1971-1972 - Half-breed's Fate

Severus was quite surprised - and, frankly, a bit proud - of the way his fourth- his seventh? Well, the Snape student's seventh day at Hogwarts was going so far. Not that he'd achieved anything special, no. But he hadn't done anything wrong either and that was an achievement on its own.

He had managed to avoid all contact with the two Gryffindors which was one of his main goals for now. They hadn't actually spoken to him since that incident on the train, but Sev had seen them making fun of what had happened during the Sorting, and it was enough to make his blood boil.

Things with his housemates weren't going much better. He was now a half-breed and a mongrel, a disgrace for the House of Slytherin and was "probably only there as a maid". He'd even heard groups of prattling hens giggle after he'd passed by them and it had taken a lot of self-control not to curse them right then and there in the middle of the hallway. He was pretty sure he was capable of it.

In fact, it was one of the things he'd done right today - prove he's capable of fighting and not just some disoriented spalpeen.

Professor Nadelft was a plump, short man with brown eyes and brown hair. He was wearing a brown coat and brown shoes, with the only accents on his garments being his black trousers and the golden pocket watch hanging on his coat. He looked every bit like a Muggle businessman from the 1890s, and that didn't sit well with any of the Slytherins. At least not with those of them who knew a bit about Muggle culture.

"Welcome, my dear students," the man greeted the class once they were all seated. He was wearing a grimace of disgust. "This year I'm going to be your Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. I am new to this job, so I hope you'll give me some time to adapt, eh?" Nadelft winked in their direction, but none of the Slytherins appeared to be amused.

"Should teach Dark Arts instead," whispered Roran Wilkes, loud enough that everyone in the room heard his remark.

The plump man tried to ignore it. "Well. Can anyone here tell me why we need to learn how to defend ourselves against the Dark Arts?"

"We don't," one of the girls replied as her hand shot into the air. Severus didn't really agree, but kept his mouth shut and nodded as everyone around him snorted approvingly.

"Is that so, young lady? Why don't you come up here and demonstrate how you'll deal with a Dark wizard?"

Nadelft wasn't doing a good job at intimidating the girl because she remained smug and with an air of superiority. "Don't want to knock you out, Professor, but I'm sure Snape would love to try."

Ah, yes. Snape, the mongrel, the butt of everyone's jokes. However, Nadelft wasn't intimidating him either, and this might be a good way to prove himself in the eyes of his housemates.

"Just as well, just as well," the Professor announced and turned this time to Severus. "Mr Snape, what's your response to that? Do you think you can deal with Dark Spells without knowing how to counter them?"

'course not. But yours I can probably deal with. Severus scanned the room. Ten pairs of eyes were staring at him testily. "I do," he said finally.

Nadelft, obviously not expecting this answer, still looked a bit dazed as he invited the boy to the front of the room. It was evident he didn't like the Slytherins, yet Severus managed to surprise him when he informed the man he already knew the rules of a duel. In reality, he hadn't actually participated in one before but he'd read about them... How hard could it be?

"All right, on the count of three," the professor announced and Severus raised his hand to hold his wand in a combative position. "One - two - three!"

Without waiting to see what his opponent was doing, Severus ducked his head and rolled to the left. If nothing else, those bloody morning runs his father had forced him to do had made him faster and more flexible. With the corner of his eye he caught a bright yellow light coming in his direction and managed to roll again just as the bolt hit the floor where he'd been a moment ago. This time he was quick to stand up before escaping the next jinx aimed at him.

"Oppugno!" he cried as he pointed his wand at a stack of papers on Nadelft's desk, and it flew toward the man with an impressive speed. It didn't do much damage since the professor blocked it with ease, but it gained Severus some time so that he was no longer in defence mode. They exchanged a few more spells and even though the boy never once cast a defensive spell, he gave as good as he got. At last, Nadelft put a stop to it.

"All right!" he called, taking a few ragged breaths. "As you just saw, using defensive spells made it a whole lot easier for me."

There was a collective moan of disagreement but the man just pointed Severus to his seat and continued with his speech as though he'd scored a point. None of his housemates congratulated him, but they did not ridicule him either and so Severus took it as a compliment and let a small smile tug at the corner of his lips.

"You alright?" Severus greeted as he got closer to the tree where 'Snape', as the twins had come to call their collective image, has been meeting Lily every day since they arrived at Hogwarts.

"Hey," the girl lifted her eyes from the book in her lap. "You had Defence Against the Dark Arts?"

Severus didn't even bother to answer and instead dropped his bag on the ground and sat next to his friend. "You know," he began, his gaze fixed somewhere in the distance, "that idiot is not at all as good as you presented him." Lily looked at him questioningly. "I mean, he knows his stuff but he's too much of a snob. I got the feeling he doesn't like students."

