A/N: So another chapter here for you all. I've planned out their fourth year(and probably their fifth, sixth and seventh as well) to be 5-6 chapters long. How does that pacing sound for you guys? Anyhow, hope you all enjoy the chapter, and thanks for reading!

Chapter 15 The First Day

Staying true to his word, Severus awoke early the following morning, before Thomas even, and decided to use the time to hog the bathroom to himself whilst everyone else still slumbered away. He showered quickly, and got dressed in his freshly pressed blue and cranberry robes to start the day; after finishing his morning rituals, he left the bathroom just in time to see Thomas waking and pulling back the blinds of his bed. With a groggy greeting—very telling of his half-asleep state, Thomas grabbed his uniform and trudged right past him into the bathroom. Severus went back to his bed, made sure his book bag was packed with anything he might need, before heading out of the dorm and into the common room. As he walked out of the dorm and into the hallway, an eerie sense of quiet—a total lack of noise save for the faint sounds of snoring met his ears, it almost seemed as if nothing had changed at all and the castle was still deserted, but obviously this wasn't the case.

When Severus entered the common room, he spied a gaggle of excited first years sat by the fireplace, all chatting animatedly with one another. The four boys who had gathered by the dormant fireplace, were probably all dorm mates; it was clear they must have had a tough time getting any sleep last night if their bloodshot eyes were anything to go by—but then again, Severus could recall a time when he hardly had time for something as inconsequential as sleep back when he was a first year at Hogwarts. On that one night, he, Rosier, Avery, Mulciber, Rowle and Goyle were simply Hogwarts first years and treated it as such, there was no death eater nonsense and the six boys had stayed up all night playing chess and exploding snap with one another. The political maneuvering, the power grabs and backstabbing would start in earnest after that—but for that one night they were just eleven year olds happy to be there—at Hogwarts, making new friends. They didn't even care about blood status, nor power, they were just kids having fun playing games well into the night. He hoped to enjoy that again here at Ilvermorny.

Sighing, Severus shook his head to clear his thoughts of his old house and his old school. His mum had filled him with thoughts of grandeur about how great Slytherin; but the illusion Eileen Snape had so carefully crafted for her only child came crashing down around him within the first week of Severus' time at school. Throughout that first week, he lost count of the number of times he'd been called impure, an aberration, a filthy abomination, or anything of that sort. He'd never been called a mudblood, because frankly, he wasn't one, but he'd been called any other name under the sun they could come up with to insult the fact that a pureblood witch in Eileen Prince had conceived a child with a filthy muggle. Him. From day one, the message was ingrained indelibly in his skull that he was filth, a freak of nature. His delusions of grandeur about rising to the top of the snake pile within Slytherin shattered within the first week, from then on, it was just about survival. Treading water as best he could and keeping the sharks at bay—both his roommates that constantly sneered down their noses at the poorly dressed Snape boy, and the Marauders who always had it out for him. His support system had been great though since Lucius and Narcissa had for the most part kept away the physical threats within Slytherin, but they never lifted a finger to aid Severus in his plight against the Marauders—only Lily did that.

Before long though, Thomas appeared and so did Scott from the dorm room across the hall; Lily and Caroline emerged from the girls dorms a few minutes afterwards, all of them were dressed in their smart robes—as was he. Severus got to his feet as the group neared and greeted them good morning, Lily with an added kiss on the cheek, before the five of them set off for the Meal Hall.

"So how'd you sleep Severus?" Lily asked as the duo fell into step with Thomas and the Foster siblings.

"Oh I slept alright, woke rather early though. How about you?"

"I slept great," Lily replied, and she certainly sounded like she did. Smirking deviously, Lily leaned closer 'til her lips were but millimeters from his ear, "I had all sorts of nice dreams last night Severus, with you front and center in every one of them," she whispered teasingly.

"Did you now? Well that's certainly a surprise," Severus whispered back, bearing a grin of his own. "So onwards to breakfast?"

"I think that'd be good," she agreed.

"So what do you want to do after classes then?" Severus asked, giving Lily a lingering quizzical look.

"We could study at the tree if you like, I mean…if we get a lot of assignments that is. If not we could always find something else to do," Lily answered, giving a shrug.

"Wait you guys know about the Snakewood tree?" Caroline asked, whirling around. Lily's roommate, who had been walking a few paces ahead of them, slowed down and fell in step with them.

"Yeah. We were exploring the grounds over the past few weeks and found it not too long ago. Thought it might be a nice and quiet place to study," Lily answered.

The blonde's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Great! Scott, Tommy, Sandra, Nicole and I have often used it as a study spot in years past, you're more than welcome to join us if you'd like," she said excitedly.

Severus and Lily both nodded in unison. "Sure. Lily and I have been studying by the tree a lot actually over the summer when the school was quiet."

