Chapter 13
What Is This Friends Thing?
There were many classes that Sev did not take with his fellow 4th year Slytherins, so he generally met Scorpius and Albus in one hallway or another before going to the Great Hall for lunch. It was a routine, and he liked it, but he yet had a difficult time with the concept of friends. He was not sure if he wanted to do it, if he was already doing it, if he was doing it correctly, or if there even was a correctly at all.
Many times all he could do was think that it was very odd he preferred the unknowns of screams and strange smells and sounds, to the unknowns of this world. He had so few anchors in the way things or people worked here. The inanely social routine here was disorientating.
The only good thing being that Albus and Scorpius were also known as odd in this world, and Scorpius was actually exceedingly kind here, so the two made efforts to anchor him some despite his own oddities. They seemed to like him.
In return, he helped Albus with Potions and Defense and tried to turn Scorpius into a Seeker. It was all slow going. They helped him in Benevolent World or World 2.0 as he thought of it and Ding-Dong-The-Wizard-Is-Dead-World if you listened to Albus or Scorpius after far too many sweets and butterbeers. It was a very sound arrangement and generally enjoyable.
That particular day, his 6th year Arithmancy class had an exam, and he was running late getting back downstairs to meet them after their Potions class. It didn't help that nobody was terrified of him here, so nobody moved out of the way, and his stature didn't inspire anyone to move either.
When he hit the last stair into the dungeon, he heard a familiar sound. Taunting.
Taunting was the same in every world, apparently. The ammunition of adolescents everywhere. He was going to ignore it entirely until he heard a particular phrase.
"Slytherin Squib." He didn't quite catch the rest, but that was enough. That was what some of them called Albus.
That he wasn't going to ignore. He did not need to think about what he was doing. He just did it.
There was nothing little - other than his actual size – in the way he walked right into the middle of it. Onlookers and all. He was just in time to see some Gryffindor boy shove Albus into Scorpius. Sev looked this red and gold clad blond up and down once, he didn't need the accompanying snort of amusement to convey any derision.
"Ad hominem attacks are for dolts and dimwits," he said to the Gryffindor boy (flanked with his friends), whose name he never bothered to learn in any class. "Let's leave the Neanderthals to their grunting, Albus."
"Maths are for geeks," said a Gryffindor accompaniment. The accompaniment would have been a very unfortunate dilettante in his old world…
Sev stared at him. He thinks ad hominem is Maths…
"Is this your brainy sidekick, Potter? Or are you two the sidekicks to Voldemort's son, Scorpion?"
His grey eyes snapped back to the original shove-er and to much laughter from the Gryffindors. For many reasons, Voldemort and any sidekicks were not very funny things to Sev.
Though fights in the hallways were commonplace in his time, he knew that it was not so here. While he might have indulged himself in his old life, he had some modicum of understanding that his magic was much stronger than theirs, and he had made promises about his magical knowledge because of that. So, he kept his wand firmly in his sleeve despite the casual references to the Dark Lord continually hitting him in a sore place in the gut in this world.
Instead, he pulled out his other weapon. "You know what's ironic about calling me brainy? Brains make the magic work, so it's like giving me a compliment. That I'm better at magic than you. So, thank you, I am. Good of you to notice."
Scorpius snorted. Albus grinned.
And it just happened that fast. Gryffindor boy was idiotic enough to pull his wand out and just try.
And try was all it was, because he was the kid of Professor "blocked and blocked again until you learn to keep your mind and mouth shut" Snape. Hearing the beginning of any spell was enough for a half-decent duelist to block you (at best) or blast the crap out of you first (at worst).
It was just a quick twist and Sev had his wand out, there was a crack and flash of the spell deflecting somewhere above the cluster of Gryffindors, and Sev sent the other boy flying against the wall with so little effort that everyone in the corridor was looking this way and that, unsure of what had even happened.
And, really, Sev felt it rather nice that he had not taken the blast the crap out of him first method, because he could have; he was much faster. He was also much smarter and knew the blast the crap out of them first method left you with a much more difficult defense of your actions too.
So, Sev left him stuck up there on the wall like an upright gingerbread man, feet dangling four feet from the ground, otherwise unmolested. Wounded pride was good enough to hopefully make sure he didn't bother Potter again. "His brainy friends can figure out how to get him down," he added.
"We should go," Albus said, with a bit of urgency, tapping Sev on the shoulder.
"Yeah, good idea," Scorpius said, giving a look back as they walked off from the scene of the crime. Not that it was the scene of their crime. None of them did anything wrong. Right?
"What exactly just happened?" Albus whispered, once they were far enough away.
