Chapter 13: First Day
The dawn of the first day at Hogwarts was pleasant and hailed by carolling birds nesting in the trees of the Forbidden Forest. Severus and Lily awoke relatively early as they were hardly able to wait for their first day of lessons, albeit for different reasons. Severus was keen to spend time with Lily at Hogwarts and compensate for the soured friendship he had with his original best friend. Lily was keen because she wanted desperately to begin learning basic magic, although she was nervous, and looked forward to learning alongside Severus and was equally confident that he could provide her some encouragement and guidance.
Severus also believed that his past life would enable him to help Lily, although he knew that her original counterpart learned just as keenly and elegantly as Hermione Granger had done, and departed Hogwarts with all the grades required to get all the potential jobs she had considered during fifth year, or at least all the careers she had mentioned to Severus before she ended their friendship that night.
Although Severus was beyond happy to have his second chance with the Lily who seemed to be the perfect friend, he still felt a strong despair at the realization that his first true love had been so susceptible and less of a friend than he had thought, and therefore even less of a true love to him…was it all because he was in Slytherin and had a fondness for the Dark Arts? This explained her expression by the lake on that doomed day…she smirked at him however briefly as though she was enjoying his suffering. And now he was sure he now understood why. Although Lily claimed to be his best friend, the seed had been sown to simply keep up the friendship for the sake of how things were before Hogwarts, but deep down know that she didn't really care for him in the way she once had when they were little. Severus couldn't help but feel some anger to Lily for this…how could he be expected to maintain a friendship with her in Heaven? But then he thought of how remorseful and saddened she had been when they met once more in Heaven. As much as it pained her to admit she could never love him in the way she loved James, she did show genuine remorse and repentance as she confessed it all, just as Severus had shown it when he confessed and apologised for all his sins towards her and her son.
As Severus thought all this, he suddenly realized that he was walking down the steps of Ravenclaw Tower and nearly stumbled down it, but quickly reasserted himself, gripping the stone bannister. After exhaling in relief, he walked down the rest of the spiral staircase and knowing he couldn't make out like he knew where the Gryffindor common room was this early in the first year, he decided to rendezvous with Lily at the doorway of the Great Hall.
Severus was almost over-excited to see Lily, even though they had only been apart for ten or eleven hours. He was just so happy to have this new Lily to spend time with, maybe even the rest of his life with. After his epiphany last night which stretched on into this morning, he had a newfound appreciation of Lily. He felt as though his second chance had been gotten used to in the last year or so of spending all his time with Lily, and having dinner parties with her family, outings with her and Eileen and secret talks about magic with her and Petunia. He simply assimilated into his new life so well, that he had seemingly started to take it for granted.
"Never again." he said to himself.
He knew full well now, more than he had before, that this second chance with a second Lily was not worth trading for the Dark Arts, or indeed for anything or anyone else.
Severus soon found himself waiting outside the Great Hall, and soon enough, Lily came down, accompanied by Mary MacDonald. They saw Severus waiting and Lily gestured for Mary to go on ahead. Mary looked to Severus with some hesitation at first, but then smiled politely and walked on into the Hall.
Lily came up and hugged her best friend…her true best friend.
"Hey, Sev!" she almost squealed her excitement. "Today's our first day of learning!"
"Yep!" replied Severus. "We'll get our timetables from our Heads of House during breakfast, I think. After all, how else will we know when and where to go between now and after breakfast?"
"Very clever deduction." replied Lily. "No wonder you were put in Ravenclaw."
Severus felt grateful for his Sorting to give Lily that conclusion to his uncanny deduction that wasn't a deduction, but an experienced memory.
"Yeah, I guess. Wish you were in that house too." he said a little morosely.
"To tell you the truth, I wish I was too." replied Lily. "Not that I hate the common room or anything. And I think Mary and I will be great friends…but…"
"But what?" asked Severus. He was surprised. The Lily of old never showed regret for being in Gryffindor. If anything, she showed disdain that Severus was in Slytherin.
"I don't like that Potter kid being in my house. Just before we all settled into our quarters, he came up to me and said: 'I'm glad you didn't take that Prince loser's example and get yourself Sorted into Snivelling Slytherin.'"
Severus frowned with deep dislike.
"Nobody can help where they get Sorted!" he snapped, unaware that Harry Potter chose Gryffindor over Slytherin.
"I know." said Lily in an attempt to sooth her friend. "And I said right back to him: 'If it hadn't been noticed by you, Potter, Sev didn't get Sorted into Slytherin either. He's a Ravenclaw!' And I also pointed out that the other boy on the train he was with, Sirius Black, was also Sorted into Gryffindor, even though his family were Slytherins, so why can't he show the same benefit of the doubt for you as he did for Sirius?"
