"Mac—er, Mary?"

The group of Gryffindor girls paused their conversation to glare at him with mild disgust. He shrunk a little. "What do you want, Snape?" Mary Macdonald snapped. "Lily's not here."

"I know, I was actually looking...erm...where is she? Do you know?"

Mary shrugged. "Probably sulking somewhere; she's been avoiding James and Sirius all day for some reason. She wouldn't tell us why. She was working with them in Charms; I think they may have been teasing her about something."

Severus glanced back at the rowdy fourth year boys, who were telling jokes and causing the whole area to laugh uproariously. White-hot anger coursed through him for a moment as he watched then enjoying themselves. Whatever they'd said had upset Lily, and she wasn't normally one to let their ribbing get to her. Without another word to any of the Gryffindors, he turned away and set off through the castle.

Out of the Great Hall, across the Entrance Hall, up the marble staircase. He wondered where she could be.

He'd reached the third floor when he saw a small figure curled up in a nook in the wall behind a suit of armor. He hurried to her. She wasn't crying, she just sat with her arms folded over her chest and her knees tucked towards her. He knelt down beside her. She didn't look up, but her glare, focused on the tapestry hanging opposite, became considerably harder.

"Lils, what's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing. Go away."

"Lily," he said, settling against the wall as well. "I'm not leaving until you tell me."

"Oh, right, I forgot," she muttered, wiping her eyeliner to make sure it hadn't smudged. The brown made her bright green eyes even more noticeable than normal. "You're not like everyone else. You don't give up when I tell you to."

"That's because I know you better than all of them," Severus reminded her.

She shrugged, pouting. "You're going to laugh, it's so stupid, I don't know why I even let it bother me, I mean, I know they only do it for a laugh and I shouldn't take anything they say seriously...�

"Lils, quit rambling and tell me."

She took a deep breath and looked straight at him, biting her lip anxiously, watching to judge his reaction. He stared back expectantly. Finally she muttered, "They were making fun of me because I've never kissed anyone."

Severus couldn't help himself—he gave one snort of laughter and immediately regretted it. She turned the full strength of her glare on him, then stood up, hefted her bag over her shoulder with a sniff, stepped over him and stalked away. He groaned and hurried after her.

No one was in the corridor; the entire school was at dinner. No one but Severus was around to watch as Lily gave him one last watery glare before she slipped into the girl's bathroom. Sprinting, he skidded to a stop right outside the room, grabbing the door handle.

"Lily, Lily, I'm sorry," he called through the door. "I didn't mean it, I just, I didn't think you would-"

"-would let something like that bother me? Because I'm so smart? Because I'm the one who doesn't care what people think of me?" she snarled, the anger, unlike the voice itself, not muffled by the door in the least.

"No, I just meant..." But he trailed off, unable to find a suitable answer, because that had been exactly what he'd meant.

"Just go away, Sev."

"I'm not leaving until you come out here and let me apologize properly."

"Ugh, Merlin, why do you have to be so stubborn?"

"I care about you! You're my best friend, Lily, and I hate it when you're upset. Can't I do anything? I could go hex Potter and Black for you, if you'd like."

"Sev, would you please go? Just let me be alone to pout and I promise tomorrow I'll be perfectly back to normal and not caring about what anyone says."

Severus took a breath, staring down both ends of the hall. Were people coming up from dinner already? It would be quite odd to be found by the rest of the school lurking outside a girl's bathroom. He pounded on the door. "Come on, Lils, please come out? If it's bothering you so much, why don't you do something about it? Kiss that git Pettigrew, that'd give James a right good scare."

Lily made a disgusted noise in her throat. "Ugh, no. I mean, Peter can be nice and all, but I would never ever want to kiss him."

"Well, how would you know? Maybe he's a spectacular kisser and you'd never know because you wouldn't try it."

He heard Lily chuckle and knew he'd succeeded in making her laugh. His triumphant grin disappeared, however, when she replied, "And how would you know, Sev? Have you been snogging Peter in the broom cupboard?"

