Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
Lily peered around the corner and into the Great Hall, sweltering under her winter cloak. She had managed to evade her friends and their questions that morning by taking breakfast in the Hospital Wing, but she knew her luck wouldn't last through lunch.
She couldn't see Pandora sitting with the Ravenclaws, but that didn't mean anything. Pandora was extremely proficient at the Notice-Me-Not charm. Mary and Alice were also missing from the Gryffindor table and given how she had avoided them this morning, they were likely with Pandora. Taking her chance, Lily tugged the hood down lower over her unmistakable dark red hair and walked into the Great Hall, using a group of Hufflepuffs as cover.
Breaking off from them, she made a beeline for the seat between Black and Potter, the last place her friends would look for her.
"Oi oi Evans," Black said, as if she always forcibly sat herself between him and his best mate.
"Oi oi Black, Potter," Lily returned, piling food on to a napkin while casting furtive glances around the hall.
"Uh, Lily… I don't mean to pry, but what are you doing? Is someone after you?" Potter eyed her worriedly.
"I'm getting lunch, Potter, what else would I be doing at lunch time in the Great Hall at the Gryffindor table? And no, no one is after me – why do you ask?"
Black gleefully took over the conversation. "1) You're sitting between us. 2) You've got your winter cloak on, which is the only cloak included in our uniform that has a hood. 2.A) You've got the hood up on said winter cloak and are dripping sweat. 3) You keep looking around the Hall like someone is about to pounce on you. 4) You're putting your lunch on a napkin like you don't plan on staying out in the open. 5) You–"
"Alright, alright! You've made your point, Sirius." Lily interrupted, ignoring the smirk her teammate was wearing. "I'm hiding from my friends. They want me to tell them something I don't want to talk about."
James furrowed his brow. "Why don't you just tell them that? If they're your friends, they should understand."
"Not when it involves Snape brewing a potion that you have to use on a daily basis, Lily." Pandora said from behind, scaring the life out of Lily and the two Marauders.
"Snape!" James shouted. "Brewing your potion?!"
"And you willingly used it?!" Sirius added. "He could've killed you, Lily!"
Lily groaned and put her head in her hands.
"Now you've got these two louts involved, Lily," Mary said. "Could've avoided that if you had come and found us after breakfast."
"We want the whole story. Now." Pandora demanded.
Before Lily could open her mouth, two sets of arms hoisted her up. "Hey!"
"We want to hear this too," James said.
"Yeah, Evans; do you have any idea how many horrible things Snape could've done to you through that potion? Especially since you put it in your eyes." Sirius added, looking and sounding graver than she had ever seen him.
"Of course I know! I'm second in Potions, behind Snape," Lily snapped, growing irritated.
The Marauders marched her out of the Hall, down the Staffroom Corridor, and up the closest tower, her three friends trailing after. James and Sirius stopped in front of a bare wall, looked both ways and then kicked out at the same time, hitting the same stone, causing a door to appear. Opening it with another kick, they marched through it and down a secret passage.
The girls merely raised their eyebrows at one another before they followed the two Marauders.
"Once that door closes it'll be pitch black in here, so get us some light, yeah?" Sirius called back over his shoulder. The girls exchanged another look before drawing their wands and casting the Lumos charm.
They traveled down the passage for a few minutes before they came to a dead end. "Prongs, do the thing."
"You do the thing, Padfoot," James shot back.
"No, I did it last time, you-"
"Boys!" Alice interrupted sharply; they looked at her. "What… thing are you talking about?"
"Uhm." James shifted his weight uneasily. "You've got to admit one of your more personal secrets, something no one else in the passage knows."
"Seriously?" Mary asked, shooting a glare at Sirius who had perked up at her word choice.
James winced. "Yeah, sorry."
Before they could heckle the boys for their poor choice in secret passages, Lily spoke up. "Sometimes I wish I didn't have magic." The passage opened, causing five sets of eyes to bore into Lily.
