Summary: Severus Snape was the bravest man Harry ever knew. What would of happened had Severus been sorted into Gryffindor instead. What if he only loved Lily like a sister and became friends with the Marauders.
Marauder Era, Gryffindor!Severus, Slytherin!Peter
Pairings: Sirius x Severus x Remus and James x Lily
Warnings: Homosexuality, Mentions of Abuse, Peter-Bashing, M rated smut later on
What If
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Part 1: The Train Ride
Severus Snape was bursting with excitement, though he concealed it well enough; here he was on the Hogwart's Express, heading to the most famous Wizarding School, with his best friend, Lily Evans. He was finally going, from the moment he got his letter, nothing could bring him down, and especially after finding out that Lily was also going. They sat in an empty compartment as they talked about this and that, though they did manage not to bring up what had recently happened.
It had happened a week ago, Severus had arrived at the Evans home bloody and broken, semi-conscious. Ever since he had gotten his letter to Hogwart's his father's beatings had escalated each and every day. That one night had been the worst, his father beyond inebriated, had hit, kicked and broken so many bones that Severus had actually been surprised that he had even made the trip to Lily's house.
Sufficient to say the Evans were not happy, the only one who didn't seem to care was Petunia, but Severus hated the girl, so he didn't give two shits. Lily's parent however had gone on a tangent after they took care of the worst of it, going on about calling the police, reporting child abuse. That had caused a great deal of panic to well up within Severus; the last thing he wanted was to taken away from his mother. He didn't care what happened to his drunk of a father, but his nice, shy mother was the only real family he had.
Severus knew that his mother would never leave Tobias, it was clear that she blindly loved the man, and he didn't want to leave her. Going to an orphanage seemed like an even grater hell, he had heard stories of magical children being raised in those kinds of settings, and that scared him. It took awhile to rationally get the hysteric parents to calm down and explain why he didn't want the police involved. They finally relented but insisted upon him spending the rest of the week with them, to recover. Severus had also caught the subtle hint that if need be that he could always just come and live with them. This had made Severus every happy.
The day after the attack, Severus finally surveyed the damage done in the bathroom mirror. What he saw made him want to cry. He was covered in ugly bruises and cuts, but Severus wasn't worried about that, they would heal without leaving a trace. No, it was how messed up his face now looked. He had always secretly prided himself on his looks, thanking whatever deity up there that he took after his beautiful mother. Now however was a different story, Tobias had been mostly focusing his blows on his face and his nose had taken the brunt of it. It was broken in so many places it made it look so much bigger than it was with an ugly hook and lopsided bumps. If this didn't get healed immediately then he was going to be stuck with that nose forever, but the only way now was to go to the hospital and they would surely ask how this had happened. If any body found out about his home life then he would be taken away, and that's the last thing Severus wanted.
Salvation came on the form of his mother, when she showed up, healing potions and want in hand. Severus was actually quite touched that his mother would risk upsetting Tobias by sneaking out of the house to heal Severus. Eileen had look down at her son with guilty brown eyes, completely unsettled as Mr. and Mrs. Evans asked her how she could let her husband do such a thing to her child. Eileen had however said nothing; just feed him the potions ad healed his nose, which thankful was once again small and as Lily stated, "cute as a button." After that Eileen had dismissed her self and Lily's parent's let out disgruntled sighs.
For the rest of the week Severus stayed by in the safety of Lily's home. It had felt quite different being treated nice and lovingly. Mrs. Evans had all but named Severus her adopted son much to the amusement and agreement of Mr. Evans. Lily also seemed to want Severus as her brother, for whenever she addressed him it was "big brother" instead of "Severus." He didn't really mind it; in fact if he were being honest with himself he would quite like being related to Lily with kind parents who spoiled him rotten. It was a nice change from how his father treated him, no better than dirt while Eileen watched with sad eyes.
After spending one whole glorious week in the company of Lily and her parent, it was finally time to go to Hogwarts. Severus spotted his mother there waiting for him, trunk all ready for him. Giving his mother a hug and a kiss, doing the same with Lily's parents, as he now considered Mr. Evans his father and Mrs. Evans his second mother, he and Lily boarded the train.
