"Alright," James said cheerfully as he shoved his bag into the space above the seats, collapsing down next to Snape, grinning.

Who would have thought that James, Sirius, Remus, Peter and Severus fucking Snape would ever share a carriage in the Hogwarts Express. It was a peculiar scene - a tired looking Remus sitting by the doors, a book in his hands, Sirius leaning on him, stretched out over the seats, feet happily propped in Peter's lap. Snape was by the window opposite them and James sat down next to him happily, ignoring the fact that the Slytherin shifted as far away from him as possible, practically pressing himself against the glass. This morning, as the Marauders were saying goodbye to their housemates, he had showed up with a tattered little suitcase in hand, and James' cloak tucked under his arm. He had wordlessly given it back to its owner, and had been silent ever since, trailing behind the Marauders on their way to the train station. Now, as the Hogwarts Express zoomed through the Scottish fields, cloaked in white snow, the Slytherin's expression was unreadable.

"I'm ready for Christmas," James proclaimed. Peter smiled,

"Me too! And I'm ready to go see my ma and open my presents."

"Say hello to your mum from us, would you?" Remus asked, absentmindedly playing with Sirius' hair as he looked through the glass door out onto the little corridor of the train.

"Of course," Peter affirmed quickly. Everyone kept glancing at Snape, the obvious black sheep in the carriage who brought an air of restriction and awkwardness, but the Slytherin's eyes were fixed on the world passing by outside the window and he didn't react to any of them. He looked like he didn't really want to be here. He only came to get away from Malfoy, James thought sadly, and then mentally added, I'll make him have the best Christmas ever, and then he'll be my friend.

Any attempt to draw Snape into a conversation proved futile so eventually the Marauders just eased into their own little, familiar world. Snape continued looking out of the window for some time, and then he pulled out a potions book and began to read it, completely isolating himself. By the time the old witch came with the Honeydukes express trolley James and Sirius had managed to already get into two light-hearted arguments about Quidditch.

"Anything from the trolley?" the elderly witch asked kindly, pushing said trolley in front of her asked and stopping outside of the carriage the boys were sitting in.

"Yes please!" Sirius sat up excitedly. Snape spared them a glance, but quickly went back to his potions book. The Marauders scrambled for their money, shoving and pushing to get to the trolley.

"What do you want, Sirius?" James called, shoving chocolate frogs into his pockets.

"Pumpkin pasty and chocolate frog!"

"Oi! That's mine-"

"Peter, move your elbow!"

The four boys bickered and playfully shoved each other as they exchanged money with the trolley witch, taking as much sweets as they could and filling their pockets. Sirius flirted with the old woman and got an extra chocolate frog. Only when James realised he was running out of space to put the food did he remember Snape. The boy hadn't moved from his seat.

"Oi, Snape!" James called, and the boy glanced at him through a curtain of greasy hair, "You not getting anything?"

"I don't like sweets," Snape said curtly, quickly. Guiltily James remembered that the boy was poor and probably didn't have money to blow on things like sweets. Once he would've used that as a weakness and reason to exploit the Slytherin, but now he just felt bad. James himself was pretty well off, so without a second thought he bought an extra chocolate frog.

The trolley lady left the carriage, the door sliding closed behind her, and the Marauders collapsed back into their seats, greedily ripping open the packages their food was in and shoving it in their mouths. The atmosphere calmed down in the carriage and James held out a chocolate frog to Snape. The boy looked at it, then at James, and his look turned into a glare, and James could tell that he hurt his pride again. He was only trying to be nice. Thankfully Remus saved him.

"You should have the chocolate," he said, his own lap full of sweets, "you look pale. Chocolate helps."

"I said I don't like sweets," Snape gritted out from his teeth. James didn't know whether to be annoyed or amused, so he just shook his head and slid back into the conversation with his friends, letting Snape brood. He tried to be patient with the Slytherin and understand his position - he was in a carriage with his old bullies, about to spend Christmas with one of them. It must've been pretty scary.

"Do you want to play exploding snap?" Sirius asked when all the boys were blissed out and finished with their snacks, a pile of rubbish in the corner of their carriage. It was starting to get dark outside.

"No, I think I'll take a nap," Remus said, stretching his arms over his head.

"Me too," Peter yawned.

"Looks like Snivellus is way ahead of us," Sirius snorted, gesturing at the Slytherin. James, who hadn't bothered to look at the boy, now glanced over and saw that Snape had indeed fallen asleep against the window, the potions book loose in his hands, his mouth parted slightly. He looked not like himself when he slept and looking at him made James' stomach twist in a not totally unpleasant way.

"Don't call him Snivellus," the Gryffindor said quietly. Sirius rolled his eyes,

"Never thought you'd have a soft spot for him, Prongs," he said, returning to his original position of being stretched out between Peter and Remus. Wormtail bunched up his robes and tucked it under his head, mirroring Snape's position in leaning against the window. The boys closed their eyes, all except James. The Gryffindor was determinedly looking out at the quickly-darkening corridor outside the door, trying to prove to himself that he could not stare at Snape if he wanted to. He drowned himself in the distant sounds of students chattering in other carriages, and of the noise the express made as it raced down the train tracks. His thoughts started to wonder but James honestly wasn't even sure what he was thinking about.

