The Embittering of Severus Snape

Chapter 1 ~ First Term at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

"Ouch! Severus!" Muriel pushed her best friend hard. "You dropped it on my foot!" She took out her wand and pointed it at her trunk, levitating it into the compartment over their heads, wondering why he hadn't just done that in the first place. It was only a moment before she had her answer. Severus was blushing furiously.

"It would have been a lot more impressive if you'd just majicked it up there," she said in a maddeningly superior tone of voice. She heard him grumble. He hated it when she knew what he was thinking, which was all the time. His best friend had a rare gift that gave her the ability to hear the thoughts and emotions of those around her. At least, that's how her father explained it. Severus had long wondered if it was just him that she could read so well.

The compartment door flew open as the train started to move. "Is there room in here?" They looked up into the smiling face of James Potter, his hair wild around his head. For once, Muriel deferred to Severus' judgment and didn't answer.

Severus looked hard at the boy. "Potter, right?" Then, when the boy nodded, he said, "Yeah, okay, come on in." Muriel smiled. She knew that Severus' father had given him instructions as to who he could make friends with. Potter was on the list, being pure-blooded, as was the boy who followed him into the cabin.

"YOU!" Muriel hissed, standing abruptly. She wheeled on Potter. "Sev said you could stay, so you can, but this arrogant prat is NOT sharing our compartment." She pointed her wand at the quickly reddening face of Sirius Black. "I ought to turn you into a pumpkin right now!"

Sirius' eyes widened. She knew! He bolted back out the door, and managed three good bounds before someone had him around the ankles and he fell hard to the floor. "Oof!" Severus stuck his head out the compartment door to watch as Potter went to help Sirius. Muriel was already standing over him.

"Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is to have Lucius Malfoy perform a counter-charm for you when you can't even talk?"

Sirius rolled over fast. "It was an accident," he gasped. "I was trying to hit him, not you!"

"Was it also an accident that you left without telling anyone else the counter-curse?" For an eleven year old, Muriel Deesia was a frightening person. He groaned, but didn't get a chance to explain that when his mother said it was time to go, he didn't have a choice.

"You're lucky I didn't tell my father who'd done it, or your mum would've had you in irons all last year!" Sirius looked at her with wide eyes.

"You didn't tell?" he whispered. She lowered her wand. Potter, who'd been standing behind her, went to help Sirius up.

"No. I thought it would be more fun to pay you back myself. Watch your back this year, Black," she said quietly. She tucked her wand back into a pocket of her robes and walked back toward Severus, who was smirking in the cabin doorway. She winked at him.

"Her back is already covered, Black," Severus said harshly. Muriel turned to see that Sirius had finally gotten his wand out. Then she laughed and went into the compartment. Severus closed the door behind them.

"What was that all about?" James asked.

Sirius shrugged. "Long story." He'd only just met James on the platform, and wasn't sure if the other boy liked pranks as much as he did. The Potters didn't hang out with the same crowd as the Snapes, Blacks and Deesias. They headed down the aisle, looking for another compartment.

Muriel was still giggling quietly to herself as Severus sat down. "I can't believe it was Black. Why didn't you tell me before?" he asked sullenly. It wasn't like her to keep anything from him.

"I didn't know. It wasn't until he saw me that he thought about it and I heard him."

"Well, at least I know it isn't just my thoughts that you're stealing." Severus laughed. He hadn't been there for the Malfoy Halloween party last year, but Muriel had come home fuming because someone had turned her head into a pumpkin and run away. Lucius had fixed it for her so she didn't have to go back inside and show the adults. He understood how aggravating it was to be indebted to Lucius Malfoy for anything. The boy was insufferable. It didn't help that he was three years older than they were.

"Malfoy told me that we'd have to wrestle a mountain troll and win without magic to get into Slytherin," Muriel said quietly. "Do you think that's true?"

"Mother said something about a filthy old hat. She made me promise to wash my hair after the Sorting ceremony so I wouldn't get lice." Severus grimaced, then added, "I don't think that soft old fool, Dumbledore, would invite a troll into the school."

