My Name's Severus!

Chapter 12: A Success for Dumbledore

The teachers had returned from the forbidden forest because it had soon gotten too dark to see. Now they were sitting unhappily in the great hall thinking about what terrible fate might have befallen Severus. Some of them were pretending to eat, but none really had an appetite.

Even many of the pupils seemed unhappy. Harry Potter looked like he might come up to the teachers' table at any time to ask Dumbledore what they were going to do now. Dumbledore wished he knew.

Only the Slytherins didn't seem all that perturbed by Severus' disappearance. At least some of them didn't.

Gregory, Vincent and Blaise were chatting animatedly not caring in the slightest about the two empty chairs beside them.

'At least Draco seems to really miss him. Maybe he wasn't such a bad choice for a friend after all.' Albus thought. He wondered where the boy was. 'Bet he couldn't eat anything either.'

Suddenly the door opened and Severus and Draco walked in side by side laughing.

The great hall fell dead silent. Everybody was staring at the two boys who didn't seem to notice anything amiss.

The sudden silence in the great hall let even Gregory and Vincent look up. But they couldn't believe what they saw.

Even Blaise didn't believe it. He had suspected that Draco sympathised with Sverus and openly accused him of betraying Slytherin, but he would never have thought that Draco would actually let himself be seen with Severus.

The moment of shock didn't last long however. The teachers began to react. McGonagall, who had taken her post near the Slytherin table either out of habit or to avoid the depressed situation at the head table, was closest and therefore reached Severus first. She pulled him into a tight embrace.

Severus gave a surprised squawk. He would have expected just about any reaction from Minerva McGonagall, but certainly not being hugged.

"Hey!" he protested, but didn't get a chance to say anything more as the other teachers had reached them at a run.

"Oh Severus, you gave us such a scare!" Minerva exclaimed finally letting go of him. "We thought you had run away."

Severus took a breath of relief at being able to breathe again and started to explain when Remus Lupin grabbed him even tighter than McGonagall had.

"Are you all right, partner? I was so worried!"

Severus would have liked to answer, but right now breathing was difficult enough.

'And I thought Draco was exaggerating when he said they were worried sick. They must really have thought me dead.' Severus felt a little guilty about that even if he hadn't intended to frighten them at all. He should have let somebody know where he was.

After a little struggling he managed to wriggle out of Remus' arms and to avoid being 'captured' by either Flitwick or Sprout. Madam Pomfrey nearly caught him though.

He held out his hands to ward them off.

"Stop. Let me breathe. I can't answer your questions if you suffocate me."

The teachers finally stepped back a little to give him some room. That was better. It allowed him to breathe again and Greenie looked more comfortable, too. The little hedgehog was still in his arms and had immediately curled up in fear when McGonagall had started to squeeze them. Now he was cautiously sticking out his tiny green nose, checking if it was safe.

Unfortunately when the teachers stepped back that also allowed the headmaster to squeeze himself through to Severus.

"What did you think you were doing, running away like this?" thundered Dumbledore.

Severus took a frightened step backwards and bumped into Hagrid who immediately put a gigantic reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"I didn't ..."

"Just where were you all this time?"

McGonagall gently put one hand on Dumbledore's arm and gave him a very stern look meaning: 'lf you'd stop shouting at him for a moment he'd tell us.'

Albus stopped shouting and fixed Severus with an angry glare instead.

"In the bathroom." answered Severus softly.

"Where?" roared Dumbledore.

"In the bathroom. I was in the bathroom." repeated Severus.

"That's the truth." Draco stepped beside Severus with an haughty side glance at Hagrid. "I found Severus in the bathroom. He didn't run away."

"In the bathroom? Your bathroom in the dorms?" asked Dumbledore not believing his ears. Draco and Severus both nodded in agreement.

"I checked that bathroom!

"Not thoroughly enough I suppose." smirked Draco. "You forgot to check the last shower cabin."

"The shower cabins? I never checked the shower cabins!"

"And you never called for me either." added Severus accusingly. "I'd have heard. I never even knew you were looking for me and now you're accusing me of running away. All I did was skip a few classes. So what. I already knew that stuff anyway. It's not like I missed anything important."

