Chapter 7: Memorable First Meetings
"Come on, Sev! Come on! The train is going to leave without us!"
Severus let inertia do most of the work in carrying him through the barrier onto Platform 9 and 3'4s. On his ungainly legs, and with his best friend Lillian tugging him by the hand, it was a wonder he hadn't yet tripped over himself.
As he and the lovely, luminous red-haired girl melted into a sea of Hogwarts robes, Severus glanced up at the clock, and held in a chuckle. It was only 7 minutes to the hour. Plenty of time to get their things loaded.
Being the taller of the pair, Severus was tasked with glancing into the windows along the train cars until they spotted a compartment that looked empty. He nevertheless had to stand on a box just to peer in over the sills, but he finally found one midway down the third car from the caboose. He and Lily struggled to take the weight of her trunk, additionally loaded down by a caged owl perched precariously on top and hooting indignantly.
"Oi, Lils, did you really have to pack so much stuff!"
Lily sent Severus a reproachful look that was clearly feigned. "Of course! I'm a girl, after all!" Severus flushed, letting the matter drop. He didn't want to know about all the feminine care products and fashionable wear and other such things no doubt bursting the straps of her luggage. Furthermore, he was at least glad Lily had made the observation rather than him; it wouldn't do to offend her in any misogynistic manner.
On the whole, he really couldn't fault her excitement. He was excited for her. A girl of her already prestigious talents (and she had yet to wave a wand) deserved to further and better herself at an institution like Hogwarts. As the pair stood aside to let a kindly porter heft each of their trunks into the compartment, Severus couldn't help but chuckle at how she had been initially offended at his calling her a witch, the first time they met. It had been a compliment, and he had delivered it as one, so her reaction had made him laugh.
Besides, there were other, more offensive ways to insult someone in the wizarding world, but it usually had to do with perceived lacks of magic, rather than wielding magical ability.
As Severus and Lily approached the step leading up onto the train car, the latter hesitated for the briefest instant.
"Come on, Lillian," Severus held out his hand to her and when she still seemed frozen with uncertainty, he dared to bravely take it and help pull her aboard. A small return of the favor. "The train is going to leave without us!" His dark eyes twinkled at throwing her own words back at her, and she smiled weakly in response.
Severus had carefully counted off the number of windows from the compartment in which they loaded their luggage to the back of the train car, and now counted down in reverse order. With the free hand not still clasped in Lily's he pulled the glass compartment door to. Jolly good – still empty. He may have been a mere first year, but Severus had read books on Hogwarts, and as he understood it, the Hogwarts Express tended to fill up decently – not all the way, mind, but still close to full capacity. Perhaps with luck, the train would pull out of the station with he and his best friend in this compartment all to themselves.
He and Lily sat, huddled together and both feeling mutually conspicuous with anyone except each other. It was another reason Severus hoped they would pass the train ride alone together. He was naturally an introvert, with Lily one of the few able to bring him out of his shell. He was well aware he would meet other people eventually, but he would prefer it didn't happen on the train. Better to begin mingling (rubbish as he knew he would be at it) once in the castle.
Lily was all but pressing her nose to the glass of the window, and Severus let her have her fun, checking the battered old pocket watch, the face… well, defaced, enough so that he could barely read the hands. 10:58.
The Express whistle blew not long after, giving a final warning. Severus jumped as he felt Lily suddenly clutch at his arm and give a little squeal. "Isn't this exciting, Sev?"
He grinned tightly, still himself feeling like a fish out of water, but not wanting to spoil her anticipation. He checked his pocket watch again. Mum said it had been a gift from his father, but he didn't believe her. Still, he felt like a proper magical gentleman of society whenever he carried it with him. It made him feel…. Important, not because of who it might have been from, but of what it represented. Prestige. No one would suspect him of hailing from the wrong side of the tracks, not when a fellow carried a watch like this.
