Chapter Text
And she’s falling. Landing on her back, her breath escapes her. She grips her chest, legs tapping against the floor of the train as she fails to draw breath. Several painful seconds go by before- “Ow,” she wheezes, greedily taking the breaths that were momentarily denied her.
A few more breaths, a few after, then she’s ready to start standing. She uses the seat nearby as a handhold to raise herself up, feeling the train rattle slightly as it takes off. She instinctively looks to the window to search for the red hair of Ginny Weasley, finding instead a boy with curly black hair looking after the train longingly.
So, she’d done it, she was actually successful. She lets herself have a little grin as she inspects the compartment she’s found herself in. The colours are a little faded and chipped, definitely in the need of a fresh coat of paint.
“Woah,” she whispers, looking down at her gold-trimmed robes, a shiny black almost like silk material fluttering in a gentle wind that isn’t seemingly present.
“Right then.” She flicks her hand out, pulling her wand from- Nothing appears. She blinks, looking at her hand. Had she never put her wand into that special place within her magic that allows her to recall items? She never did have any reason to do so now that she thinks about it.
Shrugging she flicks her hand again, calling upon the wand she knows she placed there- Nothing appears.
Her mind starts to whirr now, she flicks her hand again, trying to pull the ring- The cloak- Her boots- Painting of- Necklace from-
She staggers slightly, dropping onto the cushioned seat of the compartment. They’re all gone? All the things with such strong meanings to her, every item she cared for and loved. She can feel the hand over her mouth trembling.
Is this the price she has to pay for what she’s done?
She jumps when the door of the compartment opens, two children looking in, taking a second to look at her before they both move in and sit across from her.
“Fresh blood, sister.” The boy says with a cruel smile as he leans back, folding his arms.
“That’s right, brother.” The girl answers with a grin that shows her canine prominently. “What’s your name, fresh blood?”
She appraises these two kids, looking over the boy’s dark amber hair, the girl’s black with eyebrows the same colour as the boy’s. They seem to be around thirteen years old, from their expressions they’re clearly not very nice.
Looking down at her hands, she can see the smallness of her own digits, familiar looking and somehow unfamiliar in the same instance. These are her hands and they also were her hands. She sighs and puts on her smile.
“Pythia.” She answers, offering her hand to the twins, knowing they won’t take it.
The boy cringes slightly at that. The girl snorts in laughter.
“Meant your surname, fresh blood.” The boy clarifies, looking at Pythia’s still extended hand like she’d just offered him a mud pie.
“So we know if you’re someone to let stay in our compartment.” The girl adds, leaning back and folding her own arms, mimicking that of her brother.
Pythia inwardly chuckles, she’s been looked down on by people much scarier than these two. But she can play along.
“Oh, sorry.” She laughs nervously, hand pulled back to scratch at her cheek. “Warren. You probably don’t know it…”
“Related to that ghost that floods the bathrooms constantly?” The girl asks and Pythia feels her body stiffen. Myrtle.
“Isn’t she a muggleborn?” The boy asks.
“Yeah, died and still won’t shut up about it.” The girl scoffs and smiles at Pythia. “So, her parents decided to try for another and got lucky again, huh?”
These two aren’t worth giving a proper response.
“I can see when I’m not wanted.” She says coldly, standing and turning to exit the cabin before the boy’s foot darts out to try and trip her. She lets him, stumbling into the corridor to the sounds of the children’s laughter before the compartment door closes.
Groaning, Pythia turns to keep walking when she almost walks directly into a girl coming the other way. They both falter, the girl catching Pythia by the shoulder to stop her falling over.
“Woah. You okay, firstie?” The girl asks with a light smile.
“Yeah, thanks. ‘M clumsy.” Pythia mumbles, needing to get used to walking again at this age and size.
“Me too.” The girl giggles, offering her hand out, “name’s Bertha.”
Pythia smiles, taking the hand and shaking it slightly, “Pythia.”
