Of A Sort
by FernWithy
September 1, 1969: It Begins
Part Two: Phoenix Rising
He is seven and he is alone.
Someone has made the weather outside the Ministry's magical windows bright and cheery, and he shrinks into the shadows outside the courtroom to hide from it. It isn't right for the sun to be out anywhere, certainly not in a place where there is a choice. Inside the room, the Wizengamut is in session, and sometimes he can hear Mother sobbing loudly. Father, of course, will just be sitting there, glaring. Severus is not allowed.
A boy appears at the end of the hall batting a toy snitch around. It is on a cord that is wrapped around one of his fingers. He catches it, then wiggles a pair of glasses on his face, laughing at whatever he sees when he does so. The door opens and a man sweeps out, wearing rich green robes. He sweeps the boy up and kisses him, swinging him through the air. "What good timing you have, Jamie!"
"Hullo, Daddy!" Jamie kisses the man. "I heard someone say you were almost done. Is the bad witch going to Azkaban?"
"Yes, she is. For a long time. Say, would you like an ice cream sundae?"
Jamie laughs, and the two of them disappear around the bend, talking happily, like nothing important could be happening. Another man comes through the door. Father. He stops.
"Come along, Severus."
"Mother..."
"Your mother cut herself off from us. She's gone."
"But she's... where...?"
"She swore she'd given up the Dark Arts. She lied." Father pinches Severus's arm hard and leads him down the corridor toward the lifts. When they get there, he can see Jamie and his father again, and Jamie is laughing and laughing and...
...laughing.
At first, Severus was only aware of the stink--the filthy stink of it, soaking his robes and running down his face in ropy tendrils. He saw the boy who'd run into him, heard him sputtering something through his laughter, but it didn't register. A second one barreled by, looking flushed. Then the third, laughing wildly, mockingly, giving a sneering shrug...
The Potter boy. Still laughing carelessly through his life, not caring what happened to anyone else.
Severus raised his wand. "Cruento!"
A jet of bright, clotted blood shot from his wand tip, dousing the laughing fool from head to toe, like a scalpel had cut an artery in midair.
It cut Potter's laughter off sharply. His wand was out in a flash, and he was glaring at Severus.
Good.
Some sort of ruckus broke out behind Severus, and all three boys suddenly bolted further down the train, not even looking back. A group of older students pushed their way through, knocking into Severus and getting tied up for a minute.
"Did he get you, too?" a young girl asked. She was splattered here and there with residue from the dungbombs. The older girl had gotten a worse dose, but the boy she was pushing along seemed clean enough.
"You stay here, Narcissa," the older girl said. "Wait for Lucius. I'll take care of this."
Narcissa nodded and squatted down beside Severus. "I'm sorry," she said. "My cousin knows better. He only does this to annoy us."
"Potter is your cousin?"
She frowned. "No. Sirius Black. I'm Narcissa Black."
"Oh. The other one."
"He's made friends with a Potter?" She wrinkled her nose and adopted a world-weary tone of voice that would have been quite jarring if it weren't so obviously affected. "Well, at least they're Purebloods, but that's all that can be said for them." Narcissa's eyes swept over Severus's black hair and she leaned over to squint at his eyes. He felt like he was being examined for spattergroit. "You are a Pureblood, aren't you? Cornwall lines somewhere? Auntie says the black hair and black eyes together are usually Cornwall."
Severus nodded, relieved. "My mother was a Pendarvis. But we're not from there anymore."
"Who is?" she sniffed. "And your father?"
"Snape," Severus muttered. "Siseal Snape."
"Ah," someone else said. Severus looked up to see a tall blonde boy with a green and silver prefect's badge--presumably the Lucius for whom Narcissa had been told to wait. "I know who you are. A tragedy, what happened to your mother." He shook his head. "Well, stand up, both of you."
Severus stood up, Narcissa beside him, and the older boy raised his wand. "Scourgify!"
The Charm went to Narcissa first, clearing away the remnants of the dungbomb, leaving her blonde hair and pale skin unmarked. She smiled at Lucius, and he returned it. A moment later, Severus felt the Charm hit him, and the stink of the dungbombs was whisked into nothingness. Lucius put his wand away and held out his hand. "Lucius Malfoy," he said.
