Something Higher on the List
The train door rattled in its sockets as Snape flung it open, managing to override even the infernal racket in the place. Oh, blast.
Now he had the unimpressed attention of every single student in the compartment.
"What?"
"Oh, it's just another one of the first-years."
"Door offended you, did it?"
Snape scowled and dragged his trunk in as the noise flowed back over his head. After that entrance, what else can I do?
He cursed his luck. And of all the places I could wander into, I have to end up with the Gryffindors. Students in the same house tended to gravitate towards each other, on board the Hogwarts Express. Even the unsorted first-years usually managed to find their way around, somehow.
Except the Slytherins, who have a grand old tradition of kicking first-years out of their territory. Lousy purists.
There was an empty space next to one of those who'd responded earlier. Snape realised, with a sudden spurt of anger, that he had to be a first-year too. A black-haired, dark-eyed boy, tall for his age, grinning like a fool and already radiating overconfidence. Over my dead body.
'Door offended you, did it?' How dare he?
Snape passed him by, but his heart sank as he walked down the corridor. They can't all be Gryffindors, can they? It can't be too much to ask for a misplaced Ravenclaw or something. Can it?
Ah.
He'd finally managed to find a pocket of quiet in the middle of all the happy back-to-school chatting. It was solely inhabited by a boy resting his chin on his fingers and gazing out of the window.
Desperation made him polite. "Is the place occupied?"
"What? Oh." The boy smiled up at him briefly, and Snape was surprised at the sharpness of his grey eyes. He'd struck him as a dreamer till that point. "No, it's not. Go on."
"Thanks." Snape watched him resume his absent manner. No, he won't be paying much attention to me. He removed a book from his trunk before he shoved his belongings beneath the seat.
It was plucked from his fingers. "What -- "
Snape jerked upright to see the black-haired boy examining his book with a smile. "Locked? Getting suspicious already, aren't we?"
Snape held his hand out. "That's mine."
The boy ignored him. "Just came to warn you that you're sitting with what's probably a Slytherin."
'What's' probably a Slytherin, I notice. Not 'who'. Snape bridled, but someone else behind him called out first. "Lay off, Sirius Black. You don't even know what house he's in yet."
Snape took the opportunity to snatch his book back. "It so happens that I do plan to get into Slytherin," he said sharply. "Not that it's any of your business."
"Ah. A confession. Why are you here, then? Seniors decided just planning to wasn't good enough?"
Snape narrowed his eyes. "Believe me, if I had any choice at all, I wouldn't be here."
"Excuse me?" Both of them turned. It was the grey-eyed boy. "Your name – Sirius? He's not bothering me. But I think you are."
Sirius tilted his head, undaunted. "Fair enough. I just wanted to make sure you knew." He grinned and nodded to Snape. "See you around, then."
"Not if I have anything to say about it."
"If you're here, I don't see how you do." Sirius sauntered off. Snape glared after him for a while and then sat down.
The grey-eyed boy smiled. "You're okay?"
Snape's reply was curt. "Yes. Thank you." He traced a chain around his neck until he found a key, then unlocked the book with it and settled down to read.
"Er…"
Snape glanced up. "Yes?"
"Is the matter of house really that important in Hogwarts?"
Snape raised his eyebrows. "You haven't seen the logo of the school yet?"
"Oh, yes." The boy paused. "The four separate shields are the house coat-of-arms, then?" He stopped again, thinking. "He called you a Slytherin. How does he know?"
Idiot. Haven't you been reading up on the school at all? For some reason Snape felt compelled to explain. "The houses group by character. Gryffindor is supposed to be for," he stopped to laugh, harshly, "bravery. I'm told it doesn't necessarily denote maturity. Our fine young friend back there's a prime example."
He put his book on his knees and rested his elbows on it, steepling his fingers. Opposite him the boy continued to keep a neutral expression. "The loyal ones go to Hufflepuff, but they're usually not very bright. Ravenclaw gets the clever students, people who pursue knowledge for the sake of pursuing knowledge, but don't seem to notice much else."
"And Slytherin?"
"Ambition. It's a house commonly associated with evil." Snape looked at him. He still didn't seem to be registering any particular expression.
"I see. And what house you're in defines you?"
"Yes. Almost completely, actually. Especially to strangers."
"Really." Snape saw an odd wistfulness cross his face. Then the boy smiled. "You know, I'd be interested to know what house you think I'll be in."
What for? But the wistful expression stopped him from refusing point-blank. It shouldn't take too long. So many people wear their houses on the outside. "All right, why not?" Snape leaned back in his seat. "Not Hufflepuff. There's something else… higher on the list. Sharper."
"Go on."
"Ravenclaw… " Snape stopped there. Most Ravenclaws were soft-spoken, and the boy fitted that bill well enough. He's not like the typical Gryffindor, either. Even so…
The wary alertness in the boy's grey eyes was bewildering. "You aren't a Ravenclaw." Something else… higher still than book learning. Snape paused, caught on a whim. "What's your name?"
The boy looked surprised, but he answered. "Remus. Remus Lu – "
Snape threw his book at him.
The boy reached up and caught it neatly by the spine. He turned a puzzled gaze onto Snape. "What was that for?"
Snape blinked. "You just – caught it like that?"
