Summary: Severus Snape was the bravest man Harry ever knew. What would of happened had Severus been sorted into Gryffindor instead. What if he only loved Lily like a sister and became friends with the Marauders.
Marauder Era, Gryffindor!Severus, Slytherin!Peter
Pairings: Sirius x Severus x Remus and James x Lily
Warnings: Homosexuality, Mentions of Abuse, Peter-Bashing, and M rated smut later on
Thanks to everyone who followed and added this story to their favorites. Here is part 6 and 7 of my story What If.
Disclaimer: These characters to not belong to me and never will, if they did Severus would still be alive and the Dark Lord would have been victorious. These people belong to J.K Rowling, a brilliant woman.
Authors note: I have no beta so sorry for any grammar mistakes, no matter how many times I go over this I won't be able to catch all my mistakes.
What If
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Part 6: Second Year- November and December
The rest of November seemed to blur into nothingness. The month brought nothing but classes and homework, the only good thing was the American muggle holiday of Thanksgiving that Dumbeldore wanted to implement that year. Of course the Slytherine had bashed this idea, but the majority of the houses wanted it, if not just for another feast, so this was going to be the first year they had Thanksgiving. The idea of the holiday was to give thanks for everything you had while with friends and family and have a great big feast, like the pilgrims and the Indians had all those years ago. This was also a great time for another prank and James and Sirius had just the plan, although they would need to convince Severus to make them the specific potion they planned on spiking the pumpkin juice with. It was two days before Thanksgiving, just enough time to brew the potion, when James and Sirius cornered Severus alone in the library. Remus and Lily had had to go back to the Common Room to retrieve some books they had forgotten. Now was a perfect time to ask Severus to brew them a potion.
"Afternoon," Sirius greeted, sitting in the seat opposite Severus, while James scooted in next to him. Severus looked up skeptically at the two grinning boys, finding it odd for them to be in the library. The two wouldn't even know where it was if Severus, Remus and Lily didn't drag them in here once and a while to do their schoolwork. So finding them in here on their own accord made Severus uneasy, like something bad was about to happen and he was going to sucked into it.
"What do you want?" Severus asked with a sigh, better to just get to the point.
"Well, you see, we need this potion brewed and you're the only one talented enough to do it," Sirius flirted, winking at the now scarlet black haired boy. James smirked and handed over a slip of paper on which they wrote what potion they would need Severus to make. Severus looked at it and all the color drained from his face.
"A prank," Severus asked, although it was more of a statement. James and Sirius shared a look and nodded. They had no excuse to give Severus on why they needed that potion and they very well couldn't use the same excuse of extra credit for Slughorn, Severus was to smart to fall for that again.
"You'll get in trouble," Severus stated.
"We know," the boys replied happily. Severus looked at them like they were crazy and then looked back at the potion written on that innocent piece of parchment.
"Oh fine," Severus huffed. Lily and Remus were so going to kill him if they knew he had any part in what the two troublemakers were about to do.
Severus had done his part, an hour before Thanksgiving dinner was to occur, he handed Sirius and James their much-needed potion. The two of them grinned widely, so much so Severus thought their faces would spilt in half, and quickly darted away to only Merlin knows were. Sighing and hoping that they wouldn't get called out on making a fifth years potion, he headed back to the Common Room, determined to finish the last bit of homework. Lily and Remus had questioned were he had been but Severus had come up with a lie about trying to find James and Sirius so that he could force them to do their work, but couldn't find them.
"They better not be up to another prank, they got into some much trouble for the last one," Lily frowned. Severus snorted, those two idiots hadn't done as good of a job in hiding their tracks as they did for the Babbling Beverage potion they had put into the pumpkin juice at the Christmas party. In fact it had been quite obvious who did it. James and Sirius had enchanted one of the library books with the Furnunculus Curse, causing anyone who opened it to be covered in boils. Many students had ended up crying with big bursting boils and it was kind of sad to watch, but James and Sirius had founded it quite hilarious, especially when Peter, Crabble and Goyle got hit with it. Sufficent to say that the numerous reports and infimary visits had Professor McGonagall raging like a bull. All it took was a Prior Incantato from McGonagall for her to catch James and Sirius red handed. The repercussions were not fun, fifty points from Gryffindor and a weeks worth of detention.
The Thanksgiving feast was underway, the Great Hall decorated with the colors of autumn, orange, brown and red. Their were magical ghost turkeys flocking all about while pilgrims and Indians dances about on strings attached to the enchanted ceiling, which looked to be of a beautiful sunset. The five Gryffindors sat at their usual spot and as soon as they sat Lily was on James and Sirius.
