Formation: Year 2 - Status Quo
"Sev! You're finally here!" Lily squealed, rushing forward and grabbing her best friend in an enthusiastic hug, almost knocking the skinny boy over with her forceful greeting.
"Get off Lily, I can't breathe!"
Severus managed to extract himself from her embrace, though he was equally happy to see her, grinning as he looked her over, confirming for himself that she was all in one piece. It had been a long summer, two whole months apart after an entire school year of spending virtually every day together, and both children were delighted to finally be reunited.
Lily's parents hurried over to catch up, carrying their daughter's school things. Lily had left them behind as soon as she spotted Severus standing alone with his trunk on the train platform (his parents had dropped him at the station without going all the way to the platform with him). Severus recognized the Evanses from photographs Lily had shown him and from previous visits to Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters, and was relieved to see that Petunia had apparently decided not to join them. He had never officially met Lily's parents, and still had hopes that they might not hate him, but winning Petunia's approval (or even tolerance) was most likely a lost cause given their past interactions.
"Lily, dear, I'm sure you're excited to see your friends, but please don't run off like that, we almost lost you in the crowd!" Mrs. Evans sounded slightly exasperated, though she smiled at her daughter as she fussed over her. Mr. Evans, following behind his wife, put down Lily's trunk and held his hand out towards Severus.
"You must be Severus! Lily hasn't stopped talking about you all summer. I hope we don't have to worry about you two distracting each other from your schoolwork, at least not for a few more years!" His eyes, the same color as Lily's, twinkled as if he'd said something funny, and Mrs. Evans elbowed him, though she was smiling slightly too.
"Dad!" Lily did not seem very amused by her parents' behavior, but Severus managed a polite smile and shook Mr. Evans's hand.
"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Evans. You too, Mrs. Evans."
The train whistle blew a warning, and Lily and Severus joined the crowd of students making their way onto the train. Lily hugged her parents one last time and Severus diplomatically pretended not to be listening when her mother whispered, "He seems like a very nice boy, you should keep him around."
Lily rolled her eyes, and waved at her parents again as she followed Severus onto the train.
"Sorry, they can be a bit much sometimes; Dad seems to think that any boy I talk to for more than five minutes must want to marry me or something."
Severus snorted. "Wonder what they'd think if they met Potter, then."
That made Lily giggle as they made their way into an empty compartment, though she sounded more serious when she spoke. "Maybe this year he'll be over it, and leave us alone."
"Maybe," Severus said, unconvinced, "but I wouldn't bet on it."
Whether or not James Potter would continue his undesired pursuits of Lily or his feud with Severus would remain to be seen, but at least for the duration of the train ride the Marauders left the Hufflepuffs alone. Lily and Severus passed an uneventful trip, swapping stories of the summer (mostly of Lily's adventures, for Severus had few experiences that he wished to share from his summer at home, which he had mostly spent roaming the town and trying not to get in his father's way) and eating too many snacks that Lily bought on the train. They were both delighted by the apparently horseless carriages that were waiting to carry them to the castle, for neither had any reason to suspect the existence of thestrals. As Severus pointed out, carriages that moved without anything pulling them shouldn't have been so enthralling to children who had experience with automobiles, but somehow the knowledge that they were moving by magic rather than technology made all the difference. There was something exciting, too, about being second years, no longer the babies of the school. There was a whole new set of students coming in and being Sorted, standing at the front of the Great Hall and fretting about where they would end up, while Severus and Lily were already safely settled at the Hufflepuff table.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the pair found that watching the Sorting was much more enjoyable than participating in it, though it did get boring after a while, watching a stream of people they didn't know pass under the Hat. The most interesting moment was at the very beginning of the Sorting, when Regulus Black, looking enough like his brother Sirius to make it obvious who he was even without the shared last name, was placed into Slytherin. He walked proudly to join the green and silver crowd, taking a seat beside an older girl with silvery blond hair who smiled and gave him a hug, while at the Gryffindor table Sirius's face twisted with dark emotions. The rest of the first years passed without incident as Severus and Lily clapped loudly for all the new Hufflepuffs, and for everyone else a little less enthusiastically. Finally, thankfully, they reached the end of the ceremony and the arrival of the feast itself. Food was eaten and speeches made, most notably introducing the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, a very pretty woman who many of the older (primarily male) students were eyeing with great interest and appreciation. After a few final words from Professor Dumbledore, the students began to make their way to their various common rooms and dormitories, shepherded along by their prefects. Lily and Severus said their goodnights in the Hufflepuff common room, then split off to their own familiar dorm rooms, hoping for a good night's sleep before the first day of classes.
