For Severus Snape, the rest of his year would not be quiet in the least. Severus hated a lot of things in life, but what he hated most of all was children. Happy children. Children living happy, spoiled childhoods reminded him painfully of his own tragic past. His parents who would not and could not spoil him. His father with a drunken hand raised - his mother with a wilted smile and a posture of fear. So when Potter came back from winter break with a handmade Weasley sweater under his robes and an illegal broomstick clumsily hidden and a too-large smile on his stupid face, Snape knew he had to ruin that energy for the lot of these stupid, ungrateful, spoiled brats. Didn't they see that the world was a cruel and horrible place?
Potter had nearly died in his cupboard under the stairs and he didn't look the least bit traumatized by it! Here he was, happily running down the halls and shouting after his friends like his parents had not been murdered by the Dark Lord!
Potter's precious mama (how dare he replace Lily, wonderful, perfect Lily) insisted that the boy's potions abilities were beyond the rest of the first years, although Snape had refused to let the boy move up a level. They had worked out a compromise, or rather Albus had forced the issue and allowed Potter to "independently study" in the back of the classroom, leaving the two to not have to interact at all. While an improvement, Snape was certain leaving the boy alone would give him nothing but free time to mess around and pull pranks and other such nonsense that James would have done had he been granted such an opportunity. Thus Snape made it his mission to keep a very thorough eye on the brat to ensure he was behaving appropriately.
Snape would not admit it to anyone, not even the Dark Lord under Cruciatus, but whenever he watched Potter, he got unnerved. There was something off about the boy. His eyes shone too brightly in an unnatural avada kedavra green. When the professor looked into them he saw Lily's body. He saw the dozens of faceless muggles he'd tormented at the Dark Lord's orders. The feeling left him shaky and haunted. An eleven-year-old child should not put out an effect like that of the Dementors. The strangeness of the Potter child only made Severus angrier.
It was during a Potion's lesson that Snape snapped.
The lesson ended with the bubbling remains of three exploded cauldrons burning holes into the flooring, a cowering Neville Longbottom trapped standing on his chair, ten children in tears - either in pain or in fear of Snape's rage, and six Gryffindors getting a month's detention.
Two days later, Snape started going insane.
"You know, I'll be the first to admit it, I was an ass. But like wow, dude. You let yourself go! What the hell is wrong with you, really? Like you just flat-out bully eleven-year-olds now. Did I give you childhood trauma? Are you messed up in the head because I showed off your underwear that one time?"
Snape was in the bath, enjoying a soak and a bottle of tequila and the ghost of James Potter was floating above him. Snape wiped at his eyes in confusion, getting soap into them and making them burn. As he rubbed fiercely to stop the pain, he heard James Potter's loud laugh in his ears.
"What the fuck?" Snape groaned.
"Fair question," answered the please-God-don't-be-real ghost of his childhood nemesis. The dead man perched himself on the marble countertop, his feet swinging like a child. "I've come back to haunt you for being a dick."
"Please tell me this isn't hell."
"Unfortunately, you are alive." Potter gave him a pitying look. "And you're one to complain, I'm the guy unfortunate enough to have to see you naked."
When Snape was alone, usually in the evenings while he was grading papers or trying to rest after a long day of teaching, Potter's ghost would appear to mock him. Snape had no proof if the man was even real or some potion-fume-addled figment of his imagination. He prayed for the latter.
But his high never went away. Day after day, Potter haunted him, keeping him awake late into the night by knocking over glass bottles and other obnoxious behavior. He was truly a poltergeist after Peeves' own heart. He replaced all of Snapes' liquor with spoiled milk, he turned all his tap water a burning hot or cold and he kept rearranging the furniture in his quarters by half an inch so he would trip or smack his toes against them. He was miserable but it only kept escalating.
Once, he woke in a panic, and found Potter trying to suffocate him with his pillow. He also began to sabotage all of his potions. Unfortunately the man had been skilled enough at potion-making that he knew precisely what ingredients to throw in his cauldrons to make them unsalvageable. He also started following Snape around everywhere. No one else could see him, but Potter was always there. Remarking on his meal choices, mimicking him while he taught, making excruciating, uncomfortable eye-contact while he was in the bathroom. The ghost had no limits and nothing better to do but follow Snape around for weeks.
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