Chapter 1: Back To School.
Severus Snape crawled out from under his grey, bland duvet, off his grey, bland bed, onto his grey, bland floorboards, into his grey, bland bathroom.
He straightened up, staring at himself in the mirror. His greasy, long black hair brushed his shoulders.
"Time for a shower," He muttered, turning his back on his reflection.
James Potter threw the covers off his bright, bold bed, sprang out onto the carpet of his bright, bold bedroom, and dashed into his bright, bold bathroom.
He checked himself out in the mirror. His wild black hair, uncontrollable as always, stuck out every which-way, making James (or so he thought) look as if he had just jumped off a broom.
"Looking good, Potter." He grinned at himself, and then leapt into the shower, excited about the day ahead.
"Severus, over here!" Severus jumped, his head snapping up as his name was called across the crowded platform. His only friend, Tom Saffron, was waving at him a few metres away.
Severus slouched over to him, avoiding the many feet that were moving in his direction, attempting to trip him up.
"Hey Sev," Tom greeted him, grinning.
"Hello, Tom." Severus tried to smile back, but his mind was not concentrating on socialising (it rarely was, after all, there was no immediate need for it in Severus Snape's life) and the 'smile' barely moved his lips.
"How are you, Sev? You're a bit distant, and you're usually just as excited as I am about going back to Hogwarts." Tom punched his moody
"Erm… yeah, lets go find an empty compartment. I wouldn't mind sitting down."
James Potter strutted onto Platform 9 ¾, glad that he was finally coming back to Hogwarts, after a long, boring summer without any of his friends.
He turned. "Sirius Black, get your arse in here right NOW!" He commanded, glaring at the magical barrier.
As if James could be heard through the enchanted wall, Sirius appeared almost immediately.
"You called, James?" Sirius enquired, a glint in his eye.
The two friends turned and bowed to the waiting gaggle of giggling girls.
These girls spontaneously burst into cheers, laughter, whoops, and appreciative clapping. They weren't really impressed by the trick, just the fact that it was Sirius Black and James Potter.
"Ah, how you two love to be cheered! I've missed it." James and Sirius turned. One of their fellow Gryffindors, Frank Longbottom, was smiling at them, having just come through the barrier. "What is the fan club supporting now, anyway?"
Sirius grinned back at him. He opened his mouth to explain his and James' perfectly planned start of term trick, but he was interrupted by yet another voice behind them.
"Frank, I think that it would be safe to assume that they have just pulled off yet another of their ridiculous tricks, solely to impress these ladies here, and therefore ensuring an immediate boost to their already blown-up egos, just as term starts."
The boys span around again. Remus Lupin, one of their best friends, was winking at them.
"Hello, Sirius, James, Frank."
"Moony!" James and Sirius roared simultaneously, launching themselves at him. "We were just about to look for you!" Sirius explained. "Yeah," continued James, "Straight after greeting these," here he turned to the girls, who were still gazing at them, "Lovely ladies!" James flashed one of his 'famous Potter grins'.
Frank, at the back of the group, could have sworn that he saw a few of the younger girls, (who were less used to James' smiles) faint.
On the train, Severus and Tom soon found an empty compartment. "Right," Tom checked his watch, settling into a seat, "We've got about ten minutes until the train leaves. What do you want to…" Tom stopped, noticing that Severus had slumped in a seat and was furiously scribbling away in his potions book.
"… Weird." Tom thought, and then decided to occupy himself with solitaire exploding snap until Sev had snapped out of it.
Severus, meanwhile, was far away from the train journey. Usually he would be as excited as Tom was about the first day back (mainly because he was being freed from his house, and anywhere was better than there), but this time he was excited about something else. All summer, he had been working feverishly in his room. He had barely seen the sun, his mother had been worried sick, and he had lost weight as a result of missing meals. He hadn't cared.
Severus had been 'inventing' in his room all summer… inventing the perfect revenge.
For James Potter.
"And then, she fell into the pond. Whenever she finally got out, she was completely soaked, and covered in green pond weed!"
The packed train compartment filled with laughter, as Sirius finished telling his tales of the summer, during which he had been forced to stay with his cousins' country mansion by his parents. He received a lot of sympathy from fellow Gryffindors concerning this, yet Sirius insisted that it had been worth it, because of the great opportunities it had given him to play pranks on his cousins, Bellatrix and Narcissa.
"God, I can barely breathe in here, it's so cramped!" James, having laughed appreciatively at Sirius' story, had realised how full the compartment was. People were sitting on knees, the floor, and in some cases, the luggage rack (Frank Longbottom didn't seem to mind, his long-term crush - a girl called Alice with a pretty, round face and strawberry-blonde hair - had chosen his knee as her preferred place.)! However, James was getting claustrophobic.
"Moony, isn't it time for the prefects rounds?" James desperately tried to think of ways that would alleviate the head count in the compartment a little.
"Oh! Yeah, Prongs, you're right. Frank, d'you wanna come?" Rebus stood and looked at Frank, who seemed putout at the prospect of having to leave Alice.
