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The Slug Club Christmas Party (Severus)


Of all the students in the castle, it turned out that the Slytherin lot actually had the most boring thoughts, which surprised Severus. Several of the boys in the Slytherin house seemed to have no thoughts at all, or at least very few and very dull ones. Severus spent every meal in the Great Hall as an opportunity to practice tuning in to a new mind, getting better at listening in each time he attempted it. He found quickly that the Ravenclaws were always thinking of lessons or logic puzzles in complex and speedy tracks and the Hufflepuffs were often contemplating humanitarian causes or gossip that was passing around the school. He tried to avoid his abilities extending to the Gryffindor table, as most of their thoughts were about Quidditch or else he'd stumble upon James's thoughts about Lily, which was the worst. Hearing James think about Lily was the mental equivalent of stepping into an ice-cold puddle without knowing it was there. But as November got on, Severus got better at blocking out the thoughts he didn't want to hear as well as he was getting on with hearing the ones he did. So far, too, he'd respected Lily's wishes and left her thoughts alone, despite his keen desire to know what she really thought of him.

November meant cold weather rolling in and the wind whistled 'round the turrets of the castle, chilling the Slytherins to the bone when they were up the astronomy tower with Zosma. Severus created a little pile of blue flames to keep warm with as they peered through the telescopes, tracking various constellations and marking them on their charts. By mid-month, the castle had been coated with snow that did not melt as easily as that first dusting had, and the students were spending free periods out on the grounds playing in it. Severus personally hated snow, hated the cold in general, as he'd spent the first ten and a half years of his life living in a dusty, run down old house, freezing all of the time. He used all the time in the empty common room to continue studying up on his ability, afraid everyday that Lucius would return to question him once more.

It was the end of November when Lily sought him out. He was in the library, studying for an essay he was working on writing for Potions, when she suddenly appeared beside him. “I have a question,” she said simply.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Professor Slughorn's got a sort of club,” she explained, “And for some reason he's got me in it and he's given out invitations to a Christmas party and I'm entitled a guest. Do you want to go with me to the party?”

Severus was surprised. “Yeah? You don't want to ask Alice Bell?”

“Well,” Lily said, “If you say no I will, but I thought you might like to come with me.”

“Yes,” Severus said.

Lily smiled, “Okay, then. Smashing.”

“When is it?” Severus asked.

“The night before holiday,” she answered.

“Alright.” Severus nodded.

“While we're at it,” Lily said, “Do you want to share a compartment on the Express going home, too?”

Severus shook his head, “I'm not going home.”

“You aren't?” Lily looked surprised. “Why not?”

“Why would I?” Severus asked, “This place is much better than my house. I'd much rather stay here, where it's warm and there's a load of food, than go home where I can hear my parents shout at one another all holiday long.” He added, “I take it you're going home, then?”

Lily nodded, feeling guilty for her normal, functional family. “I'm hoping I can make up with Tuney over the holiday. We didn't leave things on very good terms before.”

Severus shrugged.

“I know you don't think it's important I make up with her, but she's my twin. It feels very odd being apart from her. We've never really been apart.”

Severus answered, “It's odd that you're such a grand witch when she's a muggle. She must be a squib. Never heard of a muggle-born squib before, but I guess it must be technically possible. I mean, that's how muggle-borns come to be at all, you know, a squib marrying into a muggle family and that recessed gene eventually makes the way forward.”

“So technically, doesn't that make all of my family squibs?” she asked.

“I guess half maybe.”

Lily said, “You know, I'm sure mum and dad would be okay with it if you came and stayed with us for Christmas.”

For a moment, Severus considered the offer. It would be nice to be at a home, or anywhere, really, that Lily was. But he didn't want to intrude and he knew that Petunia wouldn't be open to working on her relationship with Lily if he were there, and Lily was too hopeful about her opportunity to get close with Tuney again for him to sabotage it with his presence. “That's alright,” Severus answered her, “There's a few people from my house that're staying. My friends,” he added.

“Well that's lovely,” Lily answered. She glanced around the library. “Anyway,” she said, “Sorry I bothered you when you weren't alone, I just wanted to extend that party invitation.”

“Thanks,” Severus answered.

“Welcome,” Lily answered.

He watched as she walked away, her long red hair in a braid down her back that swung like a pendulum as she walked. He turned back to the parchment of notes and the open book on the desk before him, but found he couldn't concentrate. After all, he'd basically been asked on a date with Lily Evans. His confidence level soared. Whatever James Potter may be thinking about as he sat there on the Gryffindor benches, it didn't matter. Lily had asked him, Severus, out. Not Potter.