11:00 on the dot, and the train waited not a second past the hour before it started to move. Even over the chugging and another long, low blast from the whistle, Severus could hear the pounding thud of running feet growing closer and closer.
"Sirius! In here, lad!" The door to their compartment was suddenly yanked to the side so violently, it rattled into place along its hinges. Severus feared for a moment the glass panes might break. The rather abrupt entrance heralded a young boy with black, unkempt hair, who looked to be about their age. Just off of his shoulder was another boy with hair slightly more chestnut in color, yet just as mangy, almost curly. To Severus's mind, the latter boy's head of hair looked almost girly, or at least like a small dog had up and died on his head.
"You lovebirds mind?" the boy with darker hair at the front (and also, Severus noted, wearing glasses) barked. "Everywhere else is full."
Out of the corner of his eye, Severus noted Lily oddly flush about the same shade as her hair, but she pursed her lips politely and nodded assent. If it wouldn't have looked rude, Severus might have tried to argue her on it, but it was too late. The pair of boys were dragging their trunks in behind them. Louts must have gotten onto the platform and the train itself by the skin of their teeth, no doubt needing to wrestle their luggage through the doors between cars instead of through one of the windows. They had hardly exchanged words yet, and Severus already felt disappointed these two lay-abouts hadn't missed the train. He watched them joking and ribbing each other as they helped one another swing first one trunk, and then the other, onto the metal luggage racks above their heads.
Both finally collapsed with twin sighs of relief onto the plushy cushion directly opposite Severus and Lily, so that the bespectacled boy was directly facing the girl. Bespectacled Boy smiled brightly.
"Hullo, love. And who might you be?"
To his surprise and dismay, Lily turned into herself shyly, still flushing prettily, casting her eyes downward as her extroverted personality seemed to suddenly abandon her.
If it seemed strange that she wouldn't immediately give her name, Bespectacled Boy shrugged it off. "That's all right. I don't mind the silent types myself."
"D'ya reckon she's a mute?" the other bloke Severus had decided to nickname Mangy Brute spluttered out. This one clearly had no filter, blurting out the first thing that popped into his head as though he was a parrot. As though anyone wanted to hear his deluded thoughts.
"Course she's not!" Severus responded hotly, before realizing it wouldn't do to try and speak for her. But defend her? He already knew he would do that until his last breath.
"Don't mind Sirius. He just likes to rustle everything out, is all," Bespectacled Boy tried to apologize for his mate. "Sit up, you sod, and say hello to the lady!"
Sirius cheekily winked at Lily. "Wotcher, poppet." Lily still said nothing, her lips remaining in a frozen line, though she did lamely wave. Severus wondered what was up with her, but was almost too afraid to ask. He dearly hoped she wasn't suddenly so tight-lipped because she…. fancied these yahoos?
"So:" Bespectacled Boy clapped his hands together, rubbed them a little. "Where are we hoping to get Sorted, eh?"
Seeing as how Lily had yet to say a word, Severus tried not to flinch at how both Sirius and Bespectacled Boy expectantly turned to him, in the hopes that he was at least marginally more talkative between the two. After weighing for a moment whether he could get away with pretending to be a mute himself, or at least acting like one, Severus turned cherry red and mumbled out, "It's not so much a hope, really, as it is an expectation."
"Ah," Bespectacled Boy's eyes – shaded hazel or jade (from this angle, Severus couldn't tell) – twinkled. "Are you a Legacy then?"
He didn't know what that was, but going off of context clues, he muttered, "Reckon so. My whole family's been in Slytherin."
Directly across from him, he saw Sirius stiffen, then cast his eyes deliberately away from Severus. Bespectacled Boy took this in more placidly.
At least until:
"Well, I suppose they have to put some people in there…"
If he had been a little braver, Severus might have asked the bastard to explain himself. As it was, he shot back with a slight coolness in his voice, "All right, and where are you two wanting to be placed?"