"Hey, guys, can I come with you?" Alice stood, taking Frank's hand in hers and pulling him slightly.
"Err… yeah, okay, Alice!" Frank's face changed and he looked surprised, but extremely pleased with himself.
Lily Evans, who had been playing a game of wizard chess with Peter Pettigrew, (her queen was just after thrashing his king) leapt up. "Oh crap! I forgot, I'm a prefect now." Lily looked glum at the thought.
It was James' turn to look putout now, "C'mon, Evans, Frank can do your bit for you, he's not a prefect, but it doesn't really matter, does it?"
Lily shot James a look of pure ice. "Sorry, Potter, but I'd rather that I did my own duty, thank you very much."
"Shit!" Tom jumped up, having glanced at his watch after finishing off his tenth game of exploding snap, "C'mon, Sev, you told me that you had prefect duties, right?"
Severus looked up, startled. He hadn't torn his eyes from his potions book since the train had started moving.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot." He placed his potions book safely in his trunk, locked it with a wave of his wand, and moved towards the door. Then he remembered that he had ignored Tom for the entire journey, and felt one of his rare pangs of remorse. "Tom, you can come too, if you want." He was sure that his friend would be annoyed at his neglect.
"Oh, well I've got plans, Sev… Poppy wants me to meet her in the corridor in…" Tom glanced at his watch again, "Shit. Five minutes ago."
"Oh! Okay, well you better get going then, and I'll see you later." Severus wasn't surprised as Tom had been going out with Poppy for nearly two years, and he knew that he hated being away from her during the summer. Tom rushed out into the corridor, searching for Poppy along the train.
Severus sighed. Being a prefect meant that he would have to share his duties. Share them with another Slytherin. It didn't sound too bad, but to Severus Snape it was a nightmare. He and Tom were 'the outcasts' of their house. They sat alone in the Great Hall, in the common room, in the library. The Slytherins disliked Tom because he was 'too nice' and he was going out with a 'mud-blood' from Ravenclaw, the ultimate crime in the eyes of the stuck-up Slytherins (they preferred to 'in-breed' as Tom spitefully put it). Severus sometimes wondered how Tom had gotten into Slytherin, and why he wasn't in any of the other houses (he had plenty of friends in Ravenclaw, thanks to his relationship with Poppy) but here Tom was, stuck in a house that hated his guts.
Severus didn't really know why his housemates loathed him. Maybe he was too 'slimy', as that complete asshole James Potter and his stupid groupies put it, or maybe…
Severus moved down the corridor to report to the prefects' compartment. He'd always been an outcast, and Hogwarts wasn't an exception.
James watched Lily Evans leave, exasperated at the damn prefect duties. "Why did she have to bloody well go too?" he exclaimed furiously. "I haven't talked to her all day!"
"Sorry, James, but maybe she didn't really want to talk to you." Lily's best friend, Leia, detached herself from Sirius' mouth to answer James' question. "And she does have to report to the prefects' compartment in person."
"Humph." James sulked in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest, and glaring at Leia and Sirius, who had resumed their snog fest right in front of him.
"Hey James, do you want to play chess?" James was startled. He had forgotten that Peter was there. Peter's chess pieces were scattered cross the compartment floor, cowering under the seats (Lily's chess playing often had this effect on her opponent's pieces).
"Sure, Pete. Set it up for me."
Severus reached the prefects' compartment five minutes late, but he was sure that no one would have missed him.
He was wrong.
As he entered the compartment, he was greeted with a series of groans and scornful whispers. He trudged over to the Slytherin sign in sheet, and stopped, staring at his fellow prefect.
Bellatrix Black.
"You're late, Snape." She growled, glaring at him and tapping her foot impatiently on the floor.
"Oh, sorry, I……… yeah." Severus finished lamely. He'd fancied Bellatrix since third year. He wasn't quite sure whether this pairing was a stroke of good or bad luck.
Bellatrix rolled her eyes.
"Just sign the sheet, Snape."
"Great," he thought, "Now she hates me, too."
He signed the sheet, then looked over at Bellatrix again. "So, what are we supposed to do now?"
She sighed. "If you'd been here five minutes ago, you would have heard for yourself that we have to patrol a rota of corridors for half an hour, check that there's no fights, blockages or loiterers, and basically be bored out of our minds." She smiled. "Come on, then, we better get going."
Severus smiled back. Maybe this year, life wouldn't be so bad.
Lily, Remus, Frank and Alice strolled down the corridors, after Lily and Remus signing in at the prefects' compartment.
"Hey, you two, do you mind if we leave you here?" Frank and Alice had stopped just past an empty compartment.
Lily grinned. She turned to Remus, who smirked back at her.
"Well, as long as you don't cause any blockages in the corridors, then I'm sure that we can trust you to be left on your own." Remus smirked at the two.
"Thanks, mate." Frank grinned, grabbed Alice's hand, and led her in through the door of the compartment.
Lily and Remus sniggered. "Oh my God! Alice's fancied him for I don't know how long!"
