They Didn't Know We Were Seeds

A meter or so away from him, Lily accepts hugs from her parents. Her mother and father talk over one another, babbling about how much they are going to miss Lily. At one point, even Petunia shuffles in to embrace her sister for a moment. After watching them out of the corner of his eyes for a time, Severus tentatively looks up at his mother. She wears a slight frown as her eyes move over the platform's crowds. Severus sighs. His family had never been physically (verbally, or materially, for that matter), affectionate, but this second childhood has brought back all the damn want he'd suppressed during his first childhood.

Sardonically, he asks, "Don't I even warrant a 'goodbye, Severus'?"

His mother's gaze snaps to him. Jaw firm, she says, "I won't take cheek from you. Especially not here."

"Sorry," Severus spits, face heating up.

She looks little appeased and Severus tenses, preparing for an onslaught of barbed words when–

"Severus!"

Both of their heads snap in the direction of the shout. Not more than a couple of steps away from them stand Sirius and his little brother, Regulus. Regulus looks terribly uneasy, but Sirius is grinning like he's won a prize. Perhaps he thinks he has. Severus had told him in his last letter if he planned to sit with him and Lily, he would have to find them before they got on the Express. He has no intentions to save him a spot in one of the compartments.

"Sirius," he returns.

The mutt grabs his brother's elbow and drags him over. "I told you I'd find you!" he says.

"You did," Severus reluctantly concedes, not entirely sure if he should be annoyed or relieved. Sirius has saved him from public humiliation, after all.

Nudging his anxious brother forward, he introduces the younger. "This is Regulus, my little brother."

Severus offers a hand to the younger boy. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Some of the boy's nerves fade away at his formalness. Severus isn't surprised. Regulus, unlike Sirius, was always eager to please, to be exactly what was expected of him by not only his parents, but by his peers. Taking his hand, Regulus shakes it. "How do you do?" he asks.

"Well, thank you. Yourself?"

The corners of Regulus's mouth lift. "A bit nervous," he admits with surprising candor.

"It'll fade," Severus tells him, returning honesty with honesty. "Especially once you're where you belong." He shoots a half-taunting, half-warning look in Sirius's direction. "And by that, I mean in Slytherin."

The smile on Regulus's face widens. "Has my brother spoken much of me? For you to be so sure?" His head cocks to the side a little. "Or perhaps my cousin? Narcissa? She's Slytherin like you."

Sirius makes a shocked noise. "He doesn't talk to 'Cissa!"

"Yes, I do," Severus tells the mutt. Then, after a moment of thought, he adds, "Perhaps if you did instead, she wouldn't hound me to know how you are fairing in Gryffindor."

Sirius crosses his arms and glares at him.

Severus rolls his eyes before he gestures behind him where the Evans are wrapping things up. "I need to say goodbye to my mother, why don't you go introduce yourself and your brother to Lily's family?"

The mutt perks right up at that. A wide, devilish grin overtaking his face, he snags his brother and says, "Come on, Reg! Lily's family are muggles!"

Alone with his mother once more, he looks at her to find her quietly assessing him. Finally, she murmurs, "You never mentioned you were friends with the Blacks."

Severus turns his gaze onto the throngs of students and families. "Don't let Sirius fool you, we aren't friends." That's probably a lie at this point, actually, but Severus refuses to admit even to himself that he just might think of Black as more than an annoying acquaintance.

"You should be careful," his mother warns. "Blacks are not friendly with half-bloods unless they want something."

He feels confident when he tells his mother, "Sirius isn't like that. He's Gryffindor."

That makes his mother pause. Softer, she says, "Even so." Reaching out, she runs her knuckles down the side of his cheek, expression unreadable. "Goodbye, Severus."

"Bye, Mum."

-O-

In the end, Sirius doesn't sit with Severus and Lily on the train. Though, he does dump his brother on them. Which irks Severus to no end. Shouldn't Regulus be sitting with other soon-to-be first years and making nice with them? For her part, Lily doesn't seem to mind the boy. She asks him about what he's most excited for, a little about Sirius, and what his hobbies are.

