His Greatest Wish, by AndromedaMarine
Weasley's Whipping
"You're more than half-decent on a broom."
"Says who?"
"Says Madam Hooch, and me, Rem, Siri, Alice, Peter, and Frank. The whole circle does. Besides, we were all in the same flying class last term. I think we should try out for the Gryffindor team next year."
"We?"
Lily smacked his arm. "Yes, we. You've been so adamant about my flying skills and now I say that if you ever want to see me on that pitch you have to try out too." She smiled triumphantly, knowing she had him cornered.
Sev groaned. He muttered to himself for a few moments, and then shot back, "Fine, but if I break my arm, leg, arse, or neck, expect me to blame you for it."
Lily stuck out her hand. "Deal, Mr. Snape."
For some very strange reason, his insides squirmed uncomfortably when she called him that. He grasped her hand and shook it, having immediately forgotten what they were agreeing upon in light of the awful writhing sensation of Mr. Snape in association with himself. Professor Snape, yes, for seventeen years, but Mr. Snape was a name associated with Tobias. And Sev couldn't stomach Tobias.
His discomfort did not go unnoticed. "Sev? You all right?"
"Yeah, just...Mr. Snape is my father..."
Confusion spread across her face. "The teachers call you that in class, Sev...?"
"Never mind," he muttered, shrugging and pulling a sheaf of parchment towards him to begin a letter to Eileen. "I still have to tell mum about summer."
Lily brightened considerably. "Then you'll come? Honestly?"
Sev smirked. "Yes, Lily, I'll stay at your house for the summer. You did invite me in November, if I remember correctly. And mum always prefers having at least a month of notice. Sending it in late April should be sufficient." He dipped the quill into some ink and began writing.
Dear Mum,
I understand from how few letters we've exchanged that you are still going out of your way to avoid father when you owl me. I wish you could make him understand that the magic can't be "squashed" out of either of us, and his continuing to drink will not change anything except distort his already distorted perceptions.
Lily began reading over his shoulder. "You sound like you're fifty or something," she commented. "All that formal language. Why don't you write a kid letter to your mum?"
Sev looked up at her slowly. "My mum's just that way. Old fashioned. She believes children should know how to write a proper letter by the time they're of Hogwarts age. Besides, a good vocabulary shows how smart you are." He turned away and didn't see her make a face at him.
Lily has persuaded me to go out for Quidditch next year with her and the rest of my year's boys. The Keeper and all three Chasers are seventh years so four spots will be open. I get the feeling none of us will get on the team, since there are much more talented players in upper years.
Speaking of Lily, she and her parents invited me to spend the summer with them. I would very much like to stay with them, but I do think it prudent to keep father out of this loop. He would kill someone or something if he found out I'm "bunking with a girl" for the summer. Could we tell him I'm spending holidays at another friend's south of London? His name's Remus Lupin and knows all about Lily's and my plans.
Please try to owl back sooner than it took you last time, mum. I'm anxious to get these details worked out for the holidays.
Love,
Severus
He folded the letter and tucked in his pocket to take to the Owlery in the morning before classes. He sat back in the armchair and relaxed as Lily began to use his quill for a letter to her own parents. He could see her words as she scratched them out.
Dear Mum and Dad,
In your last letter you asked about Sev—he just wrote a letter to his mum asking what she thought if he stayed the summer with us! I'm not sure what to think, if he thinks she'll say yes or not I can't say, he gets harder to read every day.
Sev stopped snooping after he read that. His heart hammered in his chest with wild abandon. She tells her parents about me.
About ten minutes later she signed the parchment with a flourish and had barely set the quill down when the portrait hole opened with a bang. Sev and Lily expected to see James guffawing with Gideon and Fabian Prewett over some late-night practical joke they'd just played on the new caretaker, Apollyon Pringle, but it wasn't James and the Prewett Twins. It was Molly, her eyes wide in panic, fright, and anger, running towards the girls dorm as fast as her legs would carry her.
Without a word Lily glanced at Sev and bolted up after her, concerned that whatever the seventh year Prefect was worried about could be worrisome for the whole of Gryffindor. She found Molly in the seventh year room throwing things right and left from her trunk in search of something. The four other girls in the dorm were heavily asleep and didn't awake.
"Molly? What's wrong?" Lily asked in a small voice, even though she wasn't intimidated by the other girl's age. "What happ—"
"Pringle happened," Molly snarled unexpectedly, "Apollyon Pringle happened! He caught Arthur and me—well, he caught us, you know, and dragged Arthur away to whip him!"
