Formation: Year 1 - Settling In

Author's Note: The title of this story is intended as a homage to my all-time favorite Severus Snape-centric fanfiction, "A Difference in the Family: The Snape Chronicles" by Rannaro, which has played a large role in shaping my interpretations of Snape in my own stories.

Following the initial excitement of the Sorting, the rest of the feast was fairly uneventful for Lily and Severus, and before long they were being led out of the Great Hall and down a flight of stairs towards their new dormitory. The Hufflepuff common room, when they finally reached it, proved to be a cozy space full of crackling fireplaces and comfortable chairs, with couches and little study tables scattered about. The prefects welcomed the first years, showing them around the room before splitting up the boys and girls to lead them down the branching hallways towards the dormitories themselves. Lily wished Severus a good night, and he returned the farewell, though with a little more hesitation. Unlike Lily, who was excited to see her new room and meet the other girls she would be sharing it with, Severus was more nervous to be left alone with the other first year boys. He had never had much luck in making friends before, Lily being the one and only exception, and he had always found that boys in particular were much more likely to tease or beat him up than to be nice or welcome him.

But Lily was already walking away, and he couldn't follow her down the hallway with the girls' dorms, for the boys had already been warned that it was warded against male intruders. He briefly considered calling out after her, but then the prefects were shepherding him down the boys' hallway with the other first years, and the opportunity was lost. He followed the other boys into the first year dorm, with its sunny yellow walls that almost seemed to glow in the light of the many candles and the dancing flames in the fireplace.

"Alright boys, this is it, welcome again to Hufflepuff House! Your trunks have been placed by your beds, but feel free to switch around if you'd like," the prefect smiled at the younger boys, who were still clustered around awkwardly by the door. "I know it's hard being away from home, but any of the older students will be happy to help you if you have any trouble, and if you need someone to talk to you only have to ask. Us prefects are just down the hall, you can always knock on any of our doors!"

Severus nodded along with his new roommates when it became clear that the older boy was waiting for a response, though he couldn't help noticing that the prefect hadn't really added much to what had already been said out in the common room.

"Great, then, have a good night, and there'll be a walking group from the common room up to the Great Hall for breakfast if you're worried about getting lost!" Severus was beginning to think that the prefect would never leave. His glances at the other boys showed that more than one seemed to be trying desperately to hold back laughter as their guide continued to tell them enthusiastically about the wonderful features of their room, Hufflepuff House, and Hogwarts in general, before wishing them a good night for the third time (or possible fourth, Severus was losing track), and finally leaving the room.

The door closed firmly behind him, and for a moment the new Hufflepuffs just looked at each other in the silence he had left.

"I didn't know a person could be that excited about furniture," Severus said quietly, and first one and then another of the boys began to giggle. As all of the boys dissolved into laughter, Severus felt his face go red, and ducked his head so his hair fell forward to hide his expression. He wasn't sure that he had really meant for them to hear the comment, it had just slipped out, and now they were all laughing at him, just like the boys at his old school always had. But as he listened more closely, it sounded different from the mean laughter he was used to hearing, and he thought he heard one of the other boys choke out "so true!" through his laughter. Then another one started to perform an impression of the prefect's excited descriptions of the room ( "There are beds! They have yellow blankets! That's our House color! Go Badgers!") and Severus started to laugh a little too, realizing with relief that the boys hadn't been laughing at him at all.

As they all introduced themselves and scrambled to find their beds and change into pajamas before anyone came to chastise them for making such a ruckus, Severus dared to hope that maybe these boys really were as nice as they seemed. Maybe Hogwarts would really be just as perfect as he had always dreamed. Trusting that the boys who shared his room weren't going to jump on him the minute his back was turned, and dreaming of starting classes with Lily the next day, Severus fell asleep with a small smile on his face.

As Severus and Lily met their new roommates in the basement dormitories of Hufflepuff, similar meetings were going on in the first year dorms of the other three Houses. In the dungeons of Slytherin the children of old and powerful wizarding families sized each other up and began to build friendships that could one day foster strategic political alliances. In the airy tower rooms of Ravenclaw, new students discussed what classes they were most excited to take, planned ahead for study groups and stayed up too late talking about obscure topics. And high up in Gryffindor tower, in the first year boys' dormitory, a certain group of friends was beginning to form, four boys whose fates were much more closely tied to those of the two little Hufflepuffs than any of them could have imagined.

