Chapter Five:
The air was warm, a slight breeze rustling the trees and the sun shining brilliantly on the teens as they spent their afternoon by the lake. Lily had taken off her shoes and robes and stood in the shallow water, kicking her feet and attempting to splash the boys, who stood close enough to the water’s edge to converse with her but not close enough to get wet.
“Come on--” Lily urged, her voice drifting into the range of a slight whine, “The water feels amazing and we won’t have long before it’s too chilly to enjoy the sunshine like this.”
“The last time I stood at the edge of a lake like this, my best mate pulled me in and I was soaked.” Harry replied, a grin and a pang of sadness at the thought of Ron. Hermione had been so irate with the boys after they’d gotten her soaked too and two pages of notes she’d been carefully committing to memory were destroyed. He hadn’t failed to notice she started charming her notes more thoroughly after that incident. Ron had felt that it was the price she paid for wasting a gorgeous afternoon revising, and she had made it clear that she felt his laissez faire attitude towards education was going to leave him alone and penniless in the future.
“Better to be pulled in by friends than pushed in by idiots.” Severus grumbled, clearly having his own memories of the water.
Lily turned to Harry, filling in the gaps in the statement that Severus clearly wasn’t going to do, “Sev is James and Sirius’s favorite target. Those bullying gits are awful to him. At the end of term last year, they pushed Sev into the lake and I think Sirius would have drowned him if Professor McGonagall hadn’t walked by when she did.”
“I got them back though, didn’t I?” Severus smirked, “I convinced a house elf to put a potion in their juice, a mixture of a truth serum and a babbling beverage. They spilled all of their secrets for hours - they were so mortified that they skived class for the afternoon in fear they’d say something that would get them expelled.”
Harry couldn’t help but think how useful a potion like that would be for Malfoy at times.
As the two friends entertained Harry with stories of their previous years both at and out of school, Harry soaked in every detail. He wished he had a pensieve so he could remember every moment of this time he had with his mother, so he could view it at his leisure and get lost in the sound of her voice, the softness of her touch, and the joy in her laugh.
Harry had enjoyed spending time with James, Remus, and Sirius, but spending time with Lily and Severus felt more like spending time with his own friends, in his own time. They were both so real; they weren’t showing off to whoever was around, they weren’t constantly taking the mick from each other, and he didn’t feel like he had to impress them by acting or reacting a certain way. He supposed he probably didn’t have to impress the Gryffindor boys, either, but he was a lot more worried about fitting in and being accepted by them, whereas Lily and Severus felt natural to him.
“Do you want to walk along the lake and pick flowers?” Lily asked the boys, picking up a rock she’d found and skipping it across the water.
Harry shrugged, and Severus nodded, “I’ve been looking for frog eggs to add to my potions kit. I’ll look for those while you find flowers.”
The trio walked along the edge of the lake, and eventually Severus and Harry both pulled off their shoes and rolled up their trousers to dig for eggs while Lily trailed beside them, holding a water lily that she had found and was planning to enchant to do...something, Harry wasn’t really sure what she had been talking about when she had described it to him.
They had been out for several hours, and Severus was teaching Harry how to properly charm the eggs they’d found to preserve them for as long as possible. Lily was a few feet away, crouched down in the shallow water to collect a few rocks that looked, in her words, ‘unique and worthwhile’.
The afternoon had been quiet and pleasant, so Harry should have known it was going to go downhill sooner or later.
“Oi, Snivellus! If you spend too much time in the water, you’ll poison the giant squid with all of that grease.”
The three whipped around quickly, and Severus visibly tensed when he spotted three of his four Gryffindor tormentors approaching, James their ringleader with his disheveled shirt and tie giving off the vibe that he wanted people to ask what he’d been doing to get so disorderly.
“Sod off, Potter.” Snape hissed, looking at the group of Gryffindor boys with the utmost loathing.
“Or maybe it’s time for your annual bath?” James continued, reaching the water’s edge, “You certainly look like you haven’t seen water since your last dip in the lake, Snape.”
