Severus considered his surroundings. He was fairly confident he had been reading in a secluded corner of the Hogwarts library. This was most definitely not the Hogwarts library. He was still reading, just now he was outside. He was also wearing a dress. It was still a book of poems in his hands. He closed it and looked around. This seemed like a prank by the Marauders. He wasn't quite sure what the point of it was, given that he appeared to be entirely alone. A dress wasn't even that different from robes, really. He was aware at this stage that most purebloods couldn't reliably tell the difference. It was, however, most definitely a dress. An old-fashioned dress.
He looked down at himself and noted that he also appeared to have breasts. It seemed rather advanced for fifth years. He wondered idly if maybe the book of poems had been cursed. He gave some consideration to his genitalia. It made no sense for the Marauders to have changed him into a woman, put him in a dress and then not be around to do something. With no other option, he continued walking the way he had been heading before he became aware of his location. He seemed to be lacking his wand, in more ways than one, but he felt he was taking this revelation remarkably well.
He arrived at a reasonably sized house, considerably grander than the poky house in Spinner's End. He could hear laughter from inside. He hesitated for a moment, then headed in to the yard.
"Severus!" a familiar voice cried out, and he saw Lily giving him a wave from the doorway. She, like him, was wearing an old-fashioned empire-line dress. While his was a plain brown, hers was a pale blue. She was still a woman, a thought he'd never previously considered thinking before. Somehow, it seemed like a relevant point to note.
"Have you been out walking and reading again?" Lily asked with a playful smile, "Just when there's something worth gossiping about. What am I to do when my most sensible sister is gone?" she took his hand and drew him inwards.
Sister, Severus considered. He had always thought of her as a sister, but he'd never previously seen himself as her sister. Either the Marauders had crafted an incredibly complicated spell or he had been reading a cursed poetry book. A distant part of his brain was impressed. Another section of his brain wanted to know how he could undo it and get back home.
Lily drew him towards two other girls, younger than he or Lily, who were giggling in the drawing room.
"Severus, have you heard?" one of them cried out in delight. In the background, another girl was ignoring all the commotion and playing the piano. Her name was Mary, but Severus would only learn that later. The music was rather soothing, but Severus did also have an extremely limited knowledge of the piano and subsequently very little taste in classical music.
"Of course she hasn't, she's been walking," Lily replied, "Honestly Lydia,"
Severus noted the name. These three would appear to be his other sisters.
"There's a new tenant at Netherfield!" the other girl, who Severus would later discover was called Kitty, exclaimed.
"Mr Potter," Lily supplied, to Severus's considerable horror. Either the horror didn't show in his reactions, or no one noticed, because the conversation continued regardless. This situation was connected to the Marauders. Somehow. He wasn't just being paranoid.
Lily, judging by her demeanour, was entirely oblivious to the fact that she was supposed to be at Hogwarts, that Potter was a toerag and that Severus was generally speaking considered to be a boy. The fact that he and Lily looked nothing alike, and that neither of them looked particularly like the three girls who were allegedly their sisters was another minor detail that helped suggest to Severus that his memories of Hogwarts were real and that this was a bizarre illusion.
Potter, it would appear, was considered just as rich and handsome here as he had been considered at Hogwarts. It was almost sickening. In a confused daze, Severus passively let the situation wash over him. He appeared to be entirely helpless to do anything. It was probably a strange dream, he reasoned. He'd wake up soon. That was what he told himself over the next few days, as each morning he awoke in the bed he shared with Lily and the house grew more and more excited about the upcoming ball to be held in the town. It was with this confused acceptance that he allowed himself to be dressed up nicely, with Lily braiding his hair into what she assured him was a very fetching and stylish fashion.
The hall was decorated sparsely, and crammed full of men and women dressed in what was undoubtably their finest clothing. Severus was wearing a very fetching green dress, with ribbons in his hair. It was not a look he had ever worn before, but Lily had assured him that he was beautiful and that all the men would be clamouring for his hand in marriage. Severus wasn't entirely convinced he wanted that, but he'd accepted the compliment for what it was worth. He still looked like himself. He had checked in a mirror. His hair was longer than it had been, long enough to be pinned up and laced through with ribbons. His face still featured a large hooked nose. He looked remarkably like himself, if he had been female. It was faintly disconcerting, but without magic or a clue to how to get home, Severus felt it best to just let whatever was happening play out. He was watching closely. The party seemed like a good opportunity, if Potter was there.
