After Severus and Lily vacated their first compartment, it proved to be rather difficult to find seats elsewhere. Most were occupied, or belonged to the Prefects. Finally, near the end of the train, they found one with only one occupant.
"Let's try here," Lily suggested.
Severus nodded, wordlessly. There were only two others they hadn't searched, and if those were occupied, they might have to resort to sitting in the corridors of the train until the trip ended. It wasn't how Severus had envisioned spending his first train ride to Hogwarts, not by a long shot.
On the other hand, nothing about this trip had gone according to his plan. If only Petunia hadn't been such a prat, or Black and Potter hadn't been there...
"Mind if we join you?" Severus asked the occupant, whose head was behind a copy of "The Standard Book of Spells, Year 1."
The boy lowered the book to reveal brown hair and a slight scar on an otherwise ordinary face. He gave them a small smile. "Sure, go ahead."
After they put their luggage on the overhead bins, Severus saw the boy (already dressed in his Hogwarts robes) had stood up and had his hand extended.
"I'm Remus Lupin," he said, his voice soft, but easy enough to understand.
"I'm Lily Evans," Lily answered with a smile, taking it.
"Severus Snape," Severus replied, also shaking Lupin's hand.
They sat down, and Severus expected him to return to his book, but he didn't.
"Are-are you first years as well?" he wondered.
They both nodded. "We're neighbors," Severus said, by way of explanation.
Well, it was sort of true. They lived close enough to walk to each other's houses. Not that Lily did much of that. She had the sense to stay away, after meeting Tobias Snape. Severus hid a shudder at the memory. His father hadn't hit Lily, but he might as well have.
Lily didn't give Severus a look, only nodded before addressing Lupin. "Yes, Sev explained all about how I was a witch. Told me how when I was eleven, I'd get my acceptance letter to Hogwarts."
Lupin's face showed interest, and perhaps, a bit of respect for Severus? He couldn't tell.
"You're from a muggle family, then?" he asked.
The tone wasn't accusing or condescending, but Severus had to resist the urge to make his hands into fists. "It doesn't matter that she is," he said, a bit more fiercely than necessary.
Judging by Lupin's look of surprise.
"No, of course not!" he said quickly. "I'm half-blood, myself. My mum's a muggle."
"A muggle?" Severus echoed, sure his disbelief showed.
Lupin actually smiled. "Yeah. Dad met her when she was half scared to death by a Bogart. She received a pretty quick introduction to magic, then."
Severus couldn't help but laugh. Lily, on the other hand, looked perplexed.
"What's a Bogart?" she asked, turning from Severus to Lupin.
Lupin had the decorum to let him explain.
"It's a dark magical creature that lives in places like cupboards, chests, grandfather clocks, that sort of thing. When they see a human, magical or not, they take on the shape of the creature that they most fear," Severus explained. "Fortunately, they're easily enough to kill, as long as you know the spell and keep your wits about you."
Lily shuddered. "That's awful! I hope we don't encounter them."
"My dad says that the Prefects usually search them out and get rid of them," Lupin reassured her. "The only time you're likely to encounter one is in Defense Against the Dark Arts, but that won't be for at least a couple of years."
Severus wondered what form his bogart would take. His own father, probably.
They spoke a bit more about what they hoped to learn when lessons started, and what was likely to be their favorite class. Lily said that she'd read over all of her textbooks twice, but the Charms one three times.
"I think that will be my favorite class," she said, happily. "But Sev thinks he'll enjoy Potions the most."
Severus shrugged. "My mum's taught me a lot about them. She won all sorts of prizes when she went here."
"Did your dad have any favorite classes?" Lupin asked.
"He's a muggle," Severus explained, more stiffly than was strictly necessary. Then, he added, "My mum didn't tell him she was a witch until they'd gotten engaged. He didn't leave her, though he hates magic."
Lupin looked pained. "That's awful, Severus. I'm sorry."
Lupin-Remus, now-sounded sincere. And he probably was. Like Severus, he came from a family with one magical relative (probably a pure-blood, by the sound of it) and one muggle. Except, unlike him, the muggle relative hated hated everything about the magical world. Remus' mum might not have died from fright, but she must have felt a sense of loyalty to his dad for having saved her from the Bogart. And, as far as Severus knew, nothing like that had happened between his parents.
Severus shrugged. "Well, I'll be at school most of the year. Doesn't matter what he thinks, really."
There was an awkward silence, and Lily broke it by asking Remus what classes he was interested in.
"Transfiguration sounds hard, but really useful. I'd like to learn more about fighting the Dark Arts as well," he said. "The day Dad talks, everything looks really interesting." With a grin, he added, "I also read over my textbooks before coming here."
Severus had as well. During the last month, when he hadn't been with Lily, it had been all he'd done. Of course, he knew most of what his Potions book had said, so he'd put more time into learning spells. Specifically, hexes. He knew that the Decree meant he couldn't use magic outside of class, but he also knew that there was no way to separate underage magic from magic used by a magical parent. His mum had told him so. She'd even bought him an unregistered wand, just in case something happened to his real wand.
Tobias Prince wouldn't hurt be able to hurt her after his first year was over. Severus would make sure of that.
After the cart of sweets came around-the three pooled their pocket money and managed to buy one of most of the sweets there-the topic of houses came up. Severus felt himself flinch when Remus mentioned it, and Lily rolled her eyes.
"Oh, not this again!" she complained, although it was half-hearted.
Remus looked perplexed. "Why not? Don't you want to guess where you'll end up?"
Lily turned to Severus, exasperation on her face. "This one-" She pointed unnecessarily to him. "-Wants me in Slytherin. The last compartment we were in, two boys heard him talking and one of them started on about how Gryffindor was loads better because his dad was there. Sev said that brains was better than brawn, and before he could hex someone, we left."
Even though Lily had rather made Severus out to be at least partially guilty, he was a little pleased that she had also implied that he could hex Black and Potter.
Remus chuckled, then covered his mouth. "Sorry," he apologized, sounding sincere enough. "Dad says house rivalry is as old as Hogwarts. Pretty much the only house that no one really minds is Ravenclaw, but everyone except Hufflepuff dismisses them." He shrugged. "I expect that there are decent people in every house."
"And not so decent, if I end up with Black and Potter," Lily pointed out.
"Well," Severus said, after a pause, "maybe. I still want to be in Slytherin, though."
Although, as Remus had pointed out, Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad.
Maybe.
Looking at Lily, he thought that if she ended up in Hufflepuff, even that might not be too terrible.
Author's note:
This is the first fic I've ever even attempted to write featuring Severus Snape (who I still think of as "Snape" in my head...) as the main character. I didn't even really like him in most of the series, although I certainly felt sorry for him in the Snape's Worst Memory chapter. (Who wouldn't?) So, even though the paternal relationship between Harry and Sirius has always been my writing preference, I decided to explore this plot bunny I had wherein Snape is sorted into Gryffindor. Since the books only show James and Sirius sharing the compartment with Severus and Lily, my muse took me to explore the idea of, upon vacating said compartment, they ended up with ANOTHER Gryffindor who was considerably less...vocal about the other houses, and who might provoke Severus into being open enough to joining the same house of his only friend.
After all, the Sorting is done alphabetically, and Severus Snape WOULD have seen everyone he met join their perspective houses before he went. And we know that the Sorting Hat takes your preference into consideration...
Any constructive feedback would be highly appreciated!
