First I need to admit something, I don't own any of it. Not a single word. J.K.Rowling does. Not that I'm so sad about it as I love HP books. I just wish her Snape would be presented in little better light. She isn't telling everything about Severus' past but I try to patch up the matter . Ok. Perhaps I'm not going always in so canon but this is the way I can see his past somehow. I have a feeling that what farther I get with this fic I get more and more AU but actually I'm not sorry for it. I'm already finding myself giving Severus a little more company than I ever thought first. I just cannot help it but I think he deserves someone around! I hope you don't mind guys but I'm wanting to give a little longer AC for once. And yup I never betaread my personal comments. I don't see it worth of it. It is my own matter what I wanna tell you guys.

I tell you something, I had hard times getting on with this chapter for some time but then something tricked me into the mood for once. Since our country won the Eurovision song contest I was in such ecstasy that I had hard times concentrating on the chapter and even on all computer. And now really it is not likely that we would win it like that. It was our 40th time when we were trying our luck and a long dream came true finally Lordi is our Hero! Hard rock Hallelujah!.

Well now honestly… my hubby started acting as idiot for once and that can be contagious as you can understand. He can be such an idiot sometimes, but sigh, my idiot. I never fail using it to my advantage actually as I start writing easily at times like this. Well, most of the time I get my best text in times like this. Actually this whole story started in bad time with him but even before it I had been fantasizing writing about this topic and only reason why I didn't do it first was that I was unsure how I should go on with it and I was afraid of starting something which I have no ability to write about as I really have my limits which I can write about. But really always sometimes he gives me such a stimulus to write something really good when he is acting idiot. I would never confess that to him but he is reason for some of my best fics in first place. Its funny that once I got into the mood I got all 9th chappy ready in one day and I got it five pages long at this time!. Well as ready as I can make it to be with my English knowledge. In this light, I'm forced to dedicate this chapter to my husband at these circumstances but he will never know that fact. However, that wasn't all of it. Then I had one new problem, my betareader was on holiday and I had to look for reserve betareader. I found one but she found to be too busy to do it quickly. Later on I finally gave partly betaread chapter to my normal betareader as she came back. I'm really sorry that this updating took that long but here I'm now, I was it was worth of waiting. Now, get to the story!

Chapter 9

He gulped when he saw those idiots again. What timing, just when he was sitting down they decided to appear in front of him. Moreover, they weren't there alone. There was some tremulous boy with them; didn't look too bright either. Well nobody who was with these idiots could be really smart actually Severus thought. Well, there was no reason he should allow them to play with him any further. He looked at them defiantly and said.

"Hello dunderheads. How come you are all so silent? Cat got your tongue? You were so meek in the potions class few hours ago. Didn't have the guts to tell which of you did it, did you? Although I think you might be ashamed of yourself now. You didn't even succeed to maintain your spell for very long with your clumsy transfiguration abilities. Maybe you should reconsider if you are really worthy of being in Gryffindor… I think you would do better in Hufflepuff…" He was going to on but he got interrupted in the middle of his rant.

"Shut up you despicable sly! How you dare to speak to us like that? Moreover, why were you smiling at Lily today? You have no right to even look in her direction!"

Severus was about to reply but apparently Potter was against it as he called out a feeble Silencio spell.

For several second Severus felt as if the spell was trying to affect him but it stopped after few seconds. So he let out hearty laugh and said.

"Is this all you can do? I can show you how to make it a little better! 'Silencio'." Potter really stayed silent for once and since he realized what just happened he started to move his mouth wrathfully but no word came out. Severus just smirked and inquired:

"Do you even know the counter curse for it? How about you Black? Wish to get sample the same fate? And I wouldn't dare say that Lily was exactly your friend as far as I know her!"

Black was staring at him intently as Potter was still moving his mouth vehemently. Black started his curse causing Severus to acted quickly. He sent a finger-locking curse at the other boy and in that instant his fingers stiffened up and his wand dropped to the floor. The third boy who was with them was now behind the corner glancing at them like some coward. Just then Potter who had a hard time trying get his spells working in his current state decided to change to different tactic. He attacked Severus from behind and kicked him with all his strength in the stomach. It only bought them a little time, as Severus didn't stand up again for one minute. They got cold feet and ran away.