"Severus Snape."
Malfoy looked over Severus's head, and his eyes narrowed. "Is that blood on the floor?"
Narcissa nodded. "Sirius has two new friends. One of them is drenched in it."
"Is he hurt?" Malfoy asked.
He didn't sound terribly concerned about the possibility, but he was a prefect. Snape shook his head quickly. "No. I just... it's a spell I know... I suppose I shouldn't have..."
Malfoy's gaze came back to Severus, vaguely surprised. "What do you take me for, one of Dumbledore's stooges? Which Curse did you use?"
"Cruento. The Blood Curse. It covers a person with blood."
"That's an advanced curse." Malfoy smiled in an impressed way that made Severus feel rather proud of himself. "Where did you learn it?"
"I found seven of my mother's books hidden under a floorboard. I learned a lot." Severus bit his tongue--Malfoy didn't need to know that the books had been reduced to ash. Father had found them in his trunk last night. It was a wonder Severus's wand had escaped the towering rage. The books had never stood a chance.
"You'll find that not everyone has given up the Old Magic," Malfoy said. "Though we should perhaps wait to discuss that until after you're Sorted."
Old Magic.
That was what Mother had called it. Father had always called it "the Dark Arts."
An older girl with a red and gold badge came bustling into the compartment. "What's going on?" she asked Narcissa. "Our trunks are covered in--"
"Dungbombs," Narcissa said, her mouth curling in distaste. "Sirius was throwing them."
"Oh."
Lucius sighed. "Do you intend to do anything about your dear little cousin, Andromeda, or do you plan to leave that to less biased prefects?"
"Whoever his House prefects are will be responsible for him," Andromeda said. "I'll talk to him for now."
"Bella's taking care of it," Narcissa said airily.
Andromeda blanched and hurried down the train without saying anything else.
"My other sister," Narcissa said. She shook her head wearily. "She's in Gryffindor."
Snape hadn't had a chance to study the Hogwarts Houses, and his father had not been forthcoming on the subject, but judging from Narcissa's tone, being Sorted into Gryffindor wasn't a terribly desirable option. "What house would you like to be in?" he asked.
"Slytherin. We're all in Slytherin, except for Andromeda. Though I'll be quite happy if Sirius isn't." She straightened her robes and patted down her hair. "Lucius is a new prefect for Slytherin House."
Lucius nodded graciously.
A compartment door banged open suddenly and a madly fluttering owl filled the air with loud screeching. Behind it, Severus could see a flash of long, bright red hair being thrown every which way by the owl's flapping wings. "Potter!" a girl yelled. "You left your owl!"
Lucius stood and went to her, taking the owl carefully and perching it on his arm to calm it down. "I'll see to it that--"
He stopped speaking.
He had been paying attention to the owl, as had Severus, but he had looked up to speak to the girl who had brought it out. His face turned hard, and he stepped protectively in front of Narcissa. Severus realized what he was seeing and backed away as well, casting his eyes down to avoid looking at her.
That, of course, was too late--he'd already seen her.
Mudblood.
She was in this world only by the invitation of the Muggle-loving Ministry, but here she stood, bold as brass, wearing a wretched dress in a floral print that ended nearly two inches above her knees. Severus could see a scrape on one of them and a bruise on the other leg. The collar was scooped down almost to where her bosoms would be if she had any yet, and her arms were entirely bare (they had of course been scratched badly by the owl, which served her right). It was thoroughly indecent.
"Are you a prefect?" she asked stridently, looking at Lucius. Her red hair was wild, the kerchief she wore over it (it matched the dress) pulled askew by the owl. "Because the boy who left his owl in with me was doing magic outside of school. He said he was going to put my trunk on the upper racks by levitating it. I told him not to, but he did it anyway, and naturally he dropped it, and now my underthings are all over the compartment."
Snape looked at her from the corner of his eye. She was standing with her hands on her hips, blinking expectantly.
Lucius straightened up. "What did you say your name was?"
