Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K.Rowling. I'm merely using him to quench my thirst for creative writing. Stay away, lawyer dudes!

Chapter 2

Saving Private Snivellus

Harry felt as though he was being shaken violently from side to side, up and down. He was uncomfortably reminded of a cola bottle Dudley used to shake to pop the cap off. Suddenly he felt ground beneath his feet, but couldn't hold himself up and went sprawling on the floor.

He retched violently, and was extremely glad that he hadn't had any breakfast. He looked around, and was struck by how different the Kings Cross station was. He saw that most of the people near him were watching him, and he realized that he was sitting on the ground. His attention was caught by an announcement for a train departing at five to eleven. He stood up in alarm, tried to look over at the clock, standing on tiptoe to peer over a lady's hat, which seemed a bit like Mrs. Figg's. "Perhaps she had bought the hat twenty years before," he thought to himself irrelevantly. His breath caught as the clock showed that he had five minutes to catch his train.

Cursing softly (he still felt a little nauseous) he hurried over to the barrier between platforms Nine and Ten. Hopefully the train still left from here, he thought, as he touched the ticket barrier experimentally. He was reassured when his hand went through, and he quickly stepped through.

He was reassured by the familiar sight of the Hogwarts express, with purple smoke coming from it's scarlet engine. There was quite a crowd on the platform, the noise of all the chatter nearly drowned out the warning whistle from the engine. He joined the rest of the black robed figures who were hurriedly boarding the train.

Harry made his way to the end of the train, hoping to find an empty compartment. He needed to think. The sight of so many unfamiliar faces laughing and talking made him feel extremely homesick…

He was going to meet his parents! And the Marauders! He wondered what their reaction would be to see someone who was practically James' twin brother. He decided he had to plan out what he was going to do, and what story he was going to give everyone about why he was joining Hogwarts so late. Dumbledore would certainly be suspicious…

He finally found an empty compartment at the very end of the train. He removed his trunk from his pocket, enlarged it and put it away under the seats. He settled down near the window, and far from planning out a strategy, he promptly fell asleep, exhausted from using so much magic to power the Time Turner.

He was standing next to Ron, Hermione and Ginny, who, for some unaccountable reason, were hitting him. Ron was pounding him on his back, Ginny was in front of him, hitting his chest with her small fist. "You git," Ron gritted out, between his teeth. "You left us behind!" Ginny looked up at him and spoke, "Potter!"

"Huh?" Ginny had never called him that before.

"Potter!" Suddenly he realized that it wasn't Ginny's voice at all.

He opened an eye blearily, and tried to glare at the intruder. "What?"

He could see that it was a dark haired girl, her face wasn't very clear. She opened her mouth, "You're not Potter…"

"'Course I am," he mumbled, trying to get back to sleep, "Harry Potter, Boy-Who-Lived, you know the one…"

"Boy who lived?" came the voice again, quizzically.

Oh dear. Harry snapped his eyes open, realizing his mistake.

"Well, you're not James Potter at any rate. Is he your brother?"

He studied the girl in front of him. Tall, with jet-black hair pulled back in a ponytail and high cheekbones that made him feel sure that she had some East-European roots. A small upturned nose lent a bit of mischief to her otherwise aristocratic face. Cold grey eyes, at the moment filled with curiosity were observing him as closely as he was observing her. Suddenly, a pink tinge appeared on her cheeks, and she looked away, reminding him that he was staring at her far too long.

"No," he said finally, "I don't have any brothers. I don't know any James Potter."

She frowned, and Harry taking advantage of her preoccupation, cast a wandless charm upon his face, elongating his cheekbones slightly, like hers, and shortening his nose slightly. Perhaps now he didn't look like an exact carbon copy of his father.

"No," the girl agreed, "You don't look much like him, I was probably carried away by the messy hair."

Harry automatically put his hand on his head, trying to flatten his hair, but to no avail.

She laughed, "You're fighting a losing battle there, Potter," and then added with a sneer, "Or should I say 'Boy Who Lived' ?"

With the sneer on her face, she looked somewhat familiar. Harry smiled back without any malice, thinking hard, trying to place her.

"I thought James Potter was the last of his family," she said, with a sniff. "Oh, it's a common enough Muggle name," he replied absently. A disapproving expression came upon her face, and she edged away from him, as though he were carrying an infectious disease. "Oh, I didn't realize you were Muggle-born."

"No, I'm not," he said, with an impatient wave of his hand, "My parents took the name when they went into hiding." Yes, this was a good enough lie. Best thing to do after blurting out that my name is Harry Potter.

"Hiding?" the girl repeated after him. "Yeah, from Voldemort…"

She gave an odd sort of yelp, and looked around fearfully, as though Voldemort was hanging around their compartment. "Have you gone mad?" she hissed, "What did you do that for?"

