Formation: Year 4 - Situation Normal
While third year had been a time of major changes both academically and socially, it was Severus and Lily's hope that their fourth year at Hogwarts would prove to be as uneventful as their peaceful second year had been. After all, they would be taking the same classes as the previous year, with the same classmates, friends, and professors (except for Defense Against the Dark Arts, of course, for which they were expecting their fourth professor in as many years after ancient Professor Wythering was strongly encouraged to go back into retirement lest she risk traumatizing the children by suddenly dropping dead in front of them). It was not yet time to begin worrying about the OWL or NEWT exams, stresses better left alone until fifth year and beyond, and they had long since left behind all of the transitional angst of beginning school or even of starting new classes. No, this one would surely be a peaceful year, a normal year, and the Hufflepuffs were greatly looking forward to it.
They met on Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters, full of excitement at seeing each other after a long summer apart, ,. This year it was Lily who arrived first, accompanied by her parents and a pouting Petunia, who had been forced to come along on the family outing despite her many protests. Lily looked around for Severus, finally spotting him coming through the barrier from the rest of the station and waving her arms around wildly to get his attention.
"SEV! Over here!"
His face lit up with a quick grin as he saw her and waved back, fighting his way through the crowd towards the Evanses as Petunia sniffed disdainfully at her sister's antics. Lily immediately grabbed him in a hug as soon as he got within reach, startled to find that he had shot up several inches over the summer, making them now almost exactly the same height. They began chattering at each other, catching up as they worked their way towards the train. Lily's parents trailed behind them, looking on fondly, while Petunia did her best to pretend she didn't know any of them. Farewells were exchanged, and the Hufflepuffs scrambled onto the train and into an empty compartment, Lily continuing to wave to her family out the window even as the Hogwarts Express began to move away from the platform. The train picked up speed, hastening towards Hogwarts and the feast that awaited them there, and Severus and Lily settled in for the ride.
Before too long, the train was pulling into Hogsmeade station, and the Potioneers disembarked with the rest of the students under the light of the brilliant full moon rising above the village. Neither gave it much thought at the time, though it would not be too long before they looked back on it with a rather different view towards its significance. It was not until the Sorting was completed and the feast well underway that Lily noticed that Remus Lupin was not seated with the other Marauders, with a second glance confirming that he wasn't sitting anywhere else at the Gryffindor table either, though both she and Severus were too tired from travel to put much thought into the situation. By the time their first class with the Gryffindor boy came along a few days later, Remus was present and the Hufflepuffs had almost forgotten his earlier absence. Almost, but not quite.
It would be early in that fourth year at Hogwarts that Lily and Severus would begin to seriously wonder about Remus and his mysterious absences. Before their third year there had been little reason for them to notice his supposed illnesses or their timing, or, frankly, any reason for the Badgers to care. At the time they had attended only Herbology together, and he had missed only a few of their joint classes, for with the complex course schedules Herbology certainly did not always fall out on the full moon. The Hufflepuffs had always been vaguely aware that Remus was a somewhat sickly and pale sort of boy, but had thought little of it at the time. In third year his absences from class became more noticeable; with four overlapping courses it would have been hard for them to miss, particularly when the three students began to spend more time studying together outside of class. But they weren't friends even in third year, and there was no reason to assume that he wasn't in the Hospital Wing or in his own dormitory suffering from some legitimate mundane injury or illness. As the study partnership evolved into a sort of friendship by the end of third year, Lily and Severus had begun to take more notice and become more suspicious about Remus, and by the beginning of fourth year they were formulating theories.
With the addition of the newest evidence, a night when they had seen a full moon and knew that Remus had not been at the feast, the werewolf theory was inevitably thrown around, though both Severus and Lily felt that it was a bit of a stretch. It seemed highly unlikely that in a world so clearly full of prejudice the school board would allow a werewolf to go to Hogwarts. They would continue to go back and forth about the issue, but ultimately came to the conclusion that it probably wasn't worth spending too much energy wondering about it. After all, even if Remus were a werewolf, then clearly allowing him to attend Hogwarts wasn't a terrible and dangerous idea. He had obviously never attacked anyone at school (they were quite sure even Dumbledore couldn't cover something like that up), and if he wasn't a werewolf then whatever real reasons he had for missing class were none of their business. And, as Lily commented to Severus on more than one occasion, just because some people felt the need to constantly stick their noses into other people's business and butt in where they weren't wanted, didn't mean that they had to do it too.