“Don’t you have anything better to do?” Snape growled, hand going for his wand, “The way you follow me around school...one would think you missed me over the summer.”
“Ha! You wish, Snivellus!” Sirius barked, moving to stand beside James and pointing his wand at Severus, “Pottingham, you really should be careful who you choose to associate with at this school. Some students are nasty Death Eater scumbags.”
Severus clenched his fist, Lily tensed, and Harry’s heart pounded rapidly as he tried to figure out how to diffuse the situation. He didn’t want to have to take sides, especially since he felt like Severus was in the right here yet he had to sleep in the same dorm room as the marauders. The sneer on Sirius’s face and the strut when James walked reminded Harry so much of Malfoy, though, the two boys were nothing like the men of Harry’s memories. Unable to ignore the Malfoy vibes the two boys were projecting, Harry glanced at Lily and Severus, responding cooly, “He’s no more of a Death Eater than you or I.” Yet.
“Oh lookie, Snivellus has gotten himself a new defender.” Sirius taunted, “Can’t fight your own battles, Snape?”
Severus shot a look at both Harry and Lily that clearly told them to shut up and let him handle things. He glared at Sirius, responding darkly, “You’ll find that I’m a better fighter than you, Black. I don’t have to hide behind my name and ride on the coattails of my lineage. Not only am I smarter than you, I’m also quicker than you, I don’t need my friends to stand up for me or to stand behind me, I could take you out all on my own. Both of you.”
“You wish, Snivellus.” Sirius responded angrily, taking a step closer to the Slytherin, “You snakes are all the same - vile and disrespectful. You talk about my lineage, but at least I have an influential and powerful one. You’re no one. You’re a miserable nobody who suckers in those gullible enough to believe you’re not utterly useless to be your friends. You hate us because you wish you were one of us, but you know you never will be because you’re a miserable, useless waste of skin and air.”
Sirius turned his attention to Harry and Lily, continuing, “Pottingham, I can forgive you because you’re new and you don’t know anything yet, but Evans - you can do better than this pathetic bellend.”
Harry felt like someone had punched him in the gut - it had been one thing to view the bullying in Snape’s memories, but another to witness it firsthand. He was gobsmacked that Sirius and James were ganging up on Snape like this, especially when Snape had literally done nothing to them to initiate it. Fury flooded his veins and he snapped, forgetting who he was even speaking to in the height of anger, “I don’t know anything yet? You can forgive me? Who do you think you are? You don’t know anything about me - I’d wager to say you don’t know anything about him, either. I have never been so embarrassed to be associated with someone as I am at this moment, looking at you.”
Harry had no idea what happened next, but in the blink of an eye there were hexes flying through the air. He narrowly missed a stinging jinx, but ducked out of the way in time and sent one back towards his father and godfather, too angry to think about how insane it was that he was fighting them in defence of Snape, of all people.
Water splashed around them as the opposing sides fought and Harry felt more alive than he’d felt in months. There really was nothing more invigorating than a good duel.
It didn’t take long before Harry and Severus were out of the water and onto dry land. He dodged yet another stinging hex - was that all the Gryffindor boys knew how to cast? - and sent back an ice hex, much more powerful than he’d intended. James and Sirius were frozen momentarily, which gave Harry and Severus just enough time to slide on their shoes and take cover in the nearby trees. By the time the two Gryffindors had worked through the counter to the ice hex, Lily had rushed off with Peter to find a professor to intervene.
“Impedimenta!”
“Incendio!”
“Rictusempra!”
“Petrificus Totalus!”
“Protego!”
“Expelliarmus!”
“Depulso!”
“Confrigo!”
“Flippendo!”
“Relasho!”
“Incarcerous!”
“Stupefy!”
“Langlock!”
“Immobulous!”
“Oscausi!”
“Tenticlafors!”
“Lacarnum Inflamari!”
“Levicorpus!”
“Diffendo!”
“Inflatus!”
“Pullus!”
“Fernunculus!”
“Boys! Enough!”
