Severus never really was a merry lad. Plagued with demons of his past, the long haired boy had nothing but anger and resentment brewing in his soul.

The only respite to this aggression came in the form of you; his light, his lantern in the dark.

Severus didn’t experience much happiness, and that happiness was only made more scarce by the torment of those boys; Sirius, James, Remus and Peter. Severus admitted, Remus never did much, and Peter was too much of a coward to even say a mean word.

Still, that specific group of boys seemed to suck the joy from Severus like dementors- he wholeheartedly believed they’d pass as them if they wore a creepy cloak.

Today was humiliating.

Severus was hunched over the communal bathroom sink, hiding away where only the moaning of myrtle could find him. While that wasn’t particularly a fate he wanted to condemn himself to; it was better than facing the school with glue tangled in his hair and small bruises forming on his cheeks.

The door opened, and Severus instinctively snapped; “Go away, mudblood.”

He knew it was hypocritical, he himself was a half blood, he honestly had no right to throw that word around. Still, he wanted to fit in- have at least some friends, even if he hated them.

After all, being a part of a horrible group was better than being a loser loner, in his opinion.