Conversations over Christmas:
"What could Flitwick possibly want to talk to me about?" Lily fretted as she paced up and down the room, waiting for the appointed time. In all her time at Hogwarts she had seen fellow students getting caught fighting, experimenting with magic, making out in empty rooms and so much more, and yet she was never aware of teachers deeming any of that important enough to inform parents about. So ever since she had received the note asking for a meeting the previous morning, her imagination had been going into overdrive. Was Harry in St Mungo's? Had he put someone else there? Was he being suspended? Remus had tried to calm her down, but he couldn't provide any non-threatening options either.
Finally the dreaded time arrived and Lily checked her hair in the mirror for one last time before grabbing a handful of floo powder and called out "Hogwarts Charms Office!" and stepped into the green flames.
Coming out the other side, she was stopped in her tracks by a wave of nostalgia. Even though it was now over a decade ago, she had spent the better part of seven years of her life living here. Not only that, but within these walls were formed the memories of things she had since lost. Friendships lost through death, or in Severus' case betrayal. The pure excitement of exploring this new world of magic before the shine rubbed off and the ugliness was revealed.
"Ahem, Mrs Potter." The polite address pulled her from her musings.
"Sorry Professor Flitwick, I was just caught off guard. Even after all the time away there is nowhere else quite like Hogwarts." Lily apologised, sitting down in the seat in front of the desk.
"Don't worry, you are not by any means the first, or the last to need a moment when returning here. I swear I catch Dumbledore doing it sometimes, and he has practically never left. Anyway, I suppose you are wondering why I asked you to visit me."
"Is Harry alright. He isn't hurt is he, or in lots of trouble, about to be suspended?" Lily's previous low level panic returned with a vengeance.
"No no, he is quite alright. If there was anything that serious I would have asked you to come as soon as possible. It is just circumstances occurred that I believe are best described in person, to head off any misunderstandings." The professor said in a calming tone.
"If you would bear with me, it might be better if I tell the story as I know it in full, and then you ask questions at the end." At the witch's nod he continued. "Just keep in mind through this that nobody had so much as a scratch on them by the end."
"So, as you are no doubt aware, Thursday was Hallowe'en, which is celebrated at Hogwarts with a great feast. At the very end, just before the remains of the pudding were about to be vanished and everyone head off to their common rooms, the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher Professor Quirrell, you may or may not know about him from your son, pushed the main doors open and staggered in. Just before he dramatically passed out on the floor, he exclaimed that there was a troll in the dungeons. Albus asked all the students to return to their common rooms and led the staff off to contain this problem. Once we reached the dungeons it was clear that while the troll had been there, the smell lingers for quite a while, it had since wandered off."
"It turned out that it had reached the girl's bathroom on the first floor, where it had run into a first year Gryffindor who was using it at the time. Now, one of your son's friends, Mr Longbottom, apparently knew or had worked out she was there. Along with your son and Miss Bones, he had informed one of my fifth year prefects, Miss Clearwater, of this and they were going to get her and all be escorted back to their common rooms. They arrived just in time and managed to distract the beast as it was wrecking the bathroom trying to reach Miss Granger. Miss Clearwater was using what spells she could think of to keep its attention and draw it off down the corridor, when Mr Potter managed to slip behind it and jump on its back. Avoiding being thrown off, he prompted the troll to try and hit him with it's club. A last moment intervention by Mr Longbottom and Miss Bones with a combined levitation charm, which they had been learning that week, was sufficient to divert the club's course so it struck the troll on the head and knocked it out. It was at this moment that myself and Minerva finally arrived on the scene, with Severus following soon after."
After a pause to digest this story, Lily began asking her questions. "How did the troll get into the school in the first place? Just wonder in an open door from the Forbidden Forest?"
"Unlikely, it probably had help of some description, but why I have no idea. The investigation is currently ongoing. I think Albus has his suspicions but he hasn't shared them with me. The beast has since been turned over to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."
"You said none of them were harmed."
"I took them to the Hospital Wing myself straight afterwards. Poppy gave them a once over and just issued them with a calming draught each and instructions to have an early night. Nothing but a bit of shock and persistent adrenaline."
