The hot summer sun shone brilliantly down on Severus, bringing beads of sweat to his pale forehead and pasting his stringy hair to his face. He ran a hand across his forehead, mopping up the perspiration, and continued his walk towards the park. He started fidgeting with his clothes, wishing he could look at least partially decent for Lily. It didn’t matter to him that they had known each other for almost six years now, he always worried that she looked down on the things he wore.

Severus kicked pebbles as he shuffled along the deserted dirt road. It was nice to be in a more tranquil place, no drunken parents yelling at you or at each other. He started picking up the pace when he realised he was running short on time before he had to be at the park.

A small smile crept its way onto his face as he saw the gate that opened onto the park. He paused at the opening to gaze at the slim figure on the swings. It was like he was ten again, watching the lovely Lily pump her way higher and higher on the swings. Her auburn locks swish in and out of her grinning face.

She turned her head to see that he had arrived, just like they had promised. Severus’s smile grew to a grin as he watched Lily jump from the swing at the height of its arch. Unlike last time, she let herself gracefully land on the sand. Her knees bent as she fell into a crouch, arms outstretched like a gymnast.

After straightening herself, she looked at Severus with a huge grin, her cheeks pink and beads of sweat running down her forehead.

“Hi, Sev!” Lily called, waving.

Severus quickly made his way to her side. “Hi, Lily.”

Lily wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a big hug. Then, holding him out at arm’s length she said, “Cutting it rather close, aren’t we Sev?”

He grinned. “Sorry, father wanted to begin a new argument right as I was heading out the door.”

“I see. How are things at home?” Lily asked, leading him to the swings.

Sitting down, Severus looked Lily in the eye. “It’s about the same, but father spends lots of his time at the pub now and comes home very drunk. I just try to avoid him, but here’s how it ends.”

He lifted his sleeve to reveal five finger shaped bruises. Then, pushing his hair to the side, he showed a cut running from the centre of his forehead to the end of his right eyebrow.

“Oh, Sev!” Lily gasped, hand flying to her mouth.

“Don’t worry, I’ve learned to ignore the pain, mostly,” he replied, turning his face from Lily.

Lily got up and knelt in front of him. Gently, she reached out and brushed his hair to the side. “You shouldn’t have to put up with this,” she whispered sadly. Carefully, she leaned forward and gently kissed the cut.

Severus closed his eyes and breathed in a deep sigh. He was use to this. She mothered him sometimes, but he just wished she would understand that he wants more in the relationship.

The two sat in silence, rocking slowly back and forth in the swings. Severus glanced up through his curtain of hair to gaze at Lily.

“Um… so you said there was something important you wanted to tell me?” Severus asked, breaking the silence.

“Oh, yes!” Lily exclaimed, eyes sparkling. “I got my Hogwarts letter today. They’ve made me Prefect!”

“Congratulations,” he said, smiling a somewhat sad smile.

“What is it, Sev? Aren’t you happy for me?” Lily asked, slightly hurt.

“Of course! But, since you’re a Prefect you have to go to the Prefects’ compartment in the train on the way to Hogwarts,” Severus explained, looking down at his beat up shoes.

“Don’t worry,” Lily consoled, reaching over and squeezing his hand. “I won’t leave you alone. I’ll be sure to sit with you when the meeting’s over.”

“Promise?”

“Yes.”

Smiling, Severus started swinging higher. Lily took that as a challenge. “I bet I could jump farther than you,” she challenged, pumping her legs to gain more air.

“You’re on!” Severus accepted, a devious sparkle playing in his eyes.

The two frantically pumped their legs, trying to get their swings higher and higher. Lily threw back her head, laughing.

“On the count of three, one,” Lily began.

“Two,” Severus yelled.

“Three!” they both screamed. Instantly they propelled themselves from the swings and flew through the air.

Severus landed first, and rolled onto his back. Lily soon followed, landing two feet to his left. They laid there laughing and trying to catch their breath.

Lily rolled onto her stomach, closer to Severus. “I…won,” she panted.

“I…don’t…think so,” Severus argued, getting a small gleam of greediness in his eyes.

“Okay, how about… we call it… a tie?” Lily said, letting out a laugh and scooting closer to Severus.

“Fine,” Severus relented.

