Blood & Brothers

"I told you," Lucius Malfoy said to Severus that evening when the new First Years were told how to get into the Slytherin Common Room, given the password, and were shown around. "I said you´d be a Slytherin--and I was right, too." A little smile twisted up Malfoy´s thin but flexible lips, and his pale eyes gleamed like an amused older brother´s.

"How´d you know?" Severus asked, curious.

Lucius shrugged. "Trade secret."

Severus made a sound of disgust, but the older boy just laughed good-naturedly (if infuriatingly) and sauntered off to his own dorm to get unpacked.

"Ah, he´s a bastard," Severus heard from behind him as Lucius disappeared from sight.

Severus turned to look at who had spoken. It was the Nick kid, still looking shy, but also looking bold--if it were possible to be both at the same time. "He´s not a bastard," Severus disagreed. Malfoy had treated him decently. He had no reason to gripe--especially when he noted that Lucius´ presence seemed to be warding off the bullies of Slytherin (and the other Houses, as small petty minds were by no means confined to Slytherin as much as the Gryffindors liked to think) who seemed to be falling upon the First Years like bees on particularly yummy flowers, or scavenger birds on a beast trapped in quicksand. Severus shook his head to himself, wondering where that imagery had come from.

"Mmmm," the boy murmured. "Still, I´ve not heard good things about the Malfoys."

Severus rolled his eyes. "People like to dig up non-existent dirt on old wizarding families," he said. He knew that very well--more than once his father had had to chase off media who had "gotten footage" on the other old wizarding families and wanted to talk to them now, because an interview with a Snape would be the "crown jewel" in their documentary. His father called it a bunch of bullshit.

For a long moment, Nick said nothing, and Severus suddenly feared something he had said had nipped any friendship that might be here in the bud like his other near-friendships had terminated. Well, he´s an idiot if he can´t take a simple argument and I´d be better off without him as a friend if that´s it, he told himself in consolation. After all, it wasn´t like Severus had ever had any friends his age--the Snape Mansion was in a remote part of northern Scotland and his parents usually went to parties rather than hosting them. His mother valued her privacy, and didn´t like strangers in her home. Being alone was nothing new to him.

"That could be true," Nick finally said, after a host of thoughts Severus could not fathom crossed the other boy´s face.

"Really?" Severus blurted after a second of surprised silence. "Not that I didn´t think it was true--but everyone else seems to disagree with me a lot."

Nick looked at him out of the corner of his eye, then gave a small secretive smile. "It´s your tone of voice."

"What?" Severus snapped, thinking that he had been insulted. Then the brown-eyed boy, Potter, came to mind. "Your hair looks like a pile of sticks." "What?!" Only this time, he was the one saying "What?" with astonishment.

Maybe he did have flaws his parents had never pointed out to him. They were his parents--they surely wouldn´t have criticized everything, if only to spare his feelings. All parents cosseted their kids to some extent, didn´t they?

Taking a long moment to think, like Nick had, he finally said, "It is?"

Nick nodded firmly, less shy as he realized Severus wasn´t going to rip his head off--at least not yet. "You sound...as if everyone was less smart than you. Or something. Like you are better than everyone." He eyed Severus as Severus´s black eyes started to glower at him.

"I am."

Nick stared, then his eyes darted over to the other Slytherins lounging around the Common Room, to be sure they couldn´t overhear him. "Maybe you are, but they don´t think so, and they act mean when you act like this."

Severus felt his face twist into an expression he wasn´t quite sure what to call--but he felt a combination of disgust and amusement. "They can go hang."

"And me too? Shall I go hang?" Nick shot back, anger in his voice.

"What? No--not you. You´re nice to me." What was this about?

"Why thank you." Sarcasm dripped from Nick´s voice.

"What?" Severus said in exasperation as suddenly he felt their fledgling relationship take a downturn as the last ones had. "Nick--what am I doing wrong?" To his own anger some emotion made his voice crack a bit on the last word, but he didn´t know if it were from extreme irritation or a sense of keen disappointment in himself like the one he would sometimes get at home when he didn´t do as good as his parents had expected.

"Sev, it´s how you say things. I don´t know... I don´t like it."

The two stared at each other, Nick with mixed emotions and Severus with bewilderment. He didn´t understand. But he did know he wanted Nick to be his friend. How, though, could he do that? Looking into Nick´s pale eyes, he knew Nick would never speak to him again if he said the wrong thing. So what did Nick want him to say? That´s what he had to say--what Nick wanted him to say. Something that would make him look good in Nick´s eyes. He wanted to correct Nick on his name, but had the feeling Nick wouldn´t like that. After all, a lot of kids had nicknames. What to say, then? Say he didn´t like something about Nick, to get back at him? Ignore it all and change the subject by correcting him on his name anyway? Say something...goddess forbid...mushy? Mushy...