"Why are you telling me this, and why hasn't Harry said anything?"
"I understand your confusion and the level of worry you arrived with. Unlike my colleagues I prefer taking a more hands on approach to being a Head of House, at least to the low limit my packed schedule allows. If I was a parent, I would like to be kept informed of such events happening to my children even if they resolve themselves satisfactorily. I understand that you spent your time here under Minerva, and she prefers to keep away more. I believe this is partly an attempt to encourage stronger bonds to form between her lions as they turn to each other for help. I am aware that my ravens have a tendency to be more … independent, occasionally requiring assistance in spite of themselves if you know what I mean. That is not to say that I am perfect, especially as my academic duties take up most of my time and students are always wary of bringing their troubles to a teacher, but I do what I can. As to why your son hasn't said anything, I asked him not to. As this was not urgent, I suggested that it might be better if the story came from me face-to-face rather than you learning everything from a letter and not being able to get immediate response. I would suggest that you should be the one to start the conversation once you have had some time to think about it."
"What I would ask you to bear in mind is that while ill-advised, your son is only eleven years old and did what he thought was best at the time. Even us ancients make unwise choices in the heat of the moment. While it is impossible to tell what would have happened, he could well have saved one or more of his fellow students from serious injury or even death. Secondly, he, Mr Longbottom and Miss Bones were excellent friends and support for each other during a crisis and should treasure and nurture that. It speaks well of their upbringings." The Charms professor smiled at her. "However, you may wish to tone down the stories you have been telling him of his father's schooldays if you wish to save yourself more shocks."
"I … Thank you. Would you mind if I talk this over with Lady Longbottom and Madam Bones? If they haven't heard yet I believe they have a right to, and I know them socially anyway."
"Well that explains how close your children are already despite different houses. By all means."
Lily stood and turned to leave. "One last thing." She paused. "If you ever feel a need to discuss something, as a current parent or past student don't hesitate to drop me an owl. I may not be able to reply or arrange a meeting right away, but a promise I will endeavour to get back to you."
Harry had something else to distract himself with that weekend anyway. It was Ravenclaw's first Quidditch match of the year, against Gryffindor. He had been peripherally aware of Quidditch while growing up, mainly from stories from his mother and Remus about when his father and Sirius had been chaser and beater for the Gryffindor team. However, neither Lily or Remus had followed Quidditch growing up, due to non-magical upbringing and parents enforcing his isolation respectively, so while they probably could have taken Harry to watch some games anonymously, they never felt the need. Neville and Susan were in a similar position, with Augusta never being keen on the game and Amelia having attended too many as part of her job for them to be recreational for her any more. Even Remus explaining the principles and throwing a ball around just didn't convey the true spirit of the game. Despite his shameful (according to his roommates) lack of knowledge, he was willing to learn however.
Fortunately despite it being the begin
ning of November, the weather hadn't truly turned yet, so while quite chilly on the walk down to the stadium, it was dry and bright. The stadium had some sophisticated charm work and what basically amounted to miniature wards to keep out the worst of weather, which was why games were possible at all during the Scottish winter, but there was something irreplaceable about having sunlight on your face as opposed to dark clouds above. Hufflepuff had beaten Slytherin two weeks ago. From what he could pick up from the gossip, Hufflepuff was currently dominant, Ravenclaw as their main challengers. Slytherin's captain, Marcus Flint encouraged a very 'aggressive' style of play in his team which had caused them to haemorrhage points from fouls and penalties. For Gryffindor, despite the players' natural talent and excellent teamwork, their low average age meant that they just didn't have the power, magical or physical, to make that count. While the smart money was on them being unbeatable in a few years, they would currently have to fight hard to take third.
