Friends and Family (year 1)
On his first morning at Hogwarts Peter, did in fact wake up late.
He didn’t quite blame himself as Sirius had also woken up late. Who he did blame though was actually none other than James Potter himself, who had awoken two hours before either of the other two boys, had taken a shower, gone on a walk, unpacked the rest of his and Peters clothes and gotten dressed without ever thinking of waking up the others. By the time James did wake up the other two boys (by playing loud music and jumping around on their beds obnoxiously), there were only fifteen minutes of breakfast left before classes would start. This didn’t seem to faze James at all though, as he was humming to himself joyfully on their way down to breakfast. Sirius who, Peter quickly realized was not a morning person at all was grumbling to himself the whole way down to the great hall, rubbing his eyes and messing with his hair, which miraculously looked really good despite not having been groomed at all. Peter, who obviously did not possess the same gift Sirius had when it came to looking good without even trying, was still attempting to tie his tie by the time the three of them stumbled into the great hall. Immediately Peter spotted Remus, their fourth roommate sitting next to Lily Evans and two second years, so he, James and Sirius, made their way over to the table and slid into the seats next to the others.
“Remus my boy!” James laughed sitting down opposite Remus who looked up from his toast.
“Oh hey, James.” Remus smiled at the other boy weakly.
Sirius who seemed to have finally woken up enough to register what was going on reached for a cup of coffee (James slapped his hand away from it but he drank it anyway), “Hey, why did you leave so early?”
“Oh, I just...I don’t know I woke up early and I didn’t want to disturb you guys.” Remus explained bashfully. “I told James I was leaving. He was already awake.”
“James, you too? When was this? Three o’clock in the morning?!” Sirius cried exasperatedly.
Lily rolled her eyes and leaned away to continue a conversation with the two-second years.
James rolled his eyes too, “No, it was six am. Look, what can I say? I’m a morning person.” He shrugged.
“Ugh.” Sirius pretended to gag and James laughed.
“Two morning people in one dorm? I don’t think I’ll be able to survive the year.” Sirius groaned.
“Oh no, I’m usually not a morning person.” Remus assured them, “I was just excited, that’s all.”
“Well, what about you Peter? Don’t tell me you’re a morning person.” Sirius turned towards Peter who just shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
“Whatever,” Sirius let out an exasperated sigh. “Disappointments. All of you.” Peter and Remus instantly blushed but James just laughed and ruffled his friend’s hair playfully.
“Oh no…” Sirius suddenly turned pale as he stared off into the distance. “Speaking of disappointment…”
With a swoosh, hundreds of owls flooded the great hall swooping in from above and dropping parcels, packages, newspapers, and letters on to the laps of the students.
“Delivery owls,” James said matter of factly. Then he laughed again, “What? Are you afraid of owls, Black?”
Sirius, his eyes still fixed in the distance didn’t laugh though, “No. I’m afraid of what the owl is delivering.”
“SIRIUS ORION BLACK!” The hall went dead silent as the shriek of Walpurga Black echoed throughout the room. Sirius quickly balled up the ripped, scarlet envelope and through it as far as he could, but his efforts were futile. At the Slytherin table, Narcissa Black was smirking to herself, while a few seats away from her, her sister, Andy, was biting her lip and scrunching her eyebrows in displeasure as if she knew what was happening and didn’t like it in the slightest. “HOW DARE YOU!? NEVER IN MY LIFE COULD I HAVE IMAGINED THE DISGRACE AND THE DISHONOR THAT YOU HAVE BROUGHT ON THIS FAMILY AND YOURSELF! GENERATIONS OF BLACKS HAVE BEEN SORTED INTO HOUSE OF SALAZAR SLYTHERIN AND NOW MY ELDEST SON, THE HEIR, HAS BEEN SORTED INTO THE HOUSE OF MUDBLOODS AND BLOOD TRAITORS! AS IF YOU WEREN'T DISAPPOINTING ENOUGH AS IT WAS! YOUR FATHER WILL HAVE A DISCUSSION WITH DUMBLEDORE! THIS WILL NOT BE THE LAST YOU HEAR OF THIS CONVERSATION!”
Peter jumped in his seat as the howler dissolved into a puff of smoke and fell onto the table as a pile of steaming, grey, ashes. The great hall was dead silent, everyone's attention focused on Sirius, who just sighed deeply, picked up his knife and fork, and started cutting up some pancakes that he carelessly scooped into his mouth as if he couldn't notice hundreds of pairs of eyes on him.
