Alternate Universe to Half-blood Prince.

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Chapter 3: An Accidental Meeting

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Neither Lupin child told their parents what had transpired the night before. In the bustle of leaving, John and Rebecca truly hadn’t noticed much except that perhaps their children were oddly formal in their address of each other. But they dismissed this as Rowena’s understandable fear of leaving home for the first time, and Remus’ nervous anticipation of his new responsibility as Gryffindor Prefect.

Once on the train, Rowena instantly put as much distance as possible between her brother and herself. This wasn’t difficult, as he had to ride with the other Prefects, at least at first.

John loaded her trunk for her, so all she had to carry was her book bag. She wandered from compartment to compartment, all chock-full of excited, chattering kids. She was lonely and frightened, as she had never seen so many people in one place at one time. It was nearly overwhelming. She felt far too shy to ask to sit with anyone, yet there seemed to be nothing empty.

At last, toward the very end of the train, she encountered a compartment with only one person inside. Others glanced inside this compartment and quickly rushed by without opening the door, as though there was a dangerous creature inside rather than one lone boy absorbed in a book. Feeling this was her best chance at relative solitude, she opened the door.

“Would you mind if I sit here?” she asked in a small voice that didn’t come close to hiding her nervousness.

The boy didn’t bother to look up from his book. His voice was snide, and heavy with bitterness. “Yes, I mind very much. Get out. Go find your friends and leave me in peace.”

This was too much. She could feel her temper rising to anger from Remus’ treatment of her and the strangeness of everything around her. She shut the door, threw her book bag in the seat farthest from the boy, and sat down.

“I will be happy to leave you in peace,“ she said, her own voice matching his for asperity, “but I will have to do it sitting right here. I don’t know anyone on this train and I’m not in the mood to try to make friends with strangers.”

She dug a book out of her bag—Quantum Physics: is it Muggle Magic? —and promptly hid behind it.

Severus Snape looked up at her in surprise. Usually his bitterness and icy attitude were enough to keep away the most stouthearted. This little slip of a girl with long braids looked as if a strong wind would blow her away, yet she fearlessly defied him and appeared oblivious to him now.

He gazed at the title of her book and snorted in disbelief. “Suit yourself and sit where you please. But don’t expect me to believe you have the slightest understanding of Quantum Physics, and don’t chatter at me with questions about Hogwarts. I have no interest in being nursemaid to a first-year.”

She looked up over the spine of her book, her wide brown eyes frowning slightly into his scowling, fathomless black ones. For an instant something seemed to click within her brain, as though storing a bit of knowledge for future retrieval, though she was too nervous to consciously register the sensation. He was clearly quite angry at the loss of his solitude.

However, she had her own reasons to be angry, and felt almost terminally shy. The idea of trying to find somewhere else to sit that wasn’t crowded with strangers seemed beyond her capacity at the moment.

“I don’t care what you believe,” she said irritably. “I wasn’t planning on talking to you, especially not about my book. I’m not used to talking about the higher sciences with strangers who might not be smart enough to understand them. It seems to me that you’re the one chattering. I was hoping to read in peace.”

Severus almost laughed. Almost. He couldn’t recall anyone ever standing up to him in quite this way. Oh sure, throwing hexes and curses and such, like the Fabulous Four, but not the relatively intelligent and subtler verbal sparing. He applauded her silently for scoring one on him, and then returned to his own book.

They traveled in silence for several hours. They both bought some things from the food trolley, but did not share conversation in any way. Surprisingly, the silence did not feel heavy or uncomfortable. Shortly after the minor interruption of the trolley, a more significant one occurred.

The compartment door slid open. Enter the Fabulous Four. Potter, Black, Pettigrew, and Lupin. And to make his hell just a little worse—that damn Lupin had a Prefect’s badge on his chest. Of course, just bloody brilliant! Potter’s falsely friendly voice greeted him.

“Snivellus! Fancy meeting you here!” His gaze then raked over the small girl in the compartment with him, and he chortled. “I never thought I’d see you infant-minding, Snape. You usually bite the heads off the first years and eat them for dinner, don’t you?”

“This one barely looks big enough for pudding, James,” Sirius laughed heartily, after glancing at Rowena. He sneered at Snape and added, “I see you couldn’t be bothered to wash your hair all holiday, slime ball. Wanting to fuel your cauldron fires with the oil?”

James turned to Rowena and bowed low with an exaggerated flourish of his arm and a rakish grin he obviously considered charming.

“You want to watch who you hang out with right from the start, love. Make the wrong friends on the train, and you’re tainted for life. Snivellus here is definitely of the wrong sort. If nothing else, you’ll never get the grease off your robes if you accidentally touch him.”

