Hi!

Thanks for the reviews, those always cheer me up :) I hope you enjoy the chapter. I am sorry that it has taken so long to update.

-EveryJohn

Marauders were having dinner in The Great Hall. James Potter listened intently as the others went through the events of the afternoon. The head boy was good audience sighing and exclaiming at all the right times. He was also at least a bit envious, having missed the actual excitement, which made the story even sweeter to tell.

"Hades´s Furies, what was that, Padfoot! Your meek brother acts like a completely different person. Did he catch that nasty attitude from spending the summer with Snape?" James exasperated when the others told him about their encounter with Sirius´s brother.

"All I know is that my brother is not normally anything like that. He doesn´t usually stand even for himself and now he almost bit off my head for talking bad about Snivellius. What the Circe!" Sirius grumbled, poking green peas and carrot bites around the plate.

"What is it then? Some kind of a potion?" James wondered, looking worried.

Sirius shook his head putting a forkful of meat in his mouth. After chewing it down he added: "Probably not. Slughorn claimed that a potion with such effects doesn't exist."

"It could still be Snivellius´s own creation. What about imperio? The Greaseball sure is capable of that", Peter suggested. The three others exchanged looks, considering his words.

"I don´t think so, Peter. It seems that Snape is quite powerful, but to pull off imperioing a Manticore while still keeping another long-time imperio going on... You must admit, it is hardly possible. He was already showing signs of spell-exhaustion when Headmaster rescued him. He would not have had time to renew the curse, either", Lupin pondered thoughtfully. "I don't think that it is magic this time. Sorry."

Sirius groaned. "No, you are right, Moony..." He shook his head disappointed. "Regulus has always been kind of naive. He used to follow me around. It was sometimes so annoying. I used to get in lots of trouble and therefore he too, but Reggie never learned", Sirius reminisced, "I think, Snivellius may have managed to convince him that we are the bad ones. Do you remember that Lily used to think that too before she got to know his foul side. And she is Gryffindor. My brother has lived with my parents and a stinky house-elf and in the school he was put with the Slytherins. He might base his opinion of decent people on them."

"Should we do something, Padfoot?" James asked, frowning.

"What could we do, James? I suppose that Sirius could talk to him, but I don´t see their relationship being good enough for him to listen", Lupin reasoned, shrugging his shoulders.

"It would have been great if Dumbledore had expelled the Greaseball! If he was gone, maybe that way Regulus would have had a chance to see reason", Sirius muttered darkly. His fingers clenched into fists from suppressed anger.

Others gave him sympathetic looks and James put an arm around his tense shoulders. "Don´t be depressed about that, Padfoot. Your brother will see Snivellius´s real face, sooner or later", he consoled. Then his face brightened up in a way that others knew to mean that he had come up with something. "Maybe we could organize something to cheer you up! Hallowe'en feast is coming. Treats are on the house but the tricks... I think that the whole school has put their faith in Marauders. We should not disappoint their trust, should we? Maybe we could even do something to flush a certain overgrown bat out of its cave."

/

There were multiple good reasons why Severus had chosen to continue the Care of Magical Creatures on N.E.W.T. level. The chance to collect ingredients used in potions for free was one (for the same reason, he had chosen also Herbology). Wand waving didn´t have important role in the subject (that had definitely been a bonus with his old wand). Furthermore, he found creatures interesting. The only considerable setback was that in the lessons he was stuck with three of the four Marauders. The werewolf took the subject. (Obviously. He was a creature himself, after all.) Pettigrew, who often struggled with more theoretical subjects, must have opted it for easy grades. Black had probably joined the group for similar reasons, though Severus would not put past the dog-faced psychopath that a chance to torment him had also played a part. Only Potter himself had dropped the subject. The quidditch captain had made it known early on that he aimed to become an auror and therefore concentrated on the recommend subjects, which included Transfiguration, Herbology and Charms but not Care of Magical Creatures for some reason. Out of the three remaining Marauders, Lupin was the most harmless (except the time of full moon). At very least he seemed genuinely interested in creatures. The other two, on the other hand, got easily bored and tended to cause havoc.

Strong hostility had been brewing between the snakes and the lions since the fight of the sorting night. Severus had sensed the electricity in the air immediately after his arrival. Professor Kettleburn, who taught the subject was a broad-minded wizard with a shaggy beard. He was not known for his quick wit or ability to read finer tunes of social situations. At the time, his full focus had already been on the manticore he was about to show to the students. The professor had talked excitedly about the beast, failing to notice how his students were just waiting for a chance to hex each other. Then Black had suddenly thrown a sloppy jelly-legs jinx at Severus. Pettigrew had tried to use the distraction to dump a dung bomb inside his robe collar. The childish stunt could have easily destroyed his new school robe beyond repair, but Severus, who had already predicted something like that to happen, had side-stepped and avoided the entire attack. The bomb had lapsed from the hands of the small Marauder. It had rolled over to Professor Kettleburn´s feet, where it had finally come to a stop. For a second everything had been calm. Then the nasty grenade had gone off. It had given a barely noticeable bang and started filling the air with sickening stink of sulfur.

