Willow sat on his bed, the curtains closed tightly and the lights off. He didn't know why he clammed up with McGonagall. He could have told her truthfully that he was there when his mom died, how it was a complication in her heart―making it seem like she had simply fallen asleep.

But he had a feeling that the incident wasn't what was triggering his ability to see the thestrals, it was something else.

So he told her that he didn't want to talk about it, nodded stiffly when she excused him, and made his way back to the common room with only one wrong turn.

"Willow?" Severus' voice drifted to him through the curtains, the boy having been awake when Willow returned.

"Severus," Willow started, his voice hoarse, "I'm glad you didn't see those horses," he whispered through the curtain, tears springing to his eyes. There was something about hearing Severus right now, something that had to do with the dreams Willow had been having. He could almost imagine an older, angrier Severus on the other side of the curtain.

"I'm going to sleep. Good night Severus," Willow spoke, but his voice cracked. He knew that Severus heard it and hoped the other boy wouldn't bring it up.

"Good night Willow."

Leave us alone," Willow ground out at Potter, who had stopped before them, Black and Lupin on one side and Pettigrew on the other.

"Or what? You'll call big sister for some help?" Potter grinned at them, his eyes glinting mischievously.

"I don't need Lily to fight my battles," Willow bit out, his hands clenching at his sides. Severus looked just as angry standing next to him. The group of second-year Gryffindors stayed put, their ringleader was crossing his arms and smirking irritatingly at the duo.

"Then fight your fight. Wizard's duel tonight, trophy room," Potter said smoothly, ignoring the startled gasp from Lupin, who was now looking between the two groups with barely disguised fear. Willow felt a sudden burning in his mind, similar to the feelings he'd gotten through most of his first year.

A flash of a large werewolf crossed his mind, howling at the moon, snarling at him, advancing on him. His leg twanged in slightly-remembered pain, and fear coursed through him, his eyes clearing and finding the terrified eyes of Lupin.

Willow couldn't help his fear rising; he was genuinely afraid of Lupin for some reason. The boy looked at him with wide eyes, his face paling when he noticed the horror in Willow's eyes, the understanding that Willow knows.

"Maybe we shouldn't―" Lupin started, but was cut off by a scoff from both Potter and Black.

"What are you, afraid?" Potter taunted them, ignoring Lupin in favor of smirking at the two Slytherins.

"Of you? No. Of your friend and his―his problem? Maybe." Willow glanced at Severus, who gave him a confused glance back, before eyeing Potter with casually concealed hatred.

Potter, Black, and Pettigrew paled as dramatically as Lupin, each sputtering out their denials.

"Just leave us alone, or his problem will be everyone's problem." Willow narrowed his eyes dangerously. Potter scowled before turning, motioning for the others in his group to follow.

Once they were out of view, Severus turned to him with a questioning gaze.

"What problem? What do you have on them?" Severus sounded a bit hurt, but with a bit of awe. Willow grinned at him, but didn't answer, turning on the spot and leading his friend back to their commons, hoping Severus would leave it be for a while.

Over the next few weeks, Potter and his group of fiends left both Willow and Severus alone, but both boys knew it wouldn't last. Willow knew that the boys would find a way to get back at them, to counteract the whole 'he's a werewolf' thing.

Apparently, Potter finding a potion with mysterious properties was it. Willow wasn't in the mood for the boys that day; he had been ignoring his sister and experiencing a few terrifying nightmares that had to do with dogs and werewolves and rats, and he was certain that Severus was still a little bitter that Willow wouldn't tell him Lupin's secret. So when Potter 'bumped' into him, spilling a foul-smelling liquid on him, Willow decided (against his better judgment, perhaps) that it was a good idea to hex him.

He didn't know where it came from, he had never heard of the curse before, nor had he ever read about it. But a slim memory of a small red-haired girl that was definitely not Lily sprang into his mind, the hex leaving her lips with a snarl that Willow matched as he cried it out.