The friends lay on the sandy playground talking. They discussed their eagerness to get back to Hogwarts, their summer, and other more random things. Severus couldn’t help studying Lily as she lay there talking to him. Her red hair was sprawled out in a halo around her head and her emerald eyes sparkled with joy as she chattered away. Her cheeks were still pink from the heat and she was working up a good tan from being outside this summer.

A small breeze picked up and blew a strand of hair into Lily’s face. She didn’t seem to notice as she continued rattling on about something stupid Petunia had said to her the other day. Carefully, Severus reached out and tucked the strand behind her ear. He paused, leaning over her, gazing into her eyes. Lily had finally stopped talking to watch what he was doing.

“Sev?” she whispered.

He leaned in closer, their noses almost touching. “Lily.”

He couldn’t hold himself back he leaned in and watched her eyes flutter shut, preparing for his kiss.

“Lillian mum says supper’s ready,” announces a snooty voice from the gate.

Severus rolled off Lily and stayed lying on his back. “Damn Muggles,” he muttered darkly, running a hand through his greasy hair.

“I’ll be there in a moment Petunia! Go on home without me,” Lily called back, sitting up.

Severus sat up as well, a mixed look of disappointment, anger and annoyance on his face. He watched sadly as Lily stood up and brushed off her clothes. Then she squatted down and wrapped her arms around Severus.

“Good-bye, Sev. I’ll see you soon,” she whispered in his ear. Then, as she was unfolding her arms from around him, she quickly kissed him on the cheek.

“’Bye,” Severus said, taken by surprise.

With that, Lily started walking towards the gate. Severus watched her walk away, stunned by what had just happened. She stopped to wave when she reached the gate and he dreamily waved back.

He sat there long after Lily had left; he was in no hurry to get back to the shack that held his angry father. So he just sat on the swing, twisting the chains then letting them spin him around. Every once in a while he would lift his hand to the cheek where Lily had left the kiss hours ago. It gave him a triumphant yet greedy gleam in his eyes. Triumphant for he finally received a kiss, that was nothing near motherly, from Lily; and greedy because he wanted more.

Finally, Severus decided it was time to go home. The sun had set and the stars were sprinkled across the sky. Slowly, he drug his feet down the dirt road, bringing himself closer and closer to Spinner’s End. After what happened this afternoon, he was determined to not let anything his father said, or did, ruin his happiness.

That’s harder said than done.

The year seemed to drag on and on for Severus. Every time he suggested doing something with Lily, she had Prefect duties. Sure, they still hung out a lot, but he wanted to do something more intimate. After that kiss in the park, Severus was determined to spend more time alone with Lily.

I know what I’ll do! I’ll invite Lily to go to Hogsmeade with me, he thought.

Now that he had figured out what to do, he felt more confident. Looking up at the clock, he noticed he would be late to Charms class if he didn’t hurry up.

Severus quickly made his way to the classroom, his head bent down, clutching his books to his chest.

“Where you going, Snivellus?” called a taunting voice.

He glanced up to see James and his friends blocking the corridor. “Out of my way, Potter,” he spat. He quickly tried to slip through a gap by the wall.

“No, I don’t think we will,” Sirius replied, side-stepping into the gap.

“I don’t have time for this!” Severus hissed, clenching his teeth. “Levicorpus.”

With a shout of surprise, James flew up by his ankles. Severus quickly made his way through James’s vacated spot. He didn’t bother with letting him down; it’d be more fun to leave him dangling there for all to see.

“What’re you in a hurry for? She doesn’t really like you! She probably gave up your seat, gladly might I add, to someone better looking!” James yelled after him.

“Shut it!” Severus called, annoyance turning to fury. “Liberacorpus.”

He grinned to himself as he heard James’s loud thump as he crashed to the floor, followed by an irritated “Ow!”

*~~~*~~~*

Severus jumped out of his seat at the sound of the bell, signally class was over. He’d been thinking about how he should ask out Lily through the whole class period. Upon realizing that he couldn’t recall anything Professor Flitwick had said, the idea came to him. She’s brilliant in Charms, and paid attention every day.

“Lily?” he said, slinging his bag over his shoulder.

“Yes, Sev?” she replied, heading towards the door.