McGonagall cleared her throat.

"Okay, I missed transfigurations, but I'll never learn that anyway. I get by fine without it." admitted Severus.

"And how exactly do you plan on passing your OWLs if you don't learn transfigurations, Severus?" asked McGonagall looking pointedly at the little green hedgehog in Severus' arms.

Severus pulled Greenie tightly to his chest.

"I'm not going to transfigure Greenie! He's my friend!"

"But you are going to have to transfigure something for your OWLs." insisted McGonagall. "And that something just might be a hedgehog. Or it might be a flower pot. Which you missed today."

"I'll teach him." volunteered Draco to everyone's surprise. "You said I did well with that flower pot."

"You did." confirmed McGonagall. "But I still advise you not to miss any more of my lessons Severus. Understood?"

Severus nodded. He had gotten a little pale since Minerva had mentioned the OWLs. He didn't really want to have to go through those again, but he had no choice.

"I don't care if you already know the subjects or not." said Dumbledore sternly. "In the future I expect you to attend all your classes the same as everybody else. Or else you'll get detention."

Severus nodded again.

Albus suddenly pulled him into his arms.

"I'm so glad to have you back!" he exclaimed.

Severus wriggled in his grip helplessly.

"Let go of me, Albus! You're embarrassing me."

Dumbledore reluctantly let go.

"All right, but promise me never to run away again."

"I never did run away."

"Oh yes ... right ... Then promise me never to run away."

"Okay, I promise. Can I go and have dinner now? I haven't eaten all day and I'm a little hungry."

Albus let the two boys go and looked after them shaking his head.

"Severus sure makes one cute boy." remarked Madam Pomfrey smiling.

"Yes," sighed Dumbledore. "If only he weren't that much trouble."

Severus and Draco joined their classmates grinning triumphantly. After all they had just gotten away from a horde of teachers unpunished.

Ice cold stares greeted them at the Slytherin table.

They didn't even seem to notice as they set down and began to eat. The food had gone cold, but that couldn't spoil their good mood either. As hungry as Severus was he could have eaten anything anyway.

"Traitor!" Blaise hissed at Draco just loud enough to be sure that all his dorm mates had heard.

"Grow up, Blaise!" Draco smiled back at him pleasantly.

He didn't care who might hear him or not. Severus was his friend and if the others didn't like that then one friend was good enough for him. Let Blaise lead the gang if he wanted to. He had never been able to be himself around them anyway. Severus, he knew, would be different. And if it was going to be just the two of them that was fine by Draco. One real friend was all he needed, was all he had ever wanted.

Still smiling he turned away from Blaise and held out a piece of meat to Greenie.

"Here little guy, come and get it."

"Sniff!" said Greenie and crawled over to Draco's plate.

Finally he was getting fed! And by two people at once. That was the life!

Vincent stared incredulously at the smiling Draco. Draco never smiled like this. He smirked and sometimes laughed, but Vincent couldn't remember ever seeing that kind of happy smile on his face. That just wasn't normal.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked his friend. "Did you eat something funny?"

"Wrong? Eat something funny?" Draco repeated confused. "No, everything's just fine."

"Then why are you smiling like this?"

"Because I just feel like it. Can't I be happy once in a while?"

"No!" declared Blaise, but Draco simply ignored him and continued to play with Greenie.

"Did you finally get to kiss Ginny?" Gregory asked.

He'd heard that getting the girl one wanted could have all sorts of strange effects on people's moods. And Draco had been after Ginny for quite a while now. He was entitled to feel triumphant if he finally got her.

"No. Still haven't found out how to get her to stop and listen to me without holding her." sighed Draco. "But I'll find a way. Just wait and see."

"Let me handle that." said Severus suddenly. " I'll give you the perfect opportunity to talk to her."

"Really?" exclaimed Draco excitedly. "How?"

"I don't know yet, but I'll think of something when I meet her." grinned Severus. "You gotta adapt to the situation, you know."

"Well, if you didn't get the girl, what are you so happy about?" insisted Vincent.

"I don't know, really. I just feel good. Maybe it's because Severus is back. I really missed him."

