A Second Chance

Chapter 3: Rivals

"I'm Remus Lupin, first year." He said introducing himself. "Hi! I'm Lily Evans, and this is Severus Snape." Lily said, introducing them. Severus simply nodded his head at Remus. After all, they might not have to be enemies this time around – he had only hated Remus because he had been part of the Marauders, Potter's group. "We're first years too." He heard Lily say and saw her sit down in front of Remus. Severus quickly joined her. That's when the door opened. . . and James Potter the bastard himself walked in . . .

James Potter, the very bastard that he couldn't stand to even look at, had just entered their quiet compartment. 'Double damn. . .' he thought and looked at Remus who had just looked up at the newcomer. And wouldn't you know it, right behind him was Pettigrew and Black!

Severus put a hand on Lily's and gave her an uncertain smile – she returned his smile with a beaming one. "Well well, who do we have here?" he asked, taking a seat next to Remus. James used a hand to ruffle his hair, like he always had before and grinned at Lily with his 'devil-may-care' look. "James Potter. And you are?"

"I'm Lily Evans, and this is Remus Lupin and Severus Snape." She answered, frowning slightly. Severus smirked, hiding behind one of the masks he always wore when dealing with his old nemesis, but behind it, he was laughing with joy. Lily was not impressed with Potter – and that was enough to make him want to dance a jig. Finally, finally, things were going his way.

He watched as Potter's brows went up and smirked. "Well, I like a challenge anyways." He said, looking like his old cocky self – at least until Lily grabbed Severus' hand and drug him from the compartment. "I'll talk to you later Remus." She said with ice in her voice. He saw Remus nod at her and Severus snorted in Potter's direction – he obviously wasn't used to being turned down by pretty girls that he was interested in. And when she had grabbed Severus' hand – he had looked livid.

They found another compartment not far from the one that Remus was in and took a seat. The trolley that had treats stopped and told them they had better get into their Hogwarts clothes. Severus bought him and Lily a pack of droobles and Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans. After changing, they laughed over who got what flavor.

Sev ended up getting a grass flavored one and Lily got a pepper flavored one, which caused her to cough while she was laughing. Just as she was daring him to try a bit of what looked like treacle tart, the train pulled into the station. Severus gave her the box to put away with her things and he helped her with her trunk. "Want to see something cool Lil?" he whispered and pulled out his wand, whispering the incantation to float both his and her trunks. Lily looked wide eyed at Severus. "Wow Sev! That's amazing! You have to teach me that." She said and he nodded, grinning.

It was then that he heard Hagrid call for the first years. "Fir' Years! Over here!" said a booming voice, and he was pleased to see that seeing Hagrid's giant size made Lily a little scared – she had clutched onto him. "It's alright – I don't think he'll hurt us." He said with amusement; Lily just glared at him and walked towards the giant of a man, letting go of Severus. Severus started laughing. "Oh come on Lily, don't be like that – I didn't mean anything by it."

Hearing the rare laugh, Lily turned back around and pouted at him. "Fine, but don't make fun of me Mr.-Know-It-All." She said and Severus was reminded strongly of when he had called Hermione Granger an 'insufferable know-it-all'. He supposed, if he ever saw her again, he'd have to find a way to apologize.

It was then that she saw Remus Lupin heading towards Hagrid with the other marauders following behind him. They were chatting but then he saw Lily. "Hi Remus!" she said grinning. Remus returned a wave but Potter dragged him towards Severus and Lily.

"Well well, if it isn't the pretty flower I saw a while ago." He said to strike up a conversation with the red haired beauty. But it was then Severus decided to stop this here and now. She was HIS princess, not Potter's – or at least not anymore. "Leave her alone." Severus said, stepping in front of Lily a little.

James looked mildly at the boy who had just stood up to him. "Snape was it? Why don't you go and bugger off somewhere? Me and the lady have some things to discuss. . ." he said, turning back to Lily when Severus pulled his wand from his pocket. Potter looked amused. "I bet you don't even know any spells yet." He said, taking his own wand from his pocket.

"You would be dead wrong, Potter." He said with a broad smirk. This was his chance to get him away from Lily – for good. He couldn't exactly use Sectumsempra right now, so with a thought he cast a spell that had Potter hanging from an ankle, his white knickers visible for all to see. It was one of his favorites – and one he'd created as the Half-Blood Prince.

He flicked an amused look at him and then grinned when he heard Lily. "That was amazing Sev! You really showed him, didn't you?" she said with a grin and hugged him tightly.

"H-hey, you cheat! Let me down!" James Potter demanded and Severus smirked wider. "As you wish." He said and cast the incantation to let him down. And down he went, landing on his bottom in front of all the first years. Everyone started laughing then, and it felt so nice to be in Potter's place for once.