Potter was not expecting a bat bogey hex to the face, nor the results that sent him to the hospital wing. It only took him a day to recover, but that was enough for him to continue and intensify the glares he sent toward Willow. Of course, he also held the upper hand due to the fact that he knew something he thought Willow would hate, and made it known, which caused Willow's curiosity to effectively keep his mouth shut about the werewolf thing and allowed the group of second-year Gryffindors to continue their harassment.

Severus was not amused, but he didn't say anything, still in the dark about Lupin's werewolf secret.

Potter and his band of goons would sometimes look over at him during meals and snicker, like the secret they were keeping from him was the funniest thing ever. Willow didn't want to know what it was, something inside him was telling him that it would change everything for him.

It all came to a head on the last day of second year, Potter was there with his friends, spitting out insults at Willow, who gave as good as he got until, in a fit of rage, Potter snarled at Willow and blurted out, "at least I'm not adopted!"

Everything was silent for several minutes, neither side daring to speak until,

"Excuse me?" Willow ground out, dread filling him from head to toe.

"You, you were adopted. I'm guessing they never told you, didn't want you to know you weren't wanted?" Potter hissed, his eyes narrowed and his lips pulled back. Willow turned to Lily, who was just as taken aback as he was.

"Who told you that? Whoever it was, was lying through their teeth," Willow bit out, only his sister's hold on his arm stopping him from advancing.

"That potion I spilled on you, the day you hexed me into the hospital wing, it was a heritage potion, it glowed blue, meaning you're a pureblood. And Evens over there, she glowed brown, meaning she's a mudblood." Potter didn't expect the punch that hit him square on the nose, but he didn't let it slide.

Lily backed away and ran with Lupin to get a teacher, both knowing that there was nothing they could do to stop the fighting boys. Severus and Pettigrew watched as Black jumped into the fray and helped Potter pin Willow down. Severus took a step forward to help, but was stopped when two teachers arrived.

McGonagall and Slughorn were looking down at the scene in horror, anger starting to cloud McGonagall's eyes, making her look even more dangerous and intimidating. The look was very familiar to Willow, even though he doesn't ever remember seeing that look on her face.

"Children, stand," McGonagall commanded, her voice authoritative and leaving no room for argument.

"What in the world has gotten into you," McGonagall demanded, not quite glaring down at them. Willow didn't look up, his eyes filling with tears that he hadn't known were waiting to fall. The accusation Potter made was making way too much sense in his mind. It was impossible, he had a twin sister, he couldn't be adopted―but he remembered that feeling of 'not a muggle-born' that kept coming to him when someone referred to him as such, a feeling that still came to him even up till now.

"Mr. Evans?" McGonagall looked down at him, her eyes filled with concern, a look he wasn't able to see with his head angled down and his eyes clenched shut. He could already feel the sobs coming to him, his body already beginning to shake.

"Alright, come now boys, to the train with you." Slughorn gathered all but Willow and Lily and pushed them gently to get them to move, leaving McGonagall with the twins.

"Willow, what happened?" McGonagall laid a hand on the boy's shoulder. Lily made a motion to pull her brother into a half hug, only to be rebuffed.

"Stop, I," he started, his words slurred and wet, and his shoulders still shaking.

"What if he's right? What if I am adopted?" Willow asked without looking up, his arms wrapping around his stomach and his fingers digging into his robes.

McGonagall looked down with wide eyes. "Excuse me?" she asked, unsure if she heard right.

"Potter told us that the potion he spilled on us a while back, the one that Willow sent him to the Hospital Wing over, he said that it was a heritage potion, and that it told them that Willow is a pureblood and that I'm a muggle-born," Lily answered. She continued to watch her brother with the intensity of an overprotective sibling.

"Let's get you two on the train. You can ask your parents when you get back," she told them, her arms reaching around them to guide them in the correct direction. She hoped that they figured this out before school starts: she's their teacher, not their mother.

