A/N: James Potter was a Chaser by the books and that is what I am going by. You will understand what I mean when you reach that part.

Second Best Part XIV

Luna allowed herself to be led by Snape through the halls of his house and up the stairs to the second floor. He led her down the hall in which her room was, and led her all the way towards his private quarters. He did not say anything to her as he opened the door and pulled her through it. Through the short amount of time she allowed her gaze to quickly look around and capture as much as was actually possible.

The walls of the room where not one single color, although she could not make out it's design and she could tell right away that different hues of red where dominant on the walls. From the brief glance that she gave them they seemed to be covered in paintings, although there where sections of the walls that where completely white and other sections which had pencil markings on them as though they where yet to be completed. The bed was not in the center of the room, but against a corner, and on the wall by the bed there was a large cover placed over it. As though something had been drawn there, but was veiled from sight. The bed itself was a large four-poster with black and red silk covers, pillows and a fancy red coverlet. The only other object placed in the room other than the bed was a full-length mirror.

She could really see nothing else for she immediately was led into another room by a door. When she stepped into the room she found that it was a large room. It was perhaps the largest room of the house. He stood her in the center of the room and the first thing that she noticed that there was no furniture of any kind in the room at all. Perhaps that was the reason it seemed so large and spacious, but the room was amazing nonetheless, for the walls and the ceiling was a work of art. It seemed impossible to her that she could concentrate on a single piece of it, for there was so much to pay attention to.

"Professor, did you do all this?" she asked as she turned her attention to him. He merely nodded in response. At this Luna could feel her mouth drop and her eyes widen more than she had ever thought was physically possible. "Professor this is amazing!" She walked over to the furthest wall on the opposite side of the room. She had picked this wall to look at first for there was a large painting of Hogwarts castle on the topmost left corner of the wall. The castle was perhaps drawn in many shades of blue and black and seemed to be only the upper levels of the castle for there where clouds there. This painting of Hogwarts was perhaps three feet wide and two feet in height.

The shades of blue from the painting of Hogwarts were surrounded by vines from what she knew to be as a depiction of the Whomping Willow. The drawing of the Whomping Willow was magnificent and large. It went from the top of the wall to the very bottom. It took up a large portion of the wall, but there was so much else on the wall. Underneath the Whomping Willow she could what was a lethal looking werewolf. It looked vicious and so entirely realistic that she jumped when she first saw it. It was standing, sort of hunched over with its claws reaching forward, as though it was going to strike at you and it's teeth where bare. In the background of the Werewolf was a large, silver full moon.

Underneath the painting of Hogwarts and the couple of vines seemed to be part of a wall of Hogwarts and there was a life-size drawing of a sixteen-year-old boy on it. The boy was leaning against the wall, so therefore the viewer could only see his profile. The boy was handsome and had black hair that casually fell into his face. The look on his face conceded arrogance, for it had a splendid smirk on it. She knew that this boy was not someone she knew from school and she could see that he was in Griffindor because of the crest that could vaguely be seen from his cloak. Before him stood a life size drawing of short, chubby boy with blonde hair who seemed to be admiring the other. Next to him stood another boy, who looked charming in his tattered, loose fitting clothing. He had a book in hand and was looking down at it with a look of concentration on his face, his brown hair falling into his amber eyes. Luna than knew whom she was looking at and from what era these drawings came from. The background was that of the setting sun, with hues of orange, yellow and red.

"Is this from when you attended Hogwarts?" she asked as she slowly turned from the picture to look at Snape. He merely nodded as she soon turned back to the wall to continue to look at it. She was absolutely fascinated. "Who are these three boys?" she asked as she looked at them.

"The first is Sirius Black, the chubby boy is Peter Petigrew and the last is Remus Lupin," he answered curtly. Luna merely nodded, she had assumed that's who they where. The details and shading of the paintings where simply splendid. A photograph couldn't have done a better job capturing it. She walked over to look at the other side of the wall on the other side of the Whomping Willow.

