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Chapter Four: Whipping Boys
If he had been hoping for a discreet return to the Slytherin common room, Severus had set himself up for another disappointment in life. Although, it went well at first. He slipped through the entrance quietly, drawing no attention from the two third years playing Wizard Chess at the nearest table. His footsteps were soft against the cold stone floor as he tried to make his way to the back door leading to his dorm, sticking to the green tinged shadows where the subdued, subterranean light failed to reach. Then he passed a large window just as the Giant Squid swam past, drawing the attention of Avery.
"SNAPE! YOU'RE OUT!"
Because of course the boy had to yell his name across the whole room, drawing the attention of everyone present. Before Severus could form a reply, a large arm locked itself around his narrow shoulders and he found himself being marched across the room. He had to squirm and twist his neck up to see that it was Mulciber that had him in his iron grip.
"What those bastards did to you, Snape. We can't let that go unanswered." It was Theodore Nott speaking, a man whose son Severus was still teaching not so long ago. He fixed their little group through cold, blue eyes, watching as Mulciber dropped Severus onto a leather sofa by the fire. This far underground, their walls surrounded by the freezing depths of the Great Lake, the fire had to be kept lit during even the hottest of summers. "We need to form a plan of attack."
Avery's hazel eyes were alight with bloodlust. "I suggest an ambush. We all wait for Potter and his friends-"
"No." Avery looked aghast at being cut off. But since it was Theodore Nott who spoke, he didn't dare raise an objection.
Mulciber lacked Avery's reticence. "You can't seriously be suggesting we do nothing, Nott. This the opportunity we've all been waiting for." Severus turned sharply to look at him. Mulciber was sat beside him yet addressing everyone but him, even in profile he looked incensed as he continued: "All of us must take our revenge."
Nott remained coolly impassive as he answered his detractor. "If you would let me finish, Mulciber, I have a better idea. I once read an interesting anecdote about Muggle royalty-" he was cut off by the derisive laughter of their fellow conspirators, but waited patiently waited for them to settle again. "No, listen. Muggle Kings and Queens had an interesting concept of childrearing. If their royal offspring misbehaved, instead of having their teachers beat the future monarch, they had a whipping boy who took the punishment instead. That way, the little princelings were directly responsible for the suffering of others, the shame for which supposedly reigned them in. I say we start giving Gryffindor's little princelings a taste of the same medicine their beloved Muggles like to dish out."
Nott's idea was met with a loaded silence from the others. Slowly, the vengeful lust drained their expressions, replaced by a cold, calculating malice. From the shadows beside the fireplace, Regulus Black emerged slowly. Shamed by his blood ties to Sirius Black, he was always reticent and abashed after these attacks. Thus, always keen to join the pile on. "For every one of us these so-called "Marauders" attacks, we get three of them in return. That's the only thing that can compensate if we're no longer attacking the Marauders themselves."
Even Mulciber seemed won over. "An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. I like this idea."
"We have to think of the bigger picture, Regulus," said Nott, softly. "We all know how much you hate your brother. But by targeting others for their attacks, we will be turning other Gryffindors against them. When they pay the price for James' violence, they will come to detest him; it will split them down the middle – and that's what we need. Our enemies riven with infighting and squabbling factions."
Still unconsulted about any of this, Snape found himself searching for ways to extricate himself from the situation without raising eyebrows. He hadn't noticed it when it first happened, but these people really couldn't have cared less about him. The attack had just been a convenient excuse to strike at the perceived enemy. A perpetuation of endless fighting in which they were all wholly consumed. Right now, Snape realised, he was nothing more than a useful victim.
Finally, he could stand it no longer. "Look," he said, rising to his feet. "I'm still not right after what happened. Dizzy spells, you know, I can't hex as straight as a stick right now. Can we all please just hold off on the retribution until I'm back on my feet."
Of all of them, it was Regulus who most keen to demonstrate the depths of his sympathy. He closed the gap between them, brow marred with concern. "Of course, Sev. I know first hand how violent and unpredictable Sirius can be; you're probably still in shock."
