The Law of Unintended Consequences
Chapter 3
The Road to Hell...
Dragged down by our best qualities...
Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, nor do I own the Harry Potter Series.
Three Days Later Saturday October 23rd, 1974
James Potter smiled happily as he got ready for the day; it had been a fairly trying week, what with four major homework assignments, one of which he had forgotten about until the night before it was due, having to deal with Snivellus trying to steal his girl-James knew that Lily and himself weren't quite together yet, but he could tell that she had really started to come around-, and this whiny first year Hufflepuff girl who kept pestering him about getting his autograph until James had no choice but to hex her.
On the bright side though, now that it was the weekend, it was the perfect time to relax, and he was doing so by re-reading Quidditch Through The Ages for the fourth time, laughing as he considered ideas to improve his game. He was pretty sure that he had come with a few when suddenly, Sirius ran into the room and yelled, "Oi! Prongs! I just heard from Sabrina that those Death Eater-wannabes Avery and Rosier hexed Alexandra Gregory last night! Apparently it was pretty bad as she had to go to the hospital wing. It was something about having a trunk instead of a nose!"
James snorted a little at the thought, but quickly became serious. Gryffindor house simply couldn't afford to let the Slytherins have free reign and hex any Gryffindor they pleased, and it was the duty of the Marauders to punish them. 'We have to show them that there are consequences to their actions! Besides, I've been a little too nice to Snivellus this week; its time that I showed him the penalty for trying to corrupt innocent girls, especially my future girlfriend!' He then stood at rigid attention and said sternly, trying to contain his laughter and barely succeeding,
"Padfoot. In the name of Godric Gryffindor and his most noble house, we must attempt to bring justice down upon those freaks in the ancient and evil house of Salazar Slytherin. As attacking Avery or Nott could lead to fierce retaliation upon Gryffindor house, it is our duty to attack someone who is not likely to cause any retribution upon Gryffindor, for the sake of the children..."
Snorting, Sirius played along, saying with equal false-seriousness, "Indeed Prongs, I shall round up the men, then we shall bring our wrath down upon the evil forces of Snivellus Snape!"
"So shall it be!" Then the two boys burst into laughter as they prepared for their 'sacred mission'.
Although Remus did his usual wet blanket routine, claiming that it probably wasn't quite fair that they were attacking Snape when he hadn't done anything wrong in particular, the two boys had soon collected Pettigrew and, using the Marauder's Map, soon found Snape reading outside, by the lake. Sirius then said quietly, "OK, ready Marauders? Let's go!"
"Expelliarmus!"
"Petrificus Totalus!"
"Furnunculus!"
Snape collapsed, his book blasted away into the lake, with the Petrificus Totalus and Furnunculus spells leaving him immobile and covered in boils. He glared at them as they, and the other students taking advantage of the cool autumn weather, started to laugh, then James shouted, "That's what you get Snivelly for straying too close to your betters! Stay away from Lily if you know what's good for you!"
The other two Marauders chimed in, "Yeah! She might get too covered in your slime!" "Nice boils, Snivellus! I think they improve your appearence
As Snape, who couldn't say anything, glared at the them, the three boys then returned to the great hall for a late breakfast, happy that, at the least, Slytherin had been justly punished...
The clock struck eleven and Lily frowned. Severus was supposed to have been in their potions classroom fifteen minutes ago, and she was starting to get a little worried. Suddenly, the door burst open and Severus stomped in, muttering under his breath. Annoyed at his lateness, but relieved that he had made it, Lily crossed her arms and looked at her friend sternly, then said accusingly, "Your late!"
Severus looked angry a moment, then sighed, saying with a touch of impatience, "Sorry Lily, I ran into three little toerag and got stuck for a while. Can we get started on our Blood-Replenishing potion now? I think I have a couple of ideas to speed up the brewing process.'
Remembering that toerag was usually Severus' code for Marauder, as it was both insulting, and a convenient way to refer to the group, at least in his opinion, Lily decided to let it go for now and give James a stern talking to later, as she really wanted him to mature and stop attacking Severus BEFORE sixth year rolled around. Deciding that it would be best to ask him why he was interesting in the Death Eaters when he was more comfortable, Lily started talking about something else, "Sev, did you hear about Sabrina? Apparently, the night before last she divinned in her teacup that tonight she was going to be attacked by a swarm of angry owls, so she decided to lock herself in her trunk until morning."