Lily's jaw dropped. "You're joking! He's going to whip Arthur? Isn't that illegal?"
"Of course it's illegal, it's abuse of a student! I'm trying to find my—damn it, what the bloody hell?" she finally retrieved the bottle of contraceptive potion after nicking her wrist on a shard of glass inside the trunk. "If I don't take this right now there's a chance I might—" she uncorked and downed the potion, and made a face. "Disgusting, that, but necessary." She wrapped a scarf around her bleeding wrist and turned to actually look at Lily, the glint of fear still in her eyes. "McGonagall caught me in the hall trying to go after Pringle, told me to down that if I had it... Nothing gets by her. Listen, Lily, it's after hours, so you have to stay in the Tower. I'm going to find Dumbledore and Arthur. He's probably been taken to the hospital wing." Her eyes filled with tears, and then she was gone.
Slowly Lily descended back to the common room and sat at Sev's side.
"What just happened?" Sev asked, a little confused.
"Apollyon Pringle caught Molly and Arthur in the act and took him away to be whipped." The expression on her face clearly indicated how appalling she thought this was.
Sev sat up straight. So this is what Arthur meant by having permanent evidence... "Did you want to go see him tomorrow after class?" he asked. "I think Molly would appreciate it if we did."
"Oh yes, I would," Lily replied with a smile. "I was actually thinking of going anyway, since Friday's full moon and Rem would probably appreciate it if one of us visited him beforehand."
Sirius appeared at the bottom of the boys' staircase. "Are you two still doing homework?" he asked, rubbing his eyes. "It's almost midnight."
"Why aren't you asleep?" Lily asked, opening her book bag and shoving the Transfiguration text inside on top of her Potions and Defense books.
"Peter had a nightmare and woke everyone up screaming. I noticed Sev wasn't up there, so I came down here. It's not that I'm not tired..." he trailed off into a yawn, "it's that my heart is beating fast from being jolted awake by Pete yelling."
Sev let out a sigh and rubbed his hands across his face. "Again? Doesn't he know Rabastan was expelled for killing Ward Arcturo? I thought the nightmares had stopped."
"I had too. I know it's just Peter, but it's getting really annoying." Sirius sank into a comfy chair and closed his eyes.
Sev stood up so he wouldn't fall asleep in the comfortable chair. He and Lily had done that once before and ended up almost being late to their first class. "I think we should try for some sleep," he said, stifling a yawn. "It wouldn't do to nod off during classes tomorrow, McGonagall said she'd be letting us know what to study for the exams in June."
"Ugh," Sirius moaned. "I hate exams."
Lily weakly hugged Sev goodnight and ascended to her dormitory, leaving Sirius and Sev alone in the dim common room. "Let's go see if he's calmed down," Sev suggested.
The common room remained empty until the next morning when students trickled down for breakfast and lessons. Lily managed to catch a seventh year girl and ask if Molly was still upstairs. "She wasn't there all night," the seventh year told her, leaving Lily looking concerned. After visiting the Owlery to post their letters, Sev convinced her to eat and focus in lessons, and the last bell had barely rung when Lily dragged Sev up to the hospital wing.
Madam Pomfrey glanced up from tending a patient when they walked in, scanning for Molly and Arthur. She finished with the badly burned Hufflepuff and swept over to them. "Miss Prewett has escorted Mr. Weasley back to Gryffindor Tower," she said softly. "She was here all night with him, didn't sleep a wink while Mr. Weasley rested. I've never seen such violence from a caretaker before..." She trailed off, her eyes going distant.
Sev tugged on the sleeve of Lily's robe. "Come on, we'll see them later. We should start on that enormous essay Binns wants on the endless goblin riots."
When they entered the portrait hole they heard the scattered conversations, all of them related to the seventh year prefect getting whipped last night.
"Did you hear what happened to Weasley?"
"Someone said Pringle used a cat 'o nine tails! Gosh, he's probably torn apart up there..."
"Molly was ready to hex that Squib into infertility, if you ask me."
"Still is. I heard her planning with Hester how to get payback for scarring up her man."
"So now he's 'her man'?"
"Where have you been? Weasley asked her to marry last summer! Everyone knows, except obviously you."
The Prewett twins interrupted every conversation: "We propose the prank of all pranks to get back at Pringle!"
A collective cheer went up to the ceilings of the common room.
Lily turned to Sev. "I left my History of Magic things in my room, I'll get them and meet you outside—"
"Lil, Molly is probably up in the seventh year boy's dorm with Arthur. We could go up and visit them..."
Lily wasn't so sure. "I suppose...but what if they want to be alone?"
