Lily and Snape Meet Again

Chapter 4

So. . . my friend's been yelling at me to update this book, so here we go.

Lily left dinner early after eating (more like picking) at her food alone. She had hoped to make more friends, but it seemed every Gryffindor in her year was already paired up. Every time she tried to talk to anyone, they just awkwardly continued the conversation until she got the hint and left. 

When she returned to Gryffindor Common Room she sat down in front of the fireplace, suddenly wishing she was in a different house. Maybe in Slytherin with Albus; James certainly wasn't any help. Or maybe Hufflepuff. She was sure she could find a friend in the house of badgers. Or even Ravenclaw. 

As she had been so intently focused on the flames, she did not notice that Severus had taken to the frame on top of it. 

"Miss, Potter," he said, startling her out of her daze. "I do believe that dinner just started ten minutes ago. Surely you cannot eat that quickly."

"I'm not hungry."

"Ah. So it has nothing to do with the fact that you were alone?"

Lily said nothing. She didn't have to. Silence answered the question better than words could. Sometimes, silence could share more than a thousand words. Sometimes the only thing you need is a gesture. And the gesture she gave Severus was staring into the fireplace even more intently than before. 

"Your problem," he told her in a matter-of-factly tone. "Is that you've only looked for friends in Gryffindor. There are three other houses; you need to branch out."

"Easy for you to say."

"I may not be real, but I have the memories of the real Severus Snape. He only had one friend for the first four years of Hogwarts. But when he branched out, he discovered that many people were willing to be his friends. Granted, they were future death eaters and caused him to live a life of dark magic, but that's beside the point."

"What is the point?" Lily asked.

"The point is, you'd be surprised how many other students need a friend as well. All you have to do is find them"

*****

Lily decided to take Severus's advice and was late as possible to Charms the next day in order to see who sat alone. They were with Ravenclaw, so she scanned the Eagles until she saw a girl sitting by herself.  

She had long, dark hair, dark eyes, and she was reading some muggle book. But the seat beside her was empty, so she sat down beside her.  

When she sat down, the girl glanced over at her and went back to her book. 

"H-hi," she said. 

The girl looked over again and gave her a pretty smile, then went back to her book. 

Lily wondered what could possibly be so interesting, so she stole a peek at the words on the page.

There was movement inside the den as if the cats were rising to their paws. Quickly, Jaypaw found a loose pebble and flicked it with his paw so they would think he had just arrived. Stepping into the mouth of the den he meowed, 

"Firestar?"

"Come in," his leader responded.

"Are those my traveling herbs?" Brambleclaw asked. "Thanks, Jaypaw. Is everything ready?"

"Nearly," Jaypaw replied. "I'd better find Leafpool and see if she wants me to do anything else.

"What are you reading?" She asked, curious. 

The girl closed the book, using her finger as a placeholder and let her read the title.

She opened the book and continued reading. Lily watched her for a bit, trying to figure out how to start a conversation without interrupting her.  

When she finished the chapter, put a scrap of parchment in as a bookmark, and put her book away, Lily turned to her again, "I'm Lilly. What's your name?"

She took out a book and showed her the first page where some words were written in neat cursive with purple ink.

This journal belongs to Heather Stone. 

If you find this and read it without my permission, I swear, I will sick my cat on you.

"Oh, you have a cat," Lily said, trying to make small talk. "What's his name?"

She dipped her quill in ink and started writing.

HER name is Ellie. She's a calico and about two years old.

Lily was confused. Surely it would be easier to say those things than to write them out. Not to mention it would save parchment. 

As if she was reading Lily's mind, Heather whipped out her wand and waved it over the words which slowly disappeared from the parchment. 

"You can do nonverbal magic?" Lily asked, amazed.

Heather nodded. 

"But that's really advanced!" she exclaimed. They were only first years, and even the idea that someone in their class had mastered nonverbal magic was unbelievable. 

Heather began writing again.

There's no other way to do magic when you don't talk.

The realization dawned on Lily as the words sunk in, "You can't talk?"

I never said that I CAN'T talk. I just said that I DON'T talk. I have selective muteness. It's an anxiety disorder. I can talk, I just choose not to. I know sign language, though.

Lily was intrigued. She had never known that there was such a thing as someone choosing to not speak. She figured the only people who couldn't talk were people who physically can't. It never occurred to her that some people didn't talk for emotional reasons. 

She knew of anxiety disorders, though. Her cousin Lucy was medically diagnosed by healers to have social anxiety disorder when she was younger. They gave her some type of potion and it went away in a year or so. 

By the time she had thought of this, she had been staring at the paper for a good thirty seconds or so and Heather was starting to look at her strangely. 

"So you already learned nonverbal magic?" Lily asked.

Heather nodded again.

"That's so cool!" she said. "Say, could you possibly teach me sign language?"

You want to learn to sign?

"Yeah," she said. "It sounds pretty cool and wouldn't it be easier on you if I could understand you without you having to write everything down?"

Heather thought for a bit, Alright. But it'll take some time, there's a different sign for every word in the English language and the sentence format is different from the English sentence structure. The easiest thing to start with will probably be the alphabet.

"Sounds good," Lily said.

Just then, Professor Flitwick started the lesson, but Lily was so happy that she had made a. . . friend? Was Heather her friend yet? She liked to think she was. Oh, well, either way, she talked to someone, and that's what matters.

I can't wait to tell Severus!