Shades of Silver and Black

Chapter 6

-------------------> SEVERUS STIFFENED.

The eyes of all the sons and daughters of the most elite of the wizarding world bore on to him.

He loved Lily.

She was his first as well as best friend and she had always been very kind to him. He had been the one to introduce her to magic, to assure her that they would continue to remain friends in Hogwarts.

But he was saying that with the assumption that she would go to Slytherin with him.

A muggle-born in Slytherin would be rare, but not unusual.

There had been plenty of muggle-born who had been sorted into Slytherin for their ambition and sometimes, cunningness. Although Slytherins were cruel to muggle-borns, they would defend their own.

They always do.

Slytherins stick together, no matter what. That was the first and most important rule of House Slytherin.

Severus had seen Lily's ambition. So, he had prayed to every single holy being that she would be sorted to Slytherin along with him.

So much for that.

If she had been sorted, same as him, it would have been different.

However, she was sorted into Gryffindor of all things! and he doubted that he would get much leeway for being best friends with a Lion. If she was in Ravenclaw, they would still have been able to maintain a proper friendship.

But a Lion and a Snake? That would be very hard.

And he would hate to have to choose between Lily and Slytherin principles.

Rabastan Lestrange was the first to react.

One look at her red tie, had his lips curl up into a sneer.

"Oh how rude of me!" said Lily as she realised she was hugging Severus in front of everyone. "Hello everybody, I am Lily Evans." she said smiling.

Rabastan's face was mirrored by everybody in House Slytherin.

Muggle ethics were different from wizards, and to the pureblood heirs who have been learning the ways of the old since they had been born on a silver platter, she sounded exactly  like how they expected an uncultured muggle  to behave.

Lily had talked to all of them informally without having their direct, prior permission to do so. She had also introduced herself by her given name first instead of her family name. In pureblood culture, you only did such a thing if you did not have any respect for your family, if your family was disgraced or if you were disowned.

Also, Lily - a girl- had hugged him -a boy- who was not directly related to her. That was completely inappropriate and it basically announced that Lily did not have an ounce of respect and dignity in her. Not to mention that physical displays of affection were a big no no in public according to purebloods.

'Please do not make it worst, please do not make it worse.' Severus repeatedly chanted in his mind.

"...and who are you lot?" finished Lily.

She made it worse.

Severus was running in his mind a million scenarios on how this would escalate and how he could avoid the most damage. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done.

The Slytherin first years did not verbalise anything, but the expressions on their faces could not have been worst as they looked at not only Lily, but also him, in extremely disgusted expressions. Some of the girls obnoxiously turned their faces to the other side and started conversing between themselves, and the other girls were looking at Lily in fascination- the same fascination that a person would have when they looked at a caged hippopotamus at the zoo. The boys were openly sneering.

Severus prayed to Merlin, Morgana, Circe, Hecate, Trivia and every other magical deity he could think of that he had not attracted the attention of the older years, specifically the Court. He had no doubt that the Court would know of his association with Lily by the end of the day. The first years would love to tattletale if it meant raising their own prestige in the eyes of the Slytherin Royal Court. 

In order to survive seven years in Slytherin and to also lead a nice life after Hogwarts, there was only one unspoken rule, which was to always be in good graces with the Court. 

Slytherins always looked out for their fellow snakes and they also had a lot of connections. You could always count on a fellow snake to help you out in a tricky situation, but that was only if you were not an enemy to the Court.

But by the sneering, disgusted expression on Thomas Nott's face, Severus was sure that he was going to make Severus' life hell inside Slytherin borders.

The pureblood heirs had approached him with trust that he was allied with similar principles as them. By having associated with a Gryffindor mud blood, he had betrayed their trust. And there was nothing  worst you could do than show disloyalty to a pureblood.

Severus's standing on the Slytherin hierarchy was right at the bottom- he was a muggle raised half-blood first year. Not to mention that since it was only the first day of school, he hadn't even established any allies yet, so he could dare not hope that somebody would help him out of his predicament. 

What was practically his only saving grace was that Severus doubted that the Slytherin Court would have nothing better to do than deal with first years. But by the look on his fellow first year's face, they were definitely going to bring it to the attention of the Court.

Severus snuck a glance at the Court, who were all the way at the other end of the table. 

Prefect Lucius Malfoy was conversing with Theodore Nott about something in low tones and Bellatrix Black was whispering harshly in the ears of her beautiful cousin who was nodding at her words.

Once again, Severus prayed that they were not talking about him. 

They were all impossible to read, with their pureblood masks.

Nobody had answered Lily's greeting yet, but she would have to be a fool to ignore and not realise all the extremely hostile and disgusted looks that were being sent her way. So Lily awkwardly smiled and mumbled a goodbye to Severus before she joined her new found friends at the table filled with red and gold. 

Out of everything Severus had told Lily about the Magic World, the stigma against blood was the one thing that he had purposefully not mentioned, having hope and confidence that she would be joining him in Slytherin, so everything would be fine.

He really wished he hadn't done so.

The people around him stood up, so Severus did the same, realising that the King and Queen were ready to proceed to their classes.

They had already been given their timetable by their Head of House early in the morning.

The King and Queen walked gracefully towards the door of the Great Hall, arrogance and superiority held in every step. 

What frightened Severus was the smirking look the Queen's second had given him just before exiting the Hall. The heavy lidded eyes of Bellatrix Black held an insane twinkle within them.

Severus was not looking forward to tonight.

He looked at his fellow first years who were smirking at him. They would play nice with him in public, but in the sanctity of the Common Room, all bets were off.

He was definitely  not looking forward to tonight.