It is a long
time since chapter 3 (Not so long but still long.) I have been suffered from a
famous writing block(as if my lack of English ability not enough suffering!) To
help me overcome this state, some reviews or suggestions are required. So if you like this story, please tell
me what you think.
This chapter
would not be sent with out the help of 2 persons : Lindsay Winter and Kaisei Anata. They
are the wonderful beta-reader that the writher could have.
If you still
find the mistakes in this chapter. It is because I rewrited a little after they
had sent the story back to me. My mistake, not them.
One more
thing, Lindsay Winter agreed
to help me check my former chapters and side-story. I changed some lines in ' The True Behind were change to
make it more sense. So you can read it now with out suffer from the bad English.
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Chapter 4
Since the
beginning of the year, every Gryffindor could sense the strange atmosphere. It
was neither dark nor evil, but somehow more frightening. Even the bravest
Gryffindor who could say You-Know-Who name aloud, shuddered under its effect.
It was not long before they knew who was behind this uncomfortable atmosphere:
Severus.
Everyone in the
house knew that Severus was not your normal Gryffindor. Despite of his calm and
quiet personality, he was cunning and dangerous. He would do anything to get
what he wanted. His way of thinking was more like Slytherin. Some of the
Gryffindors felt uncomfortable about it, but most of them were glad to have him
in the same house. But whether they liked him or not, Severus's differences
became the center focus, though he was not aware of this. His presence came to
be an important part of their school's life. Some of them even missed it in the
lonely summer.
So none of them
prepared for his change.
According
to everybody, Severus acted strangely. He was more quiet than usual. Of course
he was always quiet, but this new silence was not the same. Sometimes he looked far away to the
distance. Sometime he stared at the others and sighed. His actions, in their
own way, were scarier than the
death predictions made by professor Trelawney to the first years. His strange
behavior made everyone feel uncomfortable and uncertain about their
futures. All were worried,
especially his friends.
"What's
wrong with Severus?" Lily asked. It was 1 month since the school had
started. The group was gathering in the Gryffindor common room.
"I don't
know. But surely it isn't good. Severus has not been himself since the
beginning of the year. He even fell for some of Malfoy's pranks." Sirius
said.
"Yeah, and
yesterday he even mixed the wrong ingredient in potions class," James
added. "It's gotta be something serious"
"What should
we do about it?" Lily looked at the boys.
Remus shrugged. "
Maybe we just ask him."
The others looked
at him like he was insane.
"Are you
nuts?! Severus never will to tell us about his problem," Sirius said
incredulously.
"Yes! He
will die before he says anything." James directed a pitying look to his friend.
"If you
didn't drug him, he wouldn't say a single word," Lily added.
"Then how
can we help him?" Remus asked.
" Maybe we
can cheer him up," Lily picked her box. " Let me try something
first."
----------
"Hi,
Severus! How are you today?" Lily smiled sweetly to the boy.
Severus almost
jumped, but caught himself just in time. Since his first year, he secretly
developed his fear of Lily Evans (the
result is in 'The true behind'). He had so far succeeded in hiding it from
everyone else. But sometimes when he was caught off guard, his instincts
overpowered him.
" How are
you today?" Lily repeated.
"Fine, I
guess." Severus answered nervously. He had nothing against the girl, but
he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable in her presence.
"I have a
box of chocolate. Want some?" Lily suddenly offered. She tried to use the
same tactic as the previous year.
Severus paled. If
there was anything he feared more than Lily herself, it was her food.
" N... no, I
don't like chocolate." Severus tried to make his voice as calm as
possible. His fear was increase when he saw the glass of yellow liquid in her
hand.
" Maybe
you'd like some orange juice?"
" No!"
Severus began to back away. "I have to go now. Bye." With that,
Severus hurriedly left the room. He almost ran.
"What did
you do to him?!" Sirius looked at Lily, "He looks worse!"
" I have no
idea." Lily said.
----------
" Do you
think it'll work?" Remus asked.
" Of course!
If there is anything that can help him feel better, it's Malfoy's distress.
Besides, Malfoy is harassing him more this year. It is fun to see him with
problems." Sirius smirked.
" Ok! We
have to do it in potions class." James suggested.
" Why is it
always be potion class? Do you have something against professor Alen that I
didn't know?" Remus asked, recalling so many times they caused a messes,
explosions, havock, etc. to the class of the Ravenclaw teacher.