"Brill. Well how about after classes today we meet in the great hall—I'll tell Scott and Tommy about it too and we can all go to the ole' snakewood after that. Say…would after classes at five be okay?"

"Works for us," Lily replied.

Severus, Lily and Caroline picked up the pace and caught up to Thomas and Scott; the quintet made their way into the hall—which for the most part was still quiet. There were a few cheery and overexcited first years in the hall, along with their guides, fifth year prefects who looked bored and tired out of their minds but still attentively looked after the brand new first years. So far, the hall only looked to be filled by a handful of professors and no more than fifteen or so first years and their accompanying supervisors. The group entered the hall and claimed their table from the night before—as they sat, numerous breakfast platters popped into existence in front of them on the table. Anything and everything they could imagine, from orange juice, to hash browns, to oatmeal, to Ham rashers, their spread had it all. The quintet lowered themselves into their seats and each took turns helping themselves to their desired breakfast. Severus opted for something light, just fruits and porridge; while Lily's meal seemed a little more substantial. The five fourth years were busy eating their meals and speculating on what they thought their schedules would be like when Professor Rosier, who had just recently entered the meal hall herself, wandered over with a small stack of parchment in her hands.

"Good morning everyone," Rosier greeted with a warm smile.

"Good morning Professor," they chorused back, Lily, Caroline and Thomas also sporting smiles of their own for the potions professor.

"You lot all had a restful night?"

"I certainly did Professor. But I think the same can be said of everyone else," Thomas replied.

"Good. Well here are your timetables for the year," she said, handing out five pieces of parchment to the group. "I'll be seeing all of you on Tuesdays for Regular potions. Some of you on Wednesdays for Advanced potions. And the two of you—" she was now looking solely at Severus and Lily, "—will be in my private class on Thursdays and Fridays for your…advanced tutoring."

"We'll be looking forward to all your classes professor," Lily chirped happily.

"I should hope so. That's the least I expect from you lot," Rosier said, her tone grave, but with a small smirk curling her lip that was rather telling of her upbeat mood. "Anyway, I won't trouble you all any longer, enjoy your breakfast and have a good first day of classes." The Potions Professor gave them all a wave, then turned around and headed to the next table to continue distributing timetables.

"Oh one more thing Professor!" Lily called out, just as Rosier had made it to the next table over.

Rosier turned around to face them, a slight look of exasperation on her face. "Yes, Miss Evans?"

"Uh…for our potions class, the one for Severus and I, I mean…is it alright if we share notes with Nicole?" Lily asked, her bright green eyes wide and pleading as she gave her Head of House a hopeful look. "I kinda wanted to ask since she's not here yet and she seemed pretty disappointed about losing out to Sev and I for your private class."

Rosier shrugged. "Miss Goodman was rather disappointed indeed for missing out on the class, so I don't see why not. That's very charitable of you," she replied.

Lily beamed and nodded. "Thanks Professor."

Rosier gave the five a curt nod and then proceeded away to the next table.

The five of them quickly pored over their individual schedules, and were all quick to discover that they had Charms class first thing with Professor Lambert, the Charms Professor. From what few times Lily and Severus had interacted with the woman, she seemed like a decent enough person, if not a bit brusque at times when pissed off. She favored a more theory based approach, which was more at odds with Lily, but she was quite an effective teacher—a fact Lily couldn't deny despite her dislike of her teaching style. While not rude, or even mean per se—she did enforce fairly strict classroom rules but as long as one stayed on her good side then they'd be relatively fine. After charms however, their schedules would begin to split off into their individual subject selections, although Lily, Severus and Thomas coincidentally had the exact same timetable of Charms, then Arithmancy, then Herbology, with their last period being free. Caroline and Scott however would only be with them for Charms first period, and Herbology third as neither one of them took Arithmancy. Scott also had advanced Transfiguration as his fourth period class at the end of the day.

Once they finished looking over their schedules, the group began to eat and converse about their plans for the day once classes had finished. They were joined shortly after by Nicole and Sandra, who shortly after received their schedules from Professor Rosier as well. Nicole and Sandra were still finishing off their breakfasts, but they insisted it was alright if the others left first and so they did. Severus, Lily, Caroline, Scott and Thomas—the latter of whom had just finished his meal, got to their feet and made to leave the hall. As they reached the grand Snakewood doors however, they came across the last people they wanted to see. The short stocky figure of Hank Walters, and the tall imposing frame of Jose Abreu stood in the doorway just as the five friends were leaving.

"Hey! Well if it ain't the new schmucks from across the pond!" Walters greeted with a stupid-looking grin. "Evans and Snape, those are your names right?" Abreu stood to his side also wearing a cocky smirk as he looked down on the group of seven before them—even Severus was shorter than he was.

