A/N: Whee!!! Thank you to all of my wonderful reviewers, you guys are awesome! This chapter is where things will start to get a little more interesting, so I hope you thoroughly enjoy it! :)

"Good morning, class."

None of the first years replied. Instead, they were too busy staring at their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher's strange appearance. She wore an ancient green cloak with brown, knee-high boots that had obnoxious brass buckles near the laces. Underneath the curly, vomit-orange wig, they could barely make out a hint of dirty blonde hair, and she had enormous rainbow earrings hanging down her Knut-sized ears. In the cloak's pockets, she seemed to be filled to the brim in gold Galleons.

"I said 'good morning!'" she shrieked and pounded her fist on her desk impatiently, almost snapping her gold wand in the process. Some of the coins jiggled out of her pockets and spilled onto the ground, though she paid no attention to them. Everyone immediately straightened in their seats and mumbled a hasty "good morning" in return.

She calmed down at once, and continued: "I am Professor Chapluck, as you all know from Dumbledore's kind introduction at the Welcoming Feast…"

Sev looked over his shoulder at Lily. He had tried sitting with her at the beginning of class, but the demented professor screamed that there would be order in her class; therefore students must only sit and work with members of their houses.

Now, it looked like Sev would be paired with Remus, since he highly doubted the other two arrogant dunderheads at their table would want to work with him after what happened last night.

They were enraged to see no glittering rubies in their house's hourglass this morning. Strangely, it was Hufflepuff that won the House Cup the last two years, but now it looked as though Slytherin would win this year. James and Sirius, of course, blamed Sev for being sympathetic to Slytherin; saying that he didn't mind losing the House Cup to them. Sev retorted back that he only cared about what house he was in, but the other two wouldn't hear of it.

His only chance to redeem himself was by doing well in his subjects. Charms, he soon learned, was not his best subject. Nor was Transfiguration, but he blamed that on his newfound fear of McGonagall.

As for Defense Against the Dark Arts…he had every intention of being the best in this class.

While Chapluck droned on, he was disappointed to hear that his crazy, Leprechaun-obsessed teacher would mostly resort to teaching them defensive theory, rather than actual magic.

"Today however…I want you all to try Disarming Spells," Chapluck informed them in a stiff voice. "Can anyone give me an example of a simple Disarming Spell?"

Her pale hazel eyes swept over the classroom. With a nervous glance at James, Sev hesitantly raised his hand. His only intention was to earn back their lost house points after all…

"Expelliarmus, professor," he replied in a low voice. To his left, Sirius and James were giving him murderous looks. Remus, on his right, however, gave him an encouraging smile.

"Correct. Five points to…er, Gryffindor, right?"

Feeling the heat rise to his cheeks at Chapluck's uncertainty, he nodded before dropping his head and stared at the new book on his lap.

"One you have read pages twelve through thirty, I want you to pair up and practice this basic spell."

The classroom was quiet for about thirty minutes, until James decided that he was sick of reading about the mechanisms of Disarming Spells and started Transfiguring everyone's quills into bugs instead. Transfiguration, after all, was his best subject, and he couldn't get away with pranking Sev right under Evans's nose, anyways.

"Okay, pair up now," Chapluck told them drearily, not yet noticing the unusually large number of insects scurrying around the room.

"I'm with Remus!" Sirius called out at once, shocking both James and Sev. Even Remus looked pleasantly surprised by this.

"What?!" James yelled at Sirius, not noticing the devilish look on his friend's face as he joined Remus on the other side of the table. James looked at Sev in disgust and glared at Sirius.

Sirius sniggered. "James, I know you could use a bit of help with Disarming…so I figured I'd be nice and let you partner with Snivvy today."

Sev knew it was a joke, for James to be paired with him just because the two loathed each other. He still didn't appreciate the rude nickname, however, and it didn't exactly make him feel better to know that he would always be the "last resort" partner for the three boys.

Slamming his wand on the table with such force that it was amazing he didn't snap it in half, James stood up and gave Sev a death glare. Chapluck then magically Vanished the tables around them and ordered each pair to stand at least fifteen feet away from each other.

James and Sev, much in the same fashion as their duel the previous night, walked to their opposite sides of the room and raised their wands. Sev wasn't really in the mood for another duel, seeing that James was quite angry with Sev, and it was only their third day at Hogwarts. The fact that Gryffindor was already hurting in the house point rankings didn't help either boy's mood either.

"Now remember, we're Disarming only! Detention for anyone who tries otherwise," Chapluck added with a scathing look towards Sev and James. "One…two…three…go!"

