Chapter 3: Of Lights And Hand Holding
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: Thanks to all who have reviewed so far and to one of my very best friends, who read through my rough draft of the first two chapters, gave her opinion on it, convinced me to post it on here, and has put up with me talking about it nonstop. I hope you all continue to enjoy this story as much as I enjoy writing it, which is quite a bit.
"Tabitha, wake up. You don't want to miss breakfast, do you?" Mary MacDonald, one of her roommates, asked, gently shaking her.
"Don't wanna get up..." Tabitha grumbled sleepily, pulling the duvet over her head and trying to go back to sleep.
"Too bad! James and Sirius are practically going nuts in the common room, waiting for you!" Mary told her, pulling the duvet off of the sleepy girl. Said girl groaned and sat up, rubbing her eyes.
"All right, I'm up." Tabitha said, climbing out of her bed. Mary grinned triumphantly, leaving to inform the other girl's impatient friends. Tabitha changed into her school clothes before going to the bathroom to brush her hair, brush her teeth, and put some light makeup on. Once she was finished getting ready, she left the girls' dormitories and descended the stairs to the Gryffindor common room.
"Finally!" James and Sirius chorused, standing at the bottom of the stairwell.
"If I have to be awake at this ungodly hour, then I demand to be carried to the Great Hall." The small, blonde witch announced, unwilling to leave until her demands were met. Sirius rolled his eyes and plucked her off of the floor to carry her in a princess style.
"Do you require anything else, oh great and powerful ruler?" He asked sarcastically, grinning at her. Tabitha shook her head and handed her school bag to James, who looked as if he'd die from impatience if they didn't leave soon.
"Onward to victory!" Tabitha exclaimed as Sirius started to carry her to the doorway leading out of the common room, where Remus and Peter had been waiting. Lupin rolled his eyes in amusement at his friends' childish antics. Peter looked at him curiously, having not paid attention to what the others had been doing. The group left the tower and made their way down to the Great Hall. Tabitha blushed a bit when she saw Severus glance at them from the Slytherin table. Sirius carried her over to the Gryffindor table and sat down, placing her in a lap in a bout of laziness. Tabitha squirmed out of his lap and squeezed in between him and Remus. Sirius raised a brow at her curiously.
"You don't like sitting in my lap anymore, Tabby Cat?" He asked, feigning great distress at the very idea of it. Tabitha rolled her eyes at his theatrics. While it was true that she had felt perfectly comfortable sitting in her friends' laps when they hung out during summer and in Gryffindor tower, she didn't want to be seen elsewhere like that.
"It's nothing like that at all, Padfoot. The problem is that someone might get the wrong idea about us." She answered, resisting the urge to look towards the Slytherin table.
"You say that like it's a bad thing. I personally think that it sounds like a good way to keep guys from going after you." He told her, pulling her back into his lap. Tabitha felt heat rise in her cheeks as she struggled to escape her friend's lap.
"You know, I think you're onto something, Sirius." James said, grinning conspiratorially at him. He grabbed the lightweight female and pulled her into his own lap.
"Remus, can't you make them stop?" Tabitha begged, trying to get away.
"Well, I could, in theory, but what fun would that be? I agree with them." The tall, scarred boy replied, having Sirius help him get her into his lap now.
"Come on, you guys, I'm not some sort of stuffed animal for you to share!" She whined, thinking that she should have gone back to sleep earlier. Seeing that her friends weren't going to let her sit beside them, rather than on their laps, she gave up on fighting against it. She grabbed a roll and stuffed it in her mouth, glaring at Peter, who was still sniggering over the whole thing. She wiggled around in Remus's lap as she chewed her roll, getting comfortable. This resulted in the four males laughing at her.
"Don't laugh. If I'm stuck with sitting in one of your laps, then I might as well make myself comfortable... Which is a feat in itself, seeing as Moony here is bonier than a thestral." Tabitha huffed, Sirius offered to let her sit in his lap instead, but she shook her head, having already gotten comfy in the werewolf's lap. She snuck a glance at Snape, at the Slytherin table. She blushed, seeing that he had caught her glancing at him. He looked disapprovingly at her, seeing her in Remus's lap. She sighed quietly and leaned back against Lupin unhappily, thinking about the sorts of things Severus might be thinking about her now that he had more than likely seen her sitting in all three of the tallest Marauders' laps. Remus looked down at her concernedly, having heard her sigh. She offered him a small smile, which he returned in kind. They left the Great Hall when Remus had pointed out to them that they only had ten minutes to get to the History of Magic classroom.
