A/N- First off, if you've been following Thwarted, then don't read this it's the same shit. I'm pretty sure that's exactly no one, but I figured I'd put that there just in case. ANYWAY, sorry it's been so long, I've been extremely busy(aka procrastinating), but I'm making an attempt at restoring some form of order to this *gestures broadly*. So I'll be posting every Sunday, alternating between this and Thwarted, so as not to overwork myself *rolls eyes even though I'm the one setting the deadlines*. Anyway, this chapter is a little rough and a LOT short, but I don't foresee it eating any better, so this is what you get. Enjoy, and please review! :)
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Severus sighed, resting his head against the window of the Hogwarts Express. The window was vaguely warm, courtesy of the golden afternoon sun, which was suspended in a cloudless azure sky. His eyes meandered lazily over the sprawling countryside, allowing his consciousness to drift among delicate wisps of thought. So lost was he in his mind that he didn't hear the door of his compartment squeak open; he was startled from his trance by the sharp voice of his least favorite Gryffindor.
"Better change into your robes, Snivellus," James sneered. He was flanked, as always, by his three crones, whose names Severus by now knew by heart. He responded with a tight smile and a stiff nod, knowing better than to speak, having determined through a rather painful series of trials and errors that it was enter just to hold his tongue, no matter how frustrating that may be. James, of course, was far from inclined to make this easy.
"Ssssssssssso Ssssssssssssnivellus, how wassssss you ssssssssssummer?" he hissed, drawing out the s's through his teeth in an attempt to sound like a snake(in Severus' opinion, he sounded a bit more like an agitated feline, though he would of course never say this to James' face). Severus shrugged nonchalantly, lips sealed shut.
James' lip curled menacingly. All of a sudden, he was pushed aside and a familiar redhead slipped into the compartment.
"Hey, Sev!" Lily said brightly, plopping down on the seat next to him.
"Hi, Lil," Severus responded, trying(and failing) to match her enthusiasm. He winked at James, whose scowl deepened, before being wiped off his face completely and replaced with a broad grin.
"Hey, Evans," he beamed. Severus resisted the urge to snort at his sudden enthusiasm.
"Hello, Potter," Lily said, her tone clipped and unfriendly. Severus was taken aback by this, before a genuine grin spread across his cheeks. Who cared? He had a definitive leg up over James. He casually slipped his arm over Lily's shoulders with a smirk, which widened with satisfaction as he watched James' brows furrow into one.
"You guys had better be off. As you were so kind to point out, I have yet to change our of my Muggle clothes." Severus said, breaking his own rule in an impulsive lapse of judgement. Not that the look on James' face wasn't worth whatever consequences might befall Severus later, when Lily wasn't around to mollify James' temper. Once James had led his cronies out of Severus' compartment, with a curt goodbye to Lily, Severus turned to his friend.
"Turn around? I'd better get my robes on." She obeyed with a grin, chattering excitedly about her summer(interlaced with apologies for not spending as much time with Severus as usual, which he waved off, despite still being rather bitter about it; he didn't ask what she'd been doing when she hadn't been in Greece with her family, as he strongly suspected he wouldn't like the answer) while he tugged on his Slytherin robes. Once he had finished, he took the seat opposite Lily in the near-empty compartment.
"Okay, you can turn around," he said. She did, still grinning, and they talked a bit longer about their summers(mostly Lily; Severus' had been rather awful without her), until the train ground to a haunt, and he watched her disappear with a hasty "bye, Sev!" He sighed as he gathered his things. The year hadn't even started yet, and he already had a sinking feeling that it was going to be even worse than the last.
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A/N- So… I hope you enjoyed that. Please review! A new chapter will be posted in two weeks! This is a lot of exclamation points but I'm too tired to care! Yay! I gotta go sleep so till next time. :)
~hermionegrangerandarocketship