A/N: A bit of an interlude detailing the new trio's visit to Hagrid and the knock-on effect that brings about as the chapter goes on. There may not be any Marauders in this Severus' life, but he's still got a penchant for trouble that probably won't ever be fully erased.

Chapter 9 Afternoon Tea and Dinnertime Fisticuffs

At the end of the first week, Harry, Lily and Severus all received letters from Hagrid inviting them to tea at the end of their classes on Friday. Harry had Double Potions that morning, and then Defense Against the Dark Arts and History of Magic after that. Lily and Severus had Double Transfiguration, Muggle Studies, then History of Magic—the latter of which was shared with Harry. Harry and Ron bade goodbye to Severus, Lily, Mandy and Anthony; and the two groups headed their separate ways. Hermione had taken to hanging around the Ravenclaws a bit more than her own housemates, with Lily and Anthony being particularly inviting to the Muggleborn. Severus and Mandy were kind enough, and held a neutral opinion of the girl—they did think of her as a bit of a know-it-all at times, just a bit—but they didn't dislike her. Ron's opinion of her wasn't great, but in time, Lily hoped he'd warm to her inclusion in their ever-growing friendship group.

Come Friday, Harry, Lily and Severus bade goodbye to Mandy, Ron and Anthony, before trooping off towards Hagrid's hut. They promised their friends that they would ask Hagrid if they could come along next time; although Anthony was decidedly less excited about the prospect of meeting the Groundskeeper than Ron and Mandy were. He secretly thought the half-man, half-giant was quite terrifying. Little did Anthony know that Hagrid had a heart of gold. So the two Ravenclaws, and the Gryffindor left the castle once their last class of the day, Herbology, had wrapped up and made their way through the grounds to Hagrid's hut. Harry took the lead and raised his hand to the door to rap his knuckles thrice on the surface.

"Oh hello, give me jus' a moment here," Hagrid's voice boomed from the other side.

The trio did as they were asked, and were rewarded moments later by the door swinging open and seeing Hagrid standing in the frame.

"Hagrid!" the trio exclaimed in greeting.

"Hello you lot, why don' you come on in," Hagrid said, gesturing the trio in. "Make yerselves at home, I've got a pot brewin' now, should be done in a moment or two."

They sat at the large, round table in the middle of the hut, and found that four plates had already been arranged with a large plate of 'rock cakes' set in the middle of the table. Fang, Hagrid's Boar-hound bounded up to the trio of first years and enthusiastically greeted them all with his slobbering tongue.

"Ger' off our guests you bloody menace," Hagrid muttered, to which the Boar hound sheepishly ducked away from his overenthusiastic greeting of Lily.

"So," Hagrid remarked, carrying the pot of tea back over to the table. "How were yer first lessons?"

"They went great Hagrid!" Lily said, wearing and excited smile. "Sev and I shared classes with Harry for Charms, Herbology, Astronomy and History of Magic!"

"Oh! Do tell me how those went!" Hagrid said enthusiastically.

Without further delay, the trio of first years launched into the details of their first week at Hogwarts. Overall, much of the news they had to share was positive, Hagrid rolled his eyes when they recounted the borefest that was History of Magic, 'some things never change' he muttered. Hagrid also sympathized with them when they informed him that Defense Against the Dark Arts taught by Professor Quirrell was quite the let down compared to how they expected the class to be. 'Perfesser Quirrell hasn't been quite the same since he came back from Albania,' Hagrid remarked with a said look about his face. Harry said that the jittery Professor seemed scared of his own subject even, which was odd to think about.

When they arrived at the delicate subject of Potions however, was when the major differences in opinion between Harry, Lily and Severus made themselves known—the latter two holding a favorable opinion of potion making and the former…not so much. Harry dejectedly recalled how Professor Snape had called him out at the beginning of class and asked of him three difficult questions. He'd gotten two out of the three correct, but he'd forgotten that a Bezoar could be found in the belly of a goat. Harry was of the impression that Snape ran his class unfairly, which was something Severus and Lily vehemently denied; although both could admit he did favor the Ravenclaws slightly over the Hufflepuffs based on their class. As Lily and Severus told Hagrid of their favorable impression of Professor Snape, Harry spotted a newspaper lying by his placing and reached for it.

