A New Beginning, pt. 2

“Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans?” Severus picked up his box, and Lily did the same, looking curious. Harry had to be the only one of the three to have tried them before. Though, he noticed Raven had smirked slightly while drawing, so she had probably knew of them too, but chose not to say anything.

Lily opened her box first and ate a murky green bean. The look of pleasure that lit up her face indicated she had been lucky with a normal-flavored one. 

“Mint!” She exclaimed, and ate another just as Severus did. They both coughed in surprise and spat out the candy. 

“Eugh! It tastes like rotten tomatoes!” Harry laughed at her disgusted face, and she flashed him an annoyed, but amused, look. “What about you, Severus?” 

“I think it’s…” He was steadily turning greener. “…vomit.” 

Lily moved out of range. “Are you okay?”

Severus nodded, but didn’t convince any of them. It was amusing to Harry, but Lily was concerned. Harry ate a bean, which turned out to be cherry, then set aside his box. 

They let Severus ride it out as they tried some cauldron cakes. 

“I hope the food at Hogwarts is this good,” said Lily happily, using the back of her hand to wipe some chocolate off her face. 

“Yeah,” Harry agreed. He couldn’t wait. The cooking wasn’t world-class, but it was familiar. 

Lily looked thoughtful. “I wonder what school will be like compared to Muggle school. I haven’t looked through my books at all, since I just got them yesterday, but from the titles I can guess some of the subjects.” Harry nodded in agreement as she continued. “I wonder what I’ll be good at. Maybe I won’t be good at anything! But Sev told me Hogwarts is the best wizarding school, so I can't fail at everything, right?”

“You’ll be fine. Do you want to try some magic right now?” Harry asked, and pulled out a book he had brought, The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1), by Miranda Goshawk. Lily looked at it, curiosity lighting in her familiar green eyes.

“Okay! We’re allowed to, right?” 

“’Course. Er, well, I think so,” Harry replied, trying to sound like he didn’t know more than anyone else would. He flipped through the book and found a familiar incantation. 

“This one’s called the Hover Charm. It seems kind of tricky, but I think we’ll manage.” Harry remembered someone saying Lily was good at charms, so this shouldn’t be too difficult for her. He passed the book to her, and Severus, too, who had thankfully recovered. He read the directions while eating a cauldron cake to get rid of the taste the bean had had. Raven even tucked away her book and pulled out her wand to participate. 

“How about we try it on this?” Harry picked up the least dangerous item in the cabin, the package that had once contained a chocolate frog. He handed it to Lily and she balanced it on her knee. 

Lily tried first, pronouncing the incantation exactly right, but her wrist movement was slightly off. “Wingardium Leviosa!” The box shuffled a bit, but didn’t rise. She tried again, but it yielded the same results. She reread the book, her spirits clearly falling. After several more times, the best reaction she had gotten was tipping the box onto its side. 

Harry pretended to consult the book for tips, then said, “It looks like you need to back off on flicking your wrist, otherwise there’s nothing else that you’re doing wrong.” 

Lily nodded and concentrated, her face scrunching up in determination. Harry smiled faintly at her expression. 

“Wingardium Leviosa!” 

The box rose into the air and she laughed excitedly. “I did it!” 

They all clapped. Severus beamed and told her he knew she’d be a great wizard. There was something in his voice like relief; no doubt he wanted her to go against the prejudice that Muggle-borns were not equal to Purebloods, even if he did not fully believe this himself. Not wanting to steal Lily’s glory, Harry pretended to struggle with lifting the box, eventually getting it on his tenth try. Snape levitated his on his eighth, the same as Raven. Harry wasn’t surprised about Snape’s luck; different people had commented on his extraordinary abilities as a wizard. He had expected Raven to do well also, since she seemed unusually smart. Harry was amazed on what the three accomplished, and by seeing how they did on just this one spell realized how intelligent they were. 

The four tried some other spells, from transfiguration to more charms, but most of them were too hard, so after a while they gave up. The school books were pushed out of the way, as well as the many candy wrappers. It was only four o’ clock, so they still had several hours left before they reached Hogwarts. 

Raven had a pack of Exploding Snap, so she taught them how to play. They spent an hour with the game, but eventually got bored. Harry won the majority of the games (he couldn’t help himself) and Lily did okay…it was just Raven and Severus who weren’t that great.

“I’m awful at cards,” Snape muttered, having been stifling his frustration at failing at the game for the entire time. Harry suspected he didn’t have much experience with playing games, that Lily and him had probably only played cards a few times together.

“It’s okay, Sev! You’ll get the hang of it! I can help you practice at school—” Lily faltered, the thought of being separated because of the sorting striking her. 

Raven studied them. “Even if you guys are in different houses, you can still be friends.”

Snape nodded gloomily. Harry couldn’t hold back a disbelieving snort. He tried to cover it up with a cough, but Severus noticed and glared at him threateningly. Harry tried to look bored with his reaction and turned to Lily.

“So…Lily…tell me about your family. I thought your parents were pretty nice.” Partly he wanted to know about what his would-be grandparents had been like, partly he asked just to keep an argument from arising.