Peter stood silently behind his friends, small and weak-chinned in appearance. But he sniggered cruelly at the jabs and cast approving, fawning glances at James and Sirius in turn.

Before Snape had a chance to respond, Remus’ voice cut in, “James, leave the girl alone. She probably just didn’t know where to sit.”

He then addressed Rowena as though she was a stranger, smiling his friendly smile and holding out his hand to her in greeting. “Hi, I’m Remus Lupin. I’m one of the Gryffindor Prefects. I’d be glad to take you around the train and introduce you to some other first years. You might like some more… um… agreeable company.”

Rowena glared at him furiously. He had turned her away yesterday, and now he was trying to pretend to be friendly? He let his friends tease and pick on this boy who hadn’t done anything to them?

During the exchange, her eyes had flown from one boy to the other in disbelief. She had recognized them all at once, of course, from photos and descriptions she had heard over the years from her brother—but she could not believe the truth of it.

These were the famous friends she had been so anxious to meet? His best friends, popular and friendly and smart and… every good and wonderful thing she had heard about them from him. All of that was gone in an instant as she witnessed the truth for herself and formulated her own opinion, so very different from the one she had been prepared to hold as recently as yesterday.

She ignored Remus’ outstretched hand, scowling at it as though it was a disgusting slug. The one they called “Snape” was looking fit to kill, slowly moving his hand towards the pocket which surely contained his wand. She tried to manage a bored tone as she addressed all the boys in the compartment, though her voice shook a little from anger and shyness.


“My name is Rowena Lupin. I suppose that makes us some sort of distant relation. How unfortunate for me. I will sit where I like, and make friends where I choose. You can mind your own bloody business.”

Her scathing, disdainful look raked over the four of them angrily.

“If childish insults and boorish behavior is your idea of good company or intelligent conversation, I’ll keep to myself, thanks. The most agreeable company right now would be my book. Reading in peace. With the four of you gone.”

The “Fabulous Four” looked at her as though she had just transformed into a two-headed dragon in front of their eyes. Sirius was the first one to laugh, and clapped James and Remus on the shoulders, pulling them out of the compartment.

“C’mon, guys. Old Snivellus has gotten himself a kitten with claws. Let’s leave them to themselves. Just think, a first year girlfriend!” He shut the door with huge bark-like guffaws echoing up the narrow train corridor. Remus cast Rowena one last sorrowful look before allowing himself to be led away by his friends.

Severus leaned back in his seat, relaxing a bit and removing his hand from his pocket, where it had indeed been clutching his wand. He looked more appraisingly at this mere slip of a girl across from him.

Lupin. Interesting. She even looked a bit like the other Lupin. But the way she had said “how unfortunate for me” made him smirk slightly. She knew how to handle herself for a first year. Her verbal repartee, from what he had seen so far, was well advanced for her age, and she did seem to be genuinely reading that physics tome.

“My name is Severus Snape.” He was shocked to hear his own voice introduce himself. He scowled angrily at her as though expecting her to laugh or turn her sharp tongue towards him.

That in itself was an unusual sensation. Since escaping his father’s bitter verbal and physical lashings, he had rarely given thought to the insults of others. Though, of course, those from the Fabulous Four were an exception.

She looked at him in surprise for a moment, her large brown eyes peering over her book. One corner of her mouth did quirk slightly, and she nodded. “Nice to meet you. I didn’t really think your name was ‘Snivellus’. I suppose you’re feeling sorry for me and my new discovery that I have a long-lost cousin who’s some sort of pompous git?”

He smirked, as close as he usually came to a smile, and snorted. “Remus Lupin? It could be worse. He’s pretty bland, actually. It’s Potter and Black who are the gits. Remus just doesn’t have a spine. He’s not brave enough to actually play along when things get nasty, nor is he brave enough to stand up to them and make them stop when he knows they’re in the wrong. It eats him alive to know he’s such a coward. Gryffindor’s coward. And they made him the Prefect. Ha!”

He then frowned at her and raised a brow. “You really didn’t know you were related to him? There seems to be some resemblance.” His voice betrayed his suspicion. He wouldn’t put it past those four to try to use a little sister or close cousin in a prank of some sort.

She frowned thoughtfully, gazing blankly at the book in her lap, and shook her head. His words about Remus had stung her deeply. They cast her brother in a light she had never seen. Remus had always been her protector, her saviour, and yet she had just seen a sample of his behaviour that she would have never believed possible. Her reply, though not technically the factual truth, was honestly spoken from her heart.

“No... I had no idea I was related to someone like that.”

