Disclaimer : Again… chapter one :-D You should know by now!
SLYTHERIN BOY
Chapter Three: A Mean Kid, A Violent Kid
The students began their classes the next day with a dawning apprehension. Severus Snape would be in classes with them. The Gryffindors were considering themselves lucky that they didn't have Potions that day, as the substitute had yet to arrive, but they frowned on the fact that they had more than one class with the Slytherins. Somehow, though, they had a feeling that Potions would be the hardest class to have to sit through with him.
The Gryffindors had to look forward to spending a lot of time with Severus, in
Care of Magical Creatures, History of Magic, and Transfiguration.
Breakfast was a loud and suspicious ordeal. Severus had been placed at the
Slytherin table, and he seemed quite put-off about it. His hair, which was just
a bit too long to be spiked the way they knew it, and seemed to spring in every
direction. He was a picture-perfect image of an old-time punk, Harry thought.
Severus seemed to be scowling the whole breakfast, seemingly uncomfortable with
people staring at him. Somehow, the scowl on such a young face looked more like
pouting than being menacing. Harry figured the small Snape probably didn't
realize it. He was quite curious about the scar over Severus's eye. He noticed
other people speculating about it, as well, but didn't join in. All the
information they had about it was that at some point he'd had it removed, and
had seemed quite devastated at discovering it's reappearance. It wasn't a very
ugly scar, really, simply a pale, jagged line on his flesh, a shade or so
lighter than the rest of his skin, making it look stark white against his fair
skin.
After only fifteen or twenty minutes, the stares and whispers seemed to become
too much for Severus, and he stood up to leave. His ripped black t-shirt
revealed a smattering of pale scars up and down both of his arms, and on his
left arm there was a strangely black-colored bandage wrap. His heavy black
boots echoed their clunky steps as he stalked away from the Great Hall.
Hermione hadn't told Ron or Harry about catching Snape
cutting himself. She had initially been perplexed at the sudden absence of the
wounds she had seen him inflict upon himself before, but after a moment, she
resolved that he was probably too intelligent to leave them there, and had
likely healed them soon after she'd caught him. She sincerely doubted he'd gone
to the infirmary as she'd suggested.
Her thoughts were cut short as the end-of-breakfast bell rang, and she and her
friends rushed to get their things from the common room before they were late
for History.
****
The famous Gryffindor trio had just taken their seats when the Slytherins began to arrive. It was slightly amusing when Draco attempted to enter at the same time as Severus. The blond boy shouldered the inky-eyed professor out of the way, entering first. Hermione saw a look of disgust and anger on Severus's face, and was not at all surprised when he grabbed Draco by the back of his robes, and jerked him back out through the door. The blond boy stumbled slightly, before catching himself. He scowled as Severus sneered at him and walked ahead of him. It seemed Severus had no patience for rudeness, even from the current King of Slytherin.
Severus didn't give Draco a second look as he took the closest empty seat. Draco's seat. Draco stared in disbelief, a pink flush painting his cheeks. "Get out of my seat, Snape," He snarled.
"I believe this chair is school property, not Malfoy property." Severus said snidely.
"It's my seat!" Draco snarled. "I'll have you killed," he narrowed his eyes at the dark-haired boy. Severus snorted.
"You just try it, Draco. You're certainly overreacting to an insignificant issue. Just sit somewhere else, like a good little ferret, and maybe we can get on with what is promising to be an intensely boring lecture," he said.
There were a few sardonic giggles at his ferret comment, but Draco simply stared in rage. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Binns floated in. "Take your seat, Mallis," he said.
"Malfoy!" Draco snapped.
"No, son, my name is Professor Binns," the ghost said as though talking to a small child. "Now sit. I have very enthralling lecture about Gregory the Great and Uric the Oddball,"
Draco opened his mouth to protest, but at a look from the uncomprehending ghost, he huffed and slumped into the last free chair, next to Pansy Parkinson, with rage billowing from him. Pansy seemed delighted about the arrangement, but Draco seemed less inclined to smile about sitting next to the pug-faced girl.
Binns began his lecture, and it didn't take long for Hermione to notice that Severus wasn't paying the least bit of attention. He was, instead, reading from a heavy leather-bound book with yellowing pages, not even making an effort to conceal it from Binns. The ghost rarely noticed when students weren't paying attention, but Severus was being so incredibly obvious about it that it was hard for even Binns not to notice.
"You there," he said, glaring at Severus. "Stanley!" He snapped.
"Severus," he corrected, looking up lazily. He stared for a moment, before Binns came to his senses.
"Why aren't you paying attention?" Binns drawled.