He shrugged, not wanting to get into an argument. He thought he'd talked enough about himself… he needed more time to think up a good story about his family. "What's your name?"

The girl froze, her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Excuse me?"

"What – is – your – name?" Harry asked, pronouncing each word clearly.

"I heard you," she snapped, "Do you honestly not know my name?"

Harry stared at her. This was the complete opposite of any conversation he would have had with a stranger in his time, he never needed to introduce himself… Suddenly, the irony of the situation struck him, he was unable to keep a straight face.

The girl fairly bristled with anger, as he laughed, she made to get up and leave.

"No, stop," Harry said, catching her wrist. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have laughed." He pulled himself together, and added, "I'm new to Hogwarts, and I don't know anyone here."

The girl sat down, her expression softening. Harry began to suspect that the arrogant air was just a façade, it was at moments like this that she showed her true self.

"Oh, were you home-schooled then?"

Harry nodded gratefully at the explanation, he didn't know any other magical schools apart from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, where the records could be checked if he claimed to have studied there.

"I'm Eliza Zabini, sixth year, Slytherin house," she told him, holding out her hand. Harry shook it, realizing that she looked a bit like Blaise Zabini, who was in his year and in Slytherin as well. His mother, perhaps? But she'd have changed her name after marriage, so it was probably his aunt or something.

"I'll be in sixth year too," he informed her, "I took my O.W.Ls privately at the ministry."

"Oh, that's nice," she said, warming up to the subject with an eagerness that reminded him strongly of Hermione. "Which subjects are you taking?"

"Defence against Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Charms, Potions and Care of Magical Creatures, I decided to drop Herbology."

She frowned at him, "Are you planning on becoming an Auror?"

She clearly didn't think much of the idea, so Harry told her that he hadn't thought about it yet, and added that since he'd failed History of Magic, Divination and Astronomy, he didn't have much choice in his N.E.W.T subjects.

Eliza gave a superior sniff again, which was slowly getting to Harry. "Astronomy is such a breeze, I can't believe you failed!"

'Not if one of your best friends was attacked by Aurors during the exams and you had a front row seat,' he thought to himself, but asked her, "What are you taking?"

"Arithmancy and Ancient Runes instead of your Care of Magical Creatures. Of course, that's an extra subject, but still…"

Harry got the impression that taking an extra subject was a very clever thing to do, before she changed the subject, "Which house do you think you'll be in? There are four houses, you know…"

"I know," he interrupted her, and she scowled, "I read about it…"

He wondered whether the Sorting Hat would keep him in Gyffindor, or move him to another house. It was a close shave the last time after all, he was very nearly put in Slytherin…

An impatient cough reminded him that he hadn't answered Eliza's question yet. "I don't know," he told her honestly, "I'm not very hardworking, and I'm not a bookworm, so that leaves Gryffindor and Slytherin, I guess."

She sniffed again, which grated on his nerves. "Will you stop doing that," he gritted out, "It's getting on my nerves."

Eliza had a very shocked expression on her face, as though she had never been spoken to like that before. She opened her mouth to retort angrily, but both of them were distracted by a loud cheer that went up in the passage outside.

"What was that?" Harry asked, moving to the door. He opened it and stepped out, a large crowd was gathered at the end of the coach. He made his way to the edge of the crowd to take a look at the disturbance.

He got a very strong sense of déjà vu. Severus Snape was facing James Potter and Sirius Black. James was holding two wands, one in each hand, apparently he had just disarmed Snape, who had backed up to the coach wall, glaring at both of them.

His dad… his dad and Sirius… they were real, he could touch them… they were alive…

"Hey look," James called out, "It's Snivelly's wand." He made an exaggerated gesture of wiping it with his robes. "As greasy as the rest of him, how on earth do you manage to hold it without it slipping away, Snivellus?"

Harry didn't think that was very funny, but the crowd laughed excitedly, waiting for some action. Snape spat out some insults at James, which made the girls in the crowd blush, and the boys mutter among themselves. Sirius made a complicated movement with his wand, and pointed it at Snape, and a flash of light later, Snape was a small green snake writhing on the floor.

The crowd murmured in appreciation, the transfiguration was quite complex. "A regular snake in the grass," laughed Sirius, adding some grass on the floor magically. The crowd roared it's approval.

Harry felt someone tugging on his arm, he turned around and found that Eliza had followed him outside. "Let's go," she hissed at him, "don't interfere with them."

Harry frowned, but he stood his ground. "Fine," she said, and stomped off back to her coach.

"Is he poisonous?" came an excited voice. Harry's face darkened as he turned back to find the voice. There he was, a short, rather plump boy, trying to peer at the snake between James and Sirius. Peter Pettigrew. Harry resisted the temptation to draw out his wand and kill him then and there, but Dumbledore's words came back to him, and he released the grip on his wand reluctantly. This wasn't the Peter who had betrayed his parents, this was an innocent sixteen year old boy, or atleast as innocent as sixteen year olds were.