The thought had crossed Sev's mind, but he knew Molly would appreciate anybody taking an interest in whether or not Arthur Weasley was all right. "They've been alone since last night, Lil. It's not like we're asking to be joined at the hip with them. That essay isn't due until next week."
Two minutes later they were knocking on the door to the seventh year boys' dorm. Not surprisingly it was Molly who answered, her face worn and tired, her hair a mess, but her eyes sparkled, and after a moment a smile touched her lips.
"Is he okay?" Lily asked.
Molly swung the door wide. For a moment Sev was reminded of how Arthur looked after Nagini's attack: Arthur sitting up in the bed appearing pleased, although it was clear he was still recovering. "First years?" he said with not a little surprise. Molly turned around and glared at him.
"Arthur, you know who these are. Lily Evans and Severus Snape, the two most talented first years, and it's rumored that Dumbledore is thinking of recruiting both of them when they're older." Her stare bored into her fiancé.
Arthur stared at them, his face morphing into recognition. "Oh, yes!" It was obvious they both knew about the Order of the Phoenix, at least to Sev, obvious that they were planning to join right after graduation and their eventual elopement.
"Doing all right?" Sev asked sincerely. "Students are spreading the rumor that Pringle used a cat 'o nine tails."
At this, Arthur snorted. "No, no, it was just a regular old whip, but it won't come as any surprise if it leaves scars."
Molly sat on the edge of the bed within arm's reach of Arthur. "That's all right," she said with a little smile, "girls dig scars. Right, Lily?"
Sev couldn't help but look at Lily, whose face had turned a very bright shade of red. Molly chuckled along with Arthur, but Sev could only grin.
In an unlikely twist of fate, Sev and Lily slipped into easy conversation with the two seventh years, and dinner came and went without notice. Lily and Molly decided to write letters over the summer and continuing throughout her remaining years at Hogwarts. The event of Sev's stomach growling louder than Arthur's laughs convinced Sev and Lily to descend to the kitchens for a bite, since it was nearing eight o'clock and curfew was in an hour.
They passed tiny Professor Flitwick in the Entrance Hall and bumped into Sirius and Frank on their way back up from the kitchens. The four fell into step.
"Quidditch, Lily?" Frank asked slyly, a knowing look in his eyes.
Lily tinged pink but fought it down. "Yes, Quidditch. My tryout in fall is contingent on Sev's."
Sirius let out a barking laugh. "That makes four of us boys and then you trying out from second year next term."
"Let me guess—Remus and Peter are the only ones who aren't?" Sev asked, already knowing the answer. No surprise that Potter is planning to try out. "I told Lil that if I break anything I'm blaming her."
"Good idea," Frank agreed. "But that also means if you get on the team, she gets credit."
Lily beamed. "Hah!"
"Just don't tell your parents or Petunia about it. They'd all go ballistic about you playing in a highly competitive, dangerous sport," Sev said with a knowing look in his eyes.
"Killjoy," she shot at him. "Quidditch won't be the only thing they won't know about. Obviously we can't tell them about what's been going on in the Wizarding world, not really. They'd pull me out of Hogwarts and keep me sheltered if they knew a war was looming."
They started up to the fifth floor. Sirius said, "Haven't you heard? It's not just 'looming' anymore. The Evening Prophet reported a mass uprising of Death Eaters all over Great Britain this afternoon."
The four stopped and Frank, Lily, and Sev stared at Sirius.
"He's formally declared war on the Ministry?" Lily asked incredulously.
Sirius nodded, and his expression turned dark. "My cousins are probably all in the thick of it."
"Come on, let's get to the common room. We're past curfew," Frank said uneasily.
The Fat Lady glowered at them for being out past nine, but let them in with just a purse of her painted lips. The Prewett twins, some second years, and James Potter were in one corner of the room, hunched over and obviously discussing plans for the upcoming Pringle Prank.
They joined Alice and Peter by the fire. Remus was in the hospital wing, downing pain potions in preparation for the full moon. Sirius tugged a rolled up newspaper from his bag and passed it to Sev. The Evening Prophet's headline screamed: Death Eaters Clash with Aurors in Newcastle!
Sev and Lily silently read the article and passed to over to Frank and Alice, and then to Peter.
"We can't be the first to know," Sev said, glancing around the common room. Sure enough, a group of some fifth and sixth years were quietly discussing something, and two seventh years across the room had worried expressions on their faces. "This is too big. By morning, the whole of Hogwarts will know that You-Know-Who's declared war."
A/N: Apologies for not getting this up Thursday or Friday. This was a harder chapter to write in terms of action and my week was very busy.