1973 - 3rd Year

These days grow monotonous. The constant drumming of the rain on my window is like the drumming of the footsteps that haunt the hallways of the school. They are all the same sound. I continue to excel in my studies, for what else is there to do? I do not have leisure time to spend, to enjoy, because I have nothing to enjoy. What a bore, this life. I wish that-

"Eeek!"

Severus' quill stopped moving when he heard the piercing voice shriek. He knew that voice, and the sound of it in pain made his blood run colder than it usually did. He dropped his quill and the remaining ink would later leave a dark stain on the page he had just written on.

He ran from his room in the tower all the way to the courtyard below his window where Lily's alarmed scream had emanated from. Severus rushed past other students, trying to shove through them, but he only managed to get himself caught in their flow. He was bookish after all, and not built for strong force. Several times he almost tripped and fell, but always he recalled the sudden cry, and how full of fear it had been. He recognized the tone of it from his own yelps of panic. Severus ran smoothly, like a raven in flight, his dark hair rising and falling with each step he took.

He arrived in time to see Potter leap onto his broom and speed off into the air where a girl was hanging, suspended by some invisible force, or that which was too small to be seen from so far away. Potter caught the girl in his arms in a quick motion, her limp form slumping against his shoulder like a doll. Unmistakably it was Lily Evans. Still in the sky, Severus heard tiny tinkling noises, all seeming to revolve in the air, carried by the wind. He soon recognized that it was the sound of pixies...laughing. They had taken Lily into the air as a joke.

They suddenly swarmed together so that their tiny forms could be seen as one collective mass, a bright cerulean ball of pixies laughing together. Severus' face hardened in concentration. At least he could get rid of the pixies for her. However, just as the thought to act crossed his mind, James' wand had been whipped out and suddenly the pixies were encased in a glass cube. Their faces immediately changed to angry expressions and they cried out soundlessly inside their sparkling prison.

Lily had begun to awaken, she had been knocked out because the pixies had carried her too high into the air for her lungs to breathe. "Hold on, Lily," James whispered to her reassuringly, "I'll get you to the clinic as soon as possible." He looked determined and confident as he gathered her up into his arms and began heading towards the clinic. He did not ask anyone for help, but kept going straight, as if he were sure he could take care of her on his own. However, Lily began to frown and struggled in his arms, "L-let go of me please," she mumbled, her head still a bit dizzy. As she fumbled in his grasp, Potter smiled cockily, "Don't worry, I've got you," and he winked at her. That made her quiet.

Severus had still been hiding in the shadows, angry at himself for letting her be saved by someone else, by James Potter, no less. What a hero that Potter turned out to be, what idiotic dumb luck, most likely. Severus couldn't stand the way he was, even as he had arrived and seen her body hanging in the air, he had been paralyzed from fear, only chancing to react moments too late. He stalked off, glad that no one had seen how foolishly he had behaved, running like a madman down the tower. Why had he even bothered? She already had her knight in shining armor.

The evening was late and Severus had been walking for a long while now. He had not gone back to his room after the dramatics of the afternoon and he had begun to walk without direction or destination. He stopped now, suddenly realizing he was in the library. It was massive and dark, as if time were frozen in the books that captured it. Severus began walking between the tall shelves, seeing other students sitting nearby, studying or reading leisurely. The shelves were like the walls of a prison, closing in on him, and yet he felt protected from the rest of the world, shielded by the old books. They held promise and words that would speak to him without judgment. Suddenly he stopped at a particularly empty section and reached out to pull a book from the shelf. He did not know why he chose that specific book, but the binding had been darkened and dulled by age and time so that it stood on the shelf, unnoticeable and forgotten. The cover was rough and peeling and it smelled..familiar.

Severus opened the book, now sliding down to the floor, not wanting to sit at a table. The inside page said, "The Sable Practices: A History of the Dark Arts, By Sextemus Lynnagon." Severus felt a sort of calm settle over him as he sat there, alone, with this forgotten book in his grasp. He turned the page again to find an epigraph apparently handwritten on the page:

This book has been allowed in the school library for the purpose of education in the dark arts and its prevention spells. All spells, hexes, and curses contained herein are strictly prohibited and their study may only be associated with DEFENSE against the dark arts and not use of them.

The young boy sneered a bit and began to thumb through the pages, eyeing diagrams of hex circles that had to be drawn onto the floors or depictions of dark mages from times before, some glaring at him, others smiling invitingly. Severus read for hours on the library floor, a small huddled figure as alone and undisturbed as the old books on the shelves. He was on page 589 when a bright light shone upon him, causing him to drop the book and shield his eyes. "Oh, oh my!" cried a nervous voice from behind the light. It was Madame Lorxa, the timid librarian of the school.

