The First Chess Match: Birth of the Death Eaters

Chapter Seven: The Breaking Point

"Thank God it's over!" Dorcas Meadowes moaned in relief. Nods of assent came from both Lily Evans and Christabel Watling. They, along with Meena Gupta and Holly Ward, two other Gryffindor girls in their year, were all wading ankle deep in the cool water of the Great Lake, trying to recover from the stress of the morning and the hot oppression of the May sun. They had all just survived their first Ordinary Wizarding Level exam: Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Holly, who was either in a clever mood that day or trying to tempt Dorcas's explosive temper, said, "Actually, it's not over. We have the practical exam later today and transfiguration is tomorrow--"

"Damn it Holly!" Dorcas cried as she kicked water Holly's way, splashing Meena in the process. "Why do you always have to spoil things for me?"

"I'm not spoiling anything," said Holly defensively.

Meena agreed. "Holly didn't do anything."

Lily bit her tongue and forced herself not to help prove her best friend right and Holly and Meena wrong. She knew better than to remind everyone how Holly had guiltlessly pursued Charlie Townsend that year, despite the common knowledge that Dorcas had long been madly in love with the boy, whom she had known since childhood. Charlie, by all accounts, had also felt the same for Dorcas, but the two had always been so close as friends that neither of them ever got the nerve to make a move. When Holly claimed Charlie as hers, Dorcas had been crushed for weeks, and Lily didn't think her friend was over it all quite yet. Meeting Christabel's eyes, Lily realized that she was just as keenly aware of the tension and as eager to put an end to it. Christabel sweetly kicked water Lily's way, to show that she would follow Lily's lead in handling the situation.

Dorcas's eyes were beginning to flash angrily. Lily looked around, anxiously hoping to catch some miraculous sign of how to gently defuse the palpable tension in the group. Catching a glimpse of a silly boy across the way, who was pompously swatting his hand out, as if catching something again and again, Lily finally said in a sing-song voice, "Who thinks James Potter is a big ole prig? I do! I do!" She giggled and splashed water back to Christabel.

Christabel laughed and responded in a similar sing-song tone, "Whose grades have improved considerably since she kicked Sirius Black to the curb? Mine have! Mine have!"

Lily and Christabel were now joined in their laughing by Meena and Dorcas. Holly, still feeling contrary, said, "I don't know what you're so giddy about. We still have practicals with Madame Marchbanks and her cronies."

"Oh, come on, Holly! Relax!" Meena cried.

"Yeah. You know, in some places it's considered a victory when someone emerges from a battle alive," said Dorcas.

Christabel suddenly spoke, and not in her usual blithe manner. "In some cultures it's actually considered a failure to have to be in a battle in the first place."

"Oh no," Dorcas said teasingly, "here we go again with her hippie mumbo jumbo."

"I'm not a hippie; I'm merely a pacifist," Christabel replied.

Holly snickered. "Yeah, but your mum's a hippie."

Her eyes narrowed in annoyance as she said, "She's not a 'hippie'. She's liberated from all the oppressive mental and creative restraints forced upon us by the establishment."

"Establishment?" asked Meena. "You keep talking about that thing, and I don't know what it means!"

"Hey, Lily, why don't you explain it to us. You're a muggleborn."

Lily cast a dark look Dorcas's way as if to chastise her. "Well, I suppose it's a term for a conservatism that is popular a lot of the times in the muggle world."

"And are your folks controlled by this establishment?" Holly asked.

"No, I wouldn't say by parents were, but my sister..." Lily was about to elaborate but found herself distracted by something unfolding on the lawn.

Christabel sweetly asked, "What's wrong?"

Lily's eyes grew dark with anger. "Oh god...Potter..."

Soon all five of the girls were staring at exactly the same thing. A fight had begun to break out in the distance between what looked like James Potter, Sirius Black and Severus Snape. Even though the girls were far away, it was quite easy to make out the looks of sadistic joy on Potter and Black's faces as they launched hexes at Snape, who was now on the ground and out of sight. A crowd was slowly beginning to materialize around the boys and their prey.

