Formation: Year 3 - Subtle Shifts
As Severus and Lily began their third year at Hogwarts, they had no reason to assume that it would be terribly different from the previous two. They expected some surface level differences, of course; a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, new first years looking even younger than the previous batch, a few new classes, but nothing substantial. It certainly began the same way as the previous one, with an overly enthusiastic greeting from Lily on the train platform that knocked Severus over into a pile of trunks, for she was now several inches taller than he was. Lily's parents helped them up as Mrs. Evans tried to hold back her laughter at the sight of the two children tangled together in their robes on the ground, a task made even more difficult by their almost identical expressions of disgust at the situation. With their assistance (or perhaps in spite of it), Severus and Lily were quickly straightened out and heading for the train. Mr. and Mrs. Evans waved them off, calling a reminder to Lily to write home and to Severus that he was "of course" invited for Christmas, making the boy blush slightly.
"Your mom is great," he told Lily as they made their way down the corridor, looking for an empty compartment, "but I can practically hear her thinking about how 'cute' we look all the way from here. Aren't parents not supposed to want their daughters to date?"
"That's dads," his friend replied with a mock serious expression. "Didn't you know? Moms are always secretly thinking about grandchildren."
"Gross! Do you think they won't make me come for Christmas if I let slip that we aren't a couple?"
"Sev!"
"I'm only joking! Wouldn't want to give them any ideas..." They found a compartment and settled in, still laughing over Mrs. Evans' romantic aspirations for her daughter, and casually avoiding any speculation about what Mrs. Snape might have to say on the matter. Though Lily had told her parents about Severus as soon as they began at Hogwarts (Severus had begged her not to tell them before, concerned that they would be upset at her for hanging out with a boy from the wrong side of town and hoping that things would go smoother if they thought of him foremost as a friend from Hogwarts), Severus had yet to tell his parents much about her. They knew he had a friend at Hogwarts, and he had told them after the fact that her family had invited him home for Christmas break, but Mr. and Mrs. Snape knew nothing about Lily's origins or the fact that she had grown up so close to their home, albeit in a neighborhood so different that it might as well have been another country.
He had toyed with the idea of telling them that summer, in hopes of getting to spend more time with Lily before school began again, but ultimately decided against it. The Evans family had moved just after Lily began at Hogwarts, and were no longer within walking distance of his own parents' home or the park by the river where Severus and Lily had met after school when they were children. With no way to see her during the summer anymore regardless of his parents' opinion, Severus felt there was no need to risk a potential negative reaction by giving any additional information about his friend. The pair sent occasional letters by muggle post to stay in touch over the summer, for neither Severus nor Lily owned an owl, but such infrequent communication was nothing like their near-constant interaction during the school year, and they were both excited to be reunited once more.
Lily and Severus found the ride to Hogwarts quite uneventful and the Sorting Feast just as time consuming and boring as ever, with only the introduction of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor to spark a moment of interest. Professor Wythering proved to be an ancient witch who seemed constantly on the point of dropping dead in the middle of lecturing, leading to more than one quiet betting pool among the students as to whether she would last the year. For better or worse, the rest of the year would prove to be somewhat more interesting. For it was in their third year that the status quo would begin to shift ever so slightly, foretelling greater changes for the two Hufflepuffs. Third year, of course, was the first year of elective courses at Hogwarts, and new classes opened up new opportunities for inter-House interactions and rivalries. Lily and Severus began that year with identical schedules of ten classes, as many as Professor Sprout had allowed them to sign up for: their original seven, plus Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Care of Magical Creatures. They were both looking forward with great excitement to the new lessons ahead, though perhaps they would have been slightly less pleased with their choices if they had known that all four of the Gryffindor boys had signed up for Care of Magical Creatures as well. Luckily, it quickly became clear that it would only be in that one additional class that the Badgers would suffer the presence of all four Marauders, though Remus Lupin would be taking Arithmancy and Ancient Runes with them as well.
Though Severus gloomily predicted that it would be the worst year ever, facing two classes with the whole Gryffindor gang and two more with one of their number (though admittedly the least annoying of the bunch, even in Severus's opinion), he was pleasantly surprised to find himself partially wrong. Care of Magical Creatures did soon become Severus's least favorite subject, with its combination of forced contact with often messy or uncooperative animals, and the presence of his four least favorite yearmates, but Arithmancy and Ancient Runes were among his favorites. Lily enjoyed the Care of Magical Creatures class more than he did, since she at least liked the subject matter. She found Professor Kettleburn highly entertaining, enjoyed the chance to get outdoors instead of sitting inside the castle all day, and loved learning about all the interesting magical creatures that he brought to class.
