31 Chapter 30: Hogwarts Express

-1st September 1976

The next morning, September 1st, Severus got up and got everything ready to go to the Station to start his sixth year schooling at Hogwarts.

He had already arranged with Hermione and Draco that they would not be going together, in fact, he had made it clear to both of them that the only thing they would still be doing together was magic practice.

They had told him that perhaps it would be better to postpone practice since they were Gryffindors and he was a Slytherin, but Severus refused this suggestion.

He wouldn't give up his daily magic practice for anything in the world and he didn't really care about some Slytherin teenagers either.

If there were any Slytherins who objected to him...

Well...

There are always ways to make them understand their place.

Arriving at the station, a crimson steam train could be seen standing still on a platform packed with passengers, mostly young wizards accompanied by their families.

The train's placard said: "Hogwarts Express, 11 o'clock."

In the British magical world, the start of the school year at Hogwarts can be considered one of the biggest celebrations in the whole year, just like festivals like Christmas, Halloween, and others, for the most part, young wizards will take the train to Hogwarts to start Hogwarts activities and that is why it is so crowded.

Many families can be seen talking noisily as they say goodbye to their children.

Severus walked directly to the train, bypassing all the people around him.

As he entered the train he could hear all sorts of noises, animals, luggage, and people.

The first carriages were already full of students, most of them talking to each other, others were waving to their families by leaning out of the train window and the rest were still looking for available seats.

Severus went to the back of the train as he always used to do to be calm, then he found a free carriage, arranged his belongings, and sat comfortably reading a spell book that Hermione had given him.

It was a very interesting book as she had made many updates to the magical theories of this time and had put in the "current or future" ones that she and Draco knew about.

Eventually, more and more people began to enter the train and in a moment, the sliding door of the carriage Severus was in opened and two young men of about his own age peeked out.

Severus knew immediately who they were.

"Hey Severus, long time, spent another miserable holiday?" joked the young man laughing lightly just before his body settled on the bench in front of Severus.

"Come on Rosier, don't ask such obvious questions, it's obvious he still feels bad about losing miserably to Potter," added the other young man laughing as he sat down next to Rosier.

"I wouldn't say miserable, but full of surprises..." replied Severus without looking away from his book.

"And how exactly did I lose to Potter, would you like to explain, Avery?" hissed Severus now turning his gaze to the young man next to Rosier.

These were Aiden Avery and Evan Rosier, his "closest" mates in Slytherin.

"Well..., considering he humiliated you openly and then made you crawl back to Gryffindor begging for that m..." Avery started to explain but before he could finish speaking Rosier elbowed him to shut him up.

"I think he got the point," said Rosier politely as he watched Severus react to what Avery said.

But he was surprised to see that he didn't seem upset at all.

No, in fact, Severus seemed to be seriously thinking and processing what Avery said.

" Yeah..., it looks like you're right, Potter really made a good job," Severus nodded calmly after carefully considering what Avery had said.

Severus might have been angry with him, but everything he said was so true that he couldn't deny it, Potter really had beaten Severus Snape.

But he wasn't the old Snape anymore.

"See Rosier, even he admits it," laughed Avery.

Rosier ignored him and stared at Severus.

"So..., are you feeling alright Severus?" asked Rosier surprised and intrigued, he knew Severus and how Avery's comment should have thrown him for a loop.

Besides, Severus Snape accepting that Potter had beaten him?

'Impossible' thought Rosier.

Maybe Avery was an idiot and didn't realise it, but Rosier was smart and knew there was something different about Severus.

"Better than ever" Severus replied in his soft, gravelly voice and returned calmly to reading his book.

" Usually, you don't take these things so kindly. If you're not sick, why are you agreeing with this idiot?" asked Rosier.

"Hey, who are you calling an idiot?" complained Avery.

Rosier just ignored him and stared at Severus waiting for his answer.

"Simple, because the idiot is right," replied Severus as if it were a simple fact.

Rosier frowned while Avery was considering if he should be angry that he was called an idiot or proud that Severus had agreed with him in front of Rosier.

"Before I forget. I heard there are two new Gryffindors in our year," Avery suddenly mentioned.

"Hmm.., Yes, I heard about them," nodded Rosier.

Severus who heard this didn't bother to look at them but smiled at the thought of how they would react when they found out that these two persons were in fact his 'cousins'.

"Oh, did your father tell you their names?, I only knew that they were distant relatives of some noble family, but had no further information," Avery commented.

"They're from the Prince house, but that's all I know," Rosier replied.

"Prince...? hmm, sounds familiar," Avery thought aloud.

"Of course, it sounds familiar you idiot, they're a major pureblood noble house, and recently the new heir took charge of everything, he even released a lot of new potions" Rosier reprimanded him and rolled his eyes.

