Lily was almost sorry to see the end of her stay at the Potter's. She and Mrs. Potter had bonded quite nicely over a day-long shopping trip in Diagon Alley. Although Lily was almost certain Mrs. Potter would have been excited for any female companionship, between her own family, Sirius, and the continuous stream of male friends that flowed through the house. Remus and Peter were frequent visitors, of course, and Frank and some boys Lily didn't know from the other houses stopped by to play Quidditch every few days or so. Truth be told, Lily really didn't spend all that much time with James after Christmas, and instead got a glimpse into the rest of the Wizarding world as seen through Mrs. Potter's eyes.
This glimpse included a trip through old family albums, much to Lily's delight. She got to watch James in diapers try to wrestle a garden gnome, don a blue cape and pretend to be Dumbledore, and try on his mother's heels. The present-day James had blushed furiously when told of this, and refused to speak to Mrs. Potter for the remainder of the day.
But alas, break was over, and James and Lily were soon reunited with their friends back at Hogwarts.
~
"Come on! Spill! How was the kiss? Did James just grab you in a heat of passion, or was it slow and sweet?" Alex's badgering from the bed across the room forced Lily to grab her pillow tighter and blush.
"We didn't kiss!" she protested loudly. "Or anything remotely similar! I don't know where you're getting these delusions from."
“You two are going to be so cute together! Oh, can’t you just see it! You’re going to get married and have lots of babies and it’s all going to be so romantic!” Alice gushed, eyes dancing with excitement.
“I promise you, there is nothing going on there! We’re just friends, nothing more.”
Alice rolled her eyes. "Lily, please. We saw the two of you on break. We saw the bracelet. I mean, you fell asleep in his bed! And you're trying to tell us that nothing else happened in the entire week you had him to yourself?"
"It wasn't like that at all! I barely saw him the rest of break. I spent most of my time catching up on my readings, I swear. And the bracelet…." Lily looked down at her wrist, where her gift from James was currently residing. "It was just an innocent gift."
"Mmhmm. You know, none of my guy friends get me such 'innocent gifts.'" Alice rolled onto her stomach to look at Lily more clearly. "Frank gives me that kind of jewelry. Not Remus or Sirius or any of the rest of them. Just Frank. And we've been dating for about a year. You should think about that."
With a huff, Lily turned off the lights with a flick of her wand. "You girls are reading into things way too much. Goodnight."
~
“So, Prongs. Anything new with Lily over break?”
“Nope. Barely saw her.”
“Oh well. ‘Night.”
~
Peter was walking to the dining hall on his way back from the library, muttering the strange Latin words to begin the Freezing Charm. He had just successfully avoided Peeves, who was hurling angry bowtruckles at passing students. Not completely paying attention to his surroundings, he was taken by surprise when he rounded a corner and found himself face-to-face with Emily Jule. “Congel- oh! Emily, hi!”
Emily blushed and shut the book she was reading. “Hi Peter. Er, how was your break? The rest of it, I mean.”
Peter shrugged nervously. “Not too exciting. Played some Quidditch, did some homework… er, what about you?”
“Well, I… er… did some homework too. That’s pretty much it… hey, are you going to dinner?”
“Yeah, I was actually heading down there now.”
Emily smiled shyly at him. “Can I… would you mind… what I mean to say is, would you like to walk down together?”
Peter’s blurted “Yes” perhaps came out a little too quickly, but Emily grinned anyway and the two began walking towards the great hall.
“So, were you talking to yourself when I ran into you or was I just imagining things?” she wanted to know.
Peter flushed, again. “Oh no, I was just practicing the Freezing Charm. I haven’t quite mastered it yet and wanted to get in some practice for dinner.”
“If you like, I can help you with that sometime. Charms has always been one of my favorite classes.”
“Really? That would be just great,” Peter said as he shot Emily another nervous smile. “Say, the library at seven?”
~
Lily was sitting in the library, reviewing her class notes from before break, when she noticed Snape go into some stacks near the stacks. Without really registering she was doing it, Lily started after him. She found the boy perusing through the Potions section, unsurprisingly. “Snape?”
Snape started and dropped several of the books he was holding. “Lily! I mean, Evans,” he stammered out. “Er, what do you want?”
He watched apprehensively as Lily bent down to retrieve the fallen books. “I just wanted to thank you, really,” she said. Standing, she placed the books back into his arms.
Snape looked at her confused. “For what, exactly?”
“For warning me about the attack at the party, however cryptically you may have said it.”
Snape shook his head. “Why would you want to thank me for that? It didn’t do you any good.”
“No, but you tried. That means a lot to me.” Lily looked at the floor while Snape’s neck flushed slightly. “But Snape, I just have to know. How did you know what was going to happen?”
Quickly regaining his composure, he gave her a quick glare. “Why, do you think I had something to do with it? Has Potter so poisoned your mind that it immediately jumps to that conclusion?”
“What?” Lily asked, angrily. “What does Jam” Potter has nothing to do with this!”
“Oh really? Isn’t it true that you spent your entire break with him? The whole school knows, Evans. I’m just disappointed that you’ve sunk so low, to spend your time with such a low level, incompetent, arrogant-“
“Snape, stop! I don’t tolerate him talking about you like that and I’m not going to stand for you speaking that way about him. All I wanted was the truth from you that’s all.”
“The truth!” Snape sputtered out. “You want the truth? Fine. The truth is that I happen to spend time in the Slytherin common room. And as I’m sure you can imagine, I hear lots of rumors floating around. And one day I happened to overhear something about the Christmas party, but I couldn’t be sure if it was true or not, especially since half the time my idiotic housemates haven’t a clue what they’re talking about. But I thought that you, being a Muggleborn, shouldn’t take the chance of it possibly being true. Maybe that’s not something you can report back to Potter and the rest of your Gryffindor posse to sully my name farther than it has been simply by being a Slytherin, but it’s the truth.”
Lily blinked. And again. “Well, thank you. And Snape, I believe you.”
Still huffing slightly, Snape offered Lily a tentative, but curt, smile. “Thanks Evans. Y’know, for spending so much time with Potter, you really-”
A voice from behind cut in. “Did someone say Potter?”
I'll Hate You Forever (I Think) by kris250
Chapter Endnotes: OK guys, here's another chapter. As you might be able to guess, I am on break again and have found time to write a little. I'm not promising that I'm going to keep updating, though. But reviews, no matter how short or cliche, still both make my day and inspire me to continue. Before writing each new chapter, I look back at some recent reviews, and that's really what keeps me from doing something else. So the continuation of this story is really on you guys. Also, I'm thinking of re-titling it. Any ideas?