"Right," said James after a moment. "Let's get moving before we have to reveal another secret."
They walked in silence, now on the other side of the castle and up five floors. The boys walked into a dusty classroom and set about warding the door once they were all inside. Working in tandem, they were able to raise stronger wards than they would have been able to on their own.
Pandora watched the boys and when they nodded to her, she turned to Lily. "Alright. Spill. We aren't leaving until we have the full story."
Lily looked around at each of them, trembling now; Snape was going to find out, he would know she told. With a reassuring nod from Mary, she took a shuddering breath and started telling her story. "I grew up in the same area as Snape – he was the one to tell me that I'm a witch; I thought he was insulting me at the time…" she trailed off, shaking her head.
"He told me everything he knew about the Wizarding World. If I asked about something he didn't know, he'd come back the next time we'd meet with an answer, like about my Mage Sight. We didn't realize how strong it was until we got to Platform 9, he ripped apart his own coat – his only coat – to make that blindfold you three fished out of my bag right there on the Platform, and his mum helped him enchant it.
"He refused to leave my side, even when Madam Pomfrey tried to chase him back off to the Welcoming Feast – Professor McGonagall had to come sort us in the Hospital Wing. The Headmaster also stopped by when he was told about the situation, and he helped the elves make the Dampening Room for me. He couldn't stay down there with me, so he finally went to his dorm.
"When he came to visit me in the morning, he looked like he had gotten in a fight, and he wouldn't tell me about it. But he had a potion with him, one he invented to help with my Mage Sight. Both Slughorn and Madam Pomfrey examined it in depth and deemed it safe enough for me to use. With that potion I've been able to go to classes every day.
"After our… fall out in Fifth Year, I didn't know how I was going to be able to keep going here without the Drops, because surely, he wouldn't keep brewing it for me, and I couldn't exactly ask him for the instructions. But vials of the Drops would just appear in my bag whenever I was running low, and I never wanted to question it.
"That's how its been since the end of Fifth Year, but this summer…" Lily faltered, blinking back tears as her throat beginning to close in panic. She could see his cold, hate-filled eyes now, feel the heat of his magic roasting her skin slowly, taste the insidious sickly-sweet honey of Dark Magic at the back of her throat.
"Lily!" She heard distantly. "Lily! Snap out of it!" It was the hands shaking her shoulders that brought her back to reality.
Lily looked around wildly, and only saw the faces of her concerned friends. No trace of Snape, no trace of Dark Magic. "I'm – I'm sorry."
"Are you alright?" Mary asked, eyeing her worriedly. Alice and Pandora still had their hands on her shoulders.
Lily gave a grimacing smile. "I'm sorry," she said again. "That happens, sometimes… since the summer… it's fine, I'm fine."
"What did Snape do to you?" James asked. He was a righteous mix of anger and concern. "Lily, I saw the way you reacted to him at the Prefects meeting, that's not typical behavior for you – you're the bravest person I know for Merlin's sake! You don't go all pale and shaky just because someone summons parchment from across the cabin. What the hell did Snape do to make you this panicked to just talk about it?"
Lily scrubbed at her face and gave a great, heaving sigh. "I was writing a letter to Alice…"
She babbled for the better part of an hour, stumbling over describing the weight of the dark magic, the terror she felt for Snape. How she came to the conclusion that his father had been killed and how Lucius Malfoy likely did it. And then the conversation she had with Snape and the threat he left her with. She spoke of the nightmares and her growing paranoia as they drew closer to the start of term. How her Veiling Drops were never replenished, and she didn't dare approach him about it, not at that point. She didn't bother to try to leave anything out, knowing that both Pandora and Sirius would be able to smell the omission from a mile away.
When she was done, the warded room fell silent.
"W-why didn't you tell us? Snape wouldn't be able to find out." Alice said.
Lily looked at her with hollowed eyes. "You don't know what he's capable of; neither do I, not anymore. Back in Fifth Year he could be frightening from time to time, but that's nothing compared to what he was like that day. Nothing."