Watching the previous match with Morag's enthusiastic commentary had meant that Harry was actually able to follow most of what was going on this time. Because a player on a broom didn't travel that much slower than a thrown ball, Quidditch was a highly tactical sport. The players drilled set manoeuvres and calls so that they could pass the ball into empty space for a teammate to fly into without having to slow down or change direction and allow the opponent a chance to catch up. The beaters had to place the bludgers to cut off lines of lines of interception to where the ball would be once their chasers had thrown it. In short, when everything was travelling fast enough that changing your momentum was non-trivial, setting your trajectory had to be done while always looking several moves ahead. Even at school level with several of the players having only been on the team for a couple of months, it resembled an incredibly complex choreographed dance. Gryffindor put up a spirited defence, but in the end their age told against them. The greater magical strength of the Ravenclaw team allowed them to push their brooms just a little bit further, and their physical size meant they could throw the quaffle faster and further and hit the bludgers harder. Even the lions leaning into their lighter weight and slower speeds by capitalising on their manoeuvrability wasn't enough, even though it did leave them a snitch up by the end. Despite the result being decided quite early on in the game, Harry still greatly enjoyed the experience, especially cheering along with his house.
That evening the normally staid Ravenclaw common room became subsumed by a raucous party, with even some of the sixth and seventh years sneaking in some alcohol, although the prefects kept a sharp eye to make sure that it was drunk in moderation and didn't drift down the years. Fortunately for the few Ravens that absolutely had to get work done the muffling charms on the balconies kept out the worst of it, although the occasional whoop or scream still broke through. One thing that stood out particularly to Harry was the music. At some point in the past someone had donated a magical sound system to the common room. It could connect to the wizarding wireless as well as being able to play from a collection of small metal balls carved in runes that seemed to function like magical sound recordings. It was not uncommon for it to be playing quietly in the corner many evenings as background noise in the ground floor of the common rooms. However, most 'approved' music was either pre-Statute of Secrecy, which wizards could claim was they had 'influenced' or from a tiny handful of home-grown composers and singers. Despite the sorting hat allocating many muggle born and raised to it, Ravenclaw was still the most 'traditional' of the houses after Slytherin. Yet its small size and the utter lack of respect bordering on contempt magical society had for artistic careers meant that this left a very small pool of options, especially for party music which was pretty much just the Weird Sister band, so as the night went on and everyone loosened up, Harry could have sworn that he recognised some of the tunes from his frequent days out in the mundane world.
The rest of the term flew by in a welter of lessons, essays, magic and fun. The only major item of note was how Hermione Granger had become a sort of unofficial Ravenclaw, even sitting in on a couple of quiz nights. Before Harry knew it he was packing for the Express as it left for the Christmas Holidays. It was a weird experience. On the one hand this had been his first time spending even a night away from home, and he was desperate to get back and see his mother and Remus again after over three months. On the other, even for this short period Hogwarts, with all of its magic and eccentricities and people had already become like a second home to him and it was weird to be leaving, even if he knew it was only for a few weeks. Just as he was having a last look around his bed before closing his trunk, there was a quiet crack and a package wrapped in brown paper appeared out of thin air. After waiting for a moment, and nothing happening, Harry tentatively reached out and picked up the scrap of parchment resting on the top. Opening it up he saw it was a note, written in a flamboyant, loopy hand:
Dear Mr Potter,
This once belonged to your father and I am returning it to you. Consider it a Christmas present, just one I felt was better to be delivered to you in person rather than trusted to an owl.
There was no signature. While he was fiercely inquisitive, and wished to open it immediately, he had been told many times before coming to Hogwarts to never open any suspicious packages without a trusted adult present, just in case. So instead Harry carefully picked it up, it was strangely light for its size, as if it were just full of air, and placed it in his trunk. If it really was his father's, then maybe his mother would know who had sent it.
He whiled away the last few hours before the carriages arrived to take them to the station playing wizard's chess against Padma, hunting down some of Oliver's wayward socks and laughing at some fifth years making a great spectacle of Bertie Bott's Beans Roulette.
It was with some relief that Harry finally stepped off the train. Somehow Hermione and Sue had managed to keep up a discussion cum argument over their preferred television programs for most of the journey, with Padma stirring them up again whenever it seemed to be winding down. Harry supposed that she must be used to tuning out that sort of thing if half of what Hermione said about rooming with her sister was true and so had inflicted it on the rest of them out of schadenfreude.