Blaise and Vincent exchanged a look.

"Because Severus is back? Why would that make you happy?" asked Gregory still not understanding a thing. "I thought we all hate Severus? That we are agreed to get rid of him as quickly as possible?"

Draco shrugged.

"Not me, Greg. That's Blaise and the girls you're talking about. Me, I like Severus and I want him to stay as long as possible."

Gregory stared at Draco for almost a minute trying to figure out what to do. Deciding his actions was difficult for him, because usually he didn't understand all that was going on around him. That's why he had always followed Draco's lead up until now. He knew that Draco was very clever and that his friends usually approved of whatever Draco did.

Now that had suddenly changed. Blaise clearly did not approve of Draco's decision to make friends with Severus and Gregory didn't know what to do. He didn't like Severus, but he didn't want to loose Draco's guidance either. And he didn't want to fight Severus or Draco. He'd seen enough of the hospital wing over the last few weeks.

He looked to Vincent for help.

"What should we do?" he whispered into his ear.

Vincent looked back at him and shrugged. He didn't know what to do either.

Vincent had a better understanding of what went on around him, but he too usually preferred to follow Draco's lead. Draco was a Malfoy and being on the side of the Malfoys was always a good idea, as his father had thought him. The Malfoys had everything: an old line, lots of money and the favour of Lord Voldemort. On the whole they made perfect allies.

But right now this particular Malfoy was acting strange. First he fell in love with a muggle loving Weasley then he was friendly with Dumbledore and now he suddenly liked Severus? Maybe Blaise was right. Maybe Draco was a traitor. And if he was Vincent wanted nothing more to do with him. But if he wasn't, acting against him would arouse the ire of the Malfoys which was a dangerous thing indeed.

"I don't know." he whispered back. "I'll need some time to think it over.

Gregory sat back in his chair and watched Draco and Severus play with the hedgehog. They really seemed to get along fine. Much better than Gregory and Draco ever had.

So until Vincent had figured out the situation it would be the five of them together, he realised. Even if Blaise and Severus would never get along. Somehow he and Vincent would have to act as buffers between Blaise and Draco and Severus. He only hoped that Vincent would come to a decision soon.

Draco and Severus spent the rest of the day in the common room doing their transfiguration homework and drawing a big picture of two dragons by a lake.

Actually it was Draco who did most of the homework. Severus just copied it and asked a lot of questions about it. Draco soon concluded that Severus really didn't understand a thing about transfigurations. He did know exactly how to reach the same effect through various potions however and Draco didn't hesitate to work that into their essay. McGonagall would notice at once that this had been a team effort. She couldn't accuse either of them of copying and it was definitely one of the longest and most interesting essays she'd get. So what if she'd have to read it twice.

Draco soon found out that despite the fact that he hadn't shown that particular talent before, Severus did know how to draw dragons and they were both very proud of the first picture they'd drawn together. They decided to stick it on the door of their dorm even though every passing Slytherin sneered at the sight of it. Let them. Severus and Draco liked their picture no matter what the others said about it.

It wasn't really their drawing skills that the others disliked anyway. They didn't approve of art in general. Pansy Parkinson even told Draco that drawing was for Hufflepuffs and that they were through. She was so disgusted that she never even wanted to talk to him again. Draco just smiled at that. He was finally rid of Pansy.

Albus Dumbledore slipped into the Slytherin common room once more late at night to check if everybody was asleep. As he didn't want to wake anybody he quietly peeked into each dorm only by the soft little light of his wand.

Carefully he checked each door before opening it. Running into Severus' traps twice had sure made him cautious.

And he was especially careful when approaching the fifth years' dorm. He lit out every last inch of floor around the door and was relieved to find no indication of a trap. The door was fully closed which meant that there was no bucket on top of it and there were no ropes visible from the outside. There still might be some on the inside, but if he opened the door slowly and only a very small crack wide he ought to be able to see those before he set off the trap.

Albus grabbed the handle to open the door raising his wand and ... stared into the eyes of two angry dragons.

Startled Albus stepped backwards, slipped and landed with a surprised outcry and a loud thump on the floor.