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Part 2: The Sorting
They reached Hogwarts later that night. He and Lily stood in awe of the castle; much like all the other first year were doing. All first year were gathered and lead to multiple boats that were going to take them across the lake. There they were taken into the castle and ascended multiple stairs until they reached what seemed to be gigantic doors. A strict woman with her silvery hair tied back in a tight bun came out and addressed them, explaining that they would soon be called in and sorted. Professor McGonagall as she introduced herself then went back in, leaving all the nervous first years to them selves.
It was while talking with Lily that Severus sensed that they were being watched. Interrupting their conversation Severus turned around and scoped out the first years, trying to find whom had been staring so intently at them. It didn't take long for his eyes to fall on a boy with messy dark hair and brown eyes behind round glasses staring at them, or more precisely, Lily. Confused as to why he was staring so bluntly, he turned back to Lily and explained to her about the boy that was constantly staring at her. Lily looked in the boy's direction; green met brown and the boy blushed red. Ah, now Severus got it, the boy had a crush on Lily.
"Let's go over and introduce ourselves," Lily stated. Severus seeing nothing wrong with that agreed. As they walked over the boy with the glasses perked up, whispering excitedly to a group of boys next to him, most likely some friends he had made on the Express. Then the pudgy one with the face of a disgusting rat whispered back into the bespectacled boy's ear, looking pointedly at him. Severus got a bad feeling as the brunette now glared openly at him with startling animosity.
Once they reached the four boys Lily introduced she and Severus.
"Pleasure is all mine, I'm James Potter and these are my friends Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew," James introduced. Sirius was a boy with shaggy dark hair with gray eyes while Remus was a boy with lightly tanned skin, dirty blonde hair and blue eyes.
"So Lily, and may I be so bold as to say what a beautiful name you have, I hope you will join me in the noble House of Gryffindor."
"Thank you. I would love to join Gryffindor."
"Good, though it's okay if you don't, there are other good houses," Remus states reassuringly.
"Yeah any other house then those slime Slytherine, that's the house for dark, evil wizards," Sirius sneers. "My families chalk full of them, horrible, torture loving people."
"He looks like a nasty Slytherine, I'd get away from it if I were you Lily," Peter stated menacingly. James, Sirius and Remus wheeled around to stared at the dark haired boy, taking in his appearance. James and Sirius sneered while Remus looked contemplative, although a little wary. Peter looked way to smug. Lily looked confused and Severus was looking quite scared.
"No, I'm going to be in Gryffindor with Lily, we said we were going to stay together," Severus corrected although it didn't sound too convincing. What would happen if he got put into a different House then her? Even worse was would she still be a friend to him if he got placed into Slytherine? With the rise of You-Know-Who every one was scared and prejudice that everyone from that House were evil, so if he got placed there, would that make him evil? He hoped not.
"Well, we'll just have to wait and see where your true loyalties are," James growled. Lily frowned and looked at the panic and pained expression on Severus's lovely face.
The sorting began as Professor McGonagall led them into the Great Hall, explaining how they would be sorted. A dingy wizard hat with a rip for a mouth sat on a three-legged stool, singing a song about the Founders and the characteristics of each House. The Marauders, minus Remus, sneered hatefully when the hat mentioned Salazar and his House. Severus felt the panicked nervousness grip his heart again at the looks on the soon to be Gryffindors faces. He knew that his whole entire life would be over the minute the hat shouted out that he was a slimy Slytherine. Then those four and maybe even Lily were going to make his life a living Hell.
Professor McGonagall started by calling students up by there last name in alphabetical order, which scared the living shit out of him because that meant out of all of them he would be the last to be called up. They would all be sorted into Gryffindor and then he into the snake pit, were both parties would forever hate him. The Gryffindors would hate him because he was an evil, heartless and cold Slytherine and the Slytherines would hate him because he was a half-blood with a muggle father. He would get the shit beaten out of him and that already happened at home, he would literally die if it started up here too.