"We'll keep an eye on him." James said, brows furrowed in determination. "We'll know if he's going to try anything."
Sirius nodded next to him, a similar expression on his face. "It's not like we haven't been bothering him the past six years anyways, so it won't be out of the ordinary. He won't suspect a thing, Lily."
Lily was shaking her head before Sirius was done speaking. "Don't. He'll see a difference. No offence, but you two are about as subtle as a bull in a china shop."
"I will, then. I've had a fair number of classes with him in the past, and I doubt this year will be any different," Pandora said. "And even though he's top student, I'm willing to wager that I could hold my own against him should it come to that."
"I – Pandora, if it comes to that, run like hell, don't try to fight him. Just – don't." Lily said.
Pandora looked her over with a critical eye before giving a slow nod. "Alright. I won't.
"Good." Lily said fiercely.
{Furius Draconis}
Severus flew in lazy circles high above the Quidditch pitch. It was his free period after Ghoul Studies and before lunch, which he would be skipping today. He had smoked a cigarette on his way to the pitch and they always ruined his appetite.
He had sent a letter to the Dark Lord through Malfoy as the Pureblood had instructed him on Friday regarding his apprenticeship with Potioneer Derby after he'd calmed down from his anger at Malfoy on Narcissa's behalf; it was now Tuesday and he hadn't heard back from his lord. Hopefully I won't end up dead over this. I have too much to accomplish for that to happen. He gripped the handle of his broom tighter.
In the heat of his anger, he had promised on a Name that he would not rest until he was in a position to protect Narcissa from Malfoy. He didn't regret it, and he wasn't afraid of not being able to fulfil his vow – he wouldn't let that happen. With the proper amount of work put in, any skill could be mastered, and any material learned. This would be no different.
He would take what the Dark Lord wanted to teach him and use it on his blood thirsty housemates to practice and improve to the point that there was no question he would be able to put Malfoy down in a duel. He would have to put aside any misgivings he had about killing; Narcissa's wellbeing now relied on his ruthlessness, he couldn't afford to be hindered by his morals now. Malfoy had no idea what he just unleashed on himself, for Severus only lived for his mother and Narcissa. Woe to any who harmed either of them.
But to even begin this, he would have to be alive and in the good graces of the Dark Lord.
"This apprenticeship will either be my making or my undoing," he said into the wind. Severus let those thoughts go and sunk deep into Occlumency. He would deal with that all when it came to pass.
Far below, unnoticed by Severus stood another Slytherin with a broom in hand. He was glaring up at Severus and clenching his broom so hard the wood was in danger of splintering. He had gotten the short missive from the Lestrange twins which stated Snape was to be left alone from now on. He was so incensed he had burned it the moment he was done reading it. No flimsy order would keep him from teaching Snivellus his place.
{Furius Draconis}
"Fill me in, would you Alice?" Lily asked, linking her arm with hers, walking down the busy hallways of Hogwarts.
"On the Lioness night you missed down in your dampening room?" Alice teased, smirking.
"That's the one."
"Well, Mary confessed her love for Peter Pettigrew, which prompted Dorcas Meadowes to confess her love for Patricia Rakepick who graduated after our fourth year. Angelica Cole was so shocked to find out Meadowes is a witch's witch that she fainted right on the spot! Apparently, she hadn't grasped the concept of homosexuals even though Remus is absolutely flaming. Nika Bruce apparently had a crush on Micah McGonagall, Professor McGonagall's nephew who played Keeper our first five years… what?"
Lily's laughter caused Alice to trail off. "That is the biggest load of hippogriff shit I've ever heard."
"Oh, alright, we didn't talk about secret crushes. Cole did faint though; she finally asked why Remus was invited but none of the other blokes are – she really had no idea that he was gay."
Lily rolled her eyes. "That girl is as observant as a rock. How were the first years?"