Severus agreed that the creatures were interesting, though he would have preferred if some of them were interesting from a little farther away from him, and was more than a little wary of the fact that Kettleburn seemed to be missing multiple limbs, presumably lost in pursuit of his chosen studies. The fact that the Marauders were continuously trying to set creatures on Severus or hex him when the professor was occupied with the other students did little to increase his enjoyment of the class. On the bright side, Professor Kettleburn's often divided attention did allow Severus and Lily to make their fair share of counter attacks against the Marauders, so perhaps even Care of Magical Creatures wasn't entirely a loss.
Both Ancient Runes and Arithmancy proved to be challenging courses, often structured differently from many of the other lessons at Hogwarts. Most of the classes on wand magic focused on learning to cast particular spells, and even Potions in the first few years was focused much more on correctly executing a specific recipe rather than on broader theory (though Severus had been known to conduct his own side experiments during class to see how best to enhance the recipes given in his textbook, and Lily often jotted notes about how entirely different potions could be used for the same effects). In contrast, both of the new electives focused on tools that could be used for any purpose, giving them fascinating implications. Yes, there were runes to memorize, equations to learn by rote, but Severus was enchanted by the infinite possibilities offered up by the more theoretical nature of the coursework, and the promise that with a solid grounding in runes and arithmetic properties he could understand how magic worked, and how to manipulate it in ways not already captured in known spells. Lily, who had loved her math and science classes back in muggle primary school, was equally delighted to find subjects that she not only understood and enjoyed, but where her muggle upbringing was an asset rather than something to be overcome.
Even the presence of Remus Lupin in their new classes turned out to be less infuriating than Severus had predicted. The Gryffindor boy proved to be rather more pleasant company when not overshadowed by James and Sirius, though it would take some time before Severus -or Lily, for that matter- would be entirely comfortable with him. Initially, their intention had been to simply ignore him and hope that he, as the least confrontational of the Marauders, would agree to the unspoken offering of a truce for their shared classes. Each side would simply let the other get on with their work and avoid distraction. And indeed, that plan worked splendidly for the first few weeks of the semester, until the day when Remus approached Lily and Severus directly after class, unaccompanied by any of his friends. The Potioneers were walking towards the Great Hall for dinner after a particularly intense Arithmancy lesson, discussing the homework Professor Vector had just assigned (involving a more complex form of equation that they had only just begun to study), when they heard him call out from behind them.
"Hey, Evans, Snape, hold up a second, would you? I just want to talk."
Lily glanced over her shoulder to see Remus hurrying towards them, continued walking for a moment, then sighed and paused as he called out again. Severus stopped when she did, slipping his hand into the pocket where he kept his wand, prepared to draw it quickly if it became necessary.
"What do you want, Lupin?" Lily managed to keep her tone polite, though her body language echoed Severus's wariness.
The Gryffindor looked a little sheepish as he responded. "It's about the Arithmancy homework. I missed last class, and I was pretty lost in today's lecture… Look, I know you don't like me, and I don't blame you, but you guys always seem like you know what's going on in class, and I was hoping maybe you'd help me out, give me a few pointers?"
He trailed off a little at the end, looking from one Hufflepuff to the other: Lily was standing with her arms crossed and Severus still had one hand on his wand, neither looking terribly impressed with his request. For a moment they all just stood there, and Remus began to seriously second guess his plan. It had seemed like such a logical solution. He had no friends in Arithmancy, no one to ask for help, and while Professor Vector was sympathetic to his monthly absences from class, she had made it clear that she expected him to solve his own problems. Remus had seen the two Hufflepuffs working together in the library many times before, and it was obvious that between the two of them they had a much better grasp of the material than he he had achieved on his own. On the other hand, maybe he shouldn't have been surprised that Lily and Severus wouldn't want to help him, considering everything his friends got up to. He gathered up his bag, and started to turn away, "Sorry, it was stupid of me to ask. I'll just go."
Severus and Lily exchanged a glance, silently debating. Severus was ready to walk away, but then Lily chased after Remus and offered to meet up in the library after dinner. Severus followed her with a sigh, hoping desperately that they wouldn't come to regret this. The Gryffindor met them in the library that night, having excused himself from his friends as soon as he saw the Hufflepuffs getting up from their table. James and Sirius were initially curious when he said he was meeting someone, but lost interest when he mentioned it was to study Arithmancy.
