Chapter 5
While Harry's first letter to her, delivered the next day by Hedwig, showed a lot of promise to the start of the boy's school year, there were also a couple of things that concerned Lily within it. Albus giving strange speeches was nothing new, but warning students away from a particular part of the castle unless they 'wished to die a most gruesome death'? That was bizarre even for the ancient wizard.
More distressing was the way Severus seemed to glower at her son every time they crossed paths. Lily knew how much Harry was looking forward to learning Potions at school, and the sudden cold dread that her former best friend might ruin that for him was heartbreaking. Still, it wasn't something Lily would be able to do anything about until she knew, one way or the other, how Severus' personal prejudices would affect his teaching in the classroom.
Minerva had also written to inform her that Harry had been a minute late to his very first Transfiguration lesson, but since it was due to his and Neville's taking the time to make sure their dormmate Ronald Weasley didn't have a small break-down after becoming lost, she was allowing it to slide for once. Lily smiled, having already seen in her son's letter than he and Neville had been quick to befriend the other boy, who apparently was having a hard time adjusting to boarding school life.
The rest of the week she spent planning out a new work schedule, commiserating and celebrating with the Longbottoms by turns over their boys growing up, and visiting with the Prewetts and their sole niece, a delightful girl who would have reminded Lily a bit more of herself at that age if the child wasn't so lonely without all her brothers. Gideon and Fabian also told her about their two oldest boys, neither of whom was going to be able to visit home for the holidays, sadly. Lily promptly offered to have the whole lot of younger boys over for a few days during the break so that her old friends could take a quick trip to Romania, which they were happy to take her up on. It was expensive, raising seven children, and a short visit for themselves and Ginny would be all the twins could afford. Glad to be of service, Lily promised to start working out the when and how on her calendar.
Then, there came a hiccup in her new, more relaxed lifestyle.
Specifically, a bit of news she received about the actions of her old friend Severus Snape.
After reading Harry's letter at her breakfast on Saturday, Lily was ready to strangle someone. She paced about the house, furiously muttering to herself, before finally going down to the basement and repeatedly destroying and reassembling her training dummies. By lunchtime, she'd calmed down enough to put things in perspective.
Clearly, Severus was having a hard time looking at Harry and distinguishing between him and James. Lily couldn't fault the man for still having a desire to put the leader of his old enemies in his place, but taking out such revenge on an innocent eleven year old was going too far.
She wrote her son back, asking him to tell her about the next Potions lesson as soon as he could. If Severus hadn't shaped up by then, Lily would see about setting him straight herself.
The rest of the weekend went pleasantly enough, as she tweaked some new spells, brewed another wolfsbane potion for Remus, and continued in her efforts to encourage both him and Sirius to ease off on the pranks they still unleashed on unwitting Ministry employees. By Monday, the woman had almost completely forgotten about Harry's first, disastrous Potions class. Then Tuesday night rolled around, and with it, Hedwig, carrying another meticulously penned letter.
Lily read through it twice, before crumpling the parchment in her fist.
She had a letter of her own to write...
-CE-
Over the years, Hogwarts students had seen a great many of their fellows receive Howlers amongst the morning mail, often observing the loud reprimands from irritated parents with either amusement or sympathy. It was one of those things that happened to most students at least once or twice during their education, significantly more than that to a miserable handful, and not at all to a lucky few.
Never, however, had anyone actually witnessed at breakfast in the Great Hall, a Howler being delivered to one of the professors.
Such a thing was unheard of. The Hogwarts teaching staff were able to receive mail at all hours of the day, and as such it usually went to their private offices, where such unpleasant enchanted envelopes could be dealt with privately.
And yet, that particular Wednesday morning on the second week of classes, a Howler somehow found its way to Professor Snape. And promptly bellowed its message out for the entire Hall to hear.
"SEVERUS TOBIAS SNAPE!" It shouted, in a furious female voice. Snape instantly went two shades paler than his usual white, and stared at the hovering Howler with a mix of naked shock and wariness. "I'VE IGNORED THE RUMORS ABOUT YOUR TEACHING STYLE FOR TEN YEARS NOW, BUT NOT A MOMENT LONGER! MY SON IS NOT HIS FATHER, SEVERUS, AND YOU HAD DAMN WELL BETTER RECOGNIZE THAT FACT BEFORE I MARCH UP THERE AND INTERRUPT YOUR CLASSES FOR A PERSONAL SHOUTING MATCH TO PROVE IT! AND DON'T YOU DARE TAKE THIS OUT ON HIM OR ANYONE ELSE, BECAUSE I WILL KNOW ABOUT IT, AND THE CONSEQUENCES WILL NOT BE PLEASANT TO CLEAN UP!"
