Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. J.K. Rowling owns them all.



Chapter Four

"Severus darling, come quick! Your class schedule and supplies are here!" Miss Prince shouted enthusiastically as she barged into her son's temporary room. Severus mumbled and rolled away from his mother's cheerful chirping. Eileen huffed at her son's behavior and crossed her arms. "Severus Percival Snape. If you don't wake up right now, I will wake you up myself." Immediately, Severus bolt up in his bed and looked intently at his mother. From past experiences, he knew well not to go against his mother's words.

"Well, are you going to open it?" he asked, sifting the covers over so he could get out of bed. He walked up behind his mom and looked down (he was a few inches taller than her) at the envelope that she was holding, waiting for her to open it. Her fingers ghosted over the seal before thrusting it to her son.

"You open it." She said. Severus rolled his eyes at his mother's unnecessary nervousness and peeled open the envelope. He glanced over the supply list before handing it to his mother to read his schedule.

"Ugh, I have most of my classes with Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw this year!" Severus sulked. "I hate those bloody people, they're so bright and annoying! But at least I'm not with the Gryffindors anymore. Now that was torture." Severus then handed his schedule over to his mother and went to his closet to change out of his pajamas.

His mother looked from the schedule to Severus and back. "Severus," she started and carefully put the supply list and schedule back into the envelope, "this may not be a good thing. Not being with the Gryffindors for basically all day means that you're not going to be with Sirius. And not being close to Sirius for more than three hours means that you can become very ill, or worse." Eileen whispered. She watched as her son's figure tensed and turned to look at her. She could tell that the wheels in Severus's brain were rolling as he stared at her.

"Shit, you're right." He answered. He looked away quickly changed into his clothes.

"Severus, don't cuss, you know better." Miss Prince clicked her tongue at her son's slip. "We need to see what Sirius's classes are to see if he will be close enough for you to be ok." Severus nodded and followed her out of the room.

"Finally! My schedule came!" Sirius excitedly said as he took the Hogwarts letter from the school owl that was sitting on the kitchen table. He was about to rip it open when his mother rushed into the kitchen.

"Sirius! Do not open that letter up! I want to be the one who opens it. We don't want a repeat of last year, do we?" Mrs. Black panted as she snatched the letter form Sirius's greedy hands. Sirius laughed at the memory of last year.

Sirius was so excited to get the Hogwarts letter that he ended up shredding up the supply list and his schedule, causing him to be completely lost and unsure of what to get or what his classes were. He had to mail James to find out. It was safe to say that Sirius' mother was far from happy when she found out.

"That's what I thought." Mrs. Black sniffed and carefully opened the letter with her finger. She skipped the supply list and tucked it away in a hidden pocket within her robe, and read her son's schedule. "Huh, that's weird…" she muttered, looking at her son. Sirius cocked his head questioningly. "You don't have any classes with Severus."

"But I've always had classes with Slytherin." Sirius took the piece of paper from his mother and looked it over.

"Well apparently you don't this year, and you know what that means," Catriona crossed her arms and walked over to a chair and sat down. Sirius nodded and followed the suit.

Suddenly, a loud clicking of heels broke the silence as Eileen and Severus hurriedly walked into the kitchen.

"Catriona! Catriona! Did Sirius get his schedule?" Eileen walked up to her friend, Severus in tow. Both of their robes swished behind them as they jogged. Well, now I know where Snape gets it from. Sirius distractedly thought as he watched them come nearer.

"Yes, he did. I'm guessing Severus did as well?" Catriona answered, giving Eileen her son's schedule and taking Severus's. "Hmm, lets see…" Catriona and Eileen glanced over the papers and then switched again, doing the same as before.

"Catriona, they don't even have any classes close to each other." Eileen said, looking up from the schedule. Catriona nodded and looked over to her son and Severus.

"We need to tell Dumbledore. He must know about this. We probably should have told him before this," Catriona said, handing her son's schedule back to him. Sirius muttered a small 'thank you' and glanced over at the Slytherin next to him. His face showed nothing but fear as he fell into one of the chairs, groaning.

He put his head in his hands and muttered, "I'm going to die, aren't I?"

His mother's head snapped in his direction at his comment and hugged him, "Of course you're not! Don't worry, we'll figure this out and everything will be ok," Eileen soothed her distressed son as Catriona ushered her own out of the room.

Sirius looked over his shoulder questioningly, in which she responded, "We need to give them a little time together while I fix this. I want to you go make us some breakfast. Ok honey?" Sirius nodded and headed off to the separate doors that lead to the kitchen and quietly snuck in, trying to not be heard by the mother and son who were still in it.

As Sirius walked into the scorching kitchen, he wiped the sweat that was already forming on his brow and said out loud, "This is going to be a very hard year."

A light chuckle sounded behind him, "You don't even know the half of it."

Sirius spun around, knocking over two pans that clattered loudly to the floor, and looked over to the doorway. There, leaning against the doorway, stood Severus Snape; and on his face held an interesting emotion that Sirius knew he had seen before.

"Dammit Snape, don't do that!" Sirius growled and turned back to the oven to start cooking when he comprehended the look that was on Snape's face.

Lust.


Heh, I wasn't too happy with this chapter but I think it's good enough. It wasn't as long as the other ones though. ::sweatdrops:: Sorry about that...