Christabel bit her lip and looked back at Lily, who was shaking her head in furious disbelief. She added, "It's probably not just Potter, Lily. You know it's probably Black, too."

"Oh, Christa, don't give poor Lily any more reason to go and be a killjoy," Dorcas said.

"Killjoy? Dorcas, it's two against one." Lily explained, "It's humiliating...and evil."

Holly said, "No, it's not. Snape was one of the ones who tortured Marley in the dungeon."

"Yeah, let Black and Potter get the revenge out of their system. Lord knows I'd be there with them if I could," replied Dorcas with a grin.

Lily was still upset. "Revenge? But why on Snape? Why just him, and not all the others? Rosier and Wilkes are right there. I can see them in the crowd, and I bet they've done loads more."

Dorcas replied, "Lily, Severus Snape is a loathsome, sniveling, greasy pure blood fanatic. He'd just as soon have had it been you the Slytherins were abusing!"

"He's creepy, too," Meena added.

"So, it's because of what he is and not what he's done?" Lily angrily asked the girls. "Then what they're doing is the same as what the Slytherins did to Marley. The strong are preying on the weak just because they can and because it's what they've always done. No one's ever stopped to ask why."

Christabel firmly replied, "She's absolutely right, you know."

Lily's mind was made up. She quickly made her way out of the lake and rushed to put her knee-high stockings and shoes back on. While doing all this, she said, "I have to go over there. I have to put a stop to Potter's ridiculousness once and for all. He thinks that just because he's a Quidditch Cup winner that makes him God Almighty. Black's just as arrogant, and maybe even worse. They need to know they haven't got the right to pick on him, even for Marley's sake. Only Dumbledore can hand out punishments."

"And you?" Dorcas asked from the lake. Her eyes were narrowed.

Lily shook her head and responded, "No. I'm not going there to be a prefect. I'm going over there to finally give Potter a piece of my mind."

*******

His wand lay ten feet away. The sunlight reflected splendor off of its dark finish and it looked safe and cozy nestled in the green blades of grass. Severus could not reach it. The hex had not yet worn off and so he lay helpless on his stomach, violently flopping like a fish out of water. The snickers of the crowd began to work their way deeper into his head, causing Severus more fury and even more frustration. He looked up and found the face of the scumbag who had done this to him: James Potter.

Snape struggled for breath and said, "You--wait...you--wait...."

Sirius Black rounded around to Potter's side and darkly smirked. Then, he asked, "Wait for what? What're you going to do, Snivelly, wipe your nose on us?"

The fool! Snape once again struggled to defend himself, to call upon his wand, insult the brigands...anything to help himself get out of this loathsome situation. Clearly displeased by Severus' efforts, Potter whipped his wand forward and said, "Wash out your mouth. Scourgify!"

Suddenly, a sickly tasting foam rose from the pit of his stomach like vomit and burst out of his mouth and onto the clean lawn. The soap would not stop racing through his throat. Snape was beginning to lose his breath. He tried to inhale from his nostrils, but it would not work; there were far too many soap bubbles clogging his windpipe. The landscape began to swirl around him and all he could focus on was the grim combination of soap in his mouth and the jeers of countless students. Slowly, he began to see the faces of his friends, Rosier and Wilkes in the crowd. At last! Now if they could just step forward and say to Potter and Black...

"Leave him ALONE!"

Only, it had not been Rosier who had stepped up to say this, nor had it been Wilkes. Instead, it was perhaps the one person whose help Snape would have least desired: the muggleborn "prefect princess", Lily Evans.

"All right, Evans?" James Potter brightly asked. There had been a drastic shift in his tone and his language that Snape was too pre-occupied to notice. As Potter and Evans began to exchange words, Snape could only do his best to block them out.