"No.
Actually, professor Alen is my favorite teacher. But you have to admit, her
class is boring. She always make unnecessarily, long speeches. And we can't sleep in her class like in
professor Binn's. We need to find something to keep us awake." James
answered.
"Besides
Flying and Transfigurations, it is the only class that we are paired with
Slytherin. And doing something in professor McGonnegal's class is a bad
idea." Sirius added.
"Why do I
still have a bad feeling about this?" Remus muttered.
----------
In potion class,
professor Alen was writing something on the blackboard. Sirius walked to the
teacher's table, pretending to get more ingredients. Sirius gazed toward in
Malfoy's direction and switched his bottle which one he had received from
Remus. Busied with Frank's potion, Malfoy did not notice what had happened. But
the other Slytherins did. They knew too well that the Gryffindor boy was up to
something. But since loyalty to
their housemates wasn't a Slytherin strong point,(Plus, they were bored too.)
So they just secretly moved away from Malfoy's table.
Ten minutes
later, the potion class exploded.
Unfortunately, it
was not at Malfoy's table.
The exploding was
at Lupin's.
Most of the
students could escape safely, except one unlucky person, Severus.
"
Oops." Remus looked at the bottle in his hand.
----------
" What's
wrong with today!" Severus muttered as he left the hospital wing.
Unfortunately, his luck was still down. And, of all the people he could have
met, he'd met the worse, Malfoy.
" Hello,
loser. How are you today?" Lucius blocked the sulking boy.
"Go away,
Malfoy."
"Don't be so
rough! I just want to say hello. How was your summer?" The Slytherin boy
said playfully, " I had a great one."
"Good for
you. Now get out of my way."
" I met your
family." Lucius said suddenly. "Oh! Almost forgot, it is not your
family anymore. Right?
"Mrs. Snape
is the wonderful woman. " Lucius smirked, continuing. "And your
brother is great! He told me a lot of amazing stories. I never know you had the
guts to poison your cat."
Severus stood
still. His mind drifting to the day he would never forget. His cat was ill, so
he tried to make a potion to cure it. What he did not know was his brother,
Jeff, had switched the ingredient. He always hated cat. Severus remembered the laugh of his older brother when
the little cat had died painfully. He also remembered that mother slapped him
because he crying. But what was hurt the most was the way his cat had looked at
him. It though he had betrayed it. He never forgot those eyes. Never.
"... and
when you were locked in the cellar with the boggart. He said you screamed the
whole time. Is that true?" Lucius laughed at the pale boy.
The painful
memory returned to him as clearly as the first. A day with a sole
companion, the
boggart. Mother did not even allow me to go insane or die. She carefully
performed the charm to prevent that.
He did not
remember what he had done to be punished. But he remembered too clearly about
what happened next. After that he could not eat, sleep or speak for three days.
Mother said he would recover quickly. But he knew that he could never recover.
The memory would haunt him in his dream for the rest of his life.
"What else
do you want, Malfoy?" Severus gazed at the other boy, eyes emotionless.
The memory was painful; but it was the past. He had survived it then, so he
could survive it now.
Lucius did not
satisfied with the other boy's lack of reaction. So he continued.
" One more
thing. It want to show you my new pendant. Do you like it? Mrs. Snape gave it
to me."
Severus froze. He
could handle almost anything, but not this. The pendant used to be his. Mother
gave it to him as a reward for the first time he cast the killing spell. It was
just a little rat. But she looked proud of him and hugged him. Her smile was
something he never forgot. It was one of the few memories that he valued, the
memory that sustained him through the dark hours. The one that kept him from
hating her.
But now it was
gone.
This time Severus
could not hide the pain in his eyes. Lucius saw this, and was satisfied, but
did not stop there.
"You have no
place in your family anymore." Lucius stressed, " you don't even have a right
to be here. You should go away."
"He has
every right to be here! If someone has to go, it should be you! "
A figure hurtled
from the shadows, and the next instant Malfoy was violently thrown to the
floor; the furious assault didn't slow, and Lucius barely had time to defend
himself as the attacker, hopelessly stronger and faster, fought him like the
wild beast. There was sudden crack, a cry of pain, and his struggles abruptly
ceased.
