The Mind of a Bully

Remus stared open-mouthed at Snape.

Snape had done that for him? He'd sacrificed himself for the werewolf that he was convinced had been part of plan to kill him? Was it possible that Snape was good all along, and that they had just been prejudiced towards him the entire time?

"Stupefy," he heard Harry's voice echo and merely raised his head briefly to see the Deatheater go down heavily.

Remus was suddenly all too aware if the fact the Snape was on top of him and that he was dead. His breathing became shallow and rapid and he tried to pull himself from under Snape. Sirius helped his friend up, and stared in disbelief at the body on the floor.

"Sir?" came Hermione's timid voice from the back of the group. Remus looked around quickly and she made her way towards him.

"This...I find helps," she said quietly waving her wand and passing the conjured chocolate to Remus. Remus smiled down at her, and the memory of his first meeting with Harry. He quickly broke the chocolate into nine pieces and passed it round.

Remus pushed the thick chunk of chocolate into his mouth quickly. The effects of dementors wore off quickly but the reality of what lay in front of him did not, and his insides squirmed uncomfortably.

"Right..." he said trying to control his shaking voice, he cleared his throat.
"We need to get going again...everybody ok? Nymphadora?" he asked looking around for her.

She popped her head up and nodded quickly throwing him an extremely perplexed look. Remus nodded and sidestepped Snape and continued on the way out. It wasn't far now.

The steps through the archway were in sight and Remus controlled the childish urge to run for them. They were still about twenty feet away.

"We're nearly there," he muttered behind him, turning briefly to see the smiles spreading across his friend's faces.

"Don't be so sure," he heard a voice in front of him say. Remus did a double take as Snape stepped around a corner just off to the left of the archway. Remus felt an icy chill run through him.

"Snape?" he said quietly throwing an arm out to stop the others behind him, he was extremely unsure about this. They'd left Snape's body back down the hall, having no way of bringing it back with them without hindering their progress.

"Yes," drawled Snape fingering his wand lightly, his eyes trained on the group in front of him.

"But...but...you died," blurted Moony pushing himself forward to the side of Remus.

Snape merely raised his eyebrows at him, and he took a painfully long time answering the question.

"Did I?," he muttered looking at his wand, before he clicked his fingers.
"Oh right...you mean Severus Snape from the future died," he finished looking up.

Harry reacted first, this was not their friend and companion...this was Snape the Death Eater.

He thrust his wand at Snape Levicorpus he thought hard. But this Snape was quicker and more cunning than the other.

He waved his wand in complicated twisting motion as the spell shot towards him, finally the spell connected with his wand with an explosive bang.

Lily saw what Snape was doing a second too late and she pulled Tonks down and cast a shield over both of them.

Remus, Moony, Sirius, Harry, Ron, Hermione and James all flew upwards and hung their as if something was holding on to their ankles. Their wands clattered to the ground in the confusion whilst Snape smirked at his actions.

"Whoops," he sneered staring up at the group lazily,
"Didn't really want to loose those did you,"

Remus glared at him, he didn't think he could hate Snape more.

Snape grinned up at them, whilst they twisted themselves helplessly trying to get down. Snape finally glanced down and his eyes fell on Lily and Tonks still knelt on the floor covered by, what looked like, a translucent blue bubble.

Snape eyes sparkled to life, he looked transported. Remus, with great difficulty, looked underneath and behind himself and suddenly felt quite sick.

"Don't you dare," he breathed heavily, flailing around. Snape chuckled at him mockingly. Snape came to halt directly in front of Remus, and their eyes met.

"Or you'll what?" he hissed. Remus said nothing, he was now starting to feel very unwell and decided that staying still my be a better idea. Snape snorted at him, before moving on through the crowd of heads.

"I thought not," he called back.

He stopped at James, who despite being upside-down looked very pale. He'd never been in such a vulnerable state when Snape was in the vicinity and he really didn't like the look Snape was giving him.

"Potter," he spat. James just took a very deep breath. Snape drew his arm back and punched James hard in the nose. He felt the crunch of bone and cartilage beneath his knuckles and smiled, in a very satisfied way, as James let out an anguished yelp and blood poured from his nose.

"Why you filthy little..."

"Don't you start Black I can punch for as long as I want as long as I have you lot like this." Snape cut across stomping angrily over to Sirius. Sirius remained impassive, preferring to look strong instead of completely threatened.

