Snape, Snape, Serena Snape…

Hey, guys, guess who's back with another chapter? Hope you enjoy this one!

In the weeks that followed, people started drifting away from Serena whenever she appeared in the hallways. Even the Marauders stayed away from their former main source of entertainment. Sirius and James both remembered how quickly the girl's temper had flared.

Serena, meanwhile wasn't doing so well. In the course of about a week, she turned from the feared and respected Snape everyone knew to an outcast. In every class, she kept silent, speaking only to answer a question asked directly of her. Even in Potions, her brews were barely better than on one of her worst days back when she had been a male.

Serena's teachers were perplexed with the Slytherin's new behaviour. They'd seen something like this after the OWLs of the previous year, but nothing quite like this. Professors Slughorn and McGonagall were especially concerned. Snape was a master potioneer and quite able at Transfiguration, so much so that McGonagall half-believed the Slytherin just two or three years to become an able Animagus. Lord knows what the sixth-year will turn into, was always the Head of Gryffindor's immediate thought after thinking that, but that would be a rather fascinating twist of fate. He and Potter have more in common than they know.

Thus, one day midway through December, the rather unlikely pair "just happened to" meet in the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade to discuss the topic of a certain Slytherin prodigy.

"I don't know what's gotten into hi-er, her," Slughorn murmured. "I;ve tried talking to her in Potions and between classes, but she just gave me this look, you know? She never smiled anymore." The Head of Slytherin sighed. "At this rate, she'll master wordless spells."

McGonagall snorted into her butterbeer. She tisked and shook her head at Slughorn, smiling. But that smile quickly slid off her face as she recounted what she'd noticed.

"It started a few days before our Quidditch match. I remember someone with Serena's hair run past me crying, but I didn't think much of it until Potter and Sirius Black came to me to report an...incident. Apparently, earlier that day, their, erm…"

"Furry friend," Slughorn suggested softly.

"Yes, that, had been attacked by Serena, and when the pair confronted the girl near the dungeons, she lost her temper. She punched Potter, Horace. In the nose. Twice."

"So that's why he looked so downbeat at the match. I thought it was just the Bludger."

"That's aside the point, Horace. When I asked Remus, he said that he'd offered help to Serena-"

"He what?" Slughorn said.

"Yes, offered his help to a person his friends had hated since before they'd even gotten to Hogwarts. I'm just as stunned as you are. Apparently, Serena turned him down-"

"Not a surprise!" Slughorn huffed.

"-less peacefully than Remus would have liked. The next day, Remus smelled blood. Faint, but true."

Slughorn stared at his fellow professor. "No. You're not saying…?"

McGonagall's eyes were beginning to get glassy. "I checked her out a few days later."

Slughorn looked aghast. "So is she-"

"Just like Remus in his first and second years? Yes." McGonagall pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes. "She's a good student, Horace, even if she is in your House. The best I've had, if I may say so. I don't want to see her go bad."

Slughorn looked down, expression drawn.

"And that's not the worst part," McGonagall continued."Remus said that, with what he knows of Serena and...that state of mind, she might very well…"

Slughorn looked up. "No. Snape would never do that. She might be many things, but if I know her - and I do - she's a survivor. Even when Lily left him, he still managed to remain the top of his class. She wouldn't… She can't…"

McGonagall held a finger to her lips and nodded to the door. Slughorn, still spluttering, looked around to see none other than Serena Snape slouch in, flop down at a corner table, and stare resolutely at the wood as if it was the Philosopher's Stone itself.

"Poor girl," McGonagall said.

"God knows what she's going through," Slughorn agreed. "It must be hell for her."

"It is," Remus Lupin concurred.

McGonagall and Slughorn both jumped. They hadn't noticed the Gryffindor prefect slip up to their table.

"What are you doing here, Remus, m'boy?" Slughorn asked nervously.

"Same as you," Lupin replied. "Watching, wondering, and planning about a certain potioneer."

"Planning?" McGonagall asked, a little incredulous. "What can you possibly do to help Serena? She'd just as soon hex you as look at you!"

Lupin smiled blandly. "Actually, she doesn't hate me as much as my friends. On the few times we were partnered in Potions - thank you, Professor Slughorn, by the way, you've been more helpful than you think you've been-"

"Not at all, m'boy!" Slughorn said, hands unconsciously rubbing together.

"Anyway, Snape was usually in a very good mood," Lupin continued, "so we'd talk, maybe joke around a bit, gripe about our least favorite classes…" The werewolf sighed. "Snape's not an inherently bad or self-destructive person. This is more a release of the massive buildup of shit he - and, more recently, she - has had to live through."

"So do you have a solution?" McGonagall asked.

Lupin shook his head. "Not a definitive one. I do have an idea, though."

Slughorn and McGonagall both sighed.

"Remus, if this idea doesn't work…" McGonagall said.

Lupin looked into the Transfiguration teacher's eyes. "Don't worry. I just need to work a few details out. Professor Slughorn, can you ask Serena's friends where a few of her favorite hideouts might be?"

"Ah," Slughorn said, smiling and nodding a little. "Smart. Very smart."

"Where are you going, Remus?" McGonagall asked as Lupin got up.

"Honeydukes," the sixth-year replied. "I've always believed that chocolate helps calm one's nerves. Snape should be no exception."

As he was turning to leave, Slughorn said, "Why do you think Snape should be no exception?"

Lupin turned and sat down again. "Professor, do you know what Snape is doing?"

"N-not exactly, no," Slughorn said, looking both confused and worried.

Lupin began to calmly roll up his left sleeve. He stopped at the elbow before proceeding to the right sleeve. Then the sixth-year held up both arms.

"If I know what Snape's gone through, her arms will have looked a lot like this, take some, before now," the Gryffindor said quietly. "I only stopped after a fourth-year started bringing some Honeydukes chocolate to me from her visits to Hogsmeade."

Slughorn stared, horrified. "Remus…!"

The werewolf pulled his sleeves up. "I'm off to Honeydukes." With a nod to both of the professors, he got up and walked out, the eyes of the two Heads of House following him.

McGonagall shook her head. "And with what he goes through every month…" she said sadly.

Hope you enjoyed! Please R&R! I'll take up people on any good ideas!

Is it bad that I know how to write depression well, even though I've never actually been depressed?