"Hagrid, the paper says thieves broke into Gringotts!" Harry announced, waving the cover through the air. "Is that…is it from the same vault that Snape went to that day?"

"That's Professor Snape, Harry, and frankly, it's of no concern to you lot. Article says nuthin' was taken didn't it?"

Harry's brows knitted as his green eyes pored over the paper again. "Yes but it also says the vault was emptied earlier that day on the 31st, the day we went to Gringotts and when Snape went off to that vault with the Goblin!"

"On Dumbledore's orders, mind you," Hagrid pointed out. "Listen, all that stuff concerns the headmaster, you don't need to worry 'bout it in the least."

Hagrid quickly diverted the discussion away from the Gringotts break-in, asking after if the kids were looking forward to their first flying lesson. Still, Harry's thoughts lingered around the mystery break-in and the implications it would hold going forward, what was so special about that vault Snape had gone to? More importantly, what was the object that Snape had taken before the thieves had broken in? As talk shifting elsewhere, Harry couldn't help but feel the distinct feeling that Hagrid was covering something up. A while later, Severus, Lily and Harry left Hagrid's hut and made the trek back to the castle for dinner. As they walked, Harry voiced his suspicions aloud.

"I think Hagrid's hiding something," he muttered quietly, garnering two curious looks from Severus and Lily.

"Hiding what?" Lily asked.

"About whatever it was that Sna—"

"Professor Snape," Lily corrected with a chiding look.

Harry scowled, "Right, Professor Snape. Whatever it was he took from that vault, I think it's something that someone wants."

"But what business is that of ours? There's no guarantee that whomever those thieves were, that they even belong to this school. As far as we know, it could literally have been anyone, there's no use stressing about it," Severus said with an air of finality. "It's none of our business anyways, as long as nothing was stolen what do we care?"

Harry shrugged, not entirely sure of Severus' cavalier attitude, but let the topic of the mystery vault drop from their conversation as they approached the courtyard. They reached the entrance hall and parted ways as Severus and Lily went left to the Ravenclaw table, and Harry right to the Gryffindors. Harry flopped down on the bench next to Ron, and was immediately peppered by questions about Hagrid and the rest of his afternoon. Happy for the distraction, Harry eagerly answered Ron's questions with the last thing on his mind being the mysterious break-in.

On the other side of the hall, Lily and Severus took their seats amongst their fellow first years just in time for the food to appear. "Where on earth were you two?" Michael Corner asked, his eyes narrowed slightly at them.

"Visiting Hagrid," Lily muttered nonchalantly.

"You're friends with that stupid oaf?" Gareth Carmichael sneered, he looked repulsed at the mere thought of even associating with the half-giant.

"You take that back right this second," snarled Severus, his Hawthorn wand in his hand in a flash. "Hagrid's a great bloke, and if yer didn't have your head shoved so far up yer arse you'd see it too."

A vein throbbed on Carmichael's temple and his nostrils flared in anger, in the blink of an eye, he'd leapt across the table towards the Raven-haired boy and tackled him to the ground. Severus toppled off the bench, unable to react to Carmichael leaping over the table in time, and the two boys wrestled about on the ground while Anthony and Lily desperately tried to pry them apart. Within seconds of the two boys falling to the floor, the attention of the hall was on them, but before either could do serious damage, Dumbledore had flicked his wand and separated the two of them with a single flick.

"Mister Prince, Mister Carmichael, do you care to explain yourselves?" Dumbledore boomed.

The chatter about the Hall in lieu of the brief scrap between the two first year Ravenclaws grew silent, as the angry Headmaster stood from his throne-like chair and made his way towards the Ravenclaw table.

"He started it! He just jumped across the table and tackled me! I didn't do anything!" Severus spluttered, trying to regain his breath.

"Well he said my head was shoved up my arse before that, it's him that started it!" Carmichael cried.

"That's only because you insulted Hagrid and called him an oaf when you've never even met him!" Severus shouted back.

"That's enough! Both of you! My office, now!"

