I still don't own Harry Potter or the characters, aside from the OC. Enjoy.

September - November 1990

"Daisy Dare," Minerva McGonagall called out, and a tiny brunette stepped forwards.

She was head and shoulders shorter than most of her fellow first years, Snape noticed, and her hair was wavy and chocolate brown. She was shy, and the hat slid down to literally cover her entire head, which made most of the students laugh hysterically. He could feel the embarrassment rolling off of the girl in waves, and felt the shame and hurt that she was feeling. He knew immediately by the way she was sitting on the stool that one of her parents was either abusive or neglectful towards her, probably both of them at the same time.

It was a few seconds, and he decided to cast a Legilimens to see what the hat was thinking and saying.

Not a bad mind, although I daresay that you have issues. Hm, you don't feel very smart, although you have a wonderful memory when you want to. Hm, you're cunning, like a Slytherin, and a half-blood, so that would work as well. In short, any of the houses would work for you.

But what about the heads of houses? What are they like? What if I don't belong here?

Nonsense, child! I sorted your mother into Gryffindor back when she was your age!

Momma? You mean, the one who had me? Not the one who brought her sons?

Ah, I see a case of an evil-stepmother and stepbrothers. Yes, Gryffindor will work quite well. It won't do to have a shy Slytherin terrified of her own head of house. Pomona will do you well, but Minerva would as well.

Which one's more protective?

"Gryffindor!" the hat boomed, and her robes turned red. She went hesitantly and shyly to the Gryffindor table, and flinched at the contact she received, not that the others noticed it very much.

He sighed, making a mental note to keep an eye on that lioness cub just as the next name was called out.

It was the next day that he called her name out in Potions and she cringed as though she had been beaten. She said nothing, but took notes during his lecture – which he thought mistakenly that it was something else – and he again yelled at her. It was another first year lion who raised their hand and held out her notebook to him. He glared at the page to find her notes, and threw it down on the table angrily before giving the both of them detention. He knew it was unfounded, but it was best that they learned to fear him on the first day. That, and the Slytherins were in the same room and he had to uphold his reputation as a lion hater.

That night, he pointed at the cauldrons and handed them two rags. Daisy was silent, and cleaned her fair share of cauldrons faster than her male lion equivalent, who marveled at the speed and working skills the young lioness had. Snape saw immediately that the tiny girl had a fair set of muscles, muscles that could only have been built by hard work, and he began to wonder what her home life was like. As tempting as it was to use Veritaserum on her, it was illegal. He decided to instead play it safe and have them write an essay as well about how they were to treat him with as much respect as they would their families and to do a compare and contrast.

She never turned the essay in until the end of the year.

Still, Daisy Dare was a silent child, never once speaking. He never called on her, and she never raised her hand. It was as though she never existed until she went to turn in her potion for the day. To his astonishment, he often found her in the library reading Potions books on how to improve her potions. Over time, her Potions improved, and she gradually began to earn Outstanding in all her Potions making and essays. She was a child genius, he knew, and she was wonderful in charms, just as Lily had been. It was a sad sight to see that she was horrible in Transfiguration and Defense, and he brought this up to Pomona Sprout that her little lion cub never spoke and never made eye contact.

"Oh, honestly Severus, why would you worry about one of the lions?" Pomona had snapped, "You hate anyone who isn't in your house!"

"Yes, that may be true," he conceded, "However, lack of eye contact is one of the signs of an abusive or neglectful household. I'm just keeping an eye out so we don't end up with another version of me on our hands."

The staff room was silent at that, as he only brought up his past if he was truly concerned about the well-being of a student, and it was only when they were being abused that he did so outside of the Slytherin House.

"I will speak with her," Minerva promised, but nothing had happened in a month.

Come Halloween, Daisy was even more silent, making even less eye contact, and her grades were slipping dangerously in all her classes except Potions. She was talented, he saw, but it was a lack of self-confidence that was her problem with the wand. She was terrified, and had developed a stutter so bad that no other student spoke to her because they could no longer understand her through her speech impairment. He began pulling her aside and helping her try to overcome it, but each time he did the others would pick on her for getting into more trouble with "the oversized bat". He eventually gave up and handed it over to Minerva, who frowned and shook her head.

It was in November that he found Daisy in his office crying just after dinner one evening, her eyes were red and puffy, and she was hiccupping. No others were nearby, but she had a piece of parchment in her hand, held out as if she wanted him to read it, with a different object in her right hand. As it turned out, she did, as she let go of it the second his hand had touched it. His eyes narrowed as he read the letter, even though it was covered in splotches from her tears, and he realized that what he was reading could have either been a runaway or a suicide note.

"Miss Dare," he said calmly, "What happened?"

She shook her head, holding her arms across her chest as though trying to keep it together and in one piece. He fetched a calming draught and held it up to her lips for her to drink. She was silent as she did, and over the course of fifteen minutes, she gradually quieted enough for him to finally be able to hear himself think.

"Hurt," she whimpered.

"Where?" he asked immediately alert. "Why didn't you go to Madame Pomfrey?"

"In here," she stuttered, pointing to his chest.

"Ah, a wound of the heart," he said at last. "Those are the worst. They can only be healed by someone else. Unfortunately, I have seen many students, and yes, even a few Slytherins, have such a wound left untreated. It ended up destroying them."

"Did you?" he managed to make out through her stutter.

"Yes, I had one once," he admitted, "When I was a child, before I started Hogwarts. A dear friend of mine treated it, but it seemed to return with a vengeance when she was killed."

"Each other?" he could have sworn she asked, and he frowned.

"You're saying that you want us to treat each others' heart wounds?" he asked, and she remained motionless. "Miss Dare, I cannot help you if you do not tell me what's wrong."

"They laugh," she stuttered, "They laugh and mock me."

"Miss Dare, what I am going to tell you is so confidential that I must ensure that you know just how bad things would get if word of this got out," he said firmly, and she looked up fearfully. "Simply put, if word got out, I could lose my job, or eventually my life, because of forces outside of this school. Do you understand the severity of what I'm saying?"

She nodded, still silent, before he pulled up a chair and sat down in it. He flicked his wand at his door, warding it, and flicked it a few more dozen times to cast muffling charms upon it. With a heavy sigh through his nose, he began to tell her of his own house life, and leading up to his school life with his friend, even to the point of telling her what the Marauders did to him. He explained that he, too, knew the pain of an entire school ganged up against him, and reminded her that at least she had the teachers at her side, while he had only one, and even the one had been neglectful towards him a bit in preference to the friend he'd had.

He kept the names private and changed them, but of course, using the codenames the Marauders had used and never once mentioned the house of which they were in. It seemed simple enough, but as he told the small Gryffindor his tale, he felt some of the burden leave his chest and shoulders. What he didn't know at the time was that by telling her this, he was easing her burdens as well.

Yes, Snape gets overprotective quickly because she's showing signs of abuse, which as most of you will know, he probably suffered at home. Therefore, he becomes protective and sort of father-like to those who he notices are being abused within the first week. Since Daisy's a girl in Gryffindor who's timid and terrified in the house of the fearless and brave, he puts two and two together rather quickly.

Please review! Let me know what you think and whether I should keep or drop this one!