There was never much doubt about whom she was referring, for James Potter had grown no less interested in Lily over the summer apart, and indeed it sometimes seemed that he was growing even more determined to win her over. Perhaps it should have come as no surprise, given that more than a few of the fourth years were beginning to make more serious forays into the world of teenage romance (with varying success rates), but that did nothing to make it less irritating to either Lily or Severus. To make matters worse, fourth year brought with it new opportunities to force interactions between the Marauders and Potioneers, making it ever more difficult for Lily to simply ignore her would-be suitor. While the Defence Against the Dark Arts course at Hogwarts was traditionally separated by House, the newest professor had requested permission to teach two Houses at a time, as part of a well-intentioned attempt to promote inter-house unity among the student body. As the earnest young professor explained to the amused Headmaster at his interview, when better than a time of growing unrest to encourage teamwork and unity?
To Professor McGonagall's dismay (for as Deputy Headmistress, it would inevitably fall on her to handle the sudden rearrangement of the entire Hogwarts course schedule), Professor Dumbledore greeted the plan with enthusiasm, and gave the newest member of the staff free rein with scheduling and lesson planning. Considering that Koalemus Rosenbrylle had been the only applicant for the Defence Against the Dark Arts position that year, putting up with a bit of grumbling from the rest of the teachers seemed a small price to pay, and schedules were rearranged to allow for the combined classes. When it came time to choose which Houses were to be paired, Professor Rosenbrylle had, not unreasonably, assumed that Hufflepuff/Gryffindor and Slytherin/Ravenclaw would be safe combinations (for while he might have been a little more enthusiastic and high-spirited than other members of the faculty, he wasn't entirely a fool) and requested the classes be assigned accordingly.
He would come to regret that decision by the end of a term of wrangling the fourth-year Hufflepuff-Gryffindor class, but was afraid of irritating Professor McGonagall any further after her clear exasperation at having to rearrange the schedule for him at the beginning of the term. He forced himself to soldier on until the end of the year, at which point he would promptly turn in his resignation, retire from teaching entirely, and spend the remainder of his career in a research laboratory with a spell on the door to keep out anyone under the age of 25. It didn't help that "The Koala" (as the students universally came to call the man) attempted to promote inter-House unity by requiring his students to pair up with students of other Houses in class whenever partners were required, with mixed results. While some students eagerly teamed up with friends from other Houses, and a few did form new friendships as a result of the exercise, others were less than pleased with the arrangement.
Among the fourth-years, James, unsurprisingly, jumped at the chance to work with Lily. She did her best to avoid him, pairing up with one or another of the Gryffindor girls, or even Remus, but James, undiscouraged, managed to get them assigned to the same group on occasion. Sirius initially grumbled at having to work with someone other than James, but got over his disappointment rather quickly after one of the more attractive ladies of Hufflepuff shyly asked to be his study partner on the second day of class. Severus, never terribly interested in making new friends on his own, suffered through a week or two of being paired with whatever random Gryffindors happened to be available, growing more and more irritated every day. After one particularly difficult day of watching Severus struggle with a partner who would rather gaze dreamily at Professor Rosenbrylle than actually pay attention (leading her to almost set Severus's robes on fire three times in one lesson, despite the lecture not even being about fire spells), an exasperated Lily enlisted Remus to work with him.
"If Sev has to work another day with Cecelia Drake, I think the only question will be who he decides to murder first, her or the Koala! Won't you please help? I know you don't really want to keep working with Marcus, I heard you complaining about him to Potter on the way out of class yesterday."
Remus raised an eyebrow at her, the effect ruined slightly by the fact that his other eyebrow didn't quite stay still (he had been practicing, but he still couldn't do it as well as Severus could). "He hasn't asked me himself, how do you know Severus won't find me just as annoying as Cecelia?"
"Oh please," Lily laughed, "Sev stopped being annoyed by you at least six months ago. I bet if you give it a few more years he might even realize that you're friends. But you know how bad he is at asking for help..."
"Alright, alright, no need to twist my arm, only a monster would abandon a friend to Cecelia's bad aim," Remus grinned and Lily smiled back as Severus made his way over to the library table where they were sitting. The Hufflepuff raised his eyebrow quizzically at his clearly conspiring friends, causing Lily to burst out laughing as she recognized the expression that Remus had been attempting only a few minutes before. Lily tried to regain her composure, but lost it completely when Remus gave her an identical questioning look. As she tried to explain between her giggles, the boys started to grin as well when they noticed each other's expressions, and soon all three were laughing hysterically as they fled the library under Madam Pince's watchful glare, almost forgetting to grab their books in their haste.