"Yeah. What of it?" Lily retorted, on guard already. Severus moved to her side and squared up to them both, his dark eyes narrowed.

"You'd best get to breakfast," Severus said lowly. "We have charms first thing so if you don't want to be late to Lambert's class, I suggest you get moving."

"Hey now, take it easy man, we just wanted to introduce ourselves, that's all!" Walters said, squaring his shoulders.

"Well you've certainly done that, haven't you?" Severus said coolly. "Well met, but please do step aside so we can both be on our way and not a bother to one another."

Walters grinned, and shuffled just far enough out of the way for Severus to slip by. Keeping himself between the hulking boy and Lily, they both slid past him in the doorway, but just as they were leaving, Walters cast a subtle tripping jinx that just barely missed Severus' foot. Severus whirled about on the spot, wand in his hand in the blink of an eye—the speed of his draw shocked even Lily. The curse on the tip of his tongue never left as a loud, booming shout of; "Walters! I saw that, come here, now!"

Walters paled by degrees and quickly shuffled out of the doorway to the staff table where Rosier was glaring daggers at the boy and his lackey Abreu—who'd followed him like an obedient puppy.

Walters hurried through the hall with Abreu on his heels—Severus and Lily glared stiffly at their retreating backs. "I woulda cursed him had Rosier not said anything," Severus muttered.

"They're idiots Severus, don't mind them. But you also shouldn't do that, detentions are really bad for hexing in the hallways if you get caught. I have no doubt that Walters is gonna get it now from Rosy," Caroline said, her dark brown eyes narrowed on the two boys.

"Come on guys, let's keep going to class, those two'll get a detention for sure," Thomas added.

The group left the meal hall quickly, and headed out into the entrance hall before following along the corridor to Pukwudgie Tower. The Charms classes were on the second and third floors of the tall spire-like structure, since their head of house, Belladonna Lambert also served as the Charms Professor. The group headed through the entrance wing of the castle towards the base of Pukwudgie tower, then climbing up the spiral staircase within the towering structure to the third floor where their class was. As they climbed the spiral staircase up Pukwudgie Tower, they bumped into a few of the Pukwudgies on their way down to breakfast, for the most part they were upperclassmen, but Severus and Lily were shocked to see that a few of them seemed to recognize the newcomers in their midst. One of said Pukwudgies they'd come across, a sixth year Prefect, even mentioned that she looked forward to seeing them in Rosier's private tutoring class at the end of the week.

Before long, they arrived at the door to the Charms classroom and knocked thrice on the wood. The door swung aside of its own accord, admitting them into the classroom, and filling Severus with an uncanny sense of deja vu as they entered. Their Professor, Belladonna Lambert had been a Hogwarts Graduate and herself had been taught by Professor Flitwick's Predecessor, Professor Marjorie Williams. The charms classroom they knew and loved that was situated on the third floor corridor back at Hogwarts was eerily similar to the one they now stood in, this was in large part due to the fact that Lambert had designed her classroom to mirror the one she received her instruction—then her Mastery in Charms all those years ago.

While this classroom was circular, as opposed to the rectangular shape of the old one—the differences between them ended the there. At the far side of the room was the Professor's desk—above and behind the Mahogany fixture were a trio of tall windows that ran the length of the cylindrical wall—Flitwick only boasted two in his classroom back home, but these windows individually were a little smaller. The drapes that hung down alongside the trio of windows—but were currently drawn, were a mix of Ravenclaw blue, as well as Pukwudgie gold. Given that the walls of the classroom—rather, the wall of the classroom was curved, the seating arrangement was rather odd in the sense that the rows of benches and accompanying desks would run along the periphery of the room in hemispherical shape. There were two hemispheres of desks, and their accompanying benches behind them and they were found on either side of the door upon entering.

They filed in one after the other into the empty classroom, but Lily and Severus stood towards the rear of the group in the doorway—they both bore apprehensive looks on their faces. "Is it alright to enter without the professor here yet?" Lily asked, glancing curiously at the hemispherical arrangement of the desks and their accompanying chairs along the singular curved wall of the classroom.

"Oh yeah don't worry about it," Caroline said flippantly, climbing into the first row of desks on the right-hand side of the room and sitting down. Scott took his seat to her left, and Thomas, to Scott's left.

Lily followed them in and claimed the seat to Thomas' left, leaving just enough room for Severus to claim the leftmost seat of the row. Severus reached into his bag and flipped open his Charms text, and withdrew his parchment, quill and ink pot, readying all his materials for the commencement of class. Lily nudging his elbow a couple gave him reason to glance over at her; she wore an amused expression as she eyed his perfectionistic layout of all his classroom materials on the desk before him.