The night of the party seemed to come extremely fast. Severus stood in the Slytherin dormitory toilet, staring in a mirror as he fastened his dress robes, trying to get his hair to do anything besides hang dismally at the sides of his face. He tried to mess it up and get it to look cool, as all the other boys in the school had taken to doing recently, but it just wouldn't do anything except lay flat and heavy atop his head, no matter what he did to it. There had to be a spell for this, he thought, but looking cool wasn't exactly something they taught you in Transfiguration class.

He was supposed to meet Lily in the entrance hall, so he stood at the end of the staircase, nervously staring at his fingers as he waited for her to come down. When he heard footsteps on the stairs, he turned 'round and saw her approaching him, wearing a plaid jumper and a dark green cardigan that complimented the color of her eyes. He smiled as she walked down the steps.

“Hello,” she greeted him. “I'm sorry if this whole party turns out to be really boring. Most Slug Club things are.”

“I like your sweater,” Severus blurted out.

Lily laughed, “Thank you.”

There were more footsteps on the stairs and Severus looked up to see Remus and James coming down the stairs, talking lowly. He stiffened at the sight of them. Lily glanced over her shoulder and saw them, too. She turned back to Severus, “Oh don't bother with them. They aren't going to cause any trouble.”

She'd no sooner got the words out than the two boys reached the bottom of the landing and James gave Severus the once-over, his eyes darting to Lily and back, as though trying to compute that the two of them were, evidently, together. “This your Christmas charity for the season?” James called as him and Remus rounded the corner at the base of the staircase. “Bringing along him?”

Severus felt his face grow hot and Lily turned red, too, and turned to face James. “Shut up, you prat. Like you're one to talk about having to be brought along to this party. You didn't earn your own way, either, did you?” James shut up at that, but Severus had a feeling if he listened in he'd have heard much more on the topic in James's head. He and Lily watched in silence as James and Remus disappeared down the steps to the dungeons off to the Potion Master's office.

When they'd disappeared, Lily turned back to Severus. “Ooh, he's such a git,” she hissed, balling her fists and shaking her head in disapproval. She let out a sigh. “Sorry about them. I hope that's all they get up to. If they bother us at the party, let's leave, alright?”

“Fine by me,” Severus replied. Of course, he would've been just fine with not going to the party at all and using the time to sit alone somewhere in the castle and catch up, like old times, when they'd sat by the river, under their tree, and talked about the magic community and Hogwarts for hours on end. It seemed like so long ago now, those days when spending time with Lily had been Severus's entire world. He smiled tentatively at her, and she smiled back, and they walked on down to Slughorn's party together.

The room was nice, decorated like a rich man's study, and Severus was surprised to realize that he hadn't been in his head of house's office before. Never had a reason, too. The room smelled very good, like all of Severus's favorite things wafting about in the air. He breathed deeply of the scent and murmured, “Wow,” as a house elf, hoisting a platter of hor d'uerves walked by.

“It's rather pretentious,” Lily said apologetically.

“This is nice,” Severus answered, shaking his head.

Professor Slughorn himself spotted them, then, and disengaged from a conversation he seemed to have been having with an older student neither of them recognized, and came over to greet them. “Miss. Evans, I am delighted you've made it, and – why, Master Snape,” he greeted Severus. “Why – I'm surprised – but you must be friends, of course, being partners in Potions, yes.” He smiled widely. “Amazed by Miss. Evans potions skills as I am, 'ey?” He winked indulgently at Severus.

“Oh yeah, of course,” Severus agreed.

“Cannot blame you at all,” Slughorn chuckled. He rocked himself on the ball of his feet and tugged at the hem of his waistcoat proudly. “Well, I'm very pleased you could make it, too, very pleased indeed. You're doing quite well at potions, too, and I've heard some very promising things about your marks in Defense...” Slughorn nodded. “And Master Malfoy has had a lot of very positive remarks about you as well.”

At the mention of Lucius Malfoy, a shiver went up Severus's spine. He hadn't even considered Malfoy when accepting the invitation to this party. Would Malfoy be here? And if he was, what would he have to say about him, Severus, being there with Lily Evans? Lucius had already made it quite plain he didn't approve of Severus hanging around with her at all, not to mention attending an event like Slughorn's party with her.

“It's too bad he couldn't make it tonight,” Slughorn boomed, as though he knew Severus was worried about running into him. “Oh. Excuse me, it looks like Derek Bell's just arrived.”

They stepped out of the way for Slughorn to go greet the newest guests and Severus breathed a sigh of relief that Malfoy was at least one obstacle that he wouldn't need to contend with tonight. But there was plenty others, people who might tell Lucius about him being there with her, and so he knew he needed to make a short time of it at the party and get Lily out of there, some place they could hang out and talk alone before she left for the holidays.