As soon as he was on the platform and out of the way of everyone else pouring out of the door he was looking around frantically for his mother. Fortunately it didn't take long. While his height made peering through the gaps in the surrounding crowd tricky, his mothers bright red hair was distinctive enough that he only needed a glimpse to identify her and hone in. Miraculously everyone craning their necks to try and spot their family and keeping his fringe long meant that nobody recognised him as the 'Boy-Who-Lived'. No one except Lily Potter, whose green eyes lit up as she turned to see the small form of her little boy slipping between a couple of corpulent wizards with long moustaches.
"Harry!" She squeaked as she rushed towards him and wrapped him in a hug, realising at the last moment that she didn't want to attract attention to them. There seemed to be an unspoken agreement between them that they wanted to get off the platform and home as soon as possible so they could talk properly. The queue at the row of floo fireplaces couldn't move fast enough and Harry was practically bouncing up and down in frustration. As they reached the front Lily dropped an anti-eavesdropping charm around them as she called out the address. Etiquette dictated that people would give you room as you used a public floo for this reason, but Lily wanted a bit of extra safety.
As soon as they stumbled out of their fireplace at the other end Remus greeted them from the kitchen table.
"Hi Harry. How has your term been? Only mildly exciting from what I have heard."
Harry dropped his trunk and ran into the room to greet the final member of his family with the necessary hug, babbling as he went.
"Uncle Remus! It was so cool. I found Susan and Neville on the train and we shared a compartment with this girl called Hermione Granger, who is muggleborn but had already learned all of the textbooks for the year cover to cover and then Draco Malfoy came in and was like…" In an unbridled stream of consciousness and childish exuberance that would have made Hermione proud. Rather than attempt to stem this world avalanche, Remus simply put his academic and Marauder skills to good use by surreptitiously taking notes under the table. By the time dinner was ready and they were all sat around the table, Harry had finally run out of steam, and now it was the adults' turn to lead the conversation.
They started innocuously, asking for more details on how he was liking some of his classes, what sort of marks his homework was getting and so forth. They, of course, had already read about most of this through letters throughout the term, but still were happy to hear it again from his mouth. Then finally Lily could not wait any longer and placed down her cutlery, fixing Harry with a stern gaze.
"So Harry, could you explain to us what happened on Hallowe'en."
Harry blushed and looked down. He and his mother had exchanged a few letters on this topic since Lily had been called into Flitwick's office. In addition they had both been aware of much of what Neville and Susan had been discussing with their guardians on it. However, Harry had known that that had been a stay of execution, waiting for him to be lectured in person.
Remus leaned forward and placed a hand over his. "Harry, we aren't just going to shout at you over this." He glanced at Lily's expression. "Not only anyway. You have to understand that even if you were alright at the end, hearing that you were anywhere near a troll, let alone helping to incapacitate one terrified your mother and myself. While we have heard one account of what happened it was second and so we need to know what happened from your perspective. Also, frankly if this has already happened once then something might happen again. Hogwarts was never the safest place even when we were students. There is a reason why Madam Pomphrey is a fully qualified Medi-Witch and in the castle at all times. With the sort of trouble magnet you may end up being because of what other people have decided about you, even without Dumbledore playing games with the school I hate to say it, but this may not be the last time you are in danger there. Just like with the pre-school preparation you have done for us, we want to go through it and help you understand what you could have or should have done differently, so next time, Merlin forbid, you don't have to nearly get hit by a troll's club."
Harry nodded, took a deep breath and began to take them through the events of that evening. Once he had finished Lily and Remus sat in silence for a minute until they were satisfied with the verdict they had come to. Much as they hated to admit it, there was nothing much that they could have expected any of the students to do differently. He had been helping a year mate by going to a prefect, the only authority figure left after the teachers had run off and left them to their own devices. Said prefect had kept all of the first years in sight and had no reason to expect to be going towards the troll. Once they had found it they had taken risks, but the smallest ones they could manage and still stop another student being brutally murdered. To be honest the main takeaway that Lily and Remus got was wondering if they would have performed half so competently if they had been in the same scenario. Ultimately the adults decided that the only thing they could do was to spend the rest of the school year researching what would be the most useful spells to teach the children over the summer given that they evidently needed to be able to defend themselves despite their young age and the nominal protection of the teachers. Maybe they could ask Amelia for ideas?
