I told you I would update soon. This chapter tells a bit about Liz's past, as well as showing a friendlier side of Snape. Before you send in your reviews, please note I have a reason for doing this, hence the title of the story, I have a reason for everything, or so it would seem. I hope you enjoy it and as always please review and give me ideas for what the DADA class should learn, or else that class could be very boring. Cheers.

-Pentagon Merlin

PS- For those of you who have me on Author Alert and have already read this, I just changed the spelling of Galla to Golla, pronouned with a soft a like in car, and made it so that the reason she gives it a name is because Snape gets sick of calling it the alter-ego.

The Reason

Ch 9- Outbreak

Midnight found a young dark haired girl sitting in the middle of a dark, deserted hallway, sick of herself. She was sick of trying to be perfect, sick of being friendly to everyone, sick of trying so desperately hard to be a good witch that she felt ready to burst. Elizabeth Adeline Riddle had felt this way several times in her life. The first was when she was 3, and to try to change it, she had changed her name from Elizabeth to Liz, at least where everyday was concerned. Then, when she was 7, when she started 2nd grade, she got sick of sharing and raising her hand and having people pick on her, so she rebelled and became a teacher's worst nightmare for the rest of the year. When she was 8, she found out who her father was, and along with the beginning of her magical training, she snapped. That was the first time her alter-ego came out, lasting for nearly a month and terrorizing her town all during the while. When Rockwall decided not to accept her when she was 11, she had snapped again, running away from home and becoming the alter-ego once more, for a few weeks anyway. That time, she put 5 people in the hospital, not strong enough to really hurt them yet, but coming close to almost killing them. Her mom's friend Donaghan Tremlett had brought her back to reality by being his cool self. Then, when she was 13 she snapped under the pressure of all her classes. The alter-ego didn't come out, but it might as well have. She started hanging out with bad people, doing drugs and alcohol, partying for long hours. Donaghan, or anyone else, wasn't able to help this time; she was on a destructive pattern. When she was 14 and her father came back, she had been pushed to the brink, almost slept with one of her many scum-bag boyfriends. She was in the middle of taking off his pants when she had realized that it wasn't her fault that her father was a jackass for leaving and then asking to come back, and sleeping with a guy really wasn't going to help. So she broke up with him then and there, and decided not to sleep with a guy for a while, even if she did insist on partying way more then anyone should.

This time was different though. No matter how sick she felt, how self- destructive, she couldn't do anything. She didn't want to run away, her alter-ego would do no good popping up here, where she was trying to get even more control of it, and she certainly couldn't act against the teachers. She was the teacher, and it was only a week into the school year. Damn, why had she taken this job?

"Shouldn't you be in bed young lady?" a slimy voice said from the corner. "Oh, it's you."

"Professor Snape. Out for a midnight stroll I see," Liz bit back.

"Yes, well, it is my job."

"Really? So is being my father's loyal servant just something you do to make a little extra cash?"

"How about you, Miss Riddle? Dumbledore seems to trust you, but then the old man is a bit of a fool when it comes to trusting people."

"Well, he does seem to trust you, so shouldn't that be proof enough?"

"Miss Riddle, what did I ever do to offend you?"

"You work for that insane father of mine. You hate anyone who isn't lucky enough to be from an ancient line of wizards, and you keep calling me Miss."

"Oh, is it Mrs.?"

"No. It's Professor. I would appreciate it if you would be kind enough to address me with my proper title," Liz fumed.

"Excuse me, PROFESSOR Riddle. Is there anything else you want?"

"Yes, get out of my way!" Snape couldn't believe his eyes. Not only was Liz's hair lightning, but her eyes were becoming more and more red. Her nose was sinking into her face and becoming flat and her complexion was loosing it's glow.

"What in the world?" Snape muttered.

"Did you not hear me you sniveling little follower? Are you so unintelligent as to believe you'd get away with insulting me! You don't deserve to be a Death Eater; in fact perhaps we should..." Liz yelled, stepping within an inch of Snape.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Snape muttered, pointing his wand at her. Immediately, her entire body went stiff, and she fell into Snape. He had half a mind to let her fall onto the stones below, but instead caught her and levitated her into a nearby classroom, placing her on a desk, and settling down to wait until she changed back.

"What did I say?" Liz asked as soon as Snape took the spell off her.

"Random insults and how I wasn't intelligent enough to be a Death Eater," Snape said from where he was sitting in the corner.

"Sorry," Liz whispered, thinking that she really needed to get control of herself.

"What happened to you?"

"My father decided when my mother was pregnant that it would be fun to make me his heir. What you just saw was the side affect. I'm sorry. I can't control anything I say or do, I just try to hurt as many people as possible."

Snape sat quietly for a while. "Why does it happen?"

"I get worked up over something or another. That little argument we had normally wouldn't do it, but I was stressed when you found me, and..." Liz trailed off. "You're not a loyal Death Eater, are you?" she said after a minute.

"Why do you ask?" Snape asked, knowing that if he told her the wrong thing, and she was in with her father, he'd be dead.

"Because I look like my father when I take on my alter-ego, anyone who either worships him or is terrified of him freaks. You didn't."

"You know you catch more then the normal teenage girl. You should probably watch that."

"One of my teachers was a spy. Enough nagging from a ten year old and he gave in. Taught me all he knew about noticing human behavior and such. It's really useful."

"Does Dumbledore know?"

"What, that my alter-ego is evil, yeah, he knows. Mom told him when I came here."

"You know it needs a name. I'm assuming that you've gotten sick of calling it the "alter-ego" as I have and it hasn't even been 20 minutes."

"My alter-ego needs a name?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because if it is a different personality, it deserves a name."

"How about Helzen?"

"Why Helzen?"

"I don't know."

"Helzen is an odd name."

"True. How about Gollum?"

"How do you come up with these names?"

"It's from Lord of the Rings. He's the bad side of the hobbit."

"It would be appropriate, although it is Muggle, and male."

"Ok... Golla?"

"It is your name."

"Golla it is then."

"I have a lot of energy at 2 in the morning. Strange habit I got from clubbing."

"You most certainly are odd."

"I'll take that as a complement. Thank you."

"Do you need to go to the hospital wing?"

"No, but I probably should go see Dumbledore. I wonder if he's sleeping."

"Go to bed."

"I don't take orders, thank you," Liz said, feeling way too energized.

"That is not an order, it is a suggestion," Snape said, the harshness that had slowly left during their conversation coming back.

"Fine. Night Professor," and with that, Liz strode out of the classroom and back to the portrait of the Fat Lady. She made a point to talk to Professor Dumbledore in the morning about getting help to keep the newly named Golla down.