Moving On

Fault

Severus slumped into the arms of Black, what in the name of Merlin was going on? His emotions festered an evil creature without his knowledge, for goodness sake!

"How does one destroy it?" He asked Dumbledore, after sulking briefly.

Dumbledore glanced at McGonagall, she walked to the edge of the bed and sat there. She outstretched her hand and placed it on his knee.

"Severus dear, we're going to need your help to end it, because it can only be destroyed by you. You'll need to face it alone," She said.  

"All Albus can do is try and apply a veil on you while we find a way to train you." She continued.

Overwhelmed, his head felt muddy. He could not believe what was happening to him. It still felt surreal. He hugged the nearest thing in his vicinity, which happened to be Blacks waist and Severus snuggled into the croak of his neck.

He wanted to cry. He felt someone stroking his back.

"It'll all be over soon, you just have to face it," He heard Black say softly.

Severus sighed and looked at McGonagall, "I'll do it."

^_^^_^^_^

"Prongs! What the hell was that?" Sirius asked his friend, as they stood in their dorm.

"What was what?" His friend retorted.

"Your attitude to Severus mate! That was uncalled for!" He replied, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

Hissing, Prongs replied, "No it wasn't. Snapes bad news. That's all he's ever been. Bad! And all I did was tell him that. Why don't you and Moony see that? Ever since he's come into our lives we've been suffering!"

Taking a deep breath, Sirius paused.

"That's where you're wrong mate. We're the bad ones. We're the ones that ruined his life from the start. Honestly, none of this would have happened if we left him alone."

Continuing, he asked, "You wanna know what that beast did to me?"

"This is what it said," as he told them what occured after being captured.

"Let it me show you what that puny bastard thought of you," it said.

The dark room in which he was chained changed. It morphed into the courtyard he was all too familiar with. Around him stood the Marauders, including himself. Not too far away, at the heart of the circle stood Severus. Back hunched and hugging his books-- he was covered in warts and was soaking wet. This was a memory, something that happened in the past.

He heard Severus' voice, "I hope these buffoons fall off a cliff. Why do they keep on attacking me? Sadistic bastards. All they're really good at is being hypocrites."

But Severus' lips weren't moving.

"These are his thoughts, only you can hear them." The voice from before answered.

Sirius focused at trying to recall why they were pranking Severus to begin with. Then it hit him. Because Snape bested him and Prongs at Transfiguration. He noticed the audience that had started to grow around them. It must have been humiliating for Severus. That's what the Marauders wanted. To humiliate him. Sirius' past self knew that McGonagall never made a mistake when grading, she goes over the paper thrice before concluding that the grades are fair.