S. Snape

Hearing Severus approach, she could very clearly hear his thoughts about Lily, and how he seemed pretty desperate to see her. Ever since her second year, Crystha would hear how smitten by the girl the Slytherin was, but how James Potter seemed to have taken a fancy to her too. In fact, she knew ever single piece of gossip going on, and if she wasn’t as good at keeping secret as she was, there would have been many, many scandals. When he’d walked by, the Hufflepuff felt a sudden surge of compassion for the younger boy. He was clearly preoccupied, and despite his harsh words, really wanted him to not feel better. She also knew about the negative impact certain people in his house had had on him, and hoped his love for Lily would help him see past that. “Sitting next to someone else is always enjoyable. Don’t you think?” Crystha replied, giving him a small smile.

@crystha​

Severus threw a quick glance over his shoulder, just to ensure there weren’t any of the older Slytherins nearby.  Without any real excuse to walk away, he pulled out the chair and took a seat.  “I guess company never hurts,” he mumbled, searching through his bag for something to work on.  Since he hadn’t quite planned on being in the library, he wasn’t prepared with his homework or textbooks.  Finally his hand landed on his journal.  Perhaps I could work on a new spell, he thought as he considered his options.  He had been brainstorming the perfect way to get back at Sirius Black, although he avoided the memories of the Shrieking Shack the previous year.

Instead, he looked over at what Crystha was working on -- Crystha!  The name snuck up on him, and he was just relieved to remember it.

{Open starter} Hogwarts had been something Crystha had missed during the summer. Despite her loving grand-parents and family, she didn’t fancy being trampled to death by her older siblings. This school gave her a sense of independence, and apart from the occasional teacher wondering how her family was, she felt like she could be her own original self. One thing she did not miss though, was all the noise. Figuratively, and literally. Every word, thought, and feeling going on in someone’s head, came directly to hers. It was quite overwhelming, to be honest, especially during meals and house meetings. That’s why she had decided to go rest her head a bit in the library. There weren’t a lot  of people here, especially since it was already dinner time, and most students were in the Great Hall. She’d taken a seat near the back of the room, where it was most calm. However, not too long after she’d taken a seat, the girl heard a pair of footsteps approach. “You can take a seat, if you’d like.”

@crystha​

Thus far, Severus was deeply unsettled with how the school year was beginning for him.  Between his conversation with Bellatrix regarding Defense Against the Dark Arts, and the fact that he still hadn’t seen more than a glimpse of Lily yet, he was a bit of a mess. He felt all over the map, completely off balance.   This is how he came to find himself aimlessly walking the corridors of the castle, trying to keep the looming anxiety from washing over his body in one great wave.  It wasn’t until the haunting quiet of the stone halls around him ousted him from thought.  It had to be about time for dinner.  On an impulse, Severus turned on his heel, heading away from the Great Hall.  He wasn’t hungry anyway.

After some time, the Slytherin student entered the library.  He figured he might as well take advantage of the peace and quiet to work on his homework.  If he planned it right, he could head to bed before anybody was even in the Common Room.  Only a few tables had been taken up, mostly near the front of the library. Severus was quite relieved that nobody he really knew was hanging around.  He pictured himself sitting quietly through another dinner, his friends all biting words and brash conversations across the table, over his head, all around him.  

As Severus walked to the back, he saw a seventh year Hufflepuff girl he recognized.  He couldn’t at first remember her name, but he recalled Bellatrix pointing her out to him at some point or another as a blood traitor.  As he approached her table, he surprised himself by impulsively thinking about sitting at the girl’s table with her.  He tried to shake the thought, as there were plenty of tables nearby.  However, it startled him when the girl spoke, inviting him over.  He placed one hand on the back of the chair.  How strange, he thought, as he searched for something to say.  “Are you looking for company?”

Bella felt a smirk form on her face as he mentioned Potions, from what she had gathered he was excelling quite a bit in the class and such a skill could become useful to her. The smirk faltered just a bit as he mentioned learning about the Patronus charm, remembering when she learned it herself. Only a handful of times had she been able to produce a full Patronus and those were instances in class, as she didn’t have much use for it in daily life. But the image was starting to become just a whisp of light whenever she cast it. “Yes,” She finally spoke, “People struggle all the time with such a charm.”

