The Untold Story

Chapter 10: It wasn't us

September 6, 1971

"Mate! This is it!" James said excitedly as the two power walked to the Great Hall.

"I know, I know. Now pipe down, you might as well tell the entire world what we're about to do." Sirius hissed. The two first years had finally made the "perfect potion" after an entire sleepless night. Still, the two had to admit that the eight hours of work had paid off.

"It's your time to shine Sirius." James winked as he discretely handed his friend a small vial of their prank potion. Sirius grinned before walking over to his cousins.

"Hello, beautiful ladies." Sirius greeted, ignoring the pointed stares directed at him, as he leaned his hip against the table, facing his cousins. He let his robes hide his hand as he quickly unscrewed the lid and dumped the contents of the potions into the pumpkin juice at the center of the table.

"Sirius. Why are you here?" Narcissa asked coldly before she continued to eat her breakfast.

"Now that hurt." Sirius pouted as he touched his heart.

"Okay, jokes aside. What do you want?" Andy asked getting straight to the point.

"I wanted to ask you if you still have your notes from first year." Sirius lied naturally.

"Why? You're not going to copy off them are you?" Andy narrowed her eyes at her cousin.

"Maybe." Sirius stretched the word out before grinning.

"Perhaps he's already having trouble keeping up." Narcissa suggested from the side. "Merlin knows he's got a brain the size of a raisin."

"Cissa!" Andy chided. Narcissa ignored her older sister before turning to her cousin.

"To befriend a Potter." Narcissa shook her head. "Haven't you tarnished the Black reputation enough already?" Narcissa questioned rhetorically. Sirius's eyes darkened from silver to a stormy gray. He smirked coldly, his eyes expressionless.

"Not yet." He said icily. "Have a good day Narcissa."

"Likewise." Narcissa stated calmly before turning away from her younger cousin. Sirius turned to Andromeda, his face softening considerably.

"They've already given us so much homework though." He whined before giving her his puppy dog eyes.

"Don't lie! They haven't even given you an essay!" Andromeda playfully shoved her cousin before laughing. "No, I will not give you any of my notes." she said.

"But why my dear lady?" Sirius dramatically dropped to his knees. "Can you not see the pain your denial has inflicted upon me?" Narcissa rolled her eyes as her older sister laughed.

"Forgive me, kind sir, but my mind has been made up." Andromeda played along. The two cousins smiled at each other. "Now go eat your breakfast." she said as she gestured at him to go.

Sirius quickly walked to James and smiled. "It's done." He whispered. James quickly took out his wand. "Not yet!" Sirius cautioned.

"I know. I know."

The two boys quickly ate their breakfast, sharing hidden smiles.

"Ugh…we have potions first!" Marlene moaned as she took a bite of her toast.

"But potions is fun." Lily argued.

"Yeah, when you have Severus Snape, the potions expert, as your partner." Alice said glumly. "How in the world did he know how to set up the cauldron in the first place?" Lily shrugged.

"It's not fair!" Marlene wailed. "Can we switch partners?" she asked Lily.

"Hey!" Alice said before lightly flicking Marlene in the forehead. "Your partner is right here."

"No thanks." Lily laughed.

"Are you going to apologize to him today?" Alice asked softly.

"Umm…" Lily was cut off by a couple screams from the Slytherin table. Everyone turned to find that all the Slytherins were now sporting a brilliant scarlet and gold hair dye. Teenagers from every house started to laugh and the normally stoic looking Slytherin house looked horrified to be donning Gryffindor colours.

"How did you guys manage to pull that off?" Remus asked James and Sirius.

"Um… we didn't do it?" James flimsily denied.

"That was so cool." Peter laughed.

"It was." Remus agreed as he chuckled. "Although, next time, maybe don't be so obvious about it." He jutted his chin in the direction of the older Black sister who was accusingly staring at her cousin.

"I'm so dead." Sirius suddenly didn't look so brave.

"You're dead? What about me? If your cousins figure out I helped you…"James shuddered. "I don't even want to think about it."

"Out of the frying pan and into the oven." Remus said from the side.

"What's that mean?" Sirius questioned.

"It's a muggle thing." Remus said. "It means… nevermind." he decided as his wizard friend stared at him quizzically. Remus quickly checked his watch as some students started walking out of the hall. "Come on, we should start heading to class."

Severus stared at his dyed hair in shock. "Eww!" a Slytherin girl said as she stared at her hair in horror.

"Please tell me we can get rid of this." Severus looked at Lucius, whose jaw twitched.

"Unfortunately, I don't think we can." Lucius stated as he stared accusingly at the Gryffindor table. "I will get the Prewett twins to pay for this insult." he hissed before he stood up. "You should get to class Severus. You don't want to be late do you?" With that, Lucius walked away, his robes elegantly flowing behind him.

Severus looked down at his empty plate before deciding that scarlet was not his colour. He sighed before standing and following the angrily buzzing group of Slytherin first years to the potions room. Lily was already sitting in the same spot they had sat in last week. Hesitantly, he went and paused in front of her and she scooted to the other end of the desk. Although he seemed to accept his seat with indifference, his heart was soaring with happiness. Turning to Lily, he gave her a small smile and whispered in a low voice, "I am sorry. Are we still friends?" Lily, her eyes still facing the board, gave a nod that would have been indistinguishable to anyone other than her best friend. Severus knew this was the best he could accept from her…

"Merlin! What happened to all your youthful heads?" Professor Slughorn asked. He had not been in the Great Hall when the hairs of his illustrious house's members had been turned into the the colors of their sworn rival. The Slytherins glared at their Gryffindor counterparts before turning to their head of house. "Well, never mind that. Today I'll be explaining…."