The fight scene
brought Severus back to the reality. He tried to catch the angry boy.
"Calm
down... calm down, pal. We don't want him to die... yet." Severus finally
succeeded in ending the fight. It was a few seconds before Severus finally
realized who the attacker was.
"Remus!"
"Yes,
me." Remus smiled sheepishly.
Severus stared at
his friend. It was hard to believe that of all the people, it was Remus,
the calmest one, who had done this.
" What are
you doing here?" Having found a word, Severus finally said.
" I came to
check on you." Remus answered, "Are you okay?"
" Yes,
everything is perfectly fine. You just got rid of a problem for me."
Severus grinned, feeling his mood improve.
" What do
you mean?" Remus looked down in confusion, suddenly remembering what he
had done. His face paled. Jumping away from the unconcious boy, he sank to
floor, sobbing.
"What have I
done! I killed him!"
"Relax,
Remus. Unfortunately, Malfoy is still alive."
" I... I
almost killed him! It was my fault!" Remus shout, shuddering
Severus looked at
his friend. Something was wrong, very wrong. Remus reaction was far from
normal. He was hysterical. Why? If someone was going to hysterical, it should
be him, not Remus. He was the one who was hurt by the words, after all.
Severus decided
that it was not the time for his own problems.
"Look, Remus.
Do you really feel sorry for attacking Malfoy?" Severus asked.
" Yes… it is
un-human. I'm a monster!" Remus's voice was shaking.
Severus did not
know where that stupid idea come from, but he did not like it at all. His mind
worked quickly to find every tactic he could use to get Remus out of his
self-loathing state.
Problem was, his
words fell on deaf ears. Remus was far too guilty to do anything but mourn.
As much as he
hated it, Severus lowered his head, tried to make his voice as sad as possible.
" S... so
you feel sorry to fight for... me."
" No! Of
course not!" As expected, Remus stopped crying and forgot his own problem.
Seeing his friend
ready to listen, Severus raised his voice to a shout.
"THEN STOP
BLAMING YOUSELF! IT IS NOT YOUR FALUT!"
Remus looked
dumbly at the other boy." But..."
" NO
BUTS!" Severus glowered. The anger burned in him. He did not know where
that come from. Maybe it was accumulated since Malfoy started talking.
"Last year, I did exactly the same thing you just did. So what if you are
a monster? What am I?"
Remus tried to
say something but he could not find a word to reply.
" No time to
be worried about this now," Severus looked at the body on the floor
impassively. "We must find a way to rid ourselves from this problem."
The two boys
gulped as the stern voice of Professor McGonnelgol came from behind them.
"Too
late."
----------
" What are
you doing here, Severus?" Remus asked the other boy, while scrubbing the
dungeon floor.
Severus picked up
the other mop.
" Detention,
of cause."
" Why? You
didn't do anything! I was the one who started the fight with Malfoy. How could
the teacher give you the detention?"
" Well,
after that the teacher found me kicking that bastard and destroying the
pendant," Severus shook his head, "I have to admit, destroying the
pendant was a childish act. And I should be more careful when the teachers are
around. Today is just not my day."
"At least,
it is not Malfoy's day too." Remus comforted his moody friend.
"Then there
is still be some justice in the world." Severus murmured. "Anyway, we
should be finish quickly. The whole house is waiting for us to celebrate."
" What is it
for? I don't remember there being any celebration today."
" It was
arranged suddenly. They are calling it the 'Sanity Return' Celebration. Haven't
the slightest what it means though. I swear they just planned it at the very same time I was kicking
Malfoy."
" Oh."
Remus acknowledged. Then he remembered the original problem they were worried
about.
" Severus, I
notice that you are not yourself since the year started. Do you want to talk
about it?"
Severus shrugged,
pushing the mop across the floor harder. "It is nothing at all. I was just
thinking about the new potion I want to develope. It takes almost all my time
to figure out how to do it." Severus sighed. " And then I found
that the ingredient is too
expensive for me to buy."
" And how
come sometimes you looked at people and sighed?"
" Just
wondering about where they had had their hair cut. I certainly will not go to
the same place." Severus answered, before determinedly continuing mopping
the floor.
TBC.
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Thank you for
everyone who reviewed. I still don't put Pettigrew in this chapter, but he was around. We will have him in the story, maybe next chapter.