Prompt #30 Hug
(Severus/OFC)
Can a single hug change history?
When Cassandra Avery hugged Severus the night his father killed his mother, the one action helped Severus realize that there were other people in the world aside from the radiant muggleborn Gryffindor. That single hug broke the spell Evans had over him. Cassandra was the first person who had bothered to show Snape anything other than loathing or begrudging respect since the incident where he lost his only friend.
She drove away the darkness fueled by being lonely and feeling inadequate, only to replace it with a different type of darkness, one fueled by ambition. He wanted to prove that he was worthy of his housemate's little sister.
Her hugs were filled with a hunger and need of their own. She used him to avoid a worse fate, but Severus didn't care. He would never forget that first hug, where someone simply cared enough about his pain to want to erase it.
So what if she created a monster? The monster was hers. Severus was loyal to her in a way that he could never have been to Lily Evans. Vindictive and vicious, he no longer needed to be careful not to alienate the Gryffindor who would never understand the need for darkness, the rightness of it all. Because no matter what he did, no matter whom he aligned himself with, she always rewarded him.
And that reward always started with a hug.
So yes, a hug can change history, but not always for the better.