Chapter Three
Disclaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to the queen, J.K. Rowling.
"Aha! What have we here? A little second year out of bed...in an empty classroom...after curfew...studying?" Mulciber crowed gleefully as he ushered Avery and Severus into said classroom, closing the door behind them with finality. The second year in question looked up, terrified.
Severus's stomach twisted, but he kept his face impassive on the outside - he'd always been good at that. He recognized this victim. Calla Lewis, Muggleborn Hufflepuff, a tiny, bookish girl with a shock of reddish brown hair. She was known for her vivacious personality and, true to her house, unwavering loyalty. He swallowed the lump in his throat. This is just a bit of fun, Severus, he reminded himself sternly, it's not like we're going to torture her or something.
"I-I'm just studying for the Charms quiz tomorrow," she squeaked, standing up and awkwardly gathering her things and moving towards the door. "I'll just, er, leave now…"
"Now, now," Mulciber cut in smoothly, as Avery moved to block the door. "Wouldn't want to force you to get up and leave when you were looking so comfortable there, studying." He laughed mockingly. "After all, getting a quality education is very important."
"Yeah, very important," Avery echoed, sticking out his foot to trip her as she neared the door and then watching, satisfied, as her bottle of ink spilled over a completed essay. "Oops, looks like you'll have to redo that one."
Ellis sniffled, clearly holding back tears. "St-stop."
Mulciber shot a look at Severus, clearly signalling to him that it was his turn to pick up the mean banter, so he added half-heartedly, "Stop, Ellis? Where's the please?"
Mulciber laughed in satisfaction, "Yes, didn't your mummy teach you your manners, Ellis?"
The girl let out a sob, and bolted for the door, calling out "Help! Help!" only to fall on her face when Mulciber hit her with a Leg-Locker Curse.
"Hel-!" She tried again, but this time it was Severus who shut her up with an quick Silencing Charm. His misgivings had fallen to the background, replaced with a cold, hard knot inside his chest. Maybe it was her tears - he couldn't stand crying, it reminded him of when he was the one forced into that same humiliation. He could almost hear the echoes in his ears: Snivellus Snape, Snivellus Snape.
"What's the matter, Ellis?" He said viciously. "Was it what he said about your mummy? Your dirty, Muggle, mummy?"
She whimpered and he faltered slightly, but snapshots of his father's – his Muggle father's – cruelty sped through his head, hardening his resolve. He could vaguely hear Avery and Mulciber laughing behind him, but he was focused only on his next cutting taunt.
"It's no wonder you have no manners, it's only to be expected of a Mudblood." The knot in his chest seemed to squeeze as he spoke the final word, and he looked down at the partially immobilized girl beneath him, tears streaming down her face. His vision blurred, as if he were the one crying, and for a second it seemed like her hair brightened to fiery red, her blue eyes replaced by almond-shaped green ones. Lily.
He stepped back, disgusted with himself. No wonder Lily wanted nothing more to do with him. Just now, he'd acted no better than Potter and his gang. Maybe that was all he could be - the bullied or the bully. He took another step back, and another, and then turned and fled the room.
xxxxx
Someone was in trouble. Spinning to face the origin of the cry for help, Lily broke into a run. Reaching the stairs, she faltered. It couldn't be too much farther, but should she go up or down? Then the cry sounded again, above her, this time cut off midway through. Up, then, she decided grimly, racing up the stairs.
Nearing the top, she saw that she was in the fourth-floor corridor full of empty classrooms. Most of the doors were open, and she began checking each as she moved down the corridor.
Suddenly, a door near the end of the hallway slammed open, and someone stormed out in a flurry of oversized black robes. Severus. Was he-? She opened her mouth to call out to him, but he barely seemed to register her presence as he ran past her. The one look she got at his face revealed a twisted grimace, but before she could see anything more he was gone.
She almost ran after him, but then realized that there must be at least one more person in that classroom. The attacker, if Severus had been the victim, or the victim, if Severus — she took a deep breath, steadying herself — if Severus had been the attacker. Making up her mind, she strode over to the door Severus had emerged from and yanked it open.
It took her a single glance around the room to assess the situation. Calla Ellis, a smart Hufflepuff second-year she'd tutored in Charms once was on the floor, legs locked and silent tears tracing their way down her face. Avery, only a few feet away from her, in the middle of a sentence - something about whether or not he should go after Severus? Mulciber, with a cruel leer and a wand already drawn as he turned towards her.
"Well well well, just look who it is." He smirked.
Lily's wand seemed to leap into her hand as she stepped between the two wannabe Death Eaters and the young girl. "Leave her alone. You two have absolutely no right to bully people like this."
"You don't get to order us around, Mudblood-" Avery started, but Mulciber waved a hand for him to stand down.
"Only two? Why, Severus must have passed you when he left just now. Surely even a dim Mudblood like you can deduce that he was here too? Oh, but I remember now — you used to fancy him. Well then, of course a goodie-goodie Gryffindor like you doesn't want to believe he was teasing a helpless little itty bitty firstie, do you? Then let me set you straight, Evans. He's realized that there are much better tags he can do with his time than even think about going out with someone as dirty as you. Frankly, it would taint his future. No, things are much better off this way."