For all that Harry was a wizard learning magic in an enchanted castle, Christmas was still Christmas. His mother had taken him out for a couple of shopping trips to the mundane and magical worlds to help him pick out some gifts for his friends. Hedwig and Galahad had been flown ragged baring parcels and cards hither and thither. Once he started unpacking and remembered it was there, Harry had shown the suspicious package to his mother. She had immediately guessed what it probably was and suggested that she would check it and if she was correct it would make an excellent present to open on Christmas day.
Finally the morning arrived. Harry could barely sleep the night before and it was only with some nifty charmwork that his stocking appeared on the end of his bed by morning without him noticing. Knowing the rules, Harry waited until as soon as the sun poked above the horizon to burst out of his room and start shouting at his mother's door for her to wake up. He then tore downstairs to the living room where the tree had been set up and gleefully emptied the small wrapped gifts onto the carpet. By the time Lily staggered into the room, her late night last minute wrapping session hadn't helped if she was honest with herself, Harry was sitting proudly in the middle of a nest of torn paper, like a cat that had attacked a pillow.
Unfortunately for the boy, now that he had finished off his appetizer, he would have to wait until after lunch to open the rest. Therefore he proceeded to share his frustration with his mother by managing to be constantly under her feet as she prepared the roast. By this time Remus had arrived through the floo, having lost the argument years ago and agreeing only to spend Christmas alone if he was changing that very night, and dragged Harry outside to throw a quaffle around.
Most of the presents for Harry were from his friends, and like what he had sent them and had been in his stocking, were small things such as packets of sweets or novelty quills. There was also a pamphlet on magical creatures from Michael, relating to an incredibly odd argument they had had one afternoon, their passion only matched by their ignorance, over Hippogryph plumage colouring.
The main course, as it were, was the presents from his 'extended family', which is how he thought of the Potters (+Remus), Longbottoms and Bones. Lily and Remus had bought him his first personal broom, a Cleansweep 7, a solid midrange broom made for general use. Harry knew that most of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team used it, or equivalents. As he wouldn't be able to take it to Hogwarts with him he couldn't wait to go outside and make use of the time he had. Augusta had sent a nice pair of winter boots, with extra enchantments on the soles to grip in snow and ice, as well as keep his toes warm. Amelia had got him a small sheaf of enchanted parchments, which could be layered over a page to copy it for a short while, before it faded and could be reused. Obviously his mum had shared when he complained to her about sometimes everyone fighting over the library's copies of books they needed for a homework.
The best present, even better than the broom, had to have been the mysterious package. As Harry tore open the paper wrapping, for a moment he thought it was full of liquid as a shiny wave poured out. On closer inspection he realised it was in fact some form of incredibly thin, near transparent fabric, only visible by the iridescent sheen of strange geometric patterns. Naturally, his first reaction to being given what was as far as he could tell a very fancy sheet, was to try and wear it as a cloak. It didn't quite work, as it was very large for an eleven year old boy, and also triangular, but he gave it a go. As he looked down to inspect his handiwork, Harry gasped. He had vanished. He could see right through himself as if his head was floating in mid air. He immediately looked to his mother for verification, to see her and Remus smirking at his reaction.
"That, dear, unless I am very much mistaken, is your father's invisibility cloak." She informed him.
"Wow, like the Aurors use to hunt down criminals." Harry gasped. Occasionally Lily was struck by how … atypical her son's childhood influences were, but what's done is done. It wasn't as if she exactly had a benchmark for a 'normal' wizarding upbringing anyway.