"Ready to hit the ground running, eh Sev?"

"Well not all of us are Charms prodigies. Some of us actually have to work for a living," Severus muttered, giving her a disdainful snort.

Lily reared back as if she were struck—and one would have thought she was indeed rather offended by Severus' blunt barb if it weren't for the teasing glint in her eyes. "You wound me. I'll have you know Severus that my Charms prowess is the result of hard work and not prodigal skills, you should know that better than anyone!"

"So you wouldn't mind at all doing my Charms assignments for me then?" Thomas asked, mouth curling into a cheeky smirk as he flashed the redhead a sidelong glance.

"Nah. Sev's always had to do his own so—"

"I also got Outstanding grades Lily, my charmwork is just fine thank you, very much," Severus scoffed.

As time inched ever closer to nine o'clock, more students filed into the classroom, some choosing to sit in the row in front of them, others on the bank of desks on the other half of the room. Neither Severus or Lily was oblivious to the angry glare Walters and Abreu sent their way, but they did their best to appear ignorant to it. Sandra, Nicole and Billy sat in the row in front of them; while John, Tsao, Barbara, Mary-Anne, Liana and Rebecca sat on the opposite of the room. The Thunderbirds they shared the class with began filing in shortly afterwards and took up the remainder of seats on both halves of the hemisphere. The last to arrive were a trio of Thunderbird boys who moved across the room and plopped themselves down next to Walters and Abreu, this was only seconds before the door swung open and a tall, imperious woman stepped through.

She was clad in all grey; from the flats she wore, to the pointed witch's hat atop her head and everything in-between; even her eyes were grey. She stalked like a panther on the prowl to her desk at the far end of the room, before whirling about and facing them. Hardened grey eyes moved across the room in a a cool sweep, taking in all the familiar faces before her, in addition to the two new faces on the left.

"Good morning." She spoke crisply, a faint rasping noise rising from Lambert's throat as she spoke.

"Good morning Professor," the majority of the class chorused, all except a certain trio of Thunderbird boys that had arrived just before the start of class; as well as Walters and Abreu. If the Professor noticed the lack of a greeting from the five boys—two of whom were rapidly ingratiating themselves in Lily's bad books—she didn't pay it any mind at all.

Clearing her throat, Professor Lambert stood to her full height and said; "Welcome to fourth year charms. As always, the year ahead of you all shall be a challenging one—of that there is no doubt. However, through hard work, and perseverance, I'm sure all of us will succeed and finish the year as far better charm casters than we were before."

With a wave of her hand, the register flew into her palm and her steely eyes flickered to and from the register to the students arrayed before her in the two half-circles. There was no need to call out students names, she was more than familiar with all but those two faces—and even then, she'd been aware of their impending arrival for quite some time.

"It seems we're all on time today," Lambert remarked in a business-like manner. She folded the annotated parchment paper up into a scroll and sent it flying to land neatly on her desk behind her.

She moved to the middle of the room and drew her wand. Waving it, two blackboards that had been stored at the side of the room zoomed through the air towards her and set themselves down on either side. With a flourish, she twirled her wand and instructions began to form on both boards—seemingly with no greater impetus than a mere flick of the Charms Mistress' wand. A few moments later, the instructions had finished writing themselves and the two boards whirled about to face the students.

"As all of you can see, my instructions for the first half hour of the lesson are on the board. During which, you shall only need your quill, some parchment, an ink-pot, and your text book. No wands are required as of yet so I do not want to see a single wand in hand, is that clear?"

"Yes Professor," the class said dutifully.

"Good." The Professor nodded curtly. "Open your Standard Book of Spells Volume IV to page seven and commence your reading. You have half an hour to finish your reading until page sixteen and taking notes on the assigned pages. Reading these first ten or so pages should be more than enough for you lot to understand the basic properties of the summoning charm which we shall be focusing on learning over the next few weeks." Lambert paused, glancing down at her watch before adding; "You may begin now."

And so the class did as they were told. All but two were well aware of what would happen should they cross Professor Lambert—especially on the first day of semester, and needless to say, none of them were quite willing to test her ire. Even Severus and Lily—who had only just met Professor Lambert for the first time, had been regaled with tales about her legendary temper by Professor Rosier and others during their time at the castle over the summer with just them and their Professors. If one were to remain on her good side however…they were told she could be a rather pleasant person; but if one were to cross her…may god have mercy on your soul. Within fifteen minutes, Lily finished skimming through the text to page sixteen and began jotting down notes on her findings, Severus was only a step behind and soon after began doing the same. By the time half an hour was up, Lily had already finished and was relaxing in her chair—truth be told, she'd already studied the properties of the summoning charm Accio, so not all of the concepts were new to her.