"Show me your list," Muriel said suddenly, holding out a hand. Severus produced it, scowling.

Avery

Black

Crabbe

Deesia

Goyle

Lupin

Malfoy

Macnair

Pettigrew

Potter

"Good thing I'm on there, wouldn't you be in trouble!" Muriel frowned. "All these others are boys, though. I guess I'll just have to figure out who's safe on my own. Surely everyone in our house will be pure blooded anyway. I know if I were a mudblood, I wouldn't feel too safe sleeping in the Slytherin dormitories." They laughed again. Muriel wasn't too worried. Her mother had made sure that she was at all the important parties within her parents' circle of friends. She knew anyone who was worth knowing already. They passed the train ride in silence. Muriel slept on one bench while Severus sat on the other, looking over his list. He knew why his father had listed only one girl.

They sat in the same boat on the way to the castle. It was dark, but at least it wasn't raining. Severus watched Muriel shake hands with the boy behind him.

"Lupin, Remus Lupin," the boy said nervously.

"Muriel Deesia, but you can call me Mur," she answered, remembering his name from Severus' list.

Sev turned as well. "Snape," he said formally, offering his hand as well. He thought the boy looked awfully nervous and turned back around, feeling superior. Maybe he thought we'd have to wrestle a mountain troll as well. Severus ignored the boy until he caught an odd look from Muriel, who had turned back to the boy and had a hand on his shoulder.

"It'll be alright," she whispered to the shaking blond, who was biting his lip. She kept her voice low, so Severus wouldn't hear her. The boy pulled his eyes away from the approaching castle to fix her with an unnerving stare.

"Hope you're right," he answered finally, forcing a grin onto his face.

Severus couldn't wipe the scowl from his face until they were standing in the Great Hall in front of the Sorting hat.

Muriel was among the first to wear the hat. She sat perfectly still, a slight smile on her face. The hat was mumbling at her, but she hardly listened. She was a Slytherin, born and bred. So why did the hat just shout, "RAVENCLAW!"

The cold witch beside her lifted the hat off her head, but Muriel didn't move from the stool. She sat briefly, her eyes finding Severus' in the crowd of her classmates. He looked horrified. She looked up at the hat, but decided not to make a scene. She would come back up to the head table and speak to the Headmaster when the food arrived. She slid off the stool precariously, her feet hitting the ground with a light tap.

By this time the Ravenclaw table had stopped applauding and were looking at her strangely. She went to sit with them, as far from the older students as she could get, not meeting Severus' eyes on the way.

She stared down at her plate until Sev's name was called, then looked up. Maybe he would be in Ravenclaw with her. They had so much in common, surely they would be in the same house? But no. The hat had barely touched his head when it hollered, "SLYTHERIN!"

She felt the tears burning her eyes. This could not be happening. When the food arrived, and the Headmaster sat back down, she got up from the Ravenclaw table.

"Professor, do you have a moment to speak with me?" She was acutely aware of the rest of the students, all of whom were concentrating on her. She felt Severus' presence by her side before the old man answered. She supposed it wasn't usual for a first year student to address the Headmaster after the ceremony.

"Of course, Miss Deesia, Mr. Snape. Come to my office after the feast. The password is fizzing whizbees." The students nodded and exchanged a glance before heading back to their tables. Muriel felt better, and this time sat closer to her housemates. She wouldn't have to stay here too long.

"Hi! I'm Marisa Ahles." A gangly, thin girl was holding out her hand. Muriel shook it. "Deesia," she replied, a little coldly. She'd never heard the last name, and was sure the girl must be a mudblood. Still, it wouldn't do to be rude, no matter who the girl's parents were. You never knew who you might have to rely on later in life, so it was best to be nice to everyone. Or at least everyone who'd never turned your head into a pumpkin.