"What are you talking about?" Snape said. "Of course I'm paying attention." He
said it in such a flat, sardonic manner that it was obvious that he was simply
humoring the ghost.
"Then tell me, what happened when Gregory the Great traveled to visit Uric the
Oddball?" Binns asked pompously.
"Erm," Severus thought for a moment. "Well, Gregory
came across Uric, discovering that the infamous oddball was completely cracked.
However, before he could tell anyone, Uric broke Greg's head open with a
hatchet. Since Gregory was dead, he never had the opportunity to tell anyone
that Uric was insane, but since Uric was so indiscreet about the murder, he was
caught and sent to a private institution in Scotland." Severus said.
Binns seemed strangely angry that Severus had given
the correct answer. Binns usually wasn't spiteful and malicious, but apparently
there was just something about Severus that struck a nerve in just about
everyone. "Five points from Slytherin for acting like you weren't paying
attention." Binns said, marking it in his book.
Severus made a disgusted face, but no comment. He
must have known, deep down, that he was prone to taking unfair points from
Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, but he still seemed a bit put off. The Slytherins
were giving him dirty looks.
"Whatever," Severus growled, pulling the book into his lap and proceeding to
read a bit more discreetly for the remainder of the class.
****
At lunch, the substitute Professor had arrived. She was slightly
nervous-looking, but an altogether pleasant-looking woman whom Dumbledore
introduced as 'Professor Lila Jericho'. Hermione noticed that Severus was
strangely absent from the meal. She figured he must have felt himself unable of
being civil with the person taking his position as Potions Master, and had
chosen to eat privately, away from the danger of getting into trouble. Potions
classes would resume the following day.
Transfiguration was after lunch. Severus made his reappearance, slumping into
an empty seat in a foul mood. Having arrived a few minutes late, apparently
seeing no purpose in being prompt to classes he'd already passed once, there
was only one chair available. The fourth chair at Harry, Ron, and Hermione's
table. This seemed to irritate him even more.
They watched as he took his seat, his hands clutching the closed book (the same
from History) in a grip so hard his hands shook and his short fingernails left
indentations in the leather. The tips of his fingers and his knuckles were
white from the pressure in his hands, and his jaw was clenched, his dark eyes
staring straight ahead, as though to look at the three Gryffindors would mean
an almost certain angry outburst.
McGonagall walked in, her eyes hovering on Severus for a moment. He stared
straight ahead, obviously too angry to even attempt to look at anyone. Hermione
was in the seat next to him, looking nervous to be sitting there. They'd
already seem him bloody up Neville and insult Draco, she felt on edge at the
fact that he seemed to have little or no control over his temper. She hoped she
wouldn't say anything to offend him. She wasn't sure whether he considered
himself above hitting a girl.
"Ease up, Severus, before your fingers go straight through the cover of that
book," McGonagall muttered to him as she walked past. His eyes darted to her,
then to the book. He released his fingers from the death grip, and making a
worried sound in his throat at the sight of the deep crescents in the leather a
reminder of the abusive fingernails. He seemed to relax, his shoulders losing
the tenseness they'd had as he rubbed at the crescents, attempting to remove
them.
Hermione smiled slightly to herself. She'd never seen anyone other than herself
get worried over marks on their books. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. She
guessed you could judge the true nature of a person by the way he took care of
his reading material.
"Today we shall be learning a bit more about the Animagi, as well as about
Werewolves. Now, Werewolves are something I'm sure you learned about in Defense
Against The Dark Arts, but not from the Transfiguration standpoint. Let's begin,"
McGonagall said, her demeanor seeming almost unbearably professional. She
smiled wryly to them.
****
As the lesson progressed, Hermione noticed that Severus had been paying
attention to McGonagall. Apparently he enjoyed Transfiguration more that History.
"…it has been discovered that it is impossible to be a wolf Animagi, the only
humans that can become wolves are Lycanthropes, more commonly known as
Werewolves-"
"That's wrong," Snape blurted abruptly. There was a scraping of chairs as
students moved to look at him. No student had ever told McGonagall that she was
wrong before. She looked at him sternly.
"No it's not, Severus," She said. "I think I can safely say I know more about
transfigurations than you," she seemed to be taking quite a snide manner with
him. The students recognized her behavior towards him as the same way Binns had
acted. Hermione vaguely wondered why they were all so degrading to him. Maybe
it had something to do with his past, his involvement with the Dark Lord?
"That may be," he said through clenched teeth, his temple jumping with his
pulse. "If someone who is already an animagi is bitten by a Werewolf, they do
not become a Werewolf, they simply have a wolf as a second animagus form." he
said.
"That's preposterous," McGonagall said. "If that were true, there would have
been studies on it. You must be mistaken."