"I´ll try to be better--honest. If you´ll be my friend?" The last sentence stuck in his craw like a pointy stick. It felt like begging. Why would Nick want him to beg? Yet he knew that was what he had to say for Nick to stick around until he could figure out where he was going wrong. If he kept driving off people left and right, he´d be as alone here as he was at home.

"Well...you sure?" Nick said, reluctance warring with some other powerful thing in his eyes. Severus wondered what it was. "Ok, I´ll help," Nick went on, even though Severus had been having a moment of difficulty choking out begging-feeling words and hadn´t answered.

"Ok."

Again, an awkward silence. Then Nick blurted out, shyness seemingly back in full throttle, "Whatdormareyouin?"

"The same one you´re in! All the eleven year old boys are together!" Severus said, easily remembering what the Head of Slytherin, Professor Ageodd, had told them after the feast. Nick´s face changed. Uh oh...what´d I say wrong now? "Sorry," he said, trying to be meek like he was with his parents, and was rewarded with a dissipation of the storm clouds that were rapidly forming on Nick´s face.

Silence.

"Uh...d-did you unpack yet?"

"No." He bit his tongue when he had the urge to say "None of us have been up there yet!".

"Wanna go unpack? And look at our schedules? Er...that sounded dumb, didn´t it?"

An opinion. Did Nick want his opinion? "Yes," he said.

Nick sighed, and rolled his eyes at the sky.

"What?"

Nick gave him a look saying "Like you don´t know `what´!"

"What?"

Severus caught Nick muttering something that looked like "moron" but he let it slide, because Nick was still talking to him. He wondered if he should time how long this "friendship" (or was it truce?) lasted.

Feeling almost lost, he followed as Nick went up the stairs to the first year boys´ dorm.

The rest of the morning went by quickly; a Sixth Year Slytherin called the First Years out of their dorms soon after everyone had basically unpacked (if not arranged everything to their liking) and Severus and Nick dutifully went into the Common Room with the rest of the First Years. By default, they hovered near each other. Four of the other First Years were girls and there was no way either boy felt he could deal with them and the other four boys, scions all of old or wealthy pure-blooded families, had already formed a clique. As tenuous as the friendship between them was, it was better than nothing.

The Sixth Year was a Prefect, and she dutifully gave them a tour of the castle, although it was rushed more than Severus liked. At first he felt confident he could find his way back easily, but then it was mentioned some stairways or doorways changed location depending on the day of the week, the mood of such-and-such Professor, or on seemingly random whim. Indeed, when he looked back over his shoulder once, the doorway they´d just entered the hall through was gone, replaced by a solid bare wall. Nick noticed it too, and kicked it, confirming it was really solid and not an illusion.

He felt less confident after that.

The Prefect led them back to the Great Hall, where the general crowd had dispersed and one table had three Professors handing out class schedules. "Why don´t they use magic?" one of the girls asked and the Prefect shrugged. However, a Fifth Year Hufflepuff heard the question and helpfully answered.

"They´re doing something with the wards," he said, smiling brightly at the First Years in a slightly off way, as if he were forcing himself to be cheerful for the little kids. "Professor Dippet doesn´t want any area-spells like that going while the wards on Hogwarts are being messed with. Why they didn´t do it in summer, I don´t know, but they didn´t."

"Oh."

Getting their schedules wasn´t very eventful. All they did was get into a line, tell the Professor their name, year, and House, and they got a scroll tied with a ribbon in their colors; green and silver for Slytherin, red and gold for Gryffindor, blue and bronze for Ravenclaw, and yellow and black for Hufflepuff. Severus opened his and scanned the contents, but was interrupted by a hand on his elbow.

"Listen!" Nick hissed at him.

Severus stood still and listened. He didn´t hear anything but the general sounds of the students in the Great Hall, but Nick shook his head and then nodded to their right. Severus listened again, and picked up a few lines.

"Good lord, is that all First Years? Is it only me, or is Slytherin getting more slime every year? That´s the biggest bloody Year out of all the Houses, I´ll bet."

"Hey, those two are looking at us. Huh? Yeah, see those two kids, the one with the huge honker and that blond Malfoy?"

Nick´s complexion turned beet. "I´m not a Malfoy," he ground out to Severus. But even as he got angry, his hand held Severus back. "No, they´ll kill us, Sev. Let´s wait until we can get them back without getting in trouble."

There was truth to that; any older student would know how to win a fight better than two First Years on the first day of school. But Severus turned his head to glare in the general direction of the speakers. He couldn´t hear anything anymore, though. They´d either shut up or put up a silence spell around themselves.