“Oh, that’s a pretty name. Do you need help with finding a compartment?” Bertha asks as Pythia tries to remember where she’d heard that name before.
“Um,” she blinks, realising she was asked something, “no thank you. I’m grand.”
“Oh, that’s great. See you at school if you’re in Hufflepuff.” The girl beams before scooting passed Pythia and off down the corridor.
Right. So she’s going to Hogwarts again, huh? At least this time around things can’t possibly be as hectic as the other times. Which does bring up an issue, she’s not actually going to be on the list of students attending Hogwarts School of Magic if she turns up. And she needs to make sure she doesn’t stand out if she’s attending now.
First, she needs a wand. She can’t be seen casting with barely a flick of her hand. Pythia pulls out one of her hairs before she places it within the sleeve of her robes, concentrating as she takes a breath, letting it out slowly as she draws a newly formed wand from within the folds of the gold-trimmed robes.
Ten inches on the dot, made of conjured mango heartwood, with a single strand of her own hair at the centre. The wood is a perfect golden-brown with no accents, imperfections, or blemishes. It tapers off to a rounded point and fits perfectly in her hand no matter how she holds it.
It’s not her Veela hair wand (she’s still trying not to feel the pain of that loss), but it will work perfectly for her as a disguise. She does figure that she should have made a less flashy wand but it feels right. A welcome tool for now.
Second, she needs to get her name on the list of first year students. Looking around to make sure she’s still alone she conjures a piece of paper, burning a message into it with her finger before wrapping it in her magic and pushing it through space and the wards around Hogwarts, letting it arrive on the current headmaster’s desk. That might give them pause but, hoping it is who she believes, it should work.
She carries on down the corridor, skipping a few compartments, one she can hear a lot of laughter and talking from, another that has a door slightly ajar that she can hear whispering about knights or something, then finds one with only a couple shadows through the tinted glass of the door.
Knocking first, Pythia opens the door and looks in, she finds a girl with oddly familiar auburn hair and a boy with ill fitting clothes and dark hair that looks like it needs a little more caring for.
“Hi, can I come in?” Pythia asks with a smile, receiving one in return from the girl and a scowl from the boy.
The girl’s ‘yes’ is louder than the boy’s ‘no’ so she steps in, closing the door behind herself before sitting down next to the girl.
“Come on, Sev. Don’t be mean to potential new friends.” The girl admonishes the boy cheerily before looking towards Pythia. “I’m Lily. He’s Severus.” She points a thumb at the boy who scowls at that introduction.
“Pythia.” Pythia offers as she gives Severus an apologetic smile as she gets comfy. “Do either of you know which house you’re going to end up?” She knows exactly what house Snape ends up in, but she doesn’t actually know much about Lily’s past.
“Sev says that I’ll be great in Slytherin, but I like the sound of Ravenclaw too.” Lily answers as Severus sighs.
“I’ll be going to Slytherin.” Severus says decisively as though that settles it for the two of them.
“I prefer Hufflepuff personally,” Pythia adds into the conversation, “though I hear Gryffindor has the comfiest beds.”
Lily’s eyes widen at that, turning more to Pythia now. “They do? Sev keeps saying things like cunning or ambition and stuff, but nothing about amenities ! What about the other three?”
She gives another apologetic look at the scowl Severus is sending her way before responding. “Well, I hear Ravenclaw dorm is in a tower where the wind blows in a certain way around the tower that it’s really nice to sleep in. Hufflepuff is near the kitchens and has lots of plants. And Slytherin apparently has private rooms for each student.”
“Wow!” The girl marvels at this new information. “Private rooms imply the others have several students together in one room, which could be nice since Tunie can’t come. I could make more friends. But private rooms sound good too! My own space…”
The scowl on Severus’ face softens slightly and Pythia even gets the ghost of a nod at that. She chuckles softly. In entirely stark opposition to the Snape that she’s used to, Severus wears his heart purely on his sleeves.
“What about classes?” Severus asks the two girls.
“What are there?” Lily responds as Pythia tilts her head to show her own curiosity.