When the Potioneers received their schedules the next morning at breakfast, passed out by a cheerful Professor Sprout, they found them to be little different from the ones they had received the year before. The exact order of lessons had shifted about, and they had already known that there was a new professor for Defence Against the Dark Arts, but other than flying lessons no longer being required (much to Severus's delight, for he had never had much luck or skill on a broom), the rest of their classes had stayed the same. The second-year Hufflepuffs would still be with the Gryffindors for Herbology (which they were not thrilled about, though not terribly surprised either), and with Ravenclaw for Potions (which was much less likely to be bothersome, due both to the less volatile combination of students, and to Severus and Lily's greater love for the subject).
Classes began, and the weeks seemed to fly by in a haze of lessons attended, essays written, spells cast, and potions brewed. The trees out on the Hogwarts grounds turned to bright reds and yellows, their leaves falling to carpet the grass in the brilliant colors of autumn as the temperatures dropped. Lily and Severus began to spend more of their free time holed up in the library or in the cozy Hufflepuff common room, and less walking outside by the lake as they had in the warmer days of late summer and early fall when the school year had only just begun. By the time Halloween arrived, it had become abundantly clear to the little Hufflepuffs that their second year was not at all very different from how their first year had been, though without the initial period of adjustment. They had found their new normal by the end of first year, and were able to simply pick up where they had left off when they returned from the summer break.
Unfortunately, though perhaps predictably, that status quo still included the ever present nuisance that was the Marauders. One might have hoped (and indeed the Potioneers certainly had) that after an entire year of being ignored and rebuffed by the object of his misplaced affections, James might have come to his senses over the summer and decided to leave Lily alone in the future, but it was not to be. He returned from summer break still determined to win Lily over, no matter what her thoughts on the matter might be, and his fellow Gryffindor boys helped concoct many a scheme to advance that goal. Most of their plans involved tormenting Severus in one way or another, since James still believed that Lily would be more likely to notice him if he got the other boy out of the way first. In practice this had the opposite effect, causing Lily's opinion of James to stay rather low, and prompting the Potioneers to come up with their own retaliatory strikes against the Marauders. The Gryffindor also made a point of showing off whenever he had a chance, whether practicing spells where Lily might see, or strutting about the castle in his new quidditch robes after making the Gryffindor team as only a second year (which admittedly was an impressive feat, though perhaps not one likely to overawe a girl who didn't particularly care about the sport, and would have been rooting for her own House's team regardless).
Most of the time the pranks and jinxes that flew between the groups were fairly harmless, causing little lasting damage and only rarely catching the attention of any authority figures. But there were exceptions, some more dramatic than others. More than once James or Sirius made the mistake of instigating an attack on Severus within view of a professor, or misjudged their target and caught innocent bystanders in the crossfire. Their detention records grew longer with every passing month (as did those of Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin, though at a slightly slower rate), though the minor punishments seemed to have little effect on their enthusiasm for sowing chaos. Severus received the occasional detention as well, though nowhere near as frequently as the Gryffindors, for he preferred to keep his counterattacks more subtle and well out of view of any passing professors. His hospital wing visits far outnumbered his detentions. Lily pointed out on more than one occasion that that wasn't exactly something to be proud of.