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Strangely, Severus didn’t feel as reassured as he had expected he would.  The look on Bella’s face was discomforting.  He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.  He felt his own demeanor change, and hoped he didn’t look quite how he felt.  “I’m trying to think of ways to get out of class,” he attempted to joke, but it fell flat.  

It bothered him, deeply, that he had been unable to produce the charm.  Especially since, the few times he had been able to conjure his Patronus, it had faintly looked like a doe-- just like his dear friend Lily’s. He then wondered if Bellatrix was referring to herself with ‘people’.  Nevermind wondering, he was sure of it.  “Any suggestions?”

“I think I’ll manage my homework just fine by myself.” The young girl replied, slightly confused as to why he was offering. After all, the boy wasn’t exactly known for his generosity or selflessness. “Though I appreciate the offer.”

Hearing him agree to the plan, Emma gave a small smile, glad he wasn’t being all stuck up and proper. However, he did seem a little exited to go to the Gryffindor Common Room, and knowing his history with a particular student, wondered if that had anything to do with it. “I’ll be waiting.”

@vanityvio​

Back in his room, Severus took a moment to finger-comb his hair and change his shirt.  Looking in the mirror, he surprised himself.  Normally, he would have been content to sulk in the Common Room alone.  He laughed to himself, wondering what Emma thought of his change in demeanor.  He headed to the door, but doubled back and took a swig from the flask of firewhiskey hidden under his mattress.  

Finally, he made it back to the entrance of the Common Room, and shuffled back over to where Emma waited.  “So, how do you suggest we get past the Fat Lady?”

Unaware of the thoughts of the younger boy, Bella glanced around the room as he made a remark about the temperature. Truly she felt as though the common room was always on the colder side, probably because of the location in the dungeon, she didn’t feel cold at the moment. But she let the conversation slide into another topic, as she thought before. Their conversation could continue another time. “It’s quite boring honestly,” She sighed, resting her head on her hand. “It’s not as harsh as they make it out to be, though it is only the first couple of weeks. And how has the year been so far for you?”

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Severus nodded, glad to hear seventh year wasn’t all brimstone and hellfire.  As long as he could make it through year six, he felt like it would all breeze by.  “Ah, well, of course Potions is going fine…” he started.  He thought for a moment, then decided to confide in Bellatrix about his struggle in his favorite subject.  He felt embarrassed to admit that his Defense Against the Dark Arts marks were faltering.  But perhaps Bellatrix, as dark as she was, could relate, or give advice?  “I haven’t been able to produce a Patronus, though.  Is that-- do you think that’s normal?”  Severus felt sickened, hearing weakness in his own voice. 

Besides their mutual friends and the things Evan was telling her about Severus, there wasn’t much she knew about him. Because of this she occasionally would drop her ideology into conversation but not too much. If she wanted to see where his head was at, she had to do so slowly. Severus didn’t see like one who would express his values quite as openly as she did. Her lips formed her infamous smirk as he leaned in, “Of course not.” She was lying through her teeth, she was sure he knew that too. “We know that what is taught is all that there is to the subject.” He seemed to be on the same page as the brunette, for now at least, maybe in the future these conversations could go more into depth.

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At the heart of it, Severus was well aware that although Bellatrix and the books she had alluded to piqued his attention, their motivations were widely different.  While his interest in Dark Magic stemmed from revenge-- on his father, on James Potter, on Sirius Black-- hers seemed to be from a place less familiar to him.  He couldn’t help but imagine her using his spells on Lily.  Severus shivered.

“Bit cold in here,” he remarked, then searched for a change in topic.  “How’s your seventh year going?”  He knew the question was lame, but it was the first subject he was comfortable landing on.  With a shrug, he tried to casually wipe his sweating palms off on his pants.  Thinking about his former friend never failed to make him nervous these days.

Bella regarded him for a moment, they were supposed to be studying but it seemed that like her, he wanted to do just about anything else. “It’s true,” she sighed, gently tossing her book on the table in front of her. She was honestly surprised that no teachers ever picked up on the fact that many of her housemates were from families that had extensive collections of Dark Arts books, meaning they had easy access to the ‘dangerous’ spells professors refused to teach them in lessons. “The manor’s library has more than enough books to research through,” Bella replied, keeping tight lipped on the fact she had smuggled some of those books into school. “Plus, if they don’t teach it, they’ve just risked more students sneaking into the Restricted Section here as well for their own curiousity.”