"And here we thought some girl might have caught your fancy! But no, classic Moony, all work and no play," James teased. Remus was spared a need to respond or give away exactly who his new study partners were by Sirius, who began to ridicule James for his own futile attempts at catching the admiration of a certain Miss Evans. As the Marauders' boisterous conversation started up again, Remus slipped off to the library, where the aforementioned Miss Evans was waiting, along with Severus. The Hufflepuff boy had been wary of the meeting, sure that it must be a trap laid by James and Sirius, but Lily had eventually convinced him that even the Gryffindors weren't stupid enough anymore to play pranks in the library where Madam Pince could see them. Lily's sharp glance at Remus as she said it made it clear that this had better prove true, or he would answer to her as well as to the formidable librarian.
But despite the somewhat rocky beginning to their collaboration, Severus found to his surprise that Remus could be a pleasant and useful study partner. The Gryffindor had been raised with more knowledge of the Wizarding world than either of the Potioneers, and had some useful insights from that perspective. On the other hand, his muggle-raised classmates had better foundations in mathematics and formal logic, something which Remus, like so many wizards, lacked any solid training in.
As the year went on, both Severus and Lily came to enjoy their time spent studying with Remus, and began to occasionally seek out his company even when there was no homework to work on together. For his part, Remus found it somewhat refreshing to spend a little time away from the other Marauders and with people who better matched his own academic interests. That is not to say that the Gryffindor boys lacked in intelligence or skill, and James and Sirius at least were hardly slouches when it came to schoolwork, but they had less interest in knowledge and education for its own sake. To the Marauders, it was the end goal that mattered, while for the Potioneers the process, the theory, and the joy of understanding why things worked were a greater focus. It would be quite a while before the Hufflepuffs and Remus would become friends of a sort rather than only occasional study partners, and even longer before any of them would admit to such a change in their dynamic, but such a shift was indeed coming whether they realized it or not.
But courses and potential friends were not the only new or changing things in store that year for Lily and Severus. Third year was the first year that Hogwarts students were allowed to visit Hogsmeade village, and both children were eagerly awaiting their first trip. Diagon Alley and Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters were the only magical locations that either one had seen before, and those only infrequently. Even Severus had never visited Diagon Alley until it was time for him to buy his wand, for his mother had turned her back on the Wizarding world almost completely when she married his father, and though she had occasionally spoken of magical things to her son when her husband was not around to overhear, she had never brought him to see her old world until it was time for him to join it at age eleven.
So it was with great excitement that the two Hufflepuffs joined their classmates, signed permission forms in hand, to make their way down to the village on the last weekend in October. For weeks the older students had been filling the third years' imaginations with tales of all the magical shops and eateries, noting landmarks to look out for and things to do in town. Severus had been a little nervous when it became more clear just how much of the apparent appeal of Hogsmeade to the older students was shopping for various things, for while his mother had signed his permission form without a fuss, he had very little pocket money to spend on any of the toys and sweets that seemed to be all the rage. Lily, for her part, would have been perfectly willing to buy Severus whatever souvenirs he might have wanted, for her parents had sent her off with more than enough allowance for two children's worth of candy. However, with the growing maturity of her almost fourteen years, Lily had begun to realize how prideful her friend could be, and how touchy he was about having to rely on others, even her.
With that in mind, she told Severus as they made their way down to Hogsmeade that she just wanted to look around first and see everything before deciding if they wanted to buy anything. She wasn't sure she even wanted to buy any candy at all, since the Halloween feast would take place the following night, and they both knew there would be more candy than they could eat there anyway. Severus gave her a look as if he knew exactly what she was doing, but she just stared back at him with a look of such wide-eyed innocence that he couldn't even pretend to be mad at her. So while the other students congregated in Honeydukes and Zonko's joke shop, Lily and Severus wandered the streets of Hogsmeade, taking in the sights and simply enjoying each other's company. They looked at all the gaudy window displays, the robes in the window of a tailor's shop that struck a different pose whenever anyone stopped to look, the brilliantly colored candy inside Honeydukes, and laughed at all the couples sitting inside Madam Puddifoot's tea shop pretending they felt romantic rather than awkward in the frilly cafe.