Lily herself had landed in detention only once, a record and occasion that she was more than a little proud of. She and Severus had snuck out of bed and climbed onto the roof of the astronomy tower after curfew one night in a vain attempt to catch a glimpse of a passing comet. Professor Sinistra had mentioned it offhand in class, and the two Hufflepuffs had been determined to try to see it, even though the astronomy professor had indicated that it likely wouldn't be easily observable because of the position of the moon. Their inevitable failure to spot the comet was overshadowed by the beautiful views of the moon and the Hogwarts grounds at night that they did get to see, and they were quietly making their way back to the Hufflepuff common room when they were caught. Professor Sprout was not pleased to find her little badgers out of bed after hours, though she was secretly amused by their explanation for their outing. Lily and Severus both ended up in detention, but both agreed that the little adventure had still been worth it, a highlight of the semester.
It was not long after that episode that the students began to buzz about their winter break plans. Lily, assuming correctly that Severus had no plans to go home and old enough now to suspect that he had been lying the year before when he claimed to be happy to stay at school, invited him home with her. He was hesitant at first, not wanting to be a bother or ruin her plans with her family, and not entirely sure how he felt about being trapped in a house with Petunia for two weeks, but Lily was determined. As Severus had already learned quite early in their friendship, Lily could be incredibly stubborn when she wanted to be, and she refused to let go of the idea just because her friend was being silly (as she saw the situation). When a letter arrived from Mr. and Mrs. Evans explicitly inviting the boy for the holidays (prompted by Lily's own message home telling them that Severus was planning to stay at the dreary old castle all by himself for Christmas and that they really ought to do something about it), Severus gave in. He was happy to spend the time with Lily, and excited to see the new house her family had moved to the year before, in a neighborhood even fancier than the one where she had lived growing up (though even her childhood house, which he had seen only from the outside once or twice before, had been much larger and fancier than his own parents' shabby little house down by the old mill).
The main drawback (maybe even the only drawback) to a visit to the Evans family, as far as Severus was concerned, was Petunia. The older girl had disliked Severus from the moment she laid eyes on him when they were kids, and the feeling was mutual. While the Evans sisters could generally manage to get along with each other (though they certainly had their fair share of sibling fights and arguments), adding Severus into the mix seemed likely to cause absolute disaster. But, throwing caution to the wind, Severus boarded the Hogwarts Express along with Lily when the day arrived, trying to prepare himself for what could either be the best or worst holiday season of his life. Despite his pessimistic predictions of doom, the break turned out to be wonderful. Perhaps her parents had spoken to her, or perhaps Petunia had simply been overcome with Christmas spirit (though Lily suspected the former), but whatever her reasoning Petunia managed to be quite civil to Severus, and to Lily. It helped that the older girl spent most of her time out of the house with one friend or another, or chatting away on the phone at all hours with her boyfriend of the moment, so Severus and Lily were mostly free to avoid her company and find their own amusements.
It was a perfect vacation, and Severus pushed aside and ignored the tiny twinges of guilt that he felt at enjoying the company of another family so much more than his own, and at being not so very far from his parents' house and not even stopping by to see them. But perfect or not, all too soon it was time to return to Hogwarts, and the rest of a year that seemed to be slipping by far more quickly than the usual passage of time should allow. Severus and Lily's birthdays passed, bringing with them the now almost traditional cakes for breakfast and little presents of the sort that newly thirteen-year-olds could craft themselves. Lily's parents sent her a gift, of course, and even included a little something for Severus, which made the boy get all flustered when Lily gave it to him. His own parents had no extra money to spend on gifts; he received a birthday note ostensibly from both of them, but couldn't help noticing that it was signed only by his mother.
February soon arrived, and with it the entertainment of watching the older students stumble through their early attempts at romance. A Hogsmeade weekend was scheduled to fall out on Valentine's Day itself, and the days leading up to it were particularly fraught. It seemed as though most of the older students were either frantically scrambling to secure a date for their trip to the village or desperately trying to plan a romantic enough outing to avoid losing the significant others that they had somehow already managed to entrap. Severus was somewhat bewildered to see that even some of his own peers were getting caught up in the madness, as he would have thought them too young for such things. He commented as much to Lily, after watching one of his roommates painfully labor for days over a terrible love poem for one of the Ravenclaw girls who shared their Potions class (which, incidentally, would prove to be no help at all in winning the affections of the young lady in question).
