Chapter 4
Severus, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville, and Luna found a compartment and had been sitting together, talking quietly. Ron and Neville had gravitated away from Severus as Ron hated the man and Neville was afraid the man would ask him a potions question he couldn't be able to answer just to embarrass him, but Neville quickly learned that the Severus he saw in class was not necessarily who the man truly was, but rather a front he put up to appease the Slytherin's and other death eater children. Severus had even offered to privately tutor Neville, and allow Hermione to help him when he had trouble in class without taking away points. Ron seem to be the only person who still had a problem with having the man around. Harry had now noticed this and was wondering why his best friend of almost 6 years had a problem with this man he had chosen to be friends with. Harry really hoped none of this had to do with Severus' past or the fact that he was a Slytherin, because if there was one thing Harry couldn't stand was the incessant house rivalry, and a person's ignorance is no better. Harry decided he would talk to Ron about it later that night and for now would put it away in his mind and enjoy the ride.
"So Professor are you still teaching potions this year or did you get that cursed Defense Against the Dark Arts position." Luna asked
"I'll still be teaching potions this year Miss. Lovegood. Lupin will be taking over the Defense Against the Dark Arts position. Hopefully he'll last longer than a year this time, he seemed to be the best Defense teacher you've had." replied Severus
Harry smiled at his friends; no one had been expecting Severus to be ok with Lupin getting his beloved DADA position twice. Severus sat against the window of the compartment with Harry cuddled into his side. No one seemed to care, but Ron was shooting daggers at Severus with his eyes. He really didn't like how the Professor was with 'his' best friend. Ron was getting angrier by the minute; he was going to blow up in someone's face if he didn't get out of there soon.
It wasn't that the boy didn't like change, they had had 5 years of change with crazy school activities, what he didn't like was change that involved Slytherins. Ron had been a firm believer of the Slytherin vs Gryffindor House rivalry, and couldn't believe how any Gryffindor could ever be 'friends' with a Slytherin. He was prejudice and for no other reason than that was what he had been taught by his mother. He believe the stereotypes about Slytherins all being evil when most purebloods have a stereotype of his family, red hair, freckled, hand me down clothes, and worst of all blood traitor.
Ron couldn't see past his own ignorance, and he was done with this inter-house bonding thing. He couldn't stay there any longer. Ron abruptly stood up and walked out of the train compartment without out any explanation for his leaving.
Harry frowned at his friend's retreating back. Harry hadn't expected Ron to react that way. Harry got up to chase him, but Hermione caught his shoulder, sadly smiling at Harry, the sad hopeful boy she had grown to love as a brother over the past five years
"Harry, don't I'll go try a see what's wrong with him." Hermione said
"Thanks Hermione" said Harry
Hermione hugged her friend and walked out of the compartment to look for their friend. She knew Ron was having issues with Severus being around, and Hermione didn't want Harry to have to deal with Ron if that was why he burst out of the compartment so suddenly. Hermione ran into Ron two cars down. He was trying to avoid her, but she was able to get to him and pulled him into the nearest empty compartment. She sat him down and locked the compartment door. Ron looked away from Hermione and out the window into the rolling planes of the world outside of the train. Hermione sat next to Ron and put a hand on his shoulder to her attention.
"Hermione I don't want to talk. Just leave me alone" Ron shouted at Hermione hoping she would leave soon
"No Ron, you need to tell me what's wrong before you blow up at some unsuspecting person at school like one of our professor!" Hermione said
"No I don't need to tell you anything." Ron yelled at Hermione again
"Ronald Weasley, do not yell at me. I'm worried about you" said Hermione firmly
"You shouldn't be worried about me you should be worried about Harry, He's the one making friends with Slytherins, and a professor at that!" said Ron
"There is nothing wrong with Harry's friendship with Severus, or any Gryffindor and Slytherin friendship." said Hermione angrily
"Hermione! They're Slytherins we're Gryffindors, we aren't supposed to be friends." Ron said
"No Ron, we're human. You're being prejudice of an old feud that started before you, your parents, or grandparents were even born, something that started centuries ago. People are people Ron, Harry's trying to be accepting of Professor Snape regardless of their past. Harry has obviously seen something in him that we've never seen, because he's been our teacher alone and not around us when he wasn't an authority over us. Even now Severus isn't being rude or snide to us, because of his friendship with Harry. He is making an effort to be nice to us. He might not be exactly like that in class, but that's because he's our teacher. He seems to have mellowed out this summer with Harry, Sirius, and Remus." Hermione said
"He's never been nice to us. He's just trying to use Harry. I don't know what for yet, but I will find out" Ron said
/\/\Neville/\/\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Harry and his friends were sitting in the train compartment for a while after Ron and Hermione left.
"What do you think Ron is so mad about?" Ginny asked
"He's mad that Severus is here. I could see him staring at us like we were some sort of abomination." Harry replied
"Really? He's still on about that. He's been saying the Professor was good for nothing since first year. No offense Professor, my brother is very one minded. I'm sorry." said Ginny disgusted
"Miss Weasley, it is not your place to apologize for your brother's feelings. If it was you would be apologizing to many people daily." Severus said
Harry laughed at what Severus had said to Ginny. Those were the things he wanted his friends to see. He wanted them to see the side of Severus that made him laugh and smile all summer long.
"I'm going to go find them." Neville said getting up and walking out of the compartment.
Neville didn't take long to find the compartment Ron and Hermione were harboring themselves in. He tried to open the sliding door, but it was locked, so he knocked.
*******************************The Halloween Ball*******************************
Hermione and Ron heard the knock and looked up to see who it was. Hermione smiled at Neville and let him in, hoping he would be able to make Ron see reason.
Neville sat on the bench across from Hermione and Ron. Ron was avoiding Neville just like he had with Hermione earlier.
"What's going on guys?" Neville asked
"Nothing" replied Ron sharply hoping Neville would just drop the subject
"It's not nothing Ron! You're being irrational and hateful towards someone that one of our close friends has become close to." said Hermione trying to clear up the subject for Neville
"So this is about Severus" said Neville
"Yes. He thinks professor Snape is trying to use Harry" Hermione said
"What, why would he do that? Ron if he was going to use Harry, he wouldn't be trying to help me with potions or letting Hermione help me. He wouldn't care to get close to anyone of us except Harry" Neville said
"Why are you so ok with him being around? This man has made fun of you, ridiculed you, made you look like a fool, and now you want to just let him into our lives as if none of this has happened." Ron said aggravated by Neville acceptance of their Slytherin Professor
"I wasn't at first, but I saw how he was acting around Harry, and his willingness to be friendly and interact with us. If you gave him a chance, he might surprise."
"No, Slytherins don't change!" Ron yelled
"OK Ron, but don't let your prejudice of Slytherins ruin your friendship with Harry, he wouldn't want to lose either of you. Your foolishness may force him to make a decision between the two of you, and he might just choose Severus" Neville said as he and Hermione got up and walked out of the room resigning that Ron wasn't going to accept what they believed to be true about the situation they were in. They would leave and let him think about the situation they were facing. They were going to spend the rest of their ride to Hogwarts with the rest of their friends.
AN:Thanks for reading. Please Review. I will be trying to get another chapter up later this week if not this weekend or next week. Let me know what you think and what you might like to see happen. I take all and any review into account. Please no flames on pairings.