“Yeah…well, my dad works at a product development company, and my mom stays at home. And then there’s Petunia…” she glanced at Severus. “…who’s older than me and she’s, er…fun.” Fun was a stretch, Harry thought. Although, he respected her loyalty to her sister and nodded in agreement.

“Well, what about you?” Lily asked. Harry had already planned out his family and was prepared for the question.

“My mum and dad work full-time, and I’m an only child. I don’t know of any other wizards in my family, but I wouldn’t expect my parents to tell me about any, ‘cause they don’t really like magic and stuff.” 

Harry realized he had probably been a little too open about saying this, but eventually they were going to share the darker parts of their lives, so he might as well do it now. Since Lily and Jacob both already knew about his father disliking magic, Severus didn’t bring it up. Raven looked like she had something to say, but her opportunity left her and she returned to sketching.

“Hey, Raven, can you draw me?” Lily asked, not being able to help herself stare at the sketchbook.

Raven shook her head, but halfway through realized that Lily was not going to take no for an answer, so she grudgingly agreed. Harry noticed she used a pencil instead of a quill to draw, and thought this was pretty unusual. 

The picture Raven was currently working on was nearly done, so she quickly shaded the last bit and flipped to the next page. She smoothed out the paper and drew a very basic oval. She marked the placements of Lily’s eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. As she continued—it was a very timely process—Severus watched, trying to act casual. Harry could tell he wanted the drawing to look every bit as beautiful as Lily. If the drawing didn’t meet his expectations, he’d probably give Raven specific instructions on how to make it better. 

While Lily held still for Raven, Harry decided to zone out. He gazed out the window absentmindedly, allowing thoughts he had been ignoring before to present themselves. 

Is what he was doing wrong? He changed two huge things all in one day, first by preventing Petunia from yelling at her sister, then not sitting with James and Sirius, and meeting Raven…there was no doubt that the future was different now. What if, for his sake, he was killing people? Harry didn’t know if the ripples he made could cause tsunamis, and it made him sick to think that trying to help people would only make things worse. 

He must have looked pretty green, because Lily asked him, “Jacob, are you feeling alright?”

Harry nodded and tried to cover his frown with an unconvincing smile. When Lily looked back at Raven’s drawing, he let his smile fade. He had the sudden desperate urge to grab his suitcase and find his Time-Turner, to tell his past self not to go back in time. The notion was even more appealing at the thought of seeing Ginny, Ron and Hermione. He’d learned his lesson—to appreciate the things he had—so couldn’t he leave? But if he stopped himself from going back in time, he would lose the memories. 

Unless…unless he gave all of the memories to his past self so he wouldn’t even need to go back in time! The idea was so brilliant any doubt he had was stifled. If something disastrous should happen, he’d stop himself from going and give his memories to his future self, so any mistake he could fix later. Although Harry still had reservations, his temporary relief allowed him to move on. 

The Sorting Hat. His main concern was not that it would announce he was an impostor—that seemed unlikely—it was whether he was doing the right thing. The Sorting Hat makes no mistakes when it places a student in a house. It can see everything in that person’s mind, and Severus was no exception. The hat could see that Severus loved Lily, maybe even anticipated that Snape would always eventually make it to the good side. It had taken all of this into account while placing him. 

Still…Harry glanced over at Severus. He was grinning; Raven had finished the basic structure of Lily’s face, so her lightly sketched mouth was now smiling up at him. Harry took in the scene, willing it to convince him he was making a good decision. If, even with his guidance, Severus didn’t get into Gryffindor, this time Harry would know it wasn’t meant to be. 

Harry watched the sun move down toward the ground in silence. It was beautiful, in a sad way, and brought a feeling he couldn’t define. Maybe it was a sudden large understanding for the world that was impossible to put into words. It made him desperately sad, but also peaceful. He was content with watching the sun’s journey for a while, until Lily’s exclamation broke his thoughts. 

“Wow, for me? Thank you!” Harry saw that it was a flattering, simplified image of Lily just before she tore out the drawing and handed it over. Severus tried to seem nonchalant as he peered at Raven’s creation. Harry could now only see it upside down, but could tell that the penciled version of Lily was laughing. 

“Really good job,” Severus managed, almost shyly. 

Lily nodded in agreement. “Thank you! It’s amazing!” She studied it for a little while longer, then set it beside her, on top of all her schoolbooks, which rose above all of the trash. Noting the state of the compartment, she suggested, “Maybe we should clean up. I don’t know how soon we’ll get to Hogwarts, but we aren’t using most of this anymore.”

Harry glanced at Severus, then back at her. “How about you two go the bathroom to change while we clean up and get into our robes, too.” Raven and Lily made eye contact and shrugged. They rummaged through their suitcases and each pulled out a set of robes. When they had gone, Severus and Harry started straightening up. The two piled empty wrappers in the corner, pocketing any candies that were left over. Harry put his books back, as well as Raven’s sketchbook. He placed the picture of Lily carefully in her bag, which was Severus had straightened up the rest, so they both changed quickly. Lily and Raven came in just as the two had finished. They were thrilled to be in wizard’s robes, and that was clear without the excitement being voiced.