The day was cold, though not as frigid as it could have been, and Severus and Lily huddled together when the occasional gust of cold wind blew past them. Lily had forgotten her gloves, not noticing their lack until it felt too late to turn back to the castle, and Severus offered to lend her his. Lily initially refused, arguing that there was no reason he should have to have cold hands when she was the one who forgot her gloves. After some discussion, they came to a compromise. Severus gave one glove to Lily and kept one for himself, and they held hands with their bare hands to make sure they wouldn't get too cold either. To add to Lily's satisfaction, she had managed to convince Severus that it was only fair that she buy him a butterbeer to make up for the loan of the glove, something he had agreed to with only minor reluctance when it was clear she wouldn't back down from the issue.
The Hufflepuffs were just heading towards the Three Broomsticks to warm up before heading back to the castle after what they both agreed had been a perfect day when it became clear that they may have spoken prematurely. For who should be coming out of the pub towards them but their three least favorite Gryffindor boys, and Remus, whose standing was somewhat more in flux. It had been less than two months since Remus began studying with Lily and Severus, and while the trio were friendly in their study sessions that friendship had not extended beyond the classroom and library walls. More importantly, the rest of the Marauders were still in the dark about who Remus's study partners were. Or they had been until now, when he made the mistake of greeting the approaching Hufflepuffs as "Lily and Severus" rather than the Marauders' customary "Evans and Snivellus." There was a moment of silence as they all just stared at each other, then everyone began to talk at once.
"Lily?! Since when are you on a first name basis with Evans?!" James was incredulous.
"Severus?! Do you mean to say you've actually been talking to this slimeball?" Sirius had slightly different priorities, much more concerned that his friend might be consorting with the enemy than that he might have been speaking to James's crush.
"You idiot, are you simply incapable of keeping your mouth shut?" Severus glared at Remus no less than at the other Marauders, drawing his wand in response to Sirius doing the same. James was still scowling at Remus, though his anger seemed to be turning towards Severus as well.
Remus began to stutter out an explanation about studying and Arithmancy, but none of the others were listening to him. Sirius and Severus had resorted to shouting insults at each other, both with wands drawn though they had not yet reached the point of actually dueling, in large part because Lily and James were in the way, arguing at the top of their lungs. Peter had his wand out as well, though he didn't seem entirely sure where to point it, and a crowd of other students were beginning to gather, drawn by raised voices so close to the Three Broomsticks. Reports were conflicted, afterwards, over who cast the first spell, and whether it had been cast before or after the first punch was thrown. It was indisputable that Lily jinxed Sirius after hearing a particularly nasty comment directed at Severus, though it may not have been the first spell cast, and that someone punched Remus in the face, though whether it was Severus or James was difficult to determine in the confusion. Someone certainly hexed James, though both Lily and Severus claimed credit for that (and at least a few bystanders were fairly sure that it had actually been a badly directed shot from Peter, intended for Severus).
Needless to say, by the time Professor McGonagall fought her way through the crowd of students after being called out from the pub where she had been enjoying a hot drink, it was obvious that all six students were involved in the altercation, and she dragged all of them off to her office after forcibly separating them and taking points from both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, scolding them all furiously. Once back at the castle, the Deputy Headmistress summoned Professor Sprout, who proved to be just as angry with her Badgers as McGonagall was with her Gryffindors once she was told what had happened.
"Brawling in the streets of Hogsmeade! Dishonoring your Houses, and your school, not to mention yourselves! I have never seen such behavior in all my years," Professor McGonagall fumed, causing all six students to shuffle awkwardly and stare at their feet.
Professor Sprout nodded in agreement, looking directly at Lily and Severus. "I expected better from both of you, from all of you. I am very disappointed. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior."
The professors continued their scolding until they felt sure that their students had gotten the message, then moved on to their punishments, agreeing that it was only fair for all six students to receive the same punishment for the same crime, rather than each Head of House choosing on her own. The two witches consulted for a moment, as their charges stood uneasily, sneaking looks at each other while they waited. Professor McGonagall had already docked fifty points from each student in her initial anger, and now assigned detentions and banned all six students from Hogsmeade for the duration of the year. James and Sirius spluttered a bit at that, but went suddenly quiet when McGonagall threatened to extend it until graduation. With that sorted out, though not exactly to anyone's satisfaction, McGonagall escorted the Marauders back to their common room while Sprout brought Severus and Lily to theirs, where she made it clear that while loyalty was admirable, and defending one's friends was always important, neither was a good excuse for getting involved in a public brawl. Private business should be settled in private, she reminded them, and violence should never be a first resort. They nodded along and made their apologies, hoping that it all would blow over soon.