Unnoticed by the rest of the room, Lily quickly slipped a note to her friend as she continued to take notes. Last night, she'd written her friend a letter. It wasn't a letter of forgiveness per say, but it did acknowledge his difficult position.

Severus's eyes widened slightly as he took the note and hid it within the pages of his potions textbook. He'd look at it later he decided as he quickly scribbled down the theory on the chalkboard. The pair sat silently for the rest of the period, neither of them said a word, instead choosing to find comfort in the fact that the other was near.

Class came to end and the two friends went their separate ways. "Bye." they uttered to each other so quietly that the other barely heard it.

Those two seemed awfully quiet Sirius thought as he watched Lily and Severus go in opposite directions. I wonder if Lily forgave Severus, Sirius frowned worriedly before pushing the thought away. It's not my problem he reminded himself. Plus, he justified, they'll probably makeup in a few days anyway. "... wasn't it?" James asked Sirius.

"Yeah." Sirius agreed, though to what, he had no idea.

"I mean did you see their faces? It was hilarious." James grinned. "We should do it again, later."

"We should." Sirius agreed even though it had been a pain to do all that research. The end result was worth it.

"I can't believe you two did that though." Peter said excitedly.

James put a finger to his lips. "Shh. Don't shout it out to the world."

"To be fair, you were only boasting about it a moment ago." Remus pointed out.

"So it was you!" a familiar feminine voice accused. The boys spun around to see a fuming Andromeda, who looked surprisingly scary when she was mad.

"Uhh… did what?" James asked innocently.

"Please, I heard you." Andromeda said as she stalked towards them. The boys backed away, cowering.

"Sirius Orion Black!" Andromeda started only to be interrupted by a giggle.

"Your middle name is Orion?"James snickered.

"Oh shut up." Sirius said. "Ow!" Sirius whined as his cousin grabbed his ear. "We didn't do it! I swear!" He lied pleadingly.

"Change it back now!" Andromeda growled.

"We will, but on one condition." Remus negotiated. Andromeda whipped her head around and raised her eyebrow. "You let go of Sirius."

"And how am I to ensure that you change it back and don't run away?" She asked.

"We're Gryffindors." James said.

"That doesn't mean anything." Andromeda sighed before tightening her grip on her cousins ear. "Now, before you're late to class, I suggest you change my hair color back."

"We don't know how." Sirius gritted his teeth as he tried not to yell.

"You what?" Andromeda asked, her tone scarily calm.

"It fades away in a couple days though." Sirius tried to appease her, hoping her grip would loosen.

"And, if you wash it, there's a chance it'll come off quicker. I'm sure if you ask Professor Slughorn, he'll know how to fix it." James said, trying to help his friend. Andromeda sighed before letting her cousin go.

"You're lucky it was me and not Cissa." Andromeda said as her cousin rubbed his aching ear gently. She turned on her heel and started to walk away before turning around with a grin on her face. "That was quite clever by the way." She smiled before heading to class.

"That hurt." Sirius grumbled, but he too had a slight smile on her face.

"What if your other cousin tries to hex you?" Peter asked quietly.

"We'll protect him." James said confidently.

"She's older than us. Not to mention, she's probably more terrifying than her older sister." Remus pointed out.

"Andy will take care…" The bell cut Sirius off and the four friends ended up running late to class.

Severus yawned behind his hand as Professor Binns lectured. Half of the occupants of the room were already, if not almost, asleep. Struggling to pay attention, Severus quickly scribbled down some notes. At this rate, he thought to himself, it would be better to rely on the textbook and do homework in class. He sighed.

"Class dismissed." Binns said in the same monotone he'd used from the beginning of the hour. Sluggishly, the students walked out of class. Severus trailed behind the students, as they went toward the Great Hall with renewed energy. That, by far, was the most boring class I've ever been to Severus thought. To think I'll have to take it for seven years… His thoughts were abruptly interrupted by Lucius waving him over.

"Sit." Lucius commanded. Severus set his bag down and slid into the seat. "How were your classes?"

"They went well." Severus replied as he began to eat.

"That's good to hear." Lucius said before introducing him to a few older students. Severus smiled and kept his head slightly bowed in a respectful manner. By the end of lunch, Severus was mentally and emotionally drained. Being social, he decided, was extremely tiring. "So, what did you learn?" Lucius asked him as the students around them started to go to class. Severus blinked, of course there was a reason behind all of this. He internally scolded himself for not being more alert.

"I apologize, my focus wavered throughout the entire ordeal." Severus said quietly.

"Hmm..." Lucius's grey eyes looked down upon Severus, making him feel insignificantly small. "I'm disappointed." the blond finally said before standing and walking away. Severus slowly stood and headed towards his next class. Carefully, Severus pulled out Lily's note:

Dear Sev,

I still don't understand completely, but I do realize that you have it harder than I do. You've to be more careful, and I'm hurting your progress in Slytherin house more than I'm helping. I realize that now.

I'm sorry. Why didn't you tell me? If you'd said something earlier, I would've understood. This time, I'll try to be more secretive about it. I won't yell your name in the hallways. We can meet less conspicuously. Friends?

Your friend, Lily

Severus pocketed the note as he walked into the Charms classroom. He smiled slightly. For now, life was good again.

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