“There’s potions, defence, charms, history… There’s more in third year but I haven’t memorised every class.” Severus says, waving away his lack of knowledge like it isn’t a big deal.
“The other two are transfiguration and herbology I think.” Pythia offers as though she doesn’t know. She’d come to an agreement with telling lies. They won’t bother her as long as she doesn’t use them with bad intentions. This way the words don’t taste wrong on her tongue. Something that is definitely a normal thing to have happen, thank you very much.
“You’re making a weird face.” Severus comments.
“Oh. Sorry.” Pythia laughs. “I was thinking a lot. Do you know about any clubs or stuff?” She redirects the conversation back to Severus’ wealth of knowledge.
“Duelling, which is probably the most popular. There’s music and brooms and stuff. I hear some kid had an accident last year in the boating club though. They had that removed.”
Pythia frowns at that, she’d maybe hoped to show off her boating skills a little. That’s something that could be explained away easily enough but apparently she won’t get the chance.
“Music club? Hogwarts has a band?” Lily asks curiously.
“I don’t think it has a band.” Severus answers. “Probably just a thing to teach coordination and discipline. School is like that.”
Pythia shakes her head slightly to herself. It’s really not, Severus. It’s about having fun and learning together with friends. But maybe that’s her own skewed viewpoint.
“I can play the drums.” Pythia brings up, miming tapping drumsticks against a phantom kit in front of herself.
“Nifty!” Lily beams bright as the sun. “Think you could teach me? Or should I learn something like flute or piano maybe?”
“Piano might be good for you.” Pythia says as she taps her fingers to her legs. “You seem really smart. I could never figure out all the keys and minor and major stuff. All I gotta do is keep rhythm and hit stuff with sticks.”
Severus does smirk slightly at that, “sounds like Gryffindor will fit you most.”
“Because I’m dumb and make a lot of noise?” Pythia jokes, getting a surprised cough of a laugh from Severus and a tinkling giggle from Lily.
“You should learn something too, Sev! You’d look super cool with a guitar!” Lily brings up and Pythia smiles at the light blush that spots Severus’ pale cheeks.
“Yeah, Severus. If you go guitar, Lily’s on piano, me on drums, we just need to figure if one of us can sing any good or maybe get someone else in.” Pythia nods along with Lily’s great idea. “Music transcends school houses.”
They continue chattering about music, clubs, and things they’ve (mostly Severus and Pythia) heard about Hogwarts as the train continues on its journey. Pythia mostly lets the other two talk as she thinks over how to approach what she’s doing. She really doesn’t need to attend school, if she’s about twenty years from the past of her first day at Hogwarts then… Well, then what? She barely studied recent history and now she’s living through it. Whatever she does will have ripple effects and she has no assurance that she can do anything over.
That hits her now. No loops? She can feel something blocking her thoughts going in a specific direction, like she’s having difficulty remembering something. She should deal with that but pushing it is giving her a headache.
So, now, she has to look further into everything. If she just goes rushing off like she did in her youth then things will go wrong really fast. At least at Hogwarts she can get a feel for the current climate of the times. And maybe influence some people towards less dark paths.
She looks over at Severus, already realising she’s entirely separating this child from the man he’ll be. Something she… There it is again, that pressure coming from a block.
“Are you okay?” She hears Lily ask gently.
“Sorry. Yeah. Head hurts a little. What were we talking about?”
Severus nods towards the open compartment door, a man gives her a wave from where he’s standing next to the sweets trolley.
“Oh. Do you maybe have water?” Pythia asks, getting an understanding nod and a small plastic cup of water for herself. Lily goes back to debating over sweets and prices, asking Severus for his opinions even though he’s not getting anything.
Pythia watches the young girl, smiling slightly as she rushes to her bag to get a pen and paper to write down prices. She catches Severus’ eyes and she gives him more of a smile. The boy seems to think over their interactions so far before giving Pythia a friendly nod. Seems she’s won him over.
