A/N: Hello hello. I'm back! It's been over two years since my last fic (crazy, right?) and I'm heading somewhere a little different. New pairing as well as a new generation…or the old generation, I guess. Anyway, read on.
Disclaimer: I owe all of this to J.K. Rowling and her incomparable imagination. I wish I were half as talented as she is.
One
A slow, lazy grin spread across Sirius Black's young, attractive face. His hair was really too long to be practical, but practicality was rarely something Sirius considered. Strike that. Practicality was never something Sirius considered. He was reckless and rich, not to mention clever and handsome. If he couldn't get something using his brain, he utilised sex appeal and daring, and if all else failed, he had piles of gold sitting in a Gringotts vault.
He was the sort of person that oozed charm and charisma, and people gravitated to him. How could they not? His laugh was infectious, lighting up his otherwise arrogant face, making his grey eyes dance. He could talk his way out of any sticky situation, and turn it into an amusing anecdote. He was popular.
How Severus Snape detested that word. It carried so much weight. Friends, money, status: in other words, an easy life. Black need only wink and have the undivided attention of every female in a twenty-foot radius. He just had to casually flick his hair out of his eyes and grin apologetically at a professor and he was granted a pardon.
If Severus were to wink, it would be generally assumed he was having a muscle spasm. His hair didn't possess the ability to flick, even at its cleanest. He didn't remember how to grin. He doubted he'd ever known how. What did he have to grin about? Ugly and poor, lonely and miserable people didn't smile. His father was a drunk and his mother…his mother was the most intelligent woman he knew, and the most stupid. Eileen and Tobias Snape were two people who ought to have never gotten married, let alone reproduced. Orion and Walburga Black were probably equally miserable, but at least their misery came with wealth and Pureblood status.
It was not easy for Severus, being a poor half-blood in a house full of rich, Pureblooded Slytherins. But six years ago to the day he had begged the Sorting Hat to place him in Slytherin, and he would live with that choice. Slytherins had everything Severus didn't, everything he coveted. He was determined to be one of them, knowing one day it would take him places.
"Oh, look," Sirius sneered, "It's Snivellus."
Potter, Lupin, and pathetic Pettigrew looked at him through the glass window of their compartment. There was a shiny Prefect badge on Lupin's shabby robes. He'd forgotten Dumbledore had named the spineless Lupin a Prefect. Severus had spent a rather pleasant (or as pleasant as could be, in Spinner's End) summer away from the Marauders, as they so childishly named themselves.
In fact, he hadn't seen them since the afternoon following the Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. the previous May, the afternoon when his hatred for James Potter had grown exponentially; the afternoon when he lost his best friend forever.
Severus did not linger outside their compartment. He knew better than that. He didn't need to stand here in the middle of the corridor, completely unprotected. If they wanted to attack him, he would at least surround himself with Slytherins first.
Severus found Avery, Mulciber, Macnair and Regulus Black a few compartments up the corridor. He was not particularly close with any of his housemates, but they knew he was intelligent so they let him hang around.
They were speaking in whispers and fell silent when he entered.
"Severus," Avery acknowledged him with a nod. "Have you spoken with Lucius recently?" Avery leaned forward in his seat as Severus settled into the one opposite him.
"Of course." Lucius had been a seventh year during Severus' first. He was like the older brother Severus didn't have. They were actually distantly related, a Prince had married a Malfoy fifty years previous. Severus dark eyes darted toward Regulus Black. He was a year below them. "What's he doing here?"
"Relax, Severus." Mulciber chuckled, "Reg is fine. Not at all like his brother."
"I find that difficult to believe."
"If I were like my brother, I would have hexed you already." Reg's eyes narrowed.
Severus chose to ignore this comment.
"Anyway," Mulciber said quickly, "Lucius is going to be at Hogwarts next week. He wants to meet with us."
"I know," Severus glared at the sandy-haired boy. Mulciber had large, round eyes and a somewhat lopsided face. All of the features on the left side appeared to be higher than on the right. It was rather unnerving to look at him for very long, but Severus managed.