Severus felt the kick hit his stomach and he flew backward onto his back. His stomach was burning with pain that he only just got used to being without; moreover it intensified from earlier. Somewhere in the background he heard the idiots yelling at each other and running away. The pain had his eyes watering but he tried to fight against it, he didn't succeed fully but at least it was just few tears that he shed. The hit had knocked the wind from his lungs and he was gasping for air for some time. After moment he forced himself to moved next to the wall and sat there waiting for pain to subdue a little. Maybe his ointment would help this now too… of course he had to go to a better place for it though. At least classes had ended for today. Though he still had one more detention to go to. Just when he remembered he realized that he was already late.

He got up quickly, actually a little too quickly as he felt dizzy. But he was late so he had to go. He didn't want to be in any more trouble than he already was. He rushed to the moving staircase no matter how badly it affected his still painful stomach. Damn idiots, it wasn't a new thing to him that people hurt him; actually he was quite used to it. He was more alarmed because he was late because of them. Well, he managed few spells thrown at them and was it really amazing that Potter was as bad at spelling as it looked? That thought made him feel better and he started whistling something of his own creation as he reached the class he was to clean.

Mr. Filch was waiting for him and not in too good mood either. Most likely because he was late. He didn't want explain his reason why he was late no matter what though. He only listened to Filch's complaining patiently for five minutes before he got to work, having received another hour that day as punishment for being tardy. He attached the dirty floor again. Gash, it hurt to bend down just now. He checked around to see if there was anything else he could do, and there was. He started to clean up the walls and though they looked bad they weren't so hard to clean. After three hours the walls were looking pretty good.

Finally he was free. It was pretty late already but he would better go somewhere to put some more ointment onto his body before night. . He went to Myrtle's bathroom. It really was a relief to feel the numbing effects of the ointment finally. When he went to his room he was happy that Lucius was still in the hospital wing. It wouldn't last too much longer though. Tomorrow morning he would be back and he'd have to face him again. He still didn't know what he wanted to tell to him and time was running out. He couldn't stand the thought of facing him again now that he knew his secret. Moreover tomorrow they would have to do teamwork together. Slowly he drifted into an erratic sleep.

He was having a weird dream where he had confined in Lucius and told him about his fellow students' treatment in his earlier school. The only result was something incredible bad, Lucius didn't keep it secret and he'd told everyone about it. After a few hours the whole school seemed to know about his past hardships. Lucius had been laughing at him afterward once he had told about all of it. It wasn't a nice feeling as the only person he trusted even a little here turned his back on him. He tried to stay away from everyone, as all the people seemed to start whispering when they saw him and he felt so devastated. All the people shooting him short glances and started to whisper something to each other. He never wanted to fall back to his earlier treatment but now it was looking really bad. He came to only one good decision and started to stay out of everyone's way. It wasn't that hard after all as he had done that half of his life but god it hurt to start it all over again. Especially when he now had some idea that things could have gone better. He wasn't feeling as lonely anymore as he always felt before. Everything was so much harder now when he knew what he was losing. It was easier to manipulate himself into not caring when you didn't see a better life but only the loneliness. But falling back into old habit were getting to him. He was crying in a silent corner of the basement.

He woke up to a wet pillow and he had hard times knowing if the dream was true or not. For the moment he thought it all had really happened and he was still sitting on the cold floor but he glanced around him and he realized that it was just a dream. He let out a sign that he didn't realize he was keep in just then. However the dread didn't leave him as he contemplated if it really could be possible. He didn't want to be alone any longer, he wanted just to be one of the guy without feeling so isolated. He tried in vain to say that it was just a dream but he kept wondering if it really would happen. Somehow he fell back to sleep for a couple of hours and when he woke this time he didn't remember what he dreamed. Even the earlier dream was starting to fade a bit from his mind. Though he still felt nervous but in a different way now. Now he was anticipating the coming lessons. He didn't feel like going to breakfast as he thought that Lucius would be there and the thought about meeting him was causing his stomach to churn so he just prepared for class.

First they had transfiguration and they were to transform a tiny ball into a bigger ball. He found it actually entertaining and he kept enlarging his ball bigger and bigger before he returned it to its normal size. Lucius who was a few benches away from him glanced at him sometimes but never saw Severus looking back. Who was doing it of course intentionally and trying to avoid seeing Lucius as long as possible. Lucius acknowledged the clear shunning however he knew it wouldn't last too long as they had double session of magical creatures next and they would have to work together in it.

