Poppy looked up and saw Severus walking down the hall headed towards the Great Hall to await the arrival of the children. It was still three hours until the children were due to get there, but Severus always liked to be early for everything. Something was off about Severus today though; he looked paler than usual and weaker too. "Severus, can I talk to you for a moment?" Poppy questioned and Severus took a deep breath before turning around.
"Yes Poppy?" Severus inquired tiredly heading back towards the medi-witch.
"Severus, are you feeling alright?" Poppy probed and Severus tensed automatically even though he tried to hide the signs of how uncomfortable her question made him. He had tried his best for the past few weeks to keep anyone from finding out what was wrong with him and now Poppy had seen him walking to the great hall and was about to undue all of that.
"Severus?" Poppy tried again resting a hand on his arm as she saw him sway slightly.
"I'm fine Poppy." Severus mumbled hoping that Poppy would let him go so he could sit down; he hadn't slept well the night before and was very tired because of it.
"Severus, I can tell you're lying to me and I can tell that you're almost asleep on your feet. Come back to the infirmary with me and let me examine you." Poppy ordered gently and Severus was about to insist he was fine, but he felt the weariness emanating from his own body and knew that there was no way Poppy would let it go.
"Very well, I'll come with you." Severus consented and followed Poppy to the infirmary where he allowed her to examine him.
Meanwhile on the Hogwarts express little Harry Potter was sitting hunched in a compartment hoping that no one would bother him. When he went to Diagon Alley it had been awful; people all over had been bugging him and fawning over him. He wasn't sure to take it, but he definitely didn't like it and he was afraid people at Hogwarts would be the same way.
"Is it ok if I sit here?" A redheaded boy questioned and Harry sighed quietly and nodded his head. The redhead set down across from Harry and tried to strike up a conversation, but when Harry refused to answer him the redhead huffed and stood, "I'm going to go and see if I can find Harry Potter; he vanquished he-who-must-not-be-named and he's going to be my best friend. Hagrid...well I shouldn't tell you this, but who are you going to tell anyways you don't even talk...Hagrid said that if I was nice to him and acted like I cared about his past that I was sure to make fast friends with him." Ron chirped stupidly telling Harry himself what Hagrid had said. Harry hadn't like Hagrid from the beginning because he had insulted people that Harry cared about and then all but demanded he go with him to Diagon Alley where he introduced him to a Hogwarts professor named Quirrell who had been afraid to touch him. Harry didn't even look up instead preferring to keep his head ducked down so that Ron couldn't see his face and the telltale lightning bolt scar that was plastered onto his forehead. After Ron left Harry started to think about what he had said about Hagrid and realized that if Hagrid was that manipulative then what he had said about Slytherins definitely wasn't true not that he had believed it to be after being raised the way he was, but it just kept adding up chips against Hagrid and pointing to who he really was. It was also probably the reason that Hagrid had left without telling him how to get onto the platform and if he hadn't already known that as well he would have been completely lost. Harry decided that if the sorting hat wanted to place him into Slytherin then he would let it and prove to the world that not all Slytherins were bad.
"Oh, Severus, why didn't you tell me?" Poppy inquired and Severus smiled tiredly at the medi-witch and then gratefully accepted the hug that she offered; contrary to popular belief he wasn't a cold-hearted follower of Riddle and he did like to know that someone other than Dumbledore cared about him once in a while.
"It's not that big of a deal Poppy." Severus murmured, but Poppy wasn't fooled because she could feel his body shake beneath her and when she looked tears were silently streaming down his cheeks.
"Easy, easy, that's it; I promise you that you will not have to go through this alone Severus. I will be here for you every step of the way and make sure that you're taken care." Poppy assured the frightened man and Severus smiled weakly at her before she instructed him to lie down on the bed and rest for a couple of hours before the students arrived.
By the time the train had pulled up at the station Harry had managed to avoid meeting any other students and when the train emptied he made sure to stay at the back of the crowd far away from Hagrid. "Alright first years, four to a boat, and make sure to hold on once we start moving." Hagrid instructed huffing because he didn't see Harry in the crowd. Harry waited until almost everyone was in a boat and then he boarded into a boat that had three girls in it; one of the girls had bushy brown hair and the other two looked to be twins and were definitely Indian.
"Hello, my name is Hermione." The bushy haired girl, Hermione, offered and Harry smiled and nodded shyly at the girl offering her his hand to shake. Hermione was a tad hurt at first that the boy hadn't spoken to her, but when he offered his hand for her to shake she figured that maybe he was mute and couldn't talk or had a very good reason for keeping quiet.
"I'm Parvati Patil and this is my twin Padma." Parvati, obviously the more talkative of the two introduced, and Harry offered his hand for the two of them to shake as well. Parvati was curious as to why the little boy wasn't speaking and was about to ask when Padma elbowed her in the rib cage and shook her head no. Parvati might be a social butterfly that liked to talk and gossip about some things, but she also wasn't an idiot and knew that when Padma actually told her to do something that it would be in her best interest to listen to her. Before Parvati could offer anymore thought to the little boy though or why Padma had actually advised her against doing something instead of keeping quiet as usual the caste came into view and everyone started to climb out of the boats. Harry was the first one to get out of his boat and turned and helped the three girls out of the boat before standing with them and awaiting instruction from Hagrid. Something about these girls told Harry that he could trust them and that they would be good friends for the future if they didn't get mad when they found out who he actually was. "Alright all first years follow me." Hagrid bellowed and the group started to move forward.
Poppy had woken Severus about half an hour ago and followed him to the great hall switching up the seating arrangement by sitting down on Severus's left forcing Quirrell to sit where she usually sit on the other side of Pomona beside Hagrid. Severus smiled gratefully at her before he rearranged himself in his seat so that he could talk to her as well as Minerva who would be sitting on his right once dinner started. "What do you think he's like?" Severus questioned looking intriguingly at Poppy. Poppy would have questioned who he was asking about, but she knew automatically that he was referring to Lily's little boy, Harry. "Well, when he was younger he had black hair like James and green eye like Lily's, but after being with whoever he's been with these last nine almost ten years I'm not sure what he's like Sev." Poppy admitted and Severus nodded tersely as a wave of pain momentarily passed through him and then left. It would have looked like to anyone else though that the reaction was because Poppy had mentioned James, but that was part of another mystery that was known as Severus Snape because he didn't hate James Potter like some people assumed he did. At that moment Severus was momentarily distracted and he looked up as the children entered the hall followed by Minerva who had stepped in moments after Hagrid had sat down.