The Hero

I don't own any of the characters of Harry Potter. They are the creation of the amazing JK Rowling. I have not made, or will make, any money on this work. This is for my enjoyment and for the enjoyment of others. I have used two lines from the book to introduce the story, but that is all. Please feel free to comment, as this is my first fanfiction I have written. I would like to hear what others think about it.

The Apology

"No- listen, I didn't mean-"

"-to call me a Mudblood? But you call every one of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?"

"I'm sorry," Severus pleaded with Lily once again; his greasy black hair hanging in his black eyes. He knew he'd messed up big this time and he was ready to get down on his knees and beg for forgiveness. Lily was glaring at him, forest green eyes piercing his, arms folded over her chest, and her right foot was tapping impatiently, the sound echoing through the empty corridor. The tapping of her foot matched the rhythm of Severus' beating heart.

"If you really were, maybe you would have ditched those people you call your 'friends'," she made quote marks in the air with her fingers before folding her arms back up, "a long time ago." Her tapping foot stopped as they stared at each other.

Severus took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He rubbed his forehead and wiped off the sheen of sweat that had formed there. "Lily," Severus said with a sigh, "You don't know what you're asking me to do." His hand fell limply to his side, head still hung low, "Mulciber and Avery are about the only friends I have in this school." It looked like she was about to interrupt so Severus quickly went on, "I know they're not perfect, but nobody else in this school is either. And I enjoy being with them." Lily scoffed, shook her head, and turned around to go back into her common room. He grabbed her arm and spun her back around, "I'll do it." He said.

She stared into his eyes then yanked her arm out of his hand, "We'll see." She stomped back though the portrait of the Fat Lady, her fiery red hair reflecting her temper. Severus stared after her, feeling bad for the people who had to deal with her tonight. He walked off towards his own common room; his mind and heart now battle grounds, roller coasters, mountains, whatever you wanted to call it. Later, Severus lay in his bed, staring up at the canopy, wondering what he would do.

The Morning

Severus woke from his restless sleep. Shadows had haunted his dreams as they haunted his reality. After he got dressed he stumbled sleepily up to breakfast and didn't even look at what he was eating. Everything tasted like dirt and every time he looked up he saw the back of Lily's head his stomach would turn upside down like it was hanging by its feet on the monkey bars. He couldn't think and he couldn't stand not thinking, so he stood up to leave and as he turned around he bumped into a second year Hufflepuff girl. All of the items in her arms fell to the ground with a loud crash. Ink wells had broken, creating a black pool of ink on the stone floor, staining the books that had fallen to the ground. Everyone turned their heads towards the commotion. James and Sirius started to cackle like they'd never seen anything funnier.

Severus ignored them, even though he could feel every eye in the Great Hall boring into his back. He helped the girl clean up the mess he's caused and mumbled, "Sorry." And got, "S'okay." Muttered back to him. He stood up to find Lily looking at him, and he wondered if she would just sit there and glare at him or come over and help. The look in her eyes was more than he could stand, so he turned and ran.

The Lake

Severus ran, not bumping into anyone this time, all the way to the lake, to that fateful place from yesterday. He stood there panting by the shore and closed his eyes as he thought about yesterday, about what he had called Lily and every one of her other muggle born friends, listening to the waves on the shore and the breeze blowing softly though the trees. Hours passed standing there alone, listening to the lunch bell come and go. He didn't bother to go inside. Not a lot of people were outside today, it being a cooler day than usual, and none of them wanted to be by the lake, due to the fact it was even colder by the water. Everything seemed to be echoing in his head when he heard a loud voice behind him yell, "Hey, Severus!" Severus opened his eyes but didn't bother to turn around as Mulciber and Avery came up beside him.

"Guess what we did last night, Severus?" Avery almost giggled in a satanic voice.