He didn't dodge. He'd thrown to miss in case he'd been wrong, but the boy couldn't have realised it, not that fast. But even if he knew it wouldn't hurt him, that still doesn't explain how easily he caught it.
To his surprise Remus blushed, passing the book back silently. Snape shook his head. No, not Ravenclaw. Too much power. "I… won't ask how you did that."
"I'd be grateful."
"Still want to continue?"
"I still want to know why you did that."
"You have… a certain something. Power. I couldn't place it until I saw you move." He watched Remus blush still more fiercely. "Did I say something wrong?"
"No. I'm sorry."
"Not Ravenclaw, then. Gryffindor or Slytherin."
Remus looked at him with some surprise. "You can't decide which?"
Snape narrowed his eyes briefly, and then sighed. "You have an honest look about you. Pure Gryffindor. A waste."
Remus smiled. "To you, maybe."
Snape smiled back, but without humour. He picked up his book again. For a moment he'd almost been sure that he'd found a fellow Slytherin. There's still a possibility, I suppose. But unlikely.
"What exactly are you reading?"
Snape lowered his book, partly annoyed, partly amused. "You were holding on to it just a while ago, and it never occurred to you to look?" He paused to search Remus' face for an indication. "It didn't, did it?"
He laughed, shortly. "Bloody fool Gryffindor."
.
Remus walked down to the Gryffindor table feeling slightly light-headed.
Sirius tapped his shoulder as he sat. "You all right?"
Remus nodded. "Fine."
"You took a while. What did the Hat tell you? Ravenclaw?"
Remus smiled uneasily, choosing to say nothing and hoping Sirius wouldn't pursue the topic. He didn't. No, not Ravenclaw.
The Hat had echoed Snape almost perfectly. Of course, the thing had known what he was. Not Hufflepuff, and not Ravenclaw. Loyal enough, and plenty of intelligence in there, but no. A genuine Dark Creature? You could lord it over the Slytherins, any day you like… not just ambition, but ability…
Remus had considered the choices and chosen accordingly.
… no? A waste, really. Still, if you think so…
He'd noticed Snape's humourless smirk and the mouthed 'bloody fool Gryffindor' as he stepped down. A waste? You really think so? I'm flattered. But it's about time I acquired a definition from something else, apart from the werewolf…
That was why he'd been so interested in the matter of house, after all. An opportunity to shake off the werewolf didn't come every day.
Sirius was speaking again, and Remus looked up. "Peter, is it? What happened to you there?"
The boy treated them to a vague smile that Remus recognised. He'd just employed it. Unlike Remus, he scrambled to explain. "I… had some trouble explaining that what I really wanted was in Gryffindor…"
Sirius raised his eyebrows. "Why? What did you want?"
Remus saw Peter wring the edge of his school robe. "The respect," he confessed.
Sirius smiled. "Well, you're here now, so you must have something going for you." He paused. "Hey, it's that kid on the train."
Remus glanced up. The name wasn't familiar, but then he hadn't asked it. Severus Snape. He watched. There was a long pause before the verdict came: "Slytherin!"
The boy gave a smirk of self-satisfaction while he was jerking his robes straight, before he stepped down to the Slytherin table. Remus realised that it was directed at him.
Next to him, Sirius snorted. "Bloody hell. What trouble did the Hat have with him, anyway? Born Slytherin, him."
Remus shrugged. He still remembered Snape's words. A certain something, higher on the list.
He didn't realise that it applied to him, too, did it?
.
Snape kept the smirk on his face, and meanwhile was glad for the fact that his hair covered his ears. He knew they would be burning red.
Gryffindor? That Hat nearly put me in Gryffindor?
He remembered what the thing had said. Power… yes. Ambition… oh, yes. Intelligence? Certainly.
A pause. But you're missing the amorality.
Snape cursed mentally. It was probably the boy on the school train, who with his strange wistfulness had somehow managed to soften him enough to waste ten minutes of his time explaining the house system, and given him cause to hope for some kind of company.
I don't have to put up with this. I'm already starting to study Dark Arts, and they dare to tell me that I should have been in Gryffindor? With those juveniles? That I'm like them?
Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
But it wasn't just that that was making him fume. It was the final words of the Sorting Hat, apparently still convinced that he would make a fine Gryffindor.
Slytherin? Really? Oh well, if you insist…
… such a waste, though.
End
Notes:
I don't like Snape, and I can't help ribbing him every now and then. Sorry. I usually call him by his last name, partly because I think it's some kind of Slytherin tradition, but mostly because I'd fall off my chair laughing if I didn't. By the way, I doubt that my portrayal of him is accurate. In general I think he's not evil, just petty and rather juvenile. He's not quite so bitter here, though. I think the Marauders did terrible things to him over those seven years.
The idea of Remus nearly becoming a Slytherin is not mine; I read it off Priestess of Avalon and it kind of stuck. Snape's thrown book I stole from Terry Pratchett (again). Vimes testing out Inigo with an orange in The Fifth Elephant. I should like to add that my version of lycanthropy does include crazy reflexes, which is why Remus could catch the book so easily, and which is why he gets so uncomfortable about it later.
Sirius is an idiot. That was a plot point, it was quite clumsy, and I apologise. However, I always thought he and Snape would have been enemies from the start, but that Remus and Snape would get along passably well until the formation of the Marauders, after which things go steadily downhill.