“I’ll be up front with the driver if you end up choosing what you want.” The man chuckles good naturedly to Lily, who nods as she continues her note writing.
The door isn’t closed longer than a few minutes when it’s opened again and several boys are sticking their noses into the compartment.
“Hey, what did you lot get from the trolley?” The middle boy asks with a cocky grin and messy hair.
“Yeah, Peter’s frog hit him right in the face!” A bespectacled boy guffaws as he’s trying to push past the middle boy's arms to poke his head in.
The smaller boy wrings his hands nervously, giving a chuckle with no mirth in it. “Yeah. Yeah it did…”
The bespectacled boy manages to push through his friends, popping his head in, hair pushed back from the effort. His eyes land on Lily first and Pythia can tell he’s smitten immediately.
“Hey.” He tries. “I’m Potter.”
Lily just looks confused at the antics but she answers. “I’m Lily Evans, this is Pythia and that’s Severus.” She motions to each of them in turn.
Potter snorts and eyes Severus, giving him a quick once over. “Snivellus?”
Potter and his cronies laugh at that as Lily slams her notes into her seat, ready to get up and defend her friend. Pythia is letting her take care of things before getting involved herself. Before either of them can say anything, Potter opens his big mouth again.
“Come on, Evans. Drop this dork and come to our compartment instead. Your friend there can come too.”
It’s Pythia’s turn to cringe, she’s really not a fan of bullies and it seems like every school year will have at least a handful.
Lily seems to know how to deal with things however as she pulls her wand and immediately sends showers of sparks at the assembled group of children. Not an actual spell but more of a controlled magical effect, impressive for someone so young. The boys stumble and fall away from the wand, landing in a heap in the corridor, poor Peter on the bottom of the small pile.
With a huff Lily closes the compartment door and sits back down, arms folded and looking adorably furious.
A few more seconds and the door opens just slightly, a fourth boy poking his head in and looking apologetic.
“Sorry about that,” he apologises calmly, “they’re kids, you know?”
“Rude kids.” Lily responds with an eyeroll for emphasis.
The boy purses his lips as though he can’t disagree but doesn’t like verbalising it. He then locks eyes with Pythia for a moment, looking confused before closing the door.
There’s several moments of silence before Lily speaks up again. “I’m sorry about what they said, Sev. They were rude. I wouldn’t have gone with them even if they bought everything from that trolley.”
Severus nods a little, looking like that’s helping the sour taste that encounter left with him.
“I was about to jump in too before ‘Miss Magic’ here beat me to it.” Pythia chuckles, “I hate bullies.”
Severus nods a bit more, turning to look out the window.
“Not that we’re saying you couldn’t defend yourself. You seem really smart.” Pythia compliments the young boy.
“Yeah! You know all those spells you talked about and you recognised when I was doing magic. You’re great, Sev!” Lily says to try and cheer up her friend. “You’ll always be my best friend.”
That gets a small smile from the boy and a quiet response of- “Thanks.”
There’s a little more talk about music and interests, Lily talking about her family, her sister Petunia, how she’d learnt she was magic really early on and managed to control it even before Severus found her practising outside.
Then she’s narrowed down what sweets she wants, grabbing Severus and promising to be right back.
And Pythia is left alone, feeling an odd loss at the absence of others.
She runs a hand through her hair, looks down at her robes, wondering why nobody has said anything about their ethereal quality yet. She stands, unable to pull her clothing from what she’d called her ‘Soul Space’ she has to conjure new ones. That pressure headache tingles as she tries to think about her robes but she feels she shouldn’t take them off.
With an upwards sweeping motion a pair of comfortable shoes appear over the soft material covering them at the moment, then a pair of jeans and a soft shirt to keep her comfortable. She stretches her arms out and conjures a hooded sweater from nothing, a soft green with little dangly robe things she can play with. A familiar tug on her robes pulls new ones to cover her gold-trimmed ones, this time blank and with the Hogwarts crest on her chest.