Flying through the branches of the tree, on a broomstick and clothed in the Griffindor Quidditch robes was a boy that looked exactly like Harry except with Hazel eyes and without the lightning bolt shaped scar. She assumed that this was James Potter, his father. In the clutch of his left arm was the Quaffle. There was a pompous grin on his face and he had unruly hair that seemed to go in ever which way. Underneath this she could see a girl standing next to the tree with her arms crossed over her chest and she was rolling her green eyes at the boy overhead. She was a redhead from Griffindor and as Luna stared at her she knew that this was Lily Evans, Harry's mother.

"Is this Lily and James Potter?" she asked as she stared at this.

"Yes," he responded from somewhere behind her. Luna turned her attention to what was next to this. There was a tall man, with short black hair standing in a menacing position. He was drawn life-size and was perhaps the height of Severus, to whom the man had a striking resemblance. You could only see the profile of his face and he seemed about ready to strike at the cowering figure on the floor, which Luna than turned her attention to. It was the form of a woman on the floor, she was propped up on her elbows and looking up at the man before her with a look of fear on her face and she seemed to be begging for mercy. Tears where painted streaming down her face. Standing on the other side was a sixteen-year-old boy who looked angry and outraged. He had greasy, black, shoulder length hair and a protruding hooked nose. Luna immediately knew this was Snape, standing up for his mother against his father. This was drawn and painted in neutral shades and was surrounded in black, to show the darkness of this theme.

The last space of the wall was covered in what was an enlarged painting of a photograph. She recognized all the people in the picture right away and she knew them to all be in Slytherin. It was Lucius, Narcissa, Snape and Professor Sinistra as they where when they where about sixteen or Seventeen. In the background she could see the platform and Hogwarts express and she knew that the actual photograph was taken before boarding the Hogwarts express home. Luna guessed that these where the people that Severus had perhaps once considered the closest people he had to friends.

"Professor Snape, why did you wish to show me this?" she asked as she turned to look at him, but he was not paying attention. He was currently rubbing his left forearm as he stared up at the ceiling. Luna looked up and her eyes where drawn to the largest drawing in the entire ceiling, placed right in the center. It was of an 18 year old Snape writhing in pain with his left forearm exposed where the Dark Mark was. There was a green color surrounding all of Snape's form, as though he where floating by some sort of spell. This was one of the many scenes portrayed on the ceiling of Snape being tortured. Luna guessed this was some of the occasions in which Voldemort had tortured him. There were perhaps about twenty drawings of different shades and colors on the ceiling of Snape being tortured, all of different shapes and sizes.

Luna turned away from the sight, but her eyes fell upon something that was just as painful to look at. She could see the wall of Snape's childhood and it saddened her to see that there was nothing happy about it. There were several scenes of his father beating his mother and of a small Severus crying in the corner of the room. There were some were Severus was the one that was being beaten. All of theses where drawn in black and white unless there was blood in the scene in which he had actually used red for it. There was one in particular that seemed gory and it was of a young Severus lying unconscious on his back with his arm bent in a direction in which it was not to be bending. The bone was sticking out of the skin and there was blood coming forth. His nose and mouth was bleeding and there seemed to be dried blood in his hair. There seemed to be a stab would underneath one of his ribs.

Luna covered her mouth and could feel tears forming in her eyes. It was a small wonder that Severus even made it past his childhood years. Luna started to shake involuntarily as she could see scenes of what she pictured his childhood to have been like passing before her eyes. Her knees soon buckled beneath her and she placed her hands over her ears and closed her eyes tight. She started to rock back and forth and started to sing to herself because she did not want to think of his nightmare childhood. She sang as best she could but her voice shook and sobs escaped from her throat. "99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer. Take one down and pass it around, 98 bottles of beer."

Snape's attention immediately turned to her as she fell to the floor and started to rock back and forth with her hands to her ears. He stared for a moment in confusion, but soon heard her signing and sobbing at the same time. He strode over to her and kneeled down before her. "Luna," he said as he tried to pry her hands from her ears, but Luna was pressing down hard. "Luna," he said when he took her hands off her ears. She looked up at him with tear filled eyes and stopped singing.