"Reg doesn't."
"Perhaps that is for the best."
"That's not your decision, Snape." Walden Macnair spoke for the first time. His clear blue eyes bored into Severus' face until the younger boy was forced to look away. Macnair was a seventh year and he always used the small age difference to his advantage.
Avery and Mulciber shifted uncomfortably in their seats and Reg glanced out the window at the passing countryside. None of them wanted to admit how much they disliked Macnair. He was a skilled intimidator and he got off on making everyone around him feel inferior.
Mulciber was generally good at mediating disagreements, but he didn't dare cross Macnair. And Avery was a malleable, pathetic flobberworm that clung to the most powerful wizard in the room. He would be a good fit for this particular recruitment.
A flash of auburn in his peripheral vision caught Severus' attention. He turned his head, but it wasn't Lily, just the friendly witch with the food trolley.
"Anything from the trolley, dears?"
Sirius, James and Peter immediately began digging into their pockets. Remus remained still.
"Nothing for you, Moony?" Sirius frowned. "I can loan you—
"It's not the money," Remus shook his head. He looked rather ill.
"Getting to be that time of the month," James guessed.
"You know it is. Like you haven't already planned what we're doing this month, Prongs."
Peter squealed in delight, "What are we doing?"
"Calm down, Wormy. Don't wet yourself." Sirius rolled his eyes at James. "You know we can't talk about it here."
Lily Evans appeared in the doorway of the compartment, a cheerful smile on her face and a shiny Prefect badge pinned to her robes. Rather than messing his hair the way he usually did, James hand jumped in a futile attempt to flatten it.
"Hi, Remus," Lily said, pointedly ignoring Sirius and James, "How was your summer?"
"Oh," Remus looked surprised at being addressed by Lily, and glanced at James as if asking permission to answer. "It was all right. Yours?"
"My summer was lovely, thank you. Shall we walk up to the Prefect's meeting together?"
"Erm, okay."
James glared at Remus as he followed Lily out of the compartment, and Severus glared at them as they walked past in the corridor. It was rare Severus Snape and James Potter ever felt the same sentiment at the same time.
"Oh relax, Prongs." Sirius grinned. "D'you really want to be a Prefect," Sirius spat the word derisively, "to get in her knickers?"
James flung a Pumpkin Pasty at Sirius, hitting him squarely in the chest. Sirius shrugged and unwrapped the pasty, taking a bite with a grin.
"Thanks. My favourite." He said, with his mouth full.
"You're such a prick." James snapped. "You know it's more than that."
"He's in love with her." Peter said earnestly.
"Thank you for that clarification, Wormtail," Sirius said sarcastically, "but I don't think he has any business being in love with her. She's a snob—
"She is not!" James protested.
"She is. Not to mention she was friendly with Snivellus. So she's definitely touched in the head too."
James glowered at Sirius, before opening a Chocolate Frog and biting off its head viciously.
"How do you manage to shag so many girls? They should hate you." James said, swallowing the frog's head.
"Obviously not," Sirius grinned and flipped his hair out of his eyes. Harmony Greengrass, a Ravenclaw, was walking by the compartment at that moment and sent him her best come-hither look.
"Bloody hell." James muttered.
"If you'll excuse me, gentlemen," Sirius smirked.
Sirius slung his arm around Harmony's shoulders and they walked toward the loos at the back of the train. They passed his idiot brother sitting in a compartment with Snivellus. Regulus narrowed his eyes as he passed and Sirius knew his mother would know about his Hogwarts Express hook-up by the next morning.
Snape's onyx eyes shot him a look that was pure hatred and Sirius actually had to repress a shiver. He'd never admit it, but he suspected Snape could be truly terrifying if he tried. Not that it changed the fact he was still a greasy git with an overlarge nose and a penchant for sticking it in the wrong places.
A/N: Review, please.
Preview for Chapter Two: In which Sirius and Severus get themselves into trouble.