Though Defense Against the Dark Arts was the course that had changed the most since the previous year, it was not the only class where things were beginning to feel a little different. For years Lily and Severus had been made aware of Professor Slughorn's habit of singling out favorite students, noting the ones that he thought showed the most promise and offering advice and opportunities. Up until this point they had mostly noticed it within the context of Potions class itself, but that began to change as they entered their fourth year. For it was to fourth year students that Professor Slughorn first offered his invitations to meetings and dinner parties of his so-called "Slug Club," much coveted invitations which were denied to the younger students. For the sort of students who had been actively hoping for such an invitation, and trying to get the Potions Master to notice them, the early days and weeks of the semester were spent waiting with bated breath for the first event of the year. Severus, who often found the old professor's attention to be more irritating than useful, was more resigned than enthusiastic when Slughorn stopped him and Lily on the way out of class one afternoon to inform them that he was having a "little get together" the following night and would be delighted to see them there. Lily was more optimistic.
"It might be fun! Slughorn does have interesting things to say when he isn't too busy fawning over someone's random relative, and I'm sure the food will be good."
"Sure," Severus agreed, "Slughorn is fine, just nod and smile and he'll wander off to bother someone else instead. The real question is how many of our useless, annoying, and boring classmates will be going too?"
To that Lily had no answer, though they would both find out soon enough, much to their dismay. When the pair of Hufflepuffs arrived at that first soiree one lovely fall evening, they found that, in addition to an assortment of older students, the dinner was attended by both James and Sirius. To add insult to injury, Remus, who by this point had been officially upgraded in Severus's book from "the only vaguely tolerable Marauder" to "a solid study partner, and pretty decent to hang out with too," was nowhere to be found. Lily, who would even have gone so far as to call the Gryffindor boy "a very good friend," was particularly disappointed not to see Remus there, though she couldn't have said exactly why. Considering how abysmal the boy was at Potions, and the fact that he had no famous relations to endear him to Slughorn, it perhaps should not have been a surprise that Remus had not been invited, but his absence was sorely missed by the two Hufflepuffs.
The evening quickly went from tolerable to mildly unpleasant when Severus and Sirius were forced to sit next to each other at the meal, though Lily was at least spared the ordeal of having to sit with James. The boys managed to avoid any physical violence during the meal, though they came close a time or two, sticking instead to pointed comments and the occasional whispered insult. Both were at least attempting to be on their best behavior and not make too much of a fuss in front of the older students and Professor Slughorn, though whether out of an actual desire not to get thrown out or only for appearances sake would be hard to say. Whatever each boy's motivation, both made it through the meal uninjured, though the truce (such as it was) lasted only until Care of Magical Creatures class the next day.
It was difficult to reconstruct exactly how the fight had started, as most of the possible witnesses had been focused on their work and the remainder couldn't be considered remotely objective in their defense of their respective friends. Certainly by the time Professor Kettleburn broke things up, both Severus and Sirius had gotten in their fair share of minor hexes, and James was sent to the Hospital Wing with a sprained ankle from stumbling over his own feet as he rushed to his friend's aid (or, in his telling of the story, from being purposefully tripped by a bystander). Any other teacher would no doubt have sent both boys to detention, but easy-going Kettleburn simply docked a few points each and reminded them not to upset the creatures, and that was that, for the moment.
Between Slug Club meetings, minor (and slightly more major) altercations with the Marauders, lessons, homework, study sessions with Remus, and all the other drama and excitement that goes along with being fourteen years old, the fall term passed quickly for Lily and Severus. Halloween passed uneventfully, and any potential awkwardness over which group of friends Remus should spend time with at the first Hogsmeade weekend was avoided when the Gryffindor boy "happened to fall ill" that weekend. Severus speculated that he might be faking to avoid the sort of confrontation that had lost both Marauders and Potioneers their Hogsmeade privileges the year before, though Lily pointed out that it wouldn't be very Gryffindor of him to hide in his room to avoid a fight, or very Remus of him to give up a chance to buy himself chocolate. As the Hufflepuffs walked back towards the castle that evening under the light of a glowing full moon, they both deliberately avoided bringing up the werewolf theory; it was a topic they had already discussed to death without coming to any consensus, and there was no point rehashing the same conversation if they weren't going to do anything about it. Remus would be back in class on Monday, looking perhaps a little paler than usual, and that would be the end of that, at least until the next month.
