The Marauders: Year Five #Wattys2017

Acting Like I Always Do

Acting Like I Always Do

The first of the year brought frigid cold so that by the time it came round to the day the Hogwarts Express would be carrying the students back to the castle, Severus Snape was looking forward to feeling what warmth was like again. He'd relied solely on the fire that he could conjure with his wand, and it wasn't enough to keep him as warm as he would have liked to be. He missed the green fire in the Slytherin common room and the warm meat and potatoes from the feasts. He missed the tarts and the hot chocolate. He missed Lily Evans.

So it was on 6 January, 1976, that Severus clutched the book of Defensive Dark Magic under his arm, his fist tight around his book bag's strap. He was excited as he ducked through the barrier onto Platform 9¾ and looked around at the milling students and parents that filled it up, surrounded by billowing grey smoke from the scarlet red steam engine. The platform was crowded and chaotic, and Severus kept his head ducked down as he moved through, trying to get to the train doors. He spotted Lily Evans by the door, holding her bag and laughing, talking to Marlene McKinnon, passing a copy of Teen Witch back and forth between them. She looked up and saw him and waved, and he waved back, smiling, triumphant because he was getting waved at and not James Potter - and started toward her, excitement building up inside him...

Suddenly something caught around his feet and he went down, spilling across the platform, his books skidding ahead of him under the feet of passersby, his knee hitting the cement quite roughly, wind knocked right out of his chest with a great choking gasp.

"Oi, have a good trip, Snivellus?" came James Potter's voice from behind him - followed by loud and obnoxious laughter that Severus highly suspected had come from Sirius Black.

Severus sat up, scrambling for his book and a foot came down upon it. A Gryffindor-red trainer with scribbled writing and sketching all over the white rubber toe and the rim of the soles. Severus looked up and found himself staring into James Potter's face. "Move your foot or I will move it for you," he hissed, angrily.

"My, aren't we cranky?" James said in a sneering voice. "I was going to offer to help you up. But since you're being so rude about it..." James turned, his foot lifting from the book to show he'd left a dusty footprint on the cover.

Severus went to grab the book, trying to talk himself out of hexing James Potter (after all, Lily may still be watching), but the text was suddenly kicked away from his reach by a heavy black boot. "So sorry, Snivellus," Sirius Black said, smirking, "Didn't mean to." And before Severus could react, he had charged after James Potter toward the train. They were shadowed by Peter Pettigrew and a positively miserable-looking Remus Lupin, who took a wide berth around Severus Snape's prone figure on the platform floor. Severus crawled to the book's new location, snatching it up and jamming it into his book bag.

Don't hex him, not here. Not in front of Lily. If you hex him, it must be in secret... but oh how brilliant it would feel to send that gallant oaf to the cement the same as he's just done me... knock out a few of those bloody teeth of his... Severus stewed as he clutched the book to his chest.

"Happy New Year, Evans," James said as he approached Lily and Marlene at the door of the train. He grinned and stuck his arm around her shoulders. "Did you see how clumsy Snape is? Just took a spill. Might wanna tell him to watch his step in the future, huh?" He winked at her and laughed, "Maybe he's tripped on his unusually large nose?"

Lily glowered at him, "What are you doing?"

"Well talking to you about your darling Severus, of course. Darling Severus and his abysmally oversized schnozz... You see it's like Pinocchio, isn't it? He tells lies and..." he pressed his finger to his nose and drew it away, miming his nose growing, growing, growing. "Lie enough times and I reckon one's nose would be dragging the ground and easy to trip upon, wouldn't it?" James grinned. "I s'pose that's what's happened to Snivellus."