"That´s not the first I´ve heard," Nick told Severus.

"You´ve...been listening? To..." he waved his hand at the crowd. Severus was surprised. He never eavesdropped on people. Well, not anymore. His father had an uncanny sixth sense when it came to Severus listening at keyholes. There wasn´t a single time he hadn´t gotten caught.

"Yeah. It´s good to know what people are saying. Blessed Moon, though...they really hate us, Severus. Slytherins, that is. They don´t even know us and they call us slime. Why?"

"I don´t know. Maybe they´re jealous."

"Maybe." He gave his name, house, and year to the Professor at the table, and got his scroll. Severus did the same, and then found Nick tugging insistently at his sleeve. "Um...our Prefect´s leaving."

Severus scowled at Nick.

"What?"

"That sounded dumb. Um...our Prefect´s leaving."

"Well she is! Do you know your way back?" Without waiting for an answer, Nick grabbed Severus´s sleeve and tugged him after their Year mates.

* * * *

"Potions?" Severus shouted, flinging down his schedule on his bed. "The Goddess´s Tits! Squibs can make potions!" Annoyed, Severus eyed Nick, who had dissolved in laughter on his bed, lured by Severus´s cussing into hysterical fits of amusement, just like Nemy and Sine had been. A crazy feeling made him ham it up. "Mwa ha ha ha! Eye of Newt! Crust of Sentient Pizza! And one hair from a town-fool´s head (that´s you Nick)!" Dramatically, he waved his hands about wildly in elaborate gestures. "Now I got me a potion-cure for...PMS!" he added after a moment, just to goad Nick into more laughter.

Nick wasn´t the only one who obliged. A light tenor laugh rang out from behind him. Nick fell off of the bed in startlement--for they´d been alone in their dorm room not a second ago--and Severus whirled to look at the intruder, feeling a bit of panic. Had they heard him swear?

The wizard who stood in the doorway was a middle-aged man with flaming auburn hair, twinkling blue eyes, and a crooked nose. His robes were sewn with sparkling stars and moons--this fall´s fashion craze, though this version looked more antique than the runway models´--and he was fiddling with a pair of half-moon spectacles.

Severus didn´t know who he was, and neither did Nick, who was blushing to the roots of his white-blond hair and rubbing a sore spot where he´d landed on the floor. Severus didn´t blame Nick--what was more embarrassing than falling off a bed in front of a stranger? Vaguely, Severus remembered seeing this wizard during the Sorting and the Feast, but then, he´d glimpsed most of Hogwarts' professors at that time. "Er...Good Morning, Professor..." he trailed off, fishing for the man´s name.

"Dumbledore. Albus Dumbledore. I teach Care of Magical Creatures--and I used to teach Transfiguration," he added. "Of course, Professor McGonagall does that now." He smiled. "And who are you? I´m looking for Mr. Malfoy, and I was told he may be up here." The man looked around, then turned back to them. "Unfortunately I don´t see him, unless you two have turned him into a teacup--using Transfiguration of course, seeing as you don´t like potions." An amused smile crossed his face and Severus, oddly, felt a faint flush creep up his cheeks. Those blue eyes--they seemed to look right through him. Like that damn Sorting Hat.

Nick inched closer to him and whispered in his ear, "He has eyes like you--only blue, not black."

He felt shock. He did? No wonder the other kids didn´t like him!

"It´s freaky," Nick added.

"Ah, you noticed my new spectacles?" Dumbledore asked, perching them on his nose. Severus knew, as the blue eyes peered over the tops of the glasses at him, that the man was only pretending he´d misheard them. Still, he played along.

"I´ve never seen ones like that," he said. He´d never looked at glasses at all--nobody in his family needed them.

"Well, I had a choice of getting a single piece you put in one eye and squint around--only one eye is bad--or these, but I didn´t fancy like looking like an evil count."

Severus snorted, and Nick giggled.

"Well then, if young Malfoy isn´t here, I suppose I should be off searching for him. I never did get your names, though."

"Nick Nickleback," Nick said.

"Severus Snape."

"Ah. Nickleback and Snape. Good to meet you--very good!" And with a nod the wizard left as suddenly as he came.

Severus wondered why the word "good" had sounded different from its usual polite non-meaning. Then he shrugged, an explanation not coming to mind.

"Whoa! That was Dumbledore!" Nick crowed after a moment.

Despite himself, Severus felt a stir of excitement too. Dumbledore was a professor at Hogwarts! Their school! He´d defeated the dark wizard--

"--Grindlewald in...uh...well, a while ago," Nick was babbling, matching Severus´s thoughts exactly.