"What did he say to that?" asked Severus doubtfully.
"He just shrugged and said that the Sorting Hat has been known to make mistakes a few times in its history." said Lily coldly. "He's like a kid half our age. Stubborn to the last."
Severus relished Lily's contempt at this James Potter.
"Let's forget him. Let's have breakfast and get ready for our first set of lessons!" he said with a more cheerful pitch.
Lily nodded keenly, they hugged one more time and then separated to go to their respective tables.
After a filling English breakfast, without the mushrooms, Severus saw his new Head of House, Professor Filius Flitwick walk up to the table and hand out the first-year timetables.
Severus took his with an eagerness he only ever experienced once before in his old life, and that was on the alternate version of this day. He glanced over the timetable for Wednesdays and saw to his joy that the first lessons were Potions, Transfiguration, History of Magic and Charms. Transfiguration and Charms were classes shared by Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. He was very excited to learn in those classes with Lily. He knew full well that Lily would exceed at Charms as her best subject.
The only snag was that Lily would be sharing all her lessons with James Potter. What if he started to push her against Severus in all those hours working together?
Maybe that's what he did in the other life…but then again, she didn't end their friendship with him back then until fifth year…but all the same, he and other prejudiced Gryffindors had sown the seed against him for her.
He shook his head. This Lily knew him well. She saw him as her best friend beyond starting Hogwarts, and he himself was a different person now. He was a Ravenclaw and a Prince, and dead against the Dark Arts. Severus had no need to worry about Lily leaving him out of his passion for the Dark Arts and his House. But he was still worried about losing her for looks. After all, despite his fixed nose and better kept attire, James Potter was still more handsome than him. He couldn't deny that.
"Come on, Severus." his brain seemed to say to him. "Do you really think either Lily is that superficial?"
Severus could only reply that in the first Lily's case, he wasn't so sure anymore. But this Lily…no! No, she wasn't. She was the perfect friend. And she always will be this time. He'll make sure he won't lose her again.
After breakfast, the two friends waved each other off and went to their first lessons. Severus walked with his fellow Ravenclaws and a group of first-year Hufflepuffs to the dungeons for their first Potions class with Professor Slughorn.
Slughorn greeted the class warmly. Severus suddenly noticed that in comparison to how he kept it as a Potions professor himself, Slughorn kept the classroom much better than he himself did. Severus didn't really care that much. He cleaned up disastrously ruined potions but that was as far as he came to cleanliness.
"Good morning, class." said Slughorn welcomingly. "I understand this is your very first lesson at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and this must all be nerve-wracking to you. However, I am a lenient professor and a friendly one. I will only offer you some basic readings today, and by the end of the lesson, I would like you to prepare your ingredients needed for the next lesson where you will be expected to attempt concocting the basic Hiccup Relief Potion. Once you have collected all the necessary ingredients, I would like you to place them in these bags I have left on your desks and then label them with your name and hand them to me, so I can store them for you. Start reading and studying. Pay close attention to what ingredients you will need, and you will find the appropriate potion I want you to study on page 394."
Severus opened his book, but as he started to read the pages, he felt a sudden unfamiliarity with what he was doing. He knew with certainty that he had made this potion before in his previous life…but for the life of him, he couldn't remember how he had done it. In fact, he couldn't remember how he made the Wolfsbane Potion for Lupin, nor how he made the powerful potion that spared Dumbledore's life for a year. It was as if all memory of his accomplishments in his education and his expertise in all of his lessons were gone.
"The Higher Ones must have made it so I would have to start over from scratch." he thought to himself.
This was both a relief and a hindrance to Severus. It was a relief so that he would have less talent than a first year would be expected to have and attract Dumbledore's suspicions, but the hindrance was the annoyance that he would have to study and learn all over again, and he would not be as much a help to Lily than he had thought, though he would still be as helpful as she would expect him to be.
So Severus studied and worked hard, and after that first lesson and still being able to prepare his ingredients as easily as any other student, and having the time to help Quincey prepare his ingredients too, he decided that not remembering everything from his education in his past life was much more of a good thing than a bad thing, because he now got to relish all of his accomplishments once again and feel the joy of being praised without being brought down by the Marauders or other immature students. Hell, apart from his Arithmancy lessons with the Slytherins, he wouldn't even have to face the prejudice and insults from his former friends. James Potter and Sirius Black might still give him a hard time for being from a Slytherin family, but Remus Lupin would see sense that he was not a bad person, and he could handle Pettigrew very well anyway.