Magical creatures lessons came quickly and before they noticed they were face-to-face looking at the essay in front of them. Nat McCallum seemed to be especially happy that Lucius was finally back and he made certain that Lucius was aware of what they were doing at the moment. She was happy to hear that Severus had already enlightened him. She even looked through what they had written down so far and pointed out some small errors in it for correcting. The boys listened eagerly to the teacher as long as she was explaining things to them but as soon as they were alone neither of the boys said a word. Lucius started to speak about the research needed and Severus was relieved that they wouldn't have to sit there in silence. He himself wasn't feeling very talkative personally but he tried to go contribute to the topic if not for anything else then for showing that he could do it. Honestly he was used to being a firth wheel in the group and most of the time the teacher was the one telling him who he would be with when everybody else took their own partners.

As usual, he tried to act as if nothing was wrong for the teacher's sake. There was no use in alerting the teacher with his actions. They discussion was purely on the essay all throughout the lesson. Severus didn't let Lucius go to any other topic for the whole time. It was better to stay on a safe topics. After the lesson he tried to shake Lucius off from his walk but he stuck to him. They went to lunch together, Severus unwillingly but Lucius insisted on following him he went eventually. During lunch Severus kept glancing at Lucius uncertain how to take this intense interest of being in his company, especially after so many vain attempts at trying to shake him off.

Lucius clearly saw that Severus was not so open with him anymore. All through the lesson he stuck to the topic a little too forcefully and if Lucius tried to speak about anything else his friend turned the topic back to what they were working on. After the lesson he had a hard time keeping company to his reluctant companion as he kept getting excuses about why the should split up. However he did it in a real polite way. He was certain Severus didn't really need to go the bathroom as he saw disappointment in his friend's eyes when he said that he would wait for him and they could go to the great hall together as usual. Lucius wondered how he could patch up the situation. He liked Severus and wanted to still be his friend. He still seemed to stay pretty much by himself and hardly spoke to other people. He listened to others a lot but hardly ever commented on their conversations. And again there seemed to be one or two guys who seemed to be after Severus. As it was proved one day when he found him in the corridor clearly knocked out, with a spell or not but that didn't matter. He seemed to be very secretive about it even back then. And when he suggested going to hospital wing he got a very strong refusal. No matter how Severus seemed to be feeling. And now thinking about his bruises, Lucius realized such a treatment was not new to Severus. Then he remembered clearly the shape of the bruises. They were small kids' footprints. And as Severus seemed to be very secretive about them… Somehow he couldn't imagine that it would have been Severus' brother doing it, surely his parents would do something about it. It was more likely that it was other children, possible in his earlier school. He would have to confirm it somehow. But taking into account Severus' reactions that wasn't likely. Moreover Severus was too shy and cautious most of the time. Maybe he would get some information out of Severus inconspicuously. So that he didn't even notice that's what he was doing it for.

So he tried to get the silent boy who was pushing food around on his plate to speak. In the middle of his chitchat he said.

"My family is a respected part of the pureblood community. They were in Slytherin and I'm proud to be worthy of their reputation. I knew before coming here that I was going to be in Slytherin. I was curious, what are your parents are like, were they in Hogwarts too?"

Severus dropped his fork when he heard that question. He wasn't certain what he wanted to say but knew he didn't want say too much. The less people knew about him the better and Lucius knew far too much about him for his own good.

"I… My dad didn't get permission to go here and he was actually a bit jealous of my coming here."

"How about your mother then?" This question annoyed Severus to no end. Moreover it brought long buried feelings to the surface and he tried to keep the tears inside. He could still see his mother's body in front of his eyes as if it happened just yesterday. Somehow he succeeded in holding back the tears but he had to fight seriously for it.

"She's… I heard that she was in Ravenclaw from my dad. She isn't… some dirty muggle killed her for little more than for a few euros. They never found that damned muggle whom shot her." He couldn't stop himself from saying it. He tried to keep his face calm but he knew he badly failed in it.

"Ohhh, I'm so sorry to hear."

Severus only nodded silently and kept pushing the food around on his plate. It was the only thing he could do if he wanted to keep his dignity just now. He mumbled something that he had to do and this time Lucius didn't insist and he fled. He didn't think about where he was going, he just ran blindly. Finally he found himself in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. The fight he had against his tears ended and he just let himself cry. He tried to tell himself that he didn't have too much time but you just cannot tell your emotions to stop floating as you wish. He decided to talk to Myrtle if not for anything else then for some distraction. She wasn't too far away and was looking at him. He didn't know what he wanted to say but he just said whatever came to mind.