Mercifully, Nott took up the thread. "Of course, Snape. For Merlin's sake, get some sleep – you look utterly dreadful."
"We all better go. If Slughorn catches us up at this hour he'll have all our hides." It was the most sensible thing Mulciber had said all night.
Severus acted quickly. "I think I better get checked out by Pomfrey, actually. I promised her I'd go straight back if I had any dizzy spells."
Regulus looked like he was going to come with him, but Severus made for the exit before any of the others could so much as draw breath. Alone again, he stole through the castle carefully, acutely aware that he no longer had the right to be out of his bed at such an hour, wandering around as he pleased. But at least he knew where he was going. Tip-toeing past Filch's office, up the marble staircase to the seventh floor, where he reached a stretch of blank stone wall. He needed somewhere to stay, a bedroom with some writing materials and muggle clothes. He fixed it his mind, pacing up and down until the door of the Room of Requirement materialised at last.
Inside, he found a perfect replica of the rooms he'd had as Head of Slytherin house. A four poster double bed, the hearth empty, a dark green rug covering most of the floor. The only change being they were still seven floors above ground. He looked out of the window, over at the headmaster's turret where Dumbledore was clearly burning the midnight oil. His gaze shifted to the Gryffindor tower, the moon reflecting off the mullion windows. But he still detected movement behind the silver glare.
Taking the chance to get a message to Lily, something he should have done much sooner, he grabbed a piece of parchment and hastily scribbled out a message with the materials the room had kindly provided. Enchanting the parchment so that only Lily could open it, he transfigured it into a paper bird and set it to flight from the open window and watched as it flapped upwards into the stars.
He withdrew, glancing again up at Dumbledore's turret. The old man had appeared at the terrace, his silver hair and beard catching the moonlight as he surveyed the world beneath his lofty tower. For a moment, he could have sworn they made eye-contact. Past caring if Albus would be angry with him for bailing on the Slytherin common room for the night, Severus withdrew. The room provided him with a toothbrush, clean pyjamas and a warm bed. For now, that was all he still cared about as he set the room's alarm for seven am.
Sleep eluded Lily Evans. A state of insomnia unaided by the balmy, early summer heat and the fact that Marlene McKinnon sneezed loudly just as she was about to doze off, startling Lily back into state of stubborn consciousness. As the echoes of the sneeze faded from her ears, she slipped out of bed and crept back into the moonlit common room and hoisted herself onto a window sill. At first, she tried to bore herself back to sleep by reading a copy of "Unfogging the Future" she found wedged under an uneven table leg. But it wasn't long before her green eyes glazed over as she idly flipped through the pages, letting her mind wander to another endless source of insomnia: Severus Snape.
With a heavy sigh, she returned "Unfogging the Future" to the table leg, where it's existence was far better served and returned to her spot on the window sill. As she looked out over the grounds, she noted the way in which the tallest quidditch goal hoop seemed to perfectly frame the half-moon, far in the distance. Then, as ever, her restless mind took it down the only path it knew. The path that led her straight back to Severus Snape. She knew him still, but there was something jarringly off-beat about him. Something she couldn't quite put her finger on.
"Lily?"
Startled out of her thoughts, she almost fell off the window sill. Righting her balance in the nick of time, she looked up to find Mary McDonald watching her from the foot of the portrait hole, her expression suddenly apologetic. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."
"Merlin's beard! I didn't even hear you come in." Lily laughed, but her heart was still hammering ten to the dozen. "So, you can't sleep either?"
"No, I just woke up and saw your bed empty. I got worried." Mary approached, her white t-shirt bright in the moonlight and her black hair indistinguishable amongst the shadows. "If McGonagall finds you here at this hour, she'll have kittens."
Lily raised a rueful smile. "Better not tell her, then."