"I don't know," said Sirius, frowning. "Maybe we should remove his teeth, sorry fangs, just in case…"

Harry spoke up. "That's not a very good idea."

Sirius and James jumped up, they probably thought he was a prefect, or a teacher. The crowd stepped away from him, giving them a clear view of Harry. Both sighed in relief.

Harry spoke again, "You'll find it hard to change him back, if you do that."

Sirius opened his mouth, probably to tell him to mind his own business, but a quiet voice came from the compartment closest to them. Remus Lupin stepped out, "He's right, Padfoot."

Sirius looked darkly at the snake, "You're assuming we're going to change him back, Moony?"

The crowd laughed again, but Lupin put an end to their 'show'. "I think that's quite enough, Sirius. You don't want to get into trouble even before school starts, do you?"

"Just some more, please Moony? Pleeease?" Lupin shook his head, but he was smiling slightly as Sirius went down on his knees, clasping his hands in front of him, in an exaggerated show of begging.

"Let's atleast give him boils then," Peter suggested brightly, as he drew his wand. "Furnunculus."

"Accio," said Harry calmly, and the snake zoomed towards him, as the jet of light struck the floor where Snape was a moment before.

"I said that was enough!" Lupin yelled at Peter. Harry looked at him in shock, he had never heard Lupin raise his voice before. 'Must be close to the full moon,' he thought. He smiled a little, thinking that the 'that time of the month' joke took on a whole new meaning when applied to Moony.

"Don't any of you pay any attention in Transfiguration class? A transfigured object must be kept whole in order for the reversal spell to work. And the rest of you, get back in your compartments!"

The crowd quickly dispersed, muttering among themselves. Some of them shot dark looks at Harry as they passed him. 'Probably for coming to Snape's aid,' he thought. Sirius ignored Lupin, he was scowling at Harry as well. James turned to Lupin and said lightly, "Prefect Moony."

Lupin wasn't amused, he still had a frown on his face. "Sirius, change him back, we'll get back as well."

Harry didn't think it was a very good idea for Snape to meet the Marauders so soon after his embarassment. Lupin opened his mouth to talk to Harry, but he cut him off, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it."

Lupin still looked slightly worried, "Are you sure? It is a complex bit of transfiguration…" Sirius turned away from Harry, and made to move back into their compartment. "Oh, who cares, Moony? We have better things to worry about…" The meaningful look he cast on Moony was not lost on Harry, the Marauders were going to plan one of their monthly escapades.

Harry smiled at the group, a smile which only Lupin returned, and went back to join Eliza. He didn't think he had made a great impression on Sirius or his father, pity. Plus, though he knew that all of them (except Peter) would turn out all right when they grew older, he couldn't bring himself to actually like them very much, of all the Marauders, only Lupin seemed somewhat tolerable.

Eliza looked up from the book she was reading, as he carefully placed the green snake two seats from her. "Quite a Gryffindor we've turned out to be, huh Potter?" she asked. Harry didn't have to look at her to know that she had a sneer on her face, but he ignored her. Waving his wand over the snake, he muttered the counter-Transfiguration spell. Snape suddenly appeared on the seat, but due to the strange position he was in, he toppled on to the floor.

Eliza ignored Snape completely, but was looking at Harry with a grudging sort of respect, "That was pretty good. Not many sixth-years can do that, you know."

Snape was looking up from the floor of the compartment, he looked a bit shell-shocked, but seemed all right otherwise. "Zabini?" he asked, not sounding very sure of himself. "What am I doing here?"

Eliza gave a quick shake of her head, which caused the ponytail to swing slightly and come to rest on her shoulder. "You have Potter to thank for that," she said, with a little sniff, waving over at Harry.

Quick as a flash, Snape was up again, wand clenched in his hand and a curse on his lips. Harry was saved from putting up a shield, when he stopped suddenly, seeing that it wasn't James Potter in front of him.

"He saved you from the nasty Marauders, Snape," Eliza added, rather condescendingly. "After you got yourself disarmed…"

Snape glared at her, and Harry was strongly reminded of his Potion master, with good reason. Without a word, he strode over to the door and disappeared down the corridor, his robes billowing out angrily behind him.

"Charming fellow," Harry murmured, still looking at the door. "A trait shared by most Slytherin boys in my year," Eliza replied lightly.

He was about to reply when he caught someone at the door, looking out at the receding figure of Severus Snape. Someone with red hair and green eyes… Lily Evans.

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A/N: This chapter was originally named Saving Snivellus, but I just couldn't resist putting in the 'Private'. Any guesses which house Harry gets sorted into? Easy to guess from the summary!

Oh, and assume that Harry and co. were given special permission to use magic that summer… forgot to mention that!

shadylion