DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING JK ROWLING DOES!
About a week later, Snape noticed Rose walking down the hall towards him, with Mrs. Norris at her feet. She was reading, and whenever she was about to run into someone the cat would nudge her ankles and make some sort of sound. Once she did this, Rose would respond, obviously in the cat's tongue. As the odd pair walked past a group of girls, the group stopped.
"Hey, Rose," one girl said. Snape recognized her as Pansy Parkinson. Rose looked up. "Are you talking to the cat?" Pansy asked accusingly.
Rose blushed. "I –"
"I knew it!" Pansy shrieked. "You're such a freak!" she said as the other two girls cackled. Rose hung her head. "Freak!" she squealed as she shoved Rose and walked quickly off with her posse.
Snape watched as she fell backwards and hit her head on the edge of the window. He winced as he heard her hit the floor, and hurried when she didn't get up. As he knelt beside her, she opened her eyes.
"Are you alright?" he asked her. She nodded.
"Did you…see that?" she asked. He nodded. "I'm sorry," she said.
"It's not your fault," he said.
"Yes, it is," she said. "If I wasn't a…a freak, Pansy would have had no reason to –"
"No," he said. "She's just jealous. That she's ordinary, and you're special." Snape remembered the last time he had said those exact words. Lily, sweet Lily, had said to him…
"That's mean, Professor," Rose said as she tried to smile. Snape started. Yes, that was almost exactly what Lily had said to him. He was really going to need to look into this. He helped her up; she thanked him and walked away quickly. Snape walked back to his office, the pain she was attempting to hide nearly killing him. He had seen that look, in almost those same eyes, before.