"Surely someone stopped James?" I said, a bit hopefully. I knew better, though. There's no way they were stopped if this is "Snape's Worst Memory".

"I'd have broken at least one of their noses." grumbled the character, "Just on principle."

"Well, alright then!"

- - - -- - - -

“Evans!” James shouted after her. “Hey, EVANS!”

But she didn't look back.

“What is it with her?” said James, trying and failing to look as though this was a throwaway question of no real importance to him.

“Reading between the lines, I'd say she thinks you're a bit conceited, mate,” said Sirius.

“Right,” said James, who looked furious now, “right--”

There was another flash of light, and Snape was once again hanging upside-down in the air.

“Who wants to see me take off Snivelly's pants?”

“HEY!” the shout was nearly lost amid the cheers and laughing, coming from well behind Potter.

Everything halted, shocked stares settled on an unfamiliar but ugly girl storming toward the commotion. Her fists were clenched, a single, knee-length braid swung behind her as she moved, and she was decidedly not dressed as a student in her muggle jeans and t-shirt. Vaguely oriental and entirely ticked off, she was no older than the boy being taunted or the boys doing the taunting.

James cursed, probably seeing stars for a moment from the impact to his skull, but he didn’t let Snape down, and Sirius trained his wand on the newcomer.

“Hey,” she repeated, voice venomous as she came within snarling range and halted. “What the hell are you doing to that kid!”

“What business is it of yours?”

“None, I’m nosy.”

James twirled his wand, sending the captive Snape spinning slowly.

“Teaching Snivellus here a lesson.”

“Oh, you’re teachers, are you?”

“What’s with the rock?” Sirius cut in, “Don’t have a wand?”

“I don’t need a goddamned wand to take you on.”

“Going to shock us into behaving with your ugly face?” was the sneer.

“Perhaps.” the girl seemed to settle, knees bending, “Or maybe just my fist, if it doesn’t break before your head does.”

Sirius was the first to launch a hex, but it hit nothing but ground as the stranger ducked and rolled, coming up practically on top of the boy and using her momentum to slug him in the face. Black staggered, nose gushing blood between his fingers.

“Bloody bitch!”

Snape was forgotten, dropped like a rag doll as James fired a hex at the upstart. But he hit Sirius instead, the stranger having jerked the snarling boy forward as a shield. Black was lifted into the air briefly, howling in anger, and James was hit with a body-bind hex from behind. He dropped like a rock.

Peter fled, Sirius hit the ground with a thump, and all eyes watched as Snape... livid with fury, aimed his wand levelly at the girl.

She spread her hands.

“I don’t need your help, either!” he snarled.

The ugly girl said nothing, simply backed away until Snape aimed at Black instead of her. Then, in the moment everyone glanced away, she was gone.

- - - -- - - -

What isn’t from the books, belongs to me. What is from the books, doesn’t.

The OC is not a Hogwarts student, being that she's actually worse off than a squib... just enough magic to screw up dangerously. If I was going to venture a reason for here being here at all, it would be to take written NEWTs as a home-schooled wizarding kid... but this is just a random drabble, so, yeah.

I said I'd never write in HP, because everything's been done to death before, and usually horribly. I doubt I'll get much flak from anyone here on f f . n e t, considering, but the real question is... "will I still respect myself in the morning?".

Alley can be found in several other fandoms, in several other stories by myself, though I've never written her in her teens before. She's usually old and stubborn, with greying hair and a limp, no matter which fandom she finds herself in. The Weaponsmaster volunteered her nose-breaking services, though, and I couldn't very well have her towering over the little punks to do it. XD