29.
Severus was avoiding pretty much everyone; there was something about the older Slytherin's ideas of fun that seemed a little…wrong. He couldn't avoid the Slytherins for forever though, he would have to go back and then he would have to face the others and their questions again. After all, Lily was muggle-born, so why should he hate those who were like her simply because they weren't pure or even half-bloods? It didn't make sense to him, yet he couldn't really voice his opinions to the other Slytherins, he had seen what had happened to the second year who had been brave enough—or stupid enough—to do so, and Severus never wanted to have that many spells tried on him.
Severus was walking down random corridors, simply trying to avoid anyone wearing a certain snake emblem on their robes, when he saw an odd shaped lump huddled against a wall at the other end of the corridor. He almost decided to duck down a different corridor and avoid whatever the thing was at the other end; however his curiosity got the better of him. He took out his wand and held it ready at his side, as he approached the lump on the floor. Severus got close enough to identify the thing on the floor and he stopped in his tracks, gazing at it in confusion and a mounting anger.
Outrageous as it seemed to him—as the three Gryffindors had become so close—the huddled shape on the floor was Remus. He was shaking, tears running down his face and he didn't seem to want to move. Severus kept his wand out, in case anyone else came down here. He knelt at the boy's side, he hesitated for a moment before he placed a hand on his arm—not really comfortable with offering comfort to others, he did have a reputation to uphold after-all. The moment that his hand touched the other boy's shoulder, Remus flinched away from him and pressed himself closer to the wall, curling up into himself even more than before. Severus took his hand back, but stayed crouched at his side, wondering what had happened; vowing that if someone had hurt him again, than that person would wish that they had never been born. No one hurt people that Severus actually cared about and got away with it.
Remus didn't move, didn't wipe the tears from his face, didn't in any way acknowledge the other boy's presence. He wasn't even sure who it was, though he thought that it may have been Severus, yet he couldn't bring himself to turn and look to verify that it was who he thought. What did it matter if anyone saw him, what did it matter if Severus thought him a monster as well? Even if he didn't think of him as a monster, he would the moment that he found out what had happened to Peter…the moment that he found out that his friend had attacked a fellow student.
Remus was so consumed by these and other thoughts which swirled through his head like a blizzard, that he did not notice when someone else joined them. He only noticed when arms were placed around him in a hug. He stiffened for a moment, before he gave in, turned around in the arms and placed his own around the person. He really wasn't all that surprised to find that Lily was the one holding him in her arms, he didn't want to cry anymore, yet he could not stop the tears from falling as her arms tightened around him. Though she obviously did not yet know how much of a monster he was, he couldn't keep himself from drawing comfort from her embrace. And he wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to.
Thank you for reading, this latest chapter. Please review, and I hope that this story will continue to be at least interesting. Thanks again and you are all awesome! I know, I know the chapters keep getting shorter. I promise that I will fix it soon.