"Expelliarmus!" Sev yelled before Chapluck even finished saying "go." James was about to do the same thing, but Sev was quicker, much to his dismay.

Sev's instinctive reaction made the spell stronger than he intended, though, and James was not only Disarmed, but blasted off his feet as well. Once again, Sev felt his cheeks burn as nearly everyone in the room stared at him. The four Slytherin girls towards the back of the room ignored him, at least.

Apparently Laika and Narcissa had paired up, and left Lily to pair up with some other girl Sev didn't recognize.

"Hey Melika, that was good," Lily tried encouraging the other girl after her own wand was sent flying out of her hand on Melika's second try. Instead of appreciating the compliment, however, the girl just scowled.

"Okay…" Lily retrieved her wand and mentally prepared herself for her turn. She'd already tried this spell four times without luck, but as she watched Sev towards the front of the room, she memorized his technique and tried again. "Expelliarmus!"

Melika's eyes widened as the spell hit her, and she was sent flying at a large cabinet behind her, much like James had when Sev's spell hit him. Noticing that Sev had been watching her practice, Lily saw him mouth "nice job" at her, but she was too worried about Melika to respond.

"Expelliarmus!"

Before Sev could return his attention to James, he, too, was blasted off his feet. He landed painfully on his back, feeling it crack in some places from the impact of the fall. He grabbed his wand and leaped to his feet, not wanting to make it look like he was really just hit by Potter's spell. James didn't even try attacking again, however; he just looked on with an air of smugness. Sev scowled, loathing the fact that Potter had managed to Disarm in his moment of distraction.

"I don't know what to think about you Snivellus. You seem so focused one second, and distracted by your ickle girlfriend the next."

Although Lily wasn't his girlfriend, James' words triggered Sev to look over at her again. Her partner was now yelling angrily at her and attempting to shove Lily away by physical force.

"Get away from me!"

"Melika, please…" Lily tried pleading to her, but the girl would hear none of it. The entire class was now watching the strange scene in front of them, save for Professor Chapluck, whom was too busy counting gold on her front desk to pay attention to the class.

"Don't start with me! I know you're just as bad as those two—"

"Hey—" Lily darted a nervous glance over to Narcissa and Laika; both of whom were listening intently along with the rest of their classmates.

"Leave me alone Evans, I know you hate Muggleborns, so stop trying to pretend that you actually care about me!"

Lily was speechless. The entire room went silent, and she felt her cheeks redden in embarrassment. Laika and Narcissa were waiting anxiously for her to respond. It was the moment of truce: fess up to her lie in front of everyone and possibly lose her only friends, or go the hypocrite route. Inwardly cursing herself and completely avoiding Sev's gaze, she responded quietly: "No! I...well...fine. Have it your way then."

With another quick glance at her two friends, Lily added coldly: "And I'd appreciate it if you didn't insult my friends, thanks."

Laika and Narcissa came up behind her and stood on either side of her, putting their hands on her shoulders in support. Somehow, Lily didn't feel very appreciative of this and wished for nothing more than to disappear.

"Anything else you want to say, Mudblood?" Laika sneered at Melika, whom by now, had realized that everyone was watching her. Her defiant expression vanished, and she now looked at the surrounding crowds of students, feeling humiliated by the lack of support from everyone, even the other houses that usually supported Muggleborns.

From the other side of the room, Sev stared at Lily in shock. Did she really just say what he thought she said? How…how could she let her 'friends' get away with that? They had called the other girl a Mudblood…and Lily just stood there and allowed it! Sev didn't want to confront her in front of everyone, but he had never felt so disappointed in his friend before…

xXxXxXxXx

"This is effing ridiculous," Sirius complained angrily as he scrubbed harder at the grime on the ancient trophy in his hands.

"I'll bet Malfoy planned the whole thing…how convenient that her brother shows up and doesn't give them detention…"

Sev tuned the other two out and focused on his trophy. It was nearly golden-colored again, and he could barely read that it was an old Quidditch trophy from 1942. After only pausing for a few seconds, he felt Filch rap him over the head with his cane and bark for him to keep working.

He couldn't believe that on his third day at Hogwarts they had already managed to get a detention. He thought the fifty points taken from Gryffindor was bad enough, but on top of that, McGonagall had found it prudent to give the trio detention as well. The worst part was undoubtedly having to do this manually, rather than magically.