Muffled sounds could be heard from the inside. Then a soft light became visible under the door and the door opened.

Severus peeked out curiously then opened the door fully to reveal Draco and Vincent standing behind him.

"Why Albus, I didn't even set a trap for you this time." he grinned.

Dumbledore got up slowly finding to his relieve that he wasn't hurt. He glared at Severus angrily and Severus grinned back. Draco grinned too. Vincent stared. Blaise and Gregory showed up still looking half asleep.

"What's going on?" Gregory asked rubbing his eyes.

Dumbledore relit his wand and checked the outside of the door. Draco and Severus followed him around the door.

"What is that doing there?" Albus asked pointing at the dragon picture.

"We drew that." explained Draco.

"It's very decorative, isn't it?" added Severus.

"Decorative?" echoed Dumbledore. "Having dragons on your door?"

"Oh yes." agreed Draco.

"It's stupid." declared Blaise.

Vincent and Gregory said nothing. They thought that drawing pictures was stupid, too, but they didn't really want to say that to Draco. So they just stood there and watched waiting to see what would happen.

"Well, I'm sure it was a lot of work and it is quite a piece of art, but I don't think it's appropriate for this door. It's too frightening."

"But Albus, it's just a piece of parchment. It can't do any harm." protested Severus.

"It gave me quite a start. Anybody passing here unsuspectingly might be frightened."

"Just because you were doesn't mean everybody else has to be too. Most of the boys have already seen it and none of them were scared. Who else is going to come by here?"

"Don't argue with me Severus! Take this picture off and put it somewhere less conspicuous. You could hang it over your bed or something. But if you want to decorate the door please draw something nicer."

"Nicer?" sneered Draco. "What do you expect us to do? Draw flowers and little hearts?"

"They don't have to be hearts, but flowers would be nice."

A disgusted look passed between Severus and Draco.

"Or you could try unicorns or bunnies. Maybe dogs ... "

"Would cats be nice enough?" asked Severus in a suspiciously innocent tone, but Dumbledore didn't notice the sudden gleam in his eyes.

"Oh yes, cats are a very good idea. Draw some cats for your door. And now: Good night! he said pointedly holding the door open for them and shooing them back into their dorm.

"Cats, Severus?" asked Draco as they climbed back into their beds.

"Yes, cats. I just had this beautiful inspiration. We'll draw ourselves.

"Ourselves?"

"As cats."

"Ourselves as cats?" repeated Draco dubiously.

"Catar cats."

Draco couldn't make out Severus' face in the dark, but he could almost see his grin as he said that. An angry panther could look almost as frightening as a dragon. Draco fell asleep trying to imagine what he would look like if he were a huge cat.

Tuesday morning once again meant double potions with the fifth year Slytherins and Gryffindors for Dumbledore. He still hadn't found a new potions teacher and therefore was forced to make one last attempt at teaching them how to brew a healing potion.

Dumbledore expected the worst, but had decided to give it his best effort.

At first it looked like his fears were to be confirmed. The lesson started with another confrontation between him and Severus over where a certain green hedgehog was to stay during potions class. For a while he feared that Severus would go on strike again, but when Albus told him to work with Draco he calmed down and decided to cooperate.

Remembering the last practical lesson Albus paired Neville with Hermione and just to be safe placed them next to Severus and Draco.

Harry Potter was paired with Seamus Finnegan and Ron Weasley with Dean Thomas. With Lavender Brown and Parvati Pattil placed between those two pairs the level of whispering in the class was noticeably reduced and their concentration assured.

Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were happy to work together though they were working a bit slow and had to ask a lot of questions.

Blaise Zabini volunteered to be paired with Pansy Parkinson, which surprised Dumbledore, but he had been wondering what he should do with Blaise and wasn't going to protest the idea.

Half way through the lesson he discovered that Severus and Draco had secretly taken Greenie out of his cage and were now taking turns feeding him their slugs and beetle eyes.

Albus' first impulse was to get angry, but then he decided to pretend not to see them. Who knew how Severus might react, after all. He didn't want him to sit around sulking again and he seemed quite happy right now.