And with that, the Howler exploded.
The Great Hall was dead silent.
Professor Snape rose without a word, and left.
Harry turned to his friends.
"That," he whispered with a gleeful expression. "Was from my mum."
-CE-
When Harry's next letter arrived, Lily was pleased to see a report on Severus' dramatic lessening of unfair questions and taunts towards her son. He was still being nasty towards other students, as apparently was his want, but at tolerable levels.
With that particular issue resolved for the time being, she was able to focus instead on developing a new shield spell, one that allowed for physical objects to pass through one side but still repelled incoming attacks. The trick was in getting the magical energy to manifest correctly, and then hold its shape...
As usually happened when she was immersed in a new project, Lily completely lost track of the passing time. It wasn't until a knock came from her back door that the woman realized she'd spent the entire day in her workroom.
Sirius had evidently anticipated this, as he held up a picnic basket as an offering when Lily opened the door for him. "And a good evening to you, my dear lady. Might a humble wizard beg a few hours of your company in return for sharing the food he bears?"
"If there's one thing I know about you, Black, it's that you never have been and never will be 'a humble wizard'," Lily chuckled, letting the man in. "But that aside, what did you bring me?"
"Kreacher's finest: a selection of boiled vegetables, slow-roasted chicken, a loaf of that whole wheat bread you like so much, a bottle of wine from my family's cellars and for dessert, fresh-made treacle tart."
"Mm, sounds delicious. Come help me set the table, then, and we can tuck in."
"Your command is my wish, m'lady." He ducked past as Lily made to swat him, her eyes rolling to the ceiling. "Heard from the pup lately?"
"Got a letter from him just this morning, actually. He's doing well, Potions is more tolerable after my subtle intervention, and there are some new friends he's considering asking over during the summer hols next year."
"That all sounds good," Sirius remarked, carrying a couple plates and a handful of silverware into the dining room. "But what's this about you and subtle intervention? The way I heard it, you sent Snape a Howler, and somehow got it to him right in the middle of breakfast at the Great Hall."
"Well, yes. I think the knowledge that I was able to do it once and could potentially do so again is what actually got him to back off of bullying Harry."
Sirius' nose wrinkled up at that. "I still think you should have let me take a team of Aurors to rough him up a bit."
"No, Padfoot. Bad dog. Severus has just turned into a bitter old man before his time, that's not something to go harass him over. Besides, he'd file a report with your superiors, and have you out on probation, maybe even dismissed entirely."
"Be worth it..."
"No it wouldn't, and don't you dare think about going through with it anyway. That's not the sort of example you should be making for Harry."
"Alright, fine, woman!" Sirius held his hands up in surrender. "Have it your way. Can we eat now?"
"Sometimes, the way your train of thought switches tracks amazes me... Yes, Sirius, we can eat now."
-CE-
When Lily heard Minerva calling for her from the Floo on the night of October thirty first, she was expecting an offer of a shared toast to James and all others who'd lost their lives battling Voldemort, as was their tradition.
What the older witch told her instead, though, nearly sent Lily through the roof.
Calling Remus and Sirius out of the dining room where they'd been cleaning up from dinner, the woman had to force herself to calm down in order to tell them just why they were all about to go through the fireplace to Hogwarts.
"A troll got into the castle," she grit out. "And Harry and Neville went after it."
A/N: How's that for a cliffhanger? :D
Anywho, hope you all have had a good winter so far - mine's been alright, but tomorrow I need to drive four hours south in order to go to court over the couple of citations I got last Thanksgiving, when I was driving through a snowstorm, hit a patch of ice, slid to the side of the road and rolled my truck. Not fun. Even less fun was receiving the ticket for 'no valid proof of insurance' (which I DID have, I just couldn't FIND it after my truck did a 360 barrel roll and everything got tossed around), and especially the one for 'careless driving'. I was being damn careful! How's it my fault I have next to no experience handling icy conditions and had an accident just the same as native New Mexico and Colorado drivers?!
Well, I wish you all a better tomorrow than I'm going to have, and see you for the next update,
-Tri