She shot a look toward the Slytherin table, thinking that at least if Sev was in the same house with Black that he could help her get back at him. But the scrawny, stuck-up boy wasn't there. Severus was sitting with a crowd of boys she recognized pretty well, Crabbe, Goyle, Macnair, and Avery. She shuddered. She REALLY didn't like Avery. She noticed Severus wasn't speaking to him, and wondered if he'd found out about last year's Christmas party, when Avery had tried a vanishing charm on her velvet skirt. It hadn't worked, but she'd still slapped him hard enough to turn his face red for a few hours. She hadn't told Severus. That was the sort of thing that would cause him to get himself in trouble.

She looked around at the other tables and was surprised to see Potter and Black at the Gryffindor table. It figured. They would be very well protected in that house. 'Still,' she thought, smiling wickedly to herself. 'Sev and I should be able to get passed that great bunch of prats any day.'

She listened half-heartedly to the chattering girls at her table, ignoring the boys entirely. One look at them told her that there wasn't a soul among them from her parent's group of friends. Soon enough the feast was over and she got up to go find Severus. In spite of herself, she didn't want to go to Dumbledore's office alone.

"HISST!" Someone whispered as she passed. "It's the blood traitor." Muriel whipped around to face the older boy, her face flushed, and her hand already on her wand. Her father and Mr. Snape had enchanted the woods behind their houses to be safe from the Ministry of Magic's detection charms, so she was very experienced in dueling. She wasn't afraid of the 4^th year boy who was standing to face her.

"Minchew, I hope you weren't referring to me. At least MY favorite uncle isn't a squib." Her voice was hard, and the boy turned quickly around and sat down again, his face red. But he'd backed down a moment too late. Severus had already heard the comment, and as Muriel turned back to her friend, she saw him cast a hex in Minchew's direction.

The table erupted in laughter as Minchew's nose grew two extra inches and turned orange. Severus got up from the table, catching his foot for a moment on the bench. Mur quickly took his arm to hide his stumble, and he winked his thanks.

No one said a word as they left the hall and headed away from the dormitories toward the Headmaster's office, though Muriel was sure that they were talking about her again as soon as her back was turned.

By the time they stepped onto the stone stairway, Muriel was irate. "How could he SAY that? Just this summer he was offering to tutor me in Divination!" she fumed.

"He what?" Severus asked. Muriel didn't answer, choosing instead to walk quickly up the remaining stairs.

"Professor, I simply can't be in Ravenclaw," Muriel said quickly as she approached the desk. Her mother had always told her that if she wanted the upper hand in an argument, the best way to get it was to get the first and last word. And she intended to do just that.

The old man looked at her with an amused expression that he didn't even try to hide. He took off his glasses, rubbed the bridge of his nose, and put them back on again. "And why is that, Miss Deesia?"

Muriel was suddenly uncomfortable. Like her father, this man knew Occlumency. She didn't know what he was thinking at all.

"Severus is my best friend, and we should be in the same house. And......" she stopped abruptly, then lowered her voice. "And my mother will be furious." The thought had just come to her. She realized with surprise that Severus had been thinking it all this time.

When her mother found out she hadn't made Slytherin there was going to be hell to pay. She watched Dumbledore remove his glasses again and set them down on the desk. "Would you like to wear the Sorting hat again?" he asked kindly.

Muriel was startled. She hadn't expected it to be so easy. But then Mr. Snape had always said the man was a bit soft. "Yes, I am sure it will get it right this time." She said confidently.

Professor Dumbledore reached up to the top of a bookcase and took down the dusty old hat. Muriel grimaced. 'It really is filthy,' she thought as Dumbledore placed the hat on her head.

"You would be too, if you were a thousand years old and no one cleaned you," a voice said in her ear. She started. "Now, what are you doing wearing me again tonight, I already told you, you are a......"

"But I don't BELONG in Ravenclaw," she said shrilly, cutting the voice off. "I am a Slytherin, and I demand you place me in the correct house." She knew she sounded prissy, but this was definitely NOT how she'd expected to spend her first night at school.