Lily just laughed. "Oh Sev, you can be such a prude sometimes. At least Jake is only writing poetry, you should have seen what Madge was trying to do to her hair last night! She borrowed at least five haircare potions from her older sister, and made such a mess in our bathroom."
Severus tried to come up with something, anything, to say to that. But while he had learned well enough since coming to Hogwarts how to keep his own hair from being too much of a disaster, his knowledge of fancy hair potions was even less extensive than his knowledge of teenage courtship. The best response he could come up with was a hesitant "Did it at least turn out how she wanted?"
Lily's answer was a very emphatic "no!" which, in hindsight, at least explained why Severus had thought he had seen Lily's roommate wearing a hat at breakfast that morning. He had thought it seemed a bit odd, but considering how ridiculous so many of the students had been acting for days, and the ever changing whims of teenager wizarding fashion, he hadn't paid it much attention.
Defense Against the Dark Arts class stalled several times that day when more than a few of the boys in the class interrupted to declare their undying love to Professor Bonhomme, as most of the girls rolled their eyes or tried to hide their disappointment that none of the boys were saying such sappy things to them. Severus was less than amused when James tried to give Lily a valentine's card and a flower in the corridor, though not nearly as unamused as Lily herself. She hexed him and threatened him with even worse bodily harm if he didn't start leaving her alone, risking another detention in the process. Severus stood by, silently cheering her on while getting his own wand ready in case any of James's friends decided to join the fight. Professor Bonhomme happened upon the scene before it could escalate any further, and seemed to feel that any boy who got himself hexed by a girl on Valentine's Day probably deserved it. She declined to give anyone detention, only docking a single house point each from Hufflepuff and Gryffindor before sending them all on their way with a request to please try to keep any romantic affairs from blocking the corridors.
Of course, no one (except perhaps Professor Bonhomme) thought that this would be the end of the matter, but it at least pushed the issue to the side once more, where it would be overtaken by schoolwork and quidditch and all the other things that so preoccupy a group of twelve and thirteen year olds. And soon enough, the second years had one more thing to pile onto their workloads when their professors announced that they needed to consider what elective courses they wished to take in their third year. That set off a flurry of activity as students pored over the lists of classes and asked parents, teachers, and older students alike for career advice, for many of the second years had gotten the idea (not entirely incorrect, though not exactly right either) that their class choices now would entirely determine their options for the rest of their lives.
Neither Severus nor Lily had anyone at home to ask for long term career advice, not in the wizarding world at least, for Mrs. Snape had left that world entirely behind not long after her own graduation from Hogwarts, and both of Lily's parents were muggles. But they felt no lack of input, for there were helpful Hufflepuff upperclassmen who were glad to share their advice with the little badgers, and Professor Sprout made herself available to everyone as well.
Though the Potioneers appreciated most of the advice and information that was being thrown at them, they both agreed that they perhaps could have done without all of Professor Slughorn's unsolicited advice. The Potions Master, as they were learning firsthand, had a habit of collecting students that he considered promising or interesting for one reason or another, taking them under his wing and trying to steer them towards a successful future. Many powerful members of the Wizarding World had made their start as a member of the so-called Slug Club, and Lily and Severus were only two of the newest students from their year that Slughorn had begun to take an interest in. It should have come as no surprise, perhaps, for they excelled in his class as much or more than in all their others, and while neither came from a powerful or impressive family, the Potions Master was never one to ignore promise because of birth (or at least, not when it suited him). Now, as the first major choice of their educational careers approached, Slughorn made a point of suggesting not only courses but entire career paths to those students whom he had chosen as the ones most likely to succeed and gain influence later in life. Some of the information was useful, or at least interesting, but as Severus was always slightly wary of help offered apparently for free, and both Hufflepuffs agreed that it was a little early for Slughorn to be quite so invested in their hypothetical future careers, the constant stream of advice from all sides began to feel more than a bit overwhelming.