Normally he would have been furious to have to do everything like a Muggle, but at the moment, his mind was elsewhere. He still couldn't believe what Lily had done in Defense today…not only had she failed to support a fellow Muggleborn Slytherin, but she sided with Laika and Narcissa. Those girls were from some of the oldest pureblood lines in the Wizarding world, Sev knew, and they hated Muggleborns like the rest of Slytherin did apparently. Did Lily forget she was a Muggleborn or…?

Suddenly, he felt a wave of cold realization wash over him: Lily had always been worried about becoming an outcast before coming to Hogwarts. Maybe she hadn't even told her house about being Muggleborn but…nope, that definitely made sense. Not mentioning her Muggle mother to Slughorn…James's comment about her being a half-blood at the duel…and now this. It all fit once Sev connected everything: Lily had lied in order to fit in with her fellow Slytherins.

Still unwilling to believe it, Sev shook these thoughts out of his mind. He must be overreacting…Lily would not have lied. That didn't sound like her at all. She was just too intimidated by her friends to stick up for the other Muggleborn…right? Unfortunately, Sev knew that that wasn't the case. Lily must have lied. Everything fit too well.

Sev wasn't sure if he should feel comforted by this revelation or repulsed. On one hand, he completely understood where Lily was coming from: she just wanted to fit in, something he also desired as a Gryffindor. Considering the fact that besides Lily, he's never had a real friend, he knew he'd be just as willing to fib in order to fit in…

Then again…Lily was in huge trouble if anyone found out…her own friends were from the worst pureblood-ideology families known to the Wizarding world. What if someone found out and told them? Would she be shunned and disregarded like that fourth Slytherin girl from today? Sev shook his head violently, not wanting to think about that right now…

"Sirius," he suddenly heard James whisper in the dimly-lit room. "Filch's gone after Peeves!"

"So…?"

"So," he answered mischievously. "I think that's our dismissal, mate."

"Where are you going?" Sev hissed as he watched the two troublemakers as they attempted to sneak from the room unnoticed. It was obvious they had hoped to depart without him knowing, judging by the annoyed scowls on their faces.

"Out," Sirius replied tersely as he and James tried to jostle their way through the doorway.

"Wait!" Sev chucked the stupid Quidditch trophy aside and ran after them, not wanting to wait for Filch to return and have to explain why his two housemates were gone. "You two can't leave! We'll lose more house points!"

Sirius snorted and looked at James in mock horror. "Oh no! Not the house points!"

"Go away Snivellus, we're leaving and there's nothing you can do to stop us."

"Fine," Sev retorted, highly annoyed by Potter's extreme arrogance. "Then you give me no choice but to follow."

"Follow?!" Sirius yelped and darted a quick glance at James, but he was already striding away, clearly looking for something. Sirius and Sev raced after him. Sev didn't care that they didn't want him around; he was coming to make sure they wouldn't try anything stupid that would drop Gryffindor below the zero point's line again. Down the hall, James had opened a door on the left side of the corridor.

"James!" Sirius yelled as he tore after him and ran into the room. He tried slamming the door in Sev's face, but he was too late: Sev managed to get inside just in time.

"Stupid git," he panted furiously and made an obscene gesture at Sev.

"I could say the same," Sev replied with equal ire. Suddenly, there was a loud rumbling noise from the end of the room, making each boy look up and replace their infuriated glares with looks of puzzlement.

"I found this room earlier today…I was going to find out what was in this thing but…" James trailed off as he ran a hand along the smooth wood of the wardrobe. It was completely dark in this room, so Sev held up his wand and muttered "Lumos." Ignoring the irritated expression on Sirius' face, he, too, followed them over to the end of the room. The light from the tip of the wand spilled onto the shadow-laden ground, making the place seem more frightening than it really was. A low layer of mist poured in through a crack in the window on the far side of the room, making it so cold that Sev felt as though he was about to have his first encounter with dementors…

"What's that?" Sirius asked as James walked over to a shaking wardrobe. Whatever was inside of it, it was not happy, judging by the increasing rattling.

Maybe it is a dementor, Sev thought worriedly as he inched his way backwards. If it was a dementor, he'd much rather see it kiss James or Sirius before it went for his own soul…

"Let's open it," James whispered with a stroke of inspiration. Sirius' face immediately lit up, and the two jerked on either door of the violently-shaking wardrobe. Sev paused and groaned inwardly. Did these two idiots ever think before acting?