It would be some time before the Marauders would truly become a single unified group, for Remus Lupin was cautious and shy about making friends, afraid of anyone noticing his strangely regular absences and correctly identifying his lycanthropic problem. Peter Pettigrew too remained more in the shadows for the first few weeks of school, not daring to believe that such a dynamic duo as James Potter and Sirius Black could possibly welcome his company. For James and Sirius had been virtually inseparable since the Sorting Feast, and just as the Hogwarts professors soon became aware of the "two littlest badger kits" (as they called Severus and Lily in the privacy of the staffroom), they were equally focused on the antics of the "Double Trouble" Gryffindor boys.

It took only a single lesson for Professor McGonagall to see that James and Sirius would be best friends, and even less time for her to know that they would be trouble. Halfway through that first day of class, she caught them levitating their half-transfigured needles (their first Charms lesson had been the day before) and using them to poke one of the girls sitting at the desk next to theirs. While slightly pleased in spite of herself (from an educational standpoint) that the boys had managed to turn their matches pointy enough to poke anything, McGonagall was not at all amused with their choice of entertainment. She found it even less amusing when they burst out laughing and high fived each other when she called them out on it, and expressed her displeasure by assigning the boys their first punishment of the year. To her exasperation, it would prove to be little deterrent, and would be only the first of many detentions that the pair of Gryffindors would serve during their years at Hogwarts.

In contrast, Severus and Lily, in the opinions of most of the Hogwarts staff, were found pleasantly at the other extreme. While both the Hufflepuff pair and the Gryffindor twosome (and later foursome) became generally known for their intelligence, magical abilities, and curiosity, the Gyffindors became quickly associated with chaos and troublemaking, while the Hufflepuffs stayed mostly to themselves and generally out of trouble. That is not to say that the boys were not as intelligent or studious as the Hufflepuffs in their own right, but they were much more likely to get bored and think up mischievous ways of entertaining themselves when their work was done than to talk quietly or start brainstorming ideas for their next assigned essay. Lily made friends among the girls who shared her dormitory, and Severus at least tolerated the boys in his, but it was clear from the first days of classes that the two of them were best friends, and intended to stay that way. It was rare to see one without the other, for they attended all the same classes, sat together in the Great Hall for meals, and spent much of their free time together in the library, the common room, or walking down by the lakeshore. They worked together in all of the classes that required partners, helping each other when either ran into a problem that the other could solve, or working together to figure it out when neither fully understood.

No, the professors had little to complain about when it came to the Hufflepuff duo. Severus and Lily were studious and bright, learning their spells and potions quickly and efficiently, and asking for help when they needed it, but not before first trying to figure it out themselves. Though Severus became more outgoing over time, as he found more people who would take the time to listen to him, instead of cutting him off or teasing him for his ideas, he would always be more shy than Lily. She was the one who could make friends easily wherever she went, who could go up and ask a question of a professor without worrying that they would hit her or laugh at her for being stupid the way Severus always feared they would. He barely spoke in class for the first few weeks, talking only if a professor called on him without warning, though he always knew the answers. He let Lily take the lead on answering questions in class or asking professors for help. She didn't really mind, most of the time, though she did try to encourage Severus to speak up for himself.

She snapped at him about it only once, a few weeks into school, while they worked on an assignment in Defense Against the Dark Arts class. The professor, a large, imposing man who always appeared to be slightly annoyed about something, had told them to work through an assignment in pairs while he graded essays at his desk. Severus and Lily had, unsurprisingly, decided to work together, and each started working on a different part of the problem. Severus quickly ran into an issue based on an inconsistent explanation in their textbook. He showed it to Lily, who was equally puzzled.

"I have no idea, Sev, why don't you go ask Professor Draguar?"

Severus shifted nervously in his seat, hair falling into his face as he looked down at the textbook. "Could you ask him?"

"Severus, I'm working on the other question, just go ask him yourself. Honestly, you have to learn to speak up for yourself, you're acting like he's going to hit you or something!" Lily snapped. Focusing again on her own parchment, she saw her friend flinch out of the corner of her eye, and suddenly realized what she had just said. "Oh God, Sev, I'm sorry, I forgot about your dad..."