"You haven't changed at all...you may have become a Death Eater but you still need your opponent to be disabled in some way to get the better of them," Sirius said loudly...he had seen what the others hadn't...Lily and Tonks were getting up and they looked pissed off...he needed to keep Snape talking.

Snape glared at Sirius, he was breathing very hard and he could practically hear the rush of blood in his ears. Punching Sirius at the moment, like he had with James, was very appealing but Sirius was testing him. He held Sirius' gaze for a while thinking, before giving a nonchalant shrug and punching Sirius hard in the face. Sirius cursed under his breath, holding his mouth and nose.

"I don't care," Snape muttered turning around quickly.

"Stupefy!" shouted Tonks pointing her wand at Snape. Snape grinned as he deflected it and flicked his wand throwing her back against the wall.

"Nym," croaked Remus, now feeling increasingly dizzy. She was stirring, she was alive still then.

"Petrifi..." started Lily but was thrown off her feet and she slid back across the floor.

"No no no Miss Evans," jeered Snape steeping close to Lily wagging his finger at her. She looked up at him warily.

"Potter!" James shouted huskily from behind.

"What was that?" Snape shouted turning round.

"Her name is Lily Potter," growled James, wiping the blood from his eyes as he squinted at Snape.

Snape raised his eyebrows at James. He glanced back at the girls who were on the floor. They were boring.

He strode back to his dangling prisoners again. Moony was his target this time. He drew up level with him and gazed into Moony's amber eyes.

"What?" Moony growled impatiently, and he closed his eyes briefly to clear the spots forming in front of his eyes.

"Nothing I was just trying to work out how it feels to be a monster...to feel incapable of being loved," Snape said airily looking over Moony's face as if appraising an antique.

"The monster part is easier...I imagine this..." he prodded a finger into Moony's back and smiled as Moony let out an involuntary gasp. "...still hurts,"

Moony grimaced at him.

"See some wounds heal quicker than others," answered Snape before anybody could question why Moony's back, although healed, still hurt.

"Incapable of being loved though that's got to be hard," mused Snape walking around Moony slowly.

"We're not," came Remus' voice from beside Snape and Snape abruptly turned his attention to him.

Lily seeing this welcome distraction acted quickly. She pushed herself carefully off the floor. She was only half listening to Snape taunt Remus, and she scrabbled towards the semi-conscious Tonks.

"Tonks," he whispered urgently. Tonks opened her eyes slowly and stirred.

"Mmmm," she mumbled.

"Are you ok?...how's..." Lily stopped herself, seeing as Tonks had no idea of her condition. "...your head?" she finished hoping Tonks hadn't noticed her pause.

"Er fine," Tonks replied sitting up properly and rubbing her head slowly.

"We're going to have to work together," whispered Lily nodding towards Snape's back. From what they could see Remus was going to crack any moment so acting quickly would be good.

"Ok," sad Tonks standing up and helping Lily up as well, and she whispered furiously into her ear.

Lily nodded slowly as Tonks pulled away from her they grasped hands, pointing their wands at Snape.
"Temporalis nullus veneficium," they shouted together.

Two jets of light shot out of their wands and intertwined together swirling towards Snape. He turned around just in time to see the violet spell connect with him and he fell roughly to the ground, all his magic drained temporarily

"Stupefy!" shouted Tonks, stunning Snape just in case.

"Erm..." mumbled Lily staring p at the still suspended people.
"...anyone know the counter spell?"

"It's liberacorpus, but it's non verbal," muttered Harry quietly with his hand over his eyes...he sounded ready to faint.

"Oh..." Lily said pointing her wand at them and staring hard. Remus felt whatever force had hold of his ankle let go and he fell to the floor. He sat up slowly rubbing his shoulder that he'd landed on.

"Nym," he mumbled standing up and enveloping her in a heartfelt hug. Looking to his right he saw Harry and Hermione locked in a similar embrace.

"Come here you two," sighed Lily standing over James and Sirius who were still holding their noses. They stood up looking sulky.

"Episkey," she muttered pointing her wand at Sirius, who let go of his nose as it fixed itself in place.

"If I had been the right way up he would..."

"Yes I know Sirius," grinned Lily now turning her wand on James and fixing his nose.

The group set off again soon after and James and Sirius were sure to give the unconscious past Snape a swift kick each, contented grins on their faces.