Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
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Alice gave him a funny look. Obviously she had heard the gasp. "You're the new guy?"
Harry ran his hand through his hair, "Yep."
Her expression changed immediately. She held up her hand, and before Harry could do the same, she grabbed his and shook it up and down. "I'm Alice." Her smile was contagious.
"I'm Harry."
"That was amazing what you did back there!" She burst out. She was nothing like Neville. She was fun, if not a bit too energetic. But Harry liked it. It was such a difference from what he was used to with people always jerking around at the slightest noise. A smile was hard to find anymore.
"So what classes are you taking?" Lily urged. Her face excited as the trio continued walking down the hall.
"Lily! You're not talking about classes again, are you? He just got here. That's the last thing he wants to hear! Classes!" Alice rolled her eyes.
Harry laughed and it felt so good that he laughed again, it feeling foreign to him. Has it really been that long? "I don't mind. Really. My favorite class is defense. It's my best class actually."
"Defense?" Lily wrinkled her nose. "Charms is the best. What can you do with defense?" Alice sighed and looked away.
Harry swallowed. She, his mother, needed to know this. He couldn't believe she thought of defense like that. He had to say something to change her mind, "My mum, she died because of the war. She thought the same about defense. She didn't know how to protect herself and it got her killed." He hated lying about his mother's death. It was so much more personal than that, so much more brave. She gave up her life to give him his.
"Oh." Lily didn't know what more to say to that. She just had to start putting more of an effort in that class, she decided.
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"Here we are guys. Lily! It's your favorite class!" Alice had her hand on her chest and a mocking look on her face. Harry glanced at the room and smiled. It was Transfiguration, his dad's favorite class. And obviously Lily's least.
McGonagall looked around at her students and noticed the James look-alike sitting next to Lily and Alice. It was obvious who his parents were.
"Put away your wands and take out your text books. Today we're taking notes-" the class groaned and McGonagall frowned, "-we're studying human transfiguration."
The students immediately had their eyes on her. She gave them a rare smile. "Mr. Nelson, since you are new, I have to check that you are advanced enough for this class. What is human transfiguration?"
"It means the transfiguration into an Animagus. A human willingly turning into an animal."
"Yes, Potter, do you have something to add?" Harry looked around and saw James' hand up with a smirk on his face.
"It means, Professor, transfiguring a human into any animal or object." He sneered at Harry, disturbingly reminding him of Malfoy. Great, just great. I'm nice to Snape, so now my dad's acting just like him.
Harry looked at Lily. She smiled sympathetically. "I'm sorry."
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"Nelson." Harry turned around to see Snape. Lily and Alice took one look at the sneering teen and left.
Harry wrinkled his brow, "What do you need?"
"I think we have a lot in common."
"How is that?" Harry replied calmly, not liking where this was going.
"You're quick with a wand. You show promise – talent. And I think there's a way to put that to good use." Snape said, an eager look on his face.
"Which is?" Harry tried his best to slow his heartbeat, sure that the teen next to him could hear it and put a sour look on his face.
Snape subconsciously rubbed his covered left arm, a move that didn't go unnoticed to Harry, and continued, not looking as confident as he had when he first started the conversation. "He's a man with a more…forward way of thinking. The Dark Lord could teach you great and powerful things and-"
Harry's face contorted in anger and he clenched his fists to prevent hitting Snape, "I defended you. That doesn't make us friends, and it certainly doesn't make me want to go join that psychotic bastard! I would die before taking on that mark that you so proudly hide beneath your sleeves! He's nothing more than a glorified murderer with a taste for nicknames. You'll live to regret following him, that I can promise you. So if that's all you want, stay away from me!" He hissed, turned, and walked away.
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Harry walked through the portrait, still fuming over Snape. I can't believe the idiot actually thought I'd join Voldemort! Me! The Bloody Boy Who Lived! Ha! The greasy git, almost makes me want to join forces with the Marauders and hex him. Almost.
"Hey Harry. So…What did he want?" Lily asked as he sat down in his favorite chair across from her. It looked like Lily had been building up the courage to ask him. He found that a bit odd.
"Nothing," Harry threw a dark look at Lily's chair leg and twirled his wand, round and round, "He wanted nothing, but to thank me. Why?" Lily didn't believe him.
"He wanted to….thank you?" She rolled her hands around together. "We were friends, once." Harry jerked his head up. Snape and mum…?
"I've never told anyone this, not even Alice. You just, you're different. You remind me a lot of my sister, before I started school. She was nice and I could tell her anything. She'd help. And I have to tell someone. I met him before Hogwarts, in our neighborhood park. He was watching us, I guess, I didn't think much of it then. I was doing magic in front of Petunia, my sister, and he came out. 'I know what you are. You're a witch.' I thought he was being mean…." And so Harry sat there while his mum explained everything. All the way up to when he called her Mudblood. She started crying and Harry, not knowing what to do, just patted her hand.
"I'm sorry," she sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes, "He was my best friend, not Alice, or anyone else. And I don't know what to do. It was only a few months ago, and he's just happy and fine without me and I'm not. At all. Is there something wrong with that? With me?"
Not at all. Harry wanted to say, but he couldn't. This was Snape she was talking about. The man that hated him, the boy that hated her. But if it was Hermione or Ron that did that to me…
Lily looked up at him expectantly. He knew what she wanted to hear and he knew what he wanted to say, so he swallowed his pride. "There's nothing wrong with you, Lily. He was your friend and he betrayed you. You have a reason to be hurt. And if he was a good friend," Harry forced out the word, wincing at the thought of Snape being a good friend, "Then of course you miss him. That's normal." She smiled a watery smile.
"Look at him. Sitting there. That should be me." James snarled. Remus rolled his eyes. Of course that's how he would look at it.
"Prongs, there isn't anything going on there. She's sad and he's doing something about it. He's just comforting her."
"Moony, if you're not going to help, don't say anything." Remus sighed. There was nothing wrong with the new kid. He had defended someone from an unfair fight. He was helping Lily without making her yell which was something that James couldn't do. And that upset him.
"You're right, Padfoot. We need to do something about him. He's probably a Death Eater, too. What other reason would he have to talk to Snivelus? He just got here. He can't know him, unless they met somewhere else."
"Time to bring out plan A." Sirius said, rubbing his hands together. "Any ideas?"
"We could look through his stuff. Wouldn't there be something evil in his trunk?" Peter asked.
Remus shook his head. They sounded crazy and he wanted nothing to do with ruining someone else's life. "I have an essay to finish. I'll be in the library."
"We don't need his ideas anyway." Sirius crossed his arms. "Operation 'Open Nelson's Trunk Immediately to Prove He's A Death Eater Or Else' is now running."
"Isn't that a little long, Padfoot?" James lifted an eyebrow, "What about 'Open Nelson's Trunk'?" Wormtail nodded in approval.
Sirius shook his head, "No, that's too obvious."
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