The early years surprised him because Lily appeared far more often than he had expected. The two studied together, talked together, and spent time together whenever their schedules allowed, and for a while, despite belonging to different Houses, they genuinely remained close.
Then the memories advanced into third year, and slowly the cracks began to appear.
One memory surfaced before him, showing Lily standing with her arms crossed and an unmistakably frustrated expression on her face.
"You can't keep defending them, Severus."
Young Snape's jaw tightened immediately.
"They're my friends."
"They're using Dark Magic."
"They're not all doing that."
"Liar."
The argument continued much as countless others had before it, circling the same topic, the same frustrations, and the same growing divide that seemed to widen with each passing year.
Gilderoy watched carefully as Lily saw things in simple terms, with people falling neatly into categories of right and wrong, good and bad, and standing either on the correct side or the incorrect one. The problem was that reality rarely worked that way, especially for someone like Snape.
Lily looked at his Housemates and saw people targeting Muggle-borns, and using dangerous curses. She was not entirely wrong, but she also failed to understand something important. Snape could not simply abandon those relationships without consequences. Doing so would have left him isolated inside his own House, and after everything Gilderoy had witnessed from his childhood, he understood why Severus feared isolation more than almost anything else.
Yet despite all of that, one thing never changed. Every memory showed the same unwavering loyalty toward Lily, and no matter how many arguments they had, how many disagreements arose, or how much Lily gradually distanced herself, Lily Evans remained at the center of Severus Snape's world.
Gilderoy watched memory after memory until his expression slowly hardened.
"Merlin, Snape might actually be the biggest simp in history."
The memory dissolved again, and this time Gilderoy deliberately searched for the Marauders, though the results only reinforced what he had already suspected as scene after scene unfolded before him.
He watched James hex students in corridors, watched Sirius eagerly join in, watched harmful pranks carried out in front of crowds, and watched dangerous spells thrown around under the excuse of fun while nearby students laughed because it was easier than becoming the next target themselves.
Most frustratingly of all, he watched professors dismiss behaviour that would have earned far harsher punishment from anyone less popular.
The more memories he saw, the less comfortable he felt because the Marauders did not merely prank people. They bullied them repeatedly and relentlessly, sometimes targeting Snape, sometimes targeting other students, and sometimes simply targeting whoever happened to attract their attention that day.
One memory showed a student stumbling through a corridor with his head swollen to twice its normal size while nearby Gryffindors laughed themselves breathless. Another showed a Slytherin First-year girl wiping tears from her face after her teeth suddenly sprouted fangs and her hair grew green.
None of it surprised Gilderoy particularly. He had already possessed a fairly poor opinion of James Potter and his group long before entering these memories, and everything he was seeing merely confirmed it.
Snape's circumstances had helped create the man he would eventually become. Yes, a villain in many respects, though one who ultimately made the right choice in the end.
The Marauders were a different matter entirely, and Gilderoy found himself suspecting that the same people who romanticized Draco Malfoy were often the ones who romanticized the Marauders as well. They saw a handsome, popular group of teenagers pulling harmless pranks, while conveniently ignoring the reality unfolding inside these memories.
What surprised him more was Lily. Again and again she referred to their actions as pranks, harmless pranks, boys being boys, normal behaviour, and every time she did Gilderoy found himself frowning harder because there was absolutely nothing harmless about any of it.
Instead of understanding Snape's situation, helping him navigate it, or standing firmly beside him when he needed someone most, Lily gradually distanced herself, partly because of his choices, partly because of her Gryffindor friends, and partly because her worldview remained frustratingly black and white.
The memories continued moving until they eventually reached the period Gilderoy had been expecting, and he watched young Severus spend countless hours researching, experimenting, inventing, and improving spells. Many of them were dangerous and some were genuinely disturbing, yet not all of them fit the image people later associated with Severus Snape.
One memory showed Snape carefully recording notes beside a healing spell called Vernana Sanante. Another contained Purgo Vulnus, a spell designed specifically to clean wounds before treatment, while Caloris Vita restored warmth to the body and Somnus Lenis helped injured patients rest comfortably during recovery. Yet another notebook contained the Clarivox recipe, created after one too many potion accidents had damaged his throat.
Gilderoy found himself staring at the notes with growing interest because the image most people carried of Severus Snape did not quite match what he was seeing. The same boy who invented dangerous spells like Sectumsempra was also creating medical spells, while the same teenager researching dark curses was simultaneously developing practical magic designed to help people.
The contradiction fascinated him, and he could practically feel the real Snape's fury beside him by this point, but wisely chose not to acknowledge it and instead continued searching because there was still one memory left that he wanted to see.
Snape's Worst Memory.
The world shifted around them one final time as sunlight flooded into view, revealing crowded Hogwarts grounds filled with students relaxing after their O.W.L.s while laughter echoed through the air, and Gilderoy's eyes immediately found James Potter.
Young Severus already looked annoyed before the encounter even began, yet James attacked anyway, not because Snape had done anything and not because a fight had broken out, but simply because he could.
Everything unfolded exactly as Gilderoy remembered from the books as the hexes flew, the humiliation began, students gathered to watch, laughter spread through the crowd, and the entire thing transformed into a public spectacle before eventually culminating in Levicorpus.
Severus hung upside down before half the school while laughter erupted from every direction, accompanied by mocking comments and delighted spectators enjoying the show, and Gilderoy felt his jaw tighten as he watched.
Then Lily arrived, and that was what he had been looking for.
Lily stepped forward looking angry and frustrated while demanding James stop, yet she never actually did anything beyond that. She didn't draw her wand, didn't help Severus down, didn't curse James, and didn't force the situation to end. She simply stood there and watched, exactly as Gilderoy had suspected.
Then something caught his eye as a tiny movement flickered across her face, so brief that most people would never have noticed it. The corner of Lily's mouth twitched ever so slightly before she immediately suppressed it, but it had happened, and for the briefest moment she had almost smiled.
Beside him, the real Snape suddenly went completely rigid.
Young Severus never noticed. How could he? His underwear was being displayed to half the school, his humiliation was complete, Lily had never truly come to defend him, and his anger consumed everything else until the word finally escaped him.
"Mudblood."
The memory blurred, but neither Gilderoy nor Snape seemed focused on that anymore.
Several long seconds passed in silence before Gilderoy did the smartest thing he had done all day and exited immediately.
The memories vanished, the office returned, and reality snapped back into place so abruptly that Gilderoy staggered slightly before regaining his footing.
Across from him, Snape remained standing with bloodshot eyes and an expression that, for one deeply concerning moment, made Gilderoy think he might actually be murdered inside a Hogwarts office. The desire was certainly there, visible in his eyes and completely unrestrained.
Then something changed as Snape's hands rose to his head and tangled into his hair before pulling hard, and slowly, without speaking a single word, he slid down the stone wall until he was sitting on the floor.
The sight felt strangely wrong because Severus Snape had always seemed larger than life, controlled, composed, and dangerous, yet now he looked like a man whose foundations had just been shattered.
Gilderoy opened his mouth, thought better of it, and closed it again because there was absolutely nothing he could say that would improve the situation.
So he quietly walked toward the door, opened it, stepped outside, and closed it behind him.
The last thing he saw before the door shut completely was Snape still sitting against the wall in silence, his hands clenched tightly in his hair while he stared at nothing at all, and Gilderoy found himself realizing that some wounds never truly healed no matter how much time passed.
For once, even he knew better than to interfere.
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