Chapter 1: Going To School
Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Harry Potter or any of the characters from it. They belong to J.K. Rowling. The only character that belongs to me, is my OC, Tabitha Tate.
AN: I know some people don't like OC's paired with characters from the series, but I don't care. This fanfic is more for me than anyone else, because I can't stand that Snape didn't have someone that loved him as much as he loved them and I feel that he deserved to be treated well by at least one person who didn't have any reason to, other than simply wanting to and feeling it was right.
Tabitha grinned as she crossed into Platform nine and three-quarters, tugging lugging her trunk along behind her. Borris, her large, grey tomcat paced around in his carrier, agitated by the noise generated by the crowds of people on the platform.
"I really don't see how you can still get so bothered by the sounds around here." The fifteen year old dryly told her cat. Borris ignored her, swishing his tail unhappily as he continued to stalk about in his cage.
"Tabby, make sure to write to your father and I whenever you can." Her mother demanded, standing next to the girl's father. Tabitha was quite used to the demands her mother made each year before she got on the train.
"Yes, yes. I know. I also know to change my underwear every day, not to put Quidditch before my studies, and not to spend all my money on sweets when I go to Hogsmeade. I'm not a baby, mum. I'm a fifth year now." Tabitha sighed.
"I am aware that you aren't really a little kid anymore, but I'll always consider you my little baby girl." Her mother answered, pulling Tabitha in for a tight hug.
"Dad, can't you make mum cut it out?" Tabitha whined, getting embarrassed over how her mother treated her like a small child. Her father chuckled and gently pulled her mother away from her.
"Try to be patient with your mother, Tabby. She's just worried and doesn't want you to go away for such a long time. Neither of us do." Her father told her, ruffling her short blonde mane of curls affectionately.
"I know." Tabitha mumbled, running her fingers through her hair in a futile attempt to tame her unruly locks.
"I need to go board the train now or all the good seats will get taken." She told her parents. She quickly hugged them both and waved to them before she rushed to the train. She pulled her trunk behind her as speedily as she could while searching the compartments for any of her friends. She really didn't want to get stuck sitting with any strangers.
Tabitha smiled brightly when she opened the door to one compartment, seeing a very familiar person with long, black hair lankly curtaining a face that had its hawk-like nose buried in a book about the dark arts. He straightened his tall frame from the hunched position he had been in as he looked to see who had opened the door. He frowned at Tabitha, obviously not appreciating her intrusion. Black met green as she looked him in the eyes, still smiling cheerfully.
"Hello there, Severus!" Tabitha enthusiastically greeted. He said nothing and arched one brow elegantly, showing silent impatience towards her enthusiasm.
"Did you get any of my letters during break? I tried to owl you at least once a week." She questioned, looking a bit put out about him not owling back once. She knew that other than when Lily hung out with him, his summers had to be quite lonely.
"Yes. That owl wouldn't let me ignore him and leave until I took the letters. It was lucky my father didn't strangle it, Ms. Tate." Severus replied.
"Oh. I'm sorry that he was such a nuisance." Tabitha sighed, knowing that he didn't care to reciprocate the friendship she had tried to show him ever since their first year at Hogwarts, but wishing he'd at least show a bit of appreciation for her efforts. She also knew that the only actual friend he seemed to want was Lily Evans. She was quite jealous about this, but didn't hold it against Lily or Severus. She didn't think she had any right to hold it against them, seeing as she was friends with Lily and was best mates with Severus's school tormentors.
Severus gave a small nod, returning his eyes to his book. Tabitha frowned a little, refusing to be dismissed by him so quickly.
"You are aware that you can call by my first name, right? You could even call me Tabby, if you'd like. All of my friends do." She informed him, smiling lightly.
"If you don't mind, Ms. Tate, I would like to get back to my book and your incessant chattering is making it near impossible to concentrate." Snape sneered. Tabitha huffed quietly and puffed her cheeks out in indignation. She looked out of the window and didn't say anything, not wanting to annoy the unfriendly Slytherin more than she already had.
Severus glanced at Tabitha curiously after a few minutes, wondering why the strange Gryffindor insisted on staying in his presence rather than going off to find Potter and his merry band of fools. He didn't particularly mind having Tabitha around. He would even go so far as admitting to himself that her childish antics and flare for the dramatics could be quite amusing at times. Not that he'd ever admit that to anyone else though. He looked back at his book, knowing it was only a matter of time before she would start talking again.
Tabitha's eyes slowly turned towards Severus again. She didn't know why she was so intrigued by him the way she was. He wasn't traditionally handsome at all and he wasn't very nice to her usually. She had seen how he was with Lily, which proved that the normally cold and distant boy could be kind and even sweet. She just wished that he would be like that towards her. She watched him read for a few minutes, unaware that she was staring conspicuously.
"What is it, Tate?" Severus asked, annoyance lacing his tone. Tabitha jumped and giggled a bit, startled by his talking. Even with his unreadably calm expression and irritated tone, she was well-aware that she had made him nervous. She had watched him often enough over the years to be able to read him better than most, in her opinion.
"Nothing." She told him, flashing a bright smile at him. She had realized fairly swiftly after she had met him that he was an extremely self-conscious person with an unbelievably low self-esteem under the cold and uncaring mask he kept up pretty much all the time.
"I highly doubt that you're dunderheaded enough to stare at someone without any reason." Snape replied, catching her lie before it had even left her mouth.