"I hate this class. Binns has to be the most boring professor in the world." Tabitha groaned, tossing her head back dramatically to show her unhappiness at going to the class.
"Stop moving around so much." James scolded, chuckling as he tried to get a more secure hold of her. He was giving her a piggy-back ride to the classroom while Sirius carried her school bag. She was glad that her friends were willing to make up for teasing her at breakfast like this. She liked not having to walk up and down the stairs, even if getting carried on them wasn't the safest.
"I don't think anybody likes History of Magic class, with the way Binns drones on." Sirius told her.
"Probably not." Tabitha agreed. She climbed off of James's back when they reached the door to the classroom. She wished Remus and Peter had this class with them. The two of them had Divinations this hour. None of them were happy about not being all together, but knew it was beyond their power. All unhappy thoughts fled from her mind when she saw that Severus was one of the Slytherins who had this class with them. She waved at Sirius and James before leaving them in favor of sitting next to Snape.
"Good morning, Severus." She greeted, smiling at him happily. The lanky Slytherin nodded in acknowledgement. Tabitha fished her textbook, quill, ink well, and some parchment out of her bag, trying to think of something to say.
"So... How did you sleep?" She asked lamely, unable to think of anything else ask.
"As well as usual." He answered, neatly arranging his supplies in front of him.
"Oh. That's good." She said, feeling a bit embarrassed at her lack of conversational prowess at the moment. Severus smirked a little to himself at the odd way the witch sitting next to him was behaving. It kept him from feeling the nervousness the events from the day before brought to him in her presence. Her nervousness made him feel more in control of their conversation and he was quite fond of being in control. He silently watched as she wiggled uncomfortably in her seat, waiting to hear what would come out of her mouth next.
About what you saw in the Great Hall... It really wasn't anything like what it looked like." Tabitha told him, biting her bottom lip anxiously. It almost looked as if she expected he would scold her, much to his amusement.
"What "what" looked like?" Snape asked, arching a brow.
"You know, me sitting in James, Sirius, and Remus's laps. I didn't have much say in the matter. They were making me sit like that just to get on my nerves." She answered, blushing brightly.
"Why would I care what you were doing in their laps?" He sneered, using the conversation to make her as uncomfortable as possible, as a sort of punishment. He wouldn't let her know it, but seeing her in the laps of the Marauders had bothered him quite a bit. It also bothered him that he didn't know why it had bugged him so much in the first place.
"Well, because we're friends, of course. Even if you don't care, I still wanted to let you know what really happened. I don't want you to think badly of me." Tabitha explained, giving him a shy smile. Severus felt a small rush of pleasure at her words, that she cared so much about his opinion of her, He couldn't remember anyone really caring about his thoughts, other than Lily, of course. He looked around the room for the redhead, realizing that he hadn't thought to look for her or to save a seat for her. He frowned, seeing her sitting all the way across the room with some other Gryffindor girls. He couldn't believe he had allowed himself to get distracted by the silly witch sitting next to him.
Tabitha saw that Severus was now watching Lily with a sour expression. She sighed softly, knowing that he was upset that she was sitting next to him, when he wanted to be next to the redheaded witch instead. She absently twirled one of her blonde curls around her finger, ignoring Professor Binns as he started class. She figured that she'd ask Remus to help her if they received any homework, seeing as he had this class later in the day. She glanced at the pale wizard sitting next to her every few minutes, feeling quite jealous of Lily. She hoped that he would notice her instead of Lily someday.
After a while, she felt something hit the back of her head. She turned around, wanting to know who was throwing things at her. She giggled, seeing that Sirius was in the middle of crumpling another piece of parchment into a ball to throw at her. She gave him a curious look, expecting him to let her know why he needed her attention. He grinned at her mischievously and sneakily waved some sort of small firecracker at her. He then put his hands over his ears to show her that she would want to cover hers. She shook her head at him, trying to dissuade him from using the firecracker. He shook his head in return, not going to give up on his plan to get out of class.