"Please tell me I am wrong in assuming you two were missing an hour before the feast to set up one of your ridiculous pranks. We are already in second place points wise because of your stupidity. If it wasn't for me, Remus and Severus answering the questions correctly in class and earning back the points you lost; we would have been in last place. I for one don't want to lose to the Slytherine." Lily looked furious when the two boys shrunk away with guilty looks and refused to look her in the eye, instead finding an odd fascination with the ghost turkeys gobbling away. Severus also looked guilty but only Remus noticed, Lily was to busy silently glaring daggers at the two pranksters.
"You didn't help them did you?" Remus asked quietly into Severus's ear, making the raven-haired boy jump.
"Maybe," Severus replied elusively. Remus gave Severus a 'you-better-tell-me-now-look' and Severus cracked.
"Yes, but what was I suppose to do, they cornered me and Sirius was making me all uncomfortable," Severus whispered. Remus knew it must have been something like that; Severus wouldn't have been willing to participate in their pranks any other way.
"It's fine, let's just hope they don't get caught," Remus stated and Severus wordlessly agreed.
The potion was quick acting, but what surprised them was that only the Slytherine table got hit. They had thought that they would have targeted everyone but they had decided to play if safe and leave the other three houses out of the mix. It was going to be hard to guess who did it since three fourths of the students could have done it and since it was a fifth year potion, they would be the first to be questioned. Lily gave James and Sirius a proud appraising look and they both smirked. The potion Severus had whipped up was the Fungiface potion that causes the drinkers face to break out in fungi. The Slytherine were all growing the most disgusting of fungas. The girls were screaming like banshees and clawing at the strange growths only for them to grow back bigger. Sirius laughed as his dumb little brother sat with his slimy friends, disgustingly pulling off a mushroom from his face, only to get disgrunteled when another two tooks its place. Professor Slughorn was red faced and running to his pupils, his little hobbel of hair onto of his balding head bouncing up and down as he went. By the time he reached his students he was panting and out of breath from over exertion but he still looked livid. An attack on his house was attack on him and somebody was going to pay.
The Thanksgiving feast was canceled from continueing as the entire Slytheine table had to go to the infirmary. The other three houses were ordered to return to their Common Rooms the teachers warning that whoever did this would be punished most severly when they found who did it. Severus started to panic as the followed the other Gryffindors to the tower where there house was rooms were located. James and Sirius noticed this and they suddenly were overcome with guilt. It was there fault that kind little Severus would get introuble and they didn't want that to happen. Once in the Common Room the two pranksters cornered Severus, away from prying ears, especially those of Lily and Remus.
"Severus, were sorry, we didn't think something like this would happen," James began.
"We'll take the rapt, if anything well say we tricked you into making it, you had no idea," Sirius stated comfortingly. Severus stared at the two of the with a frown.
"All right, but from now on, I'm not helping you with any more pranks, you need a potion, make it yourself. I can't afford to get in trouble," Severus said, staring hard at the two boys in front of him.
"Of course, never again," James and Sirius agreed.
The next two weeks was spent searching for the culprit. The first place the teacher checked was with the house elves that worked in the kitchen. They said they had seen nobody and that as far as they could tell no one had tampered with it while it was in their sights. This was very disconcerning news but James and Sirius had subetly bragged that they had had a way to make them invisible and had poured the potion into the drinks for the Slytherine right below their pointed noses of the house elves. As expected all fifth years and above had been questioned but they all had ahd a strong alibi and the teachers were stuck on what to do. There was no proof that James and Sirius had done it since they weren't the best at potions making and they didn't have their guilt stored on their wands. It was the perfect crime and Slughorn was sick of it. He wanted the culprits and he wanted them now. Severus was still nervous about it and that seemed to get the attention of Lily, who asked plainly what was wrong. Severus couldn't lie to his best friend do he decided to tell her the truth. She was not happy, she scolded Severus for giving in but she was more madder at James and Sirius for tricking poor, sweet Severus into their game and causing the boy unneeded amounts of stress. Lily's anger had gotten the best of her and James and Sirius spent a whole week nursing their black eyes, mentally cursing Lily but also agreeing that they deserved it for dragging Severus down with them.