Severus snorted at that, then replied, "Yeah, Evan told me that, while she went to go use the loo, he moved her tea leaves around in her cup. Apparently, there is a pool going around about whether or not she will squeal if someone brings an owl too near to her tonight at dinner." At Lily's look of annoyance, he said defensively, "Hey, you have to admit its kinda funny, and its pretty tame compared to what the toerags can get up to."
Although she knew intellectually that he was right, part of her was angry that he was badmouthing her future husband. Nevertheless, she controlled herself without too much trouble and said calmly, "Yeah, I suppose you are right Sev. Still, it wasn't very nice of him."
Severus looked oddly at her, then said with a shrug, "I suppose not. In any case, I think its time to add the ginger-root to the potion."
They did so, then Severus smiled at her slightly while letting his long hair hide most of his face, before saying with a tone of both hope and worry, "Hey Lily. I was thinking... it has been a while since we've been to Hogsmeade together; after all, school has only just started a couple months ago. Well, I was wondering if would you like to come with me next weekend..."
As he let his sentence hang, Lily was remembering that in fourth year they had started going more and more often with other people and only meeting one another there; it had been one of the causes of their growing apart in the original time-line, and something she wanted to prevent this time around, so she was happy to say, "Sure! I'd love to."
For some reason, Severus' face went red as he blushed, making Lily smile slightly as she had always liked it when he stopped trying to do an imatation of a man made of stone. Realizing that this was probably as good a time as any, considering that his guard seemed to be down, Lily then asked, "So Sev. I was wondering... I mean I spend a lot of time asking you and such..." Lily was getting nervous because she knew instinctually that this would be very important for them, so she wanted to say it properly. Meanwhile, Severus just looked confused at what she was saying, raising his eyebrows and staring at her as she started to twiddle her thumbs in her anxiety.
Finally, Lily felt that she was being ridiculous, so she just went right out and said it, "Sev. Why are you interested in becoming a Death Eater? I mean, what interests you about that path...?"
Severus Snape was shocked; even though she was his best friend, Lily had never really shown any signs of wanting to know anything about his 'weird obsession' as she called it, but rather just to have him give it up because it was evil. Whenever he tried to explain to her, she just said that it was wrong and evil and would leave it at that, after telling him to give it up, as well as his friends in Slytherin House.
Of course, Severus knew better; just because the Death Eaters had some unusual ideas didn't mean that they, or the Dark Lord, were evil, in spite of their bad publicity. All it meant was that people feared Voldemort for his power and his ideas. In spite of his surprise, he was happy that Lily had finally decided that she wanted to hear him out, so he quickly started to explain, as he had been rehearsing for the last year,
"OK, the thing to understand first, is that the Death Eaters and their objectives are really misunderstood by the majority of society. As such, you have to be ready to look at things from multiple angles. For example, the whole 'They hate all Muggleborns and Muggles' thing is probably a load of...ahem; the people who write all these stories about the Death Eaters are, more or less, working for the Ministry of Magic."
Wanting to be absolutely clear that he wasn't completely stupid in his beliefs, as it sounded a little far-fetched, Severus continued carefully, "Of course they would be willing to spread lies about them; if the Death Eaters get in power, they will lose all of their own, and there is nothing that politicians hate more than losing power. I mean, I don't doubt that they would get rid of the bad ones, like my dad and stuff, but what kind of idiot would slaughter their own people for no reason whatsoever other than their birth." He rambled slightly, but tried to keep to his point.
Lily, rather than interrupting, was listening intently, eyes glowing as she seemed to be trying to read his very soul through his eyes. Shuddering without fear as he felt her firey gaze burning in his own eyes, he continued, "Second, the Death Eaters have some really good ideas about how to deal with some of the problems we have had lately; one problem we have is that, quite simply, the Ministry of Magic is too cumbersome, each member of it tries to deal with its problems in a different way, causing chaos."
He then swallowed, before saying, "If the Dark Lord were in charge, we would have focused control of the nation. Also, even if their ideas about wizardkind dying out are a bit stupid, they are right about how we have left a great deal of our knowledge fade away because learning about it was deemed evil. For example, I heard that Durmstrang teaches its students a great deal more about various types of magic than the Ministry allows."
Lily finally interrupted, clearly annoyed at his speech, "That doesn't sound so bad, but it just sounds like Death Eater propoganda to me. Why have YOU decided that you are interested in them is what is important to me."