The sharp and angry voice of Professor McGonagall stopped everyone in their tracks. James and Sirius lowered their wands, and both leaned forward with their hands on their knees, trying to catch their breath. They were in complete disarray, their clothing torn in several places and a variety of obvious ailments - Sirius had a tentacle in place of his left arm, for instance. Harry didn’t spot the boils he’d sent their way, and wondered if they’d deflected them or if they were just in a place not visible due to clothing.
Harry and Severus were also breathing heavily, sweat dripping down Severus’s pale face and Harry’s breaths coming in short gasps as he struggled to calm down and control himself. Severus’s robes, face and hair were splotched with dirt from the small explosion that took place when a blasting curse had landed right beside him in the dirt. All in all, Harry was pretty sure that he and Severus had won the duel - they’d been hit by the fewest spells thanks to great shields and a natural inclination towards duelling that Harry supposed they shared.
Out of the four, Harry was the only one who had the common sense to look contrite and apologetic to the professor, whereas the other three were quick to jump to excuses to defend themselves and their actions.
“Professor - they attacked us out of nowhere. You should take 100 points from Slytherin!”
“Mr. Black, even if they did attack without provocation, if I took 100 points from Slytherin on behalf of Mr. Snape, I’d also have to take 100 points from Gryffindor from Mr. Pottingham, as well as points from you and Mr. Potter for retaliation.” McGonagall responded sternly, though she appeared like the punishment was not completely off the table.
Harry had seen McGonagall angry before, but never quite this angry. He supposed he didn’t usually find himself in the middle of a conflict quite on this scale during his time, though.
“How could we not retaliate? Look what they’ve done to us! Pottingham shouldn’t even be allowed in Gryffindor, he’s betrayed us!” James complained.
“Retaliate?” Harry replied hotly, itching to whip his wand out but knowing it would not be the wisest choice, “We were minding our own business when you lot came along and hexed us!”
“We wouldn’t have had to use our wands if you wouldn’t have been so disrespectful--”
“Respect is something that’s earned, not freely given.” Harry responded to Sirius peevishly. He wasn’t sure what had come over him, he couldn’t believe he had gotten into a row with Sirius and James, of all people, and he didn’t really understand why he still felt so angry towards them. He hadn’t been this angry with another student since the quidditch game where he’d resorted to muggle-style fighting with Malfoy, and even then, his temper had cooled in the face of consequences from his Head of House.
While Sirius still looked angry, James looked betrayed by what had happened. Ignoring McGonagall’s attempts to silence the group and restore order, he turned his attention to Harry, “I thought we were friends. How could you team up with the enemy like that?”
“I don’t have any enemies here.” Harry replied, glancing at Sirius who muttered something about him having enemies now before turning his attention back to James, “Honestly, I was just hanging out with Severus and Lily, just like I’ve hung out with you lot. You came to us and started picking a fight, you can’t just go around bullying people because you’re bored!”
McGonagall cleared her throat, and Harry looked down contritely, “Sorry, Professor.”
“Regardless of Mr. Pottingham’s proclivity to continue running his mouth when he ought to be silent, he is correct. It is foolish and immature to resort to tormenting those you disagree with just because you have nothing better to do.” McGonagall said sternly, looking at James and Sirius like she had a pretty good idea of what had happened, “Perhaps all four of you have too much free time on your hands that could be better spent accomplishing something productive.”
Harry could sense where this was going and groaned.
“Therefore,” the professor continued, “I do believe two weeks of detention are in order. Mr. Snape, you will serve your detention with Professor Slughorn, I will ask him to contact you with details once he has had a chance to verify his schedule. Mr. Potter and Mr. Black, I do believe we had an arrangement at the end of last term about what would happen if I found you two involved in trouble at the start of a new term?”
“No, Professor,” Sirius replied, his voice raising nearly an octave as he tried to backpedal out of this situation, “We made it through the first week without getting into any trouble! You can’t!”
“I do believe that the first week of school still counts as ‘start of term’, Mr. Black.” McGonagall replied cooly, “And I hardly count pranking the Slytherin house staying out of trouble.”