When time was up, Lambert sent a shower of sparks into the air from the tip of her wand—prompting all the students to put their books down. Thomas was rather miffed that he hadn't had a chance to finish all of his note-taking, but Lily assured him that later on she'd be more than willing to share her's—something he was grateful for. Once the students had set down their quills and pens, Professor Lambert tapped her wand to both black boards on either of her flanks—causing them to turn about, with one facing each hemisphere of desks.

"As you can see, I have jotted down the primary points of note that you must account for when performing the summoning charm," Lambert explained, gesturing to both boards. "The wand motion—which you will have discovered from your reading—is a pointed jab—" she demonstrated the motion, drawing her wand and jabbing it at a roll of parchment on her desk. Without need for an incantation—the sharp jab of her wand at the parchment roll caused it to soar through the air towards her and collide with her free palm. "—Like so."

The class nodded—some rather vigorously.

"Now just because the text says that a pointed jab is the best way to go about performing the wand motion, does not mean that it may work best for all of you. Many charm casters have found that perhaps an additional twirl, or a jab followed by an upward flick—works best for them when performing Accio. There will be some trial and error when you all search for the best way to perform the charm. For now though, I want you to discuss with the person sitting next to you, why there may be different wand motions that work best for the two of you."

A hand rose on the other row of desks on the opposite side of the room—judging by the insignia on his robes, the boy was a Thunderbird. "Yes Mister Patterson?" Lambert asked, whirling around to face the boy.

"About the uh…the wand-motion Professor, why is it that this spell has multiple variations of the wand motion that work best? I mean…usually with other spells there's only one wand motion that works best and that's that. Why is it different for this one?"

"Ah. A good question, Mister Patterson, but I want you to discover the answer for yourself. Discuss it with Miss Gardner next to you, using the text as well as what you see on the board and see if you can ascertain that for yourself," Lambert said.

The boy nodded.

"If that is all? Then you shall begin your discussions now. Depending on how much time you take—we may or may not have time to begin practicing the charm."

Seeming satisfied, Lambert walked from the middle of the room back to her desk and sat down, prompting the discussions to begin. For the remainder of the lesson, debates sprouted up here and there across the class as partners debated the effectiveness of different casting methods, and how they may differ depending on the caster. Lambert moved across the classroom, fostering discussion between the students and occasionally giving her own two knuts where needed.

After another thirty minutes of discussion and debate, Severus and Lily had already come up with a few alterations they wanted to try with the standard wand movement. Naturally, they'd try the standard jab along with the incantation first, and from there they would make alterations to the wand movement to find what worked best for them. Lily already had a hunch that tacking on an upward flick of her trusty willow wand immediately after the stab would work best for her—Severus had yet to form a hypothesis for himself just yet.

"How about we try just the basic jab and incantation first Sev?" Lily proposed.

Severus shrugged. "Since we only have five minutes of class left I don't see how we have much time for anything else. Why don't you do the honors?"

Lily reached for her wand and gave Severus a brilliant smile. "Only 'cus you said so," she said, grinning.

Severus and Thomas watched in avid interest as Lily directed the tip of her willow wand at the quill on her desk just a few feet away. Lily's brows knitted and her expression hardened in firm determination—then with a pointed jab of her wand and a crisp utterance of; "Accio quill!" the quill on her desk rose off the surface and shot directly into Lily's empty hand.

Lily's eyes widened, her smile bloomed, and her expression gave way from consternation and focus to one of joy and ecstasy. "It worked," she said, surprised that just the standard wand movement and incantation worked best for her.

"Well done," Thomas commended, giving Lily a nod of sincere approval. "Perhaps you might not even need the upward flick after the jab then. From the looks of things, the standard wand movement seems to work just fine for you."

"Or, perhaps if Lily were to try the upward flick, the charm would work a little too effectively, if you understand what I mean," Severus added, giving his roommate a serious look.

Thomas cocked his head sideways just a little bit, as if saying could be, probably wouldn't want to find out. "Yeah that makes sense now that I think about it, I get the feeling that if I were to add in that flick after the jab, then it'd come even faster—it was bloody fast enough as it was without it, if you ask me," Lily chuckled.

She must've spoken a little too loudly since the Professor was on them in an instant. "Yes Miss Evans? Is there something you wish to share?"

"No ma'am, sorry, I was just thinking out loud. Sorry."

The professor nodded sternly. "Just ensure you don't disturb your classmates."

"Yes ma'am," Lily said dutifully.

A few minutes later, Lambert cleared her throat, drawing the students' attention to her at the center of the room.

"Well that just about brings us to the end of the lesson," Lambert announced, glancing at the wall then back towards the students. "As it stands, I only saw a few of you manage to try out the charm for yourselves, and I believe that Miss Evans and Miss Merryweather were the first two to cast it successfully—" Lambert's steely gaze shifted to Lily and Barbara, and gave them both a nod of approval. "Well done to both of you, and five points each to Horned Serpent House for your efforts," she commended.

