Chapter 2: First Night Back At School
Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Harry Potter or any of the characters from it. They belong to J.K. Rowling. The only character that belongs to me, is my OC, Tabitha Tate.
AN: I'm not really sure if it's customary to wait any certain amount of time between posting chapters. I already had this much written, so I figured I'd post it already. Since I just posted the first chapter, I don't think anyone has read any of this story yet. I obviously have at least one now, if you're reading this. So, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and this one as well.
"We're here!" Tabitha cheered as the carriage came to a stop. She hopped out and impatiently waited for her friends to follow suite. She led them into the castle, skipping to the Great Hall. She was glad to be back at the school. She took a seat at the Gryffindor table, deciding to sit next to Lily.
"How was your summer, Tabby?" Lily asked as they waited for everyone else to sit down.
"It was pretty good. I spent a few weeks at James's house and hung out with him and Sirius like always." Tabitha answered, smiling at the red-headed witch.
"Ah. I'm guessing you three spent most of the time playing Quidditch?" Lily asked in reply, smiling back.
"You got it! Though, we were only able to play one position at a time, seeing as it was usually just the three of us. Remus was there for a few days, but he's lousy no matter what position he plays when it comes to Quidditch" The small blonde confirmed.
"So, did you get to spend much time with Severus?" Tabitha softly questioned, careful not to let herself seem jealous at the idea of it.
"Oh, I got to spend a little bit of time with Sev. My family went on vacation for a couple of weeks and then I spent most of my time catching up with my muggle friends when we got back, so so that didn't leave me much time to see him." Lily told her. Lily often wondered why the other girl tended to ask about Severus so much, since it was odd for a Gryffindor not to show hostility towards a Slytherin, especially when she was so close to James and his ilk. She hoped that it would eventually lead to Snape being close to Tabitha. She didn't like how much time he had started spending with the other Slytherins over the last couple of years and thought he needed some friends who weren't into the dark arts and becoming Death Eaters.
"Ah. I owled him quite a bit over break, It seems like all it accomplished was annoying him though and he never owled me back." Tabitha sighed.
"Really?" Lily asked, surprised. Severus hadn't said anything to her about getting letters from anyone. Her friend nodded, feeling a little sheepish about her spurned communication attempts toward Snape.
"I'll have to talk to him. It wasn't nice of him to have ignored your letters." The Red-headed Gryffindor told her. The blood left Tabitha's face, knowing that Lily getting on Severus's case would only serve to make him mad at her and embarrass her.
"No, no! You don't need to do that!" Tabitha assured nervously, glancing at the Slytherin table. She saw Severus sitting there, quietly watching Lily.
"Are you sure?" Lily asked, not looking fully convinced.
"Yep. It isn't a big deal, so bugging him about it would be pretty unnecessary." Tabitha answered, grinning uncomfortably; her grin more of a grimace than an actual grin.
"All right then..." The taller witch conceded, offering a small smile. Tabitha smiled back, grateful that Lily wouldn't mention it to Snape. They both looked up as Dumbledore announced the beginning of the sorting ceremony. Tabitha looked around; not paying much attention as the first years were sorted into the houses. She simply made sure to clap whenever the rest of the Gryffindors did. It was the same thing every year. After all the first years had been sorted, Dumbledore made his beginning of the year speech and then announced the beginning of the feast.
Tabitha talked to Lily and some of her other house-mates as she ate her meal. They didn't really talk about anything significant; they just made small talk. She smiled happily when James came over to talk to her about the Quidditch team tryouts for the year. She was confident that she'd get her place as a beater on Gryffindor's team like she had for the last three years. She knew that James would get his usual position of seeker as well, seeing as he was the captain of the Quidditch team.
Soon enough, Dumbledore ended the feast and bid the students and staff goodnight, saying they would all need lots of sleep for the beginning of the term tomorrow morning. Tabitha filed out of the Great Hall with the rest of the students, following the Gryffindor prefects to find out what the current password to the Gryffindor common room was. She giggled, watching Remus try to shepherd the wide-eyed first years. She was glad she wasn't a prefect.
After she heard what the password was, she snuck down to the entrance to the dungeons, looking for James and Sirius. They hadn't gone to the tower with the rest of their house, which had let her know that they were likely looking for either Severus or Mr. Filch to torment or prank. She tried to avoid any Slytherins who might be wandering in the dungeons, knowing that they would relish the chance to hex her or get her into trouble. She opened the door to the potions classroom a little, having seen some dim lights on under the door. She cautiously peeked in, not wanting Professor Slughorn to catch her sneaking around in the dungeons. She was relieved to see that Severus was the only one in there, brewing some sort of potion.