Sirius Black was the first one to be called out of their little group and by no surprise was placed in Gryffindor. Next up was Severus's best friend Lily Evans, and she to was happily sorted into Gryffindor. James seemed entirely pleased with the outcome and gave a sneer towards Severus, who gulped nervously. Remus Lupin went up next and smiled contently when the hat shouted out the name of the most popular house of the lions. It was only Severus, Peter and James that were left and the raven haired boy was feeling very sick, almost to the point of vomiting right there and then. Apparently they couldn't wait till he was placed in Slytherine, they looked like they were about to beat him up. They looked way stronger than Severus, and he knew in a fight he would not be able to win with physical strength alone, maybe not even with magic. Severus sighed and stood him ground rigidly, Professor McGonagall was just now starting on the 'P's'.
Peter Pettigrew was called up and he walked up with a smirk to James and a sneer to Severus. The hat sat upon the boy's ratty brown hair and immediately shouted out 'Slytherine'. Peter looked sick and frightened while James sent him the scariest of glares. Once Peter had shockingly gotten off the stool and towards the Slytherine table, James turned to Severus with an apologetic look.
"Sorry I believed that slimy Slytherine over you, he didn't look like he could hurt a fly. Well now I see his true colors, but I should have seen it when he stated that you were a Slytherine and tried to get us to hate you. I should have known that's what he was, that was a very Slytherine thing he did and I'm sorry."
Despite how he felt the entire time he had been ostracized he just couldn't bring himself to hate the boy in front of him.
"I forgive you," Severus stated softly, smiling at the hazel-eyed boy. James smiled back.
"It looks like Sirius and even Remus want to apologize, they had also fallen for that Slytherines trick," James stated, nodding his head in the direction of the Gryffindor table where Sirius and Remus sat next to Lily, looking ashamed and apologetic. Severus smiled at them and that seemed to brighten the two boys expression, although it confused Severus to see that a light blush had made it's way onto their cheeks. Severus broke from his confused staring when James was called up.
"Wish me luck," James stated with a wink as he went up. Severus did wish him luck, never noticing two pairs of eyes glaring jealously at the bespectacled boy.
James walked back to the Gryffindor table, feeling extremely satisfied. Not only was he sorted into the House of the lions, so was the girl of his dreams and his new friends, minus that traitor Pettigrew. He sat down among the others and waited patiently for Severus to be sorted, who stood very nervously by himself. James felt bad, he shouldn't have ousted the boy until he was sure he was a Slytherine, not take the word of a slimy snake. Looking over at the Slytherine table, James glared at Peter who was laughing with fellow Slytherines, Crabble and Goyle. Peter caught James eyes and smirked, then leaned over to whisper to his new crew. They both laughed cruelly and turned to leer at the anxious ravenette waiting his turn.
"Sirius, Remus, look," James growled. Since he was the only one facing the Slytherine table, he was the only one to see the three boys looking at Severus with those disgusting looks on their faces. Sirius and Remus turned around and spotted the three Slytherines leering at Severus, whispering and laughing. All three Gryffindors were glaring openly at the three Slytherines. Their eyes met and a mental message was exchanged, it was on. One side vowing to protect their raven-haired friend, while the other vowed to break the lovely Severus by any means necessary.
Severus, unaware of what was going on behind him was shaking as Professor McGonagall started on the 'S's'.
"Severus Snape," McGonagall's strict voice called. Hesitantly Severus made his way to the three-legged stool were he sat down, waiting for the hat to decide his fate. Life or death: do or die. The hat sat snuggly on his head and he began to hear a worn out voice, sounding much like how the hat itself looked.
"Ah, Severus, what an interesting mind you have. There's a lot of courage and bravery, you just don't know it yet, although you are a very cunning and crafty little thing, aren't you?" the hat began. "You have the heart of a Gryffindor and the mind of a Slytherine, but were to put you."
"Not Slytherine, not Slytherine" Severus mentally chanted.
"Not Slytherine, eh. But you would do so well there, they can help bring out you're true potential. No? Are you sure? Well, then if you say so you must be a…"
"Gryffindor," the hat shouted aloud. Severus sighed in relief, looking to his friends and smiling. The whole of Gryffindor was shouting and applauding there congrats, while the Slytherines sat there and glared, looking almost threateningly at the boy who was suppose to be in their House.
"And he would have done so well here," fifth year perfect, Lucius Malfoy stated, sighing. The other first years around him agreed. Mulciber and Avery nodded their heads, silently watching as the raven-haired boy sat down amongst the lions.