"It's fine," Severus mumbled, studying the textbook as if he could make the words change by staring hard enough.

"No, it isn't, and I shouldn't have snapped at you either," Lily was determined to make amends, her flash of fiery temper gone as quickly as it had come. "I'll go ask him about the chapter, it's not like I understand it either."

She stood up before Severus could say anything else, walking towards Professor Draguar's desk. "Professor? We had a question about the last paragraph in chapter 3..."

Severus watched her go, not entirely sure how he was supposed to react to Lily's outburst and subsequent apology. With an internal shrug, he decided that if she didn't bring it up again then neither would he; figuring out why Draguar had chosen such a stupid textbook, and what that stupid textbook was trying to say, was a much more pressing issue in the moment.

Days turned to weeks, and all the first years settled into their new classes and friend groups and grew accustomed to the ways of Hogwarts and its ever present magic. For Severus and Lily, both of whom had been dreaming for years about leaving their regular lives and going off to Hogwarts to learn real magic, the novelty and excitement took a long time to wear off. Even loaded down with essays and reading assignments, spells to practice and potions to prepare, they still sometimes caught each other's gaze across a library table or workbench and grinned at each other, overtaken by the wonder and magic of their new lives. But even the best of situations must have its stumbling blocks and pitfalls, and their first year at Hogwarts was no exception. There was the one teacher who managed to suck the excitement out of what should have been a marvelous class (Professor Draguar, an Auror taking a sabbatical to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts, though one could only hope he was better in the field than in the classroom), and one class which likely wouldn't have been very exciting even with a better professor (History of Magic, which both Hufflepuffs had been very disappointed in, thinking perhaps incorrectly that a magical history class should be more compelling than the muggle kind).

And of course, there was one of the biggest causes of annoyance in the school - the first year Gryffindor boys. By the end of the first month of school, the mischievous duo of James Potter and Sirius Black had expanded into a quartet with the addition of Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin, and the Hogwarts professors braced themselves for a long seven years. The other students too became aware of the Gryffindor boys and their proclivity for trouble, but as the first year Hufflepuffs had only Herbology with the Gryffindors, Lily and Severus assumed (or hoped) that they would have little reason to interact with the rude boys they had met on the Hogwarts Express on the ride to school. But much to their dismay, it became clear that the Marauders, as they would eventually become known, were not content to ignore their Hufflepuff yearmates, and went out of their way to try to cause trouble for Severus in particular.

For though Severus and Lily had no way of knowing this, James had held a fascination for Lily from almost the first moment he saw her on the train, and a hatred for Severus almost as long. Most of that hatred stemmed from simple jealousy - James fancied himself in love with Lily, saw Severus as standing in the way of them being together, and was jealous that the Hufflepuff boy could be with her while he could not. There was nothing romantic between Lily and Severus, and never would be, but to James such a thing was simply inconceivable. For years the Gryffindor would pine after her, despite her repeated spurning of his advances, and with the incomprehensible logic of an almost-teenage boy he would come to the conclusion that everything wrong in his life was Severus's fault.

For this reason James and his friends made it their goal to pull as many pranks as they could on Severus, to tease him and bully him and try their best to get him into trouble (something made difficult by the fact that Severus, particularly with Lily's assistance, was rather more subtle in his counterstrikes than the Marauders in their attacks). It was mostly small things at first, non magical things - calling Severus names, or trying to trip him as he walked past James and his friends in the corridors on the way to class, or stealing his tools in Herbology (since that was the only class they had in common). Sirius, who had taken up James's cause against Severus as if it was his own, even contrived to spill an entire jar of ink all over the Hufflepuff boy's notes in the library one evening, but soon found that he had miscalculated on two counts.

Firstly, Lily had been working at the same library table as Severus, and their notes, textbooks, and in-progress essays were all mixed together, with the result that Sirius had spilled ink not only on his intended target's things, but on hers as well. Lily would have been inclined to get back at the Gryffindor boy even if he had only ruined Severus's work, but this added a new level to her annoyance, and roused her already somewhat infamous quick temper. The second thing that Sirius did not bother to take into account was Madam Pince. Of course, there was no way Sirius could really have known that the librarian would be walking down the row of books right beside the Hufflepuffs' table, but surely he should already have known, even after only a month or two in the castle, how strict the librarian was, and thought carefully about pulling any sort of mischief in her domain. Now he got to see firsthand just how angry the older witch could get when she saw ink spreading across one of her tables, dripping down onto her carpet, drenching a pile of books, including some of her own precious library books.

