Disclaimer: JKR owns everything, including my soul.
As it begins...
He doesn't understand what all the excitement is about. The students around him seem to be breathing electrified air. Their hearts seem to be galloping and leaping to barge into the great hall as soon the door opens. The tight-lipped, stern eyed professor with the taught bun who had led them to the doors is now speaking to them. She is the head of Gryffindor, the murmurs and whispers inform him. He decides her words aren't worth his time. Beside him, Lily Evans is standing rigid with attention. Her green eyes are fixated on the older woman. Her red hair Is tied in a neat pony tail, and her uniform is spotless and without any creases. She is a sharp contrast to his greasy hair, his old and tattered robes, and the frown he wore on his face.
Looking at her, he remembers all the reasons why he has been just as excited as the others around him to begin school. He befriended her about ten months ago, when he saw her perform accidental magic, back in a small neighborhood park in Cokeworth. Her laugh had drawn him to her, it was so innocent, and so full of mirth. She was too good to be brought up around muggles. He introduced her to the wizarding world and she introduced him to a world of kindness and affection. Her parents invited him for meals at home, and she gave him a card for his birthday. She wiped his tears the day his father beat him up, and she called him her best friend, the day her sister stopped speaking to her. Lily Evans' friendship was a plate of food to a boy who had been starving all his life; And The Hogwarts Express was the tunnel he used to escape an abusive home.
The sorting begins, and Severus prays to all the Gods he knows of, that Lily be in Slytherin. The minute Sirius Black marches to the Gryffindor table, he puts his own name in his prayers as well.
"Evans, Lily", Professor Mcgonagall, the lady who had escorted them, calls the seventh name out. Lily throws a nervous glance his way, and walks up to the chair placed at the front of the hall. Her round cheeks are flushed crimson with anxiety. The hat barely touches her head before bellowing "Gryffindor!"
Severus feels his heart sink. His fantasies of how his school years would be are already shattering. She smiles with joy, and her face glows when she hears the cheers of her new housemates, but when her eyes fall on him, she looks almost apologetic. He looks almost resentful.
Everyone at her table is chatting her up, but she keeps turning every now and then to catch his eye and send him a small smile. He lets himself hope that they may still make it.
By the time dinner is served, he mentally drags himself to make conversation with people at his own table. But he cannot keep his mind off the fact that Lily's conversations don't seem to be a drag at all. She is amicably speaking to a blond girl he recalls as Marlene McKinnon and a shabby looking boy with scars on his face. Another first year with a mop of messy black hair and rectangular spectacles pulls her pony tail and ruffles her hair. She playfully bats his hand away. The boy has an arrogant smirk on his face, and Lily rolls her eyes at him.
It was more interesting to look at her, than to listen to the bickering of his fellow Slytherins. Lucius Malfoy, a third year boy rambles about the uncouth nature of Muggleborns, while Bellatrix Black can't stop complaining about how her cousin Sirius would bring shame to the noble name of Black. Her sister Narcissa, who was also a first year, simply nods in vigorous agreement.
The Gryffindors happily enjoy their chocolate pudding , oblivious to all pessimism, and Severus still doesn't understand what the excitement is all about.