“Well, I’m having a little trouble with today’s lesson.” He looked at her, the greed radiating through his dark eyes. “Would you mind explaining it for me later?”

“Sure, Sev! Is there somewhere you have in mind to work?”

“How about the Hog’s Head, on our Hogsmeade trip tomorrow?”

They continued walking down the hall towards the dungeons; Lily was quiet, contemplating his suggestion.

“But, the Hog’s Head is so… unusual,” she said slowly.

“It’s not that bad. Besides, it’ll be quieter than the Three Broomsticks; we’ll be able to concentrate better,” Severus quickly explained, worried she may decline.

Lily glanced at Severus out of the corner of her eye. “That’s a good point. Okay, I’ll meet you there,” she agreed a little reluctantly.

“Great!”

Severus could never have felt happier. He waltzed to his seat next to Lily and waited for class to begin. Slughorn came and gave the class the name of the potion he wanted them to make and told them the page it was on. Severus was glad that he had already reworked this potion and wrote it down in his book; doing this saves lots of class time.

Every so often, Severus was able to sneak a peek at Lily between adding powdered moonstone to the Draught of Peace and stirring it. She never lost that smile she gets every time she’s brewing a potion. Next to him, she was the best in the class, not to mention she just loved potions in general.

At one point during the class, when he looked up he glanced over her shoulder to see Potter glaring his way. So he’s already heard about Lily and me. Why doesn’t he just get a clue? She will never love him. He thinks he’s all high and mighty, but if he’s so great, why am I the one going to Hogsmeade with Lily? Severus thought, sending a triumphant sneer in the Marauder’s direction.

Before he knew it, Severus was cleaning up his cauldron to the sound of the end of day bell. Tomorrow, he would be free to heat up his and Lily’s relationship, without any interruptions.

*~~~*~~~*

Severus managed to find a secluded table for two in the back Hog’s Head. He sat facing the door, watching for the moment when Lily walked through the door. It was now ten past one o’clock and he was getting nervous that she wasn’t going to come. Twiddling his thumbs and biting his lower lip, Severus became more and more sure that Lily had ditched him.

Just as Severus was about to storm out of the Hog’s Head, who should appear but Lily Evans. He smiled and waved to Lily to show her where he was. His arm stopped mid-wave and his smile slid off his face as he saw another person follow her in.

“I’m sorry, Sev,” Lily apologized, pulling a third chair to the table before sitting down. “I was stopped by Professor Slughorn and he just kept talking and dragging me into the Three Broomsticks for a butterbeer; he just can’t take no for an answer.”

“What is he doing here?” Severus asked, his voice dripping with distaste.

Remus Lupin stood, smiling awkwardly at Severus.

Lily patted the table, in front of the empty table. “Sit, Remus. You can’t stand all day,” Lily said, ignoring Severus’s irritable tone.

Severus shoved back his chair and stood up. “Lily! I need to talk with you… Alone,” he added, turning away.

He walked out of earshot of Remus and waited, tapping his foot, until Lily joined him.

“Why is he here?” he whispered furiously.

“Well, Remus needed a little assistance with Charms as well so I invited him to work with us. What’s the big deal?”

“You know Lupin is one of Potter’s cronies. He was probably sent here to spy on us,” he suggested.

“Come off it! Remus may be one of James’ friends, but he would never do that,” Lily said.

Severus ran a hand through his hair. “Lily, it was suppose to be just you and me,” he said, his voice a mixture of disappointment and frustration.

“You mean, like a date?” Her eyebrows flew to her hair line when he dismally shook his head ‘yes’. “I’m sorry; I had no idea!”

“Well what did you think? I invited you to a deserted place; just you and me! And after that kiss…” He let his voice trail off as a faint shade of pink rose in his sallow cheeks.

“I thought you really wanted to study,” she replied, looking anywhere but at Severus. “Well, we can’t just bail on Remus. He’s really having trouble on this lesson.”

“You go back and help…that creature. I’m just going to go back to the common room,” he said, sinking back into the aggressive shield he had built.

“Are you sure?”

“Just go!” With that, Severus whipped around and headed out the door. He looked back once and saw Lily, her emerald eyes glistening, mouth the words ‘I’m so sorry’ before turning back to Lupin.

