Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter!

Part of the "If You Dare" challenge.

Based on the song Cynical Skin by Get Scared

A/N at the end.

Snape, after hours of struggling to stay awake to finish a potion, finally was sleeping in his comfortable bed in his room at Hogwarts. He had barely laid his head on his pillow when a nightmare came to him. He could see her now screaming. He was helpless to stop her from dying. He couldn't do anything...

The scream turned shrill and he woke up realizing the alarms on his wards had gone off. He looked around wildly. He hadn't even grabbed his wand when he heard a voice say, "Petrificus Totalus!" He heard footsteps approaching and saw a Death Eater standing over him. He had no idea who it was because they had on a mask and didn't recognize the voice. "Let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we, Severus?" The voice said. Before he could figure out what they meant he heard them whisper, "Obliviate."

The following morning was the start of term and Harry sat in the infirmary fretting what people would say when they found out about what he'd done. He heard the door open and looked up to see Dumbledore walking in with a twinkle in his eye. "Good morning, Harry! How are you today?"

"Fine," he mumbled looking down again. Why did the man always have to be so cheerful? He talked to Harry as though he were a toddler. He was 16! Clearly, he'd been around children for too long.

Dumbledore clapped his hands. "Excellent! Mrs. Weasley has just informed me that your friends shall be arriving early by Floo. You may all get up to trouble until six p.m. when the feast starts. I expect all of you to attend the sorting and welcoming feast. Any questions?"

Harry shook his head. Great. Now he had to answer a bunch of awkward questions from his friends. This should be great fun.

He waited in the infirmary where he was checked once more by Madame Pomfrey. She gave him the all clear just has Hermione threw herself at him. Harry, surprised when he felt a body land on his, immediately tried to shove her off. Harry pushed a bit more forcefully than he'd intended, however, and she fell to the ground. She looked up at him hurt. Harry, whose heart was beating double time, said, "Don't do that, Hermione! You scared the crap out of me!" He sighed when he saw tears start to form in his eyes. "I'm sorry for pushing you, you just gave me a fright that's all." He held out his hand to help her up. She accepted and Harry hoisted her to her feet.

"It okay," she said, wiping away a couple of stray tears, "How are you feeling? We saw you when you were out a couple weeks ago. We were so worried! Why didn't you write to us or something? We could've helped. We know you miss Sirius, we do too, but you shouldn't have gone to such an extreme! I'm not-"

Harry held up and hand and cut her off. "I know I shouldn't have done it and it won't happen again." He gave her a small smile.

Hermione smiled back and hugged him again with tears falling down her face. Harry saw Ron and smiled at him too. After Hermione let go he walked to his best friend and said, "Hey, what's up?"

Ron stared at him for a moment, clearly calculating whether Harry was serious or not. He seemed to decide he was and smiled back saying, "Great! We didn't do anything too exciting this summer. Mum's been taking a bunch of extra precautions to ward off You-Know-Who and the twins have got great business at their joke shop, but other than that, I've just been hanging out!"

Harry nodded. "That sounds like a lot of fun!"

The trio roamed the castle all day and caught up with each other's lives and discussed what Voldemort could be up to. They took care to avoid talking about Sirius and Harry's suicide attempt.

They were wandering the dungeons that afternoon when Snape finally emerged from his room in a particularly sour mood. He had a throbbing headache and was having trouble remembering the past few weeks for some reason. When he saw the three walking around he snapped, "Potter! What are you doing?"

Harry looked at him, slightly alarmed, and said, "Nothing, sir, we're just waiting for the welcoming feast to start."

"Why are you down by my dungeons? Thought you'd try to sneak off some more of my ingredients, did you?" Snape sneered.

Harry immediately got defensive. "No. Unlike some people, we keep our noses out of other people's business."

Snape narrowed his eyes. "Talk candy in my ear, Potter. You try to teach me something I don't know. Come on, just try." Harry said nothing. Snape leaned down, getting in Harry's face. "Come on, I know those gospel lips can change me."

Ron stepped in then and said, "We were heading to the kitchens to visit Dobby, remember?"

Harry and Snape glared at each other for another moment before Harry nodded and stormed away.

The following morning at breakfast Harry and Ron were going over their schedule. "Ugh. Double Defense Against the Dark Arts right after Potions with the Ravenclaws? This is so gonna suck."

"Yeah. Hopefully, this new teacher, Professor Slughorn, is better than Snape," Harry said glumly.

It ended up being quite a fun class with Harry winning the Felix Felicis. As they headed off towards Snape's class, Harry felt his mood begin to decline. He walked in and saw Snape curl his lip as he approached his seat. He glared right back. He knew he should never trust him, he didn't understand why Dumbledore did.

"Well, well, well," Snape scoffed, "And here we have the little boy who throws hissy fits over not getting enough attention." Harry felt his mood drop even more and glared at the floor. Don't listen to him. He's wrong, he kept repeating to himself. But he couldn't stop the tears from welling in his eyes because he knew deep down the words were true.

The bell rang to start class and Snape lectured them on different curses that would have the same sort of affect dementors have. Harry took notes diligently, determined not give Snape another excuse to taunt him. He paired them up after explaining to them how it was done, and Harry was with Draco. He felt worried because he didn't want to have to relive his worst memory.

Draco and Harry bowed and no sooner had they turned to face each other than Draco spat, "Ne memoria!" Harry heard his mother screaming quickly to be replaced by Cedric's dead eyes. Then Sirius was falling through the veil again... His eyes rolled back and he passed out.

Harry woke up to the Slytherins laughter. Snape was sneering, "Look to the right of me. We got exhibit A. He is clearly not okay. He's a mess, to say the least. He's got his daddy's money, but I think he should run. Run from those he has wronged!" Snape was shouting by the end of his speech. He was looking at Harry with more disgust than Harry had ever seen.

He felt the tears return and did what Snape said and ran. He sprinted straight to the nearest bathroom the cackles of the Slytherins still ringing in his ears. He fumbled around for his blade and started cutting himself again. Not deep enough to cause any damage, but enough that he would feel it.

UGH! Stupid computer is making me mad. It keeps deleting all my work! I'm going to stop here on this one for now. I hope you enjoyed it! Please feel free to review! Let me know if there are any specific songs you'd like featured. Thanks again for reading!

For the If You Dare challenge this is 827: Run.

Are You Crazy Enough?: 167: (dialogue) "This is so gonna suck."