“Sev! Wake up!”
She prodded him sharply on the arm he was sleeping on. With a snort, Severus raised his head, groggy from sleeping. He wiped the drool from his mouth and looked at her.
“Lily, what-”
“Sev, we fell asleep! It’s morning! You have to go, what if someone wakes up and sees you-”
Severus stretched the crick in his neck and nodded, his eyes still closed. Lily glanced nervously at the steps leading down from the boys dormitory. The last thing she wanted was for James or Sirius to come down and see Severus in the Gryffindor Common Room, there was no telling what they would do to him.
“Come on, Sev, do you want to die?”
Severus laughed. “Don’t worry, Lily, I’m out of here.” He gathered his books and parchment, standing up to leave. “Did we finish?” He asked quizzically, studying the parchment he had been writing his Potions essay on.
Lily shook her head. “Nope, I only have five inches on mine.” She waved her hand carelessly. “We can do it another time, I don’t want to spend my free period studying today. I’m actually almost ahead on my homework, we’ve been studying so much.” Lily made a face, as if academic efficiency annoyed her. “Now go, Sev! Seriously!”
“I’m leaving, I’m leaving.” Severus threw his things into his school bag and started towards the portrait hole. He paused before going through it. “Will I, er, see you later?” He said rather awkwardly.
“Sure, we have a free period after lunch,” Lily said distractedly as she rifled through her parchment.
Severus hesitated to see if she was going to say anything else, but Lily was busy picking her fallen notes off of the floor. Severus disappeared through the portrait hole.
Lily glanced up, hearing the portrait close. “Thank God,” she muttered under her breath with a sigh of relief. She could hardly stand it when James and Sirius tormented Severus, and she did not want to give them another chance to do so.
Just then, she heard voices from the staircase behind her, speaking in hoarse whispers.
“...ungodly hour, Sirius, let’s just go back to bed and get it later..”
“We have to get my sweater before McGonagall goes into her classroom or else she’ll know it was us who tampered with her erasers.”
“It’s not like she’s going to have any doubt anyways...”
“Well, she won’t have proof. Open your eyes, James, you’re going to fall down the stairs.”
“Yeah, maybe I’ll hit my head and go unconscious, then I’ll get to sleep some more..”
Speak of the devil, Lily thought to herself. By then, they had reached the Common Room. Sirius, his shaggy black hair even more untidy than usual, and James with his eyes still shut, as if he were sleeping where he stood. Sirius spotted Lily, who had paused gathering her books in the hopes of going unnoticed by the two boys. “You may want to wake up, mate.” He flashed Lily his infectious grin. Next to him, James reluctantly rubbed his eyes open.
“What do you...” He looked to where Sirius was pointing. “Oh- Lily!” James positively jumped. His right hand flew to his hair, ruffling it as he pulled his dressing robe over his pajamas. “What, uh, what are you doing up so early? Do you know what time it is?”
Lily was amused to see James so unlike his usual cool, confident self. “Not that it’s any of your business, James, but I was studying late last night and I fell asleep.”
Sirius nodded. “I hate it when that happens.”
Lily could not help but smile despite herself. She was sure that Sirius had never studied late into the night in his life, or even studied much at all.
“So, Evans, heard about the Hogsmeade visit this weekend?” James was regaining some of his composure as he talked. “Thinking about going?”
Lily cocked an eyebrow. “Yes, Potter, I have heard about Hogsmeade. And I am planning to go, actually.”
James ran a hand through his hair. “Because I was thinking, there’s that new coffee shop in Hogsmeade and I’ve been meaning to check it out, so, you know, if you were going...”
Lily rolled her eyes. “James Potter, you expect me to believe that you’ve never brought a girl to that coffee shop before? You used that same line on Mary just a few days ago I’m not stupid, you know.”
James paused. “Well, yeah, I know, I was just-”
“If you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to go get some sleep before breakfast.” Lily brushed past them and disappeared up the flight of stairs leading to the girls’ dormitories.
James sighed. “Come on, let’s go get your stupid sweater.”
“She hates me, Padfoot. Hates me.”
Sirius rolled his eyes. “Quit worrying, will you? Lily doesn’t hate you, she’s just.. not particularly excited about your existence.”
James groaned. “I hate it when she calls me Potter.”