"You are witty and cunning, but hardly self-serving enough to be in Slytherin," the voice said knowingly. "Certainly you have the intelligence for Ravenclaw, but I see a bit of courage as well. Perhaps you would prefer Gryffindor?" The voice whispered sinisterly.

"WHAT? NO! Even Ravenclaw is better than THAT!" she exclaimed. Severus looked worriedly at the Headmaster. What was the hat telling her?

"Well, if you won't put me in Slytherin, then Sort Severus again, so we can be in the same house." But Severus was shaking his head.

"Do you know what my father would do to me?" he asked incredulously.

"Ah, well, my dear, I'm afraid you'll have to stick with RAVENCLAW!" The hat hollered the house name again, and for the second time that night, Muriel sat like stone, hardly able to believe it. She thought for a moment that she might just burst into tears, but the Headmaster caught her eye.

She saw a flicker of pity in his gaze, and an angry lump appeared in her throat. She whipped the hat off her head and held it out to Professor Dumbledore, who took it gingerly. She was furious, but she calmed herself enough to say, "Thank you for your time. I'll be going now."

Without a backwards glance, she bound down the moving staircase, immediately lost. She hadn't followed the Ravenclaw prefect back to the tower, and she didn't know where it was. Severus had gotten directions back to his own common room during dinner, but he wasn't about to leave her wandering the corridors alone. He walked fast to keep up with her, but tried to stay far enough behind that he wouldn't see her crying. He knew she hated to be seen crying.

"Deesia?" A Ravenclaw prefect found them on entirely the wrong side of the castle. Apparently half her house had been out looking for her, realizing that she wouldn't know where to go. Muriel cast one last miserable glance at Severus before following the older girl upstairs.

She unpacked her trunk slowly. The other girls were already in bed, and she tried not to make any noise. When she thought she was ready for classes the next day, she pulled the bed curtains closed and wrapped her arms around her knees.

In the next bed over, Marisa heard her crying softly, but decided to leave the proud girl alone. People that stuck-up didn't want comfort. Besides, her mother had warned her about Slytherins, and anyone who wanted to be a Slytherin probably wouldn't make a very good friend.

Muriel could hear the thoughts of the girl in the next bed as clearly as if she'd spoken them. Her tears stopped instantly, to be replaced by anger. She didn't want the girl's pity and she certainly didn't want her friendship.

She was the first person in her house to arrive at breakfast the next morning, but wasn't surprised to find Severus waiting for her in the corridor outside the Great Hall. "Mur, you've got to write to your mother," he said stiffly as he walked with her to her table. "She'll come and work the whole thing out."

"Are you nuts? I'll probably get a howler this morning as it is!"

"Then write Papa," he said quickly. He'd called Mur's dad Papa since they were infants. He remembered hearing one of his aunts say that he'd said that before he'd said 'Dada,' which wasn't surprising, considering how often his father was home.

Muriel held up an envelope. "I have, but I didn't ask him to change my house. You know he never would. I don't think he approves of most of Mother's friends as it is. He'll probably be thrilled that I'm not in Slytherin. I just wrote to ask him to break it to her for me."

Severus sat down beside her when they reached the end of the table, earning himself several glares from the Slytherin table. He ignored them. "So you're giving up?" He knew that would make her angry, but he really wanted her to try something else, anything else!

"NO! I'm not giving up. I'll just be a Slytherin living in the Ravenclaw dormitory, that's all."

"They won't accept you. It isn't like you can just come into our common room and study with me, the older kids would hex you every time. You heard Minchew. He's not the only one. I had to cast a silencing charm on Goyle last night too."

"Then we'll study in the library."

Severus sighed. Most of Muriel's housemates had arrived, and he didn't feel comfortable sitting there anymore, so he stood. She'd made up her mind. "Alright, Mur. I'll meet you there after classes today."

She nodded silently as the morning's mail arrived. When she got her class schedule, handed to her by a very cold Marisa, she was glad to see that she had Potions with the Slytherins. She'd never had much interest in Potions, but knew that Severus had dabbled in it. Maybe they could choose their own seats.

