II. Quite Unlikely

The compartment door slid open just as Remus was skimming The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1. He suspected at first that Andromeda Black had returned already, but in fact she hadn't—two unfamiliar students now poked their heads into the compartment.

"Nice scar," said the boy in front, pointing at Remus' nose. The boy's pale complexion and otherwise fragile-looking appearance—as well as his lack of manners—left Remus with the strong impression that he'd most likely been raised in a cave. He also had such an unusually prominent nose of his own that it seemed a touch unfair to be making an issue of anyone else's.

This boy also seemed like the very last person on earth to be standing next to the freckled girl beside him who, if nothing else, had definitely not been raised in a cave: every part of her looked extremely well cared for, and her clothing had probably never been worn, or at the very least furiously washed and pressed just this morning. Remus wished he could say that about his own clothing, though he'd never much cared about that before this very moment.

"Can we sit here? Everywhere else is full," the girl said. Remus only sunk back into his seat in lieu of a response, so both strangers saw themselves in. While the girl rolled in a trunk behind her which looked brand new, the boy's looked battered, like someone else had already used his for years.

"Oh, you have a cat," the girl cooed, noting the slumbering black cat on the luggage rack. Remus himself had only noticed the cat ten minutes earlier—he had to assume it was Andromeda's.

"You're not allergic are you, Sev?"

"No, I don't care if he's got a cat…"

"It's not my cat," Remus blurted out, and the girl's green eyes met his own. He thought that they were a very attractive color.

"Then whose cat is it?"

"Someone left it here earlier. That's her trunk, right there…" Remus pointed and then looked back at them apologetically. "She'll probably come back some time, but I don't know for sure."

"Will she mind that we're here?" asked the boy. He sounded unnecessary worried, as though he spent half of his life apologizing for his very existence.

"I don't think so," Remus answered. His knees knocked together, but it seemed too late now to hope he'd be left alone. "She's the Head Girl, so I'd expect she'd be nice enough to let us all stay."

"Andromeda Black's the Head Girl this year, Lily," the boy explained, turning with excited eyes to the girl—her name was Lily, apparently. "I heard from my parents that she's one of Hogwarts' best students. She's a Slytherin."

"Do you know her?" asked Remus.

"Not really, I've just heard of her," said the boy. He sounded a lot more secure now that he could show that he knew something neither of the others did. "She's from the Black family—that's a really famous pureblood family, Lily. Anyway, I'm going to be in Slytherin too. We both are."

Remus glanced at Lily, who could no longer quite look her friend in the eye. She didn't seem to have the kind of temperament for Slytherin house, Remus thought, and perhaps she was thinking along these same lines. But then again, perhaps Lily came from a long line of purebloods...

"What's your name?" Remus asked Lily, wondering if her last name would sound familiar.

"I'm Lily Evans," she admitted reluctantly. "And I'm actually a Muggle-born. I didn't even know I was a witch for a really long time. And I'm really starting to doubt that I'm going to be in Slytherin, you know? Don't you think I'd probably be in Hufflepuff or something, Sev? I thought there weren't any Muggle-borns in Slytherin to begin with."

"Maybe you'll get in anyway," the boy said quickly. "They can make exceptions if it's the best house for you, can't they?"

Remus doubted this. Mr. Lupin had told him all about Slytherin house and its obsession with purebloodedness, but worse than that, he had also heard whispers of Slytherin's dark history, and how many members approved of men like Lord Voldemort and had even risen to fight for his cause. Remus couldn't deny that he at least partially understood why the obnoxious boy from earlier had acted like becoming a Slytherin would be the last thing he'd do.

The fragile-looking boy spoke only to Lily now, filling her in on as many details as he could about the day ahead—the customary journey across the lake, the Sorting, the feast—and Lily just nodded her head and occasionally asked questions. Remus listened as well, because it was like hearing his father's voice all over again, who had done his very best to inform Remus of what he could expect at Hogwarts. Remus' mother, a Muggle, had also been quite interested in this wizarding school which Mr. Lupin had rarely mentioned before Remus' acceptance letter. In the end, though, Mr. Lupin had offered such an overwhelming amount of advice that Remus now privately believed that he too feared, deep down, that Remus' chances of failure were already quite high...

A woman came by their compartment around lunchtime, pushing along a trolley laden with food. Most of it was a variety of different snacks in colorful wrappers, including sweets.