Severus trudged back towards the castle, kicking at pebbles as he went. Just as he got about half-way there, he heard someone behind him call his name. When he looked, he saw Avery and Mulciber running towards him.

“Hello, Severus,” greeted Avery, slinging an arm around Severus’s shoulder. “On a little walk back to the castle? Mind if we join you?”

“Do what you wish,” he muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“Great! You still interested in being a Death Eater?” Avery asked.

“I want to, but Lily absolutely despises them,” Severus sighed.

“Evans? Why, we just saw her in the Hog’s Head with that Lupin kid. Hangin’ all over him she was,” Mulciber informed.

“What?” Severus yelled, spinning to face Mulciber.

“Saw it with our own eyes,” Avery confirmed. The three Slytherins walked in silence for a few minutes as Severus thought about what he should do.

“What kind of things are you doing for Him right now?” Severus asked, giving in to his friends.

“That’s our boy! I knew you’d come around,” Mulciber cheered.

“Well, we do lots of things,” Avery began.

The wind began to pick up, drowning out the boys’ talk of Muggle torture and helping the Dark Lord.

Severus was very wary about trying another date after the disaster in Hogsmeade. He couldn’t figure out if she truly meant that she didn’t know that he intended the meeting to be a date. She’s known him long enough that she should have known better than to invite Lupin. Was she purposely trying to sabotage all his efforts?

Perhaps I was just too vague. This time I’ll tell her exactly what I’m thinking. Then she won’t bring others when it’s supposed to be my time with her, he thought greedily.

Finally, Severus reached his destination: the library. Lily can be found here most of the time that she’s not in class. He paused at the end of the bookshelf to watch Lily before she knew he was there. His eyes took in her whole appearance, savoring it as if it was for his eyes only.

Lily was reading a book, her left hand holding up her head. Severus looked at his own outstretched left arm; he rubbed it, imagining the Dark Mark that would be on it, just as Avery had said. He quickly looked back at Lily, so he wouldn’t miss another second. Tucked behind her ear was all but a few strands of hair; those few strands hung in front of her face, unnoticed. A faint smile decorated her face, and her eyes quickly moved from left to right as she continued reading.

Finally deciding to make his presence known, he stepped out from behind the bookshelf and approached Lily’s table.

Severus cleared his throat. “Um, Lily, do you mind if I study with you?” he asked, his voice and eyes full of hope and desire.

“Sure,” she replied, waving her hand towards the empty chair. “Have a seat.”

Severus slipped into the chair and pulled out a book. After a few minutes of reading he glanced up and watched her read again. Lily then glanced up and met Severus’s eyes, apparently feeling him watching her.

“Is something wrong, Sev?” she asked hesitantly.

“Nothing’s wrong; I just have a question,” he answered.

Leaning back, away from her book, she asked, “What is it?”

“Well, I was wondering if-” He paused and rubbed the back of his neck, “-if you’d like to go hang out by the lake tomorrow; kinda like a date?”

Lily’s eyes widened a bit. “Um… sure, Sev. That sounds great.”

“Great!” With that Severus packed up his things and headed back to the Slytherin common room.

*~~~*~~~*

Severus sat in the shade of a tree and anxiously watched the doors to the Entry Hall as he waited for Lily. So far she wasn’t late, but getting there so early made him paranoid that she was. He sat there, pulling pieces of grass out of the ground.

Heaving a big sigh, Severus slowly raised his head to check if Lily had arrived yet. To his surprise, she was standing in front of him gazing down.

“Lily, you came!” he exclaimed.

“Of course I came,” she said, sitting down next to him.

The two sat in awkward silence. Severus wasn’t exactly sure what he should do or what Lily was expecting. Sure they had been friends forever, but they’d never discussed anything remotely romantic before.

“So… how did you do on the Transfiguration quiz?” Lily asked, breaking the silence.

“Fine,” he replied, not leaving much room to further the conversation.

“That’s good; so did I,” she mumbled, resorting to running her hand back and forth across the grass.

The silence continued. This was not going as Severus had planned. But at least she was here, and he had no one to share her with. He watched as her thin, delicate fingers brushed over the blades of grass. She had painted her nails since he last saw her. Her nails were a brilliant scarlet and gold; all ready for her house’s Quidditch match tomorrow.