Mulciber elbowed Avery hard in the ribs, "Hey, I want to tell him!" Avery smirked and gave Mulciber a dramatic bow giving him permission to speak. Mulciber gave Severus an evil smile, "Well, last night there were a couple of these fourth year Ravenclaw girls that looked a little lonely, so we took them to dungeons to give them a little tour, and…" Severus tuned out of the conversation after that, knowing where the story was going. He'd heard these kind of stories from them before, never having been a part of them. All he had to do was say, "Really? Yeah?" and, "Awesome!" at the right parts. Plus, they didn't really care if he listened or not, they just wanted to hear their own voices. When it seemed like the story was winding down a little bit he started to listen, "…and we wiped their memories after we had our fun and took them back up to where we found them." Mulciber chuckled, "They don't remember a thing!" his grin slightly faded and he looked vaguely annoyed as he continued, "We could have found you a girl if you hadn't been trying to apologize to that Mudblood girlfriend of yours."

Suddenly, Avery's eyes lit up as he elbowed Mulciber, pointed at something, and said, "Speaking of Mudblood girlfriend, look who's coming now." Mulciber and Severus turned to see Lily walking towards a different part of the lake, about fifty yards away from them, with a book in her hand. She didn't notice them as she sat down and started reading, her hair hanging down in front of her face. Severus glanced at Mulciber and Avery and saw a hungry look in their eyes, a look that had nothing to do with food.

"I wonder if a Mudblood would feel any different." Mulciber muttered as he started to stalk Lily.

Avery followed Mulciber and whispered to him, "I get her first, okay?" Mulciber nodded.

Severus grabbed Mulciber's arm, "Wait," he said, "You're not really going to do anything to her, are you?" he glanced at Lily and back at Mulciber, "I mean, she is a Mudblood after all."

Mulciber smiled slyly and pulled away from him and said, "Don't worry. We'll just rough her up a bit. We won't do anything drastic to her. As you said, she is a Mudblood." He started walking again.

Severus followed slowly behind. They would just tease her a bit like Mulciber said. There was no harm in teasing. He stopped a couple yards away from Lily, watching them. Even if it was teasing, he wasn't going to be a part of it. Mulciber suddenly appeared beside Lily and Avery showed up on the other. They grabbed her arms and threw to the ground. Her book flew to one side and landed in a pile of damp moss. Lily was startled by this sudden assault, and her hand flew to her wand and pointed it at the two standing above her.

Severus was frozen and watched, wide eyed, as Mulciber disarmed her. Lily took in a deep breath as if she were about to scream for help, but Mulciber hexed her before she could make a sound, then he grabbed her arms and yanked them behind her. Avery swaggered towards Lily, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Once he was close enough she laid a kick to Avery's chin and knocked him to the ground. Avery growled got back up and slapped her hard across her face. Lily looked stunned, her eyes seemed somewhat glazed. She didn't fight as Avery crouched beside her and stroked one grimy hand through her red hair. Lily saw Severus over Avery's shoulder and looked at him, her eyes pleading for help. Severus was still in shock, watching silently as Avery said to Lily in a low voice, "Don't worry you filthy Mudblood, I'll be gentle." Mulciber laughed and held her arms tighter as Avery reached and tore open her blouse, sending the buttons flying everywhere. His hands started caressing the bare skin of her stomach. They inched upward, slowly, until his hand was groping her breasts. He started to kiss her on the lips, but Lily bit down, hard, making Avery give a startled yelp. His hand reached up to his lip and he looked at his fingertips and at the blood Lily had drawn. He slapped her again and said, "Damn it! You Mudblood! Now I won't be so gentle!"

Something snapped in Severus' head and before he knew what he was doing, he hurled himself at Avery and pulled him away from her. Avery looked surprised and started to ask, "Hey, what -," but a punch square in the nose stopped him from completing his question. Blood started to pour from Avery's nose and he landed on the ground.

Severus pulled out his wand and sent Mulciber flying with, "STUPEFY!" Lily was free from his grasp and crawled to where her wand fell, grabbed it, and joined the fray. Avery was back up and tackled Severus, each laying a punch or a kick when they could. Mulciber and Lily were dueling intensely, neither of them showing mercy. Spells were flying everywhere, sometimes colliding, causing a loud BOOM or BANG!

They all stopped when they heard voices of teachers yelling at them and saw people running towards the chaos of the fight. Mulciber glared at Severus and ran. Avery punched him and got in one last kick and said, "I thought you were one of us. But you're just a Mudblood lover." He glared at Lily for a second and spat, "I wouldn't have her even if you paid me. Like you said, she's a Mudblood." Then he ran after Mulciber.