Soon the end of the term approached, with final assignments, Christmas vacation, and visits home looming ahead for good or for ill. Lily's excitement grew with every passing day. Her mother had written to say that Petunia had decided to spend most of her holiday with friends, and Lily had talked Severus into coming home with her again. Lily anticipated having a wonderful time, and there was Slughorn's Christmas Party to look forward to even before that. She had never been to a real formal party before, and all the rumors suggested that Professor Slughorn intended to go all out with his event. The second Hogsmeade weekend of the year fell shortly before the end of term, and Lily abandoned Severus for the morning to go shopping for dress robes with a gaggle of girlfriends.
The shopping expedition was apparently a success, though Lily refused to show Severus the gown she had picked out, saying that he would simply have to wait and see on the night of the party. She helped him pick out his robes, though, after he threatened to simply show up in his Hogwarts uniform. Lily tried to convince him to let her buy him a fancy new set as a Christmas present, and might have succeeded if Severus hadn't spotted James and Sirius entering the tailor's shop as they approached, with Peter and Remus trailing behind. At that point he flat out refused to even consider getting the sort of robes that rich snobs like Potter and Black might wear, and led an exasperated Lily to the secondhand shop down the street to look for something there, Lily muttering about boys and their stupid pride all the way.
Dress robes and dates. Those, as the frantic activity of those lucky few who had secured an invitation to Slughorn's party would attest, were considered the two must-haves for the event. Among the older students, those sixth and seventh years who were already quite entangled in the game of finding a partner that so often drives teenagers to madness, acquiring a date was quite crucial. In the eyes of many of those students, to appear alone at such a party was to declare to all and sundry that you had no romantic prospects at all, and even attending with a friend might reflect upon your social status. Among the younger set, particularly the fourth years who were only just now beginning their tentative forays into the Hogwarts dating scene, it was still social suicide to attend alone, but taking a friend rather than a romantic partner was not at all unusual or frowned upon. Despite this, there were always some 4th years who took such an occasion as an opportunity to appear in public with their significant other of the moment, or to make dramatic declarations of love to an unsuspecting crush.
Unsurprisingly, James, who was always a romantic at heart, fell into the latter category. He ambushed Lily one afternoon only a few days before the party. He didn't quite go down on one knee in the corridor (cooler heads, namely Remus, had nixed that idea at the frantic brainstorming session held in Gryffindor Tower the night before), but he had come prepared with a bouquet of roses. He tried to give her the flowers while delivering an impassioned speech declaring his love and requesting her fair company at Slughorn's fete, but Lily had had enough. Level refusals and renewed pleas quickly devolved into shouting on both sides (though admittedly Lily hadn't started off particularly calm, so it wasn't so much of an escalation on her part). A small crowd of onlookers began to gather, students on their way between classes drawn by the noise. Some simply stopped to watch the drama unfold, while others prepared to take sides in a fight if one broke out.
Several of the Hufflepuff girls standing with Lily were already drawing their wands, and James and Peter seemed only moments away from doing so as well. Remus, faced with the exact situation that he had predicted and tried to convince James to avoid, seemed more resigned than anything, trying to talk his friend down from the fight. Severus's wand was within easy reach up his sleeve, but he didn't bother drawing it; Lily seemed content to stick to a verbal duel rather than a magical one, and he knew she was more than capable of hexing Potter herself if she changed her mind. Perhaps things might have escalated to the point of violence, with jinxes cast or punches thrown, if it weren't for the appearance of several prefects walking down the hall. They broke up the crowd, shooing everyone away down the corridors and reminding them that they certainly had better things to do than stand in the hall gawking. Lily took advantage of the distraction to stalk off in a huff, tossing her brilliant red hair over her shoulder as she went. Lily's girlfriends hurried after her, commiserating about how silly and impulsive boys could be.
James watched her go for a moment, flouncing down the hall with her friends, then turned away with a sigh. Sirius clapped him on the shoulder and gave him a sympathetic look.
"Bad luck, mate, I really thought the flowers would do it. Maybe next time."
"I just can't see what I'm doing wrong! She has to know I like her by now, right? Why wouldn't she want to come to the party with me? You don't think she's planning on going with Snivellus, do you?!" James sounded horrified by the idea, and Sirius's expression mirrored his tone.
