Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Severus, the Marauders, or any of J.K. Rowling's wizarding world. I DO, however, own Wren...so YAY for me!

Also, thankyou Miss Jessica Riddle for replying, and Kudos to you for being the first! Your comment made me very happy!!

"What about my problems?

The people try to solve them

I guess I'm under the weather

Since no one else belongs here, with me..."

Shiny Toy Guns, -We Are Pilots

It took Severus a long moment to realize someone was crouched down beside him and waving their hand in front of his face. Blinking, he followed the hand up to the person's face.

A girl his age was watching him worriedly with inquisitive blue eyes. She was already dressed in her school robes, and Severus felt his face burn with embarrassment as he realized that she was the owner of the trunk that he was now sprawled across. On the positive side… he thought bitterly, the blood pooling from my nose hides the fact that I'm blushing furiously…

"Are you okay?" The girl asked him.

"What?" He replied, still slightly dazed from the recent events.

"Are you okay?" She repeated patiently.

He nodded uncertainly, "I think so." He mumbled.

The girl stood, and offered him a hand. "Do you need help up?"

He shook his head and stood by himself, wishing he could disappear from the humiliating situation, but reached out and took her hand instinctively when the world lurched before his eyes. The girl smiled, and shifted her grip to his upper arm and escorted him back into the compartment. She pulled her trunk in after her, and then turned back to Severus, who had sat down in his seat again, and had raised his chin and pinched his nose to stop his nose bleed. "Do you mind if I sit in here with you?" She asked him.

Sirius and James recovered from the shock of someone being polite to Severus a moment later. James, for his part, sat down silently and stared at the floor. Remus watched the newcomer with polite interest, before pulling a book out of his sweater pocket, and becoming engrossed in it.

Sirius, however, smiled charmingly and stepped forwards so that he was in front of Severus. "Please; make yourself at home. I'm Sirius, and this is James, and that's Remus." He pointed to each of them in turn, who smiled and nodded, and then turned back to the girl. "Let me take that for you." He said, still smiling. She's rather cute, albeit a little weird… he observed as the girl turned and stared at him for a long moment. "Ah…your trunk…" He reached out to take it, to get her to stop staring at him, but she didn't move, and continued to lean on it.

"Ah…so you're the Marauders…" She mused to herself, looking at them again with open curiosity. "I've heard of you." She smiled as she saw the startled looks on the said Marauders' faces. "I don't mean to be rude, but I was talking to him." She pointed to Severus, who had been glaring out the window and muttering to himself.

"Who, Snivellus?" Sirius laughed, but stopped suddenly when the new girl raised an eyebrow. "Ah…He doesn't care." He shrugged, and sat down.

The girl didn't move still, and looked questioningly at Severus. "May I?" She asked again.

Severus stared at her for a long moment, and then shrugged. "Sure…" He muttered. He watched as the girl hefted her trunk, and placed it on the rack. He glanced at Sirius, and his eyes flicked down to where his wand was poking out of Sirius' pocket. Opening his mouth, he was about to ask for it back, then remembered his nose, and closed it again. It was better to wait. They gave it back eventually…

The girl hadn't missed Severus' fleeting expressions crossing his face, and followed his gaze to Sirius. Sitting down opposite the three Marauders, she smiled at Sirius, "Why do you have two wands, Sirius?" She asked with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

Sirius blinked and glanced down at the wands, then slowly pulled them both out. Keeping his wand, he offered the other one to Severus, who grabbed it and used a spell to heal up his nose. "It's his…" Sirius muttered, long after that much had become obvious.

Severus scowled at Sirius, new hatred for him rising quickly. I should just jinx the bastard now… Remus spoke, interrupting Severus' thoughts.

"What's your name then? And what year are you in, if you don't mind me asking. It's just; you look to be about our age, but I've never seen you around before." Remus frowned and looked her up and down, "You don't have a house either…" Sure enough, the girl's robes were devoid of the small patch announcing what house she was in.

She smiled, "Sorry. I'm Wren." She paused for a moment, and then continued, "I suppose you wouldn't know me. I've been home schooled, and my parents finally decided to send me to Hogwarts. They said I needed to get out in 'the real world'. I'm 16, and as for my house, the headmaster is going to have me sorted when we get to Hogwarts, before the feast. They were going to sort me with the first years, but Dumbledore suggested that I be sorted separately…said it would be hard enough for me in a new school without adding rumors and questioning from the students." Wren grinned, and then glanced at Severus. "Is Snivellus really your name? Only, you guys don't seem to get along, and…well…" She trailed off as Severus gave her a very angry look.

"It's Severus." He said shortly. "Call me whatever you want. Everyone else does." He threw Sirius another disgusted look, and turned to the window to glare at the scenery beyond it.

A few hours passed, as the train sped onwards towards it's destination. Wren and James talked for a while about school houses, and Sirius explained the house points to her. All but Severus discussed their favorite classes; James was best at Transfiguration, Sirius at Charms, Remus at Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Wren at Ancient Runes.

