Flavor of Life
by Yih

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters and am making no profit from this whatsoever.

Chapter Two
A Lack of Choices

It had been a week already and Severus watched the boy float all the dishes to the wash basin where he began to clean them after dinner. Severus had discovered the boy was adept at telekinesis and had some raw ability in telepathy as well. Potter had not been unwise to send his son to him. His son would do well with some good mentoring and Severus planned on giving it to the boy.

The boy had a tolerable disposition, a rather easy-going nature, and Severus suspected he had a love of learning. That would make him a good student. It was a pity that the boy was too old to become a truly good telepath. The boy had such good telekinetic control that it seemed rather unbelievable that he even showed any telepathic abilities. The fact he did made Severus think he was rather out of the ordinary and it was probably quite possible his power in telekinesis could translate itself to telepathy.

If only he had gotten the boy before he was ten, then there might have been hope of molding him into a good telepath. He was too old now at thirteen, but Severus would make do with the time he had. The war could not last more than a few years and then the boy would be back in his father's hands. Severus planned on making sure he was not unkind to the boy. It would not hurt to have the boy grateful to his teacher.

As much as Severus despised the father, he did not see a whole lot of James in the boy. His son seemed to resemble his mother, Lily Evans, a good deal more. Severus blinked when the boy raised the dishes up from the wash basin and summoned the towels to dry the dishes. The boy made it seem easy, but Severus knew firsthand how hard it was to wield that much control over multiple objects doing different tasks. He had very weak telekinetic ability and he was only able to move one object, not that heavy nor that great of a distance.

The boy was young too, his power would only grow. Severus was almost certain that telekinesis did not run in the Potter family and he knew that both Potter and Evans were elemental mages. It was strange that telekinesis would manifest itself so strongly in the boy unless the boy was controlling the wind element to make it appear he was a telekinetic.

“Potter,” Severus said sharply, enough of a distraction for most telekinetics to falter in whatever task they were doing, but the boy did not, “are you a wind mage?”

The boy looked at him with such a confused expression on his face. “I don't think so.”

“You don't know?” Severus almost shouted the question. The boy might be very powerful, but he was such a dunce! “How can you not know? Who was your teacher? Who taught you to move things like that? How are you doing it? Are you commanding the wind element or are you using your mental powers?”

Potter's son only looked even more perplexed. Severus was getting the uncomfortable feeling that this boy was completely untutored in magic, which did not make sense considering that his parents were two very competent mages. You would assume they would have taught him something or at least send him to someone that could. It was not like he had grown up around ignorant muggles.

“Who taught you magic?” Severus asked with increasing exasperation.

“I guess Moony taught me the most,” the boy said after some thought. “Padfoot did too.”

“WHO?” Severus shouted this time.

“Um, my father's friends.” The boy was now looking down at his feet.

Severus pinched the bridge of his nose. “I do not suppose you are referring to Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, are you?”

When the boy nodded eagerly, Severus gritted his teeth. He didn't want to imagine how much damage he was going to have to undo from those two moron's teachings. A small, very small part of him could imagine that Lupin would have been a decent teacher, but Black would have been outrageous, to say the least. Severus suppressed a groan and told himself that he did not need to teach this boy anything. He only had to keep Potter's son safe. That was it.

Why did he get the nagging feeling that he was being left no choice?

-

Books were his solace. Harry drew much comfort in being surrounded by the smell of dusty, old books and the library at Londinium was exceptional. He got the feeling they would be a great adventure here. He did not even know where to start checking out books. He wanted to take everything with him, but he was sure the Madame Pince would inform the checkout limit. She looked uptight in her bun and old-fashioned dress.

“Oh!” a girl exclaimed after she had run headlong into him. “I'm so sorry!” She looked at the books that he had dropped on the floor. She quickly knelt down beside him and helped him gather them up. “I'm such a klutz.”

“I wasn't watching where I was going either,” Harry said. “Um, thanks.” She placed a neat stack of books over his stack.

“Not a problem,” she said. “The least I could do.” She smiled and held out her hand. “I'm Hermione Granger.”

“Harry Potter.” He looked at the hand and wanted to shake it, but he was afraid that his books would go spilling to the floor again and he caught a disapproving look on the librarian's face. “I...”

“I don't know what I'm thinking,” Hermione said. “Of course, you can't shake my hand. You've got too much to carry. Do you want me to help you?” She took half of the books from him before he could answer. “Wow,” she said, looking at the top book, “are you going to study rune magic? I've always wanted to read this tome. Brego is the source for runes. If only he were alive,” she continued whimsically, “I would love to have studied under him.”