"I… a stupid muggle man just killed her and spoiled my life. They never ever caught him and I couldn't get even that satisfaction that he got what he deserves. My dad never got over it and I had to bear his drinking and then everything else went to hell in a hand basket. All my life the muggles were trying get me break but they never succeeded. They are just piece of shits who are trying to torment wizards as much as possible. I never wanted any of it to happen. I never wanted to be different. I never wanted to be in this situation. I never wanted anything else but their acceptance, which they never granted. I couldn't even trust my dad any longer in his current state as he was usually drunk so I never told him about anything that those people were doing to me. I only wanted to be one of them but they never allowed me to be. I'm ill starred. I always end up in fiasco. I really tried to have a new beginning here but I don't think that things are going so well so far. Damn, I really should calm down soon so I might look even relative normal when I go to the class. (He paused for a moment and took a deep breath. Only now he realized what he had told to Myrtle.) I'm sorry Myrtle for ranting at you. It really isn't my habits of complaining to anyone, I just…. Please keep it all to yourself, ok? Myrtle was again smart and just nodded eagerly and promised to keep it secret over her dead body. If Severus would have been in better mood he would have smiled at badly mangled choice of words but really it was only a figure of speech after all. Surely even ghost used some of the same idioms as they used before their death.

He went to the sink and tried to turn it on but it wouldn't work. He noticed the snake engraving on it and just shrugged his shoulders. He tried the next sink and this time he had better luck. He washed his face and hoped that he looked okay. He realized that he should add the next patch of ointment to his body while he was here. The potion was really mild as the teacher had told them and his bruises were lessening but they still weren't gone. However the feeling the ointment gave was worth its weight in salt. He was certain that he look normal enough and went to potions. He knew his eyes might still be a little bit red but he hoped that nobody would notice, as he really had to go so he wouldn't be late.

At the classroom people were waiting for the teacher to come and he was left waiting away in the shadow. However someone noticed him, Lucius. He came by and told him that he was sorry for bring up bad memories. He really didn't know it before. Severus knew that was true he was just so damn weak that he couldn't think of his mother without getting flashbacks. Even though he knew that it was better let the dead bury their dead that advice wasn't the piece of cake it sounded to b. He nodded as an answer and gave a tiny smile. Lucius seemed really relieved after that. Then the teacher came and gave them group work. Lucius didn't ask for Severus just to test how he would react. For few minutes he didn't even look at him but finally Severus came to him and asked silently.

"Do you mind if we …"it was a silent and shy request but a request nonetheless. Lucius smiled and accepted it. Somehow he felt protective about Severus. He was always so nervous but he might bite your head off for one wrong comment. Somehow he wanted to earn his trust but he sensed that it wouldn't be easy. He wondered if other boy had ever trusted anyone. However he knew there was a lot more to Severus than people could see. Still waters run deep.

First off thank you for you Kendra-the hyper one and Nita who was second taking this story to alert or favorites. And Kendra, really I don't mind rambling in reviews you are very welcome to do so! I also myself tend to do that so well sometimes, lol. And no, I have never seen Bubble Boy. And Nita, Thankssss a lot for your review! I hope you will have enjoyable reading moments with my story!

Now, I professor Snape will give you a bit homework!

Now I hope you to answer to one question for me which have been bugging me for a while. I know there's American English and British English. My question is which one I'm using. Even if it is somekind mix please do tell which one it is more. I have had teachers from both countries in Paltalk and even not native teachers though I admit that I might have been getting some more practice from American people. Only I ask is to tell me the truth as it really have been bugging me, I wanna know which English I'm using. To this day whenever I ask that question anybody I know I get very unsure answers and it annoys me to no end. Don't forget to comment my story. I don't care if it is positive, negative, just a few words or even flame, just gimme your review!

Giving Snape's death-glare at people who just read this and warns not to forget to answer to my question if you don't wanna get painful detention! (Maybe, just maybe, you might also give a few words about this chappy too ! ) Moreover, I have next chapter ready and betaread, it is in my power to release! I will do that sooner if you can make me happy with your reviews! If not… I might wait for a bit longer before I will post it! So… how it was?