Severus lay on the ground panting. He hurt all over and the metallic taste of blood had taken over his mouth. He turned on his side and spit some on the ground then he looked over at Lily. She was crouched behind a rock, holding her blouse together with one hand, trying to talk but nothing came out because of the hex still on her. With two waves of his wand he took off the hex and repaired her torn blouse. Severus edged slowly towards her. There was a look of shock and fear on her face as he reached his hand up and picked a small twig from her hair, their eyes locked, "Lily…are you…?" but nothing seemed appropriate.

Her emerald eyes overflowed with tears and she reached for Severus. He took her in his arms and let her cry as he soothed her, "Shhh, you're okay. You're safe. They won't hurt you again." She was still sobbing when Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall showed up, followed by James, Sirius, Lupin, Peter, and a few other people who'd heard the commotion.

"Snape, wha-" McGonagall began, but Dumbledore raised his hand to silence her.

"Minerva, just wait," He said.

James looked like he was ready to start another fight; his hand gripped his wand so hard that his knuckles had turned white. He stared at Mulciber and Avery running away. McGonagall followed James' gaze and saw the two boys running. She turned to James and said, "Potter, Black, Lupin, can you get those two boys and bring them back to the castle? Alive?"

James looked at her and nodded. The three, plus Peter, ran after them. Severus heard James mutter, "Oh, I'll bring them back alright, but I don't know if they'll be alive."

The other students trickled away, and soon all that were left was Dumbledore, McGonagall, Severus, and Lily. Lily's sobs had turned into little hiccups. Finally, she lifted her head and stared at Severus. He leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the forehead. They helped each other up and walked, more like limped, to the professors. McGonagall started to question them as soon as they reached her, and they explained all they could.

As McGonagall was questioning, Dumbledore spotted Lily's book in the moss and picked it up. The gold lettering glittered in the sunlight and it read, Scary Stories for the Dark. He looked up to see the three helping each other back to the castle. Dumbledore tucked the book under his arm, imagining Lily had enough scary stories to last her awhile, and followed.

The Hospital

They were sent to the Hospital Wing to get cleaned up after McGonagall and Dumbledore had finished questioning them. Madame Pomfrey decided to keep them there overnight to keep an eye on them, just in case she had missed something. Fights were nasty things and could hide injuries that wouldn't appear until later, when it was almost too late.

Before the lights went out, James and the others dragged in Mulciber and Avery. The two boys looked worse than they had right after the fight. They were all talking at the same time, but Avery made sure his complaints could be heard above everyone else, saying that they'd been attacked by a wild dog and a stag before Lupin and Peter showed up and got rid of the animals. James and Sirius showed up later to, literally, dragged them back to the castle. Madam Pomfrey led them to a small room just off the Hospital Wing's main set of beds. The door was locked so that they could recover from their injuries and wouldn't be able to bother Severus and Lily.

Severus and Lily hadn't said much to each other until the lights were out. Then, out of the darkness, Severus said, "I'm sorry about today and yesterday. I wouldn't blame you if you never forgave me."

Lily was silent for so long that he thought she'd fallen asleep. Then he heard her blankets rustle and light footsteps heading to his bed. He felt her soft hand on his cheek, and soon he could feel her warm breath on his face and her lips on his. Slowly, he brought his hand up to touch her cheek, enjoying the sensation of her warm kiss. He pulled her closer to him but didn't do anything more. She pressed her lips a little harder on his, but then pulled away, drifting her hand to his hand still on her cheek to hold it there. After a few moments of silence she said, "I'll forgive you. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but one day I will," she was quiet for a second, as if debating on whether she should say what she was thinking or not but said, "You were…extraordinary today. I don't mean you fighting those," she hesitated, "boys, necessarily. I mean…well…you became…a hero…today."

Severus chuckled, "I'm no hero."

He heard her inhale then exhale. She let go of his hand and crawled back into her bed and said, "I hope one day you'll see yourself as the hero." Darkness filled the air between them. Soon she muttered sleepily, "G'night, Sev."

The corner of his mouth twitched as he heard her say his nickname, "Good night, Lily."

Severus fell asleep and had dreams not of shadows, but of light.