I walked down the hall to my first class, Lily by my side as she showed me the way.
"I'm so excited we have potions together!" she exclaimed. "First years are normally never in classes with second years! How did you manage that?" I chuckled at her enthusiasm.
"I don't know... honestly. Dumbledore came to visit me... said he knew of my magical abilities and wanted to test me. After he discovered my abilities he asked if I would be alright with taking some more advanced classes. I guess I never really thought about it."
"That's so cool!" Lily exclaimed as she dragged me along to Slughorn's class. She took a seat toward the front of the room and gestured for me to sit next to her. The rest of the students started to file in. Slughorn stood at the front of the room and waited for the students to finish taking their seats. His eyes locked with mine and he beamed with pride as he looked back and forth between me and Lily.
"Welcome, students! This year we have a first year among us!" Slughorn began. No... please no. Please don't introduce me, I thought to myself as Slughorn continued. "This is Y/n Y/l/n," he said as he walked toward my desk. "Dumbledore has told me of her talents and I am absolutely ecstatic that she is here with us!" My face turned a deep shade of red as I felt all eyes on me. Lily reached over and squeezed my hand, reassuringly, as Slughorn moved to the front of the classroom again.
The rest of the class went without a hitch. Slughorn constantly gushed over my potions and I wanted to smack him most of the time. He would constantly say things like: "I hope you'll join our little Slug Club in a few years," and "Wow! You could all really learn something from Ms. Y/l/n, here." Shut up! I screamed in my head. From the back of the room, I heard a chuckle and I turned to see Severus Snape staring at me. I looked at him curiously and his face returned to his normal, stone cold demeanor. I didn't say anything out loud... No one was talking... What was so funny? I turned toward my potion trying to focus when suddenly I felt the same pull at the back of my head. I immediately put up my walls and turned around. Severus Snape was staring at me, his eyes searching mine as I glared at him. From the corner of my eye I could see Lily watching our exchange, curiously, but she said nothing. I turned back around and saw a slight smirk on Lily's face. I lightly punched her arm and she giggled. Slughorn looked over at us but didn't say anything.
At the end of the class, I began packing up my belongings. I turned to look at Snape and noticed how slowly he was packing up his own belongings. I turned to Lily.
"You go ahead... I'll catch up with you at lunch, okay?"
She nodded and walked out of the room. I grabbed my things and walked over to Snape.
"Meet me outside the door," I hissed, just loud enough for him to hear. He swallowed thickly and nodded. I stormed out of the room and waited outside the door. Not even a minute later he glided out the door and turned to look at me.
"You wanted to see me?" he asked. This was the first time I was hearing his voice and it was strangely beautiful.
"What the hell is wrong with you? Why do you keep trying to read my mind?" I hissed, angrily.
"I don't know what you are talking about," he responded in his cool tone.
"You think I can't feel you probing around in my mind!" I seethed. "What do you know?"
Snape took a step back and I could see a thousand thoughts running behind his eyes.
"Look... I am just trying to practice my Legilimency skills and for some strange reason... your mind interests me." His answer surprised me and I probed for more information.
"Why?"
"The sorting hat took almost 10 minutes to sort you. That doesn't happen..."
"It took 10 minutes," I whispered. "I- it didn't feel like it took that long. The hat was talking to me... We- we weren't talking for 10 minutes..."
"Yes... you were. For some reason, the sorting hat had a difficult time sorting you... I guess I was just interested in why."
"B-but you were trying to read my mind before! I saw you!" I accused, remembering how I felt his eyes searching my mind even before I was sorted.
"I didn't even mean to at that point... I- I'm not fully in control of my Legilimency skills yet. It wasn't until after the ceremony that I was intentionally searching your mind."
"If you ever try to read my mind again... you'll regret it," I replied as I began to walk away. Before I could even take a second step, I felt his hand wrap around my arm.
"Wait... please. I'm sorry. I promise... I won't ever do it again without your permission. C-can we start over?" he asked as he outstretched his hand. My eyes flicked from his eyes to his hand before I finally outstretched my own hand and shook his. His thumb brushed the back of my hand as I began to speak.
"Hi, I'm Y/n."
"Hi, I'm Severus."