In that they proved lucky, for while Hufflepuff House was not terribly impressed at the loss of one hundred points in one afternoon (and on the weekend at that!), they soon moved past it. The many eyewitnesses who could confirm the motivation of the fight helped with that as well, for while Professor Sprout could not publicly admit that she was proud of her little Badgers for standing up for each other even if it required hexing someone, the rest of Hufflepuff House had no such restrictions. Lily and Severus served their detentions, held separately from the Marauders in a move that both Professors Sprout and McGonagall had suspected might be necessary to avoid additional bloodshed, and began to win back points in their class performances. Lily received a reproachful letter from her parents, who had not been pleased to hear about the situation, though like her fellow students, they mellowed somewhat when she sent them a fuller account of the situation, explaining that she had really been standing up against bullies. Severus's parents didn't bother to respond to the letter that Sprout had no doubt sent them, which was perhaps for the best. Sirius wasn't so lucky, receiving a Howler at breakfast which filled the Great Hall with echoing shrieks about how much he was disgracing the House of Black before he set it on fire to silence it.
Remus stayed away from the Hufflepuffs for weeks after the incident, focused on fixing his friendships with the Marauders before trying to convince them that he could study with Lily and Severus without abandoning his real friends. It took some time, but the Gryffindors eventually came to an uneasy acceptance of Remus's academic relationship with the Potioneers, and even more reluctantly his growing friendship with them. James and Sirius (and to a lesser extent Peter) would never lose their dislike for Severus, and it would be long years before James gave up on his unrequited love for Lily, but Remus began to slowly move away from those old rivalries. He drifted over time into an odd middle ground between his long standing Gryffindor friends and his newly found Hufflepuff study partners, and would remain balanced there, more or less, for several years.
After the excitement of Halloween weekend and the following days of turmoil, things settled back into a routine. The Hufflepuffs were kept more than busy with their many classes and the increasing workloads they brought with them, and before they knew it the winter holidays were upon them. Lily had worried that her parents might retract their invitation to Severus after the Hogsmeade incident, but her fears proved unfounded when Mrs. Evans wrote at the beginning of December to confirm that they were looking forward to seeing their "two favorite Hogwarts students" for Christmas. Severus had blushed when Lily showed the line to him, having never quite believed that his friend's parents could really have liked him, no matter how much he and Lily had joked about it. Determined to do something to thank them, he begged Lily to help him figure out what to make her parents for a Christmas present. He had never gotten presents for his own parents, and they had generally given him practical things rather than anything fun, so he was unsure of the proper etiquette.
Since coming to Hogwarts his presents to Lily for Christmases or birthdays had been little things he could make himself - a rock from the edge of the lake that he had smoothed and polished with magic and then carved her initials into, or potions recipes that he had modified for her. After some consideration (and an unsuccessful attempt to convince Severus that he really didn't have to get her parents anything, they wouldn't be expecting it), Lily suggested something potions-based, so he could get most of the supplies from the student ingredients stores. She and Severus were usually able to complete their assigned potions work early, and Slughorn would hardly mind if they were brewing something else at the same time or after they finished their work.
On the contrary, the Potions Master always seemed pleasantly impressed by the extra projects that the Hufflepuffs did in their spare time, and was unlikely to chastise his favorite students in the class. In the end, Severus presented Mr. and Mrs. Evans with a little first aid kit that he had made, consisting entirely of magical creams and potions intended to be applied topically, for those were the ones that could most easily be modified to work on non-magical people. They were delighted with the gift, gushing over it as well as Lily's (also of a magical nature) enough to cause Petunia to storm off in a huff and refuse to speak to Severus or her sister for the entire remainder of the break. Neither particularly minded.
Before long the break was at its end, and Mr. and Mrs. Evans drove Lily and Severus to the train station for their trip back to Hogwarts. They settled back into what had become their usual routine after the holidays, broken up by first Severus's and then Lily's birthdays, and then remaining fairly consistent until the arrival of spring break, and then again after it. As the winter stretched on, the Hufflepuffs stayed inside the castle as much as they could, venturing out only for Herbology lessons in the blissfully warm greenhouses and for Care of Magical Creatures when the weather was good enough. More than once that class was driven inside the castle by the weather, where Professor Kettleburn told stories of different magical creatures, most of which were too dangerous for practical lessons at their level anyway. Occasionally he brought in some animals which could be handled inside the classroom, with mixed results. As the class learned to their dismay, nifflers did not make good indoor pets, and one memorable afternoon was spent chasing the little beasts around the castle in an attempt to recapture them after Kettleburn's earlier class left their cage unlatched.