"Umm..Severus, have you seen Sirius or James anywhere near here?" Tabitha asked, walking into the classroom and closing the door behind her.
"What would Potter or Black be doing in the dungeons?... Obviously working on some sort of dunderheaded scheme, if they are." Snape sneered, focusing on the potion he was making.
"That's what I thought too. I wanted to make sure they didn't come to bully you or lose any housepoints already." Tabitha sighed, sitting down and watching him brew. Severus didn't say anything for a minute, almost looking as if he had forgotten about her being there.
"I don't need a girl, especially one from Gryffindor, protecting me from Potter or Black." He coldly answered after a moment.
"Well, friends are supposed to look out for each other, so deal with it." The small witch replied, not bothered in the slightest by what he had said. She was quite aware that he prided himself on not needing help and that it would offend him if she tried to do so, since he felt it meant that she was trying to make him look weak.
"We are not friends, Tate." Snape hissed.
"I say we are. I'm your friend no matter what you say and you are just going to have to come to terms with that." Tabitha insisted. The dark-haired wizard didn't say anything in response and it was impossible to see what he was feeling, since his hair hid his face. The witch stayed there, watching him. She liked watching brew potions. She thought it was relaxing, other than when he used her to test improvements he made to medicinal potions.
Severus wondered why this odd girl was so determined to be his friend and why she wouldn't leave. He was quite uncomfortable, remembering the unexpected affection she had given him on the train. He couldn't figure out why someone like her; Gryffindor, attractive, and friend of the Marauders, would want to be even be anywhere near him. He knew that he wasn't an attractive person and that being nice to him could result in that person getting negative attention from the Marauders.
"What potion are you making?" Tabitha asked after a little while. Whatever it was, it seemed to be a rather complex potion, which wasn't a surprise.
"Draught of Living Death." Snape answered. She nodded, impressed. That was a potion that even the older students struggled with.
"Why are you brewing that?" She inquired, not seeing any situations currently that would call for him to use something like that.
"I'm testing out some changes that could speed up the preparation time to see if they work and if they change the how the potion comes out at all." He explained. The blonde nodded again in response, smiling lightly. She found it astounding that Slughorn didn't sing praise of Severus's genius in potions. He was by far the most talented student in their year at potions, if not in the entire school. Tabitha started to doze off after a little while, feeling quite relaxed. She jumped up in alarm quite soon afterwards though, hearing a loud "boom."
"That must be the work of toue idiot friends." Severus calmly observed, never taking his attention off of the potion he was brewing.
"Well, Peeves could also be responsible." Tabitha claimed weakly.
"That would be highly unlikely, Ms. Tate, as I saw him following the Hufflepuff first years, making up rude songs about them." Snape replied, finishing up with the potion. Tabitha frowned a little, knowing that meant that he was more than likely correct in his assumption that James and Sirius were the culprits.
"We should probably stay in here for a littlw hile thne." She said, not wanting Severus to be bothered by mischevious friends.
"They have probably already been found a professor, so I see no reason to linger." Snape disagreed. He was using spells to clean his caudlron and tools. Tabitha bit her bottom lip anxiously, trying think of a way to keep the tall Slytherin boy from leaving for at least a few minutes. She looked around for anything she could use to distract him with. Not finding anything, she inwardly groaned, seeing that Severus was nearly finished with cleaning up. She walked up behind him as quietly as possible before tightly locking him a hug. Every muscle in his body instantly tensed up at the embrace. Tabitha was glad that she was behind him, since it prevented him from seeing her blush. She expected that he would be cross with her because of how much unauthorized body contact she had indulged in today, but she felt that it was more important to keep him from potentially running into James and Sirius, who were likely hidden somewhere underneath the invisibility cloak. She couldn't see how Severus was reacting to the hug, other than his tenseness, since he was using his hair to hide his face. After a few minutes, Snape pulled away from the hug, glaring at Tabitha. She was curious about what his homelife must be like for him to respond so negatively to being shown affection. She smiled shyly at him.
"Goodnight, Severus." She said before taking the opportunity to hug him again now that they were facing eachother, seeing as he was already mad at her about all the unwanted affection she had shown that day and another wouldn't change that fact. She knew she was pushing her luck with not getting hexed, but didn't particularly care at the moment. Severus tensed up again, but unlike the other times, started to relax after a minute or so. Tabitha smiled happily about this development before scurrying out of the potions classroom and up to Gryffindor tower. She went to bed that night, happy about Severus loosening up a little at her touch, but also contemplating what her friends could have done. She knew she'd probably find out the next morning.
The chapters seem relatively short to me so far. I'll try to get work on making them longer. The chapter lengths will probably vary though, since I will most likely not be very good at estimating the length of each chapter.