When woke up the next morning, it was to the birds singing and not some water sound which in his first ear, scared him half to death. Because he sometimes dreamed about being drowned. The sun was shining on his eyelids and his bare fit, warming him. It was nice here, warm, Safe.
And he noticed that Frank had already showered.
FRANK HAD ALREADY SHOWERED!
so after nearly 40 years, he found someone who woke up earlier than him. He grinned at his new friend: hi there, frank!
Frank was startled: whoa! I did not know you were such an early riser! We can go shower together. Then he turned red as a tomato: no, not together, not. I don't mean showering...not that I don't like you...no that came out wrong. I like you, but I don't like you...Gee, I am such a duffer!
Severus chuckled: easy Frank. I knew alright, no need to choke on your words.
Frank had breathed in calm. Then he went and offered his shampoo: Severus, I know it, I mean I like to .. it would be ... helping is... Then he facepalmed.
"You get what I mean?"
Severus nodded.
" please don't take offense but, appearance, first ones are really important and...umm, youcanborrowone ofmyrobestoo, becausemymomisaseam‧stressandivegotlots?"
Severus considered his offer. Frank had said his mother was a sewer, he had a lot of robes and he did not mind lending one to him, as his robes were, sufficiently put, not adequate for use. Frank was suggesting to help him, asking him for his permission to help, and he did not mean humiliating him. And as he was painfully aware, appearance certainly talked first in their society.
Severus smiled and thanked him, accepting the help of his friend. The help that was offered without anything in return (like many things he had done for Lucius's friendship or Lily's). Frank beamed at him so brightly that he thought his face would split in two.
Sometime later, when Severus had a shower and dressed in one of Frank's spare robes, on the way to their breakfast, they saw Charity arguing with some Ravenclaw girl.
They could not guess who was who, so they went and found a seat, and Frank handed him his timetable then.
"You were at the hospital wing, so I got yours"
Charity finally came and sat with them. She hugged Frank and waved her hand at his face" Hi! I am Charity! And I love your hair!"
Severus blushed. It seemed his hair, when washed with a pure blood grade A plus Shampoo, would take on a natural soft curl( wave?) And making him look actually like a boy his age, and not some depressed vampire who was too malnourished and was about to attack his first victim. Also, he had a friend in Frank, in his own house and he did not have to watch his back when he slept in fear of what his roommates might do like when he was in Slytherin. And he did not suppose Hufflepuff would give two cents for blood status, well most of them at this point anyway. He smiled sometimes too because he had two Prewatts and a head girl behind him too, he did not consider them friends yet, but they were his allies. It was not that he did not like his house, Slytherin. His mother said that the house valued brotherhood, wits, and ambition which was very good. Most of their politicians were from that house. But damn Grindelwald had stirred a pot of problems, and Voldemort did not help that matter. Both knew recruiting ambitious people was much easier, and they could get rid of them when they did not need them. They ruined their reputation and no one patched it from there. But now Severus had a new look, and he knew the things money and looks (in his case normal looks) would do...
He murmured his name and shook her hand when she hugged him too, briefly.
In this life, he had been hugged as much as he had hugged his entire lifetime, in just a day or so. His life was weird like that.
Their first class, was the history of magic, with Ravenclaws, as the class was not being taken seriously, they put Gryffs and Slytherins together, in an attempt to encourage house unity.
In his mind, houses were shit. They should have gotten rid of the chatty hat, installed a good history teacher, and made purebloods study muggle customs from start and not in a stupid course called muggle studies, as if they were creatures or something. Like Goul and Siren studies. They forgot easily that all of them were humans. Maybe making muggle-born ones study magical folks' customs could help too, so there would not be annoying ones like Granger, who thought everything could be learned from a book and did not pay attention to the experience people had. And muggle-borns should become aware of their magical abilities much earlier. But the fucking board of governors did not allow removing that stupid hat( what about our traditions! They said). Also, they did not give a budget to the school one way or another, demanding everything and not spending a sickle. Instead, they gave budget to that ridiculous Triwizard shit that resulted in the dark lord's resurrection. In a ministry that was the story too, they sucked money from Hogwarts and said the board should give them money. Instead, they invested in that horrible cat lover, Umbridge, in dementors and fucking blood quills.
