Chapter Text
The news spread like wildfire.
Severus Snape’s suicide attempt had been narrowly avoided, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that the Marauders, four of Hogwarts' most beloved students, had driven him to the brink. The whispers in the hallways were venomous, the stares accusatory, and soon, the anger was palpable.
It was one thing for a few students to privately scorn the Marauders for their treatment of Severus. But when Dumbledore himself called an emergency meeting, the students knew this was no ordinary scandal. The headmaster had looked at them with a mix of disappointment and quiet fury, his usually warm gaze replaced with something colder.
“James Potter. Sirius Black. Peter Pettigrew. Remus Lupin,” Dumbledore had said, his voice low, each name an indictment. “You have caused untold harm to another student. You will be held accountable for your actions. I will be contacting your families.”
The Marauders stood frozen in place, their faces pale, their pride shattering. Even Sirius, who usually wore his bravado like armor, couldn’t mask the storm of emotions that flickered in his eyes.
“Professor, please,” James had tried, but the words were weak, falling flat.
“You have gone too far,” Dumbledore interrupted, and James’ heart sank. “All of you. I have spent years in this school, but I have never seen such cruelty from students who should have known better.”
---
The days that followed were a nightmare. The entire school turned on them. Their fellow Gryffindors, who had once admired and looked up to them, now whispered behind their backs and avoided them in the corridors. The other houses were even more unforgiving. The Slytherins, once a rival house with whom they had a tense relationship, now openly mocked and shunned them, seizing the opportunity to put them in their place.
Even the teachers treated them with disdain. Professor McGonagall, usually stoic, was openly cold. Flitwick’s usually cheerful greeting was gone. And Snape—oh, Snape—was nowhere to be found. He was said to be under heavy care, but the few who had seen him noticed he hadn’t even bothered to speak to Lily Evans when she had gone to visit him.
The most shocking blow came when their families were contacted.
---
James Potter’s father, a well-respected businessman, was the first to receive the owl. It was from Dumbledore. The letter described in cold detail the harassment Severus Snape had suffered at the hands of his son. James’ father, who had always praised his son’s antics, was furious.
“How dare you?!” his father had roared, slamming the letter down on the table. “What have I raised? A bully? How many times do I have to tell you that cruelty has no place in this world, James? This is not who we are! This is not who I raised you to be!”
James was forced to sit in silence as his father paced the room. His mother was equally livid, though her anger was more contained. “What did you think would happen? That you could push someone to the edge and they wouldn’t break? I won’t stand for this, James. This is disgraceful.”
Meanwhile, Sirius Black had received his own reckoning. His family, infamous for their pure-blood supremacy and cruelty, had never been kind to him, but they had always supported his pranks, even when he mocked their archaic traditions. But this? This was beyond even their cold-hearted standards.
His mother, Walburga Black, had sent a letter in her usual shrill handwriting, condemning him with every word. “You are a disgrace to the Black name. Do you think your antics are funny? Do you think that humiliating people—muggle-borns especially—is something we stand for? You have failed your family, Sirius. You are no longer welcome in our home.”
Sirius’ heart sank. He was used to the disdain from his family, but this was different. This was a level of anger he hadn’t anticipated. His own blood had turned against him.
Peter Pettigrew, the quiet, often overlooked member of the Marauders, was forced to face his family’s shame as well. His parents had always been weak, afraid to stand up for themselves or for their son. But this time, they couldn’t pretend ignorance.
His mother had cried. “Peter, what have you done? All of your father’s work—our reputation in the wizarding world—it’s all destroyed because of you. We can’t even show our faces in Diagon Alley anymore. You think this is what we wanted for you?”
Peter, who had always followed James and Sirius without question, now felt the full weight of the consequences. No one wanted to be associated with him anymore.
---
But the worst, by far, was Remus Lupin.
His parents were kind and understanding, the only family who had always treated him with love and care despite his condition. But when they received Dumbledore’s owl, they were horrified.
“Remus,” his mother said softly, shaking her head in disbelief. “You know better than this. You know better than to follow them, to participate in this cruelty.” His father remained silent, his disappointment heavy in the air.
“We’ve always tried to teach you kindness, understanding, and empathy,” his mother continued, tears in her eyes. “And yet, you went along with them. I can’t... I can’t understand how you could allow this to happen.”
---
The Marauders were no longer the untouchable, mischievous icons of Hogwarts. They were pariahs. Their names were spoken in hushed tones, their actions condemned by students and staff alike. Even Lily Evans, who had once been their target, didn’t look at them with any semblance of sympathy. Instead, she was disgusted.
“James, you didn’t just hurt him,” she said, voice trembling, as she finally spoke to him. “You almost killed him.”
And Severus? Severus was absent, his body and spirit so broken that it was almost as if he had vanished from the world. His absence loomed over the Marauders like a shadow, a constant reminder of their irredeemable actions.
They had thought themselves untouchable—four friends who could do anything, who could laugh at others’ expense and get away with it. But now, they stood alone.
The Marauders had reached the pinnacle of their arrogance, and now they were paying the price. Their families had disowned them, their friends had turned their backs, and the school that had once celebrated them now looked at them with nothing but loathing.
They were no longer the golden boys of Hogwarts. They were nothing more than broken, ashamed teenagers, left to face the consequences of their cruelty—and they had no one to blame but themselves.
----
Severus Snape lay in the Hospital Wing, his body bruised and battered. The silence in the room was deafening, broken only by the occasional rustle of Madam Pomfrey's movements as she tended to his wounds. Her hands were gentle, but the stinging potions she applied to his cuts burned like fire. Severus barely flinched. After all, what was pain compared to the agony of his own mind?
