Chapter 7: Back to school

The school year started pleasantly for Lily. She sat with Myra at the Gryffindor table and enjoyed the sorting and the feast. Myra had spent the summer with her family in France and had much to tell. She chatted happily about the places she had been to, the food she had tried and the plans she had already made for next summer. Lily listened with great interest.

Pleasantness ended on the way to Gryffindor tower. Sirius Black linked his left arm to Lily´s right, Potter linked on her other side. Myra was driven away from her in the crowd of students by Pettigrew.

"Peter says, he saw you eating ice-cream with that Slytherin. I thought, you realized last year, how bad he is for you!" Black muttered.

"You stay away from him," added Potter. "Take this piece of advice. You stay away from him!"

"Leave me alone," Lily spat. "It´s not your business, whom I eat ice-cream with!" She tried to shake the two boys off but they were too strong.

"He´ll have to answer us, don´t make us bring this home to you again. We´re watching you." Black sneered. They let go of her arms and disappeared in the crowd. Lily´s eyes filled with tears. Reaching Gryffindor tower, she went directly to her dormitory. Myra came after her.

"Where were you? I lost you on the way upstairs." She cried happily, when she entered. Seeing Lily´s tears, she paused. "What happened?" She sat on Lily´s bed. Lily wiped her face. Hesitantly she began telling about how Pettigrew must have seen her and Severus at Diagon Alley and how Black had threatened her.

Myra was commiserating. "Pettigrew is a rat!" she spat. "And Black...I could kill them. Who do they think they are!"

"I don´t dare to picture what they are going to do to Severus!" Lily sobbed.

"Severus can look after himself, he´ll be OK." Myra said. She didn´t sound sure of what she said.

"I can´t even warn him. They are observing us. Black said so. Pettigrew will shadow me all the time, if they tell him to. Oh, Myra, what am I to do?"

"Nothing. There´s nothing you can do without causing more harm than good. You have to hope, that your friend can fight them off."

"But they are four! This is not fair."

"I never said it was."

-x-

Lily spent the next two weeks looking out for Severus. She tried to see from the distance if he had been injured, but she couldn´t make out any signs of damage. She hoped that this was a good sign. As much as she would have liked to talk to her friend, she couldn´t. Wherever she went, one of the four Gryffindor boys was around, most of the time Pettigrew. In potions, Potter occupied the seat beside her, which had been taken by Severus last year.

Then, one Friday, Severus didn´t come to breakfast. Lily waited at the Gryffindor table as long as possible watching the door anxiously, but he didn´t turn up. For the first time in months she didn´t enjoy classes. All she could think about was Severus.

Her mood changed from nervous to edgy in the course of the day. Finally at supper she couldn´t restrain herself any longer. She rushed up to Black and his friends. "What have you done? Where is he?"

"I don´t know, what you are talking about," sneered Black. "We didn´t do nothing!"

"Don´t you lie to me! Tell the truth!" All four boys stared at her in amazement. Lily was furious. "Don´t act innocent. I know, it´s your fault!" Tears filled her eyes.

"Calm down, Lily. Come." Said a quiet voice from behind her. Myra took Lily back to Gryffindor tower, where the girl sobbed with frustration and fury until she finally fell asleep.

-x-

As if to mock Lily´s black mood, the next day was sunny and warm. After breakfast, where Severus was missing again, Myra suggested a stroll to the lake and Lily agreed. They took their charms books and parchment with them and started their essay on mobilisation charms. From time to time they tried a charm before they wrote down a description of its effect.

"Don´t look, he´s standing behind that yew tree." Lily whispered and frowned.

"Who?"

"One of Black´s cronies. I didn´t see him properly but I think it´s Lupin."

"Let him stand there all day. Who cares." Myra took her wand and waved it at her inkwell. It got four legs and took flight immediatly with trippling steps. Myra went after it, but was too slow. The small bottle ran right into the lake. "Oh, no, bloody thing," she cursed. "I´ll get a new one."

"Don´t be stupid, you can use mine!"

"I have to go in anyway. I´m starving. Want some chocolate, too?" Myra went up to the castle. As soon as she was out of sight, Remus Lupin emerged from behind the yew tree.

"Do you mind if I sit down for a moment?" he asked shyly.

"Why don´t you ask if I mind if you spy on me?" Lily answered in a bitter tune.