"Now, leave Lily alone, or should I go with a curse to shrink your head? Oh wait, your head is already small enough." He quipped which made everyone around him laugh more and some even clapped. "Not that your small head even has enough room for a brain." He finished and grinned at Lily. "Let's go." He whispered into her ear before leading her to the boats. "Remember the little boats I told you about?" he said as she beamed at them. Hagrid lead them into one boat filled with four other kids – some he recognized, as the boats were released, but there were two in the boat he didn't.

"Hi, I'm Lily Evans and this is Severus Snape." She said, introducing them. "Patricia Clearwater, Gideon Nott, Hannah Macmillan and Emily Cole." Introduced Emily and Severus nodded at them. Gideon grinned at Severus. "Nice spell work. I only know a few spells right now." He said and Severus nodded.

"Same. That was one my mom created back when she was at Hogwarts." He added, thinking about his last lifetime – when he had told Nott that he had created the spell and ended up in Slytherin, the boy had been quick to introduce him to Lucius, who got him into the Dark Lord's service – or rather, thrust him into service. Well, that wasn't happening again.

Soon, the boats were across the lake, and they were ordered by a new teacher – who wasn't so new to Severus – to form a line. Severus smirked up at Minerva McGonagall and paused. Usually, he towered over Minerva – in fact, he had been one of the tallest teachers in Hogwarts. 'That's right, I nearly forgot – Dumbledore sent me back to when I was twelve which means I'll have to conceal my magical prowess.' He thought to himself as they walked up the stairs from a cave into the waiting room. "I'll be back to collect you in a few moments. Behave." She ordered before she closed the door.

He looked around a bit and turned to Lily when someone came up to them. "Severus. . ." said a very familiar name and he sucked in a breath before turning sharply on his heel to face Lucius. Well, he had known this was coming. "Lucius. . . how are you?" he asked with a slight frown. He gripped Lily's arm and pushed her gently behind him – Lily had been chatting to Molly Prewett, who one day would become Molly Weasley. At that moment thankfully, McGonagall returned and lead them from the room to the Great Hall, where there was an old battered hat sitting on a chair. Suddenly the hat broke out in song about each of the houses, but as Severus had heard this dribble before, didn't really pay attention. Instead, his eyes went to Lily, who seemed awestruck that a hat could actually sing.

And the sky, it seemed to enchant her – just like it had all those years ago. Those memories were getting a little foggier now, but he had one memory where he found her while she looked into the starry sky one night right after dinner. He had joked with her, and it had been one of the best days of his life.

He really wasn't paying much attention when her name was called. He already knew what house she'd be placed in – she had always been a Gryffindor, and would always be a Gryffindor. But he would still watch – because he loved her, and wanted to cheer her on. He gave her a smile when she walked to the chair nervously and sat down like the others. When the hat was placed on her head, his heart sped up unnecessarily and watched as the hat hardly touched her red hair when it called out "Gryffindor!". She beamed at Severus and walked over to the Gryffindor Table.

When his name was called, he stepped up to the chair and when the hat was put on his head, the hat spoke. It was no surprise to Severus though. 'Hat, I don't care what you do, but you had best NOT put me in Slytherin.' He thought and the hat chuckled. 'I see – you have a very unusual story, don't you dear boy?' said the hat and Severus' eyes widened a tad bit.

'Do not worry, for Slytherin isn't the place for you anymore.' The hat said and before the hat could announce his new house, Severus cleared his throat. 'I also need to ask about the Gryffindor sword – I need it to. . . destroy something very evil.' He added very softly. The hat seemed to consider and then told Severus to come to the headmaster's office at a later time. 'But for now. . .' "Gryffindor!"

Severus couldn't believe he had heard the hat right. "Gry-Gryffindor?" he asked McGonagall with wide eyes and the teacher nodded, thinking him a bit scared. He walked in a daze at first and then he grinned. He was finally in the same house as Lily! At that thought, he ran over and hugged Lily in the middle of the entire Great Hall.

Then he felt a pair of eyes, cold with disdain and possibly hatred glared at Severus. James Potter was not pleased at this news – that he would have to share his house with the slimy git. Oh, he would definitely get back at Snape for the embarrassment earlier – of that, he knew.

Snape smirked over his shoulder, and saw that Potter was the one. If he thought today had been a bad day, he was wrong – the next time he caught him within the same room with Lily, with the exception of classes or in the Great Hall and harassing her, Potter would need the hospital wing. And he wouldn't even need Sectumsempra.

Thinking of that, he put a mental note to write down any difficult spells and potions. And speaking of potions, he needed to find an abandoned classroom over the next few days to prepare some wolfsbane for Lupin. He looked back at where Potter was sitting and saw that they had dragged poor Lupin to sit with them.