No...no...I don't need help. I never asked for help. Most of all, I don't want her help. It's positively humiliating: being "rescued" by a girl. And she's a Gryffindor...and a mudblood...it's disgusting. Rosier and Wilkes...why in the name of Merlin could you have not beat the mudblood to it?

Rosier and Wilkes were still standing in the crowd. They weren't boiling over in anger for their friend and they weren't wearing forlorn looks of pity for Snape, either. Instead, they were laughing at all that was happening before them. For them, watching Lily Evans refuse the affections of the hated James Potter, while Potter and Black had "fun" with Severus in the background was perhaps the most entertaining show they had ever seen.

Suddenly, Snape began to feel control over his arms and legs again. The soap bubbles were no longer exploding from his mouth, but merely hiccupping out. Neither Black nor Potter were watching him. His moment of opportunity had emerged. Severus deftly reached for his wand. Quick to notice his enemy's move, Black called to Potter, "Oy!"

But before Potter could respond, Snape had slashed his wand and muttered an ancient incantation. Simultaneously, a deep slash of scarlet tore into Potter's cheek. The Quidditch star's reflexes could not be undone, though, and within a second Snape was hanging upside down. His dignity and his undergarments revealed for all the school to see. There were a few seconds of cheers and laughter. Snape knew that there were probably few Slytherins watching him. The rest of the school was probably relishing the invitation to watch one of Marley Cooper's captors be humiliated.

Still, Evans rose to the challenge of being an uninvited heroine. "Let him down!" she called to Potter.

"Certainly," Potter happily replied, and instantly Snape crashed into the ground, which was now soft and muddy with soap water.

Severus jumped to his feet, trying in vain to strike back at his foes. "Locomotor mortis!" cried Black, and immediately Snape found his body tense up in dull nothingness and fall back and down, returning once more to the ground.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Evans desperately cried to Potter and Black. Snape could not see their faces; his eyes were frozen straight ahead and looking at the burning summer sky above. There was no more room for struggle. He could only accept his state and listen to the conversation between Potter and Evans.

James sadly responded, "Ah, Evans, don't make me hex you."

"Take the curse off him, then!" she demanded.

Amazingly, Potter complied. "There you go," he said to Evans as Severus emerged, freed from the hex placed on him mere seconds earlier.

Potter began to lecture him. "You're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus--"

"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!" Severus exclaimed. He made a satisfied mental note that the jibe seemed to work. It had startled Evans and silently enraged Potter and Black, who both made a note of advertising themselves around campus as "noble" defenders of the muggleborn cause.

Lily straightened herself and with feigned confidence and obvious spite, replied, "Fine. I won't bother in the future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus."

Not to be outdone, Potter launched himself back at Severus, shouting, "Apologize to Evans!"

"I don't want you to make him apologize. You're as bad as he is!" Evans exclaimed.

Now this, thought Severus, could be interesting...

Potter jumped to the defensive. "What? I'd NEVER call you a--you-know-what!"

Lily took a deep breath in spite of herself. Potter had driven her to this. Finally, every baneful thing the boy had ever done came flooding into her brain. It was time to tell Potter exactly how she felt about him.

"Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you've just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can--I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK."

Satisfied with her monologue and embarrassed by her exhibition of rage, Lily quickly turned away from Potter, Black, and the rest of their brigade and sped back to the lake to where her friends would be.

Snape noticed a vague shadow of desperation in Potter's eyes as he called, "Evans! Hey, EVANS!"

She did not reply or look back. Suddenly, James realized that all the students who had assembled to see Snape getting his comeuppance had instead seen Lily give him the most embarrassing refusal imaginable. James tried to casually erase his shame by coolly asking Sirius, "What is it with her?"

"Reading between the lines, I'd say she thinks you're a bit conceited, mated."

Sirius's response had not helped James's mood lighten in any bit. In fact it had only fueled his anger and pain. He nodded. "Right...right."