His body hurt, but the worst of it was the emotional toll. The memories of everything the Marauders had done to him over the years weighed on him like an anchor, dragging him deeper into the sea of self-loathing and despair. He had felt their cruelty in every form: the hexes, the insults, the mockery. But this latest confrontation… it was worse. They had come to him, begging for forgiveness, thinking that words could heal the damage they had caused. He could barely stomach it.
As the hours passed, Snape lay there, staring at the ceiling, his thoughts spiraling. He couldn’t escape them—the memories of their cruelty, of James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter, their faces twisted with laughter as they tormented him. Their laughter still echoed in his mind, a haunting sound he could never escape.
He thought of their faces now, of the guilt that had shown in their eyes when they tried to apologize. But none of it mattered. It was too late. Too much damage had been done.
The door to the Hospital Wing creaked open. Severus didn’t need to look up to know who it was. The Marauders had followed him, after all. They weren’t done yet. He could hear their footsteps, hesitant, unsure.
“Snape,” James’s voice rang out, soft but firm. “We need to talk.”
Severus closed his eyes, the flickering light from the candles casting strange shadows across the room. “I don’t think there’s anything left to talk about, Potter,” he replied, his voice steady but filled with venom. “I’ve heard enough from you.”
“We’re sorry,” Remus’s voice came next, quieter than James’s, almost pleading. “We know we’ve crossed a line, Severus. We’ve lived with it for years. It’s eating at us, and we thought… we thought maybe we could make it right.”
Severus didn’t answer. His silence spoke volumes.
Sirius, unable to stay silent any longer, stepped forward. “Look, Snape, we know what we did to you, and we can’t undo it. We’ve done some terrible things, and we deserve your anger. But we’re trying. We’re trying to make amends. Please, just let us—”
“Make amends?” Severus cut him off sharply, his voice dangerously low. “You think you can make amends for ruining my life? You think you can just fix it with a few pathetic words? Do you think I’m supposed to forget what you’ve done to me? You’ve torn me apart, and now you want me to accept your apology like it’s some kind of gift?”
He finally turned his head, his gaze cold and cutting, like a blade.
“Do you know how many times I wanted to die because of what you did to me? How many times I thought it would be easier to just end it all than to face another day of humiliation, another day of your mockery? You think that’s something you can just fix with your hollow apologies?”
The Marauders took a collective step back, and for a moment, there was a tense silence, the weight of Severus’s words hanging in the air.
“You were never just bullies,” Severus spat. “You were the reason I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror. You made me believe I was nothing. You made me believe I was worthless, and now you think you can fix it? That’s not how it works.”
James swallowed hard, but his guilt was now a tangible thing, something heavy that sat on his chest. “We were kids, Severus. We were… we didn’t understand. We didn’t see how bad it was for you. I’m sorry for everything, for what we did. I never meant for you to… feel like that.”
Sirius nodded in agreement, looking as if he might crumble under the weight of Severus’s gaze. “We didn’t know the effect it had on you, Snape. But we do now. And we’re sorry. Truly.”
Severus’s lips twisted into a bitter smile, a humorless laugh escaping him. “Sorry? Sorry doesn’t fix this. Sorry doesn’t take back the years you stole from me. You don’t get to just say that and expect me to move on. You don’t deserve forgiveness. Do you understand me? You don’t deserve it.”
He paused, his voice a low growl, full of pain and resentment. “I hope you never forget what you did. I hope every time you look in the mirror, you see the face of the person you nearly destroyed. I hope the guilt eats at you every day. Because that’s what I have to live with. Every single day.”
Sirius took a deep breath, his hands clenched at his sides. “We were wrong. We were horrible, and we can’t change the past. But we’ve been trying, Severus. We’ve been trying to become better. To do better. All we can ask for is a chance, some kind of redemption.”
Snape laughed again, bitter and hollow. “Redemption?” he asked, his voice rising. “Do you even know what that word means? You think you can redeem yourselves for what you did? You can’t. There’s no coming back from this. Not for me. Not for you.”
His hands trembled as he slowly sat up, the pain from his injuries forgotten in the fire of his anger. “You were the reason I want to kill myself .And every time I hear your voices, every time I see your faces, I remember that. I remember how you made me wish I was dead. And now you stand here, begging for forgiveness? Well, it’s too late. It’s too late for that. And it’s too late for you to make up for it.”
He shook his head, his face twisted with rage and hurt, unable to stop the words from tumbling out. “So here’s what I want from you: I want you to live with this. Live with the knowledge that you nearly destroyed someone. Live with the fact that you made me feel like I was nothing. And know that you will never, ever be able to fix it.”
For a long moment, there was no sound in the room. The Marauders just stood there, unable to argue, unable to explain. They had no words left.
Severus finally leaned back against the bed, his eyes closing as if to shut them out, his voice quiet but final. “Go. Leave. I don’t want to see you anymore.”
James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter turned to leave, their heads lowered in shame, their guilt gnawing at their insides. As they walked out, the door closed behind them with a heavy thud, and Severus was left alone in the quiet darkness, his anger still simmering beneath the surface.
---
Outside, the Marauders lingered in the hallway, their steps slow, their faces ashen. The apology had not been accepted, and in truth, they knew it never could be. They had done too much damage. They had crossed a line that could never be uncrossed.
But the guilt would follow them. The knowledge that they had almost destroyed Severus Snape—the boy they had once called their enemy—would be with them forever.
And as they walked back to their common room, none of them could shake the haunting echo of Severus’s words:
Live with it. You don’t deserve forgiveness.