I'm sorry, I HAD to add this chapter! It's kinda short…
Chapter 6: The Hogwarts Express
Severus sat, hunched in a corner of a compartment of the Hogwarts Express by the window, listening intently to his fellow Slytherins' conversations, not participating much himself.
"Just one year," Bellatrix Black was saying, "just one more year of this Defense Against the Dark Arts rubbish, followed closely under that crackpot old fool's crooked nose," she paused as everyone gave a great shout of laughter, enjoying the attention, "and we'll be off to do much more important things."
She lay her shoulder on her boyfriend, Rodolphus Lestrange's shoulder.
Severus' mind wandered. He looked out of the window at the fog that was covering the train as soft raindrops tapped against the window…
He listened peacefully to the sound of Lily's excited giggles.
"Is this a real frog?" she asked him breathlessly.
"No," he said, "It's just a spell."
"Sev, look! The picture's moving!"
She thrust a card with a picture of Agrippa on it into his scrawny hands.
"Hm."
None of this was a surprise to him, but he loved watching her being fascinated with magic.
She studied the card for a while, while Severus helped himself to a Pumpkin Pasty.
"The picture's gone," Lily said, after a while, frowning at the card.
"They don't stay the whole time. But they come back," Severus explained, "not like in the Muggle pictures where they stay put inside the photos."
Lily squinted at the picture.
"That's unusual."
Severus shrugged.
"You'll get used to it."
Lily proceeded to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans.
"Be careful with those," Severus warned, "those really have every flavor."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, they have some regular flavors, like the Muggle candies, and some really odd ones like spinach and liver and tripe."
Lily picked out up and chewed off the end of one.
"I think this one tastes like Pepper!" she said, giggling.
Severus looked out of the window at the dark green hills outside. He was sure that Hogwarts would be better than Spinner's End. As he listened to Lily eagerly trying out different flavored beans, he felt extremely grateful to have her as a friend.
He sighed as he remembered that euphoric feeling he had on his first train ride to Hogwarts. This was now the last one, and he was almost dreading going there, where he would face the same bullying and snide remarks he faced every year. Right now, he wished he could be anyone- anyone in the whole world besides himself.
PS: I got most of the inspiration for this chapter from Harry's first train ride in the first book, just thought I should credit that.