Mulciber and Avery had rushed to rough up Pettigrew almost as one man. With little or no effort the two bulky Slytherins had made the plump boy whine for mercy. Black had hurried to aid his friend. He had pushed Avery backwards. The Slytherin had lost his balance and rammed into a Hufflepuff Ines Shacklebolt. The girl had dropped over and scraped her knee. Behind their backs the manticore, which the professor had just carefully guided out of its cage, had risen on its hind legs. A sharp whipping sound had made the students look up.

Professor Kettleburn had been on his knees on the ground, looking astonished and holding a stump which was left of his arm. Blood had rushed from the severed limb in a high, red curve. Some of the red liquid had hit the horrified faces of the nearest students. Next, all hell had broken loose. Teenagers had scattered further from the beast in complete disarray, screaming and shrieking.

When the thestrals had appeared from the forest, most students had not been able to see them. They had been crashing on the creatures while attempting to escape and the panic had just escalated. Severus had used sonorus charm combined with his best commanding voice to get the others to listen. As a last measure he had even delivered several capsulcaptivuses to save some of his schoolmates from their own stupidity.

When the situation had been already almost under control, the idiotic Parkinson girl had suddenly, without any warning, attempted to flee. Severus had seen the Manticore slowly tense its muscles. The thick red mane of the deathly creature had swayed gracefully before the beast had taken after the running girl. The absurd sense of surrealism had finally broken, when the beast had uplifted its tail, preparing to strike the girl with its poison stinger. At that moment, Severus had lost his cool and simply rushed after it, leaving the cover of the thestrals. With a sharp hand movement, that was like a second nature to him after hours of repetition, he had lashed the flesh severing curse of his own creation at the tail of the beast.

/

Severus had realized how difficult it was to find any magic, which worked effectively against spell resistant dark creatures, only after coming face to face with a transformed werewolf in a full moon night over two years ago. Those kind of spells existed, of course, but usually were too complicated to attempt alone or in hurry. His continuous research had finally enabled the creation of his own signature curse: Sectum sembra. It was ironic that if Ministry of magic had been aware of the full potential of his creation, they would most likely have forbidden its use from all but trained aurors. Still it was not dark magic. Actually strictly speaking it was not even a real curse.

/

The Sectum Sembra, which he had launched on the beast had been faultless. It had worked just as designed. Even the aim had been spot on. The spell had whacked straight to the muscular tail of the beast, cleanly severing the deathly stinger. While the wounded beast had been howling from pain, Parkinson had continued running. Severus could have sworn that the girl didn´t even realize, what had just occurred behind of her back and how close to death she had been.

The riled beast had jerked its head back and forth, hissing and growling in frustration. It had circled around in soft, dangerous, steps, searching for the attacker. Finally, its icy blue eyes had locked on a thin, black-haired human standing alone, apart from the group.

Severus had briefly considered a desperate run. He had known that he had a narrow but real chance of making it to the others before getting caught. Hiding behind the thestrals among the other students sounded good, but the problem was that Severus could not be sure, how the wizard killer would react and if the thestrals were capable of fighting it off if it came to that.

Severus had made his decision quickly. The beast had already been running at him at full speed. It had been clear to him that the furious manticore would not give him multiple chances. He had to make his only chance to count and only one curse, which he knew, could hopefully stop a magic resistant wizard killer in time without additional casualties. Unfortunately, it was not sectum sembra. Despite the dread that coursed through him making him both sweat and shiver, Severus had forced himself to look straight to azure blue eyes, without blinking or faltering. The beast had advanced rapidly. Severus had voiced the incantation quietly and let the misty yellow curse hit the beast. "Imperio!"

/

Eileen Snape had started the process. The paranoid and bitter witch had chosen poverty stricken life with a drunkard husband in a shadowy part of a puny muggle town. She had completely forsaken her former life of magic. But like in every rule, there had been a single exception to the no-magic rule. Over ten years ago, as soon as his son had reached the age of six, Eileen Snape had started training his childish mind. She had been somewhat natural in mental arts like so many of the Princes and had not needed a wand to use this power.

Oh, how Severus had loathed his mother´s twisted mind poking cruelly around in his. Still he had also desired it. Despite the pain and humiliation, his mothers whole attention had never been in him as much as in those sessions. As a young boy he had thirsted for it like a dying fish.

Severus´s skills had developed and eventually surpassed his mother´s. Even after that he had continuously polished his mind, time after time. His mind had become a weapon. Sharpest, deadliest and most precise.

/

The beast had stopped on its tracks.

/

Severus had fallen down from exhaustion immediately after Headmaster had taken charge. He had almost ran out of magic before the help had finally arrived. Magical beasts were much more difficult targets of mind magic than human beings.

The cruel mental backlash of using dark magic had followed as he had known it would. It had made him more vulnerable and volatile than usual. He had barely ever felt as foolish as in front of the laughing Gryffingors and condemning professors. A part of Severus had bitterly wished that he had left them for the wizard killer to feast on. If imperio was so unacceptable, they could have tried something "light" and peaceful such as a cheering charm on it.