Boy-Snape

A lot of you were after more of this story. While there is no sequel and I have no plans for one, I did poke around my files and find a draft of this scene. After some fleshing out and changing of perspective to James's, I think it's worth sharing.

James, Remus, and Peter were moving through Hogwarts corridors at a clipped pace. They were all eager to reach the infirmary exactly at the time Lily suggested earlier today after she informed them a lunchtime visit with Sirius wouldn't be feasible. Remus truly wasn't much taller than James, maybe a few centimeters at best, but he certainly felt like he was walking twice as fast to keep up with his mate's stride. Between short, quick, breathes he asked, "What's he like?"

Remus looked out at him from the corner of his eyes. A frown was already pulling at the corners of his mouth; it told James what he already was expecting. Even as a little kid, Snape wasn't pleasant. After a moment, Remus returned his gaze forward and said, "He's eight."

James scowled as he complained, "You said that already!"

"I meant it," replied Remus as he kept his attention forward while they turned the corner to the corridor that was attached to the west end opening to the hall the infirmary was in.

"Eight…" Peter murmured on James's right, his tone thoughtful. When he glanced at his shorter mate, James saw Peter's brows were pulled together. He looked past James and to Remus as he said, "You mean Snape's actually eight? He doesn't just look it?"

Remus dipped his chin. "Yes."

James couldn't stop his hands from going to his head, musing his already askew hair into a complete nest as he gasped, "Bloody Hell."

His mate slowed his gait as he looked over at both James and Peter. Remus used his professor-tone as he lectured them, "Don't expect him to want much – if anything – to do with you either. Sirius seems to have filled him in enough on himself and us he knows we're Sirius's mates, not his."

"I don't want anything to do with him!" proclaimed James, affronted at the very suggestion he would. Eight or not, Snape was Snape and he was a bloody bastard. "He's still the same git he was a few days ago as far as I'm concerned." He turned to Peter and demanded, "What about for you, Pete?"

Peter's round face took on a startled rabbit-like look as he stammered, "Huh? Oh, um, yeah. Same."

James, vindicated, returned his attention to Remus as he sneered, "See?"

Remus stopped walking altogether and shifted to face him. He crossed his arms and snapped, "Knock it off, would you?" Eyes hard, he growled, "He's a kid. I just told you why he might be standoffish so you wouldn't be a prick. Yet, here you are, planning to be exactly that!"

James huffed, annoyed. However, instead of getting cross, he tried to lighten the tension between Remus and Pete and Him by forcing a laugh. "Merlin, calm down. I won't go out of my way to be a git or anything," he told Remus with a forced smile. "I'm just saying this doesn't change anything for me."

The hardness to Remus's gaze faded as uncertainty bled across his features. Voice kinder, but with a remnant of the steeliness it'd held only moments before he said, "Please, if you can't find anything polite to say to him, just don't say anything at all."

He rolled his eyes at him."Alright, Dad," jeered James as he walked past Remus and down toward the Healing Hall's doors.

Remus complained, "You know I hate when you call me that."

James looked over his shoulder and shrugged at his mate. "If it fits."

He sighed. "Look, here we are," he said, pointing at the door to the healing hall. "Ready to see Sirius?"

James looked behind Remus to share a mirthful look with Peter, who grinned back at him as he exclaimed, "Of course!"

Remus pushed open the door and let them step inside. It took all of two seconds for James to spy his best friend sitting on a bed midway into the infirmary. It took even less time for Sirius to turn his head and see him. James beamed as he all but flew to Sirius's side.

"James!" Sirius cried as he opened his arms to him for an embrace.

Falling into the offered hug, James hung on tight to his best mate as he said, "Sirius!" Merlin had he missed his best mate! The entire time he'd been missing, his stomach had felt like there was a rock knocking around in there. Even after, it had felt like a stone was rolling in it. Now that he could feel, smell, hear, and see Sirius, it was as if the rock had turned into a feather tickling his innards.

When Sirius finally let him go, he all but yelled into James's ear, "Peter!" before going to hug him too. After he let go of Peter, he offered a quick embrace to Remus too as he said, "'Lo there again, mate."

Remus put a hand on Sirius's arm. His gaze was warm as he leaned in and asked, voice soft, "How are you doing?"

The smile ran away from Sirius's face. He turned his face away from them all as he lifted a hand and shook it. "So-so."

James frowned. Sirius sure seemed a lot worse off than so-so to him. He stepped toward his best mate and prompted, "Oh?" However, before he could get Sirius to elaborate, a small, dark head peaked around Sirius's middle.

His mate looked down and began to chuckle. "Ah, hey there!" he said, "sorry, I forgot about you for a moment. Say hello, would you? These are my mates."

James stared down at the small pallid face peering up at him from behind Sirius. It was clearly Snape, even if he was far younger and smaller than he ever remembered him being before. The boy frowned and glanced at Sirius who was staring intently at him, clearly waiting for Snape to heed his command. James settled in for the wait. Sirius was a stubborn ass sometimes, but Snape could be even worse.

