“Prongs, Prongs wake up!” Sirius threw a pillow across the room at James hitting him right in the face.

“Merlin, What Padfoot!? It’s 3am what could you possibly want?” James whined, throwing the pillow on the floor.

“I need to tell you something.” He said seriously.

“And this can’t wait until tomorrow?” James grumbled.

“No, because it needs to happen tomorrow.”

“Bloody Hell what are you talking about? What needs to happen tomorrow?” James sat up and rubbed his eyes.

“I want to ask out Y/N.” He said hesitantly.

“Excuse me?” James raised an eyebrow.

“I’ve been meaning to tell you. I know I’ve seen her at your house on summer break but I’ve never really talked to her as much as I have the last few weeks since your parents decided to send her here to Hogwarts. I never noticed how beautiful she is or how funny and sweet. I like her and I want to ask her on a date. But I want your blessing. I don’t want to ruin our friendship.” Sirius exhaled deeply.

“Padfoot. There’s nothing you could do to ruin our friendship. We’re not just friends, we’re brothers and just think if things get serious with Y/N and you get married you’ll really be my brother.” He chuckled. “So how are you gonna ask her?”

“I was thinking of getting her some flowers and a chocolate frog, then I’ll ask her to go to hogsmeade with me. I plan on asking her at breakfast.”

“Her favorite flowers are daisies.” James commented.

“So you’re okay if I ask her out?” He confirmed.

“Yes, you have my blessing if you let me go back to sleep.” He yawned.

“Alright, goodnight.”

They both turned out the lights and went back to sleep. Tomorrow was Saturday so there were no classes to go to and they could sleep in. You on the other hand was sitting awake in your dorm room trying to think of how you should tell your brother and his friend that you knew what they had done. You had promised Severus that if they didn’t agree to stop then you would sever ties with them and you didn’t break your promises.

You were sitting there hoping the words would come to you but you were at a loss. You suppose the words would come to you in the moment, all you had to do was tell them how you felt and hope they’d understand. Eventually you did fall asleep.

************************************

“Y/N, breakfast is starting soon.” Jane gave you a little shake to wake you.

“Hm, oh good morning.” You sat up yawning. “I’ll go to breakfast in a minute, just let me get ready.”

“Alright, I’ll see you down there. By the way your brother and his friends were asking for you in the common room, they told me to tell you they’d meet you at breakfast.”

“Perfect, thank you.” You nodded. She smiled and left you to get changed. Since it was Saturday breakfast started an hour later than it did during the week and you didn’t have to wear your dress robes. It was starting to get colder outside with everyday that passed so you decided to wear a hoodie and a pair of joggers. Taking a deep breath you left for the great hall for breakfast. As you walked there you saw Severus going the opposite way.

“Oh no you don’t, get in there and eat.” You scolded.

“Y/N breakfast started 30 minutes ago I already ate.” He confessed.

“Then please just stay. I’m going to talk to my brother and his friends about you and I need you there for moral support. You don’t have to sit with me, just sit at the Slytherin table across from me so I can look over at you.” You plead.

“Alright, okay, but if they come after me.”

“I won’t let them do anything to hurt you.” You assured him. You walked into the great hall first, you didn’t want them to see you with Severus before you talked to them about him.

“First week of classes wore you out?” Remus asked, notioning to the fact that you were late.

“Yeah I’m just exhausted and would much rather go back to bed.” You confessed.

“You look like there's something you wanna say.” James pointed out. There were times you hated how well he knew you.

“Yeah I want to talk to you about something, all of you actually.” He raised his eyebrow. “It’s about Severus.” You added.

“What has he done. Whatever it is, we'll take care of it.” Sirius snarled.

“Relax pads, let’s just hear what she has to say first.” Remus put his hand on his shoulder.

“What’s he done?” James commanded.

“Has he been harassing you during potions?” Lily asked

“Oh Merlin nothing! He hasn’t done anything, it's what you four have done to him. He told me you all have bullied him relentlessly since first year. You're a bunch of bullies and I won’t stand for it. Being bullied is a horrible thing that most people never get over, the things you do to people stick, they don’t just go away they can have lasting effects. I know about the shit you’ve done to him. Lily, you are nothing but a liar, he did not call you a mudblood for no reason.”

“I didn’t deserve.” She cut you off.

“And he didn’t deserve to be humiliated in front of a ton of students and his best friend at the time. If I can call you that, I don’t think you were ever a friend to him. If you were, you wouldn’t have been so blind to the fact that these four were still bullying him even after they promised to stop. Then to stand there after he has been pants and hung upside down in front of so many people. After he has been violated, sexually harassed even! Even after you saw that with your own eyes, even after he begged for them to stop, you had the guil to tell him it wasn’t that bad, that it was “just a bit of fun” what is wrong with you?! He trusted you, you were all he had back then and you knew that and you still took his friendship for granted.” You seethed.