Severus is continually surprised by the things the boy says. He'd never paid Regulus much mind the first time around. Occasionally, when Sirius and the Marauders had done something particularly nasty, he would retaliate by doing something awful back to Regulus. Sirius never was too upset by that, he recalls faintly.

This time, Severus thinks he will be. He thinks him and Severus are friends.

-o-O-o-

A couple of days after the start of the school year, Severus stumbles into the Slytherin common rooms after a nightmare to find Narcissa sitting on one of the sofas in her nightgown and a robe. He almost backs away on principle. As a professor, he never approached girls when they were in their sleepwear – even if they were moping around the common rooms at an ungodly hour. It had always felt inappropriate somehow. Thankfully, Aurora Sinistra never much minded if he woke her to deal with the girls. She returned the favor by foisting all of the boys and their problems off on him. But, now, he's twelve. In his jimjams too, actually. They're on even enough grounds, he supposes.

"You're up late," he says.

She looks his way, expression dark. "Not half as late as you, ickle boy."

He fights the urge to scowl. "Why?" he asks.

"Why do you want to know?" she returns, voice cutting.

He shrugs. "Curiosity?"

There's a beat of silence between them. Then, quietly, Narcissa asks, "Why are you awake?"

"Nightmares," he replies.

Narcissa scoffs. "About what? Failing a herbology exam? Ickle genius."

He's getting quite annoyed with the insults about his size. He's twelve, not a midget. "No," he replies. Then, because he knows she'll think it's the manifestation of an overactive imagination, he tells her, "It was about a giant snake ripping out my throat."

That seems to startle Narcissa and for a moment he fears the impossible (he might have made her remember the future!). "What in Merlin's name have you been reading?" she demands, causing him to let out a small breath of relief.

"Nothing."

She shoots him an irritated glare. "I could take house points from you for lying to a prefect!" she hisses.

Severus smothers a smirk. Ah, teenage irrationality at its finest. "You won't," he tells her.

"Why ever not?"

He grins. "We're in the same house, remember? You'll be taking points away from your house too.

She sniffs. Then, finally, she admits, "If you must know, I'm up because I can't sleep."

"Is it 'cause of your sister? Sirius was writing a lot about her in July. He couldn't quite decide if he should be happy for her or angry at her for getting disowned, because she is, and I quote, 'The most wicked of my cousins.'"

Narcissa chuckles. It sounds a bit too close to tears for Severus's comfort. "He's such a prat."

"Yes, he really is," Severus agrees.

She stares right at him. Her eyes are wet and expression distraught. "I don't even know why I'm so broken up about it. She chose him over us. She deserved to be blasted off the family tree."

Severus has to break his gaze from Narcissa's. "It doesn't change that you love her. And what she did… In a way, she betrayed you. I bet she never even hinted at her relationship. Now, you're second-guessing every interaction between you. How much did she really care about you if she'd leave you for him?"

"Bellatrix is just plain angry. If you had seen her when she found out…" Narcissa shook her head. "I don't know what I am. I just want her back."

He meets her stare once more. "She's not coming back."

"I know that!"

Severus licks his lips. "You can't focus on her anymore. She's lost."

Narcissa's lip curls in a sneer. "I know."

"Sirius isn't, however."

Confusion overcomes the teenager's face. "What?"

Severus begins to pluck at a stray string on his jimjams. "You know him. He's proud to be a Gryffindor. Proud to be the black sheep of your family. He has a role model in your sister now. He's seen its possible to leave and live."

"He's just going through a rebellious stage. Sirius's not going to leave our family. He's the heir. Who would be mad enough to give that kind of power up?"

He can't help but roll his eyes. "Are you listening to yourself?"

Narcissa shrinks into herself a little. She's quiet for a while. Then, softly, she asks, "Do you think he realizes just how much he could do if he stayed a part of the family? He could almost change the world."

"Sirius is quite short-sighted."

The teenager put her head in her hands. "He doesn't like me."

Severus closes his eyes. He's going to regret this. "I'll talk to him."

We've officially started on year two! What'd you all think? Good start? Bad start? In need of work?

Thank you guys for reading!