home (reader at hogwarts)

thirty seven

the great hall is almost full of students wolfing down breakfast for the first monday back at school and you are painfully aware that hermione granger is staring at you.

"y/n, are you listening?" draco snaps in your face to get your attention.

you blink a few times and nod. "yes, yes what were you saying?"

"just-" he stammers, looking back down at his plate. "forget it."

"oh, draco." you laugh. "go on, i'm listening now."

"i do not care." he rolls his eyes.

there isn't much to talk about so early in the morning but somehow the students at hogwarts have already seemed to start making circles.

you have too.

you sit opposite serena, who sits beside blaise, who sits opposite draco, who sits next to crabbe, who sits opposite goyle. on your right sits pansy and opposite her, meaning on serena's other side sits theodore.

this is your circle.

you aren't with harry.

"are you alright, y/n?" pansy asks, nudging you slightly with her knee. "you seem lost."

"i'm- i'm fine, really. just kind of- zoning out." you say, waving a hand dismissively.

"just as well," theo says, adjusting his tie clip. "we could all do with a little zoning out because we're going to have to tune out all the gryffindors we share potions with."

"oh, merlin." draco groans, putting his head on the table. "gryffindors."

crabbe speaks up for the first time since he got here. "i don't suppose we could try being friends with him again, malfoy."

"wha- no!" draco snarls. "he's lost his chance- siding with that lolly-gagging ginger."

"hey!" you say, lightly hitting draco's arm with the back of your hand. "ron's nice."

"you spoke him to briefly enough." gregory says. "he's a blood traitor, and they'll always prefer the muggle borns over someone like you- y/n."

"i'm half blood." you say, knowing that severus was half blood too, at least. "i am not pure blooded."

"yes, but-"

"i really don't want to talk about this." you say, cutting him off. "please, goyle. there's no point arguing."

you knew there wasn't. not when you were stuck here.

at least, from the look serena gave you, you knew she wasn't on their side.

not a blood supremacy fanatic.

"we have potions first." theo says, changing the subject. "we'll be with your father, y/n."

"oh, a father. blaise, look!" draco gasps, in feigned astonishment.

blaise snorts out a laugh before draco starts chortling with him.

"a what?" blaise asks. "a barber?"

you smile, their laughs are contagious.

you wonder why you hadn't read them laughing much in the books.

things were so much different here than in the books.

snape was kind to you.

the slytherins are kind to you.

'first lesson with me, dear.'

you hear your father's voice and you glance up, smiling wide at severus.

'can't wait.' you reply.

the slytherins follow your gaze and almost drop their jaws to the ground when they see severus giving a small smirk back.

"look, avery. look at snape!" you hear blaise calling the attention of someone else.

francis avery, the third year lad with the blonde hair and ponytail squinted through his rectangular glasses and gawped at the professor.

smiling.

professor snape, smiling.

"what the-" he and the entirety of the circle look back at you as you and severus break eye contact. your eyes dart nervously between the staring faces.

"wh-what? the lot of you are staring at me like i've done something wrong."

"you made professer snape smile." pansy laughs.

"he's my dad. he's bound to smile at me once in a while." you say, your stomach flipping at how good it felt to say.

"you are a bloody miracle worker." draco tells you, before the lot of you look up at the huge brass speakers in the corners of the hall.

"classes are starting in 10 minutes, please make your way to your first class of the day- thank you!"

"it does that, now?" francis complains to flint. "says thank you? like we appreciate its politeness (!)"

flint chuckles and grabs his bag messily off the table, knocking a few goblets over in the process.

most of the great hall begin spilling out and your circle decide you'll do the same.

"potions, you sit with me." theo tells you and you glance at serena for a second.

"blaise-" draco starts before-

"draco!" pansy whines. "oh, sit with me!"

she doesn't wait for him to reply before dragging him away, linking his elbow with her own.

you have to admit it, pansy knows how to get what she wants.

"come on, then. me and you serena." blaise demands and serena crosses her arms.

blaise looks back at her, cocking his head. "come on, we've to get to the dungeons in ten minutes and we haven't got all-"

serena's face says it all.

blaise sighs into his hand. "fine. please."

serena shrugs, "okay."

you laugh as gregory and vincent stumble over one another to carry draco's things out of the hall and as you and theo walk out of the hall behind serena and blaise- you notice percy telling someone off.

that poor fellow.

"so dyu' you think you'll manage to bag us some house points?" blaise asks you, turning around and walking backwards down the dungeon corridor.

"depends. maybe father's not feeling to happy today."

the four of you enter the classroom and see empty seats near the front. of course, the gryffindors and slytherin are on either side of the class room, and the back seats were occupied by the earliest eleven year olds to enter the room.

except hermione, who sat on a desk nearer the front and beside neville- just in front of the boy who lived himself.

"over here," theo says, leading you by the hand. "i'm assuming you're good at potions, right?"

"i've helped father a few times." you say, a grin pulling at your lips. "why? is that why you want me to sit beside you? so you can copy all my answers?"

"no(!)" theo smirks. "now, what sort of boy would that make me? (!)"

"a slytherin." you say, before the door to the classroom opens and the entire class is suddenly, very, very silent.

your father has just walked in.