The last week before winter break was spent doing crazy amounts od homework. The teachers weren't letting up for the holidays, especially Professor Slughorn who was still a little (read: majorly) pissed for what happened during Thanksgiving that he gave everyone but his snakes extra homework for over the winter break. Some where nice enough to give it ahead of time so they could get it done before they left on break but some (Slughorn) waited until the last possible second before handing them a book sized amount of homework, due the moment they returned to class in two weeks time. The three other house were not happy and complained to their head of house, but since Slughorn was the potions teacher he could do whatever he wanted in regards to his class. Severus, Remus and Lily didn't mind the extra load, they would be able to get in done in a timely manner. It was James and Sirius who were freaking out, especially since they would be getting no help from their agitated friends.
Winter break came and all five of the Marauders were staying for Christmas and New Years at Hogwarts. The first day or two was spent doing their homework, which the three studious Gryffindors made sure the two others sat down and did. It would be a pain to hear their bitching on the last day about how they hadn't done it and their begging on wanting to copy one of theirs. Once their homework was out of the way, the five of them headed outside to play in the snow. It went on like this for a few more days, the Marauders just walking around, doing whatever striked their fancies. Soon enough Christmas Eve came ans then Christmas day, were the five of them opened their presents. They all were happy with what they got, especially from each other. Lily had gotten chocolates, muggle clothing, wizard robes, dress robes and other stuff. James and Sirius had gotten a whole bunch of intresting things from Zonko's and Secerus got them a mini potions set for them to do their pranking potion in. Remus had received quite a few books, including Werewolf Management and How to Deal and One Thousand Potions Under the Cauldron. Severus got a potions book, a very old and expensive one from James (Ancient Potion-making), a nice pair of muggle jeans and a shirt from Lily, a lovely red and gold bracelet from Remus with Severus's name encraved on it, and from Sirius a necklace made of gold with a giant Ruby. That Christamas had to be the best one so far and Severus had a feeling there were more to come.
The next five days were spent the same way the first few days before Christmas was spent, doing whatever the hell they wanted when they wanted it. The five of them had so much fun having snowball wars and making snowmen and spelling them alive like in the muggle cartoon. The New Year snuck upon the teens quickly, the excited buzzing of the coming year vibrated throughout the entire castle. However once the new year came the next morning, everybody realized that they only had three more days until school began anew and those that had put off their homework were now in a panic to try and get it done. The Marauders fortunately weren't one of those people since they had done it the first few days, leaving them stress free for the next couple of days. All too soon the fun stopped at they had to return to the normal and boring routin of going to classes and doing those coma inducing homework assignments.
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Part 7: Second Year- January and February
January was a boring month, nothing of significant happened, no holiday of which to speak of. There were tiny pranks done by the two Marauders, but nothing note worthy. Their pranks hadn't been anything scandalous and attention demanding, they were just little things here and there done within their own Common Room that extracted some chuckles here and there. School life went on as usual and the three Marauders were quickly becoming fidgety with the monotonous life. There classes hadn't been much fun either, Professor Sprout was introducing some kind of plant that once plucked from the soil look like a wrinkled baby that had a piercing cry. Frank Longbottom had fainted and had to be taken to the infirmary, but besides that nothing else exciting had happened in that class. Potions had always been a favorite subject for Severus but now that the rubbish potions professor was in a rut over what had happened over two months ago it was hard for even him to find that class much fun. McGonagall was still a strict as ever, teaching them how to transfigure one thing into another, taking points off those who couldn't and giving to those who did and assigning homework as per usual. Life only started to pick up pace when February arrived with the promise of Valentines Day.
"Oh, two weeks until Valentines," Lily gushed to Severus. The littlest Marauder smiled happily at his friend who was all bubbles and laughter at the thought of Valentines. That was the day when couples showed their love for each other more than they usually did, something about it being expected on that particularly day. Severus didn't know why Lily was so pleased, none of them had boyfriends or girlfriends and in his opinion he thought they were too young for them anyways, but he didn't tell Lily this.
"I can't wait either Lily," Severus replied, but to appease the girl. Lily smiled broadly. The rest of the time was spent doing the homework they had gotten from Professor Sprout and McGonagall. James, Sirius and Remus soon joined them and they all did their homework before they decided to turn in for bed.
The next two weeks came and went and Lily was getting more and more pumped at the days went by. Finally Severus had to ask why she was so excited for that one day.
"Lily, seriously, what's so special about Valentines, we don't even have boyfriends and girlfriends to spend the day with?" Severus asked exasperatedly. Lily gave Severus a chilling look and Severus now felt sorry for asking, that look spelt nothing but rocky seas ahead.
"Well, if you must know, I was planning on spending it with all of you, as more of a friendship day than a couples day," Lily replied icily. Severus shivered at the coldness; he had to apologize before it was too late.
