Chapter 3: Monthly Bullies
Warning: This story may contain traces of: spoilers, tortures, magical spells, AU, swords, powerful spells, badly written but still very awesome duels, family, severitus, rambling author notes and minor character bashing. Engage at your discretion.
THE OTHER WARNING: This author is currently not very busy, bored out of her mind and suffers from severe cases of bad humor. Take the WARNING seriously, just not the author in general.
Enjoy
Severus' little group quickly made names for themselves.
The group's friendship was questioned by many, especially by the older years who were either too engrossed in politics or already neck deep in prejudice. Others didn't seem to care much for four first years' fragile relationship that, as they quote, "wouldn't last for more than a month anyway." Many prefects were telling others in their respective houses to lay off of them, but the bullying and the harassment quickly started.
Until pretty much all of said bullies hit a dead end.
One of the reasons friendship or romantic relationship won't work between Houses, is simply that you can't find a good and private place to talk or share things that are crucial to the growth of a friendship (there is too much people snogging in the Astronomy Tower already), so pretty much all of the inter-house relationships had died rather quickly, not to mention the amount of prejudice in the atmosphere that was always added by the bucketful.
No real friendships had survived more than a month before it started to flake. That is, until Severus Snape got himself sorted into Slytherin.
Contrary to popular belief, Rowena Ravenclaw is not the only smart one in the circle of Hogwarts Founders, Godric Gryffindor just needs a huge neon arrow in red and gold, with a couple of whacks from Salazar Slytherin on the head, to use his brain, and subsequently his magic. The Founders are under no belief that Hogwarts is impenetrable, so they made secret passages out of student dormitories, just in case a megalomaniac dark lord happens to attack the school with his royal death munchers in the middle of the night. You never know.
Due to the icy silvertongue our young Severus oh so fortunate at possessing, all of the first years had inanimately refused to be in close vicinity to him, in fear of something nasty that is going to happen to their hard earned innocence. Professor Slughorn had managed to clean up one of the dorms at the back of the whole Slytherin territory and, with proper furnishing and warding from a slightly insane but very obliged Bellatrix Black, turned into a secret place only four people could get into.
Severus put his foot down long ago that if Sirius Black is going bring his secret stash of chocolate frogs and Every Flavored Bean inside his room, he would have to clean the sheets if there is even a spot of candy on the white cloth.
It seems Slytherin himself was a paranoid bastard and the room Severus is currently sleeping in is the hive mind of secret passages that oh so happens, to lead to Ravenclaw tower (did Slytherin and Ravenclaw have an affair or something?), near the kitchens (midnight snack, duh) and the Gryffindor common room (keep your friends close and enemies closer, please tell me Slytherin isn't...).
Of course, the above sentence about Slytherin's paranoia is not that true, as Severus learned in his fifth year at Hogwarts after he had an interesting conversation. But I digress.
The common room of Slytherin House had never seen someone quite like Severus Snape in roughly 30 years, ever since Tom Riddle walked its rooms. But Riddle doesn't have that sharp tongue and logical mind Severus possesses and uses feverishly. Severus Snape is not as charismatic as Riddle, nor as handsome, but he attract people like moths to light, which didn't end well for the 96% of the moths.
Severus was not that well-liked in his housemate's eyes. Highly reliable and respectable in many different ways, but with his iron fork of a tongue it was very hard to even get close to him. Some of them had already suspected a defense mechanism, namely the overly concerned Narcissa Black and the worries-about-pretty-much-everything-else Andromeda Black, but was too afraid to ask questions. Severus hates those kind of people, where you want to know but refuses to ask.
Back to the dead end we were talking about.
Most of the public bullies came from the other three houses, with Gryffindor at its head. Hufflepuffs are content to just sit and relax and cheer people on from the sidelines, or get the hell away fast and find a safe haven somewhere in the castle where you could not be hit with a stray jinx. Ravenclaws thinks bullying is a waste of time and all of those involved should be doing something better, like reading. Slytherin settle things in private, they are usually faced with wands from all three other houses and are barely surviving with a proper steel front, they don't need to give them anymore fuel!
What the bullies hadn't counted on was for the group they are targeting to keep their friendship, and use everything they have against them. Know your enemies, and in the bullies case, they do not know their opponents as well as they should (meaning they just charged in eyes closed, wand raised and forgotten to ask questions later) which led to their, very painful, way down from the precipice.
They have also conveniently forgotten that the four boys they are targeting are from the each of the four houses, and all four of said boys soak up knowledge like a storm water drain on a rainy day.
After much careful consideration from Sirius, much arguments from James, much sarcastic comments from Severus and much more keeping the peace from Remus, they had devised a plan.
1. Do not fight back in public, gain sympathies. Since Slytherin are basically one giant family, and family always have their arguments one time or another, there is quite a few uproars whenever Severus came back after dinner with a bloody nose and hex effects all over his body. Which of course resulted in the cuddling from the Black sisters and the vehement threats from the rest of the house body, which always rang true.
Besides, who could even think about resisting the puppy-dog eyes from Sirius, the pleading doe eyes from James or the meek, fragile personality from Remus?
2. Take revenge while no one could catch you. Try to avoid house points deduction from teachers. Since their are first years, many underestimate their abilities, and the vast extensiveness that is called HOGWARTS LIBRARY!