The other pairs proved surprisingly peaceful as well. Hermione kept Neville in check assigning him the simple tasks like cutting ingredients or stirring the potion to keep him busy and out of trouble.

Gregory and Vincent took up most of Dumbledore's attention as they constantly required assistance. They were however not misbehaving in any way. They just didn't seem to be able to understand Albus' instructions. Dumbledore got used to having to explain everything to them again and again and gave them some extra demonstrations, which seemed to help a lot.

Harry and Ron got along fine with their respective partners and didn't seem to have noticed that they had been separated on purpose.

Lavender and Parvati had an outburst of animosity during which they threw their potion ingredients at each other. They hit several other pupils in the process who declared unanimously that they'd better stop their bombarding or else ... Soon the two girls were once again not talking to each other and the room was blissfully silent.

Blissfully silent except for Blaise and Pansy, who kept whispering and were working even slower then Gregory and Vincent. Those two were obviously up to something though they didn't seem to reach a full agreement over whatever it was. They were inattentive and constantly needed to be reminded to stir their potion.

Albus began to fear that it might boil over as Harry and Ron's had the last time, but luckily Mllicent Bulstrode kept an eye on the pair and sometimes even lent a hand to them.

Five minutes before the end of double potions Albus Dumbledore realised with a start that except for Blaise and Pansy all his students were done. He had done it! He had finally kept the class in check long enough to teach them how to make a healing potion.

He walked through the rows to check their products feeling extremely proud. Sure Snape would have been done with that potion weeks ago, but Albus finally had learned to control this class. In his opinion that was quite an achievement.

Dumbledore stopped at Vincent and Gregory's worktable.

"Something's wrong." complained Gregory.

"The colour isn't quite right." clarified Vincent.

Albus looked at the potion more closely. Indeed it was a slightly darker shade than it should be.

"Too many spider legs." announced a girl's voice behind his right shoulder. "That can be easily fixed."

"Easily but unnecessarily." declared another voice behind his left shoulder. "The potion will work anyway. The effect will be slightly weaker, but it isn't worth the trouble it would be to fix it."

Albus spun around and glared at Hermione and Severus.

"I do not need your help to teach this class." he told them. "Please return to your seats and clean up your tables."

"We already did." Hermione, pointed out nodding towards her worktable.

Indeed most of the students were done with their work and were looking at him expectantly.

"We're bored." pouted Severus.

"Very well. Those of you who have already shown me their potions and cleaned up their tables may leave. Gregory, Vincent. Your potion isn't perfect, but it'll do. You may clean up and leave."

He watched as most of his students grabbed their bags and filed out of the room.

"One moment please, Miss Brown and Miss Pattil."

Lavender and Parvati stopped at the door looking back at him surprised.

"You may have cleaned your worktable, but what about all the ingredients you spilled on the floor? I expect you to clean up that mess you made in your fight."

Lavender and Parvati trotted back dejectedly and began to scrub the floor mumbling something about 'unfair'.

Albus finally ended his round at the table of Blaise and Pansy. By now double potions was officially over and except for Lavender and Parvati who were just finishing the floor all other students had left.

Blaise and Pansy however still weren't done with their potion.

"Professor we only need another ten minutes." begged Pansy when she saw his critical look.

"You don't have another ten minutes. By the time you'll have finished this and cleaned up you'll be at least five minutes late for your next lesson. I'm afraid I can't allow that. Take your cauldron off the fire and hurry with the cleaning. My next class will be arriving in a few minutes."

"But Professor Dumbledore..." started Blaise.

"I'm sorry Mr. Zabini, but you two have failed this assignment. I advise you to be more attentive in the future. You could have completed your task easily if you hadn't talked so much."

"This is all Draco's fault!" hissed Blaise as he picked up the leftover potion ingredients and returned them to the students' cupboard.

Draco and Severus chose Filch's office to draw their new picture. Severus wanted a chance to see his raven and Draco liked the idea of not having to sit in the common room and be sneered at by everyone passing.

Filch looked up from his work every once in a while and shook his head at the boys, but he didn't comment. Drawing was okay by him since it didn't usually leave a big mess or get too loud and he was happy for Severus that he'd finally found a friend.