She was mousy and slender, and actually had quite a lovely face, though she was always hiding in her bushy hair. "Wh-what are you still doing here?" she demanded, waving the lamplight around. "Severus stood up, clutching the book under his arm and holding up his other hand to wave her forward. "I was only reading. Is that wrong?" he muttered darkly, and pulled the edge of his robes tightly around his bony figure, as if he were shying away from the light. Madame Lorxa fumbled with her glasses a bit, eyeing him warily. "Well it looks to me like you should be getting off to bed soon. It's nearly eleven o' clock! How could I have not noticed you before? Hiding back here in the shadows like this, my word!" She continued to mutter to herself nervously, and began to walk away.

Severus stared after her for a moment and she suddenly scuttled back, taking his arm in her surprisingly firm grip. "Oh dear, look at me, I've forgotten you! Come now boy, off to your quarters, else Mr. Verminot shall be angry with you," and she led him towards the exit, walking hurriedly. She was quite a scatterbrained young woman. When he was heading for the door she cried out, "Excuse me, young man. Aren't you going to check that book out? Or would you rather have me put it back for you?"

Severus froze and turned back around, putting on an innocent face. He slowly walked up to her counter, neatly arranged and decorated with many floral patterns. Quickly, he slid the book face down on the smooth wooden tabletop and got out his library card. The photo of his face was glaring from its perch, eyeing the world suspiciously. Madame Lorxa briskly took the book, turning it over and absentmindedly placing a card inside, inscribing his name on a long list. "Snape, Severus is it?" she mused, looking at him from under her glasses, "and why would a student like you have need of a book on the dark arts, may I ask?"

Apparently, she was not as timid a woman as she appeared to be, and she was now scrutinizing him as if there were some secret to be found from his face. Severus, however, was not shaken in the least. His face still retained its masked innocence and he looked up at her, a slight glint in his eye, his voice thick as honey, "Why Madame, I need to do a report for my Defense Against the Dark Arts class." Then he smiled at her, though it looked more sour than sweet.

Madame Lorxa looked him up and down again and slowly handed back the book. "Due in three weeks, young man. That should be ample time. Now get off to bed."

Severus gave her one last grin and darkly strode off, imbued with some sort of new confidence. In his hands he held the dark arts, spells of a different world, ones that no one else knew, and only he could teach himself. He hurried up to his dormitory, careful not to get caught by Mr. Verminot.

As he entered his room he was appalled to find that all of his belongings had been ripped to shreds, and strangely, everything was shimmering blue. Only the possessions of his roommates had been left untouched. His roommates were, as usual, not in bed. They had taken to the habit of sneaking out of their dormitories late at night. He never knew where they went, but they were usually gone until 3am. This night, they were nowhere to be seen.

The bedsheets were torn and laden with soot, and his clothes looked as if tiny little fingers had been prodding at them. There were feathers everywhere from his down pillow and all his books were scattered on the floor, some of the pages ripped out of them. His desk was covered in dark ink, still dripping onto the floor from the corner of the writing desk and the entry he had written in his journal was doodled all over in teeny tiny pictures, as if the culprit were no larger than a small fairy.

Severus dashed towards the writing desk, enraged that someone had dared even look at his entry. What uses were journal anyway? He did not know why he bothered carrying one around. As he got nearer to the desk, he noticed something dark and glittering. It was very small, and it only moved a little, but his quick eyes caught it right away. He crept closer still, quietly raising his wand. As soon as he was a few feet away he saw at it was a pixie! It was sleeping so that it did not glow brightly. Severus gasped unwillingly and the pixie woke up, immediately illuminating the entire room with its light. As soon as its eyes opened in surprise, Severus yelled, "Petrificus totalus!" and the pixie froze in midair, for by then, it had begun to fly away, not wishing to stay in his presence when her friends were not there to protect her.

The young boy sighed, tired as an old man, and knelt down the pick up the small creature who had fallen to the ground. This spell would not hold a pixie for long, its magic was too strong. He would have to keep it contained in a glass box like Potter had done, or a cold iron cage. But where were the rest of them? He had found this one sleeping all by herself, apparently left by her fellow pixies, but if she was still here, did that mean that the rest of them were too?

He stood up, eyeing the room carefully, his wand at the ready. It suddenly dawned on him that there had to be a reason that pixies had ransacked his room. Someone had let them out, someone had let them out specifically in his room. It had to be Potter!