"SIRIUS BLACK!" Madam Pince screeched, coming out from behind a bookcase just in time to see the Gryffindor trying to rush away from the inky table as Severus and Lily jumped from their chairs and tried to stop the flow of ink from ruining too much of their work.

"Don't you try to sneak away, I saw what you did! Get back here and clean up this mess, and then we will see what your Head of House has to say about this!"

The two Hufflepuffs watched with barely contained glee as the formidable librarian chastised the other boy, their own anger at the prank set aside for the moment in the face of the satisfaction of bearing witness to his getting caught. Sirius sullenly helped them siphon off the ink as best they could, then slunk out of the library with a note for Professor McGonagall clutched in his hand. Severus might have been satisfied to leave the issue there, particularly once they heard that McGonagall had given the Gryffindor detention for the prank, but Lily was not. It didn't take very much effort for her to convince Severus that some retaliation was due, and only a few days to set a plan in motion. They initially planned to only go after Sirius himself; after all, they were not Gryffindor bullies to attack people without direct provocation. But after all four Gryffindors were complicit in an attempt to grab Severus and steal his Transfiguration essay right before class the next day, the Hufflepuffs decided they might as well go after the whole gang.

The first part of their plan was simple enough: brew a potion that would make the drinkers' hair turn bright pink. That was fairly easily accomplished, for both Severus and Lily had discovered quickly that they had a talent for potion making, and all of the ingredients they needed were available in their student potions kits. Technically they weren't supposed to brew anything outside of class, but it only took them a little over an hour in an empty classroom, and it wasn't a potion that could go too badly wrong anyway, so they didn't feel terribly guilty about it. The rest of the plan took a little more work, for figuring out how to get the Marauders to drink the potion was not an easy task. There was no way the boys would drink anything that Severus gave them, and only James might be besotted enough to drink a suspicious liquid offered by Lily. Lily's first idea, to spike their breakfast pumpkin juice, was deemed too risky. There was no way they could sneak over to the Gryffindor table and put anything in the boys' drinks while they were sitting right there, not without being seen by the entire student body and the teachers.

It took the two little Hufflepuffs a couple days to come up with a seemingly foolproof plan, but they were very proud of themselves once they did. First, Lily convinced one of the older Hufflepuff girls to show her how to get into the Hogwarts kitchens, with a charming story about wanting to be able to give some cupcakes to a friend for her birthday. When she returned from the kitchens with a plate of little cakes, Severus met her with the hair-changing potion, which they carefully drizzled over each cake (they had wanted to inject it into the middle of each cake, but quickly realized that they had no idea how to go about doing such a thing, and settled for letting the potion soak in from the top). After that it was simply a matter of having Severus walk around by himself one evening, carrying the treats where the Gryffindor boys might see him, and waiting for them to steal from him. And indeed, it was not long before the Marauders went strutting by (well, James and Sirius may have strutted, but the same couldn't honestly be said for Peter or Remus, following along behind). Seeing their favorite target, and noting (in James's case) that Lily wasn't around to see them harassing her friend, they quickly overpowered him and stole the cakes, as Severus did his best to put up enough of a fight to avoid suspicion without encouraging the boys to actually beat him to a pulp. The Gryffindors were laughing and joking around as they walked off with their prize, leaving Severus behind on the floor where they'd shoved him, but it would be the Hufflepuffs who had the last laugh.

The next morning, all four Gryffindor first year boys came down to breakfast with bright pink hair, having consumed the spiked cakes back in their dormitory the night before. Though they must have quickly figured out the cause of their bright transformations, and indeed their glares at the two Hufflepuffs all through Herbology class confirmed that they had, there was little that the Marauders could do about it. The potion would reverse itself after a day or two, but there was no easy way to undo its effects before that point, and any attempt to get the Hufflepuffs in trouble would have to involve admitting their own theft of the cake in the first place, something which the Gryffindors had no interest in doing. So they simply suffered the stares and giggles of their classmates for a couple days, doing nothing more than make faces at the Hufflepuffs while the pink hair lasted (mostly at Severus, since James refused to admit to himself that Lily might have had anything to do with his current predicament). The newly self-dubbed Potioneers felt quite satisfied with the results of their efforts, and for at least a little while there seemed to be a stalemate between the two groups. Sooner or later tensions would rise again, with one prank leading to another, usually with the Marauders instigating and the Potioneers simply defending themselves, though it would only be fair to note that the Hufflepuffs were not entirely innocent, for they certainly managed to hold their own against the Gryffindors.