"Want to talk about it?" Mary hoisted herself up onto the narrow sill too, settling herself at Lily's feet with her back to the window. Her large, dark-brown eyes reflected the stars as she turned to face her. "Whatever it is that's troubling you, I mean."
"It's Severus." When Mary rolled her eyes, Lily quickly added: "Something's wrong with him-"
"I could have told you that back in first year. In fact, I think I did tell you that back in first year … and every year since."
"Not funny!" Lily retorted. "Look, I know he's not exactly popular. But we've been friends since we were little. I thought I was some kind of freak of nature until I met Sev, it was he who told me all about this world and I would've been scared to death starting Hogwarts had he not been there. I just wish more people saw that side of him."
"He's like that with you, Lil. With everyone else he's a socially stunted fuckwit who throws hexes like confetti at a wedding." Mary remained stoically unsympathetic. Between thumb and forefinger she straightened out a lock of her curly hair and watched it spring back into place, deep in thought: "If that bump on the head has done anything at all to Snape, it can only be an improvement. Because he couldn't get any worse."
"No, you don't understand. I was there when he woke up. The first thing he said to me was something about snakes biting him, He Who Must Not Be Named. Something else about a wand. It was surreal."
Mary gave a mirthless laugh. "He'd been out cold for two days. He'd have been dreaming all sorts."
"That's what I thought too, at first," said Lily. "But then he said, 'we're not dead; neither of us'."
"Technically correct."
"It was a question, not a statement. Like he thought we'd both be dead." Despite the heatwave, Lily felt her skin prickle against a sudden chill. "He looked scared. I've never seen him look scared before and he's just … different."
"James said he was with Dumbledore for hours."
"That too. Afterwards, he was meant to meet me in the Library but I gave up waiting at dinner time. Something's going on, Mary, and I wish I knew what."
"Lil, whatever it is you're not going to find out by lurking in dark, abandoned common rooms in the middle of the night," said Mary, meeting her gaze with a knowing look. "And if it were me losing sleep I'd want it to be for a better reason than the inner-workings of Severus Snape." She paused, straightened out and released that lock of hair one last time and grinned broadly. Giving Lily a gentle shove to jolt her out of her torpor, she added: "Come on, this is hopeless. Let's get back to our dorm before McGonagall has both our heads."
Lily knew it made sense. Regardless, she replied, "you go. I'll follow in a minute, I promise."
Mary looked reluctant, but to Lily's relief she shrugged and murmured something inaudible before sliding from the ledge and disappearing back through the portrait hole. Alone once more, Lily drew a deep breath and realised Mary was right all along. This was useless. Thinking in circles and grasping at straws – she was on a hiding to nowhere.
Before she slid down from the ledge, however, a tapping at the window drew her attention. She squinted, trying to discern whatever it was that was now repeatedly bouncing off the window pane. It looked like an origami bird. Opening the window, it flapped straight into the palm of her hand and flattened itself out. Curious, she tilted the parchment toward the moonlight and read: "Lily, sorry about earlier. Meet me by the gates at 10am, I'll explain everything. Muggle dress. Dumbledore's orders. Yours, Sev."
Buzzing with questions, Lily looked out of the window once more, as though she hoped to find him hovering outside the window, seven floors up. She did notice Professor Dumbledore out on the terrace of his own tower, however. For a brief moment, she thought he might even noticed her looking at him. Whatever the case, it was another sure fire sign that she should make herself scarce from the common room immediately.
Despite the shrillness of the alarm, Severus awoke only with the greatest of reluctance. Once capable of movement, he reached out and let his hand crash down on the snooze button and rolled over again, closing his eyes. When he opened them again, it was quarter to ten, leaving him just fifteen minutes to get himself together.
"Shit!"
He dressed hurriedly, donning the muggle clothes the room had transfigured for him. Plain black jeans and a white shirt over which he donned a thin black woollen jumper. They were the type of clothes he had not worn in so long that it made him feel like he was wearing someone else's skin, but he and Lily would have to blend in with the muggles for what he had planned.