Bespectacled Boy responded by clasping both hands together as if in prayer and lifting them slightly on high, as though he were pantomiming holding something aloft. "Gryffindor, who dwell the brave at heart! Like my dad."
Severus couldn't help it. The thought of either of these two rednecks in Gryffindor House made him let out a snort.
The charming façade on Bespectacled Boy's face instantly fell like a curtain. "Got a problem with that?"
"Not at all," Severus slipped his expression into something carefully blank. Until: "It's just that it's not very brave-like to nearly miss your train when it comes due." Not the nimblest comeback in the world by any stretch, but within five minutes of meeting these blokes, Severus already knew their types: hot-shots who thought all good things in life deserved to be theirs because everyone around them told them so. Probably purebloods both, and the worst kind. If there was one thing Severus hated, it was elites.
"Oi!" Sirius had leapt to his feet. "If we're such chicken shites as you claim, maybe you'd feel confident taking us in a duel?"
Severus merely lifted a lofty eyebrow. "We're not supposed to use magic until we're within the castle grounds," he reminded loftily. "Even if we could, what curse would you use when you've yet to learn any? Or perhaps you know a spell that can make the sun shine even brighter out your own arse?"
It was involuntary, the way he flinched as Sirius, despite being reminded of some obvious facts, still dared to thrust the tip of his wand nearly up the other boy's hooked nose. "Come on, then! Show me, you cheeky bastard!"
He hadn't been about to pull out his own wand anyway, though in years to come, Severus would wish he had, rules be damned. Instead, he felt Lily lightly rest a hand on his arm.
"Severus," she murmured. "Let it go."
"She speaks," Sirius blinked, surprised. "Or, well, mumbles. What's that she called you, prat – Snivellus?"
Severus opened his mouth to correct him, but probably wouldn't have been heard any better than Lily had been, from how loudly Bespectacled Boy was laughing.
"Good one, Sirius!"
Sirius turned to his best mate and grinned, chortling. "Wasn't it, though?"
At this, Lily smirked almost wickedly. "Ironic name for you, isn't it? Sirius…. Even though you're an entirely unserious person."
It was her way of defending him, Severus knew, and he smiled at her gratefully, even as Sirius and Bespectacled Boy both blinked dumbly at her. At last, Sirius hooted.
"I like this one, Jamey Boy!" And he even reached out a hand for Lily to shake. She took it, though barely, Severus noted with pride.
Squirming awkwardly, Severus finally rose from his place. "I…. think I'll go find the Trolley Lady, Lillian. I'll be right back!"
"See you, Snivellus!" the one Sirius had called Jamey boy called to his retreating back.
Later, from the Slytherin table at the far end of the Great Hall, Severus had to crane his neck over the heads of many of his green-robed new classmates as well as a majority of the Ravenclaws as his best mate was called up to take her place on the stool and have the Sorting Hat placed on her head. Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall had decided to mix it up this year – a decision that seemed entirely out of character for the lady – and Sort the first years in reverse alphabetical order. Severus had a feeling, from how people were still looking confused, this attempt to spice up the proceedings was not going to create a trend, and he suspected the tradition would return to regular alphabetical order in a year's time.
Still, he would cherish the memory, even as it made his heart sink, of the Sorting Hat casting Lily into "GRYFFINDOR!" Her red curls flew behind her like a banner as she skipped down to the Gryffindor table now going up in cheers.
Severus felt his heart clench from where it still rested now somewhere at the bottom of his stomach when his best girl found a place right between that Sirius oaf and the bespectacled friend of his, who now turned and held out his hand to her, murmuring something.
Severus couldn't hear over the din, but he had become adept at reading lips.
'Hi, I'm James.'
To which Lily beamed and shook his hand. 'Hi, I'm Lily.'
Severus felt his whole body lock up, feeling threatened. He hoped nothing further than a passing acquaintance came from this, even as he got the strangest suspicion that these James and Sirius fellows were about to become a rather persistent thorn in his side.
It was a sad state of affairs that, over the next seven years, he would be proven right.