"What do you mean? You were right there?" Sev raised an eyebrow at him, pulled his head back, and gave Albus a good look over as if maybe he'd gotten knocked on the head before Sev had arrived.
Scorpius shrugged, he was rather clueless too.
"What do I mean? It was like bang there goes a spell, whoosh hung up on the wall, what just happened that's what I mean. I mean I know you saved my life, thanks for that, but-."
"Don't say 'what just happened' again," Sev cut in, putting a hand up. "And I hardly saved your hyperbolic life," he added, with just a hint of amusement.
"But what j-," Scorpius began.
"Scorpius! Don't say it!" Sev stopped the other one this time. He then said, "Whatever that kid's name is thought it was a good idea to pull his wand out and shoot off a spell, I blocked it off into the wall above them, and stuck him to the wall before he got more great ideas. How did you not see that?"
"I barely even heard it and then it was just all the things happening," Scorpius added.
All the things. Two things. Two spells happened. Two. If that's a lot happening…
He held his breath. Every time he was hit with world differences, it impacted him. In ways he didn't really like and couldn't really explain. Everything about him was made for somewhere else. He had barely moved and hadn't even been as fast as he could and all the things happened and they couldn't even see it, because it was too much.
He took in a breath and swallowed. The number of times he would have been dead if he had not been able to see what they failed to see - without a care in the world - was astronomical.
"And then he just hung there all," there was a demonstration of flapping arms here, from Albus, who accidentally hit Sev in the arm and alerted him that they were, in fact, still in wonder of a simple blocked spell and a simple charm.
And still, in fact, talking to him too it seemed. He'd drifted in his thoughts.
"That was pretty amazing, Sev," Scorpius added.
"It was just an adhesive charm, nothing advanced, and a great deal gentler than my Expelliarmus…" If he really concentrated, he might end up with just your wand, but in the heat of any moment, if you needed to disarm someone, you generally weren't worried about accidentally sending them thirty feet flying too…And all of his spells were taught and based in reality, not the fiction of textbooks, so wasting mental energy on just the wand was gratuitous in his learning. Sticking him to the wall seemed safer.
It was not very long after lunch that Professor Slughorn penguined into the Common Room to find them.
"Uh oh," Scorpius announced in an urgent whisper, "I think Professor Slughorn's looking for us…"
"Ohh," Albus added, hunkering down a few inches so that only messy hair could be seen over the couch.
Sev looked up from the book on Physics the Muggle Studies professor had given him from his place on the couch. "Why?" He craned his head over the back of the couch and observed that Professor Slughorn was, indeed, coming their way. He prepared to get up.
"Why?" the other two asked in their insanely loud whispers.
"Severus, the Headmistress wants to see you, and you two as well, Scorpius, Albus."
A few sixth years made the "Oooooo" sound from nearby.
Sev was already standing, without any of the reluctance of the other two, who had no issue looking up at their Head of House from various seated positions. Sev put his things back into his bag and picked it up.
He had enough deductive powers to figure out the likely scenario. Perhaps no magic in the corridors was a stricter directive than he had thought? But surely they didn't want him to just let himself get hit with spells either…
"We can floo from my office, boys. Those stairs are murder on an old man."
They followed Professor Slughorn out. Sev fixed his shirttails, buttons, and tie. The other two gave him a look.
"It's called being respectful. Perhaps you should try it?" he whispered to them.
"If there is anything you want to tell me before we go up, Severus, now is the time, my boy."
"Sorry, sir. I missed that," he said.
Professor Slughorn opened his office and repeated, "I asked if there is anything you want me to know before we go up, so that I can help you? With your side of things that is?"
Sev blinked, "Erm." He generally was not an 'erm' sort, but he was a bit confused at the grim tone and insinuation. "No, sir? I don't think I have a side of things, sir. I just deflected a spell from someone who was shoving Albus and made sure he didn't shoot off any more around anyone, sir."
Professor Slughorn turned and looked at him for a moment and then the other two.
"If that's what this is about, sir," Sev added, because it wasn't making a lot of honest sense to him.
The old rotunda of a Potions master pat his shoulder, "Okay. And, yes, that is what this is about."
And if there had not been some sort of tone of foreboding before that point, he surely felt one now.
AN - Welcome to all the new favoriters and followers! Thank you so much :D
Thank you to Duj and J for your thoughtful reviews!
J - (Since I can't direct-reply to your reviews!) You are not late to the party! I'm glad you enjoyed the reveal of the promise. It was rather gut wrenching. I may one day write the scene that precipitated that as a flashback scene. It would be a tear-jerker. Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know what you think!
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