The wood splintered slightly as the two boys wrenched open the doors and waited on either side. The rattling immediately ceased; doubling Sev's anxious anticipation for what was inside. While he had expected a dementor to float out of the dresser, what he saw was much worse…

A dark figure walked out, swaying drunkenly to the side as it made its way into Sev's path. Paralyzed with fear, Sev didn't move, but kept his wand held high. James and Sirius started to laugh at this display of fear, but quieted after a moment when they realized that Sev was really, truly scared…

The vague figure looked almost exactly like Sev, except he was older and looked quite mad. It had the same greasy black hair and pale face…its eyes opened, revealing angry raven-colored pupils.

"Oi Snivellus, it's you…" Sirius snorted, trying to make Sev cut it out, but the other boy continued to look on in terror. His entire body shook, but he didn't look away. Instead, his eyes remained fixated in horror on the elderly-version of himself that had just stumbled out of the wardrobe.

"Finished with yer mum," the thing growled as it advanced towards Sev. Its ugly, yellowed-hand was outstretched, ready to grab Sev when he came within its reach. His clothes were revolting and mismatched, giving him the appearance of a homeless Muggle…

"You leave Mum alone!" Sev yelled. He continued shaking and remained frozen to his spot near the exit; his lit wand still aloft. The light grew dimmer, though, the longer he stood there and stared at the figure as though he were in a trance. Maybe it was just the boys' imaginations, but the room seemed to grow chillier as well…

"Weak like yer mum you are…"

"Stop it!" Sev shouted before crumpling to his feet, unable to remain standing any longer. Memories flooded back to him all at once: memories of his parents fighting…his mother's unconscious body lying on the ground amongst the empty bottles…his father raging into the room and kicking her limp form…mocking his son's strangled cries of agony for his mother…the sting of the metal pan thumping across the back of his head…

Darting panicked looks at each other, Sirius and James rushed over to Sev and tried pulling him away from the closely-approaching shadowy figure of Tobias Snape.

"Get away!" Sev screamed. By now he was too delirious to tell who was grabbing him, so he thrashed around wildly in a mad attempt to escape, but Sirius and James held firmly onto either arm, unwilling to let go. Sev was now blinded with hatred for the man whom he had always been forced to refer to as "father." His rage was overwhelming, and having his father show up at Hogwarts, Sev's only refuge from the old man's drunken wrath, made the pain inexplicably worse.

"Severus!" James tried to shake him out of it; unsure of what else to do for the panic-stricken boy. Sev was now writhing so uncontrollably that it would have seemed as though he were placed under a well-cast Cruciatus Curse. Tears fell unashamedly down Sev's face…he wasn't even able to notice that James had used his real name for once…

Looking into the figure's heartless black eyes in front of him, Sev experienced what could have been described as reverse-Occlumency: his father snapping his mum's wand…his tenth birthday present, a wonderful new Potions set, being unceremoniously tossed into the mud…Tobias slaughtering the new owl that Eileen had bought for Sev in Diagon Alley the week before he was set to leave for Hogwarts…

Finally, the stumbling man was just three strides away from the boys. Sev was beyond desperation by now; even the strength of two boys could not keep him quiet with Tobias' figure so close. Sirius felt his grip on Sev slackening; the other boy was drenched in sweat, thus making it quite difficult to continue holding on to him.

"Do something James!" Sirius yelled over Sev's ragged gasps of unfathomable torture. Unsure of what else to do, James jerked his wand out and held it facing the inebriated man. No spell came to his lips however, so he just held his wand out feebly. The man was unfazed by the young wizard's daring, however, and continued forward as though he was going to bulldoze over a mere flower patch.

"NO!" Sev roared as the man's hand came down towards them, reaching only for Sev's hair. The pale white hand soon grasped Sev's greasy black locks and jerked him upwards with surprising force. Sev immediately roared out in pain, temporarily startling the two boys next to him. Sirius and James tried to hold him down, but this only made the man tug harder and harder, to the point where he was ripping huge chunks of hair out of Sev's head. He felt as though his head was splitting open, and resumed crying out in torment as Tobias angrily jerked another handful of hair.

"JAMES!" Sirius bellowed for his friend to do something, lest they prolong their housemate's suffering longer than necessary. His own wand was lying uselessly off to the side and out of reach; if James did nothing, then Sev might be tortured to death right in front of them…

Unbeknownst to the three boys, there was now a fourth person in the room, but they had hidden amongst the shadows; watching the disturbing scene involving the three young Gryffindors and the unruly boggart. James went to open his mouth (not exactly sure of a spell that would repel this monstrous man), but the intruder beat him to it: "Riddikulus."

A/N: Okay, I don't know if boggarts can speak, but for the sake of the plot, let's assume they can. Who was the mysterious fourth person? I suppose you will have to find out later! *evil laughter*

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