Lily and Barbara dipped their heads and murmured their thanks in return to the Professor.

"Now for the rest of you, Miss Merryweather and Evans included, your assignment shall be nine inches of parchment on the varying wand movements you intend to test as well as your anticipated results for each. This shall be due one week from today next Monday and I expect any requested extensions be given at least two or three days in advance."

"Yes Professor Lambert," the class chorused together.

The stern-looking woman nodded her approval. "Good. Be sure to read up on the charm so we can hit the ground running next class and begin practicing it on light objects. I hope that by the end of next week all of you shall be proficient in performing the summoning charm."

Again, the class replied; "Yes Professor."

"I believe that just about wraps up our class for today then," Lambert remarked as she glanced over at the clock on the wall. "As I mentioned just now, nine inches of parchment on my desk for next Monday, you may go."

Without need for further prompting, Severus, Lily and the rest of the students began packing up their books, quills, and ink-pots into their bags—shouldering them, then leaving the class.

Thankfully, for Lily and Severus, their remaining two classes of the day—Arithmancy and Herbology largely remained trouble free. Severus did have a close call with a particularly feisty Whippersnapper Shrub—one of the shrub's vicious vines quite nearly slashing his finger after he potted the usually docile shrub rather roughly. Thankfully, a quickly cast stunning hex from Professor Wainwright meant the vine stopped just short of lashing Severus' glove-clad finger. Thankfully, the rest of the class passed without incident, and Severus made sure not to repeat that mistake again and treated the plant as respectfully as he could. On Lily's side of things, she seemed to fare a little bit better, but even she had trouble wrangling her plant at times. When Herbology had finished, all of their little group—except for Scott and Sandra who had their Advanced Transfiguration for their final class of the day—decided now was an opportune time to visit the Snakewood tree and get cracking on their assignments. So when the bell chimed, marking the end of their third class of the day, the Horned Serpents and Pukwudgies bade goodbye to Professor Wainwright and left Greenhouse No. 4 behind them.

"We'll see you guys at dinner, yeah?" Caroline asked, her eyes shifting between her brother and roommate.

"Yup. Have fun studying you guys," Sandra replied, waving at them over her shoulder as she and Scott sauntered back into the castle from the greenhouse—heading for the Transfiguration classrooms.

"Well then," Lily remarked, clasping her hands together in anticipation. "To the Snakewood tree?"

"To the Snakewood tree," Caroline affirmed.

Severus, Lily, Caroline, Nicole and Thomas traipsed down the well-trodden path that lead to the Courtyard out in front of the castle. For just beyond the courtyard, was the Snakewood tree of myth and legend. The group arrived at the towering tree and sat down at its base. The wood was warm on their backs, a pleasant warmth that caused them all to heave quiet sighs of contentment.

"So what do you guys want to work on first?" Thomas asked, he'd set his bag down between his legs and was already reaching inside for a few books.

"Charms?" Severus suggested. "I've got a few ideas for my assignment at least that I want to jot down before I lose track of them."

"Works for me," Lily agreed.

"Us as well," Nicole and Caroline added.

"I guess we're doing charms then," Thomas said with an air of finality.

From there, their discussion fell into a charm-based orbit, the five of them, all intellectuals in their own right, bounced ideas off each other as they composed their individual essays. For the most part, Lily behaved in a mostly moderator-like role, given that she'd been one of the few who had actually managed to try and succeed at using the charm herself. As they sat beneath the tree, busy writing away on their pieces of parchment—they grew oblivious to the world around them. The air—warm and oppressive as it was on most summer days, began to cool and thicken; shadows grew longer—the shade the tree supplied growing by degrees as they sat on the eastward side of the trunk. Severus finished his assignment first, even quicker than Lily, in part due to his quick writing. Caroline and Lily finished writing their own assignments just behind him, and so did Thomas and Nicole just moments after that. Nicole signed off her name at the bottom of her parchment and expelled a happy sigh as she tucked it into her knapsack.

"All done?" Caroline asked, casting Nicole a curious look.

The redhead bobbed her head. "Yep. And not a moment too soon it seems," she said, smiling with satisfaction at her work. Nicole glanced past the four of them at the treetops beyond, just enough to see the sun dancing over their jutting peaks.

"Yeah, dinner should be served soon. Wanna head back inside you guys?" Thomas asked.

"I second that, don't know about you lot, but I'm starved," Severus added—on cue, his stomach gave a singular, loud grumble to accentuate his point.

"Yeah. Sev works up quite the appetite from studying, don't you?"