Both boys hung their heads, but not before they could shoot two glares at each other. Dumbledore observed their reaction, and while Severus seemed accepting of his fate, Carmichael seemed truly terrified of him. "Follow me to my office, we shall have our discussion in private," Dumbledore said in a more gentle tone of voice. This seemed to calm Carmichael down a bit more as the brown-haired boy breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

Lily, Harry and the rest of the Hall watched on in shock as Dumbledore lead the two first years out of the Hall—neither Severus or Carmichael had the courage to look up and meet the confused, or disappointed eyes of their peers. Malfoy and his two goons Crabbe and Goyle snickered in the background as the rowdy Ravenclaw boys were escorted from the Hall by the Headmaster. In reality, the walk to the Headmaster's office from the Great Hall usually took no more than ten minutes if the staircases were in a particularly co-operative mood, today though it felt like an eternity to Severus. Each stepped seemed a thousand, and every second more he spent in Carmichael's presence, he felt his patience wearing thin. At last, they arrived at the Gargoyle marking the entrance to Dumbledore's offices, and with the utterance of; "Chocolate Eclair," the stone Guardian leapt aside and allowed the three of them passage into the office.

Dumbledore's trinkets and gadgets were whirring and whizzing around as per usual when Severus and Carmichael entered the office. Dumbledore's gadgets emitted bright silver plumes of smoke as they fizzed and popped, but the smoke was promptly cleared by a single wave of Dumbledore's wand. The gadgets fell silent.

"Sit, boys," Dumbledore said calmly, gesturing to the two chairs facing his desk. Dumbledore's desk was large and filled with all manner of quills, parchment, and books—the latter of which belonged to the Headmaster's extensive personal library on display around them. Severus and Carmichael sat in the two chairs, pointedly avoiding each other's gaze. Dumbledore waved his wand, and the puffy eye Severus had been nursing, and the split lip that Carmichael had worn now returned to their normal state.

"Are we in trouble sir?" Carmichael asked, gazing fearfully up at the Headmaster.

"That remains to be seen," Dumbledore said evenly. From behind his pair of half-moon glasses, Dumbledore's eyes flickered between the two boys, before finally coming to rest on his steepled hands in front of him.

"Boys, why did this entire incident occur? Mister Prince, let's start with you—"

"But sir, Prince—"

"Mister Carmichael, that's enough, you will have your turn to explain your view of the events soon enough," Dumbledore said sternly. Carmichael flinched, and seemed to shrink into his chair even more; the Headmaster's eyes widened ever so slightly at the sight.

Severus saw it too, and a brief look of recognition crossed his face, but he quickly wiped his knowing look away, not wanting to feel pity for the boy beside him and turned to face the Headmaster.

"Carmichael insulted Hagrid when Lily only mentioned that Harry and I had gone to see him. We didn't say anything before that!"

"Hagrid laughed at me as I tripped coming off the train," Carmichael spluttered indignantly. "He's hardly a nice person."

"You claim you tripped coming off the train, Mister Carmichael?" Dumbledore asked calmly.

"I did, I nearly missed the step and fell and this Hagrid laughed at me!" he insisted.

"And why did you trip, Mister Carmichael?"

The short, brown-haired boy flushed red, and his eyes seemed to widen. "I…dunno, I just tripped, happens to everyone."

Dumbledore's look was bordering on pity as he gazed upon the boy, Severus didn't like him all that much either but he couldn't help but notice that Carmichael had been limping all the way to the office…and he hadn't even hit him in the leg at all during their scrap.

"Mister Carmichael, may I inspect your ankle?"

Carmichael's flushed skin paled, and he nodded shakily. He raised his left leg upwards and at Dumbledore's direction, propped it up on the desk. Dumbledore raised a brow, clearly, he wasn't that amused at the boy's diversionary tactics.

"Your other leg, Mister Carmichael," he said tiredly.

Carmichael paled some more, almost until the point he looked as white as a ghost. He slowly lifted the other leg and laid it on the desk. Dumbledore rolled up the trouser leg and tapped his wand against Carmichael's ankle, and as he did so, a deep frown crossed his face. A dark, red glow was emanating out from Carmichael's ankle, and the boy seemed to wince in pain as Dumbledore's wand made contact with the inflamed skin of his ankle.

"I'm no genius when it comes to healing Mister Carmichael, but this looks very much like a sprained ankle," Dumbledore diagnosed. "Care to tell me how this came about?"

"I fell," Carmichael said quickly with a slightly accusatory tone. "I fell when I was…when I was getting off the train, when the Groundskeeper laughed at me."