Remus choked on his pumpkin juice, which he had been drinking from a pocket flask. "Seriously? Frank's always thought that she ignored him!"
Lily laughed. "Yeah, she's been too shy to really speak to him because the first few times she tried, she turned bright red and gained a stutter."
Remus smirked again.
"Funny, isn't it?"
They continued down the corridors in silence, laughing inwardly at Alice and Frank's antics.
Lily had always enjoyed Remus Lupin's company. She'd even had a crush on him in fourth year, but that had quickly passed. Even though Lily Evans had nearly every boy in Hogwarts wrapped around her little finger, she had never found anyone she could have a serious relationship with.
"God, Lily," she thought, "How sad do you sound? You need a man, girl."
She smiled to herself as they rounded a corner, and bumped into Poppy McCormack and Tom Saffron, who were glued together at the mouth.
"Hey, you guys, get a room!" Lily smiled at Poppy, "Sorry, but you're not allowed to loiter in the corridors."
Tom and Poppy flushed. "Hey, Poppy, my compartment probably still empty…" Tom said, smiling at his girlfriend.
"Great!" Poppy grinned back, "Bye, Lily, Bye Remus!" They sped off in the direction of Tom's empty compartment.
Lily stuck her finger in her mouth in an act of disgust as soon as they were out of sight.
"Remus?"
"Lily?"
"Has the calendar suddenly changed, and Valentine's Day is now taking place on the first of September?"
"Hmmm, possible, that is a good theory Miss Evans!"
They laughed and carried on with their rounds.
On the other side of the train, speeding through the Scottish countryside, Severus Snape and Bellatrix Black were patrolling their section of the Hogwarts Express. Severus was getting to know Bellatrix, slowly.
"So, you live in a mansion in the Yorkshire moors, but you hate it?" He asked her, a bit confused by her constant complaints about her home and family.
"Basically. My sister gets on my nerves. She's two years older than me and going out with that absolute asshole, Lucius Malfoy, do you remember him? He left the year before we started Hogwarts, I think. He's disgusting, all slimy, if you know what I mean, and you should see the way he sucks up to my parents!" Bellatrix spat out, "But, what about you? You haven't said much about yourself."
"Erm, well, there's not much to say, I guess." Severus stared at his shoes and dragged them across the carpet. "I live in London with my psychotic, alcoholic dad, and my mum who works in the ministry. We have hardly any money, I'm an only child, and… well, let's just say that my house is not a happy one." Severus stopped, and saw Bellatrix staring at him, gob smacked. "What?" he demanded, defensively.
"All of us, y'know, my group of friends, think that you're just a snob, and that's why you never talk to any of us. There's loads of rumours going round about you being the minister for magic's nephew and filthy rich, and you think that we're all too 'low' for you!"
Now it was his turn to stare. "What!" He exclaimed, loudly, scaring a few passing second years. "I don't talk to other people because they never talk to me. I just assumed that… that they all hated me."
Bellatrix stopped him. "Well, some do," she said, awkwardly, "But now that I know you better, I'm going to set them right. I like talking to you, Severus, you're interesting, and you aren't stupid, unlike some boys I know."
Severus reddened slightly, but he grinned at her. "Call me Sev, Bellatrix."
Bellatrix grinned back, showing her perfectly white teeth. "Call me Bella, Severus."
Lily and Remus finished their rounds, reported back to the prefect's compartment, and made their way to the marauder's (considerably emptier) train compartment.
"Thank God!" Rebus sighed as they sunk into seats.
James and Peter had just finished their game of chess (James was 'slightly' worse at chess than Lily, nevertheless he had managed to checkmate Peter in just under half an hour).
"Hey Evans, Moony!" James said, smiling. He had cheered up now that Sirius and Leia had stopped snogging, and had reverted back to the normal, less disgusting to watch pastime of talking. His mood brightened even more when he saw that Lily was back.
"Hi Potter. Hey, Lisa, why are you still on Sirius' knee? Isn't there enough room for you now that the majority of Gryffindor have moved out of this compartment? Oh!" Lily viewed her best friend shrewdly. "You'd better tell all later!"
Leia giggled. "Oh, aye, that." She slid off Sirius' knee, ignoring his irritated expression.
"Hey!" He pointed out. "I was enjoying that, Leia!" The two girls rolled their eyes. The four boys sniggered.
"Hey, Lily, where are Alice and Frank?" Leia asked, ignoring the sniggering boys, and noticing the absence of the other two.
Remus and Lily snorted, trying, and failing, to suppress laughter.
"C'mon! Give us the gossip!" Sirius demanded.
LATER AT HOGWARTSAs the marauders, Lily, Alice, Leia and Frank jumped down from the horseless carriage, they cheered at the sight of the castle that they had all sorely missed.
"I'm home." Lily thought.
"I'm so happy." Leia thought, squeezing Sirius' hand.
"I think I'm in love!" Sirius thought, gazing at Leia.
"I am in love." James thought, gazing at Lily.
"I'm lucky to have friends like these." Remus thought, grinning at all of them.