Alice snorted. "Oh the 'tyke' as Mary kept calling her? She seemed fine, excited but tired, so we kept it short. I can't imagine having to go through all seven years here without dormmates, though. Hopefully the Second Years will take her under their wing."
Lily blinked. "I didn't realize we only got one girl?"
"Yep." Alice nodded, popping the 'p'. "Two boys and one girl. They'll, at least, have each other, whereas little Juliet Alpin won't. She might befriend the boys, but she seemed awful shy to me."
"Well, we'll just have to do something about that, won't we?" Lily asked, leading the way into the Transfiguration classroom. "I think we ought to have study groups set up for each Year."
Alice laughed as she sat down. "Those aren't likely to last, Lily, not in Gryffindor."
"I don't expect them to." She answered. "But it will at least force little Alpin to talk to the two boys and hopefully they'll not abandon her. And, it might help strengthen house bonds and all that, so we aren't just divvied up into our own groups."
Alice only had time to nod before Professor McGonagall swept into the room and started her lecture.
{Furius Draconis}
Severus walked into Potions class after lunch on Thursday and stopped short. Lupin was in this class as well. They had the same bloody schedule.
He stiffly took a seat next to Narcissa, which was unfortunately not far enough away from the wolf to suit Severus.
With every class he walked into and saw the damned wolf either already seated or walk in not long after, he had tried to convince himself that the Gryffindor wouldn't be in the next one. Now he would have to spend every day of his last year in the same room as the beast that almost brutally murdered him, usually accompanied by his little band of friends who weren't much better.
As if he didn't already have enough stressors to deal with.
Narcissa laid a calming hand on his arm, causing him to stiffen further at first before relaxing. He glanced at her and she offered him a slight smile as Slughorn walked into the classroom.
"Hello, hello! Welcome to your final year of Potions and congratulations on making it this far! This shall, without a doubt, be your toughest year hear academically, what with the Nastily Exhausting Wizard Tests you will have to take at the end of the year! Today we shall do a review of the past six years via a short quiz over previously learned brewing techniques and then you all shall pick a potion from the previous year that you will be able to brew in the remaining time. The less time you take on the quiz, the more time you will have to brew!"
There was groaning throughout the classroom at this announcement but Slughorn ignored it all and Banished scrolls of parchment to their tables. "You have no time to waste; begin!"
Severus opened the test and his eye very nearly twitched at the first question:
1. Why should you never throw all your ingredients into the cauldron at once, even if they have been properly prepared?
Sighing, Severus answered the questions in length and so was among the last to finish the short quiz. He Banished it back to Slughorn with a jab and a flick of his wand and walked to the back of the classroom where Slughorn kept copies of brewing instructions of the potions taught to each year. The scrolls were stored in diamond shaped shelves by year brewed and then by time required to brew the potion.
Glancing down at his watch, he only had about an hour left in the two-hour class period to brew his potion and so he settled on the Shrinking Solution which took about that long to brew – shorter with his improvements. He tossed the scroll down at his spot and went into the student supply cupboard for the necessary ingredients.
Soon he was immersed in the routine of brewing, working in an almost trance like state as he allowed his magic to guide his hands, instinct letting him know how best to prepare the ingredients, when to add them, and how many times to stir in which direction.
It was a state similar to Occlumency, which is what made it so easy for him to master the obscure mind magic. His mother had taught him this brewing technique when he was younger. Tobias had been out looking for work and she seized the rare opportunity of an empty house to teach her son the way her father taught her to brew potions.
He finished the potion with over ten minutes to spare. He decanted a sample into the standard crystal vial used to turn in their potions and walked it up to Slughorn's desk. The professor beamed at him. "This is sure to be an outstanding potion as always, Mr. Snape. Well done!"
Severus offered a tight-lipped smile and nodded to him before he returned to his seat at the far end of the first row. He wasn't the last to finish brewing, so he took the remaining time to thoroughly clean up his station. It was silent in the classroom as they all waited on Frank Foley, a Ravenclaw, to finish with his potion. He was sweating, and Severus dearly hoped that none of his sweat had found its way into his cauldron.