He gave a small nod of understanding. “We all have relatives we’d rather not claim,” he said dryly. His tone was almost conversational, without much of the usual sarcastic undertones.

“So,” he continued, “how is it that you have no friends? You’re a Lupin. I assume that means you’re not Muggle-born or raised. You ought to know a few people around here.”

He had never had a companion on the train before, and decided to try his hand at casual conversation for a novelty since the entire experience to this point had been so unusual. There seemed no harm in making the attempt.

She looked up at him again; her turn to eye him suspiciously. “Why are you here alone? Where are your friends?” she asked, turning the question back on him. She didn’t really want to try and explain her rather unique situation.

He gave her the raised-eyebrow smirk again and lazily raised a hand in mock defense. “A simple question, Miss Lupin. I was merely trying to make conversation. As for myself, I am a Slytherin.” This last was stated as though it explained everything.

“My parents home schooled ...me… until now. I’ve never been in the company of anyone except my own family, with very rare exceptions. I had a brother… who… died in an unfortunate, horrible accident,” she said, barely stumbling over the lie. Wasn’t Remus essentially dead to her now? “My parents were afraid to let me out of their sight after that. I’ve been quite isolated; hence the intensive bookishness.” She waived the physics book to emphasise the point, unnecessarily.

“What does being a Slytherin have to do with your friends?” she asked, awkwardly turning the conversation back to him.

He could have sworn she almost said “us” instead of “me” in reference to her education, but perhaps she was still grieving over the lost brother. He certainly didn’t want to discuss tender feelings such as grief with this girl! He ignored that part of her comments and addressed her question.

He shifted in his seat and took on the tone of an instructor with a pupil. One thin arm rested along the back of the seat next to him, and he occasionally made a slight gesture of emphasis with the long-fingered hand.

“Slytherins do not have friends, Miss Lupin. We conduct ourselves by the unspoken “Rule of A’s”. Ambition leads us to develop useful Acquaintances. Acquaintances are then subdivided into Allies or Adversaries. We do not, however, as a general rule, believe in friendship. That requires a level of trust most Slytherins never have for another human being.

“I choose to avoid my Acquaintances, of both varieties, as much as possible. I, too, have been raised in relative solitude and find my best companion in a book.”

She was amused by his referral to her as “Miss Lupin”. It seemed silly to be so addressed when she was only eleven years old. Yet somehow the oddly formal mode of address seemed to suit this boy, and so she responded in kind.

She offered him a shy smile. “I will keep that in mind, Mr Snape, and be cautious what sort of ‘Acquaintance’ I become to whatever Slytherins I meet.”

Thinking the conversation was over, she opened her book once again, as she found his piercing gaze oddly disturbing. But he wasn’t done with his foray into social conversation quite yet.

“I’m certain you will meet Slytherins who will court your acquaintance. You are destined for Ravenclaw House, and every Slytherin year has at least one Ravenclaw pet to help them with their studies. It is a fairly valuable mutual partnership. In exchange for the academic assistance, they will help you avoid some of the… unpleasantness which sometimes originates from our House.”

She bristled at this visibly and challenged him. “How do you know I’m destined for Ravenclaw? And what makes you think I would agree to be this ‘homework pet’ for anyone?”

He actually grinned at her obvious ire, though it was still a somewhat pained and sarcastic expression. It brightened his face nonetheless, and her heart did an odd sort of extra beat to see it.

“You are destined for Ravenclaw because you seem too hungry for knowledge to be in Hufflepuff, too rational to be in Gryffindor, and not nearly ruthless enough to be in Slytherin. I did not say you would be the ‘pet’, I only said you would be courted in an attempt to get you to agree to such. Whether or not you submit to the relationship is up to you.

“I was offering a friendly warning, if you will. Take it as a compliment, Miss Lupin. I do not think that I have ever offered anyone a ‘friendly’ anything.”

Now she snorted and tried not to smile too broadly. When he relaxed enough to smile at her, she felt instantly more at ease as well.

“Please forgive me, Mr Snape, if I’m not suitably impressed by your grand overture and fail to be appropriately awed by it,” she said, her voice dripping with playful sarcasm. “I will catalogue it carefully under ‘unappreciated gestures’ and make the attempt to repay it fully at some future date.”

He nodded at her, still smiling slightly, and returned to his book. He, too, found her somewhat disturbing, though not unpleasantly so. “Touché, Miss Lupin. You will get along fine at Hogwarts, unfortunate cousin notwithstanding.”

She did take this as a compliment and found her flagging courage bolstered by the simple statement. The rest of the train journey passed in companionable silence, and they parted when it stopped with no hostile feelings on either side.