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Although he was mindful to portray himself differently, he silently screamed at the older girls’ casual use of the term ‘manor’.  He knew that the Black home had to be quite the estate, however he couldn’t help but think of his shabby home on Spinner’s End.  How mortified he would feel if anybody truly knew his upbringing. He had heard vague rumors of the group Bellatrix was beginning to form, and he wasn’t sure he wanted any part of it.  Being part of a group with an explicit stance on blood purity could certainly threaten the anonymity he held at the school.  But, he reasoned, it could always behoove him to suck up to someone like Bellatrix, try and gain her trust.

Severus glanced over his shoulder, before leaning in to Bellatrix conspiratorially. “Not that either of us would ever think of doing so, right?” He winked at her, for safe measure. “After all, we’re both just innocent students, no reason to be scrutinized as if we’re not.”

It was a wonder to Emma that the boy was speaking to her this way. In their many years of acquaintance, all they ever spoke about was homework, the occasional class question, or eventually slight chit-chat when sitting next to each other during a lunch with other Slytherins. For him to call her over to hang out was something completely foreign to her. “I was planning on finishing my potions essay and getting some work done in advance, but since you’ve been so kind to disrupt me I suppose we could do something.” She replied, sighing as she closed her book. Emma didn’t really expect Severus to take it personally ; she was this cold and blunt to everyone she talked to. However, she was slightly annoyed that he’d broken her concentration, thing that didn’t come easily to her. “If you want to do something interesting we can always sneak in the Gryffindor Common Room and splash it is green colours. I need to make James remember that we’re rivals before anything else. And also I want to see the other Black blame Malfoy for it.” 

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The only benefit to a summer without Lily Evans was the mischievous streak it had brought out in Severus.  Without a tie to the Gryffindor house, he felt free to do as he pleased.  He looked at Emma’s Potions book with mock disapproval.  “If you’re really worried, I can do your Potions homework for you,” he offered, knowing it wouldn’t take him any time at all.  He rarely offered to help anyone in Potions, so he hoped it would go a long way.

Severus paused, if only for a moment, to consider Emma’s idea.  He snorted, enjoying the concept.  “Two birds, one stone, eh?”  If he was honest, he quite liked the idea of vandalising the opposing common room.  If he was really honest, he quite liked the idea of possibly seeing Lily on her home side of the castle.  He would just have to hide that hope from Emma. “I’m in, just let me run my stuff back to my dormitory.”

The library was full, she was having a really hard time finding an empty table or at least with just one maybe two students quietly working, no most were full and most were way too loud too, at least to her. She would have gone to the common room and work there but she needed some books from here and it was just faster. Her annoyance was growing when she saw an empty table, well there was someone there, Snape was from her house and got along with Lucious which elevated her impression of the other somewhat. She also knew her cousin didn’t like him, but she didn’t care what Sirius thought of course. She sat down and was startled at how quickly the boy moved. “Did I scared you?”

Had she scared him?  Severus worked to hide the disdain on his face.  He found Narcissa to be quite...he struggled to put the right word to it.  The younger girl was acidic, and it seemed that nobody else saw that.  Although Severus quite liked her sister Andromeda, he quickly had come to dislike Narcissa.  However, she was vastly popular among their peers, and he knew that Lucius had taken a special interest in her.

Severus pasted a smile on his face, and quickly drew his book nearer to himself.  Narcissa hadn’t ever been outwardly mean or nasty to him (she rarely was), but he simply found himself rubbed the wrong way by her.  All the same, he found himself in the precarious position of playing along with her charm (or as he thought of it, manipulation).  If he was going to survive at this school, he couldn’t have his own house after him.  “Oh, no!  You didn’t scare me-- I just thought you might be somebody else.  How was your summer?”

Juliet considered Snape, and then set her stuff back on the table, opening her Charms textbook. This was her final year at Hogwarts, and from talking to others, NEWTs were particularly difficult. She wasn’t even sure what she was going to do with herself after school, continue on with Quidditch or get a quote-unquote, ‘real job.’