“You call her Evans, what’s the big deal?”
“Well yeah, but that’s just a term of endearment.” James shrugged. “But do you hear the way she says “Potter”? It’s like she’s spitting at me!”
Sirius laughed out loud. “You think too much, Prongs. If you’re not careful, you’ll turn into Moony and start thinking all the time.”
James gave an exaggerated shudder. “A fate worse than death. Have you checked the map?”
Sirius glanced down at the piece of parchment in his hand. “All clear,” he answered. “Mischief managed,” he murmured to the map, which immediately wiped itself clear. “Grab my sweater, will you? I want to try out that spell Wormy told us about.” Sirius pulled out his wand and headed to the doorknob.
James went to grab the sweater lying on the floor beneath the chalkboard, where they had bewitched the erasers to start clapping out chalk dust over the head of whoever attempted to erase the board. His confrontation with Lily was still bothering him, he didn’t like the way she had stomped off. If it was not so hard to talk to her, he could have made her see that he had only asked Mary to Hogsmeade because he was hoping she’d bring Lily along.. He could have brought Remus, he and Mary had always gotten along very well. Images of his imaginary double date flitted into his head, involving him and Lily in a very cozy corner of the coffee shop, uninterrupted...
“Oi! James! What’re you, checking each individual thread? Let’s get going, I don’t want to spend my Hogsmeade weekend in detention with McGonagall.”
“Keep your pants on,” James threw a piece of chalk at Sirius, who blocked it with his arm. The two boys hastily shut the door and walked quickly away from the scene of the crime.
Severus Snape was laying in his bed. His dormitory was very dim, only the light of one lamp by his bedside illuminated the dark dungeon. He was alone, with only the company of his own thoughts.
This was how Severus preferred to spend his free time. The only person who’s company he truly enjoyed was Lily Evans. Though he had friends in Slytherin, he often found that time spent with them lacked a certain depth that he found with Lily. The thoughts of his Slytherin classmates were two-dimensional, single-minded... Lily had a way of looking at things that opened your eyes, forced you to see every aspect of a situation. She was always sure of herself, her opinion never faltered, her fiery personality never allowed anyone else to win an argument or debate.
Severus shook his head, clearing his head of all thoughts at once. He never allowed himself to think of Lily too much, never let himself dwell on how much she amazed him. Controlling his thoughts was easy for Severus, it was as if he put all of his thoughts into a box reserved just for thoughts of Lily, and put that box in the very back of his mind. This left his head clear, and he could simply choose what the contemplate next. Before he could, however, he was interrupted by a knock at the door.
“Severus, come down to lunch with us.” The low voice at the door seemed commanding rather than inviting. Severus reluctantly opened the door.
“Avery.” Severus nodded at a tall boy with an unpleasant face. Next to him stood a shorter, stockier boy, Mulciber, who was hunched over as if he spent much time looking at the ground. Without a word, Avery turned on his heel and headed towards the steps leading outside the Slytherin Common Room, Severus and Mulciber at his side.
The three boys left the Common Room and made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast. The Slytherin table had a different atmosphere than the other tables; the students did not shout excitedly down the table to their friends. Slytherins were very calm, they kept to themselves and the friends they chose.
Severus sat down with Avery and Mulciber near the end of the table and could not help but glance over at the Gryffindor table. Lily’s dark red hair made her easy to spot; she was talking with a gaggle of Gryffindor girls. They all burst into laughter that echoed through the hall. Lily’s was the easiest to hear, she had an infectious, ringing laugh that was nearly impossible to ignore. Heads turned to look at her, but Lily seemed oblivious to the attention she drew, as always.
Irritated, Severus noticed one head that frequently turned in Lily’s direction. James seemed determined to get Lily’s attention. He was entertaining a group of students, all howling with laughter, but his eyes kept darting to check if his target audience was paying him any attention.
“Git,” Severus muttered under his breath.
“What was that, Severus?” Raul Sankins, a Slytherin seventh year, asked him.
“Nothing.”
“He keeps looking over here,” Bethany Jordans whispered so that all of the girls around the table could hear. Many of them immediately fixed their collars and smoothed their hair. Lily rolled her eyes.
“Do I have anything in my teeth?” Justine Richy asked Margaret Perks who was sitting across from her.