Next Severus and Lily were seated together for Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall, along with Mary and Quincey.
Severus couldn't help but think poorly of Mary at first, due to her influence over Lily in his first life, but after some helpful insights on both parts, they became quite friendly with one another, and Mary's concerns of Severus dissipated fast. Severus found her to be a friendly individual but all the same, he mostly decided to keep a friendship with her to avoid suspicion from Lily, as well as to keep himself in Lily's good books.
McGonagall was obviously less lenient than Slughorn had been, but she still understood the current lack of experience and, resultantly, low limits that they had as first years so simply gave them three wand movements for basic transfigurations of concrete objects.
Lily and Severus were both showing good promise, though Quincey struggled and Mary's wand flew from her hand on one occasion and hit Peter Pettigrew on the head. Lily was showing more skill on the subject than even Severus and he was very proud that she took the books he recommended to her and bought for her seriously.
The bell rang for lunch and the four friends had to separate once again. But they ate quickly and hung out together in the grounds, not far from the lake.
As they sat on their robes on the damp ground, they heard the booming voice of Hagrid yell out.
"OI! FANG! DON'T YA DARE!"
Before Mary knew it, she was keeled over and pinned down by a gigantic boarhound and having literally her entire face licked by its tongue.
Quincey rushed up and tried to pull the hound off Mary but to no avail.
"Fang, ya daft dog! GET OFF HER!" Hagrid pounded up and, with ease, dragged Fang off of Mary whom looked appalled at being covered in dog saliva.
"Dear me, sorry bout that." said Hagrid abashedly.
"That's, ugh, fine." replied Mary callously. "I'm gonna clean up my face in the bathroom, Lily. See you in class."
With that, Mary took her bag and robe and sprinted up to the castle once more.
"Oh dear, think we upset her." sighed Hagrid, keeping a firm, massive hand around Fang's collar, who was now sitting on his hind legs with a look of cuteness that made Lily smile.
"She'll be fine." she said. "Thanks for bringing us up here last night, Mr, uh…?"
"Name's Rubeus Hagrid. Keeper of keys and grounds of this school."
"It must be fun working and living here." said Quincey with keen interest.
"Oh, yes, Hogwarts has been my true home since I was bout, erm, thirteen. Professor Dumbledore, great man that he is, let me live here after me dad died." said Hagrid. "Bin the gamekeeper since I was of age."
Hagrid and the remaining three had a cheerful conversation, though Severus knew all of Hagrid's unhealthy habits with magical creatures, and the reason why he was being secretive about his background as a half-giant and expelled student after being framed for opening the Chamber of Secrets. He decided that he would have to make sure Lily and Quincey would avoid any invitation to see any creatures Hagrid might try to bend the rules to show them.
By the time the lunch break was over, the three friends were invited by Hagrid to join him for a cup of tea and some cake on Saturday, and he extended the invite to Mary as well to say sorry for Fang's behaviour.
"I like Hagrid." observed Lily as they walked back up to the castle.
"Me too. He's a hoot." added Quincey.
"He's okay." said Severus. "But if he has a dog that size, I wonder what other pets he may have. He's big enough to probably master enough of them."
"Maybe we'll see on Saturday." said Lily. "OH! What if he can show us some unicorns?"
Severus decided to let her dream on about that, as he knew the unicorns were hard to come by as they lived in the Forbidden Forest.
Lily separated from Severus and Quincey to go and find Mary and have their first flying lesson.
Severus and Quincey found themselves going through the far more tedious and down to earth lesson that was History of Magic taught by the ghostly Professor Binns.
Binns gave them a few chapters to read through to get them the basic knowledge of the first years of magic, back in the days of Merlin, though to Severus and Quincey's chagrin, as well as everybody else's, the chapters on these had no consequential of definitive facts within them, and so the first lesson was just an incredibly boring and possibly useless reading session.
By the time that lesson was over, the two of them headed for Charms which was going to be taught by their Head of House, Flitwick. Lily and a cleaned-up Mary were waiting there for them, but unfortunately, so were James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew.
Pettigrew seemed to have gotten into Potter's good books.
"Peter here says your wand hurt him, Prince." said Potter darkly.
"No, actually, it was my wand." said Mary apologetically. She still seemed to be looking at Potter with an admirable glance.
"Your wand may have flown around, Mary." said James in a falsely polite voice. "But Peter is insistent that it was Prince's. Trying to assault the Gryffindors and frame another Gryffindor for it? Not very fitting for a Ravenclaw, but for a Slytherin…definitely."