"Wizards have their own sweets?" said Lily, incredulous. Her friend nodded with a little smile on his face as she got up to buy one of everything, and then several more of the kinds she thought looked promising.

But neither of the boys left their seats. The fragile-looking boy seemed very sad to say that he didn't have the money for frivolous spending, and Remus refused for the same reasons. The truth, however, was that Remus' parents had given him a perfectly reasonable amount of gold to last him for the next few terms, but they were also the sort of people who thought Remus had enough problems without allowing junk food into his diet. Remus shuddered to think of what his father and mother might say if they knew he'd broken their trust on his very first day away from home.

"That's okay if you don't have the money," Lily said brightly to both of them. "Let's share."

The boy across from Remus acted highly embarrassed at first, but then he thanked Lily graciously and helped himself to a Licorice Wand. Even Remus found himself very tempted as Lily waved her forbidden snacks right in front of him.

"Go on," Lily urged.

But Remus had already realized what should have been immediately obvious to any other boy his age—that his parents would never, ever have to find out about this, so long as he never told them. Remus could at last have a secret he was able to keep from his parents for the very first time in his life.

It may have been only a small action, but it was as good a place as any to start down the path of rebellion. Remus chose something that looked like chocolate and stared down at it as though he now held a forbidden treasure in his hands.

"What is this?" Remus asked, his heart racing at little.

The boy next to Lily partially inhaled a Pumpkin Pastie.

"Are you a Muggle-born too?" he sputtered. Lily looked at Remus with hope in her eyes.

"I'm a half-blood. I've just never tried one of these."

"It's a Chocolate Frog," said the boy, as though Remus must've been the only half-blood in the world who didn't know. "Can't you see it's a frog through the plastic? Go on and open it, it comes with a Wizard Card, lots of people collect them…"

Remus very carefully opened the Chocolate Frog's wrapper (as opposed to ripping open the packaging and littering it on the floor, which Lily and her friend were doing). Then he pulled the frog out of the wrapper and set it on his open palm. The frog seemed very realistic, even if it did not move—he easily could have held an entirely real, chocolate-coated frog in his hand.

"Go on then," Lily encouraged him. "What card is it?"

Remus now produced the Wizard Card from its wrapper and turned it over.

"Merlin," Remus announced, and he held it out to show the other two. Lily reached out with eager hands to see it, saying breathlessly to herself, "he's real?"

"That's a common one," the boy drawled. "I don't collect them, but—"

Lily interrupted him with a shriek. Her friend whipped out his wand in self-defense, though Remus was fairly sure he can't have known any spells yet.

"What's wrong?" Remus inquired, once he'd looked around and saw no immediate danger.

"The picture moved!"

Both boys stared in disbelief as Lily shoved the Wizard Card into their faces. Remus had to lean sideways to see what Merlin was doing—he merely give a polite cough into his hand and looked up at them with a bored expression.

"And?" said the boy.

"They're not supposed to move, Sev!"

"Blimey," said Remus, running a hand through his hair. "Not supposed to move?"

"Oh," said the boy, suddenly understanding. "That's right! Lily's only ever seen pictures that don't move, now that I think of it. In our world, Lily, all of the pictures move… they can do all sorts of things, even walk right out of the picture if they want… look, he's doing it right now!"

Lily watched, wide-eyed, as Merlin's likeness casually went up to the side of the card and disappeared.

"Wow," Lily breathed. "That's… that's really cool."

"Yeah. Wait until you get into the castle, Mum said there's paintings and tapestries everywhere and the people in them can even go on walks—"

"How much do you know about what the inside of Hogwarts looks like?" Remus asked. "How big is it? Er… Sev?"

The boy laughed. It was a strange laugh, like he hadn't had something to be amused by in quite a long time.

"I'm sorry," he said, and he put out his hand. "I forgot to tell you who I was. My name's Severus Snape."

"Remus Lupin."

He put out his hand and shook Severus'—his skin felt a little cool to the touch. Lily looked embarrassed that she too had forgotten to ask for his name, though when she tried apologizing, Remus merely shrugged and finally bit off a piece of the Chocolate Frog which had begun melting in his hand.

"How is it?" Severus asked.

"Mm," was all that Remus could say, sorely wishing that he'd defied his parents' wishes about him not eating such things long ago. He would be rebellious any day for this.