The Tangled World!

Friendship Given Under Duress

Severus did his best to nurse his traditional post-Halloween hangover. He knew it wasn't healthy to drink himself near a coma once a year, but the loss he felt still hurt all these years later.

He no longer harboured any illusions about his romantic compatibility with Lily. Yes, he did love her, but he sincerely doubted that any serious relationship between them would have worked out. Even knowing that, though, her loss still cut deep. He hadn't ever had any meaningful friendships outside of the one he botched with her. The longing he had felt for ages had long since been replaced with a sorrowful regret that she passed on with so much bad blood between them.

He cursed the Dark Lord's name once again, though this time for a less personal reason. Much as the personal loss of Lily Evans, his only true friend, hurt, it was nothing compared to how the magical world suffered from the loss of Lily Evans, potions and charms mistress, and veritable genius.

Severus was one of the most skilled potions masters in the world, and Lily's skill at the subject outstripped his by leaps and bounds. He owed most of his knowledge to her, and he even published several papers based on discoveries she never got around to making public. Of course, all those papers were published anonymously, with all profits going to the Lily Potter foundation for Muggleborn students. He wasn't a monster, hard as he found it to believe most of the time.

And speaking of Potters...

Severus was not happy about it, but he was finally prepared to admit that there was a slight possibility that perhaps Harry Potter was not an exact duplicate of the boy's father. Maybe.

Admitting that made his hangover worse.

It made his refusal to have anything to do with his house seem petty. Which, frankly, it probably was.

Harry Potter hated his fame in a way that James Potter never would have. He often isolated himself in the library with Granger, his only friend. Seeing a lonely half-blood boy with a muggleborn as his only friend, well, it managed to hit Severus uncomfortably close to home.

Harry Potter was rubbish at transfiguration, which was James Potter's best subject. Harry Potter was also skilled at potions. He was no Lily Evans, but he was leagues better than James Bloody Potter. The boy's skill at combat spells seemed to come out of nowhere, but, as Professor Raven once told him during his fifth year, heredity and magic was not always as straightforward as one would hope.

Really, of all the new students in his house, he would never have guessed Davis would be the top potions student of their year. That girl was a wildcard through and through.

Looking back on everything in the past two months, Severus was forced to admit that distancing himself from his house was looking increasingly petty. Probably because it was petty.

Severus's head throbbed in pain again.

He was in no state to address his house now, but he could manage it later this evening, he supposed. Things couldn't have gotten too bad, right?

"Go. Away."

Ron tried not to flinch at Harry's cold tone. He knew he'd seriously bollocksed up any chance of friendship with Harry after his temper got away from him, but it was still a shock to see the cold indifference in the other boy's eyes.

"Look, I just-"

"I don't like bullies, Weasley. I've dealt with them my whole life, and I'm disappointed to see you act like one."

"I know-"

"If you knew, maybe you shouldn't have said something in the first place."

"But-" Ron tried to speak for the fourth time, only to find himself cut off by a length of wood pointed at his face.