"I´m sorry." He sat on the grass beside her. There was a moment of awkward silence. At last he spoke up. "They said the truth. They didn´t do anything."

"What?"

"The Slytherin boy. You were talking about him yesterday, weren´t you? They didn´t do anything to him. They don´t know where he is, either."

"Why do you tell me? How can I know, you don´t lie?"

"You can´t."

"So, why?"

"You´re his only friend, aren´t you? I just thought, this is not fair..."

"It isn´t. But if you know it isn´t, why do you help them spy on me?"

"They are my only friends."

"Why are they doing this anyway. What do they have against me? What did I do?"

Lupin stared at her. "Against you? They mean to protect you. The Slytherin is not good for you. He made you cry."

"He never did. What gives them the idea?"

"I´m not sure. I understand, Sirius and James cought him, when he made you cry. That was before we became friends."

"There was no such incident. Why can´t they just leave me alone!"

Lupin shrugged and got up. "I just wanted you to know, that we did no harm to him." In the distance Myra appeared. Lupin went back behind the yew tree.

-x-

Severus remained unseen for more than a week. Lily was on the edge of despair. Wednesday morning potions class was interrupted by the blonde Gryffindor prefect.

"Excuse me, Sir," she addressed professor Slughorn, who was just chatting with Josef Greenspoon about his aunt´s latest appearance in the Daily Prophet. "I´m supposed to take Evans to the headmaster´s office."

"Do so, do so," cried Slughorn happily without even looking up.

Lily packed her things and followed the prefect upstairs. She was nervous and curious at the same time. Did being taken to the headmaster mean that there was something wrong? On the other hand, the office of the headmaster surely was very interesting. The prefect took her to a stone gargoyle which seemingly guarded the entrance to the office. They were awaited as the beast jumped aside to let them pass. Behind the gargoyle was a moving spiral staircase, which ended in front of an oak door.

"You go in," said the prefect and stepped back on the moving stairs.

Lily knocked and the door was opened by professor Dumbledore himself. "Ah, come in, Miss Evans," he said with a warm smile. "We´ve been waiting for you." Lily stepped into the office and uttered a cry of joy. Beside Dumbledore´s desk stood Severus.

He looked pale and smaller than usual. He smiled weakly, when Lily approached him.

"You must know, Miss Evans," Dumbledore said and closed the door, "that Master Snape suffered a severe loss lately. His mother died last Friday."

Lily gasped. "Oh no," she whispered. "Oh, I´m so sorry." She hugged the boy and for a moment the two children stood embraced. "How did that happen?" asked Lily when she let go of her friend.

Severus struggled for words. Finally the professor stepped in. "That, Miss Evans, is not known. She was found dead, but who or what killed her will remain a secret. There are many possibilities. An accident, murder or even a curse. The only witness seems to be Master Snape´s father, who claims he can´t remember."

Lily glanced at Severus. The boy bit his lip.

"To make things worse," Dumbledore continued, "Mr Snape refused to let his son return to Hogwarts. Well, at least this I was able to sort out. So," he went on with a broad smile, "we have Master Snape back and he confided in me on our way back, that your presence would be of great comfort to him. Would you like a cup of cocoa?" The two children nodded. "Well, so I will go to the kitchens and fetch some, you have a seat meanwhile." He pointed at two armchairs near the fireplace.

They sat near the fire and enjoyed the warmth for a while in silence.

"I nearly got mad, when you were gone."

"Sorry. I should have left a message."

"How could you have? – Do you think your dad...?"

"No. I´m not sure but when he´s drunk enough to lose his memory, he´s not agressive. The more he drinks, the calmer he gets, after he´s past a certain point."

"But who...?"

"I don´t know. There are rumours about a Dark Lord, says Dumbledore. But there´s no proof that she was killed by somebody at all. It might have been an accident."

"Is it true, your dad won´t let you come back?"

Severus nodded. "Said, there´s no decency in learning magic. Said, his son won´t need hocus pocus. I´m to feed my family with my hands´ work, like he did." The boy sounded bitter. "Dumbledore was furious. They shouted."

Lily looked at him in awe. "Albus Dumbledore shouted at your father to have you come back to Hogwarts?"

