Lily was walking down the hall as the Marauders pestered her, asking so many questions that seemed to annoy her. It was mostly Sirius and James that pester her with questions but she knew the Remus wanted to ask as well. She sighed, 'oh well,' she thought stopping in her tracks and turning to face them. "If I tell you, will you shut up?" They nodded, "and will you stop bothering Severina then?" Remus nodded, Sirius and James nodded a bit hesitant. "Okay," Lily looked around to see if anyone was around before making her way to an empty classroom, she gestured them to follow and they did.
Lily sat on one of the tables, one leg crossed over the other and stared boredly at the trio. "What do you want to know?"
"Why is Severina hiding the fact that she is a girl?" Remus asked seriously.
Lily sighed, "It's a long story but luckily we still have time before lunch!" She smiled, clasping her hands together to brighten the mood. "Where to start...Well, the Prince family is a well know pure blood family are they not?" Sirius and James nodded. "Severina's mother, as you all know, is Eileen Prince a powerful witch who married a muggle named Tobias Snape."
"Muggle?" James was surprised by this, as were Remus and Sirius. Lily nodded. "So he is a half-blood..."
Lily continued. "As you all know that marrying a muggle is a disgrace especially if you are a pureblood. There are many consequences to it such as being disowned and what not, and that's what happened to Eileen. She was disowned and went off to live with her muggle husband in Spinner's End where I met Severina. Severina at that time was a girl for awhile.."
"For awhile?"
"Yes. Apparently Eileen hadn't told her husband that she was a witch until she gave birth to Severina. Sadly, the man didn't take the news to well and began treating them like monsters but also treated Severina in a way that you shouldn't treat kids.." Lily winced at the memory. "She was often beaten lots of time physically and mentally...sexually too." The three marauders gawked not believing their ears.
Lily looked at the ceiling, studying it as if it was the most interesting thing in the world, "she often lied to me alot when we kids not wanting to worry me, and at that time she managed to learns a few healing spells from her mother and a couple of simple charms from a book that her mother had, hidden away from Tobias. By that time I had already known about magic, as I would call it, thanks to Severina. She taught me a few simple spells.." Lily said going a bit off topic.
"Anyways, Eileen had known about the beatings but she couldn't do much because she loved her husband despite being treated horribly, and she herself was often abused. She was mostly at work, she worked two to three jobs to support the family and was home mostly at night. Of course Tobias never hit Severina when Eileen was around cause he was afraid afraid that she might do some witchcraft on him, though he did hit Eileen herself.
"Eileen grew tired and knew that she was getting weaker, so she wanted to do something to help Severina. She casted an old, rare and powerful spell on Severina that changed her gender...well it was more like hide it. And then casted a memory charm on Tobias making him forget that Severina was a girl in hopes that the beatings would stop. Why she didn't just erase his memory about her being a witch confuses me, but I guess she loved her husband and didn't want to hide anything from him...except with the exception of Severina's gender of course."
Lily played with a few strands of her red hair, allowing them to digest what she had said before continuing. "Of course Severina told me about it, I didn't like it but as long as it made the beatings stop I was, reluctantly, fine with it. Although the sexual abuse stopped the beatings didn't stop, Tobias was a drunk and spent most of the time at home, which as I told you, caused Eileen to work many jobs. Severina didn't want to worry her mother and lied, saying that Tobias's abusing lessened but in reality it got worse.
"By the time Severina turned nine her mother fell ill with a muggle disease and then passed away. This of course only fueled the man's beating knowing that there nothing in the way to stop him, and so he did what he did. Severina began looking for a job to be able to buy food to feed herself, she found jobs like cleaning shoes or just anything that accepted kids. So, I rarely saw Severina much for two years. By the time we turned ten her father was down with sickness due to so much consumption of alcohol and other drugs, and was bed stricken. At the same time a letter from Hogwarts arrived for her and also me."
"If Severina is poor how was she still able to attend Hogwarts if you had to pay for the school's tuition?" James asked, scratching his head.
"True," Lily agreed. "Before Eileen came down with the muggle disease she often sent letters to her mother in secret. Begging her to allow Severina to attend Hogwarts when she was of age. Unsurprisingly the woman turned her down and Eileen continued to beg and after awhile Eileen''s mother agreed...on one condition."
"What was it?" Remus sat up a little.