A grim anger shadowed all of Potter's features and as he turned to Snape once more, he flicked his wand and set off another curse. Snape found himself hanging upside down again. The blood was rushing to his head, feeling thickest and hottest in his ears. Potter was facing the crowd.

"Who wants to see me take off Snivelly's pants?" Potter shouted. A mixture of laughter and roaring assent rolled back to him. "Alright, then. Padfoot, will you? Or should I have the honors?"

Black smirked. "Honestly, I'd rather not see Snivellus's ugly face, much less his pants off." A group of girls laughed a bit too hysterically at Black's comment.

Potter shrugged and with another confident swish of his mahogany wand removed Snape's pants. The crowd erupted in a spattering of cheers and jeers. Rosier and Wilkes looked at each other and cruelly laughed at their friend's misfortune. Snape's inverted body was shivering with fury.

Finally, Potter jerked his wand up again and set Snape crashing to the ground. Before Snape could even gather himself, Black skipped over and kicked him in the stomach.

"That'll teach you, you evil spawn of a Dementor!" Black cried.

As Severus finally poked his head out from under a mess of black school robes, he saw the face of James Potter pinning him down with rage. Potter said, "Don't you ever, ever call Lily Evans a mudblood again. Do you hear?"

Snape said nothing in reply.

Unsatisfied, James yelled at him, "DO YOU HEAR?"

"You know," Snape replied sinisterly, "she's not your girlfriend, so there's no need defending her, now, is there?"

Potter let out a roar of rage and used his spare hand to punch Severus hard in face. He pulled his hand back to deliver another blow. Suddenly, Remus Lupin emerged from seemingly out of nowhere and pulled Potter away. "Enough!" the scholarly boy cried. "James! Sirius, that's enough!"

"Did you hear him, Remus?"

"I did James, but you're losing control of yourself. I don't want to see you like that," Lupin replied earnestly.

James panted and wiped some of the blood that still stained his cheek away. He looked at Peter Pettigrew, who had only just appeared at his side. "Peter, what time is it?" James asked.

"12:15," Pettigrew replied.

"Lunch starts soon. Let's head back in, shall we?" James asked.

Black was still looking down at Snape. "Do you think it wise? Snivellus might try to hex us when our back's turned."

Potter looked darkly at Snape, and his eyes seemed to pummel Severus deeper into the ground. He said, "He won't. He hasn't got the gall. He never had any courage. That's why he had to prey on a little girl, and not someone his own size."

Pettigrew chuckled, but Lupin and Black just looked blankly at each other.

"Come on. We don't want to miss lunch, now do we?" Potter asked.

The three other boys followed Potter back to the school, and for a few moments, Snape sat in the middle of a circle of silent on-lookers, all too stunned to move quite yet.

*******

Lyra sat alone on the stairs leading to the main entrance of Hogwarts. It was a warm day and everyone seemed to be enjoying it--except her. They had just finished taking their Defense Against the Dark Arts exam. Lyra was sure she had done well, but still looked back on the test with nothing but pain and regret. Defense Against the Dark Arts was her mother's course, and she had not heard from her in almost a month. Her mother's absence only left Lyra feeling more dejected and isolated than she already felt. Orion hated her, Marina seemed to never want to speak to her again, and her own friends in Slytherin were making things more terrible by denying that what they had done was ever wrong in the first place. Lyra was in desperate need of a feeling of absolution; she wanted someone to hear her out and then forgive her for all she had done.

Right now, all Lyra could do was to focus on the tasks at hand. She had been studying non-stop for weeks, and now, during her recess, Lyra sat somberly with a textbook open in her lap. The sounds of birds and chatting students mingled with the gusting wind and created a comforting blank noise to lull Lyra out of her own worries. She was placidly in the midst of a chapter on transfiguring goldfish into thimbles, when a familiar giggle echoed up from the path before her.