After a long minute, Snape's frown turned even sharper before disappearing altogether as he visibly exhaled. Turning his black, annoyed stare to James and the rest of his mates, he ground out, "Hi."

James felt someone's eyes on him and he glanced sideways to see that Remus was glaring at him and Peter. He was pretty sure Remus was trying to force them to talk to the boy-Snape. James decided to ignore Remus. He wasn't going to respond to such a lackluster hello.

"Uh, hi," Peter offered in return when James and Remus made it clear they weren't going to respond to the grudging greeting.

Sirius, who'd begun to look a little unsure, smiled with relief at Peter as he moved to put a hand on Snape's shoulder. With far more grace than James would have expected any small boy to have, Snape stepped out of range of Sirius's hand and crossed his arms. Sirius blinked at Snape, a brief confusion crossing his face before something like understanding dawned on his features and he instead let his hand return to his side. Side-stepping to be nearer to the boy, Sirius then pointed over at them and said, "This is James. That one over there's Peter."

Snape looked away from them. "I know."

James furrowed his brows, confused. How could he possibly know? Had Sirius told him about them? A glance at his best mate told James that probably wasn't the case. Sirius was staring at Snape, clearly miffed. After a moment, however, he just rolled his eyes and smirked over at the boy. "You do, do you?"

"Yes," Snape said. Under his breath, he grumbled just loud enough for James to catch, "I know lots of things."

James's eyebrows shot high on his forehead. What was that supposed to mean? Remus had said he was eight. If that were true, how much could he really know? Unless, of course, he'd been lying all along… James stepped forward and jeered, "Oh yeah? Care to share?"

Snape's eyes snapped to him, big, dark and alarmed. Before James could force an answer out of him, however, Sirius all but bounced away from the group, yelling, "Oh, hey! Here's Joan back from the lav. Joan! My mates are here, do you want to say hi?"

Reluctantly, James pulled his gaze away from the boy-Snape to look at a redheaded girl of probably fourteen or fifteen. She looked sort of familiar to him. Remus had said she was a werewolf who'd never had the chance to go to Hogwarts. Maybe she'd had a sibling or cousin who had gone or was going, though? In Gryffindor in particular?

She smiled at them and hurried forward to offer him a hand. "Hello, it's nice to meet you…?"

He took and shook her hand. "James."

"I'm Peter," Peter said when she then held out her hand to him.

Lacing her hands together in front of her, Joan took a step back to stand beside Sirius as she asked, "How do you do, James? Peter?"

"Great," answered Peter as he said at the same time:

"Fine, thanks."

Sirius started to look around, one hand going to the top of his head to scratch it. James started to glance about too, wondering what it was that his mate was looking for. Did he have something for them? Or Joan? He frowned as he started, "Hey, where'd—?"

Joan, to James's interest, appeared to know exactly what it was Sirius was searching for as she laid her hand on his crooked arm and tilted her head in the direction of Snape, who'd wandered down a few beds to sit on one and play with… Chocolate Frog cards? Where had those come from?

"Just there," she said, cutting him off. Then, in a soft, plaintive tone she asked, "Let me be, won't you? We've put him through quite the broom ride today already. If he wants to talk with us, he'll come back."

James couldn't help himself. "Broom ride?"

Sirius sighed as he let his hands fall to his sides again. "Yeah," he replied. "Did you know his mum's dead? I didn't. We all found out this morning. Then Lily popped in and pretty much told him it's his fault they aren't mates anymore. We just came back from getting new wands in Diagon too about a quarter of an hour ago."

He put a hand over his mouth as the onslaught of news settled over him. Snape's mum was dead? Bugger. He wished he'd known when it happened. He'd have made sure to lay off him a bit it with their pranks then (if it'd happened before this year, anyway. James had pretty much given up on making Snape the butt of his jokes. It wasn't half as funny as it used to be these days with everything going on outside of Hogwarts's halls). "Blimey."

Sirius gave a half-hearted laugh and rubbed the back of his neck. "I know, it's actually been a pretty mental day…"

"I'm sorry, mate," said James.

Sirius stepped forward and swung an arm around James's neck, guiding him toward a bed for them to both sit on. As they went, Sirius told him, "Ah, you've got nothing to be sorry about. Hey, wanna fill me in on the last couple of days? Which girls were crying over me being missing?"

James chuckled. Trust Sirius would care what girls were shedding tears over him. "Well…" he began as he lost himself in easy conversation with Sirius and the rest of his mates once they took a seat on the bed across from him and Sirius. Along the way, he even forgot a boy-Snape was in the infirmary with them until it was time to leave. When they got up to go, he had to do a double-take when he saw the boy was honest to Merlin reading from a medical textbook— Not just flipping through the pages like he'd have done at that age.

He turned to Sirius and said, "He's eight all of the way through?"

Sirius glanced over his shoulder at the boy, a small, strange smile tugging his lips upward. "Clever, isn't he? It makes a lot of sense, though. He'd have to be more than average to keep a feud going with the four of us for years."

James's attention returned to Snape, now more appreciative than it had been a moment before. "Yes, he would have to be," he agreed.

I hope you all liked it :)

Thanks for reading!