"Make it stop, make it all go away," she pleaded as she looked at him. She threw her arms about him and buried her face in his shoulder. He froze in her embrace, but soon embraced her as she continued to sob. He rubbed her back in an attempt to calm her down and tried to speak to her.

"Luna it's all right, calm down," he said calmly as he talked to her, but Luna continued to sob. Snape picked her off the floor and carried her out of the room, closing the door behind him. He walked through his room and closed his door behind him. He made his way down the hall and placed her in her bed and he pulled out a vial from his robes and placed it in her mouth. Luna immediately calmed down. He stared down at Luna who had turned pink and looked away from his gaze. She sat there in the bed with her legs pulled up to her chest and she hugged her knees to herself. "Luna you must tell me what is wrong with you. You cannot continued to have breakdowns of this sort," he said as he looked at her.

"I can't," she said as she stared at the wall and closed her eyes, wanting to forget the black and white wall with the morbid images of torment. Snape grabbed her face gently and turned her face so that she would look at him. As she looked into his face there was a pleading look in his eyes and a look of true concern written in his expressions.

"Luna I am begging you, I need to know what is troubling you because you can't continue to have episodes that might be hazardous to your health," he said in a pleading tone of voice. "I promise you that I will not harm you in anyway and that I will not use what you tell me against you," he said as he looked into her eyes. Luna stared at him for a moment and looked down at her hands.

"What do you want me to say?" she said as she stared down at her hands. "I don't know what it is that you want to know."

"Why did you allow yourself to come in such danger the other day by running out for hours and making yourself so sick?" he asked as he stared at her.

"I didn't mean for it to happen, I merely wanted to be alone and take a walk. It started to rain when I was in the forest and since it wasn't too cold I didn't want to come back in yet. But it got colder and darker and I lost consciousness in the forest," she said as she stared down at her hands.

"But you seemed depressed on that day, you also woke up in the middle of the nights yelling and crying. Why?" he asked as he stared at her for a moment.

"I dreamt of the day my mother died and when that happens I sometimes get a little depressed," she responded as she looked at him in his eyes. He stared at her for a moment.

"Yes, but when you where younger you wouldn't get that depressed about it," he said as he stared at her. She could feel tears very slowly begin to form in her eyes as she thought about her mother and the way that she had committed suicide. Luna didn't understand why she had done it and that was what had caused her to become so depressed.

"What where you told the cause of death of my mother was?" she asked as she turned to look at him. He seemed to be taken back by this question.

"I was told that she had an accident in her lab with a spell that went wrong," he said as he looked at her.

"Yes, I thought so to, until I reached my fifth year," she said as she stared at him.

"What do you mean?" he asked as he stared at her.

"I was there, I witnessed what happened. I was coming down into the lab to get spend some time with my mother. I was nine years old at the time," she said as her eyes unfocused and she started to reminisce. "I came down and I could see my mother standing upright with her back facing me. She said something, a spell that I did not know when I was younger, but I know it now. There was a large flash of green light and she was dead before her body even hit the floor. I lay there with her dead form for hours and I cried myself to sleep. I witnessed m father fall to his knees crying for he had lost his wife," she said. Her eyes soon focused and she turned them to him. "We learned about the unforgivable curses and I knew that my mother had not had an accident. She had commuted suicide and I didn't understand why," she said as a few tears escaped her eyes. "Why did she do it? What did she find so hard that she could not continue living? Was I not enough for her? Did she not love me? These damn questions have tortured and they have no answers," she said as a stream of tears came forth, but she suppressed the sobs and her throat hurt from it.

"Luna I didn't know," he said as he stared at her.

"No one does," she said as she buried her face in her arms. She started to rock back and forth and she no longer wanted to think of it. "99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottle of beer. Take one down and pass it around, 98 bottle of beer," she said as she cleared her mind of all thought. She soon felt two strong arms wrapped about her form and soon realized that Snape was hugging her. She wrapped her arms around him and she could not stop the sobs from coming. She could not stop the tears.

TBC…