Wearing his own tatty old trainers, he raced through the corridor without making too much noise. Down the marble staircase, straight past the Great Hall and out into another hot summer's day. Slowing to a brisk walk as his feet hit the lawn, he exchanged a polite greeting with Hagrid as he passed the gamekeeper's hut, causing the half-giant to give him a most curious look. Then he remembered, sixteen year old Severus would have sneered at the groundsman if he bothered to notice him at all.
"You're late." Lily's voice drove all thoughts of Hagrid from Severus's mind. "But I forgive you. Look, I even brought supplies since you didn't even show up for breakfast." She held up a backpack that looked empty, but had probably been magically enhanced.
"Thank you, you're the best."
"I know."
Hagrid was still watching them, so Severus reached into his back pocket where he had stashed the permission form Dumbledore have given him the day before. However, when Lily noticed and waved cheerily, the giant immediately returned to his work among the vegetable patch. Instead, he showed the note to Lily who read it as they both made their way through the gates.
"He wants both of us to go to Diagon Alley, perform some random acts of magic and see what happens."
"Diagon Alley!" Lily sounded alarmed. "If I'd known we were going to London, I'd have packed more than a couple of flasks of pumpkin juice and some random pastries and sandwiches. Merlin's beard, Sev, you could have mentioned this in your note last night!"
"It's fine!" he assured her. "I'll get us there, we'll be back in time for lunch."
"But how? And not to mention why?"
"He thinks I no longer have the trace on me," he answered. "So, we get away from school where the trace doesn't apply, go to London and do something there. If you get flagged then everything's all right for you. If I don't get flagged, then … something weird is definitely going on."
Lily was looking decidedly apprehensive. "Well, that settles it then. Something weird is definitely going on. This is Hogwarts. This is us. I'd more worried if everything was just normal."
They reached the train station. Empty now, since it was another couple of weeks before term ended and the students returned home for summer. They came to a halt on the empty platform, both of them watching the train tracks as if the Hogwarts Express might turn up at any second, anyway.
"Hold on to my arm tight," he said. "Both hands."
She did so and he turned on the spot, stepping into a void that sucked them both into a black ether. A second later, they landed on their feet in a narrow lane off Diagon Alley with a loud crack. Unused to Apparition, Lily stumbled and almost fell. Acting quickly, he made to steady her as she righted herself, catching her breath as she looked up at him in wonder. "Did you just Disapparate?"
"It's quicker than waiting for the train."
She aimed a playful punch at his upper-arm. "We're not supposed to do that until we're seventeen. How come you suddenly know how to do it?"
He ignored her question and walked gingerly toward the mouth of the laneway, beyond which Diagon Alley opened up to the left and right. They were close to the Leaky Cauldron, so close he could hear the sign creaking on its rusty hinges above the door. Sensing his trepidation, Lily crept up quietly behind him, cautiously peeking around the left corner. All around them wizards and witches went about their daily business, not one of them paying the remotest bit of attention to the two teens that had suddenly appeared. A witch towing an unruly toddler rolled her eyes at the child's grumpy cries and shot them a harassed look as she staggered past, but that was about it.
"Would the Ministry come straight here if they detect underage magic?" Lily asked.
Severus continued watching the street as though they might. "I think so."
"Maybe it doesn't count because you disapparated from school, technically."
Severus shrugged. "Maybe. Let's make sure."
He took a step back into the alleyway and withdrew his wand from where he'd stowed it in the waistband of his jeans.
"Expecto Patronum!"
A silver mist shot from the wand, forming quickly into the form of a doe – barely visible in the bright sunlight to the point where he hoped Lily couldn't make out the shape. She knew what he had done, though.
"Oh, my! That's a fully formed, corporeal patronus!" She looked from the patronus to Severus and back again, eyes wide with wonder.
For now, Severus ignored her and knelt to look his silver doe in the eye. "Go to Professor Dumbledore and tell him I have done as he asked. It's Lily's turn next, so warn him that he might be hearing from the Ministry soon."