After potions was Herbology with the Hufflepuffs, and then Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Gryffindors.

By Halloween, life at Hogwarts seemed second nature to Muriel. She and Severus studied together in the library every other night until it closed. Sev said he had to be in his common room sometimes, for appearance sake, but Mur felt no such need. She studied in the library every night, preferring it to the bunch of fools she called housemates, not that plenty of them didn't show up in the library anyway.

The Slytherins, taught by Severus' wand, had learned to stop hurling insults at her when she passed, and she came and went from his table during meals in peace. That's why she was surprised, on her way to the first Quidditch match of the year, to hear a sneering voice behind her say, "Don't touch the blood traitor, Avery, you might be contaminated."

She spun around with her wand pointed at the speaker so quickly that he managed to poke himself in the eye with it. It was Crabbe. He was half a head taller than her, but she didn't flinch as he grabbed her arm to keep himself from falling.

"Do you want to say that again, Crabbe?" she asked, her voice dangerous and low. The larger boy stuttered as Severus came running from the castle.

"He didn't mean you, Mur," Avery said. Muriel didn't let her eyes leave Crabbe, who knew better than to reach for his wand. Several other Slytherin boys had arrived by this time, but none of them said anything. Even some of the older students were less experienced duelers than Muriel was, as Severus had made clear to them in the last month.

"I don't recall giving you permission to use my nickname, Avery. Perhaps if you could perform a vanishing charm correctly you and I would be that close by now, but since you can't I suggest you call me Deesia." No one understood except Avery, who turned abruptly and left, his face glowing red.

She still hadn't lowered her wand when she heard a voice behind her. "He meant me, Deesia." She turned quickly. Crabbe, who was notoriously dull witted, knew enough to get out his wand as Sirius Black walked back to them from the pitch. Muriel was glad to hear Severus thinking fast behind her as well. For once, she was sure that the house she belonged in was on her side.

"Well, it is uncommon that a Black would end up in a house full of mudbloods," she said carelessly. Several of the boys behind her sniggered wickedly.

"Wasn't your mother a Karkaroff?" Black asked, smirking. He'd heard the term mudblood all his life, and wasn't surprised to hear her use it now. "I imagine your dear old mother's losing as much sleep as mine. We're in the same boat now, Deesia. You ought to lighten up."

He looked at the line of Slytherins that had formed behind her, and knew he was in a tight situation. Muriel couldn't feel any fear in him, and she was impressed. The boy was going to be a force to be reckoned with. That would make getting back at him for the pumpkin head curse that much more fun.

At this moment, Remus Lupin came running back toward them from the pitch. He stood slightly in front of Sirius.

"Get out of the way, Lupin," Muriel said quietly. "He deserves this." Remus shook his head.

Mur felt Severus step forward, but lowered her wand and put a hand on his arm. Then she smiled sweetly. She knew that there were a lot of hexes that weren't going to work on someone like Lupin, and if she let the Slytherins hex him, someone was sure to notice. She would keep his secret.

"You're lucky Lupin came to save you and not Potter." She felt the people behind her step back. Some of them were wondering if there was something special about Lupin that made him more dangerous than Black or Potter. Others, including Severus, were wondering why she liked the sickly looking blond so well.

"And why is that?" Black asked haughtily.

"Because if it had been Potter, you'd both be on the ground by now." She smirked at the strange expression on Lupin's face.

"Is there a problem here?" It was Professor Warrington, the Potions master and head of Ravenclaw house. He looked rather concerned to see one of his students in the midst of so many Slytherins. Ravenclaws weren't known for their ability to defend themselves. He walked right passed Sirius and Remus, hardly realizing that they were involved.

"No, Professor. We're just headed to the game," Mur said. She nodded to Severus, and they walked passed the bemused Professor together. He was even more confused later, to find her sitting in the Slytherin section, cheering someone else's house team.

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