“These are pretty good.” He commented lightly, through a full mouth. All at once, the hall seemed to erupt back to its usual noise level having lost interest in the Black family drama. Stunned, Peter sat and watched his newly found friend in amazement. Next to him, he saw Remus observe Sirius in awe. His amber eyes, that seemed even more orange now than they had the day before, were wide and sparkling, his eyebrows were raised and his lips were in a small impressed smile as if Sirius Black was the single most fascinating thing he’s ever seen.
“That was pretty horrible, Black. I’m sorry you had to go through that.” The second year girl was the first person to speak. The boy next to her nodded, as they watched Sirius like he was a ticking bomb about to explode.
“It was fine, Alice,” Sirius answered as he continued eating, though Peter could see that the fork he was holding was trembling slightly. Suddenly two more letters were dropped on the table and Peter and James leaned forward immediately recognizing the handwriting from their mothers.
“Hey look!” Peter said excitedly as he picked up his and opened it, “my mum sent me this to congratul-- ow”
Peter felt a sharp kick in his leg and he looked up to see James glaring at him, shaking his head slightly and slipping his own letter in his pocket under the table. Confused Peter followed his lead and slowly started to put away his letter when he realized Sirius was watching him.
“It’s ok, Peter. You can read the letter from your mum; I won’t mind.”
Before Peter could answer James interrupted.
“Nah mate, it’s not important. We’ll read them later.”
Sirius shrugged nonchalantly but Peter could see a small smile on the other boy’s face and a glint of gratitude in his eyes as he nodded at James. The two second years, Alice and Frank, had long gone back to their conversations but Lily and Remus were watching the exchange in silence.
A few moments later a girl with black, curly, hair walked over to their seats handing out sheets of paper to everyone.
“What’s this, Marlene?” Lily asked as the other girl handed one to her.
“The first year Gryffindor time tables,” Marlene answered, handing one to Remus and then moving on to James, Sirius and Peter. James flipped his over in his hand and studied it for a moment before groaning.
“What?” Peter asked, flipping over his own one too.
“First thing’s potions with Slytherin.” He explained grimacing.
Sirius groaned, “Oh brilliant. Just brilliant.”
“Potions doesn’t sound so bad.” Said Marlene who was still standing behind them.
“Yeah, it’s not the potions I’m concerned about. It’s the Slytherins.” Sirius answered, turning around to face her.
Marlene just shrugged.
_ _ _ _
While Lily and Remus made their way to the potions classroom Lily thought about Sev. She couldn't wait until she could see him in class and they could finally talk. Properly talk, like they did during the summer. So that she could finally have that little bit of home again. While she did like Remus he was really quiet and every conversation she had with him was draining and uncomfortably one sided.
“Lily!” She heard from behind. Lily spun around in her chair to see Severus walk into the classroom, undoubtedly having spotted her red hair among the sea of students.
“Sev!” She yelled jumping up from her chair and running over to meet him and throwing her arms around him. He smiled but cleared his throat a little, softly pushing her away. She didn’t mind too much but she couldn’t help but notice his glance shift to the other Slytherins and how back at home he never minded how much she hugged him.
Severus had been her best friend since she could remember. Neither of them really had any other friends since Lily was a little bit of an outsider at her muggle school and Severus had been homeschooled since he was a small child. Lily couldn't keep the grin off of her face, as she felt relief cloud her head.
“I’m so happy to see you again!” She said as they walked back to the front of the classroom to her seat where she patted the desk to her left and he sat down.
“Yeah me too.” He said quietly, looking around nervously. Remus, who was on Lily’s right, leaned in closer awkwardly and smiled, “Uh, hey, Sev....um Severus.”
Sev looked over and nodded slightly but didn’t say anything, obviously still angry about the incident on the train. Lily smiled at Remus apologetically.
“Hello, first years! I am professor Slughorn." A man, with a large belly and an even larger smile strolled into the room beaming at all of the students.
Lily immediately sat up straighter.
"Are we excited about our first potions lesson?”
A few kids mumbled yes awkwardly.
“Fabulous!” He cried smiling broadly. “Today we will be brewing a cure for boils! Everybody please open your copy of “Book of Potions” By Zygmunt Budge and turn to page 6.”
A few minutes later the class sorted into groups of three. Lily, Severus, and Remus scooted their desks together and opened their books flipping to page 6.
