A/n: I know it's been forever since I've updated this story. I've had writer's block for it, for the longest, but I've always intended to get back to it.

Honestly, part of it has been that my story 'Across the Universe' has hijacked my brain and haven't been able to work on anything else because all my inspiration was poured into that. Unfortunately now I've hit a bit of writer's block for that and my mind is being pulled into a million other directions (or other stories), and this happens to be one of them. Hopefully I'll be able to work on this some more while I try to untangle the coming events for 'Across the Universe'.

My writing has also, to me at least (and I'm sure I'm about the worst critic of my own work but still-), felt subpar. Hopefully this will turn out decent.

Prompt: Spiders (#254)

April 1992

Slytherin House was perhaps the most insular of all the Hogwarts Houses. A curious study of human behavior, considering one of it's predominant traits was extremely loyalty to it's own, while made up of individuals who had deep seeded trust issues. Individuals who were in most cases suspicious, if not downright paranoid and cynical.

It was truly a delicate balance of two schools of thought... the one where Slytherins were ingrained to look after their own... and the other where every Slytherin must always be out for themselves, never trusting anyone.

As such, Violet Potter, coming from a long line of Gryffindors would never truly fit in amongst her own, no matter how Slytherin she might be at the core... no matter the fact that the Sorting Hat had branded her a Slytherin.

She, like Tracey Davis, were both looked down on by all the other Slytherins, and ostracized.

But Violet had proven herself to be quite adept at protecting herself, so all the bullying that came from other Slytherin first and second years, was usually limited to verbal insults, which she usually shrugged off. After all, Violet had never really cared about what people thought of her.

It seemed, at least in the minds of most Slytherins, that any discord that existed within Slytherin was perfectly acceptable, so long as it was limited within Slytherin House. After all, Slytherins were only supposed to look after their own from outside threats. So long as they presented a united front for all the world, it didn't really matter to them how true or false that front might really be.

XxX

Violet really should have been paying attention to her surroundings. In all her life, rare were the times that she was caught off guard, because she simply didn't trust people... not even strangers who might pass her by as she walked on the sidewalk.

She wasn't sure why exactly she was like that. In fact, even Dudley's 'Potter Hunting' with his so-called friends, didn't fully explain why she'd always had this odd feeling that the world and the people that inhabited were dangerous and that the best way to protect herself was to always be wary of other's- to always be on the look-out.

But she hadn't been. She'd been too busy, walking down the dungeon corridors with thoughts of her brother- worrying about their continued estrangement... that she hadn't noticed the four third year Slytherins, who'd been creeping up behind her.

A hand was clamped over her mouth, while two other pairs seized her. She hadn't been able to open her mouth to gasp or cry out in surprise, or do anything but feel her heart leap.

"Shove her in the cupboard!" one of the voices instructed as Violet felt her eyes widen. She didn't pause to wonder, even for a minute, why her house-mates, people she'd never even spoken to before or could in no way have offended, were bothering her. To Violet, it was just further proof that people were cruel and petty for no reason at all.

But she wasn't really thinking that as she was corralled, one hand still covering her mouth while a pair grabbed at her kicking legs and helped lift her.

Whipping her head about, she stared at the four third years, trying to see if she recognized them, fighting to get free though she knew that it was likely futile until finally, she was set on her feet once more. But she hadn't time to get her bearings before she was viciously shoved in and down, her knees banging on the ground, a yelp of pain tearing form her lips as she scraped her hands.

She had only just managed to scrabble her feet and turn towards the door, when it was shut in her face, the darkness sealing her inside.

"Let me out!" she yelled angrily, trying the knob, knowing it was futile before her fists started imitating her heart in her chest as they banged on the hard door.

She could hear their laughter on the other side. Hear their taunts as she continued to bang on the door, yelling for them to stop, threatening to get them back, until her fists started to hurt and she cast a look about herself for something that would either help her, or was heavy about to keep hitting the door with.

Her eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness and as they cast about for something, only spotting some brooms and rags and scrubbing brushes, she came to the realization that the cupboard was incredibly small.

While the roof was several feet high, taller than she could reach with her hands even if she stood on a high stool like the one's in the Potion's Lab, she could touch both sides of the cupboard, if she extended her hands just a little.