"Really? You think that?" Tabitha asked excitedly, feeling very flattered. That had practically been a compliment about her intelligence from Severus, in her opinion. He lifted a brow at her strange behavior to what he felt was simply a fact. She was smiling quite happily at him, forgetting about explaining why she had been staring. It was then that the door to the compartment slid open, allowing James Potter and Sirius Black to look into the compartment.
"I knew we'd find you in her with Snivillus, Tabby." James announced, grinning at the short, blonde witch.
"Yeah. We came to rescue you from old Snivelly, Tabby Cat." Sirius added, glaring Severus before grinning at Tabitha.
"Be nice to Severus, you guys! And don't call me that, Padfoot! It makes me feel like I'm Professor McGonnagal." She reprimanded, hopping up from her seat.
"Be nice," Sirius started, "To Snivillus?" James finished, both of them looking at each other as if she had asked them to do something completely insane.
"Yes. Severus hasn't done anything to you guys or done anything wrong. I don't understand why you guys hate him so much." Tabitha huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.
"He didn't have to do anything to make us hate him. It's pretty much the fact that he exists that bothers us so much." Sirius explained, James nodding in agreement. Tabitha glared at the two, wondering how she had come to be best friends with them.
"Come on, Tabby. Come sit with us, Moony, and Wormtail." James requested, doing his best to look innocent. She sighed and rolled her eyes, knowing that she would inevitably give in.
"I'll see you at school, Severus." Tabitha said, looking quite reluctant to go. Before Snape could figure out what the girl would do, she had wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. She smiled as his body stiffened at the unexpected touch, aware that he wasn't used to receiving affection.
"No matter what, I'll make you appreciate my friendship with you." She whispered to him. She pressed a quick kiss to the area between his eyes and toddled off after the two tall Gryffindor boys who were making loud gagging sounds. She simply giggled, having seen a blush cover Snape's face. She thought that Severus would probably be a bit shorter tempered with her for a few days, but she thought that it was well worth it.
Tabitha followed James and Sirius to the compartment that the Marauders had chosen. She smiled at Remus and Peter, glad to see them. She sat next to the tall, sandy-haired werewolf, listening to James as he recounted the "dangerous"mission he and Sirius had undertaken to "rescue her from Snivillus and his greasiness."
"Oh, for the love of Merlin! Will you just shut-up about Severus?" She asked, becoming very irked. Lupin managed to keep a straight face at the outburst. Peter simply looked shocked. Sirius and James, on the other hand, wrapped their arms around each other and pretended to cry in fear into each other's shoulder at the short female's irascibility. Tabitha rolled her eyes at her friends' antics.
"My trunk is still in Severus's compartment. Are you quite sure that I can't just go back back to sitting there?" She asked, not sure if she wanted to hang around if James and Sirius planned to continue their current behavior.
"We're positive about that, Tabby Cat." Sirius answered before sending Peter off to collect the witch's trunk. Tabitha put her legs up so that they were resting on her friends' legs. She rested her back against the cool window and closed her eyes, intending to take a nap. She slept for a few hours, only waking when Remus had shaken her, informing her that should go change into her school clothes. Tabitha dug her school clothes out of her trunk before she left the compartment to change into the in the girls' room.
After she had changed, she started to walk back to the compartment she had been sharing with her friends. She noticed Lily leaving a certain black-haired Slytherin's compartment, returning to a different compartment that contained some other Gryffindor girls who were giggling and gossiping like they usually were. Tabitha wondered why Lily hadn't sat with Severus throughout the entire train ride. The red-headed girl seemed to become more and more distant toward Snape with each passing school year, but had still still sat with Severus on the train-ride to school every year before this. She frowned a little and started walking to her compartment again. When she got there, she sat down between Sirius and James. Of course, she'd had to squeeze her way between them, seeing as they were completely enthralled in the conversation they were having with each other about Quidditch.
Soon enough, the Hogwarts Express came to a halt. Tabitha hurried after her friends as they got off of the train, looking around at the carriages that seemed to pull themselves. She pondered on whether or not James would succeed this year in talking Lily into sharing a carriage with him and the other Marauders. She also wanted to make sure that Severus didn't end up on one all alone.
"Potter, how many times must I tell you to leave me alone before it will get through your thick head?" Tabitha heard Lily loudly ask in irritation. She giggled, guessing that meant that James had failed yet again. She knew that he had hoped his new position of head boy would impress Lily and get her to spend more time with him, seeing as she was head girl. She spotted Snape's hunched shoulders in a carriage with some other Slytherins. She recognized them immediately as Regulus black; Sirius's younger brother, Avery, and Mulciber. She found her Marauder friends and joined them in their carriage, somewhat disappointed that she hadn't been able to sit with Severus.
"I'm guessing that Lily still hates your guts?" Tabitha inquired, looking at James bemusedly.
"I'll definitely win her heart this year. Just wait and see." James confidently answered. The short blonde rolled her eyes, finding it unreal how James could still have such a gigantic ego after being rejected by Lily constantly all throughout their years at Hogwarts.
"You say that every year, but just keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better, Prongs." Sirius teased, grinning at his friend.
"With my looks and charms, it'll only be a matter of time." James said, explaining his logic. Tabitha laughed lightly as James and Sirius continued their banter, enjoying the company of her friends as they rode in the carriage towards the school, unaware of how her life would change there this year.