Ultimately, with the help of the input from their professors and peers (and perhaps occasionally in spite of it), Severus and Lily opted for three elective classes each (Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Care of Magical Creatures). Overachievers as they often were, they ignored the reminders that the standard was to take only two, confident that they could make it work. Neither of them had chosen to take Muggle Studies, having both grown up in muggle homes, though Lily had briefly considered it. She told Severus that she wanted to understand the wizarding viewpoint of the issue, but had dropped the idea when she realized it was impossible to take all five offered electives. Severus had debated taking Divination instead of Care of Magical Creatures, not always being terribly comfortable with living things, but ultimately decided that he would rather not waste his time on Divination, generally considered to be the least useful class offered. He had no reason to think he might have an actual gift of prophecy, and for anyone without it there was little point in trying to learn. He claimed that Lily's already stated interest in taking Care of Magical Creatures had no bearing on his ultimate decision to sign up for that class, though they both knew that was a lie. They would both much rather take all their classes together if they had the option, and it would be both more enjoyable and practical to have a friend to lean on if and when things got more difficult.
By the time those decisions were sorted out, the end of the school year was upon them, with its flurry of frantic studying that left little time for anything else. Exams were taken, and both Hufflepuffs passed with flying colors, cementing their places at the top of the year academically. To add to the satisfaction of a year well spent, Hufflepuff was slated to come in second place for the House Cup behind Slytherin (and perhaps more satisfying to the Potioneers, Gryffindor was dead last). Students and professors all gathered in the Great Hall for the last feast of the year, with the walls hung with banners of Slytherin green and silver. It wasn't until partway through the feast that Lily nudged Severus and pointed out that Professor Bonhomme was missing from the staff table. As they watched, it became more clear that something was off; some of the professors seemed tense, and kept glancing at the space where Professor Bonhomme's chair should have been, between Professor Slughorn and Professor Sinistra. The chair itself had been removed, to make it less obvious that anyone was missing, but judging by the whispers throughout the hall, it was clear that Lily wasn't the only student who had noticed the Defence professor's absence.
Severus had expected that the Headmaster would say something in his final speech, perhaps mentioning that Professor Bonhomme was ill or something of that nature, but Professor Dumbledore only smiled enigmatically and gave his usual sort of end of term address, thanking them all for a year well spent and wishing everyone an enjoyable summer break. It wasn't until the next day on the train back to London that the gossip made its way to where Lily and Severus were sitting with a few of their housemates, carried by a second year Ravenclaw girl who burst into the compartment.
"Have you heard?!" She rushed on without giving anyone a chance to respond, "Lucy Harrington told me, her brother's a Gryffindor prefect, he said that Professor Bonhomme eloped with one of the seventh years last night, that tall Gryffindor chaser with the blond curls, I think his name is Rupert?"
She finally paused to take a breath, and all the Hufflepuffs started bombarding her with questions, though it quickly became clear that the Ravenclaw had already passed on all her information. She soon left, no doubt to keep spreading the rumor throughout the train, leaving her yearmates to digest the news. Lily was horrified that a teacher would run off with a student like that, and even more disgusted when one of the other girls suggested that maybe it wasn't so bad since he was of age, turning away in a huff.
"Well," Severus said, breaking the silence before it could get too awkward. "In a shocking change from the usual state of affairs, I guess we'll have a new Defense professor for next year!"
He tried to keep a straight face as he said it, but he was cracking up by the end, and the rest of the compartment joined in his laughter. Even Lily came out of her sulk about inappropriate pedagogical practices and running off with someone half your age to grin at Severus where he sat beside her. Defense professors might come and go, but at least they could count on each other to always stick around.
Author's Note: Thanks so much for reading, and please leave a comment to let me know what you think so far! I also want to give a huge shout out to my wonderful new beta reader Rory, who helps keep my excessive commas from getting too out of hand. Year 3 should be coming next week, with plenty of new and continuing drama...stay tuned!