She was too curious, and to be honest, a little worried about what he had been writing, especially since she thought it might be about Potter or Sirius, the two most troublesome members of Gryffindor. “Whatcha got there, then?” she said casually. It was just like she considered her Magic for Peace movement, convincing people with friendship. At the same time, Juliet was quick on the defensive (and the offensive, admittedly) should anything go wrong. A smack to the face or that word tossed around was probably equally as likely when talking to purists, but she wasn’t yet sure about Severus Snape. He wasn’t in her year, after all.

Severus put his hand on the notebook, hoping he didn’t read as defensive.  But, truth be told, he was defensive.  “This?  Oh, this old thing…” he trailed off, grasping for any answer.  It was too late.  He was already acting far too weird to play it off as anything else.  

The Slytherin boy pressed his lips together and rolled his eyes.  “It's my journal, if you must know.”  He hated that he was fessing up to, essentially, a stranger.  “Thought I could disguise it as homework, but I guess not.”

He gave another glance around the room.  Would anybody give him shit for talking to Juliet?  He knew that she was Muggleborn, and the incident with Lily from the previous year was fresh on his mind.  He had felt cornered then, and didn’t want to have another conflict, especially not here in the library, surrounded by people from all houses and years.  Mixed company, as his mother’s friends would have said.

Clearly, Emma wasn’t welcome in her dorm. It wasn’t that her roommates didn’t like her, they were actually pretty close, but Darcia had decided to invite a few pure-blood friends, and Vanity did not want to deal with their incredibly oppressive views. Since Andromeda and Scarlet seemed to have fled the scene as well, the Quidditch Captain had decided to stay in the common room, starting to work on her potions essay due in a few days. Not long after, as she was taking a small break and looking around the room, she noticed her classmate Severus beckoning her over. To that, she raised a small brow, but nevertheless took her stuff and walked over to the seat next to his. She peering at him for a few seconds, before speaking up.  “You need anything?”  She wasn’t being mean - honest. Emma simply didn’t know why he would call her over,. They were in the same year and shared many classes, but despite their friends in common never really found themselves alone. The brunette blamed it partly on her love of the outdoors, and her tendency to fraternise with what some of her friends called “the enemy”.   

The question didn’t so much surprise him as it did hurt his feelings.  Granted, he hadn’t spent much time over the previous five years building a friendship with Emma, so he understood why she was confused.  Severus opened his mouth to respond, but had little of an answer.  Simply, he had just been looking for someone to chat with.  Any other time, he would have joined his other friends in scheming or talking poorly about other students.  He wanted a change of pace.

“Just bored, I guess,” he said with a shrug.  He gestured around the commons with his book.  “Not too much going on here tonight.”  With a sigh, he settled back into his seat. Every conversation he had these days inevitably turned to ‘how was your summer’, and he was hoping this wouldn’t be the same.  

“Got any ideas to keep the night interesting?” he inquired, eyebrow raised.  Truth be told, he wouldn’t mind getting into a little mischief to liven up his evening.

“Gee, no, you’ve just enlightened me”  She joking scowled at him “Please tell me what other mind blowing facts you have”.

She noticed that he’d ignored her question, but she wouldn’t press him further on it. It’s not like they knew each other that well, he could keep his secrets.

“I just got bored” she explained “Plus I think it’s pretty cool that I kinda look like candyfloss”.

“How was your summer” she asked casually as she pulled out her quill to take notes for the essay she needed to write. 

With a smile, Severus nodded in agreement.  “Oh! It does look like candy floss,” he laughed, relaxing in his seat.  He had really been on guard since coming back to school, and he welcomed the excuse to lighten up.  

“Nothing too interesting, I suppose” he mused.  Severus’ muggle parent had lost his job that April, and had used his extra time to stew in anger, waiting for his son to come back from school.  In order to minimize the damage, Severus spent quite a lot of the summer wandering around the town nearest to his parent’s house.  “Saw a few movies, smoked a lot…” he shrugged.  “How did you keep busy?”

He grabbed a book and his wand, and headed to the common room.  He sat in one of his favorite high-backed chairs and took an inventory of his company.  In the alcove just on the other side of the room from himself, two fourth year girls clumsily applied makeup on one another, all smudged mascara and too-bright lipstick.  Near the door, the Lestrange brothers stood, talking conspiratorially about something or other. Emma Vanity sat in a chair on the other side of the room.  Severus waited to catch her eye, and then raised a hand to greet her.  He jerked his head towards the seat next to him, silently inviting her over.