nod that made her pigtails bounce. Lily immediately frowned.

"All the more reason to hex them!" she argued, feeling the flame lick up at her nerves again.

"I'd rather not be caught in a fight with them..." Mary mumbled in a lame defense.

Through glaring at her friend through some form of pent up rage, her green eyes softened again. Last time Mary had been picked on by Mulciber, it was a failed attempt of one of the unforgivable curses. She could place no blame on her friend, but only release a long, loud, heavy sigh and slump forward into her book a little more. A veil of crimson tresses blocked her face from the world while she delved into the text, once again trying to purge the memory. At least for now.

"Come on, let's finish up here and get to charms." Lily suggested in a brighter tone.

Classes resumed an achingly slow pace. But of course, the void was filled with rumors on the rise of a student being sent to the infirmary; apparently he had been cursed rather brutally. Lily was sitting down to lunch when the gossip was really buzzing around her. Like many of the others, she wondered vaguely what happened, and who had been hurt. It didn't really hit her until she was serving a large portion of pudding onto her plate that maybe, just maybe, Severus had been hurt. He hadn't been in class today. Dropping her spoon with a clatter, Lily could not restrain herself from jumping up from the table, somewhat awkwardly as her leg got caught under it, and rush off towards the hospital wing. For all of the ire that had settled in her emerald green eyes, for all of the frustration and animosity she had been brooding over silently today, she felt the ache of disquiet over Severus' possible injury arise in a flurry within her, pushing her on frantic legs to run all through the corridors toward the infirmary. She didn't know where the sudden stress had appeared. Perhaps it was the shimmer of belief in him, that the boy she knew had decided to take up her request. Or did it seem more like a demand last night?

Heat throbbed in her head unpleasantly until she reached the infirmary. It settled into her chest while she struggled to catch her breath, green eyes alight with worriment, seeking a glimpse of him. Satisfied with the amount of air she had drew into her lungs, Lily neared the door, a million thoughts buzzing so loudly in her head she felt like she could hear no else. Before her fingers could wrap around the knob though, the door creaked open. Surprised, she looked up, and her wide green eyes landed on him. Severus was there, wearing a scowl on his lips that looked all too fitting, his dark eyes narrowed in what seemed to be frustration or spite. But the moment his eyes landed on her, they brightened in surprise and his scowl mildly vanished. "Lily?" he sounded bewildered to see her at all. Lily looked imploringly up at him, at a loss for words. Her green eyes raked over his entire tall pale form. From what she could see, he was fine. The agony wrenching in her head was ebbing away, but Severus looked slightly worried now.

"What are you doing here? Are you... ill?" he asked, one brow arching as his own eyes grazed over her, as if trying to spot a wound or some sign of sickness. When Lily said nothing, he pressed on.

"A... fever?" he guessed, obviously judging from the redness in her cheeks. His voice was slightly choked with some worry, though there was a flicker of joy seeing her here at all. All day he'd gone with only a glimpse of her red hair, and the dread looming over him that she didn't want to see him. Dubiously, he lifted a pale hand and reached it to touch her cheek, the back of his neck rising to a steady burn. And, to his great surprise, she did not spurn him, or recoil from his touch. Lily stood frozen, unbeknownst to him the heat rising further in her cheeks from his impending caress. Gently laying his palm against her reddened cheek, he swallowed silently. Her skin was soft, if not very warm. Severus' fingers curled slowly against her before drawing away, her green eyes still lingering over him, he averted his own black eyes. His hair fell over his face a slight as if to shield him, his hand retreated to his side, still prickling with the sensation of her skin pleasantly.

"You... are warm." he admitted, half worried that she may actually be running a temperature. But Lily shook her head in protest, wishing the burning in her face would vanish.

"N-no, I'm fine..." her tone almost sounded angry, so she quickly tried to readjust.

"I thought- I was worried- the rumors..." she tried pathetically, wringing her hands, anticipating a response. As odd as the scene may have seemed, he understood her reasoning immediately. He'd known Lily long enough to comprehend her fragmented speech patterns in certain times of stress. His lips wore the ghost of a smile, silently relishing that she was still concerned for him.

"I'm alright, Lily." he answered, feeling compelled to speak her name as softly as he could manage. No matter what, he still wished to convey the feelings he so desperately revealed late last night. If he could not impress her or protect her gaining power from the easiest source, than he would throw it away and offer all he had to her. His love, and hopefully, his redemption.

"Good." she uttered, managing to banish any nervous break from her lofty voice.

They stood together in a stretch of awkward silence. Lily managed to stare down at her shoes, attempting to avoid the intense stare she could feel he was giving her. When she peeked up through her lashes, she saw him, and he immediately caught her glance, and his black eyes shot away quickly. There was a knot tightening in his stomach the longer he stood there with her in this uncomfortable quiet. At some attempt of normalcy between them, he dipped his fingers into his pockets and opened his mouth to speak, his eyes falling onto the lovely red tresses, the green eyes and the beautiful face he loved so much again. But just as he went to speak, the door behind him opened again, and a sour looking Avery appeared. Severus looked back, glowering at him in silence, his black hair keeping Lily from seeing such a furious burning look. Avery sneered in return, before his eyes went to the Gryffindor girl with Severus. His brows climbed farther up his forehead as he studied her a moment, regarding her, before his frown deepened.

"All this for a nasty mudblood, Severus... You'll regret it." he growled solemnly and pushed past the both of them. Severus fingers curled in another foreign fist.

"Mind your mouth, Avery." Severus hissed after him. Avery looked back once, a lingering troubled look wearing him down before he scoffed and went down the steps. Despite some confidence building up, some pride welling in his chest under the ruffled anger, Severus could feel the storm coming.

Instead of looking at her again, Severus dropped his head a little, letting his hair curtain him and slumped his shoulders a slight. Lily glared off after the retreating aspiring death eater. Her stomach did unceremonious flip flops and her fists clenched. She hated being called such a thing, but... her eyes slowly recoiled to Severus. He had said something? He had... stood up for her. A clear sense of surprise was written across her face. Some portion of the fury she felt towards him hanging over her head since yesterday settled. A clear curiosity took its place, and Lily felt some little form of gratitude pulling at her lips into a secret smile.

"Sev... what did you do?" she asked wonderingly.

Despite the almost pleased look in her beautiful green eyes, Severus took a deep breath, fearing the worst upon telling her what happened today.

"Please don't be mad."