"I'm not mistaken," he took a deep breath, as if reminding himself that he
needed to be patient. "It's true. There have been cases, records of such
phenomena, it's rare, of course, but so is being bitten by a lycanthrope at
all, therefore the wolf animagi are far more sparsely distributed," he said.
"It's not true," McGonagall ground out. "Please discontinue spouting myth in my
class,"
"It's not fucking myth!" he snapped. He stood up, pointing at her as he
spoke, as if to accentuate his point. "It's the fact! You're the one who's
wrong, and I'm in the right,"
"Twenty points from Slytherin," she snapped, marking in her book again. "For
disrespect to a teacher, raising your voice, and using profane language,"
They could practically feel the waves of anger emanating from him, like a
pulse. The Slytherins were glaring at him angrily again, he'd already lost
twenty-five points from Slytherin, and he'd only been enrolled for a day!
"You're wrong! I don't care if you take one hundred points from Slytherin, it
won't make your information any more true!" He hissed angrily, his words
echoing off the walls.
"And what makes you think you're correct?" she said, her voice raising slightly,
her leaning slightly towards him, attempting to intimidate him. Really, it
looked more like a face-off between student and teacher.
"Because it happened to me!" He snarled.
"Really?" McGonagall seemed suddenly interested. The students were watching in
silence. "I wasn't aware that you were an animagus. Are you registered?" she
asked suspiciously.
"Of course I'm registered. I don't have any desire
to get on worse terms with the Ministry than I already am," he said with a
dismissive wave of his hand. He seemed to be calming now that she had become
more curious than defensive.
"When were you bitten by a Werewolf?" She said suddenly.
He scowled. "I happened to be mauled by a certain
youthful Werewolf when I was sixteen years old," he gave a grave glare in
Harry's direction. Harry was shocked. He'd known that Severus believed that
Sirius and James had attempted to kill him, but he hadn't realized that he'd
actually been injured by the brown-haired boy.
McGonagall watched the interaction between Severus and Harry for a moment, but
before she had a chance to continue class, the bell rang, signaling the end of
the period.
As they began to leave, most of the students paused, seeing Draco stop in front of Severus, his arms folded, Crabbe and Goyle flanking him on either side.
"Oh, I'm so scared," Severus drawled, fitting his hands into his back pockets, the heavy leather book perched precariously in the crook of his left arm.
"I'm sure you're scared," Draco said. "You'd have to be stupid to not be afraid of me. I have power, you know. Friends in high places."
"Gasp," Severus said mockingly. "You have friends? Wow, you learn something new every day,"
"I'm getting sick of you, really fast," Draco snapped. Hermione looked at McGonagall, who was distracted by a note on her desk and not listening to the conversation between Draco and Severus.
"Oh, get out of my way, you stupid prat," Severus shook his head, moving to push past Draco. Draco grabbed him by the shoulder, jerking him back. There was a sudden whing of movement, and they saw Draco's head jerk back.
"Don't fucking touch me," Severus snapped. Draco stumbled backwards, Crabbe and Goyle's meaty hand keeping him from falling. He clutched his nose, which had begun bleeding profusely. He swore vigorously at Severus, who simply stared blankly, his hands back in his pockets. Draco stared for a moment, blood dripping through the spaces between his fingers, before he gave an angry growl and turned heel, stalking out of the room, his cronies close behind him.
"Stupid Malfoys," Severus growled to himself. "They're all the same," he shook his head, before McGonagall clapped a stern hand on his shoulder. Harry knew that look. McGonagall was not happy. The other students recognized it too, and took their leave before the fire started flying.
****
The rest of the day seemed to go without incident. Care of Magical Creatures
wasn't until the following day, and before they knew it, classes were over.
Hungry and eager for dinner, the students filed into the Great Hall.
The new Potions professor wasn't at dinner, but Snape was. He sat in a secluded
corner of the Slytherin table, eating alone in silence. The other students were
sitting a few seats away from him, leaving no one for him to talk to. He didn't
seem to notice or mind in the least.
That night, they all went to bed with a bit more to think about. Snape as a
kid. A mean kid, a violent kid, but a brilliant kid. It was the strangest thing
that had happened since the TriWizard tournament.
Hermione was troubled, though. As she got ready for bed and crawled beneath her
sheets, she couldn't stop thinking about what Severus had said in
Transfiguration. That he had been mauled by a certain Werewolf when he was
sixteen. Obviously, he meant Lupin. What Hermione didn't understand was…
How on earth could Snape have been bitten by Lupin,
and yet Sirius Black wasn't expelled?
****
A/N: YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO! IT'S YOUR MOMENT OF TRUTH! REVIEW!!