It was Marina. However, Marina seemed different today. Perhaps it was the fact that she was not carrying around a rolled up newspaper, or maybe it was that a smiling Edgar Bones was strolling leisurely beside her, but Marina just looked lighter than usual. For a moment Lyra thought maybe being friends for a Slytherin for so long had weighed Marina's spirit down. It seemed logical, but Lyra was never very good with logic. Marina had always helped her out there. As she tried to figure it out, Lyra was spotted by Edgar.

"Hey 'Rina, isn't that your friend, Lyra? Hi, Lyra! How are you?"

"Edgar! No!" she hissed unsubtly in his ear.

Edgar just turned to Marina and laughed. He took her by the hand and dragged her up the path to the stairs where Lyra sat. He pleasantly asked, "So how have you been, Lyra? Did you find the test alright?"

Lyra looked at Marina for a second, trying to gauge how to respond. Then, she answered, "I've been...okay. I didn't find the test too bad. How are you...Edgar?"

"Oh, gosh, sorry. I'm really rude, aren't I? We've never been properly introduced." He then offered Lyra his hand. "Edgar Bones."

She awkwardly took Edgar's hand and shook it. He almost seemed too friendly and too likable to be real. He was tall and tan, and his strong, healthy build betrayed his athleticism. He was very handsome with hay colored hair and clear blue eyes that looked as though they could not lie. From what Lyra had heard about Edgar, he was an excellent student, extremely popular and had a talent for Quidditch that made even James Potter nervous. Marina had been right when she had said his sorting into Hufflepuff was his major fault, but looking at him now, Lyra couldn't see how that could be considered a fault to begin with. All it meant was that this good-looking, talented and intelligent guy was kind, humble and hardworking as well.

Marina blushed. She obviously hadn't planned on introducing Lyra and Edgar quite yet--if at all. Sensing Marina's discomfort, Lyra began to collect her things and excuse herself. "Well, it's been nice to meet you, Edgar. Good luck on your O.W.L's, Marina! Bye!"

"Lyra, wait!" Edgar called. He took her by the hand again and pulled her away from the door leading back inside. He said, "Marina had something to say to you. Didn't you, Marina?"

"Um..." Marina muttered. The look of embarrassment on her face betrayed Edgar's ploy.

He said, "Weren't we just talking about something over lunch that you thought would interest Lyra?"

"No," she replied befuddled. "We were talking about goblin rebellions and how they seem to always precede eras of social upheaval."

Lyra wanted to laugh. It was classic Marina to talk about something like goblin rebellions on a romantic picnic date.

Edgar replied, "No...the other thing, 'Rina. When you said you were worried about missing question seventeen because you decided to review red caps instead of kappas the other night...and I said not to worry because sometimes people make mistakes and it's no big deal!"

"But it wasn't number seventeen, Ed, it was twenty-six."

He shook his head and smiled. "You're missing the point. Remember what I told you last night?"

Understanding illuminated Marina's face. "Oh, that...Do you really think?" Edgar just grinned at her. Marina winced and then turned rigidly to Lyra and said, "I've been thinking it over, Lyra, and I don't want you to think I hate you. But you need to understand I really...hate what it is you've done."

"I know. So do I," Lyra admitted ashamedly

"You are? I mean, you do?" Marina said in surprise.

Lyra replied, "Yeah, well...I feel awful about what I've done. I mean, not what I've done, but what I let happen. And I spoke way too hastily last week in the library, and I want you to know that I'm sorry. I'll never do anything like that again. I promise. I'm going to try to stand up next time for what I believe in."

"You mean it? You mean this whole time you really were sorry for going to the rally and I thought you weren't? Oh my goodness, Lyra...I'm so sorry!" she cried.

Lyra shook her head and smiled. "Don't be! You have every right to be angry at me. I did a stupid, stupid, terrible thing."

