The First Feast
Severus had never seen so much food in his entire life. Even the meager grocery shop down the street (where he'd nicked more than a couple loaves of bread when there was no money and his stomach has won out over his sense of morality), offered a pittance in comparison.
He ate as slowly as he dared, hiding bits of food in his napkin when he felt no eyes on him. Oddly enough, he had barely any appetite, though he gorged himself anyway. Lucius Malfoy had known his name! Severus had swelled with pride at that. Pure-blooded families stuck together, even disgraced Pure-blooded families, it seemed. Probably due to how few offspring there were.
He knew at once that his mother had called in a favor. Abraxas Malfoy, who his mother had spoken about in reverent tones, had come through. But first thing first.
Food.
As much of it as he could carry back to his dorm room without being spotted. Severus had already managed a halfway serviceable Stasis Charm earlier that evening while practicing spells with Lily. They would show Hogwarts who the best first year students would be. He was certain that Lily, with her knack for instinctive magic, would be a natural at charms. She practically breathed magic. Severus' magic, however, was always so reactive- only when he'd been provoked to the breaking point, which sadly never took long. The first time he'd tried the Stasis Charm, he'd burnt his subject (a discarded crisp) to ash. However, with enough control over his emotions, he was able to get it to levitate in the Stasis Bubble quite well indeed.
Severus was glad that he'd set aside part of his trunk to be a pantry.
He'd read about the feasts at Hogwarts, of course. He'd dreamed of them while sitting on the roof and looking at the stars in the summer, his father thundering with drunken rage in the house below. He'd imagined the flavors he'd sample when he'd forced himself to shove something putrid and boiled down his throat without any sauce to mask the earthy flavor of rot. He'd seen pictures on the front page of the Prophet, the one that his father did not know his mother had a lifetime subscription for, as she burned them in the stove as soon as both she and Severus had read them.
But now, under the guise of wiping his mouth on his napkin, Severus instead ferreted away plenty of food, folding the napkin into his pockets (his mother had done the Undetectable Extension Charm work on them), and strode off to his dorm, hoping to get there before anything got too mashed up.
He did not see the outstretched foot on the ground.
Severus fell on his face, instantly feeling the wetness of various pilfered food items staining through his robes into his underthings.
"Hahahaha, looks like you're already off to a terrible start as a wizard, Snivellus!" shouted the boy with the crazy black hair and Gryffindor robes- a boy who Severus recognized from the train.
His looks were unmistakably Pure-blooded- his thick, regal hair and nose were obviously inherited from the Black family, so he must be the black sheep of the family with some star name or other, as the Blacks were wont to do. Another Gryffindor boy, who had flat, black hair, but who was apparently halfway through the motion of trying to ruffle it up in a messy-looking manner, joined in laughing, and Severus soon felt his face go scarlet with shame. He looked up to see that Lucius was looking back at him, his mouth half-curled into a sneer. Severus could see his status going up in smoke after less than a day.
His mother was going to be so disappointed in him.
He turned back to the jeering Gryffindors, his fury pouring from him in waves, and pointed his wand.
"STUPEFY!" he shouted, and both of the boys flew back so quickly that they slammed against the far wall and stuck there. Severus stood with his legs spread out and his head bent forward. He breathed in slowly as he the pounding in his chest slowing once more.
A hand rested on his shoulder and Severus looked up through greasy strands of hair at the handsome seventh year Slytherin.
"Impressive," Lucius said, his proud face still filled with mild surprise, "My father was right, you are one to look out for. As for you two….ten points from Gryffindor…each. I daresay that Gryffindor is starting out at a negative this year."
With a chuckle, Lucius turned and let Severus catch up to him.
"My…robes," Severus mumbled, still feeling a bit of humiliation as the mess dripped coldly down his leg.
"Do not worry," Lucius said, waving his hand dismissively. "Use the House Elves. When you get back to your room, just call for Hogwarts House Elf Room Service, then tell them what you want. They also deliver midnight snacks if you find yourself peckish, though don't overuse them or you'll get scolded by the professors. Not Slughorn, though. He'll just take some of it if he catches you."
Severus knew he was staring with his mouth agape, but Lucius seemed amused by this.
"You're rather skinny, Snape," he said with a soft chuckle that sounded undeniably cultured. "I should hope you take ample advantage."
Severus smiled, then, and he could feel the joy growing in his heart, even if it was small and tentative and he did not know if it would last. He would have food whenever he wished, and he had successfully convinced Malfoy that he was worth mentoring. Plus, it didn't hurt that those two Gryffindors were still stuck to the wall, their respective pride more bruised than anything else.
Severus devoured an entire hot fudge sundae before going to bed (even though it gave him a bout of indigestion), his eyes only opening halfway through the night when a House Elf popped into the room with his clean and pressed school robes hanging on a cedar hanger. Severus smiled as he drifted back to sleep.
Oh yes, Slytherin truly was the best House after all.