But for a few weeks, perhaps even a month, after the Pink Hair Scheme, as Lily called it, things were fairly peaceful. Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors alike settled into a rhythm of classes, homework, and occasionally even free time, and before any of them knew it winter break was fast approaching. Severus, quite happy to spend as little time at home as possible, signed up to stay at Hogwarts as soon as he heard that was an option. Lily, who planned to go home to see her family, offered to ask her parents if he could come home with her, but Severus refused. With most of the other students leaving (including all four Gryffindor boys, some more reluctantly than others), he was looking forward to the quiet of the castle over break. He was willing to admit (at least to himself) that it would have been more fun if Lily was staying at school with him, but that didn't mean he wanted to follow her home and have to deal with her annoying sister (who already hated him) and her parents who sounded sweet but would surely ask too many awkward questions about why he didn't want to visit his own parents.

Not that Severus told Lily all of this, not wanting her to feel sorry for him or try to talk him into going with her anyway; he simply told her that he was looking forward to everyone being gone, trusting that she would understand that he didn't include her in the "everyone" that it would be nice to not see for a while. She did, and they parted in good spirits under the bare branches of a tree down by the lake where they often sat and studied, or just talked, when the weather was nice. That day it was cold, and beginning to snow a little, but Severus had wanted to walk Lily to the train, and even though they both knew he couldn't keep her company all the way, stopping at the castle doors hadn't felt far enough, especially when it began to sink in that they wouldn't see each other for almost two weeks. But soon enough it really was time for Lily to go if she didn't want to miss the train, and she rushed off, looking back to wave wildly at Severus as he began to trudge back up towards the castle through the falling snow.

The castle was peaceful over the holidays, practically deserted; Severus was one of only a handful of students who had decided to stay. All of the other first years had gone home, as well as all the older Hufflepuffs, and after a week or so even the generally antisocial Severus was beginning to look forward to the return of the other students. He changed his mind rather quickly once the hordes of chattering schoolchildren had descended on the school once more, filling the halls with their noise and energy, though he was excited and pleased to see Lily again. Only a few days after their reunion and the start of the new semester, Lily surprised Severus on his twelfth birthday with a little chocolate cake, just big enough for two to share, that she had begged from the Hogwarts kitchens. They sat together to eat it in a cozy corner of the Hufflepuff common room as the fire crackled and snow piled up against the round windows set high up by the ceiling. The first years' Herbology class had been canceled because of the storm, and Severus and Lily spent the afternoon curled up together in an overstuffed armchair by the fireplace, reading or talking quietly in turns. It was the best birthday Severus could remember having, and would become a memory that he would cherish for many years to come.

Exactly three weeks later, as January drew to a close, it was Lily's turn to celebrate a birthday. This time it was Severus who snuck into the kitchen to hesitantly ask for a cake, pushing aside his reluctance to ask for help in order to ensure his friend's birthday was as special as she had made his. Having accomplished his mission (and confirmed for himself that the kitchen elves were always happy to provide treats for students who came to them), Severus proudly presented the cake to Lily before they went to breakfast. Needless to say, both children ate more cake that morning than any real breakfast food, in what the birthday girl declared to be a perfect start to the day. Even the prospect of Herbology with the Gryffindors couldn't dampen Lily's mood, and as it turned out the Marauders were missing two of their number that afternoon. Remus Lupin was out once again with some unspecified illness, and James Potter, who had broken his arm in a foolish stunt during flying lessons that morning, hadn't been released from the hospital wing yet. The remaining boys were much more subdued than usual, and the Hufflepuffs enjoyed a very interesting lesson without any pranks or mishaps, ending the day on a high note.