Eventually, a silence fell between them all, but it was a friendly one, and not the awkward kind. Remus returned to reading his book, which, oddly enough was about werewolves. Wren thought it both intriguing and amazing that Remus knew so much about them…he seemed to already know most of what was in the book, and was constantly grinning and shaking his head in a disbelieving way as he read.

James pulled out a wizard chess set from his trunk, and joined Sirius in a game, which became more and more violent as it continued on. Wren joined them to watch, sitting by James and leaning over his shoulder to watch, occasionally dropping hints for James. Sirius' bishop had just magnificently smashed one of James' rooks into three chunks, when Severus saw someone sit down next to him out of the corner of his eye.

He turned to see Wren sitting next to him. She was smiling, that odd smile from before, with one side of her mouth tilted up. But most of the smile was in her eyes, and Severus suddenly realized he was staring at her. He looked away quickly, and found himself flushing red again. No one else was paying attention though, and Wren was tactfully ignoring it.

"What?" He finally snapped, after the silence stretched out between them. He glared at her, and immediately felt slightly guilty for it. She hadn't done anything to him; in fact, she'd helped him, unconsciously or not.

"Remus tells me you're rather good at Potions. Is that right?" She asked. Severus looked at her closely, wondering if she was teasing him, or if she was going to embarrass him. She seemed sincere enough, but Severus had learned from experience that that didn't mean anything.

"What's it to you?" He sneered at her, suddenly wanting to make her angry so she'd just leave him alone. Can't she tell that I don't want to talk right now?

"It's just, I barely passed my O.W.L.s last year, being home-schooled and all, and I never really was that good at them. I was wondering if you could help me? I never understand why you need to add unicorn hairs early in the potions, and add other ingredients in specific orders…" She trailed off, and then asked, "Does the Potions professor explain things well in his class?" Wren grinned, "My grandfather taught me most of my Potions, and he'd fall asleep halfway through it, or forget what he was saying and just jump back in at a random point; regardless if I'd already done that part, or was farther behind than that. And the books I studied from didn't explain things well either. They expected you to know how to tell the difference between beetle eyes and horsefly eggs, and to know when to powder mandrake roots and when not to." Now it was Wren's turn to blush. "Sorry…I ramble sometimes. Get carried away with my mouth."

She tucked her hair behind her ear, and it promptly fell forwards again. "I swear…" She muttered, talking to herself it seemed, and pulled out a hair band from her pocket, and quickly tied it back from her face. "There. Now I can think." She fell silent, and crossed one leg over the other before resting her elbow on her knee, and her chin in her hand.

Severus frowned as she spoke, mentally listing the things she'd asked and talked about, the way he did with everything. "Well…" He started, and then fell silent again. Wren waited patiently for him to continue, her eyes never straying from his face. "You need to add the unicorn hairs at the beginning of any potion, because if you add them in the middle or at the end, they warp the properties of the other ingredients. Unicorns are magical creatures. Like how they can purify water with their horns?" He paused to see if Wren was following, and she nodded. "It's the same sort of thing. So if you add them at the beginning, it won't mess up the ingredients that you add after it. That's also why you have to add ingredients in certain orders. Otherwise, they can change other things in it. And some things you have to add together so that they don't react with each other…" He stopped for breath.

Wren grinned, "Now, if someone had just explained that to me before, it would have made sense." She shook her head and smiled to herself, and then resumed listening to Severus.

"As for the Potions professor, Slughorn, well...he just follows the books. He hardly knows anything about potions. He probably knows about as much as us." Severus fell silent, having answered her questions. I just said more to this girl than I've said all summer put together... He mused, amazed.

"So…could you help me then? It sounds like I'll have an even tougher time this year with potions. At least my grandfather knew a bit about them." She looked at him hopefully.

Severus looked sideways at her, "…You know…" He finally said, "People won't like you if you hang out with me. You shouldn't even be talking to me."

Wren smiled warmly, "I believe I choose my friends. Other people will just have to deal with that fact, and move on with life."

Severus couldn't help but let a small smile flit across his face as the word 'friends' passed Wren's lips. There was a brief silence between them then, but it was soon broken.

"So…those beetle eyes and horsefly eggs…how do you tell them apart?" Wren asked, eager to carry on a conversation with this strange boy.

Severus let another small smile show, and began explaining the differences between the two. Sirius and James were arguing about the finer points of broom flying tactics, completely oblivious to the fact that their favorite person to taunt was enjoying himself. Remus continued to read his book, and occasionally, he would glance up and watch Severus talking to Wren.

The Hogwarts Express finally reached it's destination in Hogsmeade, and it's passengers disembarked, stretching cramped muscles and running about to find friends and seats on the horseless carriages. Five passengers walked slowly towards the carriages, two bickering and waving their hands around, one walking along with their nose in a book, and two more walking silently, both with smiles plastered on their faces.

Well, that's that. Reply please!! It makes me oh so very happy!