"Huh?.... Oh yeah, that's right" Avery smiled sheepishly.

"But I still feel like it sounds from somewhere else..." he added.

Rosier just ignored him and continued to think about Severus' strange behaviour.

A few seconds later Avery's eyes widened as if he had remembered something.

"Wait, Snape!, doesn't your Potions book say that it's the property of The Half-Blood Prince?!"

~~~~~~~

James Potter and Sirius Black were walking along the train.

They were hoping to meet up with Peter, but unlike usual, Peter wasn't waiting for them outside the train.

"Hey, where do you think he is?" asked Sirius.

"I don't know. Maybe he got into trouble again in his rat form," commented James.

"No way, do you think he did something again?"

"Well..., I don't blame him, if I could sneak anywhere I wanted I would too," said James.

"Don't let Evans hear you say things like that, or she might think even worse of you," Sirius sneered at him.

"It's not funny, you know this holiday I couldn't make much progress in my relationship with her... I missed a great opportunity," James complained.

Sirius looked at James.

In fact, this holiday was the perfect opportunity for James and Lily to get closer with the whole Order of the Phoenix thing.

But Snivellus was shameless enough to actually declare his love in front of Lily when they were all present.

If it wasn't for the fact that his declaration of love was so pathetic, aggressive, and bizarre, James would probably have reacted much worse in that situation.

However, Lily seemed to have been very affected by the words Snape had said that day, causing an annoyance to James who wanted to get close to her.

And to make matters worse, one of the Prewett Twins was interested in Evans, making things even more difficult for Potter over the holiday.

Even the marauders didn't have the confidence to play pranks on the Prewett twins.

They were amazing wizards and both James and Sirius had great respect for them.

The funniest thing was that James demanded a "man-to-man" conversation with his love rival.

The conversation was nothing more than to make sure that Prewett wouldn't use his position as an official member of the Order to get close to Lily and that it would be fair game.

Well... not entirely when James had convinced Remus to help him with Lily.

Remus tried to convince Lily that James was very "suitable" and "adequate" for her.

Yet he was not particularly convincing, although it wasn't all in vain, as Evans slowly began to accept them.

Sirius smiled in amusement as he remembered how much they had to do to give James a chance.

James had been claiming Lily since his first year, and although he had other relationships just like Sirius it was never serious as the only one he really liked was Evans.

But it wasn't until the fifth year that she started to notice him more and it was then that James put aside any other interests he had to take the chance he had with the girl he liked.

The Marauders always made sure to stop other boys at Hogwarts from dating or asking Evans out.

Of course not with threats, just by pranking the boys who dared to do that, and in most cases, it was enough.

Although Severus Snape was an exception as he stayed close to her for up to 5 years.

Actually, they might have let Snape go, as on the surface he wasn't a threat to James, he wasn't an attractive or charismatic young man.

But for some reason, James couldn't let him go.

According to James, he knew that Snape's target wasn't just 'friends', he said that he had seen it in Snape's eyes and that those eyes were even hungrier than his own.

Sirius could agree with this a bit, Peter always supported them, and Remus...

Well, Remus wasn't convinced, but Snape had a lot of things seriously screwed up, he wasn't just a greasy-haired, big-nosed Slytherin...

No, Snape had an obsession with the Dark Arts and Sirius knew it from his brother Regulus.

That was the biggest reason that brought the marauders together to keep him away from Lily.

"It looks like it's already pretty crowded... I wouldn't want to go to the back with the Slytherins," James commented.

"Then let's not wait for Peter any longer and get into a wagon," said Sirius, to which James just nodded.

"This one, there's only two people in it, what do you think?" asked James.

Sirius looked out the window of the compartment.

Sure enough, in this compartment there were only two people, a man and a woman who had already changed into their Hogwarts robes and were now sitting opposite each other, looking out the window at the mountainous landscape of Scotland.

" It is fine. Peter can sit next to us afterwards," Sirius replied lightly and opened the compartment door and the two teenagers inside turned to look at him.

James and Sirius could now clearly see the two occupants of this compartment, and their faces were very unfamiliar.

The man had black hair, grey eyes, and pale skin.

While the girl had brown hair, warm brown eyes, and her face...

'Her face is pretty cute...' thought Sirius who was a bit stunned at the sight of the young witch, he, Sirius Orion Black, would recognise any attractive woman at Hogwarts at a glance.

But he had never seen the young woman in front of him, she definitely wasn't at Hogwarts before.

Sirius' eyes lit up as if he had found a treasure.

" Oi, listen, most of the other compartments in this carriage are full, can we stay here?" asked James with a smile without thinking as much about the two young wizards in front of him as his friend Sirius.

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