Interestingly, it would appear that his body, in addition to being female, knew how to dance. He danced a few dances with some men, and it was a pleasantly fun experience. Lily proved to be far more popular than he was, however. He could understand that, she was not only glowingly beautiful but also incredibly kind. That sort of goodness shone through in her radiant smile. It was one of the many things he loved about her. In a lull in the dancing, when both he and Lily were sitting by the sides watching the gaiety. Lily was laughing at some of his sarcastic jibes about the various people they could see and Severus was actually rather enjoying himself.
The attention of everyone in the hall suddenly went to the doorway, and so too did his gaze. There stood Potter and Black. They were older than his memories considered them to be, but then again so were he and Lily, though clearly not by as much. Both Potter and Black appeared to be resolutely male. They were by far the most well-dressed occupants of the hall. He tensed up, feeling vulnerable without his wand. He felt like this was whatever the prank had been leading up to, that in a few moments he would suffer some hideous humiliation at their hands.
They strode into the room. Nothing happened.
The dancing and the joy of the party resumed seamlessly as Lily dragged Severus along behind their parents. Severus went reluctantly, still convinced something awful was about to happen and feeling deeply exposed. He looked unwillingly at the two Marauders, and they looked back, no hint of recognition in their expressions.
Severus felt himself relax instantly. He let the introductions wash over him. He curtseyed neatly, sharing a slight wince with Lily at their mother. It would appear that she had a tendency towards not only being extraordinarily overdramatic within the confines of their home, but also tended towards being embarrassing in public. Potter, seemed to mostly ignore everything, focusing entirely on Lily, much as he had started to do back at Hogwarts. Lily, unlike the girl he had known at Hogwarts, accepted his requests for a dance with a smile.
Severus found himself sitting with girl from the neighbourhood, a perfectly pleasant woman named Charlotte who proved to have a decent sense of humour, watching warily as Lily danced a significant number of dances with Potter. It would appear that this Potter was not intending to do anything malicious, as he had merely given Severus a vague smile and nothing more, but Severus still found it hard to trust any of the Marauders. He also kept his eye out for Black, who mostly skulked about it the corner of the room, not dancing or speaking to anyone.
"Mr Black is rather handsome, isn't he?" Charlotte said, promptly demoting herself in Severus's estimations.
"Is he?" Severus answered petulantly. Sirius Black's looks were not something he particularly wanted to focus on. Good looks could not make up for the fact that he was an arrogant, bullying wanker.
Charlotte gave him a look, "He's rich," she added.
That, if anything, annoyed Severus more. He knew that Black was rich and handsome, that wasn't exactly news to him. Black was also a cockwomble but no one mentioned that because they were all blinded by the charm and cash flow. If he'd had the option of submerging Black in the deep-fat friers of the local chippy in Cokeworth and deep-frying him to death, he would have gladly done so. Lily would undoubtably disapprove of that sentiment and probably call him mean, but he didn't really care. He felt it was justified.
Potter, who had released Lily from his clutches for a brief rest, was standing with Black dangerously close to him and Charlotte. Close enough that they could hear their conversation.
"Isn't she just the most beautiful thing ever?" Potter was saying, "This is a rather remarkable ball, I'm really having quite a good time,"
"That," Black said grumpily, "Is because you are monopolising just about the only passable creature in the room. Dancing is so very common, especially when the selection of ladies is so miserably uninspiring,"
Severus and Charlotte shared offended looks. Severus wasn't entirely sure why he was offended, given that he was well aware of the fact that he was not particularly good looking, the fact that Black had made considerably more insulting remarks regarding his aforementioned lack of good looks and indeed the minor point that a part of him still resolutely held on to the belief that he was in fact a boy rather than a woman so shouldn't even be considering himself in the category of women-folk in the first place.
"Her sister was pleasant enough," Potter said, "Miss Severus, I think," and Severus was actually more offended by this than any insult. Being judged to be tolerably attractive by James Potter was not something he had ever imagined overhearing.
"She does not tempt me," Black replied dismissively, and Severus saw Charlotte's face contort in anger at the slight to Severus's feminine charms. Severus was incredibly impressed with the way in which he didn't leap up and whack Black over the head with the chair he was sitting on. Instead, he drew himself up and smiled resolutely at Charlotte.
"He's an arrogant toerag and I suspect I would rather be lit on fire than dance with him," he reassured Charlotte before she took too much offence on his behalf. He didn't like Black, and the casual insults Black was dishing out simply proved him to be right. Even if Black was not outright attacking him, he was still behaving like an overprivileged arse who was God's gift to women.
He thought the two Marauders had left, so was alarmed when Charlotte gave him a subtle kick and he looked up to find himself being asked to dance by Potter. His mind said no. His mind added in a few choice swear words, a rude hand gesture and a swift kick to the balls. His mouth, on the other hand, said yes. In the interests of general peace, his mind had to admit that it was the correct answer. Potter hadn't exactly done anything to him yet, to his knowledge.