"Are you sure? Or did you hurt your ankle before you stepped off the train, with your sprained ankle causing you to trip, rather than being the result of you stumbling?"

Carmichael held his chin high and shook his head. "N-no, I hurt my ankle when I tripped coming off the train, not before it. But I'm feeling better now, m-mostly," he said, with a slight inflection in his voice.

"Even so, I insist that you check in with Madam Pomfrey, our resident healer during the weekend for a bruise-healing and inflammation-reducing salve, she should have plenty of both in stock," Dumbledore said in a no-nonsense tone of voice.

Carmichael nodded quickly, showing his eagerness to be let off the hook. "Is that all, sir?"

"No Mister Carmichael," Dumbledore said flatly. "Pn the subject of your punishment, since you initiated the…physical fighting between you both, you shall receive three nights of detention with Professor Flitwick. As will you, Severus, but only for one night."

Severus breathed a sigh of relief—happy to escape the entire incident with only one night of detention, but Carmichael's reaction to the disparity in their detentions was far less subdued.

"How come Prince gets one night only! He gave me a split lip and—"

"Sit down, Mister Carmichael, I was just getting to that." Dumbledore said firmly.

Carmichael quickly sank back down into his chair with a slump, and Severus sat up just that little bit straighter to hear the Headmaster's reasoning.

"You initiated the…brawling, did you not?"

Carmichael nodded sheepishly.

"And you landed the first verbal strike too, by insulting our Groundskeeper—" at Carmichael's indignant look, Dumbledore quickly amended; "—I shall be having a chat with him soon concerning his reaction to your…stumble, because in all fairness it certainly isn't humorous when someone, such as yourself, trips and stumbles over, it could happen to anyone." Carmichael nodded.

"That being said, despite how you felt about Hagrid, disparaging any member of staff is strictly frowned upon. If you have an issue with any staff-member in the future, you are advised to seek myself or Professor Flitwick to lodge a complaint, not verbally disparage them behind their back, is that clear?"

"Yes sir," Carmichael mumbled, speaking so quietly, he may very well have been speaking to himself.

"Good. Now you and Mister Prince will share your first night of detention together, and I want you both to sort out your differences, you are both members of house Ravenclaw and it is ill-advised to have house members feuding with one another over such petty things. Starting Monday night, after your visit to the infirmary Mister Carmichael, you and Mister Snape shall begin your detentions with Professor Flitwick."

"What will we be doing?" Severus asked.

Dumbledore leaned back in his chair and shrugged. "That answer lies with Professor Flitwick. Although I shall soon be letting him know that he can count on the presence of one first year for two nights, and two first years for one."

"Do I have to serve my detentions with Prince?" Carmichael bit out, trying and failing to keep his anger from his tone.

"You can and you will," Dumbledore said, his tone brokering no room for argument. His twinkling eyes settled upon the uneasy Carmichael. "You and Mister Prince aren't that different from one another, and you'll find—" he paused, letting his eyes drift between the two distrusting boys, "—that you have more in common than not. If you two can get along, and not quarrel over meaningless things, then you both can be important assets to House Ravenclaw. You're both bright young boys to be sorted there in the first place, so clearly, you two are smart enough to realize you have more to gain by not quarreling with one another than by continuing your feud."

Both Severus and Carmichael looked horrified at the mere thought of getting along with one another, let alone becoming friends.

"I'm not asking you to befriend one another," Dumbledore said gently. "But I am hoping that at least, you two can ignore each other and carry on your merry ways without incident in the future. Now. I want you both to stand, then shake each other's hands and put this both behind you. Is that understood?"

Severus knew better than to go against Dumbledore's word when he spoke as seriously as he did now. He didn't have to like Carmichael, and frankly, he didn't think he ever would. He thought the brown-haired midget sitting next to him was insufferable, in all honesty, but Severus would readily agree he'd rather not fight him and rather just ignore the boy rather than have an ongoing spat with him. So he stood and turned to face Carmichael, who wore a surprised look that he'd been so quick to heed the Headmaster's words. Carmichael stood too, a bit more slowly, and turned to face Severus.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled merrily behind his spectacles. In a calm tone of voice, he said; "Now shake each other's hands and put this incident behind you.

Their hands met halfway in a brief handshake. "I'm sorry for saying your head was stuck up your arse," Severus said quietly, but sincerely.