Foley finally extinguished the flame under his cauldron and decanted a sample for Slughorn who took it with a smile.
"Well done, well done! I shall look over your quizzes and evaluate your potions and assign your brewing partners based off of these results – good day!" He left the classroom before any of them could protest the professor's declaration.
He and Narcissa shared a glance before gathering their bags and leaving the classroom. Slughorn wasn't the only professor to be assigning year long partners in class. They probably thought that it would help the students stay on top of their studies as they prepared for their NEWTs, and they would be correct, if they allowed the students to choose their partners.
So far, none of them had said that they'd be letting the students do this. Severus could only hope they didn't stick him with some imbecile in the hopes that he would be able to pull them through the toughest tests they'd ever have to take in the course of their magical education. Knowing his luck as he did, though, that's likely exactly what the professors had planned for him.
{Furius Draconis}
Narcissa sat next to Severus at breakfast in companionable silence. After the promise he had made on the Name of Protection a week ago, they had fallen into their usual routine as if nothing had happened. Neither spoke of it, even though it weighed heavily on them both.
The more Narcissa thought about his promise, the more she wanted to ask him if he had been like this with Evans. If he would have sworn similarly to protect her. He was, without a doubt, an intense person, and it wasn't hard to imagine him promising the same if he was still friends with the Mudblood and discovered her to be in a situation like Narcissa's.
Narcissa paused, her fork stopping halfway to her mouth. An alien emotion wrestled and writhed within her – Jealously, she realized. What do I have to be jealous of? She continued eating her breakfast before Severus noticed her pause and asked what was wrong. He always knew when something was wrong with her. She wondered if it had been the same with Evans? Could he still tell if something was wrong with her? Did he look?
Narcissa stopped cold in her thoughts. She wasn't jealous of the Mudblood. She wasn't. Severus was perfectly able to swear on a Name of Power to protect the Mudblood if he wanted to, it mattered not to Narcissa one bit. Not. One. Bit.
She was saved from exploring her own feelings when at precisely a quarter after 8, a flock of owls carrying parchments and packages of varying sizes flew into the hall from an entry way situated above the enchanted sky. She saw Severus idly watching them, knowing he was waiting on letters from the Dark Lord and from his apprenticeship. He had done his best to hide it, but she had seen how worried he was about what the former would say to him.
An owl did fly over to him with a scroll tied to its leg with a leather cord, but she didn't recognize it as belonging to Lucius, which is likely how the Dark Lord would send word to her friend. It landed gracefully in front of him, but not without flogging him with it's wings in the process. Narcissa and surrounding Slytherins laughed at the sight, one Slytherin going as far as praising the damn bird. Severus sent a deadly glare to all of them, making some pause as he had never reacted to their taunting before.
He snatched the scroll from the bird's leg and only had to draw his wand to make the owl take flight, it remembering the last time he raised a wand to it.
Narcissa caught sight of his vicious smirk and she chuckled. "I often forget that your dislike for owls is not a one way street, my dear."
He merely grunted as he tore into the letter and scanned its contents. He breathed a small sigh of relief, and wordlessly passed the parchment to her and continued eating his breakfast.
Potioneer Derby wanted to meet with him the second weekend of each month, starting next month. He had told her that he Dark Lord wanted to meet with him every Hogsmeade weekend, and they were never scheduled for the second weekend. "This should work out nicely for you," she commented, rolling the parchment back up and handing it to him. "I can speak to Regulus about the practices you are bound to miss due to your apprenticeship and he should be able to convince Yaxley not to try to kill you."
Severus scoffed. "He will be in for a nasty shock should he try that."
Narcissa nodded, intrigued now, and began to spread pomegranate jam on her toast. "Abandoning the subservient charade, are we?"