"Actually no." Remus replied. "You see, most invisibility cloaks are cloaks that have been enchanted. The normal method is rumoured to involve using demiguise hair, although obviously no one will confirm it. They will only work as long as the magic imbued in them lasts, and while they can be repaired to a certain extent, you will rarely find one that works properly over twenty years old. That, on the other hand, is clearly not a cloak. Our best guess when James first showed it to us at school was that it was a novelty tablecloth. It is also a Potter family heirloom. While he never said specifically, this sort of thing is kept tight in the family, he let slip enough to imply that it is at least several generations old. Once you are old enough to open up Potter Manor, you should be able to search through the library to find out more. What we do know is part of the reason it has lasted so long is probably because it is not just enchanted. Think of it as like a broomstick, rather than drawing off just its internal magic to power the invisibility, it taps into the wearer as a magical focus for a concealment spell. In retrospect that may be part of the reason the other three managed the animagus transformation so young." He mused.
"What do you mean?" Lily sat up, suddenly interested.
"Well, James' parents first allowed him to bring it to school for our second year. Sirius spent holidays trying to avoid his parents as much as possible, which drove him to spend large amounts of time in the family library, as it was one of the few solo activities deemed proper." Remus grimaced remembering the stories about Walburga and Orion Black. "That Christmas he spent the time trying to find out more about the cloak, because while he did not know much about them before, it didn't seem to agree with the titbits he had picked up. He came back proudly informing us that that thing is completely impossible, so we tried to work out why. Even finding that it draws from your magic was pure fluke. We were testing against every detection charm we could get to work, which incidentally was why barely anyone managed to sneak up on us ever again after this, and that seemed to up the pull to compensate until it reached a level where somebody noticed it. I can't remember who was under it at the time, it may have been Sirius, as it always seemed to work better for James so we gave up trying with him. Anyway, once we had found that, we kept trying to replicate it. Eventually by the end of our fourth year we got to the point that all of us could identify when the cloak was working even just against sight. By that point our connection to our magic was years ahead of everyone else's, which was how we did so well in our practical exams."
By this point Harry had wandered back to the sofa and was now pulling the cloak through his fingers, marvelling at its impossibly smooth texture, yet he could still drape it over himself and move around without slipping at all. This happened quite a lot in this household. His mother and Remus would suddenly go off on complex tangents on the nature of this or that spell or potion or enchanted item. He always listened, especially at times like this when it was concerning both his father's time at school and something he was holding, but he accepted that some of this would fly straight over his head. Normally if something caught his attention he would wait until they had exhausted their burst of inspiration and get one of them to sit down and explain it to him slowly. Lily was completely the opposite, her head cocked to the side and the gears almost audibly whirring.
"I always did wonder. You do realise how disappointed all of those rumourmongers would have been if they had known there was no 'secret Black family ritual' or blackmail of the examiners, but a Potter family artefact by accident." She laughed. "I wish you had told me about it." She faux grumbled.
"I only just made the connection. Also it would have involved you willingly spending time within sight of James, or us telling Miss Goody-Two-Shoes precisely how we were sneaking around all the time."
Being the mature matron that she was, setting an example for her little gentleman of a son, Lily stuck out her tongue at Remus and everyone dissolved into giggles.
Harry took the opportunity to get his burning question in. "If this was dad's and he had it at school, who has given it to me now?"
"Dumbledore." Lily replied. "James got quite a lot of use out of it in the War, and once we were going into hiding it seemed a waste to keep it with us when it could save lives, so we lent it to the Order. Given we couldn't exactly hand it over in person every time someone wanted to use it we left it with Dumbledore to distribute. He was also examining it in his spare time to see if he could learn anything from it about concealment magic that we could use more generally. Once everything was over I didn't bother to ask for it back as we have no need for it at the moment. Evidently he has decided that he has learnt all that he can from it, or at least he thinks you deserve it more than he now. It is a bit odd that he didn't sign the note given that we know it was him." She shrugged.
The rest of the Holiday passed too quickly for Harry's liking. Not that he wasn't excited to go back to Hogwarts, but there was also a part of him that didn't want to leave home again. A couple of days before the Express was to leave, Lily finally sat Harry down for a conversation she really didn't want to have.