“It was just a laugh! Please, Professor-”
“No. You will learn that your actions have consequences. I think two weeks of scrubbing bedpans and assisting in the hospital wing will do both of you some good.”
Both James and Sirius looked incredibly disappointed, and Harry almost felt bad for them - as far as detentions went, that was a rather unpleasant one.
“And you, Mr. Pottingham,” McGonagall continued, “You will serve detention with me. If I find you in any other situations like these, you will report straight to the Headmaster and he will not be as forgiving as I am.”
While Harry nodded resignedly, the other two Gryffindors snorted at the idea of Dumbledore being used as a threat.
McGonagall shook her head as she surveyed the four students once more, “Mr. Potter, escort Mr. Black to the hospital wing to get his….tentacle….sorted out. Mr. Snape, I do believe that Miss Evans will be waiting for you in the student lab, if she’s capable of following directions better than her housemates. Mr. Pottingham, please come with me to my office.”
Harry had thought that this had been a really strange day overall; a productive potions class, being friendly with Snape, fighting with James and Sirius - but what happened next was the most shocking of all.
“Professor McGonagall? It wasn’t Harry’s fault.” Severus said quietly, “It was mine. Harry was defending me. Please go easy on him - he was just trying to help and then things got out of hand.”
Both Harry and McGonagall stared at the reserved boy as if he’d grown another head. Harry couldn’t believe his ears - Severus Snape, standing up for him and trying to get him OUT of trouble?
“Be that as it may, Mr. Snape,” McGonagall replied, though her voice had softened quite a bit, “Mr. Pottingham is aware that fighting is against the rules and must live with the consequences of his decisions. I will take into account during his punishment, however, that even though he was behaving recklessly and thoughtlessly, he had noble intentions.”
With that said, the conversation was over and she motioned for the boys to follow her back to the castle.
“Noble intentions...How Gryffindor of you.” Severus told Harry with a sly grin as they walked behind the professor.
Harry shrugged good-naturedly, knowing that the words were phrased at an insult, but also as a joke, “We’ll see how Gryffindor I am when I have to sleep in the same room with those blokes tonight - they may revoke my Gryffindor card.”
He was only half-joking.
Severus seemed to catch the hint of worry that Harry felt, and he gave the boy a friendly nudge, “You’d be better off without it, mate.”
Harry wasn’t sure why, as never once in his life had he had the slightest desire to be friendly with Snape, but his spirits lifted slightly at Severus’s words. He had little time to analyze what that meant, however, as they entered the castle and McGonagall dismissed Severus.
She rounded on Harry, lips tightly pursed together. She looked as if she wanted to say something, or perhaps throttle him in front of everyone present, but instead she maintained her stare for a moment, then turned and marched towards the staircase, “Follow me.”
The walk to her office was silent and the initial anger he’d when fighting had completely melted away. The warmth he’d felt at his new friendship with the much less intimidating teenage version of Snape faded away as well, leaving Harry feeling guilty and apprehensive. He wasn’t actually a student here, and he didn’t have the same relationship with McGonagall here as he did in his timeline, even though she was so similar to his Head of House that he forgot at times that it wasn’t the same professor who was accustomed to dealing with the adventures he’d had.
He also recognized that, despite how much he loathed being treated as the famous Harry Potter, he was definitely treated favorably by professors. Without that protection from his fame, he had a very real concern that they’d chuck him out and leave him to fend off the Voldemort of this time.
Harry stopped walking for a moment, realization dawning on him so strongly that he was left feeling slightly dizzy and disoriented. Thoughts swirled rapidly around his head as different flashes of conversations and memories combined to come up with a primitive but potentially amazing plan. What if he left the school and found Voldemort now? Neither can live while the other one survives...if he got rid of the noseless bastard now, he could not only save Sirius in his timeline, but he could save his parents and prevent Sirius from ever having gone to Azkaban. He could have the opportunity to have grown up with his parents, spared from the miserable Dursleys, he could save Cedric--
His racing thoughts were interrupted by McGonagall, who had also stopped walking and was eyeing the boy with a mixture of worry and resignation.
