Boys Will Be Bugs

Chapter 84: Slytherins

cw// brief mention of assault

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"Why are you still friends with Snape?" asked Remus, curiously. It was the end of classes and he and Lily had decided to wander into the astrology tower to look at the clear night sky. It was a day before the full moon, which meant the moon looked almost perfectly round, and Remus liked to look at it when it was like that. It was the closest he got to seeing a full moon without turning into a werewolf. He usually took Sirius with him, but Lily had asked to come along instead, and he certainly wasn't going to say no.

She was fiddling with her hair, plaiting it into thin braids and chewing at the ends when she'd finished.

"He's not as bad as you think."

"No, I'm not saying that, I'm asking why you're still friends with him. That's all."

"No, you're wondering how I could possibly be friends with a Slytherin."

"Well... you've got to admit, they're not exactly the most... trustworthy bunch." Lily sighed and let go of her hair.

"I know he's not as... friendly nowadays. He has definitely changed and sometimes I... I don't like who he's turning into."

"So why—?"

"Because he didn't used to be like that," she said, her voice sounding sad all of a sudden. "I met him before we came to Hogwarts. He lived in the same road as me, well... he moved there about a year before Hogwarts. He was... a lonely kid, kind of weird. My sister thought he was weird, and she told me to stay away from him, but I couldn't help it." She looked over at him, and smiled slightly. "My sister thought everyone who wasn't like her was weird, including me. I already knew I was... not magic, exactly, but I could do things that the other kids couldn't do. And, well... so could Severus. He must have seen Petunia call me a freak, and he showed me that he could do magic too."

"Really?" she nodded.

"He told me all about the Wizarding world, and about Hogwarts. He said I was special, that we both were. Not freaks, like my sister said. He was the only one who didn't make me feel different." Remus could understand that perfectly. He understood how important that was, to have someone who treated you like a person for once. "We were best friends, and I'm pretty sure I was the only friend he'd ever had. He didn't have a very nice life at home, you see, his parents weren't very happy and he was scared of his dad, so he spent all his time with me. It was the only time he was happy." The moon went behind a cloud and shrouded them both in darkness, but Lily continued.

"Then we came to Hogwarts, and we went into different houses, and he started to change. He spent too much time with all those purebloods, and he's... angrier nowadays. Moody. It's hard to talk to him, but I'm still the only friend he has."

"What about the Slytherins?"

"They don't like him because he's not part of their... circle. He's not pureblood, you know. He's half-blood, and the Slytherins know that. He doesn't have an easy time in that house."

"Oh."

"And I know he's turning into one of them, believe me. He's trying to fit in, and I hate it, but... every time I think I should just stop being his friend, I remember what he used to be like. I miss him. Sometimes I hope that one day he'll be like that again, that maybe if I keep trying, he'll go back to the old Severus." Remus suddenly felt the odd sensation of deja vu. It felt like he was back with Sirius, talking about Regulus. That same desperation of trying to cling onto someone who was slowly being lost to something too powerful to fight. Sirius wanted the old Regulus back, Lily wanted the old Severus back.