The tome had been suggested to him by his old mentor as a good theory book that might help his own magic. Harry was pretty sure that using runes for magical application was far too complex for him. He wasn't even positive he could understand the theory of how runes executed magic. Harry smiled a bit, he wasn't all that great when it came to understanding the workings behind how he did magic. As long as he saw an example, he could just do it. So far that was his greatest limitation.

“Hmmm...” Hermione murmured, “you've got quite the assortment of books here. The Practical Theory behind Elemental Magic? The Basics of Psionic Magic? Precognition and Foresight?” She tilted her head and looked directly at him. “You certainly have a diverse reading list. I can't imagine what for.”

Harry put his books on the desk and Hermione did the same. “I'd like to check these books out.”

Madame Pince pursed her lips and pulled out a shabby notebook. “Your name?”

“Harry Potter.”

She wrote down the name and Harry guessed the notebook had some magical properties embedded into it by a magic craftsman when she said, “You are a first year.” Harry nodded hesitantly when she narrowed her eyes. “What are you doing checking books out?”

“Um...” he began.

“Research!” Hermione said enthusiastically. “He's doing it for his own benefit, of course. Just look at this diverse range of books. He just wants to get to know all that Londinium has to offer him in terms of magic.” She paused. “That's not a bad thing, is it?”

“Hmph,” Madame Pince said and wrote down the number of books he had checked out. Automatically the book titles appeared next to his name. “The books are due back in two weeks. Now leave.”

Harry grabbed his books and quickly left the library, and Hermione was right behind him. “You still haven't answered my question,” she said pointedly. “Any reason will do,” she remarked.

Harry sighed and stopped walking. They were already halfway to his room and he'd rather not have Draco and Hermione bump into each other. He had briefly caught sight of her sitting far on the other end of the first year table and he was fairly positive Hermione was another one of the students that Draco considered inferior in status to him.

“No real reason,” Harry finally answered. “I'm just... curious.”

“I think it's more than that.” She looked thoughtful and confident.

Harry suppressed a groan. “You said any reason would do.”

“I suppose I will have to accept your answer then.” She smiled and it brightened up her entire face. She looked a lot friendlier, like she had been teasing him.

Harry smiled a little in return. “Thanks for helping out back there.” He motioned his head in the direction of the library.

“Just what friends do,” she said before she skipped off in the direction of the first years girls' dormitory. He watched her go, his mouth slightly agape at how suddenly and easy this declaration of friendship had been.

-

“You were with a girl,” Draco said in disgust when Harry walked into their room. Draco was sitting at his desk, writing something, looking quite oblivious to his surroundings, except he wasn't. Harry didn't even know how Draco could have seen Harry with Hermione. “Do you know her parentage? She has no magic on either side. She's muggleborn!”

Harry really didn't see what the problem was, but it obviously was one with Draco. He kept his mouth shut and shrugged helplessly. He was sure Draco would tell him exactly what he had done wrong.

“It would do you very little good in the eyes of those prominent if you were to continue associating with the likes of her,” Draco continued, still writing at the same time. “Your background is suspect as well, considering your mother was muggleborn. Your father is your saving grace. It is a bit of a question mark, though, why he would lower his family prestige to marry the likes of your mother—even if she was a powerful earth mage. He could have done a lot better.”

Harry was beginning to dislike his roommate and it was only the first day. He told himself to be patient and that it just would not do to get pissed at Draco now. He did have to live with the blond boy for the next year and probably beyond. Switching roommates from year-to-year was done, but infrequently. The initial match was usually perfect. Not in this case, he thought.

“I am only looking out for your welfare,” Draco said. He put down his pen and turned around. “It may be that this Granger girl turns out to be an extraordinary talent and it would thus be good to be acquainted with her. I am just remarking that this likelihood is unlikely. I would stay your distance, but if you so choose... you could be friends with her. I would just keep it a secret.”

Harry wanted to tell Draco that he was a snob and that status didn't matter at all to him, but it did matter in the world. He had learned a painful lesson in his secondary preparatory school about that. The world was not a fair place and if you played by the right rules, you invariably came up to be a loser. Harry would keep his principles to himself, and do as Draco suggested—practice them in confidence.

To be continued...

Note: So what do you think is going to happen next? I think the past is going to remain in Severus' POV and the present will be in Harry's. I'm wondering what you think of Draco and Hermione so far. What other characters would you like to be introduced? I hope the story is becoming clearer. The past and the present will overlap with some similarities, but they will also be different.