He was broken out of his borderline hypnotic state when Snape suddenly slumped against his shoulder, startling James. The boy looked away from the corridor and found that the carriage was completely dark, the only light coming from the moon outside and the snow, which reflected the pale silver light. James looked down at his rival, who was leaning on him, still dead asleep. The Gryffindor's heart started to pound as he took in his sleeping form. The boy looked small, and vulnerable, and young. James started wondering what Snape would look like if he actually gave two shits about his appearance, and then his hand moved on its own accord. He brushed a strand of Snape's black hair from his face. The boy wrinkled his nose and furrowed his brows but didn't wake up, instead snuggling more into James. He felt freezing, which meant he was probably cold, and James wanted nothing more than to draw him into his lap and hold him until he was all warmed up. But why, why, why? Why now? Why him?

The Marauders, James remember suddenly, and looked up quickly, heart pounding. He was being weird, touching Snape like that, and he couldn't stand if his friends saw. Peter was asleep though, snoring softly. Sirius was also passed out too, his back to James, head in Remus' lap. The werewolf however was very much awake, his eyes glimmering in the dark as he watched James. The dark haired boy felt a blush rising to his cheeks and he should've pushed Snape off of himself but somehow he couldn't bring himself to wake the Slytherin.

He and Remus looked at each other for a few seconds in complete silence and James knew his friend was judging him, trying to sort out his undoubtedly complicated thoughts. Then an almost hesitant smile appeared on Remus' face, and his expression softened. He glanced at Snape, then at James, and his smile widened. Then, as if nothing happened, he leaned back against his seat and closed his eyes, one of his hands resting on top of Sirius' head. James exhaled and slumped. He had no idea what the little silent exchange with Remus had been but James assumed that for some reason the other boy didn't mind the new way James was treating Snape. So that made one out of three.

^°^°^°^°^°^°^°^

Severus tried not to think about the fact that he had woken up cuddled up into Potter's side. He tried not to think about the fact that Potter's arm had been around his shoulders, keeping him close. He tried not to think about the fact that his first instinct was to press himself closer to the warm boy. He really, really tried not to think about that. He was asleep, he didn't know what he was doing, Sev told himself over and over as the Gryffindors in his carriage woke up slowly. Potter of course had no idea what position he had been in with Severus since the boy had extracted himself from his arms the second he woke up, absolutely freaked out, and stayed as far away from him as the carriage allowed him. Now he could barely look at the Gryffindor without blushing. His aims for the next week and a bit were to make sure he didn't do anything he'd regret later in front of Potter - like blurt out something stupid.

Sev took the first chance he got to leave and went to the bathroom to change from his tattered Hogwarts robes into an only slightly less tattered black jumper and old trousers. He looked a bit like he was wearing bin bags as he walked out, but he didn't care. By the time he returned to the carriage, where the Marauders were finishing getting dressed, still sleepy and groggy, the Hogwarts Express had entered London. Lights broke through the darkness outside as the city rose about them.

"We'll be at King's Cross in fifteen minutes," Lupin said, picking up the rubbish the boys had left in the corner, bleary eyed. Sev nodded, bit his lip, and felt Potter's eyes on him.

"What?" he asked, because Potter was just kind of staring at him. The Gryffindor cleared his throat and looked away.

"Nothing."

Severus self-consciously hugged himself. He didn't understand how Pettigrew did this all the time; spent so much time with three good looking guys like Lupin, Black and Potter. It was making Sev more insecure than normal, and made him want to fix his clothes and hair, even though he had never been one to care about things like that before. Sev was eager to get off the train when it rolled onto platform 9 ¾; he could barely handle Potter alone, much less with all his friends. They all piled off the train with the crowd of other overexcited children and teenagers, shoving and shouting and tripping each other up and suddenly Severus found himself outside of the train's warmth and on the freezing platform, packed with eager parents and smoke coming off of the Express. Just when the Slytherin thought his level of discomfort couldn't rise anymore, it was time to say goodbyes.

"I'll see you guys in two weeks," Potter said cheerfully, throwing his arms around Black, who laughed and slapped him heartily on the back. Sev stood on the foggy platform, trying not to shiver and awkwardly watching children reunite with their parents, feeling like a sore thumb sticking out as Potter also hugged Lupin and Pettigrew.

"I...uh," Lupin looked at Sev awkwardly, "See you later Snape."

"Yeah. Bye." Severus replied, though even that was hard to get through his throat. Pettigrew gave him a long look, and Black ignored him completely, throwing his arms around his friends' shoulders and walking off with them, talking obnoxiously loudly.

"Right, should we go home?" Potter asked cheerfully. Severus honestly contemplated hopping back onto the Hogwarts Express.

"Are your parents not here?" he asked. Potter shrugged.

"They're working late today, but they sent me money for a taxi. I live closeby," to Sev's surprise the Gryffindor leaned down and picked up the Slytherin's bag, as if the boy was a girl or worse, his boyfriend, "Come on!" he called, clearly not realising the impact of his actions, and Severus had to race after him to not lose him in the smoke generated by the train that he should've gotten back on.