"Harry, come here. We need to talk about something. Don't worry, you aren't in trouble, this is more about you than me." Harry was curious now, and eagerly flopped onto the sofa to hear more.
"You know how you were writing to me complaining about how 'Professor Snape'" she grimaced slightly at the words, "was behaving towards you. Well, I said I would explain in person and I really cannot put it off any longer." Lily took a deep breath to centre herself before she continued. There was a reason that she had never talked this through with Harry before. "You know when we were talking about our time at Hogwarts, when I first arrived I had a friend who was sorted into Slytherin and we grew apart over the years?" Harry nodded. It had come up, although he had never learnt their name weirdly. "Well, that was Severus. Severus Snape."
She gave her son a minute to process that information, and once the expression of mixed horror and revulsion had passed she soldiered onwards. "I am going to try and explain what happened next as objectively as possible, but I don't know what went on in others' heads at the time. Bare in mind that we were all young and foolish. Please do not repeat any of this to anybody. Not even Neville and Susan, as this involves the past and private life of one of your teachers, so it is incredibly inappropriate for me to even tell you, but from what you have written about his behaviour I believe you have a right to know."
"Severus' parents were what mine called a 'bad lot'. His father beat him and his mother, and she did nothing to protect them. I think part of it was to do with how she hadn't told him that she was a witch until after they married and he reacted badly. There seems to be something about others having magic that can bring out the worst in people, Petunia for example." Lily laughed bitterly. Harry had never met his Aunt, and from picking up bits of conversation between his mother and Remus he knew exactly why. "He was also at the bottom of the social ladder, both in the magical and mundane worlds. This all contributed to a need to prove himself in some way, and to do so he embraced the Slytherin ideals of gaining power over others. He had always been fascinated by the ideas of the Dark Arts, as when you hear about Dark Witches and Wizards it is as people to fear, which he viewed, not necessarily wrongly, as a form of respect. Anyway. He lived just a few streets away from me and noticed me one day when I was out playing, performing some accidental magic. I can't remember precisely what it was, probably getting a flower to open up or something. I think I was about seven or so at the time. From then on he began to tell me about the wizarding world and we became friends, the only two people 'in on the secret' as it were."
"Then we went to Hogwarts. I would suggest you go to Remus at some point and ask for his perspective on things. Remember what Augusta taught you about History and Politics. Everyone is convinced that they were in the right and no one has complete information. As you know James and Sirius were basically inseparable from on the train, although they had met a few times before as they were cousins of some description. They were both blindly anti-Slytherin, at least partly driven at least in Sirius, by hatred of his parents and other ex-Slytherins they had known like them. In contrast, Severus had been fascinated by that house since his mother had told him about Hogwarts. The concept of ambition and getting power without direct confrontation appealed to him given his home life. So we ran into each other on the Express and James got it in his mind to 'save' the muggleborn from the evil Slytherin, although tact wasn't exactly his strong point, especially at eleven, so he came across not unlike you described Lucius' son." Harry grimaced at this.
"Things weren't helped when I was sorted into Gryffindor. You have only seen the rivalry second hand, and frankly from what you have said and Augusta has reported from Neville it is better than it was. You have got to understand that Voldemort was just beginning his 'rise', by getting people who would later turn out to be his followers to make lots of public comments on subjects like 'magical purity' and 'muggle ideas' and so forth. The students then were eager to repeat things said by their parents or being printed in the Prophet to incite arguments. Even in our first year a couple of people from each house were cursed in the back and sent to the hospital wing. This meant that the friendship between Severus and I was not received well by our housemates, especially for him as I was not only an enemy but also a muggleborn. Severus became particularly aggressive on his side of the conflict to try and prove himself, just as Sirius was as no Gryffindor but James trusted him because of his family. While I can't prove anything, I am sure this was made worse by some of the older Slytherins led by Lucius Malfoy, who was in his final year at the time, set Severus up to be seen as responsible for a particularly vicious attack on a Gryffindor second year which kept her in the hospital wing for a month."