Without thinking, he reached out his own hand to grasp hers. He looked up through the curtain of hair that had fallen into his face to see Lily’s reaction. Her eyes had widened in surprise, but she wore a shy smile. She squeezed his hand gently and then shifted her gaze to the Black Lake.

Should I tell her about becoming a Death Eater? Severus thought.

She’ll be mad at you, a voice argued back.

Maybe she’ll be proud that you’ve gotten this great opportunity.

Don’t kid yourself; she’s always despised anything relating to the Dark Arts.

Maybe she’ll decide to tolerate it because it’s my choice.

Severus took a deep breath to silence the arguing voices. “Lily?” he asked finally, making his decision.

“Yes, Sev?”

“I have some big news to tell you.” He paused to start judging her reaction. “I’ve been talking to Avery and Mulciber-“

“Ah, Sev, Avery and Mulciber? Those two are nothing but trouble; why are you talking to them?” she interrupted.

“They’re my friends,” he defended.

Lily raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Not very good ones,” she muttered.

That doesn’t mean she doesn’t approve of what you’re doing; she just doesn’t like your friends. You can live with that, he told himself.

“Can I just tell you my news without you criticizing my friends?” he pleaded.

“Yes, go on,” she said.

“As I was saying; I was talking to Avery and Mulciber and they told me about this great, very rare, opportunity I could get, once out of Hogwarts. I’d work for a very powerful wizard,” Severus hesitantly explained.

Lily’s eyes lit up with excitement. “That’s great, Sev! What kind of job is it?”

“Um… being a Death Eater,” he said, glancing down at his shoes.

“A what?” she screeched, jumping to her feet.

Severus winced at the tone of her voice; this was not going the way he planned.

“Sit down, Lily. There’s no need to get all excited.”

“Sev, you’re talking about working for You-Know-Who! How can you want to take part in those things?” she yelled.

“He’s just trying to make this a better world for us. A place where we don’t have to hide our powers at home,” he explained.

“Ha! A better place?” Lily threw her arms in the air. “He’s killing innocent people! He’s killing Muggles and Muggleborns; I’m a Muggleborn!”

“I know that Lily but if I help him, you’ll be protected! We can live together and have protection,” he said, his voice revealing his desperation to get Lily to understand.

“But he’ll kill my parents! And Petunia! I’ll have no more family!” she cried, her eyes tearing up at the thought.

Severus slowly stood up and placed a comforting hand on Lily’s shoulder. “You’ll have me, Lily! Besides, you and Petunia haven’t gotten along since you were accepted into Hogwarts!” he said, his voice rising in frustration.

“But she’s my sister!” Lily stepped back, out of his reach, so his hand fell off her shoulder. “We’re not supposed to get along all the time! We’ll make up. Please, Severus, don’t do this!” she begged. Lily placed her head in her hands and began crying.

“But, Lily, I’ve found a way that we can stay together and be safe! You will never have to worry about him coming after you!” He couldn’t understand why she was taking this so badly.

Lily looked up at Severus, a couple tears running down her cheeks. “Sev, I don’t know if we can be friends if you do this,” she murmured, her voice hardening in defiance.

“Don’t do this? I just want to keep you safe,” he said, stepping closer to her. “Why is that such a problem?”

“Killing people is wrong, Severus. I can’t possibly be with someone that’s willing to take innocent lives.”

“I won’t tell them yes yet, okay? I’ll think about it. Please, let me do that; I’m only thinking about you, Lily,” he relented.

“For now, I’ll let it go. But eventually you have to make a choice, Sev. I love you, but I can’t handle what you’re considering. Someday you’ll have to choose, me or Voldemort.”

With that, Lily turned and headed to the castle, leaving Severus under the tree torn and confused.

Over the course of the next few days, Severus and Lily kept their distance. They still sat together in their classes, though he noticed that her chair seemed a little further away from him than was normal, but not much conversation happened between them. Severus constantly glanced at Lily during classes, hoping she would tell him she had changed her mind. No such thing had happened yet.

