Lucy Snape and the Tale of the Knights (Book One)

10: Quidditch Tryouts

Chapter 10: Quidditch Tryouts

Lucy had taken Snape's offer up of claiming the spare room in his quarters and it felt exactly like being back at his house Spinners End. Better, even. As now she was at Hogwarts and had reconciled something she never thought could be salvaged.

It was an odd sensation waking up the next day and finding she had absolutely nothing to worry about. She had lessons to look forward to, friends to converse with and someone who wished to take her in as his own; she had nothing to worry about.

The thought made her smile as only yesterday she'd been dreading the man in black and now he was her friend and adoptive parent.

She slipped into a fresh set of uniform and grabbed her satchel. Her room was just beyond a small hallway that led into Snape's makeshift living room. The man himself was reading the Daily Prophet in an armchair, scowling at it as he read. His eyes bored into the print as though he was trying to hex it or make it feel his pain.

"Good morning," Lucy announced her arrival as she made her way into the room. She wasn't quite sure of the reaction she was going to get.

But she should've learnt by now that Snape's demeanour changed only for her. "Lucy. What lessons have you got today?" He'd even dropped the newspaper to look at her.

Lucy had already been attempting to memorise her timetable like Hermione had suggested in the event she lost it. "Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Transfiguration and..." she squeezed one eye shut in concentration, trying to remember. "Flying Lessons."

"You'll like the flying lesson."

If Lucy didn't know better she'd say Snape was reminiscing.

Ignoring the newspaper once and for all he stood up and opened the door to his quarters. "We'd better head to the Great Hall."

"I can go along with that," Lucy admitted. They'd had dinner delivered to Snape's classroom by some house elves from the kitchen so they could continue their work. So Lucy hadn't gotten the opportunity to tell her friends the happy news yet. She was eager to get there and see them and to devour some breakfast.

Snape was impressed at how quickly they'd managed to refill his personal stores and at how quickly Lucy had learnt how to make Potions. Surely a girl with no previous knowledge of anything magical and now a success story was destined for greatness. Hell, if she won the House Cup for Gryffindor he'd be proud to present it to her.

Even if there were stares from the Slytherins.

As they made their way to the Great Hall, Snape was acutely aware of the looks members from his own house were giving him. They knew from the sorting and Lucy's red tie that the pair didn't quite match up.

Lucy seemed to notice too. "Is this awkward for you? Do you want me to walk a few paces ahead?"

"Absolutely not," he murmured, still staring icily at a member from his own house.

But she was still ashamed. "I haven't told you yet; the sorting hat nearly put me in Slytherin."

Snape was astonished, his gaze rested on her. "Oh?"

"It even began to call it out and then stopped. It also told me that you were a Slytherin too and that's why it wanted to put me there," she looked even more guilty by the second. "But then it said I was too brave for the cunning or something like that. It never told me what it meant."