“You look just like your father when he’s on the brink of breaking every school rule in existence, and some who haven’t even been created yet.” McGonagall accused wearily, “Merlin help us.”
“Sorry.” Harry said distractedly, barely able to pay attention as his thoughts wandered to what could happen if he grabbed ahold of his fate and handled the situation now. They’d all be safe - he’d be able to enjoy his last two years of school with Ron and Hermione and spend the summers at home with his Mum and Dad, Sirius and Remus, enjoying the break from learning instead of acting like the Dursley’s unwanted guest. He made an effort to keep up with McGonagall as they approached her office, and once they arrived he sat down on a chair opposite her desk and tried to focus.
“Mr. Potter, Harry,” McGonagall began, then paused as if she were trying to organize her thoughts before speaking, “I know this experience has been a huge upheaval for you and I’m trying really hard to keep that in mind…”
“You’re going to kick me out, are you?” Harry asked, wondering if McGonagall was leading up to tell him that he was too much trouble and not worth their hospitality. After all, he couldn’t really blame her - he’d just broken several major school rules and attacked his father and godfather. And while he did think leaving to hunt down Voldemort was a good idea, he still needed to plan first and he wouldn’t be able to do that as easily with no roof over his head.
McGonagall reached into her desk and pulled out a tin of biscuits, taking one for herself and holding the tin for Harry to take one as well. She waited until he had selected one, then responded, “No, I’m not. I just think that you might need someone to talk to, and I wanted to offer to be that person for you. Don’t get me wrong, Harry, I’m still very upset with that spectacle I walked into by the lake this afternoon, but I’d like to believe that there was some sort of motivation other than just defending Mr. Snape that had you so angry and ready to whip your wand out towards other students.”
She paused, as if carefully selecting her words, and then resumed speaking, “I understand why Black, Snape and Potter--James were quick to have each other at wand-point, as this situation has been escalating since they arrived at school as first years. However, I fail to see why you were drawn in so easily.”
“I don’t like bullies.” Harry replied, “And I don’t like being told who I can and can’t talk to. I think it’s ridiculous that they sought him out to target him when he literally wasn’t doing anything to them. I tried to tell them to back off, but they refused and I lost my temper. I swear we didn’t draw our wands first, we were just trying to defend ourselves.”
“Does your dislike of bullies come from personal experience? Were you bullied in school in your own timeline?”
“No.” Harry replied, giving the idea some consideration after he’d already answered, “I mean, I was when I was younger. And I have a fellow student who I really, really do not get along with - but we antagonize each other. Sometimes he does things that are undeserved, and sometimes I actually do deserve it, but I don’t feel picked on or ostracized by him, I just don’t like him.”
Harry pictured Malfoy’s smug face, annoyance flaring slightly when he realized that James sort of reminded him of Malfoy at times. Disgusting. He tried to push that comparison as far out of his mind as possible, not wanting to associate the two with each other.
“If you’re worried I’m going to start going around duelling all over school, I promise I won’t.” Harry told his Head of House, meeting her eye to show he was being honest, “I don’t know what came over me.”
McGonagall appraised him for a moment and Harry felt quite uncomfortable under her analytical gaze. “Do you think you’ll be able to get along with James and Sirius for the duration of your time here? Would you prefer if we placed you with a different group?”
As angry as he’d been with his family, the idea of being separated from them sent a pang of grief through Harry’s heart, and was quick to reassure her, “No, no, we’ll be fine. We were getting along before today, I’ll smooth things over with them and it’ll be fine. Please, don’t change anything.”
“If you’re certain…”
“I am.” Harry reiterated, looking down at his lap, “Please, don’t make me leave Gryffindor. In my own time, I can’t remember my Dad and I only had Sirius for a few years. I need this--this time, these memories.”
“And your mother?”
“She died....she died to protect me. The only memory I have of her is her murder.” Harry whispered, tears building in his eyes though he pushed them back down before they had a chance to fully develop. He sniffed slightly, then looked up at McGonagall, “I didn’t mean to come to this year, but now that I’m here, I need to spend as much time with my parents as I can, while I can.”