*~~~*~~~*

One day, after supper, Avery was informing Severus about what he had been told by Lucius- apparently, the Dark Lord had some big plans coming up. Lucius claimed that all he knew was that the plans were very important to his rise to power and, if they were lucky, they’d have a role in the plans once they left Hogwarts. Severus decided he was going to casually mention what had happened between him and Lily, and see what Avery had to say about it.

“-So when I tell her, she starts yelling at me about how it’s wrong and how she’s a Muggleborn,” he explained, looking down at his scuffed shoes.

“Don’t worry about her. Those Gryffindors are too proud to understand what the Dark Lord’s trying to do. Either she’ll come around, or you’ll find someone who’s more understanding, like another Slytherin,” Avery said dismissively.

“But I don’t want someone else. She’s the one I like,” Severus said defiantly.

Avery raised an eyebrow in question. “Did you mention all of the benefits you’d get for working for the Dark Lord?”

Severus’s face scrunched up in confusion and incredulity. “Of course I did. She’s just too worried about her family.”

Avery shrugged his shoulders. “That’s the problem with Muggles and Mudbloods; they think about others too much. You think of yourself first, or it makes you weak,” he explained.

Severus ran a hand through his hair. “I just don’t know what to do,” he said.

“Don’t worry, you’ll think of something. In the mean time, we’re having a few… initiation meetings, if you’d like to join us,” he offered.

“I’ll think about it.”

The two boys continued on their way to the Slytherin Common Room in an awkward silence. Avery had a point, Severus knew that, but he couldn’t just abandon all thoughts of Lily. The rest of the way to the dungeon Common Room, Severus imagined the different reactions Lily would have to his idea; though, no scenario soothed him in the slightest.

*~~~*~~~*

Potions class that day was pretty quiet at Severus and Lily’s table. The only sounds were the clinking of vials and bubbling of the cauldrons. Severus was feeling more and more guilty about making Lily so angry with him. He was determined to find a way to get back into her good graces.

“Pass the bottle of salamander blood, please,” Lily said, not even glancing up from her potion book.

Severus reached around his cauldron and grabbed the bottle and handed it to her. She must have used her peripheral vision to avoid looking at him while grabbing the bottle, because he didn’t even catch her eye. She must really be upset to go through this much trouble to avoid looking at me, he thought dismally.

His head rested on his hand as he half-heartedly sprinkled pomegranate juice into his cauldron. Experimentally, Severus stirred the concoction counter-clockwise three times. He was satisfied with the resulting color change, so he quickly scribbled it down in his book.

As class trudged on, he became more convinced that he wouldn’t be able to patch things up with Lily. He lost all interest in his potion- there were more important things on his mind. Before he knew it, Severus slipped into a string of past memories of him and Lily.

*~~~*~~~*

Just as he got to the memory of last summer, the bell rang. Severus jumped and nearly fell off of his stool, resulting in sniggering from Potter’s table.

“Sev?” a small voice said from behind him.

“Lily!” His eyes light up with delight at the mere idea that she wanted to talk to him.

“Can we talk?”

“Sure! How about in the library?” he asked, that greedy glimmer returning to his eyes at the thought of private time with Lily in the library.

Lily ran a hand through her hair. “Sounds great. After supper,” she said.

“I’ll be there!”

Not waiting for him to finish packing up his things, Lily headed to the Great Hall for dinner. Maybe things are getting better after all, he thought, his mental voice adopting a rare singsong tone.

*~~~*~~~*

Lily crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow while gazing at Severus from across the table. “Sev, you need to tell me, are you still considering being a Death Eater?” she asked.

He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at Lily’s forehead, unable to meet her eyes as he told his lie. “Well, I’ve sort of decided to forget about it for a while, and work out things with you first. I still have time to make up my mind for sure,” he replied.

She heaved a big sigh. “I want to understand, Sev, because right now, I can’t imagine why you’d want to do anything like that. Explain to me. Let me understand,” she whispered furiously, on the verge of begging.

“I’ve been dreaming of this kind of opportunity for so long; why aren’t you happy for me? I lived in that…dump for fifteen years; being beaten and anchored down the whole time! I don’t have a lot of money, and I’m not popular- it’s hard. Finally, I have something that I can succeed with, something that I can do well at.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “But, Sev, you’re smart! You’re the cleverest person in our Potions class. You could do so much without getting wrapped up in the Dark Arts.”