Mary's admirable face slowly turned to a grimace.
"My wand never left my hand." snapped Severus with restraint. "Ask Mary, Lily or Quincey. Hell, ask McGonagall if you want. Pettigrew is probably saying that it was me to get into your popular group or maybe he's just as thick as he looks."
Pettigrew scowled but when Severus looked back to him coldly and in an alarmingly despising way, he cowered behind Potter. Black, on the other hand, was cackling at Severus' comeback to the accusations.
"Let's be fair, James, mate." said Sirius after calming his laughter. "I saw that it was MacDonald's wand that hit Peter. Prince's wand never left his hand. He and Evans were probably the best ones in the class, except for maybe you and I."
"You're kidding, right?" laughed Quincey. "Potter's wand wouldn't stop twitching, he nearly dropped it on my head after getting too frustrated."
Sirius suppressed another chuckle.
"I too can verify that Peter's either lying or being unobservant." said a timid but consistent voice.
It was Lupin.
"Who are you to call my friend a liar?" asked Potter.
"Your friend?" snapped Lupin. "James, you were telling him to go away last night when he tried to say hello to you and Sirius in the common room last night. You're only warming up to him now cos he accused Severus of bullying him. And what do you have against him anyway?"
"You don't know?" Potter spoke as though it were obvious. "He's a Prince. They're a family of Slytherins! He's a Voldemort supporter!"
All eyes from the Gryffindors turned on Severus with looks of horror, curiosity or disapproval. Pettigrew's eyes showed his characteristic cowardliness but also showed a look that would have made people think he was eyeing up a loathsome slug munching on bird droppings.
Lily walked defiantly up to Potter and Pettigrew.
"Sev is my best friend and is not a Voldemort supporter. Get that into your prejudiced skull, you dopey moron!" she seethed.
Mary stepped up next. "And Peter, I'm no longer sorry for hitting you with my wand. In fact, I hope you're stupid enough to take your own eye out with your own wand. That may be able to give you a decent excuse to accuse my friend of something he didn't do!"
Quincey followed. "And Potter, close your mouth. You'll catch a fly!"
Potter's jaw snapped shut at that, but before he could expose Quincey to the tip of his wand, Flitwick opened his classroom door.
"What's all this, then?" he squeaked.
"Pettigrew and Potter have been telling lies about Severus, sir." said Quincey.
"And insulting him because of his lineage." added Mary.
"I see. I want a word with the three of you at the end of the lesson, boys. But for now, everyone be seated in the classroom, and I think it'd be best if Potter and Pettigrew, you sit up the front with me today, and Mr Prince, you can sit further back to keep a distance."
"Yes, Professor." said the three boys in unison.
Severus sat with Lily, Mary and Quincey again at the back of the room, and surprisingly, Black and Lupin followed. Lupin sat down, but Black only stood before the group and spoke.
"Just wanna apologise for James' attitude." he said. "I know our families were Slytherins, but I've been going over what Lily said to me on the train yesterday, and I have seen clearly that you're a good friend to her despite her being from a Muggle family and community. So, um, yeah. I may have misjudged you, and um, I'm sorry for my attitude as well, Prince. It's just that I, um…I have a hard time believing that Slytherins are good, especially considering that I've been raised by them, and I don't like how they think of anyone who isn't a Pure Blood. But I like the idea that there is someone else like me. Someone who came from a Slytherin family, but wound up in a different House. So, yeah, um, I hope we can um, just forget about what went down yesterday."
Severus was trying and failing to not look flabbergasted. Sirius Black was showing repentance for judging and insulting him. Maybe this version was a better person, like his grandparents had turned out to be, or maybe it was just because they now had more in common, and the fact he wasn't in Slytherin.
Severus looked to Lily, whom smiled at him in an encouraging sort of way. He would very much have liked to tell Black to shove off, but he couldn't say as such and justify it in front of any of them. So, he decided to play the game and see how things went, though it would be a long time before he could ever truly trust or befriend Black; even though this was only an alternate version of the devil of a man who bullied him almost as much as the counterpart of James Potter.
"Sure, I guess." he said eventually.
"Great, um, see ya then." said Sirius turning back towards James. "Oh, and um, Remus, right?"
Lupin looked surprised. "Y-yes?"
"Cool. Wanna hang out at dinner and back at the common room?"
"Really?"
"Yeah, sure, why not?"
"Well, um, yeah. Sure! Thank you!" said Lupin almost too enthusiastically.
When everyone looked at him in puzzlement, Severus' expression feigned, Lupin explained sheepishly. "I don't have many friends."