Cursing mentally that he had allowed his speech to get too rehearsed and rote, he decided to get to the point, "OK, first of all, I have a few really good friends who are joining them, and they think that it would be fun if the three of us could keep together after we join them. Of course, I would still work in potions with you like we planned, but that way I would be able to stay close to my other friends as well. It would be like joining one of those Quidditch team fan-clubs, but better!
Severus then said quietly as he looked away for a moment, wanting to be completely truthful since this was apparently his one, big shot to clear the air about the Death Eaters and his reasons for joining, but still a little ashamed of his reasons, "Also, I can't deny that the idea of being able to dish out some punishment on people like my dad and the toerags doesn't make me feel...pretty happy."
He then looked back into her piercing green eyes and said with a touch of embarrassment, feeling a thrill at how her eyes were completely focused on him, The main reason though, is because well... if I became a Death Eater and helped save Great Britain, then I would be a hero... and that would make yo...people I care about proud of me. I know it will be dangerous, but I think that it is really the right thing to do."
Suddenly, he realized that their blood-replenishing potion was finished, so he filled up a few vials and bid Lily farewell, embarrassed at how close he had come to saying that the main reason that he wanted to join them was to impress her. After his little speech, she had looked down and just stared at the floor, not saying anything, so he was a little worried about her, but he really had to get to the library. Potter's expelliarmus had blasted his DADA textbook deep into the lake after all, and it wasn't like he would have enough money to buy a new copy anytime soon...
Lily slowly walked back to her dorm, ignoring Sabrina and Alexandra when they asked what was going on or tried to tell her a little gossip, as it just didn't seem that important to her right then. What Severus had told her changed everything; as he spoke, she realized that changing his path would be both easier to understand, and harder to do, than she had expected because his reasons weren't simply to slaughter all Muggleborns.
The problem was, it was his best qualities that were leading him down the road to hell he was on; his loyalty to his friends, his careful skepticism towards those he felt he couldn't trust, and his desire to be a hero were all pointing him down that road. This meant that trying to help him become a better person wouldn't help because it was his better qualities that were turning him down the road to evil.
Lily also remembered that Voldemort hadn't really started showing his colors until their sixth year, so if she was going to change him, she had to find a way to convince him that, yes, the rumors about the Death Eaters were all true, and that his so-called friends had probably just been using him, as she had always claimed. The hardest part would be getting him out before it was really too late; by the time that the truth about voldemort had really started coming out, trying to leave the Death Eaters or the organizations they used to recruit future ones had been possible only through death, even if one hadn't taken the mark yet.
What this all meant, was that she had to find some way to show Severus that, yes, the Death Eaters were as bad as everyone said, or she would have to destroy everything about her friend that had made her admire him in the first place. His ambition to be great and his loyalty to his friends were two of his best qualities, even if they hadn't always applied to her; she had to find some way to get him out without making him betray those qualities unless she wanted to create someone she wouldn't want as a best friend.
'Ugh, this is going to take a LOT of work. It would be SO much easier if he thought he was trying to do something wrong, but felt he had no choice. Speaking of which, that reminds me. I have to go yell at my future husband some for picking on my best friend. Why can't the two of them at least try to get along!? I mean, its mostly James' fault, but it would make things soooo much easier if they gave each other a chance...'
Author's Note: Obviously I am going with a very unusual approach for Severus, but think about it. Very few people actually think that they or evil or want to be, and Severus obviously thought that Lily would be impressed with his joining of the Death Eaters. I doubt he would be that interested in joining an organization that he really thought would end up trying to do in his best friend and the girl he loved. Also, given his unwillingness to leave the Death Eaters outside of Gryffindor tower, when it all went to hell, he likely thought that being in that organization was doing the right thing.
I am willing to bet that Severus would give up anything that he believed was wrong if Lily merely asked, with the possible exception of turning Potter into a piece of burnt toast, so if he hasn't been willing to change over the course of at least two years for her, he has to believe that, either 'A', he is doing the right thing, or 'B', she doesn't care about it as much as she claims to. In this story at least, I am going with 'A'.
Lastly, I am pretty sure that Severus is the type of person who doesn't make that many friends, so I'd suspect that he would hold on to the ones he has twice as hard, another reason why Lily had such a dreadful time in canon trying to change his mind.
Just so you all know, I probably won't be updating as frequently once my classes start.
Last Revised April 11th, 2009
