The sun stood high, the sky around shining a light azure. A few clouds were to be found near the horizon, and only a little wind was going; it wasn’t nearly enough, though, to ease the heat and swirl the air with freshness. The water shone green in the bright sunlight, and in the grassy dunes hundreds of crickets played their songs. It sounded like an enjoyable warm spring’s day, but it was in the middle of August and too hot for a day in late summer.

But he liked it. Never before in his life had he been to the beach, but from the first moment on he liked it.

‘Sev, have you ever tried strawberry flavour?’

The boy looked to the girl who had asked that question and thus torn him out of his musings. Her auburn red hair gleamed in the bright summer sun, and her green eyes sparkled with happiness, shining like two emeralds in darkness.

He shook his head, indicating that he hadn’t tried it before.

‘Really? You should try it, it is heaven. I love strawberry,’ she exclaimed with so much enthusiasm that he couldn’t help but smile. ‘Let’s get you some, ‘kay?’

‘Agreed.’

Severus had been invited by his friend’s family to accompany them on their weekend camping trip to the beach. Lily had been thrilled that her parents wanted him to be with her and her family; she visibly enjoyed every minute of having him around. And he in turn was glad of the opportunity which enabled him to spend an entire weekend with Lily – without her annoying older sister being around. He thanked the heavens once again that the Muggle girl had been unable to accompany them on this trip due to having been invited by a friend to their house.

Both twelve year old children walked over to where her parents sat under a sunshade, the cool box next to their blankets. In there, several sandwiches as well as lemonade and water were stowed, and to the excitement of the children it also contained ice cream.

‘Mum, do you mind if Sev and I take an ice cream each?’

Mrs Evans looked up from the book she was reading and put down her sunglasses. ‘No, I don’t. Take what you want.’ She smiled heartily at her daughter and Severus.

‘Thanks,’ Lily happily said and flashed her mother a smile in return. Severus attempted one, too, one of gratitude, but he felt he failed miserable and quickly turned away instead. Lily in the meantime took two cones of strawberry flavoured ice cream out of the box; one she handed directly over to Severus which he took with some reluctance, still unable to believe that it was being offered to him. Then both children went looking for a nice and quiet place where they could sit and eat their sweets.

Severus bit into the ice cream and was surprised at how good it tasted. Lily certainly had sound basis to call it heaven; although, he himself would not have gone that far. Because, truth be told, he was enjoying eating that ice cream with her far more than its taste.

Not far away from the sandy beach stood several bungalows, their windows and doors wide open to welcome in the summer. Children were either running around the bungalows’ gardens or playing at the water’s edge, their parents sitting beneath sunshades or on the holiday houses’ verandas, enjoying a cool drink and friendly chat with the neighbours. Everyone was socialising, only one boy kept aloof.

He sat on his parents’ bungalow’s veranda and had his head lying on his chair’s backrest, looking into the sky. The clouds lazily wandered across it with the wind’s attempted hunting game and morphed into the most unusual forms he had ever seen. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the sun slowly getting closer to the horizon’s edge. Her bright light illuminated everything it reached, and where the shadows fell, lively artistic dark places were created. The water glittered bluish-green and rolled upon the shore in crashing waves, the white foam sparkling in the sunlight. Birds sang in the trees behind the bungalow, and far above in the sky seagulls sang their sad songs of goodbye.

But all this late summer’s beauty didn’t matter to the boy; he simply was bored. Every year his family came to this bungalow at this special beach to do exactly the same they did every summer – nothing. James hated it, and he was once again bored out of his mind.

‘Mum, why couldn’t I have stayed at home? Or with Peter or Remus?’ he whined when his mother served the four p.m. tea.

‘Because, Jamie, darling, you’d make chaos when we’re not there to look out for you.’ She poured a bit of the tea into his cup. ‘Additionally, the beach is lovely, and you would surely miss coming here to play with your friends.’

James cringed; he hadn’t told his parents yet that his “friends� no longer wanted to play with him because he was the ‘weird, strange freak’ – which he really was if he was true to himself. Stacey sure had had a reason for yelling that at him after he had accidentally let the volleyball with which the group of children had been playing grow like a balloon; in the end it had exploded, shocking his “friends� to such a degree that they from then on for once and for all had broken the friendship to him. Reminiscing about that day two years ago, he inconspicuously cast a wary look towards Stacey’s parents’ bungalow but no one seemed to be there at the moment. Probably some out-of-town-trip, he thought.

‘And living in the bungalow for four weeks is a change from our house,’ James’ mother continued, tearing him out of his reveries.

‘Mum, being home is a change. I’m living in Hogwarts now, remember?’ he pointed out.

‘Sure, darling, I know.’ She sat down. ‘But you’re not able to go swimming there.’

James mumbled something along the lines of ‘To hell with bloody swimming,’ but he said it silently enough so that his mother didn’t hear it. She hated it when he used rude language and swearwords.

Shortly after the banter his father joined them on the veranda, and the Potters had tea. James enjoyed the cake – self-baked by his mother – but when he took up his cup to sip he nearly choked on the drink.

It was his mother’s favourite flavour. But James Potter didn’t like Earl Grey tea.