Her heart, which hadn't really slowed since she'd been grabbed, started to speed up again as she turned back to the door, a panic that increased her breathing, seizing hold of her.

"Let me out!" she screamed, her tone going from loud and angry, to almost breathy with a high trill of anxiety threading through her words.

"Awww, is little girly Potter afraid of the dark?" one of the third years asked, one of the girl's taunting while the others laughed.

"Be careful you don't get bitten by any spiders while you're in there, Potter," another taunted and just like that, Violet felt her hairs standing on end. She didn't know if it was her imagination, if she'd been able to think rationally she probably would have guessed that it was just her imagination, but she felt that too familiar tickling crawling suddenly over her skin.

From the back of her neck, to her arms, to her legs, she felt as if she'd suddenly had a sack of spiders, dumped on her head and they were making their way on tiny hair legs, moving over her.

A yelp of disgust and horror pulled from her lips as she started to shake her hair with her hands roughly, before proceeding to smack and scrub at her twitching and writhing body, her mind transported to the cupboard under the stairs as she did so.

Her feet tripped over the broom, causing her to crash into the wall with her shoulder, before falling to the floor in her mad seizing to get the spiders off of her.

The cupboard, which she'd known had been too small, suddenly felt as if it were closing in on her, making her panting breaths feel even more stifling than before. Her chest felt like it was caving in, and black spots clouded her vision as true terror seized her.

"Harry!" she cried out, seated on the floor and looking wildly around for her twin even as her legs kicked out at the door and she started screaming, her lungs burning as she failed to get in much needed oxygen.

She couldn't breathe! She was sure that the air was running out and as she continued to scream, sure that the small space would be the death of her and that no one would hear or screams, or care about or miss the little orphan girl.

XxX

Severus cocked his head, his brow furrowing as he patrolled the dungeon's corridors.

He could hear a rather odd sound, much like repeated and loud banging and... were those screams, he wondered, his steps becoming quicker as he all but raced down the corridors and turned at the next corner.

At the far end of the hall, he could see a group of students, looking at staring at each other, while also staring at a cupboard door he knew resided at the end of the hall.

One of the four, seemed to notice his quickening approach and they turned and ran before he could reach the end of the corridor where the sound of screams and banging was emanating from.

Severus paused, realizing that a student had been shoved and locked into the cupboard, a part of him wanting to track down the miscreants that surely thought that this would be a funny trick to pull on one of the younger years. Something he'd come across more than once in all his years teaching, though he himself had somehow managed to never be the victim of such a prank himself.

Though, it was rare for such prank to engender this degree of reaction.

The screams emanating from within were high pitched- not merely because the victim was clearly female, but because the young girl sounded absolutely panicked and tortured. So much so that it raised the hairs on Severus' body with the nightmarish sound that he was sure would haunt him like the other screams he'd ever heard- and Severus had heard many.

Claustrophobia, Severus concluded as he stopped before the door and pulled it open, prioritizing the mental health of the victim over the severe and probably somewhat sadistic punishment he wanted to dole out to the others.

Staring into the dark, Severus could just make out a small bundle of limbs on the floor of the cupboard before the screaming stopped and the small student scrabbled out in hands and knees and to the opposite end of the hall before dissolving into a fit of tears as she curled into a small little ball.

It took him a few moments to recognize the dark-mop of unruly hair and when he did, he felt his heart and teeth clench as he watched the girl rocking, only just making out that she was speaking in a tearful, panicked rush.

"I'll be good, I promise, I'll be good," he heard the girl mumbling as he slowly approached, looking up with her green eyes wild and shedding tears. Her face white which fear, her cheeks red from the exertion of her tears and terror, her voice rough from her screaming. "I won't do freaky stuff, just please, please, don't be put me in the cupboard again," she begged, her body wracked with trembling as she rocked and hugged herself.

And Severus wasn't sure in that moment would would forever haunt him more. The sound of the girl's screams... or the fact that Lily's daughter was begging him not to lock her up in the cupboard again for being bad- for being a freak.

If he hadn't before been concerned about how small the Potter twins were... if he hadn't wondered if something was not wrong at Privet Drive ... he was sure of it now.

Something was very wrong with the Potter twins... and he'd failed Lily when he'd promised to protect her children... to keep them safe.

TBC...

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