Speaking about the potion, he would also have to get some hard to find ingredients, such as aconite and frozen ashwinder eggs, which were very hard to get. But then again, this was Slughorn he was dealing with – it shouldn't be difficult. And Potter's group would never need to know – and never need to turn into animagi.

Shortly after Dumbledore reviewed the new staff and the same old stuff (mostly about nothing from Zonko's was allowed, and that the forest was forbidden) they tucked into their meals and once finished, headed up to their common rooms. He almost went the wrong way at first, almost went towards the dungeons when Lily grabbed him by the sleeve.

"Where are you going silly. It's this way." She directed and pointed up the stairs. He felt a little stupid, but he supposed it was alright. He was with his Lily, his precious, precious Lily. His Lily, that no one would ever take from him again. He followed her up to the Gryffindor common room and they paused for a moment. "I'll. . . I'll see you in the morning?" he asked the dazzling young woman who still had his sleeve.

"Of course Sev!" she said with a smile and they went their different ways – Severus towards the boys dormitories and Lily towards the girl's. He felt Lily's fingers slowly slide from his sleeve and watched her as she looked back at him. He smiled sheepishly at her right before he saw her leave. . . and then made his biggest mistake that night.

Not watching where he was going, since his mind had been completely on Lily, as well as his eyes, he ran straight into Potter. The force sent them both on their bottoms and they both cursed at the same time. "Damned it Potter." He growled at his rival. "Snape was it? Nice bit of magic earlier. Where did you learn that?" he asked almost admiring. Severus frowned at him. "I studied a few books back during the summer and came up with it." He said with a slight shrug and wondered what Potter was going to do.

When Potter heard that Snape had made it himself, his expression told him that James was impressed, whether or not he would admit it verbally. "So, you're a bookworm then?" he asked with a hint of a smile. "Lupin's like that as well. Since he got here, he's had his nose in a bloody book." He joked.

Severus smirked. Just like Lupin to have his name in a book - Not that he wasn't just like him – Severus often had his nose in a book himself. The difference was, his book was normally a potions book. "Yes, he seems like the type." Severus commented, and looked away from Potter. What exactly did he want with Severus?

It was then that Potter cleared his throat. "Listen, that girl, you know? I think her name was Evans. What's going on between you two anyways? Are you her cousin or something? You looked awful defensive of her for some reason."

Severus raised both brows and shook his head. "No – we've been best friends for. . . for a long time." He finished. He wasn't about to give his enemy any secrets to his worst enemy. "And, I love her. I always have, ever since I met her." He admitted. He hadn't really wanted to, but if it would stay Potter, then he was glad to tell him. He'd tell anyone that had an ear if they asked him.

James Potter looked pretty surprised by this news. "Sooo, when are you breaking the news to her?" he asked, rubbing his hands together. Severus blinked at him. What in the hell was Potter playing at? "Why do you want to know?" he asked, throwing Potter a suspicious look. Potter smirked. "Well, let's just say you might have a little competition."

Severus growled, his face going from suspicious to pissed off in a few seconds flat. "Potter, do you realize that she doesn't like you, and that I highly doubt she wants to be anywhere near your pompous ass? And here's a fair warning Potter – if you piss her off, I have far more and much nastier spell work in my arsenal." Severus finished.

Potter's skin went a pale white when he heard this and swallowed. "Damn Snape, you're scarier than the teachers I've heard of. Even McGonagall isn't as bad I bet. Okay, okay, I promise I will try to never piss her off, but you've still got competition." He said, smirking slightly.

'Hmm, I wonder if I could kill Potter now and get it over with. . .' he wondered and then shook his head. "Just be aware that if I ever see you do anything that she doesn't want, I'll jinx you into the ground. And you'd better be careful – Lily's bat boogey jinx is worse than mine is. And that's saying something."

He left James standing there as his school robes billowed behind him – they always seemed to do that with any of his robes, whether school or his normal robes – as he headed to the boy's dorm rooms. Inside, he met the boys who he would be sharing his room with. Markus Black was the first boy he met, who introduced him to the others. There was Frank Longbottom, a name he knew well, and the memories threatened to swim in front of him of that horrid night.

The other two he recognized well as Molly Prewett's – he was still so used to her being a Weasley – brothers, Fabian and Gideon Prewett. All of them chatted while Severus merely listened. Soon, the boys ended up going to sleep and Severus glanced out of the nearby window. Tomorrow was truly the beginning of his life. And this time, he wouldn't mess it up. . .

Okay, done for tonight. But it's a longer chapter, sooo I hope it's a happy thing for the moment. I'll update tomorrow with a new chapter probably. ^^