But extricating Lily from the party turned out to be a lot harder than he thought as they moved from cluster to cluster, greeting hello and Happy Christmas to each group as they moved through Slughorn's office slowly. It seemed hours before they'd made their way to the back of the room, standing near by a little buffet table that held all the various trays the house elves weren't carrying throughout the party. Severus got them each a goblet of mulled cider and held one out to Lily.

“Thank you… Actually, first, could you hold it a mo'? I have to run to the loo,” Lily said, leaning in to speak in Severus's ear.

“Yeah,” he answered, “Let me walk you,” he added, thinking this would be the perfect opportunity to get out of the party.

“No, wait here, I'll only be a second,” Lily replied.

Severus frowned, “Alright, then.”

“Brilliant. I'll be right back.” Lily dove into the crowd and he watched as her red hair moved along and out the door.

He stood there awkwardly, looking around and holding two goblets. There were plenty of people he recognized in the room, he realized, and quickly put together that these were all the well-connected people from all of the houses, the ones whose family members he'd heard of for various reasons or who were famuos 'round the school for their skills or excellent grades. There were children of high ranking ministry officials and musicians and Quidditch stars. It was quite an impressive collection and he was quite an unimpressive piece among them.

“Could've at least cleaned your hair for her.” Severus turned to find James Potter at the other end of the table, a little plate in his hand as he plucked lamb kebobs from a platter full of them. “She deserves at least that.”

Severus took a deep breath and, not wanting to draw any attention to himself being there with Lily, he turned away.

“Seriously, Snape,” said James to Severus's back. “Take a shower once in awhile and you wouldn't be so repulsive.”

“Leave me be, Potter,” Severus hissed.

“Not trying to be mean, just being honest,” James shrugged. “I mean even Lily's got to be grossed out by that oil slick you've got on your head. She's just too damn polite to say it. I'm sure she thinks you're right nasty with your hair all parted down the center like that, like a couple of greasy black curtains.”

Severus closed his eyes, counting to ten to keep from reacting.

“Perhaps somebody will give you shampoo for Christmas,” James said and he took a bite off his skewer, smiling 'round the lamb chunks, and walked away. “Then she won't have to be embarrassed by you anymore.”

Severus put down the goblets and walked away from the table. He wanted nothing more than to pull out his wand and send a terrible spell directly to James's heart. He balled his fists and hurried out the door of the party. He was furious, his feet stomping the stone floor. Lily was just coming back down the corridor toward him and her face lit up with concern, “What's the matter?” she asked the moment she saw him. “Sev?”

“Are you embarrassed by me?” he asked.

“Embarrassed by you?” Lily asked, confused.

“Of me and the fact that I'm poor,” he said.

“I don't give a damn if you're poor,” Lily replied, affronted. “What on earth's made you ask this?” she gave him a funny eye.

Severus said flatly, “James Potter.”

“Blast him,” Lily growled. “What did he say? I'll punch him right in the bloody nose!”

“Said you were embarrassed by me,” Severus answered, “Called me repulsive. Said someone ought to give me shampoo for Christmas.”

Lily's anger faltered. Something flickered in her eyes and it made Severus's stomach drop to his toes. He knew if he asked her why she would never tell him and so, instead, he listened to her mind for himself...

She was thinking it wouldn't be such a terrible idea, that he could use some, really, and perhaps now he'd been told he'd change. She was agreeing with James Potter.

His mouth formed a tight line.

“I've got to get back to the dormitories. It's late. You have a Happy Christmas back home with your perfect little muggle family, making right with your muggle sister, and doing all your bloody muggle holiday traditions,” he snapped. He turned on his heels and stormed off down the corridor toward the Slytherin common room.

“Severus, wait,” she called, rushing after him, “Why are you leaving?” She sounded stunned.

“Because, you agree with him,” Severus shouted, voice echoing off the stone of the dungeons.

Lily stopped dead behind him. “You looked into my mind, then, did you?” she demanded.

“So what if I did? Is that why you didn't want me looking in the first place? Because you have all sorts of awful thoughts about me and you didn't want me finding out what you really think of me?” Severus yelled. “That you agree with a great bully like James Potter?”

“Sev --”

“Well go on thinking it then, I don't give a damn what you think!” he shouted, “I don't give a damn about you at all.”

Lily clenched her teeth. “Well… good! Fine, then. I don't care if you do! I don't give a damn about you, either! It isn't as though you've never thought nasty things about me, too, I'm sure. So go think them all in your bloody dorm.”

“I will!” Severus yelled. They were quite far apart by now, down opposite ends of a long corridor.

“Good!” Lily screamed. “And just so you know - everyone is thinking the shampoo thing, not just James and me. Everyone in the school!”

Severus turned the corner and heard her squeal in frustration echoing down the hallway but he didn't turn back. His feelings were too hurt to look her in the eyes.