With that, the doe gambolled around his legs before leaping into thin air and vanishing from view. He straightened, trying not to show his immense pride in how impressed Lily looked. "I wish I could see it properly. Was it some kind of dog?"
"Something like that," he answered and quickly changed the subject. "If the Ministry are tracking me they'd be here now."
They both peered around the corner again, finding only more of the same the last time they checked. Parents wresting tired grumpy kids, lone folk ducking in and out of shops, bells above doors tinkling the arrivals of new customers. The owner of a nearby tea shop stuck his head out the door as he sucked on a cigarette, flicking the butt down a gutter. The smoker looked up, saw Severus and Lily, frowned and disappeared back in his tea shop.
"He saw us," said Lily.
"Probably just wondering what two kids are doing out of Hogwarts. Anyway, it's your turn."
"You and Dumbledore do think I still have a trace, don't you?"
Severus nodded. "If anyone shows up, I'll get us out of here. They're definitely not following me."
Reassured, she took out her wand and thought for a moment, selecting a spell at random. "Avis!"
A flock of bright yellow canaries burst from Lily's wand, forming a circle as they flapped around her head twittering happily amongst themselves. From the street beyond, a loud crack of apparition rent the air. He and Lily looked at each other, tense as they strained their ears to listen.
"It was somewhere around here, Oswald…"
"...should be in school, damn kids…" replied the unseen Oswald.
Severus gave a firm nod, holding his arm for her to grab onto. A second later, they cracked back into existence in the bushes of Hyde Park, where they would be unseen by muggle eyes and emerged safely like two kids who'd bunked off school for a bit of nookie in the bushes. The experience left Lily breathless again, but she had landed deftly on her feet. She was smiling. "I hate it. But I still can't wait until I can do it myself."
Together, they emerged into a park that was already busy. Dog walkers and sunbathers, cyclists and joggers all soaked up the heat. In the near distance, the Serpentine lake glittered as rowers glided their little boats across a surface that reflected the rising sun. Here, Severus and Lily could lose themselves among the throng of humanity that descended on Hyde Park every day. No one was looking and, more importantly, no one was listening.
The walked up a low hill at the edge some woodlands and sat beneath the boughs of an old oak tree. Lily shrugged off her backpack and reached deep inside, far deeper than seemed possible. From the depths within, she produced two flasks of pumpkin juice and a stack of bacon sandwiches that she had enchanted to stay warm. It had been years since he had had pumpkin juice and found it far sweeter than he remembered.
"We have a problem, Lily."
She swallowed her mouthful of sandwich. "Is it really a problem? Having no trace is going to be pretty useful."
"I meant another problem. The Slytherins."
"They've always been a problem, Sev. I can't even remember how many times I've tried to tell you that and I already have your excuses memorised off by heart."
Severus felt the heat rising in his cheeks; realising again what a cock he'd been as a kid. "Every time Potter and his friends attack a Slytherin, they're going to take revenge on any Gryffindor except them."
Lily frowned. "What do you mean 'except them'?"
"They're going to punish other people for their transgressions. They seek to drive a wedge through Gryffindor as some of them turn on Potter and co." Severus explained it all matter of factly, finishing off his sandwich once he was done. Once Lily had had time to absorb what he told her, he continued: "You all need to be extra vigilant now, Lily. I've held them off but I can't stop them."
It was a simple statement of fact. Slytherin and Gryffindor loathed each other to the point where no one person could beseech either side to take a step back from the brink of tribal war. They were the West Ham and Millwall of the wizarding world. Condemned forever to rip each other's spines out regardless of all the things they had in common; doomed to drown in the roiling seas of their own animosity no matter how many lifelines bewildered bystanders tried to throw to them. All because they had been born a certain way and categorised by a semi-sentient hat at the age of eleven. Lately, Severus wondered whether he didn't just hate them all equally.