"Oh, I hadn't thought of that, its just Valentines is usually for couples, I had wondered if you had found someone since you were so excited for the day. Sorry Lils," Severus apologized. The room temperature seemed to return to normal and Severus gave an internal sigh.
"That's okay Sev, and no I haven't found anyone," Lily chirped happily. The rest of the time was spent talking about what they would be doing that day. All the fun things they would be doing and the Valentine's party they would be going to since it was open for all years Lily was excited to go with all of them. Lily's excitement traveled to Severus ad even he was now looking forward to spending the day with Lily and the boys.
Severus was horrified to find out that James and Sirius were planning another prank for the Valentines Day party. If Lily found out about this they were dead. She may not mind any other time but Lily had seemed very passionate about this party.
"You guys shouldn't do that, as much as setting of filibuster fireworks is, Lily would kill you if you spoiled this for her," Severus begged. Sirius and James gave Severus a funny look, though James's looked more upset then anything.
"What, why would she be looking forward to a stupid Valentines party? She hasn't got a boyfriend, has she?" James asked desperately. He had had a crush on the red headed since the moment he spotted her talking so sweetly to Severus with a soft smile on her pretty face last year. His crush had escalated over the past year as he got to know her and he'd be damned if he lost her to some random asshole.
"Oh, what, no. She wants us all to go as friends, apparently Valentines Day is a special day from woman," Severus stated. James sighed, his entire body deflating. He had been ready to track down whoever had asked out his Lily and added to the dead body toll.
"Well okay then, we'll lay of the prank. Wouldn't want an angry Lily now would we, she damn scary," Sirius muttered, a little downtrodden for not being able to do is prank but not willing to have an angry Lily on his head.
The party was held in the Great Hall like all other parties. The four long tables were cleared to leave more room for those couples that wished to dance. One table was off to the side that all held an arrangement of goodies on it for the picking. Lily was wearing a beautiful emerald dress that went with her eyes, while the boys came in wearing muggle jeans and a shirt, not as enthusiastic about dressing up. Lily hadn't been happy when she was them walk into the Common Room dressed like that but the boys refused to wear anything but and Lily had to reluctantly let it go, though they knew they would get an earful later. The male Marauders still didn't see the appeal of coming to a party were their seniors were all coddling with their dates but Lily did and that was the end of that. Corny love songs were playing and the place was just screaming with pink and glitter, so much so that Severus had winced the moment he walked in. He wasn't a fan of the color, preferring black, red and purples, but Lily loved the color, so he wasn't going to say anything.
"So what should we do first? Dance," Lily suggested.
"All of us, or are we taking turns?" Remus asked worriedly looking out at the floor of dancing teens. Severus was looking queasy at the thought and James and Sirius silently felt bad, Severus very well didn't like crowds, they made him nervous. Lily though hadn't caught on, too busy contemplating Remus's question.
"Well since there is only five of us it would be better if we all went and danced," Lily stated. With that idea Lily promptly dragged the unenthusiastic teens to the dance floor.
They danced for about an hour in some kind of demented circle, ignoring the questioning stares they got from their peers. The night was going great until the five of them heard the unmistakable voice of their most despised enemy and his cronies. Strangely enough and considerably worrying was that it wasn't only them three advancing, but two more boy from their year, a perfect and three first years, Regulus Black among them.
"You're quite the dancer there Severus," Peter leered. His gang of Crabble and Goyle laughed like hungry hyenas.
"Leave Severus alone," Lily yelled. "And who the hell are you?" The six newcomers grinned sinisterly and decided to amuse the girl.
"I am Nathaniel Mulciber," one of the second years introduced.
"William Avery," stated the other second year.
"Lucius Malfoy," the longhaired platinum blond said haughtily.
"Evan Rosier," one of the three first years greeted.
"Wilkes," another first year muttered, only giving his last name.
"I'm Regulus Black, but my dear brother must have already told you that," Regulus sneered, which caused Sirius to sneer right back. The Gryffindors were now outnumbered five to nine and the odds weren't in their favor, especially since there was a Slytherine six year there. If not for Malfoy, the Marauders would have been able to easily beat the others. However Malfoy was there and it didn't look like he was leaving anytime soon.
"What do you want?" James growled. He, Sirius and Remus were standing in front of the other two, shielding them from harm if things got ugly.
"Oh, nothing much, we just came to talk to Severus," Lucius stated simply, to which Mulciber and Avery quickly agreed, smirking seductively at the small male. Sirius and Remus growled and moved to block Severus out of the way.