"I didn't. It's Lily Evans."
"Well, Miss Evans, it sounds like you have a lot of cleaning up to do. I suggest you go about it."
"Aren't you going to do anything?"
"Because a Mudblood's knickers were spilled?" He sniffed. "I can't imagine why you're so concerned. You're hardly covering them even when you're wearing them."
Lily's jaw clenched, and she turned on her heel. "I'm going to find another prefect," she said.
"Impedimenta!" Lucius shouted, and Lily stopped moving. He reached out and turned her around. "You make me ill," he said.
She spat in his face.
Severus saw his eyes go wide in rage, and felt his own rage in concert with it. This miserable Mudblood girl, fouling a Pureblood, after ordering him to act. He raised his wand, reaching into his mind for a spell as he moved, finding one that he'd longed to try on his father someday. The girl would be good practice.
"Pusillus," he said.
The effect wasn't as gaudy as the Blood Curse, but it was as immediate. Lily Evans seemed to shrink into herself, turning her shoulders down and biting her lip anxiously. Her eyes went wide with fear. "I..." she began. "I'm sorry... I... "
"Let that serve as a reminder," Lucius said, "of how small you are. You feel small, don't you?"
She nodded.
"You are small. If you disappeared from this world, no one would miss you. You're a stranger here."
"What was that spell?" Narcissa whispered.
"Pusillus," Severus said. "It means 'insignificant.' Just a reminder." He smiled.
"Handy, that one," Narcissa said.
The dark-haired older girl and a tall boy appeared from the corridor they'd disappeared down, followed closely by Andromeda the Gryffindor prefect. Her eyes went wide, but to Severus's surprise, she said nothing, and simply stalked away purposefully.
"What have you got, Lucius?" Bella asked, looking over his shoulder. "Oh, look. They've been neglecting to clean the train again."
Lily Evans began to cry. The boy who had come in with Bella laughed.
Lucius looked over his shoulder at Severus. "That's a powerful one. Another from your mother's books?"
"Yes."
"Much as I like it, I think we should avoid doing it again. Dumbledore will undoubtedly notice something like that." He raised his wand. "Finite incantatem."
The fire rushed back into the girl's face, and she dove at Lucius. He held her back easily.
Bella pulled the kerchief from Lily's head. "Oh, good. I'm filthy. I needed something to clean up with." She wiped it over her face, smearing it with the residue from Sirius Black's dungbombs.
"Give that back," Lily said. She lurched away from Lucius, toward Bella, but he held her arms.
"I'm not done yet," Bella said, wiping her hands. "Have I got it all, Rodo?"
Rodo nodded.
"That's mine!" Lily gave another lurch, this time twisting out of Lucius's grip. She grabbed at Bella's arms, but Bella wouldn't let her find purchase.
She looked over Lily's head at Lucius. "Grab her."
Lucius did so, pulling her arms around behind her. "Stay still, Mudblood," he said.
Bella took the soiled kerchief and wiped it over Lily's face and hair, then tied it back on her. "There, see? All yours."
Lily kicked backward at Lucius. "Let go of me!"
"But you were looking for a prefect."
"Let her go."
The new voice came from behind Severus, and he jerked his head around. It was Potter, still covered with blood, along with Sirius Black and two other boys. None of them were laughing now. Their wands were raised. The owl the girl had carried out was perched on Potter's shoulder.
"Oo, look, Lucius," Bella said. "Ickle firsties coming to take us away!" She put her hand on her heart and pretended to feel faint. "What will we do?"
"The four of us can take the three of you," Potter said.
"What a shame you can't count," Severus said, standing up and taking a place between Lucius and Bella. Narcissa sighed and joined the line. The frustrated look on Potter's face was worth it.
"You seem to have missed a few yourself, mate," someone else said.
Lucius turned around, and signaled for Severus to do the same. Rodo and the girls continued facing Potter and his friends.
A tall black-haired boy had come into the fray, flanked by Andromeda Black. The boy was wearing old blue jeans that flared at the bottom and a loose fitting shirt with some bright and busy design printed on it. A round medallion with a three-branch symbol of some sort hung down on his chest. He had his wand raised, and as Severus watched, at least ten more people appeared from compartments behind him. All except one were dressed in Muggle clothing. They surrounded the black-haired boy, wands raised.