"I deemed it necessary," he said. He refilled his cup of coffee and was content to nurse it as he waited for Narcissa to finish her breakfast. Before he could fully settle into waiting, another owl landed before him, and this one Narcissa did recognize as Lucius's. Severus seemed to as well, if the way he stiffened was any indication.
He took the letter off its leg and it didn't stick around for a treat from its plate, as if it were fleeing from the letter it had carried. They shared a look and without a word, they abandoned their breakfast and walked down to the Slytherin Dungeons. She was gripping his arm tighter than she usually would in her nervousness.
Once they were in his dorm, Cassandra greeting them with a series of cheerful, trilling chirps. Narcissa took the large feline-like creature into her arms while Severus raised a multitude of privacy wards and opened the letter and read aloud: "We shall speak more on this development when I see you on the 15th of October."
It wasn't signed, but it didn't need to be. He looked uneasy holding the parchment; swallowing, he passed it to Narcissa, causing her to release his Jevabaownn who then scrambled nimbly up Severus's tall frame, settling on his thin shoulders which seemed to be her favorite place to perch. He absently scratched the large feline's head, making her purr thunderously.
The longer Narcissa held the parchment, the more troubled she felt. There was some subtle magic seeping from the letter, magic that felt ominous and malicious in nature.
"You feel it as well?" He asked softly.
She nodded and burned the letter in a quick flash of flame and then crossed her arms, gripping her own arms tightly. "You are important to him, he won't hurt you over this – not badly." She wasn't sure if she was trying to reassure him or herself. How angry did one have to be to magically leave that impression on a little bit of parchment?
"Good thing I have a high pain tolerance, not to mention a high tolerance for Dark magic. I will be fine, Narcissa."
She smiled slightly at him, but his words did little to comfort her. He shouldn't have to have a high pain tolerance, which she knew he had developed from repeated exposure to pain. And he absolutely shouldn't have a high tolerance for Dark magic.
{Furius Draconis}
Later that day after his last class, Severus set out for the Headmaster's office, to let him know about the schedule Potioneer Derby sent him and ask how he should go about travelling to the lab to meet with the man. He walked up to Orrom, the large gargoyle that guarded the Headmaster's office and hoped the password he had been given still worked. "Exploding Bonbons."
To his relief, Orrom slid to the side and granted him access. He rode the moving staircase to the top and knocked on the Headmaster's door and waited for the man to call "Enter!" before pushing the door open.
"Ah, Mr. Snape, come in, come in! Have a seat. What can I do for you?"
Severus sat down on one of the squashy purple armchairs situated in front of the Headmaster's desk and handed him the letter from that morning. "I am to meet with Potioneer Derby the second weekend of every month, and I was wondering how I would get there. I believe they are located in Italy."
Dumbledore took a moment to read the letter, his eyes twinkling like mad. "You are more than welcome to use my fireplace, Mr. Snape. I will send you a memo with the new password whenever I change it, and should I not be here when you have need of the floo, you have my permission to enter anyways and use it."
Severus blinked in shock. The Headmaster would trust him, a Slytherin, to be unsupervised in his office? "Thank you, sir. That is no small amount of trust that you are placing in me."
Dumbledore smiled at him. "I believe you to be a trustworthy individual, Mr. Snape, and I have no fear for my possessions in my absence. You are, after all, a Prefect and the top student academically in this school. You are smart enough to make the right decisions."
Severus blinked in shock again, wondering if they were still talking about him being unsupervised in the Headmaster's office. "Thank you, sir, I appreciate the trust you have in me." He stood from the armchair. "I need to get to the library to work on an essay. Good day, Headmaster."
Dumbledore handed back the letter with a smile. "Good day, Mr. Snape."
I'm back to no beta and it's exhausting trying to find one on this site (there's like 7,000 after I narrow it down as far as I can) so if any of y'all wanna help ya girl out, that'd be great. It's mainly just grammar stuff, and I'll likely bounce ideas off of ya, I need someone to keep me in check lol
Feedback is always welcome! I love hearing what y'all think!
