Chapter 6: A Brand New Year

“I see you didn’t get any new clothes for Christmas,” Sirius Black jeered as Severus huddled on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. He was peering about eagerly for Heather and Raislen, excited to know what new books they may have gotten for Christmas. Instead of his friends, though, he got Sirius Bloody Black of the Gryffindor Gang of Gits. Reaching into his pants pocket for his wand, Severus gave a resigned sigh. A New Year full of new opportunities! That was how people always spoke of the early days of January, but for Severus Snape, nothing had changed.

“No,” he snapped darkly, whirling to face Black. “Instead of clothes, I got a stocking full of very useful hexes. Would you like me to show you?” Severus’s wand flashed up as he felt his heart flood with eager adrenaline.

“Of course that’s what you got,” Sirius said as his own wand came up in kind. “Bring it. I’ve got something for your hexes.”

“Is he starting in again already?” The complaining voice came from James Potter. He approached, staggering slightly under the weight of an obviously heavy trunk.

Sirius smirked, pulling a face. “He’s taking up space on the platform and darkening said space with his greasy existence. Does that count?”

James paused, pretending to consider gravely as he set his trunk down at his feet with a thump. “Yeah…I think it does,” he decided, then drew his own wand.

Severus couldn’t help that his hair had too much oil. He washed it every day. Rather than explain this to the Gits, considering they would only happily use anything he said against him, he snarled a hex at them between gritted teeth. Said hex would cause their tongue to grow each time they spoke and he looked greatly forward to watching them trip and fall over their own insults very soon.

“James! Sirius! Don’t speak!” The third of four Gryffindor Gits had finally arrived. “That’s a nasty one.” The chastising tone and mildly apologetic look he received from Remus Lupin made Severus want to forget his wand and personally punch the other boy in the face. Before he could weigh the pros and cons of that option, however, Remus was reversing Severus’s hex on the other two Gryffindor Gits. “Look guys! It’s a brand new year,” Remus was saying. “Can’t we all just get along or at least leave one another alone?”

“Easier said than done with that one,” James muttered darkly and Sirius nodded enthusiastically. Before Severus could sling a well deserved insult, he heard Heather’s voice calling out from the other side of the platform.

“Severus! There you are! I was looking all over for you. I certainly didn’t expect to see you standing with a crowd of filth. Come, let’s find a compartment. We’ll get you cleaned with a charm once we’re settled…you know to remove the filth germs.”

He turned to grin at Heather Knight who was still waving frantically at him. As he hurried over to her, he didn’t hold back his pleased chuckle over her insulting the Gits. She and Raislen knew what royal prats they were, after all.

“Want to help me with this heavy ass trunk,” she pleaded. “There may be some new books in it for you to borrow,” she added in a wheedling tone, just in case he required convincing, which he didn’t. He could be a gentleman to his few friends, after all. His Mum had raised him properly as had his dad before Voldemort killed him. A new year indeed, Severus thought darkly as he hefted Heather’s trunk in the hand that wasn’t lugging his own.

“How was your Christmas,” Heather asked eagerly as she led the way onto the train. “Did you get any new books? My parents got me an absolutely terrifying one on Necromancy! Like it literally gave me nightmares already! You and Raislen will either hate it or love it, depending on if you’re in the mood to be traumatized. My grandparents came to visit, which was wonderful, but they are encouraging my parents to teach me the harp and I am dreadful at playing anything! I don’t want to do it.”” Heather’s grandparents on her Mum’s side were talented bards as were both of her parents. While she could carry a tune well enough, Heather had no particular magic in her voice or any interest in music.

“You shouldn’t have to play the harp if you aren’t interested,” Severus agreed. “And yes I did get a very rare potions book for Christmas.” Though the book was extremely exciting, he knew his Mum had to save up likely all year for it, so he felt guilty. Some day he’d make enough money to set his Mum up in style, he vowed silently. That did a little to assuage his guilt, at least enough to allow him to tell Heather about the potion in his new book that he was most eager to try making. “It has a focus potion in it that I am very eager to brew up for all of us to share. It should make it far easier to cram for any test. Hopefully Slughorn will allow us to use the dungeon after class one day.”

Heather nodded eagerly. “Here’s an empty compartment! Let’s grab it. As for Slughorn, I bet I can even talk him into giving us extra credit for making that potion of yours…which sounds very exciting by the way.” Severus followed Heather into the empty compartment she’d found, plopping their trunks down onto the floor with a relieved groan.

“For extra credit, Raislen may even be able to go an entire week without calling you HeatherToy,” he said with a laugh as he settled down into the seat furthest from the door. “I wonder where he is anyway.” Raislen was usually anywhere Heather was, after all.

“I know,” Heather said. Her voice was muffled due to the fact she was bent double with her head practically in her trunk. “I want you two together when I show this Necromancy book.” She chuckled. “I want to see your reactions at once. The bits where it talks about why fresh corpses are better than the nasty rotted ones are really horrific…On so many levels!”

“Am I sure I want to see this,” Severus wondered in open doubt, and Heather giggled happily.

“Oh you’re going to see it,” she threatened. “Ha, here it is!” Straightening, she triumphantly waved a thin book with a half open grave on the cover.

“HeatherToy! And Severus! Hi!” Raislen barrelled through the half open door of the compartment and Heather promptly whacked him in the side with the Necromancy tome.

“Stop.Calling.Me.HeatherToy,”she ordered through gritted teeth.

“Oh I just love you,” Raislen cooed, bending to kiss her on the cheek. “Let me see the book.” Groaning and wiping at her cheek with the sleeve of her winter green wool dress, Heather allowed him to extract the book from her hand.

“She was waiting for you to get here before we could look at it,” Severus told Raislen eagerly as the other boy sat down. “It sounds rather horrifying unless you fancy disgusting rotted things!”

“You were really waiting for me, HeatherToy,” Raislen asked, his face lighting up. Heather approached him, smiling sweetly. Nodding she smacked him hard on the head and he yelled in pain, holding up her Necromancy text to shield his face.

“I told you not to call me that,” she said almost sweetly as she settled down in the seat closest to the door before reaching to slide it closed.

“Sure but you know I’ve got to,” Raislen defended. Sliding closer to Severus so that the younger boy could see the book as well, he eagerly opened to the first page. “Now let’s horrify ourselves. If it’s really bad we won’t even be able to eat when the snacks come round!”