Sasha spent the summer doing three things. Working hard to improve her potions skills, thinking constantly about Severus, and writing to Severus. In spite of what he had said about being gone for part of the summer, he always answered her owls right away. It had gotten up to the point where they were at three to four owls a week in fact. At first his responses had been short and rather impersonal; however, as the summer went on they got longer and longer. He seemed to be finding it much easier to open up to her on parchment than it had been in person at school.
They talked about potions, of course, because even though Sasha only gave a damn about them to impress him, he was rather passionate on the subject. She kept hoping he would get up to being that passionate about her. To her surprise though, the more she learned on the subject from him, the more she came to enjoy it.
He occasionally talked about his parents, which was a new development. He confided in her that his muggle father was a bit of a bastard, and he hated him. His mother was a witch, but had to pretend not to be to avoid the wrath of his father, and they fought constantly. Severus didn't understand why Eileen would let Tobias get away with beating her up when she could have easily hexed him into oblivion a long time ago and been done with it. From what Sasha could gather, he spent all of his time in his room, now that he didn't have Lily Evans to visit anymore. It made her sad for him.
In her own letters she had begun to get a bit more honest as well, closing each one by saying she missed him and couldn't wait till they were back at school. He never said it back to her, but he kept writing, and that was enough to make her happy.
When September finally arrived and she was finally at the train station to head back to Hogwarts, Sasha was nearly shaking with nervousness. Would it be awkward seeing him and actually talking to him again after writing all summer? They certainly knew each other a lot better now after all they'd discussed in their letters. Sasha's owl Onyx was now nearly as much a pet to Severus as he was to her. He proved this on the train platform when he started hooting wildly.
Wondering what had caused her owl to fuss, Sasha looked around, and that's when she saw Severus standing nearby. He spotted her at the same time and casually walked over and stuck his finger between the wires of Onyx's cage.
"Sorry I didn't bring you anything" he told the bird. "But I'll make it up to you, I promise."
Sasha laughed, and he gave her a shy smile.
"He saw you. That's why he started hooting up a storm" she giggled.
"We're good friends" he said, smirking. "Would you perhaps want to…?"
Just then, Adrianne came barreling down the platform and flung herself so hard at Sasha that she knocked her right into Severus. He caught her in his arms to keep her from falling over.
"Hi Adri" Sasha laughed. Silently thanking her friend for gifting her with a chance to be held by her heart's desire.
"Sasha-Sasha! You barely wrote to me at all. Kept that poor owl busy with someone else did you? I feel cheated on."
Sasha grinned, but she noticed Severus was scowling fiercely.
"What were you going to ask me Severus?" she asked him, hoping he wouldn't clam up again now that Adri was here.
He sighed. "Well, I was wondering if you'd want to sit with me on the train, but since your friend is here now I suppose…"
"We would positively love to!" Adrianne spoke up, flashing Sasha her most evil grin yet. "Wouldn't we Sasha?"
Desperately trying not giggle, Sasha nodded. "Yes, that'd be great. Come on."
The ride to Hogwarts was actually much less awkward than it could have been. Adrianne, as she usually did, fell asleep almost as soon as the train started to move. Sasha turned sideways and put her feet up on the seat, leaning back onto Severus' shoulder under the pretense of getting more comfortable. She glanced up to see if he was ok with this, and was absolutely thrilled when he smiled at her.
"Missed you" she whispered.
He responded by carefully putting his arm around her, and feeling bold, she grabbed his hand and held it in her lap.
Best train ride EVER! She was so happy she couldn't stop grinning.
Severus could not believe the massive shift in his luck. Never in his life had he expected to be riding the train to Hogwarts with a cute young witch half in his lap. She was snuggled up to his shoulder, and his cheek was pressed against her delicious smelling hair. She was holding his hand, stroking his fingers, and he kept thinking that he had to be dreaming. There was no way that this was actually happening to him.
The only downside was that being this close to her was actually rather torturous, and it took all of his willpower to control his body's reaction. His mind kept wanting to wander away with visions of laying her out on the train seat and having his way with her right there on the Hogwarts Express.
He still, for the life of him, could not figure this girl out. She was a pure-blood, and full of Slytherin pride, but she had no prejudice against Muggle-borns or half bloods like himself. She was extremely impressed by his invented spells and hexes but showed no leaning towards the dark arts. She was decently pretty, but the only boy he had ever seen her pay any attention to at all was him, the school outcast, which made absolutely no sense.