"Oh, but Lyra...I've been really terrible, too. I don't know; I just figured that my best friend, who has been nice and sweet since the moment I met her, suddenly turned evil or something. I mean that was so stupid of me. I should have talked to you and tried to help you, but I didn't."

Edgar started laughing at them and Marina pushed him to show her agitation. "Oh, now, I'm the one who has to be really sorry," Edgar began, mocking the girls, "because you two were having an important spiritual and moral moment, and I was so stupid...oh my God, I began to laugh...and it was so stupid of me." He pretended to start crying, and Lyra just had to laugh at this strange, funny, and sweet boy from Hufflepuff who had been able to accomplish two impossible feats: he had managed to both woo, and calm, the shy and stressed Marina and reunited a shamed Slytherin with her Ravenclaw friend.

Soon, the two girls were giggling and jabbering as if nothing had happened. While they gossiped and commiserated about the testing, Edgar dawdled nearby, his hands in his pockets and a grin on his face. Two Hufflepuff girls in his year began to approach the school. They were both in hysterics, but not the type one would expect to see on a day of serious testing. One of them was bowled over in fits of loud laughter, unable to straighten herself even enough to stand. The other, who was equally overcome with glee, was trying in vain to drag her friend toward the school. As they came closer, Edgar could finally overhear bits of their conversation.

"Oh my God! When Potter took off his pants..." said the girl hunched over before she began violently laughing again.

The other one nodded, and replied, "I still can't believe Evans! How could she say that to James Potter!"

Suddenly a dark figure bounded through them, sending them both flying to the ground. The boy, whose head was down and covered by a mound of greasy black hair, continued to stalk quickly towards the school as if intent on making a getaway from imminent disaster. Edgar grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him aside.

Edgar shouted, "Now see here! You had no reason to go and push those girls like that! I think you should apologize to them."

Severus Snape immediately tore away from Edgar, swung around and pointed his wand straight between Edgar's eyes. "Shut up Bones! I've had enough torture for one day and I don't need a puffed up baboon ordering me around now."

By now, Marina and Lyra had noticed Snape's entrance and were now standing on the steps, watching the boys square off. Edgar glanced at a worried looking Marina, and found himself feeling rather worried as to how to best respond in order to impress her. However, before he could decide upon a response, Lyra called from her perch, "Severus, what's wrong? What's happened? You look all flushed...are you feeling ill?"

Snape snickered at her. "I've been tortured, bullied and humiliated by no less than Potter, Black and Evans...not to mention the rest of Hogwarts. I'm not feeling exactly ill...I'm feeling furious!"

"Alright, then, Snape. It's okay. No one here wants to upset you," said Edgar in a kind, mediating fashion. "Why don't we all go inside and catch some lunch. I'm sure by tomorrow this thing will have all blown over."

Snape was still pointing his wand at Edgar and his eyes were flashing with anger. As Lyra observed him, she realized that Severus had a reason to be upset, but was probably focusing his emotions on the wrong Quidditch star. She walked down and approached Snape slowly.

"Severus," she softly began, "it's not Edgar's fault. You have every right to be angry, but please think things over before you act. Use your logic. You won't be able to settle things the right way when you're in a state like this."

Snape lowered his wand. Lyra replied, "Thank you, Severus. Now let's go in and get something to eat."

"I'm not going in there now! Not when everyone's laughing at me."

Edgar offered assistance. "Well, why don't we go to Dumbledore or one of the other professors. I'm sure one of them will see to it that no one bothers you."

Snape sneered at Bones. "I don't want to make a charity case of myself. That would only be lowering myself more...And, Covington," he began darkly, "don't think I won't find a way to punish Potter, Black and their like for this, because I will. I don't care what it takes. I'll do anything to make sure they feel the way I felt today."

Marina, Lyra and Edgar exchanged wary looks. It seemed that there was nothing else they could say to Snape that would not provoke his rage further. So, they all nodded at him, to acknowledge what he had said, and quietly walked together into the castle and out of the sun.