He nodded at Nick. "Yes, and he teaches Care of Magical Creatures--do we have that?" Jumping on the bed and making the pillow flop off, he retrieved his schedule and scanned it. Nothing, no Care of Magical Creatures. Transfiguration, however, was on it--with the Head of Gryffindor, no less! That could be worse than a class in such a defunct subject as potions. He hoped McGonagall would come down sick and Dumbledore would teach Transfiguration again.

"It´s not there, is it?"

"No. Just Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Potions, and Charms."

"Darn."

"Mmmm. What do you think he wanted Lucius for?"

Nick´s face twisted into a look of knowing amusement. "Probably got in trouble."

"Shove off. Leave Lucius alone," Severus snapped, picking up on what Nick hadn´t said--that Malfoys always got in trouble.

"You asked what I thought!"

"Remind me not to do so again, then." Severus folded his arms and collapsed backwards on his bed to stare at the ceiling.

"I will," Nick snapped back.

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Nyaeahh!" Nick said, pulling a face and making a mocking sound at Severus.

Severus kicked at him in anger. He expected, at most, for his foot to deflect off of Nick´s shoulder, but for some reason Nick didn´t move quickly enough--or didn´t really think he was going to kick him, for Nick was looking at him dead on, and couldn´t miss Severus´s foot coming--and it hit the other boy high in the chest, in the middle of his collar bone.

Nick went over backwards, his head hitting the stone floor with a thwack.

Cold horror gripped Severus´s insides and his heart exploded into full speed. He hadn´t meant to hurt Nick! With a burst of energy, he flipped over onto his stomach and hung over the side of the bed to look at Nick. "Areyouok? Ididn´tmeantohurtyou!"

Nick lay there on his back, looking a bit dazed, then he coughed and sat up. "I´m ok," he muttered, rubbing his head. Then he got up a bit shakily and went to go sit down on his bed, which was next to Severus´s.

"Are you sure? I didn´t mean to!" Severus heard himself practically wail.

He could have sworn he had hit Nick very hard, but Nick didn´t look to be in pain. "Are you sure?" Severus climbed out of the bed and padded over to the other boy to stand in front of him, uncertain of what to do.

"I´m ok." Nick didn´t meet his eye for a second, then he finally looked up, his pale blue eyes searching Severus´s black eyes for something. Apparently he found what he was searching for, for his serious shaken demeanor vanished and he grinned up at the other Slytherin. "Next time make sure your foot hits a Gryffindor or a bedpost or something instead of me!"

"What kind of nonsense is this?" a stern voice from the doorway asked, while Nick blurted out, "Just kidding! Sev wouldn´t kick a Gryffindor!"

Professor McGonagall was standing in the doorway of their dorm room, her hair pulled into a severe bun and her foot tapping on the floor. She apparently had heard Nick´s half apology, and, narrowing her eyes to look around, searched for something else that was out of place. Seeing nothing wrong, she turned back to the two boys. "Have you seen Lucius?"

Severus and Nick looked at each other. First Professor Dumbledore, now Professor McGonagall, who was also the head of Gryffindor? What had Lucius done? McGonagall certainly didn´t look happy. Anyway, Severus knew that someone had told him that only the Heads of House entered the dorms, except in emergencies--but now two professors who were not Professor Ageodd had come around, one the Head of Gryffindor! Maybe it was a start-of-school thing.

Slowly Severus shook his head. "No, I´ve not seen Lucius. Why do you need him? Has he done something wrong?" Nick glared at him for asking questions so directly, but he ignored him.

"It doesn´t concern you, child. He´s not around at all?"

While Severus bristled at being called "child", Nick answered. "Nope. We´ve not seen him since we were shown the Slytherin Common room."

"What was he doing then?" She looked from one to the other.

Severus paused, then answered. "He just told me that he knew I´d be a Slytherin." Vaguely he wondered why he was answering to easily. He knew he´d wanted Nick to help him out, but it felt weird to give up so much information without a fight! Maybe Nick had jinxed him...

"Did he say anything else?"

"No, he laughed and left."

She looked at Nick.

"That´s all I heard, Professor."

As Severus watched, her nostrils flared slightly in response to some internal thought as she looked at them. Then she nodded, said thank you, and left.

"Told you he was in trouble."

Severus lifted his lip at Nick in scorn. "Some Hufflepuff or something probably framed him. You´ve heard what they whisper behind our backs--and we´re only First Years. They know nothing about us! We´ve not even started classes yet and they give us sideways looks!"

Nick didn´t protest this, as he´d been the one to point it out to Severus and ask why all the other houses despised them. "Well...maybe we should warn him, or something," he said reluctantly, picking at the carving on the bedpost.

Severus brightened, liking the thought. "Yeah!"