They went to the class, and everybody sat somewhere, as there was too much room for them. It seemed all were aware the class is a shamble. He started on his plan for surviving ( and not fucking the timelines) and some artimancy predictions for his plans:
Get Frank and Alice to meet
Get Lily and Potter to date
Get allies, Bones, Prewatts, Longbottom
Get regulus Black friendship
Can I avert Pettigrew not to become a death-eater? Or make him a Spy?
Protect Amelia, twins, Charity
When he felt another body sit himself or herself next to him.
: ooh, mister matchmaker knows Artimancy too!
He snatched the paper in front of him, good thing he had not written it in plain text and wrote it in code (except artimancy things and lilypotter alicefrank)
It was Marlene Mckkinon.
She had straight dirty blond hair with blue-grey eyes and a medium height. Played as a chaser. She had dated Black for all he knew.
He frowned at her: I did not allow you to sit here, nor to take a pic at what I write or not.
Marlene simply smirked( what, popular girls like her smirked too?): don't you have a temper cuty!
He frowned harder: not a cutie! Go away( he knew he was behaving childishly, but his body and magic were child's ones so...)
She offered her hand: Marlene Mckkinon, I love artimancy too. I can tell it is much more complex than the things I know, and I have read the books up to the fourth year. So it must be newt work.
Severus contemplated, her hand in friendship, it would make his same age friends to ..three?
Frank, Charity, Marlene and him.
A quartet.
Perfect.
They talked all that class about artimancy, its role in potions, and how accurate its predictions were and set a time to work on some artimancy text together.
Severus could not wait for the next history of magic class, which was a first.
After the class Frank and Charity walked with him to the next one, which was herbology with Gryffindors.
As he knew, they would be paired with the other houses, for that stupid unity thingy.
He saw Lily.
Lily saw him too.
He wanted to run, but she gave him no chance.
: oh sev! How much do I have to tell you!
Lily was as beautiful as ever, her red curls perfect, green eyes shining.
: where have you gone by train? You said that you wanted to go to find one of your mother's friend's kids. Someone named Will?Wilk?
So that was one they were talking about when he woke up in this world.
: and I hit you! Sorry, sorry, I didn't know I'd hurt you! And then you were gone and I was about to come and get you but there was this boy, and there was Potter and Black and Remus...oooh Remus is a nerd like you! and I told them you were my besti and they laughed at me and I was soooo angry ..
(She needed to breathe)
: and my magic acted up and turned potter and black hair to red..
( how he wanted to see that ..their faces! It would be so funny)
: And then they made me find a reverse curse because they looked horrifying and I sent Remus to you but you were nowhere to be found and Remus said he heard from the head girl you broke your nose and were with Prewatts and to not disturb you cause you were sleep...God, I am a stupid girl and a bad friend and I should leave those two.
She was going to cry.
Severus sighed. Maybe she was his friend. But she was a girl, 11 years old in a different world. With all the stress and fear of being rejected. Maybe at this point, she was not totally a ...someone who saw themselves as right and others wrong. So he stopped her crying: I am alright, I went to madam Pomfrey with Prewatts.
Lily sighed and took his hand: 'm sorry sev.
Prewatts told us last night.
Severus was confused: what?
Lily continued: yep. I was telling my new roommates about you as we were sitting in the common room. I said how you taught me everything and you are soooo smart and how I know you and that you are my bestie...
Potter laughed and said someone sorted in Hufflepuff can not be smart, loyal, working their ass out but not smart. I wanted to say something to that prick but...
Then they came and were like: sevvy dear was this and that.
Potter and black huffed, but Prewatts told them you knew about calming draughts and disguise charms that are auror-level things. So you were not smart, you were a genius...
( so they told everybody about him, there was his remaining under the radar)
Then Lily hugged him too: Severus, I love you, please, believe me, I sometimes don't act like it, and I am a git. But you are my friend. Always.
Severus believed her, at least until she did not have a crush on Potter, maybe he had to...
: listen, Lils, I love you too, as a..( he paused, there was his moment, but he had to take the hard route, as Lily never saw him as more than a friend, it cut him deep and hurt him, but after this long time..) as a brother. And friend, always.
He changed everything like that.
Notes:
Potter: I will be the best Quidditch player ever!
Trelawny: no, you become an auror, and die at 21
Black: I will become a rich singer in the muggle world
Trelawny: no, you go to Azkaban for 12 years, and die at 36
Potter and Black: no shit, how fucking do you know?
Trelawny: I asked Severus. He time-traveled from the future. I saw it in my mind's eye
Potter: what?
Black:what?
Severus activates a time turner, to go and murder Sybil's parents.