"He liked us. Even gave us like 20 points. We're in the lead now."

"So he doesn't like Slytherins then. Even better." Lily just grinned at him mockingly. "Whatcha reading?"

"'The Red Rover'."

"You don't seem like someone who's into pirates," Severus noted.

"I'm not, actually, but there weren't many Muggle literature books in the library. I like it so far, though." She looked at the book in her hands and then back up. "By the way, have you been to the library? It's massive!"

"Yeah, went there to read more about the Sorting Hat. Fascinating, isn't it?"

"Find something interesting?"

"Not much, really. Other than the fact that it belonged to Godric Gryffindor and that 'worthy' Gryffindors can pull his sword out of it. Guess not many people find it interesting, cuz there aren't many books that mention it." Which was very disappointing since he and Sev had wasted three days and hadn't found anything actually useful. They'd even thought of checking the Restricted Section but in the end decided there was no reason texts about the Sorting Hat wouldn't be available to everyone.

"Really? What's it that sword does?"

"It's a sword, Lils. Pretty much the same as the cutlasses your pirates must have."

"I know what a sword is!" Lily exclaimed and slapped him playfully on the shoulder. "I meant-" she stopped abruptly. "Potions! We're running late."

Both jumped to their feet as if they'd been stung, and ran for the castle.

"Do you know where the classroom is?" the girl asked through heavy breaths.

"No idea. Somewhere in the dungeons. Come."

Severus led his friend down the stairs toward the Slytherin dungeons. The corridor, however, was blocked by a door that refused to open.

"Alohomora!" the boy commanded. Nothing.

"Cute little students late for class, cute little students late for claaass," a booming voice echoed somewhere above them. Both kids tilted their heads to face a floating little man, dressed in outlandish clothes and wearing a malicious grin. "Oh, if only Peeves could help them get through the door. Poor kids," the man wailed with pretended sadness.

For some reason, it made Severus' blood boil. Lily just stood rooted in her spot, dumbfounded.

"Look," the boy said sharply. "If you can really help us, would you? Please. We're running late as it is."

A hysterical laughter cut through the momentary silence that followed Severus' request.

"The children think Peeves will help them," the man explained to an invisible companion as though it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. "The children are naïve little brats."

Severus was finding it hard to control his temper. Thankfully, Lily spoke before he could.

"What if... What if we offer you something in exchange for letting us through?"

The man made a scene of scratching his chin and muttering something under his breath. At last, he turned to address the two kids, "What something?"

"Uhmm... I don't kn-"

"We'll point you to some students whenever they're good targets. You just need to tell us how to summon you," Severus cut his friend off. Being able to summon a poltergeist might come in handy.

"Hmm... Not good enough. You'll have to up your stakes. What about a teacher as well? Maybe that tall witch with her funny glasses. She's too fastidious for my tastes."

"McGonagall?"

"Probably. Don't know her name."

"Alright. We have a deal, then?"

"You whistle the next time you see her, or you're not getting to another class soon. No! I thought of something better. You should sing 'Rock-A-Bye Baby'." Severus groaned. "I'm really doing you a favour, why would you even want to go there...?"

"Thank you," Lily said as she pushed past the door.

A sharp yelp made her turn only to see her friend pressing a hand to his back where a stone had hit him. Peeves was retreating in the other direction and singing to himself nonchalantly.

"Blasted thing!" Severus cursed and followed the Gryffindor down the hallway.

Unidentified time later, the two finally managed to find the Potions classroom. Half of the students greeted them with mocking applause, the other half glared at them. No, strike that. Slytherins and Gryffindors alike were glaring daggers at Severus alone. Potter and Black were sitting at the back of the room, close to the entrance, and seemed ready to jump at him any second now. What worried him more, however, were the scowls his own housemates were throwing in his direction. It didn't bode well.

Slughorn, on the other hand, appeared particularly unmoved. He took 5 points from both Gryffindor and Slytherin and continued with his introduction to Potions as though nothing had happened. This might have been the most boring class so far (though Sev had missed History of Magic which, according to the others, was the most tedious of all) and it wasn't long until Severus zoned out.

Four rough hands grabbed him as soon as he'd set a foot in the common room and pressed him against the wall. The back of his head collided with the stones.

"Is this the traitor?" one of his captors asked over his shoulder to where Rabastan Lestrange, a boy in Severus' Year, lay on a sofa next to one of the big pillars.

"Same piece of shit, it runs in his blood," the boy joked in reply and turned back to his copy of the Daily Prophet, unmoved by what was happening around him.

"Heard some pretty bad things about you, half-breed. Hanging out with Mudbloods, are we?"