When he'd mentioned her to Lucius over the summer, his older friend had been very pleased for him. Lucius had been out of school for two years already, and was engaged to Narcissa Black. He told Severus that finding a good marriageable pure-blood witch was part of doing ones' duty to wizard-kind. Severus didn't know about that, as he hadn't ever really thought of himself as the marrying sort, unless it was to Lily. He had to admit though; his life had been improving since he'd somehow attracted this girl's attention.
Severus couldn't help but smirk when he thought of what Lily would think if he actually managed to get an actual girlfriend. Although… his smile faded the more he thought about it because the hard truth was she likely wouldn't care at all. She hadn't spoken to him even once since the incident in their fifth year. He had tried. Oh, how he had tried, but she would hear none of his apologies. While he still thought of her nearly ever minute of every day, she never even gave him a passing glance. It was as if he'd never been a part of her life at all.
Suddenly feeling depressed, he looked down again at the girl pressed against him. There was a strange combination of guilt and comfort in being near her. The guilt came because she wasn't Lily, but there was comfort because she actually seemed to care about him. Spending the summer shut up alone in his room had been made much more bearable by the frequent letters from Sasha, and honestly he'd even come to enjoy visiting with her little owl. He was glad though that the owl couldn't tell anyone that he'd been having one-sided conversations with it for two months.
"Something wrong?" she asked, startling him out of his inner musings.
"Hmm? Oh. No, just thinking" he mumbled.
She smiled at him again and he was surprised to find himself smiling back. How does she make me do that?
Upon their arrival at the school students began filing past them on their way off of the train. Severus could have sworn his heart stopped for a moment when he saw Lily Evans pass by holding the hand of James Potter.
Why is she holding his hand? He felt sick. The compartment they were in suddenly seemed to be spinning and it was very hard to breathe.
"Severus?" Sasha's hazel eyes were focused on him in concern. She looked to where he was looking and bit her lip when she saw Lily and James. "Oh…"
Adrianne, who was now awake, gave Sasha a nervous look. They had both been there the day that Severus had called Lily a mudblood. They'd seen it all and they'd heard the gossip about how he had chased her for weeks trying to apologize to no avail.
Sasha had always suspected that he liked the Evans girl as a bit more than just a friend. It was fairly obvious the way he had always followed her around, and then with the reaction he had to the end of their friendship she was fairly positive that he had fancied her. For a while it had made her terribly jealous, but then after she'd got used to the idea it just made her feel even more sad for him. Now that Evans was apparently dating Potter of all people, she knew he had to be feeling pretty awful.
Making a quick decision, Sasha squeezed his hand and said "Ugh! Why would anyone want to be with that arrogant git? Poor girl needs her head checked, certainly."
He looked even more ghostly white than usual but he nodded, seemingly not quite as close to fainting as he'd been a moment before.
Adri smiled at Sasha, which was reassuring. Apparently her friend thought she'd said the right thing. She kept a tight grip on Severus' hand on their way off the train and when they walked by Evans and Potter she slipped an arm around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder. He didn't seem to notice, as he still seemed too shocked to notice anything, but she did see Lily watching them with interest and Potter shaking his head smirking.
"I know it stands to reason for snakes to attract snakes" Potter said loudly "but I'd have thought even a Slytherin girl would have more taste than to want Snivellus getting his grease all over her."
Adrianne's jaw dropped and she looked at Sasha to see what she'd do. Severus didn't even seem to have heard him, as he was still staring ahead into empty space.
"Oh Potter" Sasha retorted "Some girls prefer real talent over false bravado. Maybe someday your own powers will catch up to the magnificence of your ego and you'll know what I'm talking about."
Adri laughed and clapped her hands. "Nice one Sash. Bloody arrogant Gryffindors shouldn't write cheques that their wands can't cash eh?"
Seeing Lily's face go bright red made Sasha smile, even though she did feel a bit sorry for the girl. Reminding herself that it was she who was the cause of Sev's suffering helped squash the rising sympathy, and it was nice to render loud-mouthed Potter speechless for once.
"James leave it out" Lily said quietly. "I think it's nice he has someone. Maybe that's what he needs."
Hearing her speak finally snapped Severus out of his waking coma and he looked over at her in surprise, as did Sasha. Lily didn't meet his eyes but she gave Sasha a nod of acknowledgement.
"Come on Sash, this is too bleeding awkward" Adri mumbled.
"That's an understatement" Sasha said, shaking her head. She gave Severus a light tug and was relieved when he came along willingly.
Later that night in the great hall Severus sat next to her, but he didn't speak, and didn't touch his food. He just stared down at the table with a blank look on his face. Sasha felt like crying. Things had been progressing so well, and now thanks to those damned Gryffindors once again it was all going to hell. She made up her mind that she would find a way to help him get over Miss Evans for good and she would be the only girl on his mind before he graduated from Hogwarts.