“Alright,” Lily said looking down at the page, “Remus, can you get the dried nettles, snake fangs, and horned slugs? And Severus you can get the Pungous Onions, Flobberworm Mucus and I’ll get the Ginger root, Shrake spines, and knives.”
Once they had all returned with their ingredients Severus immediately got to work chopping up roots and crushing onions, while Remus hovered around silently watching.
“So how are you?” Lily asked her friend excitedly as she started stirring the potion in the cauldron which was turning bright orange.
“Fine,” Severus answered.
“Are you excited to be in Slytherin? Is it as good as you hoped?”
“It’s fine.”
She stopped for a moment and looked up at his face.
“Ok...well Gryffindor is fine too. I mean I’m sad you’re not there but,” she looked to her right and saw Remus tapping his hands together as he waited awkwardly, “I have Remus which is...nice.”
Severus looked up from his roots and stared at Remus again (he waved stiffly), his black eyes shining in distaste.
“Who are the people in your dorm?” Lily asked, “Are they nice?”
Severus set down his knife and stared at her, “Lily, did you ask the hat to put you in Gryffindor?” He asked suddenly.
“What?” She frowned, staring at him in surprise. “The sorting hat? No! Of course not. That’s not even possible.”
“Really? Because you sound awfully excited to be in a house full of useless idiots.” He waved his hand in Remus's direction.
Lily could feel her face go red.
“Hey, Lupin,” Severus said waving his hand in front of Remus’s face, who looked taken aback. “What? Have you really never made a potion before? Do you really need someone to tell you what to do? Don't you know how to read instructions?”
Remus didn’t have time to say anything before Severus thrust a spoon into his hand and pushed the Flobberworm mucus towards him.
“Sev calm down!” Lily shrieked. “Stop being so mean to Remus and stop being so angry at me! It’s not my fault we’re in different houses! You know I wanted to be with you. Honestly, I don’t understand all this fuss about the schoolhouses. Who cares where some dumb old hat puts us!?”
Severus went silent and Remus watched them, quietly measuring the amount of Flobberworm mucus he was supposed to add to the potion.
“Hey…” James Potter walked over to their table, “Peter accidentally dropped our Flobberwarm mucus on the ground, and I saw that you guys had some leftover...could I…?”
Lily turned around and saw James standing behind her his hand in his black hair and his glasses crooked. Remus looked between him and Lily and silently handed James the jar of mucus, who accepted it slowly his eyebrows raised.
“Is...everything ok?”
“Go away Potter,” Lily said.
“Is everything ok?” James persisted.
“They’re just having a little bit of an argument,” Remus muttered quietly.
"No we're not," Lily said.
“Shut it, Lupy,” Severus growled fiercely turning towards Remus.
“Hey!” James stepped forward. “Don’t tell him to shut it, you git.”
“Go away, Potter! Everything was fine until you showed up!” Lily said raising her voice slightly but not enough to draw attention to their scene.
“Sure, everything is fine except for the fact that he’s an insulting prat.” James protested pointing at Severus.
“What’s going on over here?” Professor Slughorn came blundering over to their table frowning slightly.
“Nothing.” Lily said immediately, “James just needed to borrow some of our ingredients.”
James paused then nodded and Severus after a moment of hesitation nodded too.
“Well in that case…” Professor Slughorn said backing away, though he didn’t look too sure of himself.
_ _ _ _
After class, while everyone was packing up their things to leave Severus stopped Lily on her way out. Remus paused by the door awkwardly and Lily flicked her hand in a small motion and mouthed, it’s ok you can go. Remus nodded and left the room, leaving Lily and Severus in the empty potions room by themselves.
“I’m really sorry Lily.” Severus started.
“I can’t believe you would think-!”
“I know...I am sorry.”
“I don’t even LIKE Gryffindor!”
“Wait what? You don’t?”
Lily thought she could detect a little bit of hope in Severus’s voice, and she turned towards him exasperated. “OF COURSE I DON’T SEVERUS YOU’RE MY BEST FRIEND AND I WANT TO SPEND TIME WITH YOU!”
“Oh.”
“You idiot!”
“...Sorry?”
Lily shook her head disbelievingly and gave a small laugh. “Well, are you still mad at me?”
“No! Of course not.”
“Good. Because I’m going to be late for charms.”
Lily picked up her books, “See you around Severus.”
"Ok..." Severus stood there dumbstruck, smiling to himself. Maybe he wouldn't lose her. Not yet.