He hid a secret smile behind his hand and returned to reconstructing the Weasley files. He was gluing together as much as he could, but as he couldn't repair them by magic he'd have to rewrite most of what the raven had torn up.

"I have to go to Quiddich practice." Draco said suddenly glancing up from the nearly finished picture. "Wanna come?"

Severus made a face at him and shook his head.

"No thanks. I wanted to go see Remus anyway. I'll meet you in the common room afterwards to finish this." He indicated the picture.

Draco sighed and made puppy eyes at Severus.

"Oh, come on. I'll let you ride my broom afterwards and we can go see Lupin together."

Severus looked at his friend and had to grin. The raven had taken an immediate liking to Draco and was currently perched on his shoulder pulling gently at his silverblond hair which was already sticking out in every direction. Ravens were known for their curiosity and particular fondness of everything shiny and Corvus was especially bad in that respect. Severus put that down to his pet's unusual intelligence.

"We wont get the picture done by tonight that way and I'm still afraid of heights."

Draco looked at him blankly and Corvus seized the chance and lifted one leg to grab at another strand of nice, gleaming silverblond hair.

"I already explained I don't like flying." Severus clarified.

"You could still come and watch. ... Ouch! Corvus let go, that hurts!"

Draco pushed the raven off of his shoulder. Corvus gave a protesting squawk and flapped once around the room to land on Draco's other shoulder.

"Sorry, but I really want to talk to Remus. I'll come watch next time. I promise."

Sighing Draco got up and tried to pry the raven off.

"Come on Corvus. I've gotta go. I'll visit you again soon."

The raven finally jumped off onto the table and shook his feathers indignantly.

"Rascal!" he squawked.

Draco jumped and stared at the bird.

"He just renamed you." Severus laughed.

Draco turned to him.

"Your bird talks."

"Of course he does." Severus grinned. "Most tame ravens do."

"Why did he call me that?"

"I don't know how he chooses those names, but once he does he sticks with them. Better get used to it, Rascal."

Draco mumbled something unintelligible, gathered up his stuff and turned to go.

"Well, I'll see you later then."

Severus smiled.

"Next time I'll come with you. Unless you'll want to take Ginny instead."

Draco laughed and dashed off. He was going to be late.

Severus pulled one of his pencils away from Greenie who for some reason kept trying to eat his school things and rolled up the parchment. He stowed everything in his bag carefully before he picked up the hedgehog and said a quick good bye to Corvus and Filch.

As soon as he was gone Mrs Norris appeared from under a bookshelf where she had been hiding from the visitors and turned an accusing glare at the caretaker.

"I apologise, my sweet, but they weren't too noisy, were they? And I kind of like some company every now and then."

Mrs Norris shook one hind leg in disgust and sulked off to search for some mice to take her anger out on.

Filch once again returned to sticking the escapades of the Weasley twins back together.

Severus knocked on Remus' door hoping at the same time that he would be in and that he wouldn't. If he wasn't there he could go down to the Quiddich pitch and watch Draco. He hadn't liked to disappoint his friend like that and if he did still come now it would cheer him up.

If Remus was there that would spare him from watching Quiddich which he thought to be unbearably boring. He couldn't understand what others liked so much about the sport.

"Come in!" he heard Remus' voice from inside.

Well, no boring Quiddich. He'd make it up to Draco next time.

Severus opened the door, walked in and stopped immediately in surprise. Remus Lupin was sitting at his desk having tea with ... Harry Potter.

"Hello partner! Want some tea?" Remus greeted him smiling happily.

Harry looked up at Lupin in surprise. 'Partner?' he mouthed.

"No thanks. I didn't want to disturb anything. I can come back later. Didn't know you had a guest." Severus turned to go.

"Severus wait!" shouted Remus quickly. "I'd really like to talk to you. And you're not disturbing anything. Come back in. Please?"

Severus sighed and came back even though he noted that Harry didn't look pleased. He didn't want to disappoint Remus. At least one teacher was still treating him as an equal. That was worth spending some time in the company of Harry Potter.