James Potter, an extremely attractive boy with the messy hair and the crooked smirk that has made more girls swoon on their feet than Sirius would have liked to admit, not even the older girls could resist James' smirk, or the aforementioned pleading big brown doe eyes that followed afterwards if the smirk didn't work. If you add those Tranfiguration grades to the blender, if McGonagall's praises in class was anything less of an indication, and the seeker fast reflexes, with just the right amount of Gryffindor courage...
Well, James Potter has made a lot of little match sticks transform into sharp needles, and with the helpful help of Remus Lupin, fly every painfully into their opponent's oblivious skin.
Speaking of Lupin...
Brief biography: Remus Lupin, Hufflepuff, intelligent, absolutely marvelous at Charms, nice, timid at times, very open to new things and new people, has a photographic memory, loyal and, lastly, the proud holder of the fourth place in the Hogwarts student list of Top 10 People That Could Beat You To A Pulp If You Get Onto Their Bad Side that gets updated every month.
Then there is Sirius Black.
"Sirius is such a sweet little boy," as the people in his class or house would have told you if you happen to ask them out of the blue. The teachers would tell you that he is an extraordinarily bright boy capable of great many things. If you ask the bullies however, they would either run right in the other direction or refuse to answer and probably hex you right on the spot.
The Black family is renowned for its dark nature and ways, if you add extreme blood supermancy to the mix, the result would probably end up a lot darker than you would have liked, hence the name.
Sirius has been taught the old pure-blood traditions ever since he could read. Knowledge is knowledge, no matter how tedious it was taught. Besides, it also gave young Sirius a chance to read up on hexes and jinxes so he could be prepared to avoid them in the future, his parents giving him approving glances and proud smiles whenever they caught him with a book like that in hand was an added bonus.
Let's give a three minute silence for the fate of the bullies in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Actually, let's make that five minutes mourning, we still have him to reintroduce.
Every time a student sprouted green hair, boils, started to talk the habitat of kangaroos and pandas at the top of their lungs, doing a jittery dance around the hall or burst into feathers or fur right after they had taken a drink, all teachers and students would look for a wand quickly stashed away. If they can't find one, they would all direct their glances to known trouble makers that could brew said complicated potions (not that many I assure you), and eventually to the long haired first year boy sitting alone at the ends of the Slytherin Table, trying and somehow failing to look innocent.
Slughorn was now beginning to regret allowing Severus to use the potions lab in his free time ever since the boy asked a while ago and he took pity on him due to the dormitory incident.
Of course none of the teachers could prove anything, and the four of them continued to ran havoc to anyone that had wronged them. Not one of them stomached bullying when they were a child, James due to Charlus Potter's line of work, Sirius had enough of his parents belittling the muggles, Remus had the obvious furry little problem and the running away screaming and gossiping after he had told a 'friend' thing too and Severus' father is just bigger bully that hate his very existence and tried every way to beat the magic out of him.
Everyone, including the staff, took comfort in the fact that the group of four boys knew and drew the line between pranks and harassment.
Most of the student body and teaching staff were quite happy at the current situation. Hogwarts has not been this lively in nearly 30 years, and this was a much preferred lively than what the some of the teachers had experienced. Most of the staff gave out detentions, took points, tried to catch the four boys in the act and enjoyed discussions in the staff room about the next bully that fell into the quagmire that is revenge. By the rate they are going, the boys would soon need a name for themselves.
But Albus Dumbledore was very concerned. The first full moon of the school year had passed a couple of days ago, poor Remus is still looking quite pale and sickly, and his friends have noticed, if the concerned glances around the hallways and tables are of any sort of clue. Dumbledore wonders of the powerful friendship those four have is strong enough to endure that revelation that would surely happen one way or another.
Albus allowed himself a small smile as he watched on with amusement from the high table. It seemed, once again, Cornelia Ashford did not learn her lesson on the importance of not calling someone a mudblood and was forced to tango around the four tables with the much obliged Gilderoy Lockhart. He could see Severus hide his smirk behind his pumpkin juice goblet.
The friendship between the four of them would endure, perhaps even grow stronger because of Remus' illness. Sirius Black and James Potter all have their sense of justice and sympathy, and if his eyes were to be believed and the ministry files to be trusted, Remus is going to have company in the Shrieking Shack sometimes in the future. Albus chuckled quietly and asked if Professor Flitwick could pass the Yorkshire pudding, maybe my worries are unfounded after all. Just then, the great Albus Dumbledore discovered something that is even better than Sherbet Lemons.
Oh my, perhaps I should ask Mr Snape to brew me one of those dancing potions. Miss Ashford look absolutely fabulous.
Christmas and secrets in the next chapter or two. I believe this time the Marauders is going to be quite different. To me, pranks and bullying are too very different things and it is very easy to not distinguish the thin line between the two. I couldn't stomach bullying, three years of that does that to you, and the Marauders in the books are just like bullies. No wonder Severus turned to the dark. Lily obviously didn't help the situation much either.
Pay attention to detail, is my advice to all of you reading.
Do any of you have any suggestions on what to call Severus Animagud form? Or what his form could be. I have something bu I am not so sure about it. It has to be black though, and preferably something that could fly. Review please!
I don't know how old Gilderoy Lockhart is, so I am making him couple of years older than Severus and the Gang.