Lily was slightly taken aback by this malicious speech. Some of it she knew was a lie, but so much of it made her uncertain — had he really decided against the Light, against trying for her, once and for all? Looking down at the terrified Calla, she realized she wouldn't find that as hard to believe as once might have. Her expression remained cool as she spoke.
"Well, that's his decision then. However, it still stands that what you did was wrong. I could report you for this, you know. Using offensive magic outside of class, on a lower year, even — well, how do you fancy cleaning the trophy cases for a month or two?."
Avery shot a look at Mulciber, who gave a slight nod. Without further warning, Avery turned and shot a stunner at her.
Fortunately, Lily had noticed the signal, and was prepared with a shield charm. She quickly retaliated with a stinging hex, which caught Avery right in the face, causing him, to stumble back, cursing.
Mulciber was quick to take his place, but Lily once again managed to block his curse. She tried another stinging hex, followed up by a quick "Expelliarmus!" but Mulciber was faster than Avery and blocked both of them, and the slicing hex he volleyed back at her grazed her arm, leaving a shallow cut.
Gritting her teeth against the sharp sting of pain, Lily raised her wand again, catching Mulciber with a Full Body Bind, and he stiffened, falling to the floor.
Too focused on Mulciber, Lily didn't realize Avery was sneaking up behind her until her legs snapped together, and she nearly fell over. Unlike young Calla, though, she had her wand in her hand and after a quick fumble, reversed the curse, then spun and advanced on Avery.
Avery was clearly realizing he wasn't going to win, and a look of panic spread across his face. Jabbing his wand at Lily, he wildly cast one more spell. "Sectumsempra!"
As the white light streaked towards her, Lily felt as if time sped up – one moment she was standing, wand in hand, and the next she was lying on the ground, mind clouded by pain and blood staining the floor around her. Dimly, she noticed the now-revived Mulciber yelling something at Avery, then the two of them fleeing the room, leaving her alone with Calla, who was twisting around like she was trying to get up.
'Shit, I didn't fix Calla's legs…' was her last, slightly delirious thought as she slipped into the painless bliss of unconsciousness.
xxxxx
Severus barely registered whoever it was he passed as he ran blindly down the corridor. The only thought in his mind was to get out, get out, get out, as if maybe he could force himself out of his own body. He tripped on the last step of the blasted staircase and landed hard on his ankle, crumpling to the ground.
He felt tears dripping down the end of his hooked nose and rubbed them away angrily, face contorting as he imagined what a sorry sight he must look at the moment. A sallow, greasy-haired teenager crying in a heap at the bottom of a staircase.
Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to pull himself together. You're not a fucking overemotional Gryffindor, for Merlin's sake. No, he prided himself on his impassivity, and his ability to be truthful to himself – and that meant sorting this out, properly thinking over what had happened.
What had come over him? He'd teased and taunted people like that before. There was always that tiny niggling feeling that 'this isn't right,' but he could always forget it when he channeled his own pain, from his father, from the Marauders – he really wasn't picky. Something had come over him this time, though, when he'd spitefully uttered the word Mudblood. Calla had suddenly seemed to resemble– oh. Lily. It always came back to Lily, and that seemingly simple request she'd made of him last year.
He leaned his head against the wall. This had suddenly become a much larger moral dilemma, and he wasn't sure a quick sorting out of his mind at the bottom of a staircase would be enough to come to a conclusion.
Suddenly, something clicked in his mind and he sat straight up in alarm. The person he'd past after he left the classroom had been his year, definitely female, and he distinctly remembered a flash of bright red hair. Heading straight for the classroom he'd just left. Fuck. He got to his feet, wincing slightly as he put his weight on his ankle.
Before he could do anything else, however, a slow thump, thump, thump and then a crash sounded above him. Could it be–?
Ignoring the twinge in his ankle, he took the stairs two at a time, breathing heavily. When he reached the top of the stairs, he didn't know whether to be worried or relieved when he saw it that it was Calla Ellis, not Lily.
Her legs were still locked together, and she had clearly been bunny-hopping down the entire corridor until she fell just now. Dislike spread across her face as she recognized him mingled with the expression of fear and worry that was already there. He fished his wand out of his robe and quickly reversed the curse on her, and in a rare fit of apology, awkwardly offered his hand to help her up. She rejected his offer, glaring at him scrambling to her feet on her own. Her worried expression returned as she spoke, renewed tears shining in her .
"It-it's Lily, Lily Evans. Avery, h-he cursed her. She-she's bleeding everywhere. Pl-please, help."
"Go to the hospital wing. Get Madam Pomfrey. Hurry!" Ellis nodded and scurried off, and Severus hurried towards the door, dread coursing through him.
Severus yanked open the door. He'd already known what he would see, but that somehow made it even worse. Lily lay unconscious on the floor in a pool of her own blood.
A/N: Thanks for reading! What do you think? Please review if you have anything to say :) ~FelixFelicis13