“I heard that he asked Mary on a date to Hogsmeade this weekend,” Linda Bunks proclaimed.
Beside Lily, Mary blushed and stared down at her plate.
“Did you say yes?” Bethany asked excitedly, leaning forward across the table.
“No,” Mary shook her head. She glanced quickly at Lily, who appeared uninterested in the conversation. Her response generated a series of exclamations of surprise from the rest of the girls.
“You’re insane!” Justine sighed and stared off into the clouds moving slowly on the ceiling above them. “He’s so...”
“Arrogant?” Lily offered in a low voice.
Justine rolled her eyes. “I really don’t see how you can think that, Lily, James is a perfect gentleman.”
“Maybe because I’m not fooled by transparent flattery and sneaky tricks,” Lily muttered, more to Mary than anyone else.
“Damn it, that’s what I was relying on.”
Lily jumped, and turned around to see Sirius standing right behind her, an easy grin on his face. Even with his low comment, Sirius captured the attention of all the girls around him. If there was anyone more admired than James Potter, it was Sirius Black.
“Alright, alright, I’ll skip the tricks and flattery: I need a favor.”
Lily raised an eybrow. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah,” said Sirius. “I need you to agree to fill in for Roger as Chaser in the next match. Stupid twit was caught dueling, now he’s suspended from Quidditch.” Sirius tossed his shaggy hair.
Lily folded her arms across her chest. “You’re not even on the team. Why didn’t the captain ask me himself?”
Sirius grinned. “To be honest, I think he’s a little scared of you. And he knows you’re probably stilled mad at him. But you really have to say yes, Amos Diggory is already getting cocky about Hufflepuff beating us. We can’t lose!” His large brown eyes were pleading with her.
Lily sighed. “Alright, I’ll do it.”
“That’s what I like to hear.” Sirius gave her a light punch on the arm and returned to his friends at the other end of the table.
“What’d she say?” James asked nervously immediately after Sirius returned.
“Calm down, she said yes. Pass me that chicken leg, will you?”
James gave a sigh of relief and relaxed into his seat. “Thank God. I’m not losing to Hufflepuff.”
Remus Lupin glanced up from his food. “And this has nothing to do with spending time with Lily, does it?”
James glared at him. “You know she’s the best Chaser.”
“She didn’t even try out for the team,” Remus observed.
“That’s just because Prongs is captain,” Sirius chimed in pleasantly, earning a very dirty look from James.
“Shut it, I just want to win Quidditch.” James glanced over to where Lily was sitting, his hand instinctively flying to his hair. "Where's Wormtail, anyway?"
"Studying. McGonagall told him that if he didn't hand in his essay by today, he couldn't come to Hogsmeade," Remus reported with a look of disapproval.
“Why don’t you ask Bethany to go to Hogsmeade with you?” Sirius suggested, not accepting the subject change. “She fancies you, you know.”
“What?” James tore his gaze away from the other end of the table to look at Remus. “Oh, Bethany. Yeah, I dunno.” He gave a half-hearted shrug.
Sirius chuckled. “Come on, mate, you’re turning into a one-girl type of guy lately.”
“Am not,” James said defensively.
“Why doesn’t Lily like me? Why won’t Lily go to Hogsmeade with me? Can you ask Lily to play Chaser for me?” Sirius imitated James in a high-pitched, whiny voice. James aimed a grape at him.
“Where are you going?” Sirius asked him, as James rose from his chair
“To ask Bethany to go to Hogsmeade with me,” James called loftily over his shoulder as he strode down the Great Hall.
As usual, Lily had the attention of her friends. “I looked her right in the eye and told her I had been sleeping in my dormitory the whole time. And she believed me! And then-”
“Ahem.”
Lily abruptly stopped speaking, shooting daggers at James through her glare. He ignored her and turned to Bethany.
“Hey, Beth, I was wondering if you’d grace me with your presence at Hogsmeade this weekend?”
Bethany could not have looked more pleased. “Of course, James! Shall I meet you in the Entrance hall tomorrow?”
“Sure, see you.” He paused before turning away. “Oh, Lily, there’s a Quidditch practice at seven tomorrow night. Thought you might want to know.” And then James turned and strode off.
Lily was seething.