“Ha! Please-” Severus began to scoff.

Lily shook her head and waved her hand slightly, cutting him off. “You could be a Healer,” she whispered sadly. “Or even take over for Professor Slughorn when he retires.”

“Don’t you understand? Being a teacher at this school won’t give you the protection the Dark Lord can.”

“No, I don’t understand. I don’t see how murdering people will protect me,” Lily said, her eyes showing the hardness that was developing in her about this subject.

“I’m not going to murder anyone- just help make this a better world for us,” Severus said, leaning forward to take her hand.

She pulled her hand away from Severus and snapped, “No. It’s not right.” With that she stood up to leave.

“Wait,” Severus whispered urgently, stretching out his hand. “What if I say I’ll think about it- I could study to become a Potions master? In case things don’t work out.”

“I’ll take it,” Lily sighed reluctantly. “But don’t think I’m going to take “I’ll think about it” for much longer. Sooner or later you’ll have to decide.”

Severus started to smile to himself as he listened to her begin to give in a little. This would be a difficult thing to tell Avery and Mulciber, but he’d think of a way. Who knew? Lily might come to rethink this whole thing, and let him do what he knows will keep them both safe.

“Well, I better get going. I have homework to do for Binns, and Mary needs help with Charms,” she said, slinging her bag over her shoulder. “So, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Severus watched as she turned to leave, happy that they had made up. He wanted to start over; he knew they were supposed to be together. As he thought this, he realised he couldn’t just let her walk away, he had to do something to ensure that she was still his and no one else’s.

“Wait!” he called, his hand shooting out to grab her wrist. “Do you want to work together on our Potions essay?”

She hesitated briefly. “Sure, Sev. How about we meet out by the lake after dinner tomorrow?” Lily suggested.

“Sounds great,” Severus replied, relieved that she was willing to give this another shot.

Lily smiled and adjusted the bag on her shoulder. “See you later.”

Severus grinned as a surge of accomplishment washed over him. He had finally made things right with her. He didn’t have to worry any more about whether or not a ridiculous Gryffindor would sweep her off her feet. Feeling better than he had in the last few days, Severus watched with a hungry look in his black eyes as Lily left the library.

*~~~*~~~*

It was Saturday afternoon, Severus was full, and he was on his way to meet Lily. He couldn’t think of a time when he had felt so happy and peaceful. He was strolling down the dungeon corridor without a care in the world when he came across a block in the hall- Potter.

Severus was determined not to let anything, even Potter, ruin this day. Without more than a glare, he tried to squeeze his way around the person who appeared to be cleaning the dungeon floor.

“Where are you going, Snivellus?” James taunted, looking up from the brush he held.

“Not now, Potter. I have places to be,” Severus said with gritted teeth, brushing off James.

James got to his feet, wiping his hands on his trousers. “Yeah, right, Snivellus. Where would you have to be? An appointment for your annual shower?”

“It’s none of your business where I’m going,” Severus snapped, starting to get annoyed. “Perhaps I’m going to study, maybe take a little stroll around the lake, or could it be that I’m meeting Lily to do something that doesn’t concern you in the slightest? I don’t know, but I’m inclined to think that it’s the latter.” A smirk grew across his face as he watched the surprised anger heat up James’ face.

“Ha! I heard what happened between you two. She’ll never forgive a greasy little coward like you, and I don’t blame her. Of course, I didn’t expect any better from a bloody Slytherin like you in the first place,” James maliciously shot back.

“Think what you must, Potter. I really have no time to waste on a git like you,” Severus snapped, side-stepping around James.

“She’ll never love you, you know. A pathetic, cowardly troll like yourself? Why settle when you can have the best?” James taunted, gesturing to himself as if he was king of the world, all the while pushing Severus further over the edge.

“Cowardly? Who is it hiding with their ancient mummy and daddy while I’m dealing with the greatest wizard of all time?” Severus yelled, whirling to face James. With that said, Severus turned and stormed down the hall. He hadn’t gone very far when a jet of blue light shot over his head. When he turned around, he saw James standing in the middle of the corridor, wand pointing straight at him.

“So, that’s how it’s going to be,” he whispered to himself. Quickly, he pulled out his own wand and prepared for a duel. “Let the games begin.”