"That," he said, as she continued to giggle, "is a horrible thought. I cannot believe you would even think of that." He couldn't repress a shudder as she snorted in laughter, louder than before.

"I'll bet even Potter hasn't kissed anyone," he continues, still trying to encourage her to come out.

"Oh yes, he has, he's kissed loads of people," Lily said, and he could tell just from her voice that she was currently wearing a deep scowl. "He's always in the Common Room snogging on some girl-"

"And he's an arrogant toadstool, so look what kissing does to you," he insisted, conjecturing anything he could think of to cheer her up.

"But he's kissed loads of people and I've never kissed anybody, and that makes him-"

"-a jerk-"

"-more experienced and I'm always ahead of James Potter and now I'm not."

"I've never kissed anybody," Severus reminded her.

She didn't answer.

"Please, will you at least come out and talk to me?" he asked. Whoever was thundering up the stairs was coming towards them and he could hear them getting louder as they approached. If she didn't come out soon he was going to end up in a very awkward situation, and he hated any sort of awkward situations. He hated things he couldn't control.

He still couldn't work out why he liked her so much.

"If you don't come out I'm going to come in there myself," he threatened.

"Ah, Sev, that is so creepy, why would you do that?"

"I need to make sure you're alright."

"I'm fine!"

"I'm going to come in."

"You wouldn't dare."

He wouldn't, of course, and they both knew it, but he had to get her to believe it. "Yes, I would." He reached for the door handle, going to turn it but not open the door, when the footsteps reached his corridor. He yanked his hand away from the door like it had suddenly caught fire, but the door was thrown open just as he stepped back and a red-haired blur leapt on him, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him straight on the lips.

The four boys who'd been walking back to the Common Room to finish their homework or get ready for Quidditch practice stopped in their tracks, their conversation ceased, as Severus recovered from his shock and wrapped his arms around Lily, feeling her soft hair under his fingers, kissing her back.

They were interrupted by a loud, "Oi!" Lily pulled away and glared at James.

"What do you want?" she snapped, her voice ice cold.

"I tell you to go snog somebody and this is who you pick? The slimiest slimeball in the school?" James sneered.

"I'm sure he's a right better kisser than you," Lily said haughtily. She looked to Remus, Sirius, and Peter, who stood with slack-jawed stares, in shock. "He's probably better than all of you put together!"

James shook his head. "I'd love to stay and prove you wrong, but I have a practice to get to." He turned to walk away, but Lily called after him.

"If you tell anyone about this, I will tell the entire school about all the second years you've ever kissed."

He scowled at her. "Don't even think about attempting to kill me in my sleep—if I die before the game on Saturday, Dan Johnson will be out for blood." He walked away, waving his fingers over his shoulder. "See ya, Evans, Snivellus!"

He and his friends disappeared down the corridor. Severus looked back at Lily. "Why'd you do that?" he wondered. "You shouldn't have given him the satisfaction!"

"I figured why not?" Lily shrugged. Leave it to her to be matter-of-fact about the whole thing. "Besides, he offered to kiss me if I wanted. So it was you or him." She raised an eyebrow at his utterly shocked expression, a smug little grin making it's way onto her features. "Thanks, Sev, you really cheered me up. I feel much better now." She began to walk towards the library. "Come on, I have to finish that essay on Banishing Charms for Flitwick. Care to join me?" He nodded numbly and hurried after her. Lily nudged his elbow with hers.

“Why did you tell him that? Threaten him like that?�

She shrugged. “I figured you wouldn’t want your creepy reputation ruined.�

“Thanks,� he replied, letting a tiny smile push its way onto his face. They walked in silence in the direction of the library, more and more students appearing around them, also on their way to do homework, until Lily said,

"You definitely kissed me back," she said.

His lips still tingling, he fought his fingers, which were trying to reach up to touch them, and retorted, "I did not..."