Lily, a far purer soul than he, looked like she still had faith in humanity. "You didn't have to tell me that."
"Don't let anyone know that I did," he replied, his old defences creeping up again. "Be vague. Pass it off as something you suspect yourself. Just tell them all to be on their guard."
Lily nodded, a lock of her auburn hair falling loose from the ponytail she had tied it in. She took a pastry and smiled at a Golden Retriever puppy that was snapping at a tuft of dandelions nearby. A smile that had vanished once she returned her attention to Severus. "Thanks for the warning. But I so dearly wish you stop associating with those people, Sev. They're evil and they're dragging you right down with them."
Severus finished his sandwich and brushed his hands down his jeans. Then, he held out his right hand towards Lily, palm up. Returning the gesture, she placed her left hand in his and he closed it so that their fingers were entwined. Squeezing lightly, he pulled it closer to his heart. "I promise you, I swear, I will never let them hurt you. You understand that, right?"
"I've always understood that, Severus," she answered. "But it's rather like how you would never call me a mudblood, but then go throwing that slur around at others of my birth. I'm just not entirely confident that the kindness you show me is extended to others."
He drew her closer still.
"Look, Lil. I'm a Slytherin. I have no choice but to associate with those people. I have to live with them, I even have to share a fucking room with them -" he paused, thinking fondly of the room of requirement. "If I openly defy them, they will make my school life as miserable as my home life and I couldn't take that. This is my only escape. But I'll do everything I can to help you and the others. Your house mates don't deserve to suffer for what Potter did. Just promise me you'll tell no one."
"No one?" she asked, brow creased with confusion. Eventually, she nodded. "Fair. I'll not tell a soul."
"And I promise I'll never use that word again."
On top of ending Voldemort, this was the last thing he needed. And he still didn't even know how he was going to do that. All he had was a hazy impression of a fragmented soul, torn away and still living a parasite existence. He remembered Harry Potter and the scar, but then the hapless fool Quirrell jumped to the forefront of his memory. Voldemort latched onto the back of his head. Something he had not seen, but Dumbledore's description was really quite vivid. Slowly, dots connected.
"We need to get back to school," he said with finality. Dumbledore hadn't given him a strictly defined timeline. But he doubted very much that he headmaster meant for them to be swanning around muggle London all day and he was already taking liberties.
Lily looked like a child caught with her hands in the biscuit tin. "I'm going to get arrested, aren't I?"
"Yes. The Dementors will be waiting at the gates." Despite himself, and the punch she landed on his arm, he laughed.
Memories swirled in the pensieve. A diaphanous silver haze that swam and swelled in the depths of the bowl. The dark eyes of the boy, Snape, could just be made out in places before they distorted and vanished once again. Albus Dumbledore stepped away, looking up into the glutinous semi-darkness of his office as the owl from the Ministry zoomed through the only unshuttered window in the office. It dropped the letter on his desk and sped away half a heartbeat later. He already knew what it would say and he was proved right just a moment later. Underage magic detected. Miss Lily Evans, in Diagon Alley and 10.30am. For now, he put it aside and made a note to compose her exoneration later that day. But no word about Snape. The boy really was nobody's child.
As he returned to the pensieve, the patronus burst through the door. Clear as day in the poor light, the beautiful doe ran a lap of the office, slowing as she gambolled about his legs in ever decreasing circles. When she stopped, she looked up at him through wide, innocent eyes. It was rather disconcerting when she spoke with the voice of Severus Snape.
Message received, the patronus faded, leaving only the lingering ghost of her sweetness. A faint smile crossed the old man's lips and he returned to the seat behind his desk. The subject of Tom Riddle's soul stood firmly at the forefront of his mind. The clues were like breadcrumbs, leading him into the wilderness. His thoughts like smoke, there to see but impossible to bottle. Slowly, however, he was getting there.
Apologies for being a day late with this update (I usually aim for Thursdays). But thanks for reading and reviews would be very welcome, thank you!