Remus conjured another chair for Severus and poured him a cup of tea. He tried to unobtrusively start a conversation between the two boys, but failed miserably. Severus and Harry just glowered at each other. It was so much like Severus and James all those years ago.

"This reminds me of how I always tried to get you and James to make up back when we were kids." he said to Severus smiling at the memory. "I always thought that it could work. That you'd be friends if only you gave each other a chance."

"My father would never have made friends with a Slytherin!" exclaimed Harry.

"Oh, but he was friends with me. I was a Slytherin too, you know."

"You! Slytherin?" Harry paled. "No. That can't be."

Remus smiled.

"It was an unusual friendship, but we didn't care much about house rivalry. It did a lot to relieve the tensions between the other students as well. Only Severus and James always insisted on hating each other. I never understood why."

"I don't know why James hated me, but I can tell you why I hated him. But you wouldn't like the answer I think."

Remus looked at Severus curiously. What was that about?

"Why?" he asked, for some reason suddenly feeling nervous about the answer.

"Because of you." Severus said softly. "Because you could have been my only friend, but James and his gang took you away from me when they wouldn't let me join.

"I'm sorry." Remus said. "I never knew you took it so hard. You never seemed to care. I should have turned them down."

"And then what? We'd have been very lonely. I never was very popular. You'd have missed having other friends."

Remus stared into his cup for a while. Yes, he would have missed out on being popular and having lots of fun with all the pranks the Marauders pulled, but Severus wouldn't have been so lonely. It hadn't been right to choose James and his bunch over his only Slytherin friend. But there was nothing he could do about it now. He decided to change the topic.

"I'm teaching a seventh year class the first lesson on Wednesday morning. Think you could come and help me with it?"

"No sorry, I can't." sighed Severus. "I'd love to, but I'd miss transfigurations and Minerva would never forgive me.

"I could explain to her."

"That wouldn't help. Remember how I always used to mess up in her class? I'll fail the OWLs this time if I don't start working seriously."

"Oh come on. How hard can it be? You've done it before." Remus tried to encourage him when he saw how frightened Severus looked.

"I was lucky the first time. And my transfiguration skills haven't improved since. Remember the hedgehog incident?" Severus nodded towards Greenie who was sitting in his cage on Remus' desk watching them.

"But that was a joke. Wasn't it?"

Severus shook his head.

"No, I recreated the whole incident, down to throwing Greenie into Minerva's face. And I didn't do any of it on purpose."

"But Sirius wasn't even there to taunt you."

"No, but Neville was."

Harry was feeling more and more uncomfortable. He hated being in the same room with Severus. The boy was even more devious than the teacher had been. And he was still in shock from the revelation about Remus. One of his father's best friends. A Slytherin!?

He had always thought that all Slytherins were evil. Now he was confused. Remus Lupin was one of the nicest people he had ever met. How could he be a Slytherin? Maybe it was the werewolf? Yes it had to be the werewolf. The werewolf part of Remus was evil and that was why the sorting hat had put him in Slytherin.

But how could he have been friends with Severus Snape? Harry had no problem imagining Severus friendless. He couldn't however imagine him having any friends at all. Well, aside from such people as Lucius Malfoy.

"I always thought Malfoy was your best friend?" Harry asked before he could stop himself.

"Draco? Of course he is. But he wasn't around back then."

"Not Draco. I meant his father." 'Severus is best friends with Draco?' Harry thought surprised. 'And I thought they hated each other.'

"Lucius?" Severus didn't believe his ears. "Lucius is ten years older than me. I admit I admired him a lot back then. Mostly because he was the only adult who ever showed an actual interest in me. I didn't realise why he did of course. He was more like a mentor. I would certainly not say that we ever were friends."

"You're not friends with him now?" asked Harry surprised.

"Friends? He's probably the only person in the world I like less then you, Potter. - Him and Voldemort that is." he added as an afterthought.

"Then why are you always so nice to his son?"

"I already told you. I like Draco. Not his father. Draco."

Still to come: What happens when Albus sees the new picture? Whose side will Gregory and Vincent be on? And we should finally get around to meeting Mary Sue in the next chapter. And what is Severus going to do about Ginny?