"Shut it," he grumbled, throwing Lily a scathing look that only brought on a bout of laughter from the lot of them.

"I'm just pulling your leg Sev," Lily said sweetly, leaning into him. "You know I love you." She punctuated her statement with a short, yet sweet kiss square on his lips.

The soppy grin that formed on Severus' face quite nearly caused Thomas and Caroline to burst out into laughter again—Nicole for some reason, found it decidedly less funny.

They all packed up their things, shouldered their bags, and left the sanctuary of the Snakewood tree and headed back towards the courtyard and into the castle. "D'you guys know where the kitchens are?" Thomas asked as they entered the courtyard.

"Oh we've been," Severus replied offhandedly. They moved through the courtyard, statues of various mythical beasts casting long shadows over them as they navigated the maze of stone. "Lily and I explored the castle a few weeks back and the kitchen was one of the first places we found," he explained.

"Oh." Thomas almost seemed put out at the fact. "Well let's just get to the meal hall then. Dinner'll be starting soon."

"Hopefully Sandra and Scott will be there already," Lily commented.

They left the courtyard, the students that occupied it, and the towering statues behind them and entered the Entrance Hall. Peeling off to the right, the quintet entered the mostly-vacant Meal Hall and headed over to the Horned Serpent section where they claimed their usual table. Just as they sat down however, Professor Rosier stood from her seat and began crossing the hall at a rapid clip towards them.

"Miss Evans, Mister Snape, a word please," she said, glancing at two of the five newest arrivals.

They both nodded quickly and stood from their bench and followed their Professor off to the side of the hall. Severus and Lily exchanged a fleeting, nervous glance, then fixed their eyes firmly ahead as they followed their Head of House.

"Is something the matter, Professor?" Severus asked as they reached the side of the hall, which was still void of their housemates for the moment.

"Oh no. Not at all, I just wished to impart on you both how impressed I am with your first day of classes," the Professor said proudly.

"Miss Evans," Rosier began, turning about to face her first. "Professor Lambert in particular was very impressed with your performance in Charms. She tells me you and Miss Merryweather were the only two to successfully perform the summoning charm, is that so?"

Lily flushed slightly under the praise and nodded. "Yeah. Although Sev probably would've gotten it too if he had the time to try. He's also really good at charms," Lily replied sincerely.

Rosier nodded, seemingly satisfied with her answer. "It's not often that Lambert dishes out praise, so she must really think highly of you to volunteer this," Rosier said warmly.

"As for you Severus," she added, now turning to face the taller, lanky boy. "Professor Williamsburg informed me that you earned twenty points for our house in Arithmancy for correcting him when he'd written out an equation wrong. Well done."

"It was just a simple correction Professor. Anyone could have spotted it," Severus said quietly, downplaying her praise.

"Still. I am happy to see you both get off to a good start," Rosier said, sporting a small smile of approval that filled them both with warm, fuzzy feelings—mainly Lily. "Oh and for the private class on Thursday, do try to show up at least five to ten minutes early if you can. It's important to make the most of our time together so you can use the time before class to set up your cauldrons and equipment."

"Do you mean our private class on Thursday evening professor?" Lily asked curiously.

Rosier pursed her lips together and nodded. "That's the one. You'll be with Mister Maynard—a fifth year Wampus, Miss Barnett—a sixth year Pukwudgie, and Miss Marconi—a seventh year Serpent," she explained.

"Well we'll be looking forward to it, professor, and we'll most certainly be ready," Severus intoned respectfully. "May we head back to our table now?"

Rosier glanced past them at the Caroline, Thomas and Nicole; all of whom were looking expectantly over at them. "Indeed you may, have a pleasant dinner you two."

"Thank you Professor, you as well," Lily replied, smiling.

Lily and Severus turned around, but just as they were about to head back to their table, Rosier's voice called out to them once more. "Oh, one more thing you two, let me know if Mister Walters and Abreu cause any more trouble. I saw what he tried to do at breakfast Severus, that sort of behavior is unacceptable in my house, so if that behavior persists going forward…do let me know."

"What did you say to them Professor?" Lily asked, smiling slightly at the thought.

"That shall remain between myself, and Walters; but I do not think he shall be causing trouble for you anytime soon, rest assured," Rosier said with a smile.

"Thanks Professor," Severus and Lily said in unison.

"Not at all. Now run along you two, I wouldn't want to keep you from dinner," she said warmly.