"Things then just got worse from there. James and Sirius became some of the 'leaders' of the Gryffindor side, with many of their Marauder 'pranks' focussed on harassing the Slytherins and their allies in other houses. You may not have realised that from what you have heard, but that is because Remus doesn't like to talk about them too much as that is something he is not proud of. Also, when described in isolation they sound fine. Almost all of them had immediate justification, 'this Slytherin sent a curse into a Gryffindor's bag, smashing the ink pot and ruining all of their work so we hung them upside down for a bit'. It is when you look at it as a whole you see how both sides were steadily ramping up the aggression and, especially as this was all unsupervised teenagers, nobody could back down."
She grimaced. "As I said before, nobody comes out of this particularly well. Some of the worst stuff happened once the War was in full swing outside. There were always rumours flying around whenever a student's family was attacked by Death Eaters that some of their children had asked their parents to do it. I was even worse during the holidays as at least once some of the older students on the Slytherins side, which by the way didn't include all of them and had several Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs too, and even at least one Gryffindor, were accused of participating in attacks themselves. Whether these rumours were true didn't matter, Slytherins claimed responsibility to taunt and someone, often the Marauders, would take revenge and loudly crow about getting 'justice'. Probably the worst attempted example of this involved Sirius and Severus. I am not going to go into detail, just that Sirius had not thought it through at all and Severus could have died had your father not intervened. This was only one in a long series of events that convinced him that this was some sort of personal vendetta against him and attempted to reciprocate in kind, diving deep into the Dark Arts to try and offset the four to one advantage."
"As for Severus and my relationship, by fifth year it was gone completely. Partly it just wasn't safe for us to even talk together and we had to at least pretend to be enemies to satisfy our housemates. But also I don't think that anyone could spend eight months of the year living and eating and sleeping surrounded by a particular ideology without changing. It didn't help that as with many things it was spun as the 'us against them' philosophy, with 'them' being exemplified by your father, who Severus loathed, and looking back he always had a deep well of spite in him. By fifth year what had been token insults to try and fit in I was sure he actually meant, so I finally gave up hoping and decided to have nothing more to do with him. Naturally Severus decided that this was all your father's fault for poisoning him against me, which really wasn't helped when I started going out with and then married him." Lily suppressed a shudder. There had been indications during the last couple of years that Severus had been 'holding a candle' for her so to speak. Even if he hadn't become an unrepentant Death Eater that was never going to happen. That hair for one. Not that she was ever going to tell her son that, or that his teacher had almost certainly murdered and tortured in the Dark Lord's service. Swallowing what she had already revealed would be hard enough.
"Now you come along, the proof that I fell in love with his worst enemy and looking so much like a young James. From what I have heard he never really grew up anyway and by the sound of it that made him regress even further into school bully mode."
"Why didn't you tell me any of this before?" Harry protested.
"Two reasons. Firstly I really don't like talking about it. While my life before you had many happy moments, especially with your father, there were also dark times which I would rather forget and it is pointless to keep dragging back up. Secondly I didn't want you to be prejudiced. I was apparently hopelessly naive in thinking that Severus could put aside his petty grudge against a dead man and maintain professional decorum with his son, but if he had managed it I didn't want you prejudiced against him. Whatever his personal opinions or past actions he is still your teacher and that demands respect, at least while he can put you in detention." Lily smiled weakly. "Given that he effectively brought all of this up by his treatment of you I felt you deserved to know why he seems to hate you, but I ask that you don't act on any of this. I repeat, he is still your teacher and Dumbledore trusts him enough to do his job. Go to the lessons, behave and keep your head down. I have already sent a letter to Professor Flitwick asking him to keep an eye on you to try and make sure he doesn't abuse the punishment system too badly. If your potions education suffers because of this, I will help you catch up over the summer. From what you have already done for me you should be perfectly able to pass the OWL with flying colours as long as you apply yourself and then you never have to see him again. Clear."
"Yes mum." Harry replied, quite subdued as he tried to process the litany of revelations. That Slytherin who had been friends with his mum was Professor Snape? Snape ever actually had a friend? It was all hard to process, and the boy spent most of the rest of the day in his room, mulling things over.