“I understand, Mr. Potter.” McGonagall said kindly, reaching over to place a hand on his shoulder, “I daresay you’ll have your work cut out for you now, trying to get James and Sirius to see past the incident today, but they’ll probably come around. It’s not as if they haven’t gotten into many a row before.”
“Thank you, Ma’am.”
“I must say...you are a pretty talented duelist. For your first detention, tomorrow at 7:00, I think we will partake in extra studies; I’ll enlist the help from your Defence teacher to oversee the experience.”
Harry’s mouth fell open in shock. His detention for duelling was to get more practice in duelling? He knew he’d have to keep this detention a secret from the other Gryffindors; if they learned that Harry was getting extra Defence lessons while they cleaned bedpans, they’d never forgive him for fighting with them.
Dinner came quickly after the chaotic afternoon, and Harry entered the Great Hall nearly too nervous to eat. What were James and Sirius going to say to him? Would they even talk to him at all? Would they get in yet another fight? He was relieved to see they hadn’t arrived yet and wasted no time serving himself a small portion of chicken and potatoes, hoping to eat what he could manage quickly and then retreat to the library until curfew. He wasn’t one to run away and hide from his problems, but he seemed to be having difficulty gathering up his typical courage.
The first bite tasted like ash and he took a swig of his drink, pushing his plate away. He couldn’t eat, not when he was unsure of what to expect from his roommates. He didn’t know any of them well enough as adults to anticipate their next move, much less as their teenage and less mature selves.
He glanced at the head table, feeling like he was being watched, but no one was looking in his direction. He scanned the other tables, his eyes finally coming to rest on Severus, who was watching him intently. He tried to decipher the meaning behind the intense gaze, but couldn’t quite connect the dots. When he turned back to his plate, Harry gasped in surprise as he realized he was no longer seated alone.
“Survived the battle, then?” Lily asked, nudging his plate closer to him, “Made it out with all of your limbs intact?”
“You told McGonagall on us; we have detention for two weeks.” Harry complained, “Not to mention I’m pretty sure James and Sirius are going to hex my bed and belongings to oblivion and back.”
Lily laughed, serving herself a plate of food and digging in, “Better detention for two weeks than Azkaban - I don’t know if you’ve realized this yet, but none of those three know when to back down and give up, one of you guys would have been seriously injured or worse if we hadn’t gotten someone to intervene.”
“Better McGonagall than Snape, I guess.” Harry muttered, then froze when he realized his slip. There was no Snape to catch them at this point in time; Snape in this time was a student and not an authority figure. He had to do something about his slip up.
Lily looked at him, clearly confused by his comment, and he stared back at her, mind racing as he tried to formulate an excuse for saying what he’d said. Ultimately, he decided that this would actually be an appropriate time to run away from his problems, and he pushed his plate away with what he hoped was a pathetic and miserable expression. “Gah, I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore. I must have hit my head during the fight, it’s been sore ever since.”
For emphasis, he rubbed the back of his head with a frown, “I think I’m just going to go up to bed and hope tomorrow is better.”
“You haven’t even eaten yet, Harry.” Lily replied, her voice dripping with concern in a way that made Harry feel absolutely terrible about lying to her. “Finish up your meal and then we can have Madam Pomfrey look over you, if you were hurt during that horrific display of testosterone you need to have a professional give you a once over.”
“I’m not really hungry, sorry Lily.” Harry replied, rising to his feet, “I can make it to the hospital wing on my own, no sense in both of us missing a meal.”
“Are you sure?” Lily asked, also rising, “I don’t mind.”
Harry gave her a reassuring smile, but waved off her concern, “Yes, it’s fine - enjoy your meal, I’ll see you later in the common room.”
“Well if you’re absolutely certain…” Lily responded, though he could tell it was taking all of her willpower not to insist she join him.
Harry flashed her a smile before walking quickly from the Great Hall. He had no intention of going near the hospital wing, as he didn’t really have a headache, but wasted no time in making his way up to the common room. If he was lucky, he’d make it there before the other Gryffindors attacked his possessions in retaliation for their fight.