Remus just sighed, exchanging a rueful look with Severus across the hall before the Hufflepuff turned away to follow Lily. Remus watched the group of Hufflepuffs making their way down the corridor, more than half wishing that he was walking away with them instead of having to listen to James and Sirius's increasingly wild discussions about what the Gryffindor had done wrong and what he should do now to find a date in time for the party. Sirius seemed to be in favor of finding any random pair of girls and asking them as a double date, but heartsick James refused to accept any substitutes for the girl of his dreams. The boys started to walk back towards their common room, still analyzing the situation. Remus fell into step with the rest of the Marauders, tuning back into the conversation just in time to shoot down James's plan to ask Lily out again the next day.
"Why don't we all just go as a group?" Remus finally suggested. "Sirius can take Peter, and I'll go with James, and nobody has to ask out any other girls. It'll give things time to settle down."
The other boys agreed, after some playful bickering over how they should pair up. Remus relaxed, glad that the crisis had been solved for the time being, and wondered idly what Lily was going to wear to the party. Not that it mattered, of course, but he was sure she would look even more beautiful all dressed up than she did every day in her school robes. That night Remus dreamed of dancing with Lily, laughing with her hair swirling around her like glowing flames, then of Severus and James taking turns hexing him while Lily stood by and watched.
In spite of all the chaos leading up to the party (or perhaps because of it), the day of the party itself was not overly eventful. At the allotted time the members of the Slug Club and their guests made their way to Professor Slughorn's office, finding the room full of dazzling lights, music, and food. The four Marauders appeared together, though Sirius would split his time between staying with his friends and attempting to dance with as many pretty girls as possible (and more than a few cute boys as well). The other three boys stayed mostly to the side, talking and eating instead of taking to the dance floor. James was still smarting from his latest rejection from Lily, and had little interest in dancing with any of the other girls present. He had hoped that Lily might come to the party alone, and that he might have a chance to ask her to dance as she sat abandoned at the side of the room, but those dreams were soon dashed once more when Lily and Severus arrived together.
The two Hufflepuffs had met in their common room and walked up to the party together. Severus had grumbled a bit about going, not being one for big crowds and raucous parties, but Lily had asked him to, and he always had a hard time saying no when she made those bright green puppy dog eyes at him. He had begun to second guess that decision, waiting in the common room for Lily to come out. There were other Hufflepuff couples meeting up at the same time, and other dressed up students heading out to meet dates from other Houses, all of them walking arm-in-arm, a few kissing when they thought no one was watching (or when they knew everyone was). Severus wasn't worried that Lily would expect anything like that; they were friends, best friends, but he certainly wasn't interested in snogging her like that. And while he was pretty sure she knew it too, he did wonder if everyone else would assume they were dating after this, and how much annoyance that might bring with it. But those doubts were pushed aside when Lily came into the room, looking even more beautiful than usual, and flashed him a brilliant smile, which Severus couldn't help but return. They could deal with any consequences later. For tonight, they were just two best friends walking hand in hand, ready to spend time together and dance the night away.
Their entrance at the party was not a dramatic one, just slipping through the door together, along with a few other students arriving at the same time. But it did not go unnoticed by James or Remus, both of whom commented (one out loud, one only in his head) just how stunning Lily looked. She seemed almost to be glowing with happiness, giggling as she pulled a reluctant Severus onto the dance floor. James had eyes only for Lily, though Remus noted with surprise that Severus was not a half-bad dancer, if not quite as enthusiastic as his partner (a skill which had been just as surprising to the Hufflepuff boy himself). Despite James's grumbling, even he realized that it would be a bad idea to hex Severus in the middle of the party, or to go ask Lily to dance (which would likely lead to a similar result), and contented himself with pining from the sidelines. The other Marauders did their best to distract him from the situation, some intentionally and others by simply being their entertaining selves. At the end of the night it was Sirius who forced them to flee the party, chased out by Antonia Primrose's date, a big sixth year boy who did not appreciate Sirius kissing his (possibly now ex) girlfriend. Severus and Lily left shortly after, Severus having exhausted his social battery for the day (or possibly for the whole year, to hear him tell it).