Tabitha smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand, seeing Sirius whisper incendio, lighting the firecracker. She covered her ears as he threw it at Professor Binns's podium. There was a loud "boom" that shook the classroom as it was filled with flashes of multicolored lights. Tabitha guessed that this was the same thing that she and Severus had heard last night. The firecracker quickly put an end to the lesson, since another professor would have to come undo the enchantment from the firecracker that made the blindingly bright lights continue to flash. Tabitha sighed as she left the classroom alone. Sirius and James had been sent to the office, since neither could be innocent when they had been sitting right next to each other. She didn't feel sorry for them, but didn't like being stuck all alone. Severus had stayed behind to wait for Lily to get to the door. That obviously didn't help her mood at all.
Since class had been cut early, Tabitha decided to drop her textbook off in the girls' dormitory. She walked up the many flights of stairs and came to a stop eventually at the Fat Lady's portrait.
"Password?" The painting demanded, looking at her boredly.
"Cat tooth." Tabitha answered. She walked into the common room as the portrait swung out of the way for her. She trudged up the stairs to the girls' dormitory, sulking and thinking unhappily about how her day had gone so far. She dropped her textbook on her bed before leaving Gryffindor tower again. She didn't know what to do now, since there was still at least half an hour until her next class. She wandered the halls of the castle aimlessly for a little while before she accidentally ran into someone.
"Oh! I'm sorry. I should have been paying more attention to where I was going." She apologized as she looked up to see who she had run into. She blushed, looking into the fathomless black eyes of Severus Snape.
"Indeed." He answered, though he hadn't actually been paying attention to where he was going either.
"Where's Lily?" Tabitha asked. She had expected that Severus and Lily would be walking together, seeing as he had waited specifically for her.
"In the library with some of her other friends." Snape answered bitterly. He had hoped to spend some time with his childhood friend.
"Oh. Would you like to walk with me then?" She asked, offering a friendly smile.
"I have nothing better to do." He replied, hiding the discomfort her presence always seemed to bring with her lately. His answer made the short, blonde witch smile quite brightly. He had never actually agreed to do anything with her before. She had always just came to him and hung around no matter how boring whatever he was doing was. She wondered if this meant he was becoming more accepting of her friendship. She walked with him happily, though she had to walk at quick pace in order to have any chance of keeping up with him at all, since his legs were so much longer than her own. Severus kept his cold mask up, hiding his nervousness from the small witch that was struggling to keep up with him. He jolted to a stop, feeling her grab his hand.
"You walk really fast. It's difficult to keep up on my own." Tabitha said in explanation to why she had grabbed his hand, blushing a soft, rosy color and smiled lightly at him. He nodded, forcing himself to start walking again before he could do anything that would reveal how much he liked the feeling of the girl's tiny hand holding his own. He figured that the reason he liked it so much stemmed from the instinctive need humans had for having contact with another.
Tabitha was feeling much happier now than she had all morning, enjoying being near Severus like this for as long as he would allow her to. She smiled, enjoying the sensation of her hand being engulfed by his much larger one. She usually thought larger hands seemed clumsy, but but his hands had always seemed quite graceful to her when she had watched him brewing potions. They were nicely shaped and had long, elegant fingers. She wasn't bothered by the coolness of his hand, thinking that it seemed fitting somehow. She glanced up at him, wondering what he was thinking about. He glanced at her as well and smirked at how utterly happy his schoolmate seemed to be about holding his hand. He had always thought Tabitha Tate was strange, but this confirmed it to him. He didn't mind though, thinking that he was being a fool for not being cautious enough about accepting her friendship. No one else would be happy at all about holding his hand. He found that he was oddly glad that she seemed to be so fond of him, making it a lot harder for him to find reason to not be friends with her. They walked together like this for the rest of the free time they had left before they had to start heading to their next classes. When it was time for them to start walking to their classes, they reluctantly parted, both secretly hoping that this would mark the start of a good friendship.