Severus nodded again. The memory magiced a small smile on his pale face. "By the way... The greatest sorcerer in the world goes to the kitchens to get cocoa?" Dumbledore seemed to have waited for his cue. He entered with a small cough. "Can you believe it," he beamed. "Halfway down to the kitchens I remembered I have a wand." He conjured two mugs of cocoa from thin air. "Did you have a pleasant chat?"

The headmaster sat behind his desk reading while the children drank their cocoa in silence. "It´s too late for your potions class, now. You better go to lunch," he advised them, when they had finished.

"Yes, Sir. Thank you." The two friends left the office. Severus went directly to the Great Hall. Lily waited behind the gargoyle for some minutes before she followed.

-x-

Lily didn´t go to the Great Hall. She went down to the dungeons and waited in front of the potions classroom. When the students came out, she craned her neck for Remus Lupin. She was lucky. Black, Potter and Pettigrew left the dungeon together, but Lupin stayed behind. "See you at lunch, Remus!" cried Black. "It will take him ages to clean that up," he added in a lower voice.

"Shouldn´t we help him?" Potter was concerned.

"Nah, I´m hungry!" Black shook his head, Pettigrew nodded, then shook his head in imitation of Black.

Lily slipped into the classroom, where Lupin was mopping up a stenchy green liquid, which had not only swamped his workplace and the floor, but also soaked his book. Lily took out her wand and started drying the book. Lupin looked up from the floor, puzzled.

"I need a quick word," whispered Lily with a glance to the desk, where professor Slughorn sat, and continued her work on the book.

"I won´t go away from here in the next hour, it seems," sighed Lupin. "What do you want?"

"You seem to be more decent than the others. I need your help."

Lupin stopped mopping.

"Severus, I mean the Slytherin boy, is back. Someone died. I need you to make your friends leave him alone. At least for a while."

"Who died?"

"It´s not my business to tell you this. I already told you more than he´d approve of."

"How am I to make Sirius Black do what I want? You know him."

"I need you to try. Please!"

"If I tell them, you asked me to, they´ll guess you talked to him again."

Lily sighed. "Come on, what kind of spy are you? I´ll go to lunch and talk to Myra in a whisper. You come, walk by close and tell them, you overheard me telling Myra about it. How Dumbledore told me, when I was at his office."

"This could work. I´ll try."

Lily smiled at Lupin gratefully. "Thank you. Give me five minutes to find Myra before you come to the hall." She waved her wand at the remaining liquid and vanished it with a spell.

Lupin stared after her in amazement. This was not a second year spell. Not at all.

At his desk, from where he had been supervising Lupin´s cleaning, professor Slughorn thought exactly the same.

-x-

Things were quiet at Hogwarts for the rest of term apart from the fact that professor Slughorn started strolling by Lily´s table to have a closer look at her potions from time to time. Lupin seemed to have managed to talk his friends into a truce and Lily stayed away from Severus to give them no reason to break it. Sign language worked well enough.

The journey home for Christmas contained a common ride in Mr Evans´ car, where Severus was warmly invited to come to the Evans´ house by Lily´s mother. He came with bad news the next day.

"Dad says, he won´t let me come to ´fraternize with other wizard´s brats on a regular basis´. Sorry! I barely managed to talk him into letting me come today. He´s talking about teaching me to do a man´s work."

"What´s that supposed to mean?" Lily frowned.

"I´m not sure, but I suspect, I´ll know how to chop wood by the end of the holidays. I just hope, he wasn´t talking about slaughtering chickens."

"Why would he do that?" Lily and her mother, who were having tea with Severus in the living room, looked disgusted.

"We have a little chicken-coop behind our house. He slaughters one from time to time."

"Do you want me to talk to your father, dear?" asked Mrs Evans in concern.

"No, thank you. If he can teach me during the break, he won´t have objections against me going back to Hogwarts. Knowing how to chop wood even may come in handy one day. I´m only worried because of those chickens."

"So I´ll have to give you your Christmas present now!" cried Lily. She rushed up to her room and returned with a small parcel, wrapped in brown paper. "I didn´t know, you wouldn´t come any more or I would have wrapped it in Christmas paper earlier. Sorry, it´s not beautiful."

Severus took the present. "It looks marvellous, thank you. I don´t have a present for you," he said sadly.

"You don´t have to."

"I´ll open it at Christmas. It may be the only present I get this year."

They talked a little longer before Severus returned to his home for the rest of the break.