"That Severina would be under her grandmother's custody and will be married off to the person whom her grandmother chooses, love or no love. This of course didn't bother Severina at all as she believed that love didn't exist and was only a waste of time. Before the day she was going to leave for Hogwarts her father died, not that Severina cared but because she knew her mother loved the man, so she gave him a proper burial. Then she went off to Hogwarts, I was hoping that the spell would be gone and we'd spend time together if she and I were to be sorted in the same house, but sadly neither of that happened. So now, here we are! Anymore questions?"
"So, does that mean she doesn't like men?" Lily shrugged.
"Maybe she'd like wolves more than men, I'm not sure. She isn't one to talk about boys and any girly things." Remus smiled slightly, "She's too absorbed in her studies to care. Anyways, lunch is going to start let's go!" Lily stood up but stopped and looked at them, her green eyes staring at them in seriousness. "Don't tell anyone I told this ok?"
They nodded. "Promise it." Lily ordered.
"Promise," they said in unison. Lily nodded happily and made her way towards out, the others following behind in deep thought.
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Regulus was in utter shock at what he had heard. He had seen his brother and his friends talking to one of Severus's only female friend it didn't bother him, but he had overheard the name 'Severina' to which he guess was Severus's real name. He silently followed them and stood outside the door to where they had entered and listened to everything. By the time the story finished Regulus was speechless. He knew nothing of Severus! No, Severina! He heard the female Gryffindor say to keep it a secret before Regulus quickly left.
So the rumors were true, Severus was in fact a girl and her name was Severina. "Severina.." he whispered, smiling slightly at the sound of it. Regulus wasn't one to go around telling people secrets nor did he have many friends to tell it to, so there was no point in keeping a promise. He eagerly went to the lunch hall in hopes to see Severina, on his way his thoughts tried to imagine how the female Slytherin would really look.
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Severina made her way out of her new room. She liked it, it was simple and away from people but it was still in the girl's dormitory. She didn't have any roommates not that she cared, she liked to be at peace. Severina wondered if Regulus knew about the news, how would he react? "He'll be disgusted," Severina muttered under her breath, making her way down to the Slytherin's common hall. There was nobody, she guessed that they were all at lunch, thankfully. She was in no mood to be annoyed with questions but then again it was lunch there'd be more people. Severus groaned, debating if she should really go or not, but her stomach growled loudly. Severina clicked her tongue, heaved a sigh and left the common room.
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Sirius, James and Remus were staring at the Slytherin's table to see if Severina had arrived, but she hadn't. Or maybe she did but they didn't recognize her? Like the three, many of the students from other houses were whispering and looking around to see if they would spot a certain Slytherin. Regulus himself was looking around the table but he recognized all the famialr faces, his eyes darted to the Gryffindors table.
The room suddenly became quiet when the huge double doors screeched open and all eyes turned to the person. Regulus and Remus eyes widen, while Sirius and James choked on their food as did many. There, at the doorway stood an unfamiliar female Slytherin. She had jet black hair that reached almost pass her waist, onyx orbs that narrowed, her nose was slightly hooked, and she had pale almost flawless skin with the exception of some small bandages on her face. "Severina!" Lily smiled waving happily towards her friend, Severina scoffed but made her towards her friend. Many eyed her long legs as she walked with elegance, she ignored their stares and sat between Lily and Remus. She knew that the rule was that everyone should be sitting in their rightful houses, but at the moment she didn't care and didn't want to explain herself to her house. Much less to Regulus. She'd tell him later or so. Remus froze when Severina sat down beside him, he wasn't sure of what to do so instead he continued to stare, it wasn't just him though. Severina nodded at Lily who smiled and reached over to grab food and place it on Severina's plate.
"I can grab food myself, Lily."
"I know," Lily replied still placing food on her friend's plate. Regulus watched everything, he was a bit sad that she had chosen to sit with the Gryffindors even though it was not allowed, but she had turned to look at him apologetically, something that even the old Severus Snape never did. He understood what she was trying to say so he let it be. Regulus turned back to his food and listened to the others around him who began to talk about Severina.
"Did you see that?" Regulus inwardly sighed, it was his roommates.
"Yeah! Severus is actually hot!" The redhead said, eyes staring at Severina's back much to Regulus's discomfort. And soon the whole table, or more like the whole room began talking about it. They whispered, pointed, and glanced at Severina who simply ignored them and devoured her food.
The Marauders, with the exception of Peter who was sick and back at the dorms for rest, watched Severina.
I feel bad for writing such a horrible past...I love Severus!
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