Lucius sighed. "I'm trembling, Tonks."
A small, rosy-cheeked girl leveled her wand at Lucius and stepped forward between Tonks and Andromeda. "Back off, Malfoy," she said. "You too, Black."
Lucius remained still, but when Tonks came forward and reached between Lucius and Snape, no one interfered with him. He put a hand on Lily's shoulder and pulled her out. "Sorry about this, love," he said. "You go on back to Gilderoy"--he pointed at the one member of the party other than Andromeda in wizard's robes, a foppish-looking blonde who was hanging to the back--"and he'll get you cleaned up so everyone can see how pretty you are. He's good at that. Then I'll come talk to you. Don't let this git ruin it for you."
She nodded and slipped past him. Severus saw the boy Gilderoy put an arm over her shoulder and lead her into a side compartment, then she was gone.
The battle lines remained. The rosy-cheeked girl stood on tiptoes and looked over Lucius's shoulders. "You, boys. Come over here. If you touch them, Black, I'll hex you into next year."
Potter and his friends stayed still for a moment, then lowered their wands cautiously and slipped around Bella and Narcissa. As he passed, Sirius stuck his tongue out at his cousins.
"We'll get you cleaned up, too," the girl said.
"Emmeline!" someone shouted from the back, sounding both angry and disgusted. "They're... pure!"
"Toujours," Sirius muttered bitterly as he passed Severus.
"So are Andi and Gilderoy." Tonks didn't bother looking back. "Drop the attitude, Fenwick, or I'll re-acquaint you with my fist. We don't do that."
No one spoke as Potter's group was heralded into another compartment. As soon as the door closed, Tonks lowered his wand and signaled the others to do the same. All but Emmeline did so.
"We're watching you, Malfoy," she said. "And if you think you're going to hide behind that badge, think again."
"Emmy," Tonks said. "Call off."
Emmeline put her wand away resentfully, jamming it into a pocket of her jeans and crossing her arms. There was another moment of silence, then Tonks and his group turned as smoothly as a military unit and faded back into the train.
"Mudbloods on parade," Bella sneered.
"In case you didn't notice," Lucius said, "your sister was with them."
Bella glared at him, then her gaze moved to Severus. "Who is this, anyway?"
"This is Severus Snape," Lucius told her. "Quite a talented boy. Tell Bella about that curse of yours."
The five of them went into a compartment while Severus talked about the curses and hexes in his mother's books. Other older students drifted in as the train bore north, perching themselves on top of trunks and leaning against the walls. They seemed to be gathering around Bellatrix Black in an almost ceremonial way.
When the conversation drifted away from Severus, Bella began to talk about the damage being done to ancient magical culture by the encroaching Muggle world, to frequent calls of support from the gathered students. Even Lucius Malfoy stepped aside to let her lead.
"Bella's something," Narcissa said quietly from Severus's right side, where she had settled in comfortably. "When she gets going, she can make rocks want to fight."
"Someone has to fight," he said.
"Lucius said something about your mother. What happened?"
"I don't like to talk about it."
"Was it about the Old Magic?"
He nodded.
"Is she dead?"
"I don't think so. My father would have told me. I don't like to talk about it."
Narcissa nodded wisely. "The Ministry--they're mad, you know."
"I know."
Narcissa settled back to watch her sister talk. Severus bit his lip, most of him wanting to keep his silence as he always had, but an awakening part of his mind realizing that for the first time, he was among people who would understand, who wouldn't try to convince him that it was all for the best. Who wouldn't throw things and shout, or burn books, or tear up photographs and drawings. Who wouldn't shout.
"I had a brother," he said quietly. He didn't know how long it had been since she'd asked.
Narcissa turned and looked at him with vague interest.
He swallowed. The others were all paying attention to Bella. "We were in London one day," he said. "At the Leaky Cauldron. My brother was three. He wandered outside. One of their cars hit him. His head..." Severus closed his eyes. He had seen Serenus lying there on the street, his head broken and misshapen, but he couldn't express it. "They brought him to St. Mungo's, but there was nothing they could do. My mother... she practiced Old Magic before she married my father, but he forbade it."