"Don't call her that," Severus responded through clenched teeth. Muggles might be inferior to them, but heck, Lily was probably better than all of the people in this room combined!

A heavy punch was delivered to his stomach and he exhaled sharply.

"You're weak, Tom!" Wilkes shouted from the other end of the room. "And use your wand like a proper wizard! Are you a Muggle or what?"

"Oh, shut up, Roran!" the boy holding Severus' left hand to the wall, apparently Tom, shouted back, but drew his wand anyway. "Any ideas, Carter?" he turned to his companion on Severus' right.

"The Pimple Jinx seems fun."

Severus was still trying to process what was going on around him when Tom, a Second Year with dirty blond hair and sharp features, pointed his wand at him and incanted: "Furnunculus!"

Hot pain exploded in his left cheek and quickly spread to the rest of his face. It felt like his head was on fire. Something was moving under his skin, looking for a place to escape and eventually just ripping the skin open. An indignant scream escaped him. He tried to touch his face, cover it, lessen the pain or at least the humiliation. But cruel hands were holding his own, and he wasn't allowed even that small merci. His knees buckled beneath him and his captors eventually let go of his arms, leaving him to sit there on all fours, gasping for breath and desperately trying to stop the boils covering his face.

Laughter had filled the common room. But Severus' ears were deaf to everything but his own thoughts. His mind racing through possible cures at rapid speed but his body too weak to support him anymore, he collapsed on the floor. He lay there, coughing and just trying to breathe. Inhale. Exhale. Eventually, words started to reach his ears. Not intelligible ones and definitely not ones that formed sentenced, but by the tone of the voice speaking Severus could tell someone was having an argument.

"... you think ... enough!? ... fun anymore ... sick!"

A female voice.

"... dear ... sort this out ... end ..."

A male voice. Malfoy's voice?

The pain subsided. It didn't go completely, his face was still burning. But it was tolerable. He could take it. Severus rolled on his back and covered his face with both hands. Now that he could think about something other than the pain, he was overwhelmed by shame and anger. He wanted to disappear. Just vanish and erase this day from experience.

Why did it always have to be him? He'd gone through this so many times before. First at his own house, the place he was supposed to call 'home'. Then, at that rotten Muggle school. And now here, the magical castle that was supposed to be... well, magical. And yet... It never became easier. Dozens of times he'd gone through this and it was still as painful and humiliating as the first. At times like this, he wondered why he'd even been born. And the answer was always the same. For others' entertainment.

A shadow hovered above him and Severus made an effort to open his eyes. A blond girl, tall and slim, was standing next to him and glaring disapprovingly at someone he couldn't see. Severus sat up slowly and not long after he was standing on his two feet, slightly hunched and praying the long hair would hide his face from the world. Only now did he notice his body was shaking slightly. Suddenly, the girl extended her arm toward him. He flinched instinctively and jumped away from her.

"Don't touch me!"

And he ran. He didn't look back and didn't stop until he was in the relative safety of his own bed, the curtains drawn and spelled against intruders.

"Snape did they say your name was?" the same female voice he'd heard earlier was ringing in his ears again. "You have to go to the infirmary."

No, that he didn't have to do. And he said as much. "Haven't you had enough? Just leave me alone!"

Sure, his face hurt, but it wasn't as if any of the people here would care, so the least they could do was drop their pretences. And besides... Weren't girls supposed to have no access to boys' dorms? This question was answered a moment later when the girl spoke again:

"Look. I don't want to deal with you, but as a prefect, I am to report all injured students and get them help." When Severus didn't respond, she sighed and from the sounds that followed the boy concluded she'd sat on someone's bed. "Or I can get you a Boil-Cure Potion while you wait here and then you'd owe me a favour."

"Of course I would," Severus snorted.

Five minutes later, the blond girl returned with the Potion. She wore that expression of someone who thought themselves superior and yet... There was something about her... Something he hadn't seen in anyone before except Lily. She'd stood up for him. Frankly, it was obvious she wasn't very fond of him. He'd hazard a guess she found his sheer existence offending, pureblooded witch as she was. It didn't matter. She might have just been saving her own skin, but she'd helped him nevertheless and in his life so far that was more than what most people would do. Cowards.

He laughed bitterly. The girl would probably think him insane but he didn't care. What did it matter if he was? The world was insane anyway.

Cowards. Oh, Severus hated people whose most important trait was their bravery. What good would bravery do when you don't have a plan justifying your recklessness? But even more he resented those whose cowardice rendered them useless when someone needed them. What good would brainy plans do when you don't have the strength to act on them?

"What happened?" Seuthes asked when he noticed Russ entering the trunk. His face was red and covered in boils and blisters, his breathing was laboured.

