The great hall was busy and bustling with noise as usual, a mixture of cutlery noise, crowd conversations and laughter and the eerie movements of ghosts. It was 1976 , two weeks after the beginning of the school year. It was the start of the school year after the summer that the beginning of marked the end of the last school year, the ending of the year that witnessed Severus' utter humiliation by the lake and seeing the only positive relationship that he ever had in his life coming to an end, in absolute tatters despite his pleadings and attempts at making amends. The incident seemed to be forgotten by now, passed off as one of Potter's famous pranks but not to Severus. The resentment in his heart only seeming to grow further after that. The atmosphere of the great hall didn't manage to cheer his mood at all. He mindlessly pretended to listen to Avery's chatter about Quidditch trials, he really wanted to borrow a rare potions book that his family happened to possess a version of so he would have to humor him at his exasperation. The last thing he cared about was flying on a stupid broom.
A cling of a glass snatched the attention of everyone present. To Severus' irritation, It was Dumbledore, that biased poor excuse of a headmaster who seemed to have something to say. He would have almost preferred to continue listening to broom related mindless chatter, at least occlumency helped him filter out what he deemed unnecessary and think about more important things while pretending to listen with rapt attention. Now, he really wasn't ready to bear the bitter bile of resentment and unfairness merely listening to the Headmaster talk made him feel. He still couldn't forget how he handled the shrieking shack ordeal that almost had him either dead or turned into a filthy beast. However, he was still curious as to what he would say, after all it was unlikely to be about Quidditch or such frivolities.
"Your attention please" only after what the Gryffindor enamored fool deemed an appropriate amount of time did he continue "today, we would be welcoming a transfer student in the sixth year of Hogwarts. Due to some circumstances, she was not able to proceed with the sorting at the beginning of the year along with the first years. " And that was enough to generate another wave of noise from hawkish teenagers looking for any piece of good gossip. It certainly wasn't a usual thing, it has happened before but it was still rare enough that it generated interest, specially if it's a transfer. Slytherins and some members of the other houses were looking for a potential new connection. Even Severus was mildly interested. "Everyone, a great welcome to Miss Millicent DuVignard."
-"Duvignard?" Rosier said surprised "Isn't that the name of the vice-master at the French branch of the Potions Guild?"
-"Never heard of them. You and Black have family in France, so you must be more familiar. Are they pureblood?"
-"Well, they don't really care that much about blood purity in France but they still prefer to keep it between wizards of certain reputation in marriages. The Duvignards are known to be a potions family with a long legacy. However, rumor has it that… their daughter is really not up to the family mantle."
"What? Is she a squib or something?"
"No" Rosier answered before delicately taking a sip from his cup"I heard that she is very good with a wand. Even got some rewards at Dumstrang"
"Dumstrang? She was at Dumstrang? Isn't there BeauxBâtons in France." A Slytherin girl asked
"Who knows?" Avery Shrugged " But then, why do you say she is not up to the mantle?"
"Well, their family is mainly in Potions business. We had some business dealings with the French guild branch and it's well known there that the DuVignard daughter is not to be trusted around a cauldron. She is so ….untalented in the area that the vice guild master, her mother, forbid her to come 15 steps near a cauldron. Her mother faced quite the criticism in her choice of a husband because of her daughter's lack of pre-disposition. Not because of his blood status, but because of him lacking any credentials in Potions and having….a rather questionable reputation with a rather unremarkable family name to top. "Rosier finished while still elegantly sipping from his cup. Severus really wished that Eileen had enough sense and guts to name him following her own wizarding last name. Prince would have certainly helped more than Snape ever did. It wasn't even a rare thing in the wizarding world. Specially when a line had no male heir, the daughter named the child after her own family line. Or when a name was simply more powerful than the other.
"I remember now! " an upperclassman suddenly jumped "She is not merely untalented! She is a bloody disaster! One like you have never seen before! My dad had some custom order made at their guild during a flux of dragon pox at SaintMungo but it was all destroyed by her merely being in the same room as it. Their whole family is very proud of their potions mastery, a legacy through the ages. Her mother was criticized by her family because despite being so talented herself, she decided to marry the French version of Xenophilius Lovegood. Now, they believe the heiress ' disastrousness around cauldrons is because of his nutty genes. They would have preferred she marry a mudblood if it meant he had a talent in potions he could have passed on."
Severus felt numb to this girl's predicament, he just found himself hoping to not be paired up with her in potions. Well, if she lacked sense enough to actually take potions in her NEWTS. He doubted even if she could have before grimacing at the thought that the potions exam had a theory part and slughorn would not want to skip the opportunity of knowing her due to her parentage. Maybe even thinking he can get the achievement of managing to teach such utter incompetence out of her and get the vice guild master's eternal favor if what he heard had any truth to it.
The door adjacent to the teachers table took this time to open up and out came Mcgonagall holding the sorting hat. Severus couldn't believe it, couldn't they have done the sorting in the headmaster's office? Following Mcgonagall finally appeared the girl. She had common brown eyes and hair and was what most would consider moderately pretty. He didn't care a lot about her features or beauty as he never noticed anyone other than Lily that way, he was more interested in her expression. There is always useful information you may one day need looking at people's expressions. She looked at the room confidently before breaking into a silly smile she probably thought was charming and starting to wave her arms around. Severus felt the bite he took stuck in his throat out of the cheer amount of second-hand embarrassment he felt from her behavior.
Mercifully enough, Mcgonagall beckoned her to sit on the stool for the sorting to begin. The hat however barely touched her head before it shouted "Ravenclaw".
Cheers came from RavenClaw's table. The girl got up from the stool grinning and walked up to the table with the hat still on. There was a wave of laughter before she understood and took the hat off handing it to Mcgonagall and continuing to head to the table before engaging whatever poor souls she sat next to in a heated discussion. All of that in perfect oblivious confidence. Severus cringed at such antics.
The dinner pursued with students from all tables sometimes sending a few curious looks to the new student who was all too willing to engage anybody in conversation. Severus averted his gaze annoyedly and turned to look at Lily. She seemed to be bickering with Potter again. He didn't know if it was bickering really. One thing about him, even without employing Legilimency he always could understand people's intentions, actions and feelings for what they truly were. He was not mistaken as to what such bickering hid behind. In fact, not that unsimilar as to what happened at the lake. Before she went into that harsh tirade on Potter after Severus called her that word, even in that situation he was in, he kept attention to her expression and didn't miss the twitch on her face, he also understood all too well as to what was behind that bickering when she tried to stand up for him. That's why he lashed out. He banished the thought immediately and asked himself if he was just too bitter imagining such things about the only person who cared about him. Even that relationship is gone by now, all thanks to Potter. He felt bitterness and hatred rage against his chest again.
The excruciating dinner finally came to an end and Severus finally went back to the quiet of his dormitory. He cast a silencio and closed the curtains of his bed before opening an interesting book he didn't finish reading. He always did some light reading before sleep managed to get him.
Tomorrow he would have potions. As the sixth and seventh years students became fewer, there would be some classes where all the houses study together. He would have to see Potter and Lily flirting again and that was already enough to put a damper on his mood.