A quick check of her reflection in the mirror before Pythia pulls her wand from her sleeve, placing it in her hoodie’s pocket. A holster would be a bit suspicious for a child. She fiddles with the hood, pulling it over the top of her robes, feeling a little more comfortable now.
Of course, no first year could have conjured anything like she just has. No seventh year or even some professors either. This is a speciality of hers, something she spent decades working on. Something specifically for-
The door opens again, Pythia turns, expecting Severus and Lily to have come back, only to find a seventh year Slytherin girl with wild hair and a half crazed smile on her lips. One that seems to be barely containing a cackle of mad laughter.
Neither of them move for a moment before the girl starts to smile an evil smile, like a predator might look at prey. She takes a step and then-
“Bella! We’re in here.” A girl calls from the compartment next to this one.
Bella pulls her eyes away from Pythia like it takes great effort. “Yeah, alright.” She answers before side-eyeing Pythia again. “You got lucky, brat.” And closing the door once more.
So maybe this year won’t be without potentially powerful enemies. Not that Pythia really fears any school child, but she can easily recognise that face, she’d seen it a couple times when breaking Sirius out of prison. Bellatrix Lestrange.
Pythia has a feeling that Bellatrix being here is wrong, but she never got too deep into exact dates of things before her first year at Hogwarts. It could be that Bellatrix is younger than she thought or maybe even she got held back a few years. Either way, she’ll have to watch out for that girl.
Severus and Lily do eventually come back, Lily bringing several different sweets she’d carefully picked. She hands Pythia a chocolate frog, she hadn’t asked for one but Lily is as sweet as the chocolate she’s handing over without taking no for an answer.
She leans back in her seat as the other two are conversing over all the types of sweets, Lily even busting out her notebook again to document all the flavours of beans she gets and, from what Pythia can see, categorising them by colour and shape.
Opening the container of the frog just slightly to activate the enchantment without letting the frog escape, Pythia does her best not to imagine a real frog. Something she had issue with as a child was thinking of the frogs as real and being unable to eat them. With this little trick the enchantment wears off without the frog ever going anywhere. Once she’s counted to five, she opens it fully, picking the stationary frog out and nibbling it as she looks over the card-
…
Harry hands her a chocolate frog. “Here. You must be hungry too. Call it a reward for the sandwiches.” He grins.
Harry is too precious. She will definitely protect him with everything she has. He will be the happiest Harry that ever had the name Harry.
“Thanks.” She nods before being wary. “They’re not real frogs, are they?”
“No,” Ron says. “But see what the card is, I’m missing Agrippa.”
She opens her chocolate frog while Harry questions Ron about the cards. She squeaks a little as the chocolate frog leaps out of the little box. Ron gives another whisper of ‘girls’ before she manages to even see where it went.
On its second, much worse, hop, Harry grabs it out of the air and hands it over to her.
“Wow, Harry. Nice reflexes.” She compliments, looking over the frog that had gone still. It seemed so lifelike. She watches it carefully for a moment before pulling out the card and replacing it with the frog. She’ll eat it in a minute.
She reads out the card for Harry, summarising it a little,-
…
Pythia sighs, the headache that had been gently thrumming against her head receding slightly as a flash of a memory passes through her.
“What did you get?” Severus asks, Lily looking at the card in Pythia’s hand curiously.
“Herpo the Foul.” She says, turning the card to show the other two. “Did stuff with snakes. Do you collect them?”
Severus shakes his head before she offers it to Lily who takes it happily, greedily reading over the information provided by the card. A thirst for knowledge, this one.
The conversation goes back to Lily’s documentation of the magical sweets, Pythia being roped into taste testing a few, getting porridge, cauliflower, earwax, and ultimately, beef. She realises why she never liked any of these before. Who would even eat them?
She laughs along with a few of the reactions from Severus and Lily to the beans however, understanding that this is why; kids sharing gross sweets and making friends. She’ll still refuse when offered any though.
This new adventure is shaping up to be one as full of laughter and friendships as her last.