A Different Turn of Events

Chapter 1

Pale and sweaty hands clutched at his robe sleeve, hopeful green eyes looked at him imploringly and begged for him to stay. Severus let out a long suffering sigh and moved to increase the distance between him and the witch but she clung on to his robes tightly and Severus was forced to stay in her grasp much to his frustration.

"Let us get this over with." he said quietly but firmly, pinning every single one of them with his cold gaze. Black, almost endless eyes grazed their physic making all of the shudder with the cold rage contained within them. "I will not, neither now nor ever, accept an apology as pathetic and useless as one Lupin have mumbled," his eyes narrowed. "Each and every one of you have tormented me when I was still vulnerable to your advances," he paused, trying to reign the cold rage that he carried with him all the time. "You have made what would have been a refuge to me into a hellhole of continued suffering. Forced me into a situation that cost me my best friend," jabbing his long slightly stained finger in Lily's direction. "and plotted my murder by werewolf!" he hissed. "If you pathetic mumbling lions think everything will be forgotten with a single damned apology, you are sorely mistaken." he whispered, deadly and silently, his voice frighteningly low it made shivers run down each of their spine.

With his piece said, he pried Lily's hands gently but firmly from his robes and walked out of the room leaving five ashamed teens in his wake. The group remained in silence, pondering everything Snape just said. Lily, who lived near the pale young man remembered the way she helped him apply salves to his terrible bruises and it made everything all the more horrible. Made her all the more horrible. As a friend and as a person. How Severus could still find it in his heart to wipe tears from her face even after he handed her the hankie she could not understand.

They all sat down upon their respective places on the floor in ruminating silence until James Potter broke the soundless tranquility of the room, "What did he mean by 'refuge into a hellhole of continued suffering?'" he asked looking at all of them. 

Lupin narrowed his eyes, "Is that the only thing that you noticed?" and underlying anger lined his tone and they looked away when they saw his eyes flash amber. 

"No! Of course not." defended James desperately, "It's just- it bothers me. What did he mean by that?" the Marauders stayed silent. 

"His dad," Lily's voice was cracked and trembled with shame when she spoke. "He hurts Sev. He didn't like that he had magic. He took most of the beating for the sake of his mum. So that he won't hurt her. I-" her voice broke and she had to take a calming breath or two to continue. 

"I w-would treat his bruises. My parents always said that he should report him to the police but Sev didn't want that. He said he didn't want anyone else to know and when my parents tried to tell the police, they went to his house and-and," her speech was broken by a sudden violent sob that raked her body, leaving her shuddering in self-loathing and guilt. "He-he beat Sev when they were sufficiently lied to and left. Oh, it was so bad. He couldn't walk for days but he refused to go to the hospital and by then he refused to even walk near our house and didn't want to trust my parents. Thankfully his mum was a witch so she was able to heal all of the fatal injuries and it took a lot of time before he trusted my parents enough to come to our house again. His dad would beat him for the minute wrong that he did. Even things that were hardly his fault. He blamed Sev for all of his misfortune and showed him so without regret..." her voice trailed and she had to look away before sobs shook her body once more. "I- I was such a horri-ble frie-nd. Oh what he must have went through." she shook her head as if the mere thought of the possibilities of what may have happened to her best friend filled her with far too much pain, which it did. 

Every single possibility always ended up with Severus badly bruised and on the brink of death. 

Every single image of him more injured than the ones before it. Oh she was going to make things right with Sev.

"Lils, you can't blame yourself for this. You couldn't have known." James said desperately. "It was our fault for pushing him and for... doing all those horrible things to him. Not that he didn't give as good as he got." he laughed awkwardly as his attempt to lighten the mood fell flat and he was met with more unimpressed looks from his friends.

More tears slipped when she remembered the confrontation that caused her realization of how horrible she was being at that time when she dismissed every single attempt of apology by Severus.

•°•°•°•°

"Evans?" she knew that voice. She knew it very well. She frowned and stiffened, instantly on alert.

"Malfoy," she and Lucius Malfoy had a very shaky truce that centered around Severus. They had agreed that they would not actively get into kerfufle -- Malfoy's word -- for his sake. Especially after seeing him almost cry when they first started dueling. "What do you need?" she asked coldly. Severus wasn't her friend anymore and whatever ruse of a truce they had has disappeared.

"I need to speak with you." he said. Colder and with narrowed eyes.

"What for? I'm not friends with him anymore. You got what you wanted. We're staying out of each other's lives. You can corrupt him as much as you want."

"You show appalling observation skills that I expect form your housemates but not from you Lily  Evans." he hissed. "You think I want my friend whom I think fondly of as my brother wretched because of something he said to defend himself ? Over someone who clearly does not deserve him?" his eyes flashed dangerously and Lily was suddenly very aware of the protection the truce gave her from someone older and much more knowledgable in harmful spells.

"Whatever Severus may have done to you could not have been so bad that you wouldn't even look at him even after he slept, slept Evans, outside your dormitory in the cold of December through January." 

Lucius was very upset about that one when his connection reported it to him. He flooed immediately to the school he just graduated from, armed with anti-hypothermia potions (Lucius is hopeless in Potions, Sev and Cissa are the only reason he had such good grades in the class), to find Severus shivering in the Common Room. He had never given such a scathing lecture on stupidity in all his life. 

"Just to wait for you every single bloody night, with only his cloak to shield him from the cold just so he can apologize for something he did under immense peer pressure and under the weight of humiliation. Not to mention despair of knowing that his mother had fallen ill with no one, no one but his pathetic excuse of a  father to look after her. I do think he is already suffering enough for you to punish him so severely for something he did not even mean at all." cold gaze held Lily petrified and immobilised as she processed what she had been told. She stood there unable to move, grounded by shame and guilt as she realized the result of her selfishness and lack of trust in her friend. 

Emotions which warred with the anger that she was barely holding on to for being called a slur. And hurt that her best friend would call her such a horrible word when she had only been trying to help. She stayed there, stood upon the wet green grass of the chilling courtyard long after the dark wizard left.

It was dark when she came to and she realized she had tears running down her face and the cold had permeathed through her clothes.

•°•°•°•°•°

Her thoughts came back to the present where her friends were still sitting in their circles of truth looking more ashamed and guilty than ever before.

~~~

i'm going through this fic again and editing it!! i want to clear it out properly before updating it! i wrote this when i was like fifteen and boy did it go way too horny way too quickly. i've improved some so im hoping i can get this fic improved.