The dance was not particularly enjoyable, as Severus spent the vast majority of the time waiting for Potter to trip him up or do something nasty. But to his confusion and surprise, Potter lead him in a gentlemanly fashion, with an almost idiotically cheerful smile. Severus had discovered that he liked dancing. Black, he concluded with little difficulty, was clearly an absolute moron. Potter was potentially less awful than he had initially assumed, though it was still early days.
He was not, however, particularly impressed with how quickly Lily appeared to be smitten with Potter.
"You're too nice," he told her pointedly, as they whispered to each other under the covers of the bed they shared, "You think well of everyone,"
It was true. He did admire Lily's ability to see the best in everyone, but the idea of her seeing all of the good in Potter without knowing the bad that Severus knew was hidden beneath that charming smile worried him.
"You're always so critical," Lily said affectionately. In that way, he thought, nothing really had changed. She had always said that he was mean, cruel and quick to dislike people when they had been at Hogwarts. He still remembered Hogwarts, though he could see no way to get back. He wondered, as Lily fell asleep, if maybe it had just been a very intense dream. In many ways, it didn't matter. Whatever it was, he was helpless and had no way of changing his situation. His father didn't mind him reading all the books in the library, so he didn't miss the library at Hogwarts too much, though sadly here there was no magic. He had tried to levitate something using just his mind, remembering how he had been able to do so as a child, but nothing had happened. He was with Lily, which made everything better. His mother and sisters appeared to be ridiculously silly, but they were still an improvement on the parents he'd had in Cokeworth. The house, despite the lack of mod cons, was a considerably pleasanter place to live in than the house in Spinner's End that he'd grown up in. So all in all, despite the strange situation and the fact that he appeared to be back in time, Severus was actually a lot more sanguine about it than he really should have been.
His temper was tested when Lily was invited by Potter's sister to dine with her, and their mother sent her to Netherfield on horseback in the rain. Lily had accepted this sadly, but Severus had argued against this for hours, and proceeded to glare at the rain once Lily had left. He was summarily furious when they received a letter informing them that she had fallen ill as a consequence of the rain, and further annoyed by the fact that their mother had been delighted at the news as it suited her match-making efforts.
In a fury, once the rain had eased, he set out to Netherfield himself, walking angrily through the mud and muttering a selection of curses that good young ladies should not know, but that bad boys from Cokeworth were perfectly fluent in. He wished he had access to magic, or even the chance to make some potions. He kept his eyes out for any useful ingredients, but there was not much available. Feverfew was the only exception and he picked that to take with him in the hope that he might be able to make something useful from it. Visiting an ill Lily was definitely preferable to staying in the same room with their mother or having to listen to Kitty and Lydia witter on about the militia who had come to town (he suspected that his younger sisters had nothing between their ears). At least Mary mostly just played the piano in a miserable fashion, though occasionally she would talk too and that tended to be unbearable. Without Lily the temptation to murder his family was simply too much. Besides, he was genuinely worried about her.
A good stomp through the woodlands made Severus feel better about the world in general. The scenery was beautiful, but unfortunately for the scenery, Severus didn't care. He was so entirely focused on his trek and goal of caring for Lily that he almost walked right into Black, who was standing on the lawns of Netherfield. Black looked somewhat startled. Severus was suddenly aware that the hem of his dress was caked in mud, before drawing himself up proudly. He didn't care about the state of his hem, or what Black thought. He wouldn't mind rolling Black down a muddy hill, but that was a fantasy for later.
"I'm here to see my sister, Lily," he told Black. Black seemed to be floored, staring at him with a strange look that Severus couldn't quite make out.
"Would you escort me to her?" he asked, when Black failed to respond. He'd always considered Black to be somewhat intellectually deficient, but this implied a greater deficiency than he'd initially assumed.
"Of course," Black answered finally, proving that he was capable of both thought and speech. He led Severus into the house and Severus was extraordinarily relieved when he was finally at Lily's bedside.
The time he spent with Lily, nursing her back to health was a joy, though he would have preferred her to not be ill. Any time spent with Lily was a delight, she was simply the most lovely person he had ever met. He was glad that here they were sisters. In contrast, the time he spent with the other occupants of the house was considerably less enjoyable. Potter proved to be mildly tolerable, mainly because he mostly asked after Lily and worried over her. Black was a constant looming menace. Potter's sisters, one unmarried and one married to the possibly most boring man on the planet, were a combination of deeply insipid with a considerably overinflated sense of their own worth. He suffered through their combined company, biting down on his tongue to prevent himself being bodily removed from Netherfield. Lily was more important.