Severus had been silent since they left Hogsmeade, his eyes gazing out the window. For some reason, that made Willow sad. It made him feel ignored and guilty, like it was his fault entirely that Severus was withdrawn and withdrawing from him.

Secretive glances were exchanged between Lily and Severus, which made Willow feel worse. It made him feel out of the loop, and he knows that it's his fault, that he himself had been pushing them away first, had been for years now, since they first started coming to Hogwarts.

He couldn't help it, he had once told Lily what he saw, back on the night when they locked themselves in their room, their father drunk and angry, after Willow calmed from the nightmare. Lily, being so young and so optimistic, had told Willow that they were simply nightmares, they weren't real, and that his feelings for them were just fictional, that he should forget them.

He avoided telling her anything after that. Only giving her a simple explanation that he'd been having nightmares to keep her from worrying. He never wanted to tell Severus for fear that the boy would treat them like Lily did, and even now, knowing that Severus sees things differently than his sister, something was keeping Willow from telling him anything.

Willow stood suddenly, still a good two hours from Kings Cross, and strode out of the room as dignified as he could, leaving the two to their conspiring.

"Well, look who we have here, fresh meat," the voice of Bilius Weasley cooed from ahead of Willow, stopping the boy in his tracks.

"Come on, there's room for another." The boy grinned at him. Willow felt a draw to the boy, something was telling him to follow. When he got to the cabin, he found two other Gryffindors, a couple years older than Bilius, sitting on the opposite seat that Bilius sat.

"So, what's making you look so gloomy?" Bilius asked without introducing Willow to either. The female of the two, her black hair up in a bun, gave him a suspicious glare; the male, his black hair styled immaculately, was also glaring, his distaste more open than her's.

"Nothing," Willow told him stoically. The two other students in the cabin glared harder.

"This is only Sammy and Joey, they're harmless," Bilius prompted. The glares that were now directed at the older redhead told Willow quite the opposite.

"Samuel Frodden, my fiancée Joann Mirfield," the boy all but bit out, his head inclining jerkingly at the woman to his side. Willow nodded to them. He wasn't quite sure if it was a romantic versus a marriage of convenience, but neither was giving him the feeling of shared interest (other than hating him).

Neither gave him a sense of familiarity either, not like he had with Severus, Potter and his goons, or Bilius, so they were automatically labeled as inconsequential in his mind.

"Willow Evans," he introduced as flatly as he could, making sure that they knew just how happy he was to be there.

"A shame," the woman muttered under her breath, making Willow narrow his eyes.

"What do you mean by that?" Willow ground out, sitting straighter in his seat, forcing his face to look neutral.

"That such a brilliant student as Lily Evans would have to have a slimy snake as a brother," Joann said with a sneer. Bilius paled, his eyes widening, probably unused to seeing such vehement house diversity: the boy did give Willow the impression that he doesn't see the houses interacting on such a daily bases as Willow is used to, since he has a twin in another house.

"Don't listen to them Willow," Bilius started, before getting cut off by the boy.

"The only reason you invited him over is because he reminds you of your brother and you feel sorry for him." Willow cringed in his seat, unwilling to look at the older redhead, lest it be true.

"Of course, why else would anyone interact with a mudblood Slytherin." The words tasted like ash on his tongue as he stood. Again, he couldn't help the feeling that something was wrong when he referred to himself as a mudblood, and not only because it was a derogatory term, Potter's words washed over him again before he pushed them to the back of his mind.

"It was a pleasure to engage in conversation with you," Willow drawled out sarcastically, all his effort going into keeping the wobble in his voice unheard, before rushing out of the room. He didn't want to stay to see what the other redhead would do, especially since he might have been correct in assuming Willow was related to him.

Willow kept to himself for the rest of the ride, locking himself in the loo until the train rolled into Kings Cross.