But their other courses were unaffected by the season, branching into more and more complex spells and charms and potions. Lily continued to outperform Severus (and everyone else) in Charms, and he maintained a slight edge in Potions, though they were both far enough ahead of most of their peers that Slughorn took serious notice. Lily found it amusing how the Potions Master fawned over Severus, in no small part because she could see that Severus found it just slightly irritating. If it had seriously bothered him she would have been upset, but as things stood it was rather entertaining to watch. Both Potioneers remained fascinated by everything they were learning in Runes and Arithmancy, and their study sessions with Remus were becoming highlights of the week. The Gryffindor boys had declared something of a temporary truce, still smarting from their punishments from the Hogsmeade incident and wary of drawing Professor McGonagall's ire once more. The animosity between the two groups had reduced to a low simmer. James and Sirius, and Peter by association, certainly weren't anything close to friends of Severus and Lily, but all of them tolerated the fact that Remus was associating with both groups, and they had settled into an uneasy peace.
Spring break came and went, with Lily and Severus both deciding to stay at the school, and delighting in the fact that all of the Marauders had gone home (or in Sirius's case, to James's house). The Hufflepuffs roamed the castle, and took advantage of the slowly warming weather to sit out by the lake and watch the Whomping Willow attack passing birds. It felt good to get outside the castle, not only because of the weather. Hogwarts was filled with fifth and seventh years frantically studying for the OWL and NEWT exams, and sixth years panicking almost as much for their upcoming finals, and the aura of stress felt almost contagious. On the first days of break Severus and Lily had tried to go to the library, hoping to do some extracurricular research inspired by some topics mentioned briefly in a few of their classes, but fled to the safety of their common room when it became clear just how stressful an environment it had become. All too soon the other students returned, bringing with them a return to their own regularly scheduled classes and homework, though not much decrease in the stress levels of the castle.
Hogsmeade weekends passed by one after another, the final one taking place just before final exams. Neither the Potioneers nor the Marauders were permitted to go down to the village, though all were on their best behavior on those weekends when they were trapped inside the castle with the younger students. Professors McGonagall and Sprout informed them as the school year came to a close that their privileges would be reinstated in the Fall, with the warning that a single toe out of line the next time they were in Hogsmeade would result in a lifetime ban from the village, a threat the the wizardborn in particular took very seriously. The exams themselves, when they finally arrived after what felt like weeks of anticipation and studying, went very well. Severus and Lily were tied at the top of the class for both Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, and Remus shyly admitted that he had come in just behind them. For the other classes they were similarly near the top, with one occasionally overtaking the other, or tying with others in classes held jointly with the other Houses.
The year that had started off somewhat eventfully had ended rather more calmly, and quite satisfactorily. In spite of the Potioneers' lost points in the first half of the year, Hufflepuff had worked its way up to second place in the House Cup, though Gryffindor had made an even more miraculous comeback to take first, helped by an impressive Quidditch Cup win (and the fact that the Marauders had been fairly unobtrusive for much of the year). Final announcements were given and the end of year feast was eaten beneath banners of red and gold, and all too soon the students were making their way to Hogsmeade station to take the Hogwarts Express back towards the real world. Severus and Lily rode back together, in a compartment filled with their Hufflepuff housemates, cheerfully discussing summer plans, quidditch, and whatever else they could think of to pass the time.
Remus didn't stop by their compartment, staying instead in the area claimed by the Gryffindor boys, but he waved goodbye to the Hufflepuffs as they exited the train at Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters and headed off to find their respective parents. Severus and Lily both returned the gesture, smiling at each other as they walked away. Perhaps they weren't all quite friends yet, but it would certainly be inaccurate to say that things weren't shifting in that direction. None of them could predict where their lives might be heading, but it was clear that the era of strict divisions between Marauders and Potioneers was coming to an end, and only time would tell what the future had in store for two Hufflepuffs and one Gryffindor.
Author's Note: Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! As always, I want to say a huge thank you to Rory for beta reading, and to all of you for staying with this story and for leaving comments to let me know what you think! This is the final chapter in Section 1 of this story, so next week you will be getting the first chapter of Section 2, which will start to bring some changes for our characters as they move into their later years at Hogwarts.
Edit (1/8/24) to avoid confusion for future readers: I restructured this story about halfway through writing it (after posting this chapter). It is now two sections of 6 chapters each, plus prologue, interlude, and epilogue. Section 2: Preservation now begins with Year 6 rather than Year 4.