"I'm sorry for punching you, too," Carmichael said honestly.

"Good," Dumbledore said, his hands clasped together cheerily. "Now will this incident repeat itself?"

Both boys shook their heads. "Very good. Because if I, or any other staff here of you two dueling with either wands or fists in the future, your detentions and points losses will be far more severe, is that understood?"

"We won't lose any points sir?" Carmichael asked.

"Not this time. But in the future, you certainly will. Since it is still the first week, and you all are still adjusting to life at a boarding school, I shan't remove any points for this and all you shall be penalized with are your detentions. As I said earlier though, future incidents of this kind will be punished more harshly, so I don't want to see this happening again, is that clear?"

"Yes sir," the two boys chorused out.

Dumbledore nodded in satisfaction. By now it was too late to return to the Great Hall for dinner, so Severus, Dumbledore and Carmichael all ate in Dumbledore's office together once Dumbledore's personal house elf had prepared their food. Both Ravenclaws ate quickly, eager to escape the confines of Dumbledores office as soon as possible. They left at a quarter past nine, with one last, firm reminder from the Headmaster to refrain from 'muggle dueling' as he called it. Eager to leave, both Severus and Carmichael assured the Headmaster of their efforts to avoid an incident like what occurred in the Great Hall, and so the Headmaster excused them once he was satisfied with the level of sincerity in their voices. They quickly left the Headmaster behind in his office and descended the spiral staircase one after the other.

They walked the entirety of the way to Ravenclaw tower in uneasy silence, not quite sure of where they stood with one another, but also sure that they wouldn't be testing the Headmaster and resort to fisticuffs to settle their future disputes. When they ascended to the base of the tower and arrived at the familiar bronze, eagle-shaped knocker, Carmichael turned to Severus with a hard look in his eye that had the halfblood on his guard.

"You know Prince…that wasn't a half bad right cross you gave me earlier," Carmichael said honestly, his free hand rising to rub his jaw in the spot Severus'd hit him.

Severus felt somewhat taken aback by this boy's…compliment? He didn't even know what to call Carmichael's surprisingly honest and open remark, but he tried to take it in stride and brushed it off with a shrug. "Thanks. Your hook was good too," he said, inclining his head.

Carmichael snorted and shrugged his shoulders in a 'it's not much'-kind of gesture. "Seeing as we have differing opinions of our gamekeeper. Let's try to avoid this in the future, and avoid each other, yeah?"

"You've got my agreement on that," Severus agreed, a serious look plastered onto his face. "I'd rather your punches be directed at someone like Malfoy rather than myself, seriously, you do hit pretty hard."

"It's in my blood," Carmichael mumbled. "Da's a boxer so—" he shrugged, "—so it's to be expected."

"I guess so. Speaking of your da—"

"Drop it," Carmichael muttered, his small, but powerful fists clenched tightly by his sides. "I don't like…I don't like talking about them."

Severus gave him an unsure look. He'd caught Dumbledore's meaning during their meeting, that knowing look the aged wizard had sent his way in reference to Gareth Carmichael. The Headmaster had his theories…and suspicions; deep down, Severus had a good hunch too that Carmichael's father was perhaps cut from the same cloth as Tobias.

"Let's just…head inside," said Carmichael dispassionately. He moved past Severus to ask he knocker for a riddle, leaving Severus to ponder the enigma that was Gareth Carmichael.

Severus had learned a lot over the past month he'd spent with Albus, not Headmaster Dumbledore, but Albus his grandfatherly guardian. He'd learned what it truly felt like to grow up in a loving, supportive environment, as did Harry too; he learned for the first time that what Tobias had done all those years…all that 'disciplining' and 'lesson teaching' that Tobias had so aptly-named his verbal and physical abuse, was anything but what a parent should be doing. There were times when Severus couldn't help but think of Tobias, there was certainly the odd occurrence when he'd flinch back, eyes scrunched shut for a blow that would never come; but Albus had taught him—more than that, had showed him, that what Tobias had once done to him, was simply wrong. Severus now knew that what Tobias deemed discipline wasn't right, and he had Albus and Lily to thank for that—his older self too, to a lesser extent; he had the sinking feeling however that Carmichael was indeed more similar to himself than he'd have thought otherwise.