"Tell you in a second," Russ groaned and slumped on the bed where Seuthes had been lying just a second ago. "Just need to... rest a little."

"Give me that," Seuthes grabbed the balm from Russ' hand. A minute later, he was applying it on his brother's face.

It took about five minutes to cover all boils and ten more until most had disappeared. Meanwhile, Seuthes had dropped on the floor, book in hand, and continued doing what he'd been doing the whole day. Reading. Muggle criminal stories.

"Alright. 'm ready," he heard Russ mutter. He knitted his eyebrows in confusion, but then saw Russ looking directly at him and started looking for his wand.

He found it a minute later and grabbed it from where it had rolled under the bed. Then sat on his knees in front of Russ and looked straight into his eyes.

"Legilimens!"

The process was harder than usual. Russ must have still been feeling humiliated because humiliating memories were constantly popping in front of Seuthes and he had to be careful to go around them. Halfway through, he stopped for a short break. He'd just seen the deal with Peeves and thought it both genius and poorly executed. They really should've higgled the singing part.

Russ was breathing heavily.

"Does it hurt still?"

"No, I'm just... exhausted." Russ rubbed a hand on his face.

"Tell me when you're ready to continue," said Seuthes and turned back to his book.

It took them about 20 minutes after that to exchange memories and by the end of Russ' turn Seuthes had been so livid it had been hard for him to show Russ even his monotonous reading. He'd been ready to hunt those Second Years down and give them a taste of their own medicine. And if not them, then Wilkes was right here, in this room, probably sound asleep. In the end, though, Russ had stopped him from doing anything of the sort, and he'd resigned to just climbing up the trunk and going to bed.

Thursday, September 9th, 1971

A group of First Years had gathered around the wall for notices in the common room and were complaining loudly about something when Seuthes approached them. It didn't surprise him when he saw a notice pinned on the board, and it surprised him even less that his housemates were not happy. Slytherins were paired with Gryffindors for the Flying lessons starting on Monday.

"Nasty surprise, isn't it?" Seuthes whirled around to see a fit boy with wavy black hair and blue eyes standing about two feet from him. "It happens every year, apparently. Last year one of ours landed in the Hospital Wing with two of theirs. And they still won't change the pairs. People say Slytherins are out for blood, when in reality Dumbledore over here makes the Flying lessons a battlefield." And then the boy left, leaving the First Years even more furious than they already were.

"We'll show them boys!" Lestrange shouted and others cheered around him.

Seuthes, however, wasn't so sure about it. He had a bad feeling about these lessons.

And of course, as all days one didn't want to come, Monday arrived all too soon.

By now, Seuthes was accustomed to the big variety of food and the massive quantities available to all students. Not that he ate that much, but he no longer had a problem putting more than a slice of bread in his mouth. Today, though, he couldn't eat even that much.

Seuthes hated heights. He feared them and hated them for it because he didn't understand his fear. It was completely irrational. He trusted himself, he knew he wouldn't just jump down a ravine or something. One time his father had made him climb up the roof to help him fix a hole in it. Seuthes had almost fainted and faced his father's wrath for it. Only pampered girls feared heights, Tobias had said.

As if Flying Class wasn't bad enough on its own, today it was raining. Seuthes arrived about 10 minutes before the lesson was about to start. His housemates were already there, along with a few Gryffindors. One boy in particular, chubby and blond with two big front teeth that reminded Severus of a rabbit, was currently at the receiving end of Mulciber's not so creative insults.

"You sure the broom will be able to lift you off the ground? If you can even mount it, that is."

Avery joined him with another snide remark when Severus heard a loud voice coming from behind him.

"Hey!" Potter shouted while pushing Seuthes to the side hard enough that he almost toppled over. "Leave him alone, you inbred spiv. Pettigrew, come here and stay away from these snakes!"

The cockalorum held his nose high up in the air and marched back to where Black was saying something to a group of girls, the chubby boy trailing behind him.

Lily came rushing from the castle just as Madam Hooch, the teacher, stopped in front of the class.

"Alright, everyone! You've seen the broomsticks already. Everyone, stand by a broom!" she barked and the students scrambled to follow her instructions. "Hands over the brooms now! 'Up!'"

Seuthes' broom only lifted about two inches before it dropped back to the ground. Lily, on the other hand, was holding hers tightly and grinning at him. Most of the Slytherins were holding their brooms as well, along with Potter, Black and a few of the Gryffindor girls. It took four tries until Seuthes finally managed to do it, all the while listening to the mocking encouragement of the redhead next to him.

Mounting the brooms didn't go much better. At some point Lily started laughing hysterically when Seuthes' broom dodged just as he was going to mount it, and it caused him to tumble to the ground. Flying clearly wasn't meant for him.