Prophecies and Betrayals (sequel to The Marauders)

4

Snape shifted in his seat, feeling uncomfortably hot in this suffocating room. They had half an hour left to finish writing their exams, but Severus Snape's mind was far from the defining characteristics of a werewolf. In fact, his eyes were locked on a vibrant redhead sitting a few rows beside him.

How could he possibly do this? No one deserved this. Especially Lily Evans.

Snape took a breath to try to calm himself, but it just made his nerves worse. Glancing up, he noticed James Potter looking at him. It was as if he knew what Snape was about to do. But how could he?

Snape broke eye contact and returned to his paper, scribbling furiously. He hardly knew what he was writing down, but he had confidence that he would ace this. After all, he hadn't spent the last seven straight days studying for nothing.

He glanced at the boy across from him, who currently had his face buried in his folded arms. Snape smirked, If he can't take the pressure of an exam, how is he handling the pressure of initiation? He never was one to exert himself beyond the barest minimum, that Peter Pettigrew.

"Quills down, please," squeaked Professor Flitwick from the front of the class. The class let out a collective breath as they rolled and sealed their parchment, feeling as though they were sealing their future with it.

With a wave of Flitwick's wand, the papers flew up to the front of the room and stacked themselves neatly at the old professor's feet. "Well then. I believe there is a half-hour break before the next period, so I would encourage you to go outside and get some fresh air. Goodness knows some of you need it." his eyes strayed to the pale face of Severus Snape, who stared up at him unblinkingly. It was mildly unsettling.

Flitwick began to pack up his own things, and it was if some spell had broken over the students. Soon the Hall was filled with sounds of scraping chairs, rustling papers and the zipping of bags.

Snape moved slowly, as if in a daze as he threw his quill in his bag and slung it over his shoulder. Then he looked up. Suddenly, he had a feeling like all the wind had gotten knocked out of him.

Lily Evans was making her way through the crowded Hall, towards Snape.

Severus ducked his head and hurried away, despite how much he wanted to stay. He couldn't talk to Lily. Not if he planned to go through with initiation.

As he hurried out of the Great Hall's giant doors, he caught a bit of the conversation of the group of boys in front of him.

"...How thick are you Wormtail?" James was saying impatiently. "You run around with a werewolf once a month-"

"Keep your voice down," Lupin implored. 

Great, thought Snape, it's James Potter and his gang. could this day get any worse?

Snape followed them out into the big sprawling green lawns outside the castle, where he sat down a little ways from them, leaning against a tree.

The view was breathtaking.

The pond glittered like golden jewels in the late afternoon sun, surrounded by close cropped lush green grass. Pink flowers sprouted occasionally in the growth, peeking out of their buds as though tentative to emerge into the world. How right they were to be afraid, Snape found himself thinking, if only they knew how cruel this world was, none of them would ever emerge. 

This was when Potter loped over with his gang of gangly cronies. "All right, Snivellus?" James said loudly.

Snape leapt up, buzzing with the adrenaline he had been filled with since Lucius told him his task.

He plunged his hands in his robes, fingers fumbling to find his wand, whipping it out and was just about to shoot a curse when James hollered, "Expelliarmus!" 

Snape's wand flew out of his hand, landing about twelve feet behind him. Snape snarled and lunged for his wand. 

"Impendimenta" Sirius yelled. Snape felt the spell knock his feet out from under him and he landed with a pained oof  at Sirius' feet.

Spitting mud and grass out of his mouth, Snape glanced up to see that they had already drawn quite a crowd. Apparently, none of them had anything better to do than to watch Snape get beat up.

James and Sirius rounded on Snape, wands drawn.

"How'd the exam go, Snivelly?" said James.

"I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment," Sirius said viciously. "There'll be grease marks all over it, they won't be able to read a word."

This drew laughter from the crowd, and Snape seethed from the ground. Sure, everyone hated him. He knew that. But did they have to be so mean about it?

"You-wait," Snape panted at James, struggling against the spell holding him. "You-wait."

"Wait for what?" Sirius said coolly. "What're you going to do, Snivelly, wipe your nose on us?"

Snape let lose some of his father's favorite swearwords, making the gathered crowd blush and whisper to each other.

"Wash your mouth," James said coldly. "Scourgify!" 

Pink bubbles streamed from Snape's mouth instantly, and he gagged on the froth. Panic consumed him as he realized he couldn't breathe, and adrenaline surged through him, making his fingers twitch.

"Leave him ALONE!" 

Everyone whipped around to see none other than Lily Evans.

"No...no..." Snape's voice was too quiet and garbled by soap to be heard. Anyone but Evans!

A\N I wouldn't be me if I didn't leave this chapter at some sort of Snape-and-Lily cliffhanger *cackles* fortunately for you, I am working very fast to write the next chapter which will hopefully come out sometime later today! Fingers crossed.

Yes, this is me making up for weeks of no updates...I hope you guys don't hate me XD

Most of this chapter was taken from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, chapter 28. I tweaked it a bit to better suit Snape's POV, but things like the dialogue during the attack on Snape belong to J.K Rowling. Credit of course goes to her! 

I'm always apologizing for late chapter releases, and I hope you guys can forgive me lol. I've been super busy with schoolwork, and haven't had a lot of time to write. I've been thinking about trying to create a schedule for chapter releases that I can keep up with, and so....I will try my very hardest to release a chapter once every two weeks on Fridays. Or at least as close to that mark as I can. 

Thanks for the patience, and hopefully now things can pick up pace a bit for this book! I love you guys so, so much and I can't say how much your support means to me!