And he hated the bloody beach. I’ll go for a walk, he decided while he listened to his parents’ lively chatter. When I survive this ceremony…

Half an hour before the sunset, Lily and Severus were to be found sitting on her blanket, in the shadow of a tree that grew on the dune in their backs. They silently watched the waves roll upon the sandy beach and listened to the gulls shouting in the ocean’s rhythm.

It was a piece of heaven on earth.

But peace wouldn’t last long when a dark-haired boy came into their sight rounding a dune. His hair stuck in every imaginable direction and his glasses hang a little lopsided. He looked around at first, but upon seeing the friends sit there, he came over, a mischievous grin forming in his face.

‘If this isn’t our lovely Snivellus,’ he said when he was only five feet away from them, blocking the friends’ view of the ocean.

‘What do you want, Potter?’ Severus asked defensively, his annoyance apparent at being disturbed from the peaceful sea gazing he had been absorbed in.

‘I just came by,’ the other boy replied. ‘I think I’m still allowed to do that, am I not?’ He then looked both children up and down, the grin widening.

Severus had a bad feeling with Lily and him being eyed up like that; he sensed that Potter would say something unpleasant right away. He wasn’t going to be disappointed.

‘Have you had a look into your mirror? You look like a ghost.’

Lily got up. ‘Leave us alone!’ she ordered, placing her hands on her hips.

Running a hand through his hair James replied, ‘Have you had a good look at him, Evans? He’s skinny and pale – I guess he’ll look like a lobster after getting sunburned. But then you two will match perfectly seeing that your red hair and bathing suit will be an accompanying colour to his very soon red skin.’ He laughed at his own joke which wasn’t funny in the least.

Severus didn’t mind being trampled upon, but he wouldn’t have Lily being insulted.

‘Apologise immediately!’ he yelled, got up and lunged after the other boy, slamming his fist into his opponent’s stomach with a fierce passion causing Lily to gasp behind him.

‘Never,’ the black-haired boy retorted and returned the hit, aiming for Severus’ nose which went off target when Severus took a quick step aside. James intended for another hard punch, this time into Severus’ stomach, but before he could even tear back his arm to strike out again, a hard blow out of nowhere let him stagger backwards. It felt like he had been hit by a storm.

James looked up and saw his opponent stand there, breathing raggedly. His body was shaking slightly, and the gleam in those dark eyes told James everything he needed to know.

‘You’ve thrown a curse at me?’ he asked, but since he already knew the answer, he pronounced the question more as a statement. And he didn’t wait for the acknowledging nod; he ran head on into Severus, bumping into him with full force.

Severus’ knees buckled with the blow’s impact, but he didn’t sink down. He stood straight again and lunged once more at James. Quickly a full-grown mix of wrestling and boxing was engaged, with both boys distributing kicks, hits and bites equally.

Meanwhile, Lily screamed ‘Stop it!’ as high-pitched as she was capable of doing. But the two boys didn’t seem to hear her shouts.

When Severus was about to lunge at James another time, a silvery veil sank in-between both boys and cut them asunder, separating them. Slowly but steadily the veil grew thicker and thicker until the boys stood several feet apart from each other. It was only then that they noticed another person present; James’ father had arrived and, with an arm around her shoulder, stood next to Lily whose face colour changed from pale to angry-red.

‘Enough is enough!’ he ordered sternly. Letting go of Lily he walked over to his son and grabbed him around the neck, pressing down James’ head. He bent down as well so that he could talk into James’ ear without Lily and Severus hearing the words spoken. The boy’s face colour changed from reddened to ash grey, but right then Mr Potter let go of his son’s neck and said, ‘Apologise.’

‘But Snivellus started it!’ James contradicted, rounding onto his father.

‘Now!’

Severus opened his mouth to say that he didn’t care about an apology when Lily stepped in-between.

‘You’re such a jerk, Potter!’ she shouted at James. Severus felt his mood rise again when his friend turned around crumbling it with the words, ‘And you’re not any better than him, Sev! How could you?’ With a fiery glare she abruptly turned off and walked away, irately picking up her blanket and stuffing it in the bag she had brought with her. Without another backwards glance she stalked off.

Anger rose in Severus again, letting his blood boil with pugnaciousness. This damn bloody Potter has ruined everything! he thought and turned back to the Gryffindor to have another go. But the presence of Mr Potter hindered his intentions.

The man just then looked at Severus and asked, ‘Are you all right? Or do you need help with looking after wounds?’

It was tempting to say something rude right then, but Severus bit his lip and imitated Lily; he just walked off without another word.

James growled viciously, ‘You sneaky little Slytherin!’ and made to follow Severus, but his father held him back, taking James’ upper arm into a tight grip. James was then dragged away from the battlefield, his father turning towards the Potters’ bungalow.

‘When I say enough is enough, James, I mean it,’ Mr Potter lectured his son sternly.

James attempted one last contradiction, but a threatening glare from his father held the boy’s tongue in place. At least for now.

With an ill feeling in his stomach Severus slowly trudged back to the camping site. His bare feet sank into the warm sand, and whenever the waves rolled too high up the beach, the water played around the boy’s ankles. Splashing his way along the coast, he thought about how mad Lily had looked and that she was probably still angry with him about the fight.

He sighed miserably.

‘And it’s all your fault, Potter.’