Mary had caught sight of a devastated Snape when Lily had re-entered the common room.
She watched Lily walk back to her dorm room and she wanted to go after her and see what Snape had wanted. Tho she suspected Snape had possibly wanted to apologize for the incident earlier, he was so distraught when he showed up and she had never seen someone look so broken before in her life. That had been the only reason she had agreed to go fetch Lily.
With that, instead of going after Lily like she wanted, she found herself exiting the gryffindor commons.
The minute the portrait swung open she saw Snape whip around so fast that just witnessing the sight almost gave her whiplash.
His eyes were wide and held a glimpse of hope believing Lily had come back. Yet when he realized she wasn't Lily, his expression change to something unreadable. He turned back around and made his way down the stairs possibly to return back to the slytherin commons.
Before she knew it she stepped out of the gryffindor commons and followed after him. Why she went after Snape instead of Lily, she was unsure but for some reason she felt more bad for him then she did for her. She had witnessed what happened, had seen what happened after Lily left and despite her smile the sight made her stomach churn. It even left an awful taste in her mouth as she remembered everything that went down.
The boy had been attacked unprovoked, had been disarmed and knocked back with magic, had been choked with soap, had been hit with several other spells before being held up upside-down revealing his pants and bare legs. She may not like the boy but even she wouldn't do that to him or wish for it to happen to anyone else especially if the reasoning for it happening was because the person existed which had been the case for Snape.
And sure, Snape hung around bad people but given what she knew from simply observering him well it didn’t surprise her who he was friends with. No one else but Lily would befriend him and by the state of his clothing his family was clearly lacking money which wouldn't due you well when in a house filled with rich snobs unless you fed their ego or had some extraordinary talent to keep from being a target.
Two paths that she had seen be taken upon two different people.
She had seen how things went if a person choose the first option via Pettigrew. In her eyes Pettigrew isn't someone Potter or Black would befriend and everytime she saw them Pettigrew was usually cheering them on when they did anything. She saw him as their cheerleader of sort, and it left a bad taste in her mouth without knowing why.
As for Snape, she was sure he had been gifted the path of the second option. In her opinion she believes he's rather talented, given his skills in potions and how well he duels against Potter and his friends when he isn't ambushed so suddenly. To her, he surely had enough talent to impress the other slytherins to keep their wands off of him because surely they'd have hexed him or something for entertainment. Especially since he had been best friends with lily, he'd clearly be a blood traitor in their eyes unless he had something to make up for it, somehow.
They were halfway down the stairs when Snape had suddenly stopped and turned around to face her. She froze up and despite herself her cheeks flushed from how intensely he stared at her.
"Why are you following me?" Snape questioned his voice was cold and it sent a shiver down her spine.
Her heart raced from nervousness as she looked at him. She didn't know why she was following him. It had simply happened and she was as confused as he was. Yet the words the came out of her mouth were ones that shocked both her and Snape.
"I wanted to see if you were okay" She had said her voice displaying nothing but worry.
Snape's eyes had widened in shock and was stunned silent. Mary was stunned silent too.
The silence was loud and lasted far to long. Mary stood there feeling extremely uncomfortable. She wanted to say something, anything, to break the silence but she didn't know what to say.
After what felt like decades, Snape's expression changed. His face twisted into a sneer and his eyes became cold and she found herself shrinking in on herself from his glare.
"Tsk, I find that hard to believe, take your pity and give it to someone else." He spat out before taking the finale steps off of the stairs.
Mary felt a surge of anger rise in her tho she pushed it down. She wanted to curse him out but if she were in his shoes she'd have reacted the same way.
She took a deep breath and then hurried after him. She didn't know what she'd say to him so she decided not to say anything at all. She had always believed that actions speak louder than words.
With that she hugged Snape from behind. She had her arms wrapped around Snape's waist and her body pressed up against his back. She felt him tense up almost as if he was hit with 'Petrificus totalus'.
They stayed like that for a few seconds before Snape recovered his senses and tried to pry her off of him. She tightened her hold on him, she wasn't going to let go off him anytime soon. If he wanted her off of him he'd have to hex her and that was a risk she was willing to take.
After several minutes of Snape fighting to get out of her hold- of him shouting curses at her and demanding she let go, did he finally give up. He let out a deep annoyed sigh and his shoulders slumped.
"Why are you doing this...?"
Mary stayed silent as she heard him speak. He spoke almost in a whisper and she could hear the confusion and sadness in his voice. Just hearing him sound so lost and heartbroken made her own heart ache. She tightened her hold on him a bit and rested her forehead on his back.
She let out a soft sigh before speaking up. "I just wanted to see if you were okay" She said quietly.
Snape said nothing in return, and in an unexpected turn of events, he turned around in her arms and hesitantly hugged her back.
Mary was shocked, she hadn't expected him to hug her back. She felt his body slightly tremble as he hugged her with caution. She pressed herself closer to him and began to rub his back hoping to provide some sort of comfort.
What happened next shocked her more then anything else that had happened, because...
Snape had tightened his hold on her, pressed his face in her shoulder, and cried.
She didn't think he could cry so it was not something she had expected him to do. She continued to rub his back, quite unsure on how to handle the situation.
The halls were deathly silent the only noises that could be heard were the quiet sobs coming from Snape and the soft murmurs coming from Mary as she did her best to try and calm him down.
They stayed like for what felt like hours, Snape was the first to pull away. He kept his head down using his hair to hide his face.
Mary reluctantly let go of him, she opened her mouth to say something but before she could Snape had walked off. She frowned and wanted to go after him yet before she could do so she heard the sound of soft pitter-patter of a cat that was either Professor McGonagall or Mrs.Norris, either way she had to head back to the gryffindor commons or else she'd get detention.
With great reluctance she looked at Severus one last time before his body disappeared from her sight before quickly turning around and hurrying up the stairs back to the gryffindor commons to avoid being caught.
She entered the gryffindor commons, receiving some harsh words from the fat lady for waking her up, with her shoulders slumped as she made her way up to her dorm room with one thing on her mind.
Severus Snape.