October 3rd, 1976.

"You really should stop picking fights with them you know."

The charcoal eyes of a sixteen year old Severus Snape flashed outward from beneath a layer of thick black hair and found themselves met with an equally intense pair of ice blue ones, "I wasn't picking a fight with them, they were picking one with me," the teenager lifted his hand and rubbed the back of it against his cheek, causing the smudge of dirt that was there to blend with the blood caked on his knuckles. Aurora quickly reached out and grabbed his wrist before he could further mess his complexion, and held it against his knee with her right hand while her left dabbed at several cuts and bruises on his face. It was the third time in a month that James and Sirius had got a hold of him, but from the way her friend had been acting all morning she knew that the altercation wasn't entirely their faults, "I didn't even do anything to them, were they bleeding at all? No."

Sighing, the brunette sat back on her heels and tilted her head to the side to get a better look at him, "You never do anything to them. You never do anything to anyone, Severus, but what was it that you said?" Ever since Severus and Lily had stopped speaking the previous year the tension between him and her new best friend, James Potter, had increased tenfold. Aurora had already been responsible for healing a broken nose, several jammed fingers and the countless gashes he had been on the receiving end of, and it didn't seem likely to stop any time soon. That fight, after the fifth year students had finished their OWL's had marked a turning point for the class of 1978. The Gryffindor students had never had it in for a Slytherin as much as they seemed to have it in for Severus, and Aurora's refusal to stop giving him the time of day (despite urgent requests from Remus Lupin and several Ravenclaw students) left her labeled as an outcast as well. What should have been a school rivalry between boys had now drug two unwilling females into the situation, and while Lily and Aurora would have rather stayed out of it entirely, neither was willing to stop supporting their own side, and each other.

If it were up to Aurora, however, Severus would never know that she was still speaking to Lily. It would have been far too hard on him.

After several moments and no reply from her companion, the girl gave another small sigh and went back to healing him. It was mid-afternoon on a Sunday and a large group of students had vacated the grounds and headed to the Quidditch Pitch to watch a friendly game between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, but it seemed two seats would be left empty this time. Aurora had never been particularly social, but even she noted how many people seemed more reluctant to talk to her than usual. She paid it no mind, however, and simply remembered that her sister used to tell her that those that weren't with her when she needed it most were those that she could do to live without. The words echoed through her mind as she turned her attention to the splintered skin lining Severus' knuckles and murmured a few spells to hasten their healing.

"I cannot believe you've run out of salve already," her eyes never left her work but it was as though she were looking straight at Severus anyway. He watched her intently, knowing that she was the only person in the world he would ever let close enough to heal him. They were sitting beside the lake under the shade tree he so often visited. She had taken off her robes to reveal a navy dress with a ruffle around the collar. Alabaster skin was framed with deep brown curls, her lips painted a deep maroon. How was it that she managed to be the sort of pale people referred to as doll-like, and no one ever thought him anything other than sickly? His brow furrowed, and at her mention of salve he jerked his hand away, "Really, Severus. Please. Stop fighting with them, for my sake?"

He stared silently at the ground next to him. She stared at the look on his face, "What's wrong, anyway? What happened that set you off?"

"According to them I was born this way."

Exasperated, Aurora stood and rubbed her forehead gently, squeezing her eyes shut, "I hate it when you're like this."

"Join the club."

"Will you stop? I'm on your side, Severus!" He looked at her then and noted the glimmer in those blue eyes. Intensity didn't often show on her face but when it did her emotions were glaringly obvious. He picked up a stone and tossed it into the nearby water, glad for the loud plunking sound it made when it hit the surface. When the young man looked back to his friend he found she had turned her back on him and he knew he had gone too far.

Unbeknownst to him she was fighting the urge to scream and cry and kick the tree and all other manner of immature things. There was a lot that she could handle, but her past had left her unstable and not well suited for confrontational situations. She crossed her arms in front of her, bracing herself against the wind that found its way off of the lake, and tried to imagine someone hugging her.

"They called you a name."

His voice had gone soft and darkened, and it took her a second to register that it was she he was talking to. Confused, she frowned, and turned to face him once more. He was looking straight at her and she wondered if she had seen him that serious in a long time, "They have before," she replied.

"This one was different. Wrote it all over the boys bathroom walls. Carved it into the sink. I know it was them, it was their writing."

Wind whipped the hem of her skirt, making it billow slightly as her eyes met his. For all of the times she had defended Severus Snape she could not remember an instance in which he had rushed to her defense. It was always him sticking up for himself, and her sticking up for the both of them. Then again, she had never really been threatened. Deep down she knew that no boy in the school would do her any harm, it was Severus they were after, and it had worked beautifully. His one remaining friend was one of his few remaining weaknesses, and that was the last thing she had ever wanted to be.