Severus and Lily wandered back to their table then where they were immediately pelted with questions from their dorm mates over what it was they were summoned by Rosier for. They evaded much of their questioning by simply saying their Head of House was checking up on them after their first full day of classes—which she was, but they left out the bit where she congratulated Severus and Lily on their stand-out performances in Arithmancy and Charms respectively. Dinner was a relatively mundane affair, Severus, Lily and the rest mainly using the time to consumer their fare in peace as well as discuss the day's events. Needless to say, they were all rather shocked at the sudden onset of homework they'd received in just the first day of classes. In Sandra's and Scott's cases, they'd received assignments in all four classes of the day—the rest escaped with just three. After Dinner was finished, Severus, Lily, Thomas and Caroline made plans to go to the library to get started on their Arithmancy assignment—whilst the rest, namely Scott, Nicole and Sandra opted to return to their dorms for some much needed rest.

So when dinner had concluded, the four of them left the hall quickly—headed for the library which was located towards the base of the Head tower and had multiple floors which each served a different purpose. The four of them eventually found a little nook between the towering bookshelves on the third floor of the library and hunkered down to complete their assignment. Thankfully, without Sandra's distracting study habits, all four of them managed to complete their Arithmancy assignments with half an hour to spare before curfew, and then headed back to their dorm once finished. By the time they arrived back at their common room on the south-face of the castle, it was mostly deserted with most students having retired to their dorm rooms for the evening, either to get an early night's sleep, or to study.

"Are you guys coming?" Caroline asked as they neared the entrances to the boys and girls dorms.

"I'll be right in Caroline, can you give us just a minute please?" Lily asked, glancing between herself and Severus.

"We can wait, we honestly don't—"

"Preferably alone," Lily interrupted, her tone just a little more insistent than before.

Caroline's dark eyes widened in surprise, she nodded quickly at the two of them, and then turned away to head to the girls dorms. Thomas passed through the other door a moment later, but not before throwing a cheeky wink Severus' way. Severus only responded with a tired roll of his eyes.

Once they were gone, Lily and Severus heaved a sigh. "Finally a moment alone," Lily chuckled, smiling happily to herself.

"Yeah," Severus agreed, smiling gently down at her. "Been looking for one all day."

Tilting his head to a nearby sofa, they both wandered over and collapsed down onto the pillowy, velvet sofa with a thump. Severus glanced out over the rest of the room, spotting only a handful of students on couches lounging about or at desks working on their homework; thankfully, all were facing away from he and Lily. Sighing, he laid down against the firm back of the couch and welcomed Lily into his arms as she laid against him.

"So how did you find your first day?" Severus asked, his lips just inches from her ear as he spoke. The smoothness of his words sending pleasant shivers down her spine.

"Same as you," she commented, laughing lightly. "I mean, we had the same classes and all, didn't we?"

"I meant beyond that, Lily," Severus said chidingly—she could almost hear the smirk and snark in his voice. "What do you think of the school as a whole?"

Expelling a sigh, she seemed to relax even further into his arms. "It's nice. Better than Hogwarts, I think, then again the lack of a Dark Lord's influence sure is nice don't you think?"

"That I'd agree with," Severus said readily.

Lily sat up then, shifting off his body and onto the sofa, then turning to face him. "I really think Ilvermorny'll be different to Hogwarts, Sev," Lily said sincerely, her visage turning more serious.

"I hope so—" his lip twitched into a little smile. "—one thing I will say is that it is nice to be in a house where not everyone is trying to stab you in the back," he added with a rueful chuckle.

"Yeah. Slytherin must've been hell if you didn't have connections or blood status," Lily commiserated, throwing Severus a sad—but not quite pitying look.

"It was…tough, as a halfblood, but I managed to keep my head above water," Severus said softly.

"But at what cost?" She asked sharply—her question cutting like a surgical blade towards the largest point of contention between them in their past at Hogwarts.

Resigned, Severus shut his eyes and nodded. "A terrible one," he said bitterly, knowing just what Lily was alluding to. Him trading his soul and his allegiance for protection.

"At least we're all away from that now," Lily remarked, her tone now more gentle. "No politics, no house rivalry, just us in a new magical world, our old one far behind. It's much better this way, in my opinion."

If someone would have told him a year ago that in one year's time, he, Severus Snape would be a proud member of Horned Serpent House at the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he would've laughed in their face and called them a lunatic. Yet, when he laid there, pondering Lily's words in his mind over and over again, he couldn't help but agree with her. In the end, try as they might, Potter, Tobias, Malfoy, Black, Mulciber and all the rest had failed when it came to taking away the one person that mattered most to him—she was still here and they were all gone. It was a thought that brought an unburdened smile to his face.

"You know Lily, I think I might just agree with that," Severus said softly, smiling contentedly up at the arched stone ceiling above him.

How could I have missed this? Severus wondered as Lily leaned in against his side and tucked her head in the crook of his neck. He slung his arm over her shoulder, pulling her closer—no complaints there.

You're all I want…all I need…the rest of it can burn for all I care. The change of scenery is a nice touch though.