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Part 3: First Year
With all the first years finally sorted into their Houses for the next seven years, Albus Dumbeldore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, got up and presented his speech.
"First off I'd like to congratulate… we will be having a new defense against the dark arts teacher, Professor Drakens… the Forbidden Forest is forbidden… Mr. Filch has add some new items to the list of forbidden items… and now you may all begin the feast," Dumbeldore announced, the students barely listening until he got to the part about the feast. The first year students watched in wonder as food magically sprung up from thin air onto their plates. The Gryffindors were expertly tackling their food like a muggle quarterback, ripping and tearing into the delicious food around them.
The newly made Gryffindors were eating amongst themselves, Lily, Remus and Severus with well-mannered bites, while James and Sirius ate like they were on death row.
"Could you not eat like pigs," Lily scolds. James stares at her apologetically and swallows his food, starting over again, but this time with more self-control. Sirius looks over at Severus who also has a disgusted expression on his face over the mess they were making. Gathering himself, he begins to eat normally, just like he was taught when he was younger, happy to see that Severus no longer had that scowl marring his pretty face. The rest of the feast is filled with chatter, more so when Professor McGonagall comes around and hands them their schedules.
"Hey look, we have most our classes together," Remus states happily. Lily looks over hers and then at Severus's, happy that they shared most classes together.
"Yeah, but we have some with the Slytherine," Sirius and James hiss, looking murderous.
"That sucks," Severus pouts. Sirius and Remus blush furiously at the adorable raven haired boy.
"Don't worry, we'll just have to show those slimy bastards what for," James states haughtily, ignorant of his two friends ogling Lily's best friend.
"James, language," Lily chides. James laughs, looking sheepishly at the annoyed redhead.
The first month or so passed by with all the first years trying to learn their way around. The moving stairs were annoying and the five of them always ended up lost and late for class. James swore that the stairs had a mind of their own and were moving in the wrong direction just to spite them. Severus had laughed and told James that it was impossible for stairs to have minds of their own, that was until Severus insulted the stair case one day, only to find himself lost beyond belief. James had been quite smug and Lily seemed amused as Severus tried to make his way back to them, only to have the stairs move and deposit him somewhere entirely different. Besides the stairs, the five first year Gryffindors were also getting use to their classes.
Severus immediately became enamored with potions, the formulas, the ingredients, the actual brewing seemed second nature to him, like he was born to do this. It was Severus, Remus and Lily who seemed to be the most studious of the group as they took their schoolwork very seriously. James and Sirius however decided class was a great time to mess around and have fun. Their favorite thing to do was pranks, and oh boy were those pranks hilarious, well to Severus they were, Lily and Remus didn't find them quite so entertaining. It may have been because those pranks were usually at the expense of the nasty Slytherine, especially that piece of dog shit, Peter Pettigrew. Severus felt that it was poetic justice; Peter almost made his life a living hell, so why not return the favor and make the rat boys life hell. James and Sirius seemed to have the same mindset.
Three months into the first year and already Severus knew that he would excel. His grades were perfect, on par with the brains of the group, Lily and Remus. James and Sirius preferred to copy off them, well more like James copied off Lily while subtly flirting while Sirius copied off Severus and Remus. That seemed to be how things would work and honestly no one was complain, well Severus wasn't, Lily and Remus however didn't really like that James and Sirius were taking the easy way out, though they never did anything, both Lily and Remus didn't want to see their friends fail. Severus had tried to get the two trouble makers to study and take their work seriously, but it had proved to be a fruitless endeavor that left Severus, by the end, fuming. He had never met such lazy and unenthusiastic people as James and Sirius, although in his heart, Severus knew he wouldn't have them any other way.
Christmas break was a miracle in itself, especially since students could stay behind if they so choose to, which worked for Severus, because he'd rather not face his father any sooner than he needed to. Lily was also staying behind, and for that Severus was grateful. James and Remus were heading home and they would be sorely missed for the two weeklong break. Sirius had admitted he didn't very much want to go home because of the animosity between him and his family so he stayed with Severus and Lily. Everyday the three of them would traverse the castle, finding new hideout and just talking about this and that.
