They Didn't Know We Were Seeds
One afternoon a month after Christmas holiday's end, Severus and Lily are Hogwarts's library. There, they are overlooking Sirius and Sage's essays for transfiguration class when Clara Parkinson approaches them. Despite being older, of higher standing in both Hogwarts and outside of it, she fiddles with her wand nervously and waits for them to speak. Severus glances at Lily for a moment, letting her know with his expression alone that he will handle this.
She goes back to the essays.
"Hello," he says.
The Parkinson girl's cheeks rosy. "Hi," she mumbles back.
Silence follows.
Severus finds himself both amused and irritated. It's strange that a girl like Clara is so hesitant to speak to him (she's an upper year and a Parkinson, for Merlin's sake!), but also annoying when he and Lily have better things to do. Once they finish with the essays they have plans to go to their classroom and continue their discussion (argument) on how best to handle Scabior's delicate situation. Lily insists with a stubborn tenacity they ought to tell Albus or, perhaps, Poppy. She believes wholeheartedly they will be able to assist Scabior and his siblings somehow.
As for Severus, he doesn't think to tell either will amount to much of anything. Scabior will say there's nothing wrong until he's blue in the face. If he refuses to say his father has hurt him, Poppy or Albus won't be able to do much of anything. He's grown up with boys like Scabior, taught some too. They often fear the unknown more than they fear their own families.
And even if they manage to convince Scabior the new life he'll lead will be less fraught with danger and fear than the one he knows, there's still no guarantee the separation of Scabior and his siblings from his parents will be permanent. The Scabior family may not have much in the way of wealth, but they're an old family. Not as old as the Sacred Twenty-Eight, but close enough. People will bulk on their behalf once it gets out their children were removed from them. So few wizards and witches at this point in time believe it's wrong to strike their children.
Even when he died some twenty years in the future more people than not thought a good smack or light stinging hex was more than alright when a child misbehaved.
Lily breaks his musings with a quiet clearing of her throat.
Severus sighs. It seems he will have to be the one to start this conversation with Clara. "Is there something I can do for you?" he asks.
Clara looks down, then back up at him. "I was wondering…" she trails off and looks away once more. "Your cousin, Sage, thought it would be better if I invited you to Slughorn's upcoming Slug Club party. He says you're more the type Professor Slughorn wants in his club than him."
He shifts uneasily. "I'm not much of a party person," he says.
"Neither am I," replies the teenager. "But it's… pleasant. You get to know a number of people you wouldn't otherwise talk to in classes or the corridors." She glances at Lily. Severus nearly smirks. He can bet Clara is realizing just now that him forging friendships with those outside his house is not something he needs help with. "The food is quite good as well," she adds, only to wince as soon as she finishes.
Severus almost chuckles, going to a party for the food is more than a bit silly. The Parkinson girl is trying very hard to entice him, but he's not interested in connections (he's doing quite fine on that front on his own) or in food. He almost wants to ask why she's inviting him, but it's more than obvious to him it's because she's trying to get close to the Montague family. Boyd and Violet must be preparing to announce their engagement. He suspects Violet wrote her sister, asking her to form some type of friendly relationships with Sage (and perhaps him too).
"He'll go with you," Lily says suddenly.
He nearly gapes at her. Who does Lily think she is? She can't make these kinds of decisions on his behalf!
The red-haired girl gazes steadily back at him. "It'd do you good to be on the good side of at least one professor."
Severus scowls, though, he does have to reluctantly concede to the fact Lily has a point. He's really not favored by any of Hogwarts's professor. In fact, a number are suspicious of him. He knows they heard about his blowing up at Horace last year about Sage's owl. Even before that, many seemed a bit bewildered by just how easily he mastered their lessons and a couple undoubtedly began to dislike him once he began to subtly correct them during lectures.
No one likes a know-it-all.
"What better professor than the head of my house?" says Severus after a moment.
Lily smiles. "That is a plus." Cheekily, she adds, "Maybe he'll make you a prefect in a few years if you humor him a little too."
He rolls his eyes. "And give up my evenings to prefect meetings and patrols? No thank you." He almost grins as he says, "Studying takes priority."
Clara, who's been watching quietly as they talk to one another, breaks in, "It's this coming Friday at eight in the evening. Shall we meet each other in the common rooms a quarter before eight so you may accompany me?"
Severus nods. "Yes, that will work." He holds out a hand for her. "Thank you for inviting me."
She takes it and gives it a brief shake. "You're welcome," she replies. Then, a little awkwardly, she steps away and mumbles, "Bye." Before she walks away and rounds a bookcase of Muggle Studies texts and disappears completely.
Head in her hands, Lily looks at him and remarks, "You'll have to tell me how it goes. It might prove to be quite interesting if you're accompanying her."
"Perhaps while I'm at the party I'll meet the man she marries," Severus says. "I can't be certain, but I'm quite sure she married someone outside of Slytherin. I know it's unlikely to matter, but it bothers me that I can't think of his name. Chances are quite high her marriage and husband were talked about in length at some point in our first lifetime to me too. Her brother and I went on a number of missions together during the first war."
Some of the levity in his friend's eyes fades. "Oh?"
He holds back the urge to hunch in on himself. Lily doesn't like to hear about his time as a true Death Eater and he knows that, yet he can't always stop himself from mentioning it. After all of this time, one would think he'd be better about not speaking about it to her, but he's not. Sometimes, it just slips out. It wracks him with guilt each time. It was his cause, him, who got her killed in their first lifetime and the less it's mentioned the better off Lily is. The better off their friendship is.
If he's honest, Severus fears for the day Lily actually wants to talk about his time as a true Death Eater. Fears that when he tells her every brutal detail she'll decide he's too much of a monster for her to bear to be around any longer.
"Yes," he concludes finally. "But let's not talk about that. How much more revising does Sirius's paper need? Has he managed to remember the difference between there, they're, and their since we las explained it to him?"
Lily blinked. Then her eyes went to the parchment laid out in front of her. Her shoulders slump a little. "No, I don't think so. I've picked out at least three wrong uses." She sighs exaggeratedly. "I guess this time we'll have to use a bludger on him to make it stick."
Severus cracks a grin. "Or maybe a hippogriff."
His friend laughs delightedly and picks up her quill once more. "I just have a couple more paragraphs. Let me read them quickly and we can leave."
He nods and settles back into his chair to wait.
I considered adding on another scene to this chapter. In the end, I decided I wanted to use this as something of a transition chapter into the next big events. Thoughts as a whole on the chapter?
Also, to celebrate surpassing five hundred reviews I want to offer a one-shot to whoever the 525th reviewer* of TDKWWS will be!
*To qualify for this one-shot, you have to review while signed in to your account and have not received a one-shot from me before. Any ideas you may have for the one-shot have to be for an HP fanfiction and it cannot be a crossover or MA idea, and I reserve the right to veto an idea if I am uncomfortable with it or don't think I could do it the justice it deserves.
Thank you all for reading!