The last few days before break passed quickly, with students either too exhausted from their studies or too excited by the prospect of going home to cause any trouble. When the day finally arrived, the entire student body boarded the Hogwarts Express back to London. Most were going to see their own families, though a few would be spending the holidays with their friends' families. Severus was going home with Lily, looking forward to spending time with her parents and more than a little excited that Petunia wouldn't be there to bother them. After several years of practice, he no longer felt any guilt or regret over avoiding his own parents for the holidays. Sirius was likewise escaping from his own troubled home life and overbearing parents, staying with the Potters for break. The time flew by faster than any of them expected, and before they knew it it was time to get back on the train for the return to Hogwarts.
Indeed, it seemed as though most of the drama of the year had been used up in the first term, and the rest of the school year passed without much additional excitement. Professor Rosenbrylle's Defence Against the Dark Arts class was still as much of a disaster as it had always been, though the sympathetic student might admit that he wasn't actually a terrible teacher, but rather a decent one with some very misplaced enthusiasm for a few bad pedagogical practices. The other classes, with established professors who had no need to work out any major kinks in their teaching styles, ran much more smoothly, though the fourth years noticed that their workloads were beginning to increase. The professors claimed it was good practice for the OWL classes that they would be taking the following year, and perhaps they were right, but most of the students would have been happy to forgo the extra hours spent studying in the library or toiling over essays in their common rooms. Before long, spring break arrived, somehow managing to feel like a shock both in its earliness and lateness ("We just had winter break, didn't we? But now you're telling me we've only got a few months left until summer?!"). By that point even the most studious of students were feeling the toll of the extra assignments, and few bothered to go home for the break.
The next few months also sped by in a cycle of classwork, homework, studying, and the occasional feuding and dueling between rival friend groups. There were some sanctioned breaks to the monotony as well, such as Hogsmeade weekends, Slug Club parties, and quidditch games (for the people that liked those sorts of things), but by and large the year simply flowed along. Perhaps the greatest excitement of that year, at least for four Gryffindor boys, was the Marauders' eventual success at becoming animagi shortly before the summer began. It had been an ongoing project, originally in theory and later in practice, for the last several years, practically since the day the other boys discovered Remus's "furry little problem," as James called it. Severus and Lily were unaware of this, and would remain unaware of the animal alter egos of the Gryffindor boys for several years. By this time the two Hufflepuffs were becoming ever more convinced of the "Remus is a werewolf" theory, but would choose to ignore it for a while longer rather than confront him.
When summer arrived, the students boarded the Hogwarts Express once more, chattering about their vacation plans or arguing about who would be the next Defence Against the Dark Arts professor now that Koala Rosenbrylle was leaving (or "fleeing" as the less charitable might say). Severus and Lily parted ways at Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters, with a last wave from Severus to Mr. and Mrs. Evans, who had come to pick up their daughter. Petunia was nowhere to be seen, for which Severus tried and failed to fein disappointment. Mr. and Mrs. Snape were likewise conspicuously absent, having decided that their son was old enough to find his own way back home through muggle means; Mrs. Snape had sent a hurriedly scribbled note to that effect several days before.
Farther down the platform Remus, who had stopped by the Hufflepuff compartment on the train to say goodbye, was reuniting with his mother while his father stood stiffly by her side, looking more worried than pleased to see his son. Nearby, Peter Pettigrew's mother hugged her son, and James's parents laughed and smiled as they reunited with theirs. Mrs. Black was there to collect both her sons; Regulus received a hug from his mother, but she and Sirius were already arguing as they left the platform. Only three days later Sirius would leave his parents' house for the last time, finding refuge at the Potters'. Six children, six teenagers, Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, friends and enemies, each going their different ways, living their different lives, but perhaps more similar than some of them would like to admit. Times were changing, and war was coming, and none of them could say how they might change along with it.
Author's Note: Happy New Year and thank you for reading! Shout out to Rory for being the best beta reader ever.
A heads up as we move into Section 2: Evolution, things are starting to intensify beyond the schoolkid fluff of Section 1: Formation, and they will only escalate. Year 5, coming next Monday, is also going to be a much longer chapter (almost 9k), and future chapters may be similarly lengthy.
Thanks again for sticking with this story, and let me know if there is something you've enjoyed or anything you're looking forward to seeing in this story!
Edit (1/8/24) to avoid confusion for future readers: I restructured this story right after posting this chapter. This chapter was formerly known as Evolution: Year 4 - A New Normal, but was moved back to Section 1 (Formation) in the reorganization and its title was changed to match the naming scheme of that section. The contents have not changed.