The Secret of Severus Snape, Slytherin

Prologue:

It was amusing, Severus thought, as he slowly made his way through the tunnel, how blind people could be when they chose to close their eyes and only see what they wished to see.

He was well aware that at the end of his journey, he would be facing a werewolf. He had known about Lupin since the middle of their first year, when he finally connected his monthly absences to the full moon. It had been quite entertaining watching his friends flounder for the better part of three years, before they finally figured it out. He had told Lily, of course, but she had brushed it off as unimportant. He agreed that it was. Despite his bad blood, Lupin was too spineless to pose a threat, and Severus had been content to keep his silence on the matter.

That had been before.

Before Gryffindor House finally succeeded ripping Lily away from him, clouding her earlier so astute judgement. Before she had started parroting the stigma the other Houses felt towards his own, and by her generalisations categorised him with the devil, causing him to lash out so viciously at the end of last year.

It had been before Potter and Black crossed the line, taking their humiliations of him too far, dangling him up-side-down with his own spell, for the whole school to see.

He had had enough, now. Enough of Lily's stony, Gryffindor self-righteous silence. Enough of the Marauder's – and really, what an idiotic label to claim – bullying. Enough of the passive dismissal of the teachers, and the applauds of the other students, every time they found some new torment to inflict on him. Enough of being the victim, despite the fact that he could easily take down all four of the Marauder's, if he were willing to go to Azkaban for it, which he wasn't.

No, he was going do to better.

A smile momentarily twisted his lips, before his features moulded back into the disinterested sneer he had perfected through the years.

He was done being the victim. He was done trying to make it up to Lily, trying to apologise when she was in the wrong as well. He was done letting the teachers overlook the faults of their Golden Gryffindors.

It had been so easy to rile Black. The idiot had taken the bait quickly, thinking he was so darned clever. His left hand went to the pocket where he had put the note he had found in his Transfiguration book. He had to hand it to Black, though, the handwriting was a perfect replica of Lily's. In fact, had it not been for Lily giving him the cold shoulder ever since The Accident, he would have been hard pressed not to believe that it actually was Lily asking him to meet him secretly so that they could overcome their differences. There was really only one fault, and that was only to someone who knew the supposed author as well as he did, and who was in possession of an exceptional sense of smell, which was the only true compensation of his enormous berk. Instead of Lily's scent, her natural flavour mixed with her favourite perfume, the note smelled faintly of dog.

They thought he was stupid enough to fall for this, when he knew perfectly well that Lily was now forever out of his reach. He regretted that, but somewhere deep inside, he had always known their friendship was too good to last. Nothing good ever lasted for long. He had made peace with that, now, but he would have his revenge.

They thought Lupin would scare him off, or kill him. Bbviously, Black had not thought about the repercussions should Lupin succeed in either killing him, or merely pass on his cursed disease. Neither had he fully contemplated whether or not Severus was more dangerous than a raging, adolescent werewolf.

That was three mistakes rolled into one, and one Severus would make him regret.

Potter and Black were very protective of their little, bookish friend, and Severus knew that hurting him would be the fastest, most effective way of hurting both of them at once. The note was a nice touch, too. It had infuriated the mangy mutt that he had ignored the hints, which, since Gryffindors simply are that stupid, had been more like glaring neon signs impossible to overlook. The fact that he reacted to the note, went here for Lily, would throw in a good deal of guilt for her as well. Yes, he should not have called her a Mudblood, but their fighting had started long before that one word, and she had called his housemates, and by association him, equally as foul names during their heated arguments. She had known him since that day in the playground, since they were nine years old. She ought to know him better than that he had meant it. He was a halfblood himself. that she was able to simply cut all strings, and bury her nose in her righteous indignation, showed him just how much all her professed love and friendship really meant, how little faith she actually had in him. She had fooled him all these years, and for that she deserved to suffer the guilt of his near-death.

The other houses thought they knew what it meant to be a Slytherin, and condemned the house. They were wrong, and they were right. A Slytherin always paid his debts, with interests, and that was what Severus would do this night.

He did not feel bad about using Lupin as he was going to. While the boy had never actually done anything to Severus, he had not prevented his friends from doing so either, despite the fact that he was a prefect. Lupin was so ridden by his disease that he had developed into a spineless doormat, willing to let anyone use him for a kind word.

Well, if that was how Lupin wanted to play, Severus had no qualms following the rules. He would use Lupin, just as Black sought to do tonight. But while Black wanted to use Lupin to ruin Severus' life, Severus would use the werewolf to get back at his tormentors, and his teachers, while teaching the spineless little coward a lesson.

They would all regret ever messing with Severus Snape.

As he neared the end of the tunnel, his ears picked up on the enraged sounds the beast he was soon going to face emitted.

Taking a deep breath, he focused on what he was about to do. He cleared his mind of all but the task before him, and continued on his way, secure in the knowledge that the spells he had cast upon himself to make him both soundless and scent-free would hold, and the beast would have no forewarning of his arrival before they were face to face.

Any other would have probably quailed at the prospect of facing a werewolf head on, but Severus had grown up at Spinners End, and faced the hardships of the neighbourhood, along with the drunken wrath of Tobias, and he felt no fear at the prospect of facing violence.

The only thing that could rattle Severus' unflappable calm was the gentler emotions. Emotions he had not been the recipient of since he broke with Lily, and his mother's death four years previously.

Shaking off the thoughts of the only two people he had ever cared for, he slowly advanced to the solid door leading from the damp, dark tunnel into the haunted den of a raging werewolf.

He loosened his white-knuckled grip on his wand, relaxing his tense muscles. This should be over soon. It was just like a home, the werewolf was his father in a drunken rage, and he had survived all the way to sixteen. The only difference between now and his past experiences was that this time he could actually fight back without risking loosing everything. He knew enough, was skilled enough, to succeed. And should he fail – a cynical glint entered his eyes, his lips twisting into a diabolical smirk – he would be free of his miserable existence, and the Headmaster would have no choice but take action against Lupin. Not even a manipulative, prejudiced old bastard like him could allow a werewolf who had tasted human flesh to run free. But he would not fail. He would not!