The year continued day by day, lesson by lesson, (and occasionally prank by vengeful prank), as winter howled its last and passed slowly into spring, and the students of Hogwarts spread across the lawns and to the shores of the lake as the weather warmed. Before they knew it spring break was upon them, seeming barely long enough to warrant going home (and indeed, the castle stayed much more crowded than it had over the winter holidays, though Lily was among the many who did still leave). Severus found that break much less enjoyable than the previous; there were too many people around to avoid them all, an air of stress permeated the school from the older students frantically studying for their OWL and NEWT exams, and he didn't even have Lily to spend time with. But before long she and the rest of the students returned, and all too soon professors were beginning to talk about end of year exams and students were buzzing with plans for summer vacation. Even Lily was excited to be going home, though she confessed to Severus that she would miss being able to do magic while she was away from school. Her parents had written to say that they were planning a short family trip to Paris, where she had never been before, and much of the remaining summer would be spent at one local summer camp or another.

Severus, on the other hand, was not at all thrilled with the prospect of spending the entire summer trapped at home with his parents, and even went so far as to ask Professor Sprout for advice, in an uncharacteristically bold move. He stayed behind after Herbology one day, motioning Lily on when she paused to wait for him (she left, shooting him a curious glance as she went, though she waited right outside the greenhouse for him to come out).

"Um, Professor Sprout? I was hoping I might ask you something?" As soon as Severus started to speak he began to wonder if this had been a terrible idea, but he had to try.

"Yes dear, of course. What can I help you with?" The Hufflepuff Head of House smiled at him. Sprout was always happy to help any of her badgers, and was particularly pleased to see that Severus, one of her littlest and shyest students, was feeling comfortable enough to ask for her help.

"It's about the summer, I was wondering if maybe I could stay here like I did for winter break...?" Severus trailed off, seeing Sprout's smile fade a little. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked, I was just hoping...I know it's stupid..."

He grabbed his bag, and started to back up slowly towards the door when Sprout stopped him with a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Mr. Snape, I wish there was something I could do, but I'm afraid it's school policy. Students can't stay here over the summer break. It wouldn't be safe, most of the professors are gone too, and there would be no one to keep an eye on you. I can speak to the Headmaster if you'd like, but you shouldn't get your hopes up. I am sorry."

She watched with concern as he mumbled a barely intelligible response and rushed out the door, head down to hide what she suspected might be a few angry tears. Sprout sighed. She wished there was something she could do to help the boy, and cursed the rules (not for the first time) that stopped her from helping her students outside of school as much as she could within its walls. All she could do, all she would do, was complain to the Headmaster yet again and hope that her littlest badger had a better summer than he was obviously anticipating.

For his part, Severus stayed upset for a few days, partly at Professor Sprout for being the bearer of bad news, but mostly at the school as a whole: at the Headmaster for not allowing students to stay over the summer break, at all the other students for being so excited about the end of school and the chance to go home to see their perfect families. He was even mad at Lily for her stupid trip to France, though he could never stay upset at her for long. As the end of the year approached, his focus, and that of all the other students, shifted to studying for final exams. Lily and Severus were determined to do well on all of their exams to finish off the year strong, though considering how well they had both been doing all year long there was little real reason for concern. That didn't stop them from organizing and reorganizing their notes, writing out study sheets, and practicing until the night before each test. With all the extra work and stress, there was little time for Severus to worry about the summer, and he pushed the issue to the back of his mind as long as he could.

The exams went well for both Hufflepuffs, as anyone might have guessed that they would, with more than a few perfect scores between them and the rest not far off, and the pair arrived at the end of year feast generally pleased with their first foray into wizarding education. Ravenclaw narrowly beat out Gryffindor for the House Cup (due, in part, to a certain set of first year boys losing a substantial number of points for some ill-advised pranking during exams), and Hufflepuff coming in at a respectable third place. Trunks were packed, goodbyes were said, and the Hogwarts Express departed Hogsmeade Station right on time, carrying its young passengers away from Hogwarts and back towards families both magical and mundane. For some, like Lily, James, or Remus, it would be mostly a summer of fun and good times with family (though not without the occasional snag), while for others, like Severus or Sirius, it would be a harder one, with more familial clashes and worries. But for all of them, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, Marauders and Potioneers alike, it was still only the beginning of the newest chapter in their lives.

Author's Note: Thank you for reading, and a huge thank you to everyone who has commented, it's been incredible to see so many people engaging with this story! Please let me know what you think so far, and if you have any thoughts on what might be coming next. Happy Chanukah!