Christmas day had been spent opening presents; Severus was quite teary-eyed when he saw all the presents he had received. He had to apologize profusely for only buying small thing while all of them had gone all out. Sirius and Lily had said it was fine, they knew about Severus's financial standings and Sirius loved his gift anyways, a gift from Severus was to be cherished forever. New Years Eve was spent in the Gryffindor Common Room, where they partied with the other houses mates, drinking, eating and laughing the night away, waiting for the next year to arrive at midnight.
Sirius spent a good portion of the holidays complaining about the unfairness of winter break work, which Severus and Lily had already done. Lily was unrelenting when it came to Sirius asking to copy their work and she would not given in. Severus would have but Lily's stern glare had kept him from doing it. Despite having homework to do Sirius decided to save it until later and before he knew it, it was the night before they started classes. Sirius had freaked out and it was only when Lily went into her dormitory for some shut eye that Severus felt it safe to let the poor boy copy his work. Sirius had been so happy, hugging the lithe boy for all he was worth, thanking his profusely.
"Your welcome, but I'm not just going to let you copy my work, I'll be teaching it to you as well. Lily kill me if she questioned how you got an 'O' on your assignment if you knew nothing prior. She'd know and I'd be skinned alive," Severus stated sternly. Sirius had begrudgingly accepted, seeing as this was the only way to get the raven's help and he didn't want Severus to get in trouble for being nice enough to help him out.
"All right, thanks Sev, you really are as sweet as you look," Sirius winked. Severus's face lit with a beautiful blush and Sirius had to admit that the boy was gorgeous.
"L-let's get s-started," the embarrassed boy stated as he sat down next to Sirius and began to teach the boy what he had been unable to grasp in class.
It had taken three hours for Severus to explain a whole two weeks worth of lessons and for Sirius to complete his homework, but in the end it had been accomplished. Sirius had complimented Severus on his teaching abilities and told the onyx-eyed boy that he had learnt better from him than he did those teachers. After some convincing, Sirius was able to swindle Severus into becoming his tutor and helping him with the lesson. Sirius knew shamelessly flirting with Severus was cheating, but he couldn't help it, for some reason it made Sirius happy to know he had that kind of effect on the boy. Besides Severus had said yes on his own accord, sure he had been a stuttering mess at the end and had probably said yes just so Sirius would stop making him feel uncomfortable, but Sirius would take what he could.
Three months passed and life was great. Severus tutored Sirius once a week and helped with homework whenever he could, not just letting the boy copy. Sirius didn't mind, it gave him more time to talk with Severus, one on one, without their friends around. Remus had tried to help as well, stating that he thought Severus was very kind for doing such a thing, which had caused the black haired boy to blush, but that it would go faster if they both helped Sirius. Sirius however was having none of that, even though he liked Remus like a brother, this was his and Severus's time and he would be damned if he let Remus get in the way. Remus had gotten the message and instead convinced Lily to help him tutor James, as he was still lazing about in class. Although James and Sirius still thought that class time was fun time, they were doing better on their homework and test, so it was all working out in the end.
The last day of school came by too quickly, especially for Severus and Sirius, since they both dreaded going back to their parent's house. The train ride back had been full of laughter and randomly eating every flavor jellybeans, hoping not to get a boogey flavor or vomit and laughing when someone did. They arrived at King's Cross much too soon for their likings, as they wouldn't see each other for a whole two months.
"I'll see you guys later, my mothers here," Sirius announced with a wince. A tall woman with a stern expression was waiting patiently with narrowed gray eyes. Sirius quickly jogged up to her and Lady Black grabbed her son tightly and side-apparated them away. James and Remus left with kind looking parents, while Severus and Lily walked up to Mrs. Evans, who smiled happily at them.
"How was school?"
"It was fantastic mother," Lily gushed, going into a full ramble about all the things she saw, did and learned. It took no time at all for them to reach Spinner's End, where Severus was reluctant to part from Lily.
"Sev, if anything happens, anything at all, you can stay with us," Lily offered. Severus smiled sadly and told her he would if he really needed to, but in reality he wouldn't, that would only make things worse when he did come back home, and he still had to pay for running off the last time.