“Severus is my friend, he has been taking care of me more than any of you while I’ve been here. I won’t let you hurt him anymore. If you want to be my friend… My brother.” You looked deathly serious at James. “Then you will leave alone. You don’t have to like him or hangout with him. Hell just leave him alone, pretend he’s not there he would prefer it that way. But if I see you bullying him again then I’m done with you, all of you. And before you ask no he didn’t put me up to this. I'm doing this because I want to. Because he is my friend and I can’t sit back and watch you four, five I should say hurt him. I’m not like Lily. I don’t like bullies… The hurt they cause can’t be undone, believe me I know. Don’t make me cut ties with you because I will.” You almost begged them.

“We’ll stop.” Sirius was the first to pipe up. “We’ll leave him alone.” He assured you.

“Yeah, if it’s that important to you we’ll stop messing with him.” Remus added.

“Agreed.” James surrendered.

“Alright, thank you. I’m not really hungry, I’m gonna go see Severus for a while.” You smiled brightly, feeling like you had accomplished something big as you walked away. When your back was turned all the boys glared at Severus behind you as he stood and walked out of the hall behind you.

You went to what you thought of now as your tree. Yours and Severus’. You sat down and just waited for him to join you which you knew he would. Of course not even a minute later he sat down next to you. At first he didn’t look at you and you were scared that maybe you said or did the wrong thing and he was upset with you. He wasn’t good with emotions unless they were of pure anger so maybe he didn’t know how to explain to a friend that he was upset with them. You looked down not wanting to fuel the fire if he was upset with you.

“I’m not mad at you. You said and did all the right things and I am grateful that you think I’m worth standing up for. I just don’t want you to end up alone because of me.” He broke the silence after a moment or two.

“How do you do that?” You furrowed your brows at him.

“Do what?” He asked, trying to act clueless.

“You know what. Answer questions I haven’t asked yet. You know legilimens and you’ve been reading my mind Mr Snape.” You scolded. “Now stop it.” You said through your mind. His eyes went wide.

“You can use legilimency?”

“I can but I choose not to. I like to respect people's thoughts unlike someone.” You teased nudging his shoulder with your own

“I can’t help it.” He confessed. “When someone is experiencing strong thoughts or emotions their thoughts are so loud it’s almost like they're talking to me. A lot of times I don’t even realize I’m hearing their thoughts and not their words. I have gotten very good at it, tuning it out but for some reason when it’s you it’s especially hard. Your thoughts are always so strong I can’t tune them out.”

“I understand, it was hard for me at first but I got better at it.”

“I don’t really have a problem with anyone else, only you.” He added.

“I was having the same problem with you. I noticed that if I look at you when you talk it’s easier for my mind to distinguish the difference between what your thoughts and words sound like. IT’s a very subtle difference but it’s there. It helped me, maybe it’ll help you if that makes sense.”

“It does, I’ll give it a try.” He acknowledged. “Here.” He pulled out a banana muffin. “I know banana’s your favorite.”

“And how did you know that?” You smirked.

“You may have thought it at some point and I heard it. There’s a lot of things I wish I had learned from hearing your voice rather than your mind.”

“What other mysterious things do you know about me?”

“I guess you’ll have to wait and find out.” He chuckled lowly.

“Do you plan on surprising me? Such a romantic.” You giggled.

“Oh yes that’s me. The hopeless romantic.” He rolled his eyes but you saw the little smile on the corner of his lips. “I do know that Black is planning on asking you out but you deterred him by yelling at them this morning. However, he’s still a Black so he won’t give up. My guess is he’ll ask you before next weekend.”

“No, I don’t like him like that.” You whined. “Put me out of my misery Sev.” You dramatically hit your head off his shoulder repeatedly.

“Nice try but I’m not getting in the middle of that.”

“Ugh, I don’t wanna go out with him. He’s cocky and arrogant.”

“Yes, well he is a Gryffindor.”

“Hey.” You punched his arm.

“You are the exception... Are you okay? You seem tired.”

“Classes had me stressed since it was the first week so I haven’t been sleeping much. Next week will be better. I just need to catch up on my sleep.” You mumbled, laying your head on his shoulder.

“Go ahead and take a nap, it's not like I’m getting up to do anything.” He almost whispered.

“M’kay.” You got closer to him. He put his arm around your shoulder to keep you from falling sideways.

“Accio blanket.” Severus whispered, when it appeared in his hand he draped it over your shoulders.

“He has a crush on her.” Sirius snarled as he watched you and Severus from the window of the castle.

“It’s very obvious. What are you gonna do about asking her out?” Peter asked.

“We’re gonna get rid of him. During the full moon this Thursday.” Sirius growled, turning on his heels and walking away from the window.

*************************************

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