"Forbade?" Narcissa repeated, looking shocked.
"Yes. Even when it was for my brother. His own son. My mother found the driver. She knew a potion that would have helped my brother, so she brewed it. It needed the eyes of the person responsible. My father caught her. He vanished the potion and... and he turned her in to the Aurors. His own wife."
"That's horrible!"
"And they convicted her!" Severus forced his voice to be level. "She blinded a Muggle drunk to save her son, and they threw her into Azkaban for it. Why is a Muggle drunk more important than my brother?"
"Did your brother die?"
"Yes."
"I'm so sorry. That's awful. They should have given her the Order of Merlin for trying." Narcissa sniffed. "My Auntie says that the whole Ministry is infested with Mudbloods and blood traitors. They're the ones who force this sort of thing on us."
Severus nodded emphatically.
It was dark by the time the train pulled into Hogsmeade station, and in the bustle of disboarding, most of Bella's gang fell away. The older students boarded carriages. A huge man with wild hair was calling the first years to the edge of a lake. Bella leaned over Narcissa and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. "No Sorting surprises," she said, wagging her finger.
"I certainly hope not."
Bella smiled at Severus. "Hopefully, we'll be seeing you as well."
She, Lucius, and Rodo took a carriage (expelling two second years to do so), leaving Severus and Narcissa alone in the crowd of first years. Potter and his friends had claimed a boat for themselves already, and Lily Evans seemed to be settled in with the man who had called them to the boats. Narcissa shrugged. "I suppose we should go," she said.
Severus followed her to a boat where two sullen looking girls were sitting alone, and a moment later, they were floating across the lake, the castle on the other side looming ever larger until at last they arrived at the small dock. The man who'd led them herded them off the boats and gathered them at the foot of a great staircase.
"They're all yours, Professor McGonagall," he said.
"Thank you, Hagrid." A stern-looking witch with black hair in a tight bun was descending the stairs. The class turned to her without needing to be asked to do so. "Welcome to Hogwarts," she said, raising an eyebrow. "I've been told that several of you were involved in a fight on board the Hogwarts Express. This is not to be repeated. Is that clear?"
There was a mumbled agreement.
"Good. Now, you will follow me into the Great Hall, where you will be Sorted into your Houses. For the next seven years, these Houses will be your home. I expect you all to be a credit to them."
She led them into a vast hall with a charmed ceiling, between long tables lined with older students. Some waved, some glowered. Most ignored them. At the head of the room was a fifth table, where staff waited with varying degrees of patience. A stool stood on the floor in front of them, with a tattered old hat holding a place of honor on it.
The first years stopped in front of the hat, and its tip waved back and forth, seeming to look at them. Then a rip near the brim opened, and the hat began to sing.
Many years and years ago,
When Hogwarts School was new
The Founders worked in harmony
And thus their project grew.
Each founder had a favored strength
And built a house for all
Who shared a common vision
And answered to their call.
Gryffindor, brash as lion's roar,
Built his tower to the skies
And sought the bravest students
His own house to comprise.
Slytherin sought the purest
And the slyest for his part
He chose the best and brightest,
If ambition ruled their hearts.
Hufflepuff held to balance
And work both hard and true
All strengths in equal measure
Her praises would accrue.
Ravenclaw weighed the pros and cons
And studied through the night
To find the school's sharpest minds
And keep them in her sight.
It came to an end
As all things do
They fell away from one another
And brought troubles on the school.
Hufflepuff struggled valiantly,
Although it was too late.
Gryffindor, blind and reckless,
Rushed forth to meet his fate.
Ravenclaw shut herself away
From troubles that befell.
And Slytherin crafted lovingly
The sword on which he fell.
When they were gone, they trusted me
To choose where they could not.
To keep the school they founded
And help each student find his lot.
So come to me and try me on
And I'll say where you fit in
But pause and mark this moment now
For here it all begins!
To be continued... with the Sortings.