"Well, you have one now." said Sirius cheerily. "Talk later."
Sirius escaped the doubly awkward situation and joined Potter and Pettigrew at the front of the class.
"Did that just happen?" asked Severus.
"You sound surprised." said Lily cheekily. "Who wouldn't wanna be your friend? You can afford to buy us all at least five gifts each this Christmas."
Everyone laughed, except Lupin, whom returned to looking lonesome.
"Hey, Remus." piped up Lily. "Wanna sit a bit closer to us?"
"Y-y-you sure I wouldn't be imposing?" asked Remus.
"Not at all. Come on, don't be shy." agreed Mary.
Soon enough, the four friends became five and under Flitwick's guidance, they had a pleasant class, and Severus and Lily once again showed decent skills, whereas Quincey needed some help here and there, Remus and Mary were fair enough, but still struggled, and Potter and Pettigrew proved almost completely incompetent, but Potter was having trouble mostly because of having to show Pettigrew what to do, despite Flitwick's illustrated instructions on the board.
After the lesson ended, Flitwick ordered for Severus, Potter and Pettigrew to remain behind. He also asked Lily, Mary, Quincey, Sirius and Remus to remain outside just in case he needed some verification. Lily winked to Severus and went with the others outside the door.
"Now then." said Flitwick sternly. "I must say I don't recall ever having to deal with some first-year students on the very first day of their education. Now I heard from several witnesses that you two were harassing Mr Prince for being an enthusiast of He Who Must Not Be Named. What gave you that impression, may I ask?"
"His family are the Princes, sir." said Potter childishly.
"Your point?" asked Flitwick, crossing his arms with severity.
"The whole family, except him, were in Slytherin."
"Well, he is in Ravenclaw, and from what I hear from Professor Dumbledore himself, the Princes are a reformed and much more sociable family. And besides, Slytherins are not all bad just because You Know Who was in that House. Look at Professor Slughorn for instance."
Potter couldn't say more. He daren't insult a teacher in front of another teacher. Pettigrew hung his head low with his shoulders slumped weakly.
"I don't think I need to hear anymore." squeaked Flitwick lowly. "Neither of you have denied the accusations and you, Mr Potter, have openly admitted that you dislike Mr Prince because of his family history. I will be taking ten points each from Gryffindor. That's twenty points in total, and I will meet you both tomorrow evening for detention."
"But, sir-"
"That's not-"
"Fair?" finished Flitwick sharply. "Neither is harassing a student just because you don't like his background. Now kindly see yourselves out until tomorrow."
After Potter stormed out, followed by the sniffling and waddling Pettigrew, Flitwick addressed Severus.
"Any more trouble from those two boys or indeed anybody else, Mr Prince, I'd like you to come straight to me."
"Yes, sir. Thank you, Professor." Severus was then dismissed too.
Dinner was very cheerful that evening. Lily, Mary and Remus sat together at the Gryffindor table, whilst Severus and Quincey sat together at the Ravenclaw table. The two tables were next to each other, so the party sat close to each other and turned around to chat whenever they weren't eating.
Potter and Pettigrew were looking at them mutinously. Potter particularly disliked Severus still. He also found a new interest in the frailty of Remus. He decided to interrogate him for his ailments later.
Also watching them were Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Flitwick. They all looked approving.
"Nice to see members from different Houses come together as close friends on the very first day." said Dumbledore cheerfully.
"And they came to each other's defence very quickly today." added Flitwick.
"How so?" asked Dumbledore.
"Ah, I'm sad to say that two of my Gryffindor first-years were harassing and lying about Mr Prince, from Filius' House." explained McGonagall.
"Very quick to come to his aid and defend his name, those Gryffindors he's currently chatting with though." said Flitwick.
Dumbledore smiled. Severus and Lily have interested him. He wondered who Severus was out of curiosity when he saw him at Lily's house that day, and found out that he was the grandson of the difficult Septimus Prince, and not long after, realized that Septimus' redeeming personality was borne from his reunion with his daughter, Eileen and resultantly, his new grandchild, Severus. He felt that Severus was a very enigmatic boy and was keen to learn more of him during his time at Hogwarts.
However, this was exactly what Severus didn't want. And if he knew that Dumbledore was thinking at this moment, his pale face would have turned as white as a unicorn.
And little did he know that Dumbledore would indeed be learning more of him as the first year moved onward.
(Here's Chapter 13. Sorry if this chapter isn't very accurate. I had very controversial research to go upon on classes and houses working together, and the House tables etc. Hope you enjoy reading it nonetheless. Please review, thank you again for reading!)