"Now don't be like that brother, move over so we can see our cute little snake," Regulus smirked. Sirius glared at his little brother, wishing nothing more than to hit the snotty git in the mouth.
"Darling Severus should have been one of us," Lucius spoke and there was a muttered agreement from all the Slytherine, all of them looking lustfully at Severus. Lily by this point had had enough. Not only had they ruined their friendship night but also they were mentally undressing her best friend. With the strength she knew not, Lily shoved James and Sirius aside, grabbing her wand from her dress robes, she showed no fear as she pointed it threateningly at the nine boys. Eight of the nine boys started laughing, but Lucius Malfoy was anything but pleased.
"Don't you point your filthy wand at me, Mudblood," Lucius sneered. James, Sirius and Remus glared hateful and went to get their wands, but they weren't as quick as Severus, who had drawn his own wand.
"Expelliarmus," Severus yelled loudly, watching in a sort of sick fascination as Malfoy went flying backwards.
Lucius crashed into the buffet table, breaking it in the process and becoming drenched in the sugared delights of the night. Everybody was now deathly quite, all eyes were on Lucius and a red faced Severus Snape. The other Marauders were looking at the smallest of their group in awed admiration, while the remaining Slytherine looked taken aback. The calm before the storm ended and the professors sprung into action, Dumbeldore leading the fray. Students were breaking out into whispers, no doubt talking about what had just happened and making all kinds of rumors. Quite, kind and calm Severus of Gryffindor had just single-handedly disarmed Slytherine perfect Lucius Malfoy. It took a moment for the thought to be processed, but then everyone but the Slytherine house was cheering at Severus, congratulating him. Meanwhile the professors had reached a now standing Malfoy, whose whole demeanor spoke of how livid he was.
"Malfoy," Slughorn cooed worriedly. Lucius gave the man a disgusted look but let the fat man fawn over him as much as he liked.
"You should head over to Madam Pomfrey's," Dumbeldore stated kindly. Lucius gave him a pure look of loathing, but the grandfatherly headmaster seemed not to notice.
"I'll escort him," Slughorn offered. "You go deal with him," he stated icily, looking at Severus murderously.
"Of course Horace. Minerva, if you don't mind," Dumbeldore said, watching with twinkling blue eyes as Horace left with a disgruntled Malfoy and Minerva went over to the Gryffindors. During the loud cheering and utter confusion, the eight other Slytherine had blurred into obscurity by the time McGonagall got there.
"Come with me," was all McGonagall said before she turned around and started walking away. Not wanting to get into more trouble the Marauders followed closely, leaving the Great Hall to the sounds of teens cheering Severus's name. The five of them soon found themselves in Professor McGonagall's office, where she promptly sat down and conjured enough chairs for them to sit in.
"Now why don't you tell me why you thought it okay to use the Expelliarmus on Mr. Malfoy," McGonagall stated strictly in her business like clipped tone. She was not happy and Severus couldn't help but wince. The five of them told her of why they used magic against another student and pleaded that it wouldn't happen again. McGonagall gave them a hard look, surveying their honesty and found no deceit.
"All right then, you will all lose five points, Severus ten and serve a weeks worth of detention. Cleaning out the trophy room without magic, is that clear?" Minerva questioned, although she wasn't expecting a response. They all nodded and McGonagall feeling that that they had been suitably punished let them go off to their dormitories.
For the rest of February, everyone was talking about what had happened that Valentines night. People were still coming up and congratulating Severus, shaking his and or patting him on the back. The Slytherine were beyond sulky, which caused them to be even nastier than ever. Lucius saw it as his personal goal in life to make the Marauders lives hell, especially Severus's. So now not only did they have Peter and his dumb gang of Crabble and Goyle, they now had Lucius and his gang of Mulciber and Avery harassing them were ever they went. The rest of the year just seemed to get a whole lot harder for the five Gryffindors and they were now looking forward to Spring break, which was only three weeks away. Severus and friends however felt that they weren't going to make it to the holidays if the Slytherine kept staring at them like that, as if they were conspiring their murder right that very second. Severus had never felt so small and venerable as he did when all those snakes eyed him like a piece of meat and was thankful that he had such great friends to shield him from most of their looks. He would never regret defending Lily, but he wished that the hatred of the whole of Slytherine house wasn't the price he had to pay.
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Authors note: Another chapter done, please review. The more reviews the faster I go. I will have the next chapter in about a weeks time, maybe more, maybe less.