Chapter Nine

It had taken Severus seventeen apologies and eight promises of letting the budding relationship between Lily and Potter alone before Lily forgave him. It had taken two apologies and twenty-two promises of “I’ll keep everything between us away from you” before Severus forgave her. He was not happy with the new-found romance, nor would he ever be. But Lily was happy – Merlin only knew why – and Severus didn’t have it in him to keep fighting with her. Even if she had chosen Potter.

However, that hadn't stopped Potter from antagonizing Severus. And, while Severus wasn't going to go out of his way to break up the pair, he wasn't going to take Potter's pranks lying down. It seemed, after Severus' little prank, that the rivalry was back on. It just wasn't something that Lily knew about.

The first time Severus and Potter had class together was the morning after the incident in the hallway. Severus was in the back of the class, as usual, while Potter was in the front, selanjutnya to Lily. While McGonagall's back was turned, Potter turned his head to the side, catching Severus' eye, and kissed Lily full on the mouth. Then, he threw Severus a smirk and faced the front.

The official story of why James Potter wound up in the hospital wing with his head transfigured into a pin was that his wrist had seized up, and the spell – meant for the hedgehog he was supposed to be transfiguring – backfired on himself. It most certainly had nothing to do with a certain enraged Slytherin in the back of the room.

Two weeks later, when Severus was forced to approach Slughorn and offer to pay to replace the three desks his exploded potion had melted, he'd explained that Archie – the Slytherin selanjutnya to him – had accidentally bumped his arm while Severus was putting the liquified mugwort in. It couldn't have been the revenge of a highly embarrassed Gryffindor Chaser.

Although Lily was highly suspicious of the sudden freak accidents that seems to suddenly befall Potter and Severus, she seemed perfectly content to believe their excuses. Or, if she did think otherwise, she kept her komentar to herself.

natal time came quickly. As the students readied themselves for the last Hogsmeade trip before the holidays, Severus gathered his school bag and headed for the library. Lily was planning on spending the trip with Potter and co. and Severus, despite his silence against their pairing, refused to spend any lebih time with the ridiculous trio (Lupin wasn’t going, claiming that after the baru saja moon cycle, he was far too tired). Lily had pouted and bribed Severus, but he steadfastly refused. After a while, Lily gave up.

The perpustakaan was surprisingly full that night. Severus scrounged around for an empty seat, and found one at the same meja as Regulus Black. The boy glanced up as Severus approached, but beyond that, gave no notice of Severus’ arrival. It didn’t really matter: Severus had diberikan up trying to decipher the young Slytherin's strange behavior. He’d gone from watching Severus almost obsessively out of the corner of his eye, to completely ignoring the fact that he existed.

Severus pulled a worn, leather bound book – his private journal – from his bag and flipped it open to the page he’d been engrossed in all week. The page was covered in symbols, scribbles, potion names, and acak doodles, which made it almost impossible to read. But the judul of the entry - Sectumsempra – stood out prominently.

Severus had invented the curse last year, but had yet to test it out, mostly due to the fact that whomever he tried it on would most likely die of blood loss, as Severus had not figured out how to stop the bleeding. While he fully admitted that he could be an arse, he was not a murderer, nor would he ever become one.

He sighed in frustration. He’d been working on the counter-curse for months now and had come up with nothing that would completely solve the issue. That was the problem with making your own spells – anda had to make your own counter spells as well and make sure that the magic would weave together favorably. He snapped the book shut and grouchily reached into his bag for his charms homework. Might as well get something productive done.

A similar frustrated sigh from his left told Severus that he wasn’t the only one having trouble with his projects. He glared selanjutnya to him and saw Regulus slamming his Potions book shut with a snap. When he realized Severus was looking at him, he gestured at the offending book irritably. “I don’t know how anda do it – it’s all gibberish to me.”

Severus took the compliment with a grain of salt. “It just… comes natural, I suppose.”

Regulus scoffed. “Lucky. I’m completely daft at this.”

This time Severus snorted. “I doubt you’re that bad.”

“I can’t tell the difference between a diced Peanucle ikan forel, ikan trout and a slivered Eashead. I completely ruined the elixir we were working on today because I mixed them up.”

“Those gave me trouble as well.” Regulus eyed him skeptically. “No, really. But I realized that, most of the time, Peanucle is a dark berwarna merah muda, merah muda color, while Eashead is a light violet.”

“Right…”

Severus smiled, in spite of himself. In truth, he was kind of enjoying flaunting his intelligence. “Another way to tell them apart is to look at the tips: the Peanucle has a very narrow tip – like the end of a quill – and the Eashead has a broader tip – lebih like the end of an arrow.”

Regulus’ eyes lit with understanding. “Is that why anda have to dice the Peanucles every time anda use them? Because they’re so slim? I’ve always wondered why anda couldn’t chop atau slice them. But I guess it makes sense…”

And so it continued. Regulus asked countless pertanyaan and Severus patiently answered. He took the friendliness with an ounce of suspicion; Regulus was still chummy with the Slytherins who didn’t particularly like Severus. And Regulus may be friendly now but that didn’t mean his friendliness was even sincere. Still, though. It was nice to talk without having to worry about offending someone.

After a while, the perpustakaan emptied out, leaving the two boys alone discussing Potions. And, when they ran out of Potions related topics, they switched Charms. And then Transfiguration. And then Quidditch. Severus wasn't a big Quidditch buff, but Regulus adored the sport.

“I think Slytherin's got a good chance this year, though,” Regulus berkata happily, twirling a quill between his fingers. “Our teams better than it ever was, and we've been training really hard.”

Severus smiled wanly. As much as he enjoyed talking with Regulus, the talk of Quidditch had reminded him that this conversation was never going to happen again. Severus was still the outcast, the misfit, while Regulus was the budding Quidditch player who was mates with the people responsible for Severus' ostracization. He highly doubted that Regulus would want to be seen being so chummy in the common room, atau even anywhere else. And, anyway, Avery would find a way to put a stop to it if he did.

As if on cue, Regulus' face went blank, and he turned away from Severus.

“Hey,” a voice berkata from behind him. Severus turned and faced Lily, her face flushed from the cold, her expression bewildered as she glanced back and forth between her friend and the youngest Black.

“I've been looking for you. The feast is about to start.”

Severus gave a sharp nod. “Okay. Sorry. I lost track of time.” He gathered his things up and followed her out of the library, trying very hard not to look back.