Severus sat against the wall of an empty classroom, a book in his lap. A few feet away, Lily was lying on her back, enchanting objects in the room at random. Severus felt at ease in Lily’s presence. The pair was comfortable with silence, without needing any strained conversation or awkward small talk.
“I’m filling in as Chaser for the next game,” Lily said casually. A piece of floating chalk drew a broomstick on the blackboard as she spoke.
“Did Potter ask you?” Severus asked quietly.
“No, Sirius did. James did ask me to go to Hogsmeade with him though, the arrogant toerag.”
Severus glowed inwardly upon hearing Lily insult James. “Did you say no?”
“Of course I said no.” Lily sighed. “Are you going to Hogsmeade? Want to come with Mary and me?”
Severus looked down at the ground. “I... well, I don’t think I’m going.”
“Why not?” Lily demanded. “This could be the last time we have a visit until next term!”
“Well.. Avery wants to stay in the castle, so I think I’ll...” His voice trailed off feebly.
Lily’s lips pursed into a tight line. The chair she had been levitating landed on the ground with a thud.
“What are you guys going to do?” Lily flipped over onto her stomach to look Severus in the eye. “Curse some first years?”
“Lily..”
“I don’t understand why you hang out with him. Avery is just so... mean.”
Severus scowled. “Potter and Black are just as bad.”
“No, they’re not, Sev, and you know it. James and Sirius may be jerks, but Avery and Mulciber.. Well, they’re just cruel.” Lily frowned. “And anyways, I don’t hang out with James and Sirius”
“Avery is my friend.”
“He can’t be your friend, Sev, he’s too bad!”
“You can’t tell me who I can be friends with, Lily!” Severus said sharply.
Lily’s temper flared, her eyes flashed. “Excuse me for caring,” she said hotly.
Silence followed, this time tense. Severus looked down at his hands, Lily stared up at the ceiling.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
Another silence. Lily sighed heavily.
“I just don’t want you to be like Avery, Severus,” she said quietly. Before he could say anything, Lily stood up.
“I’m going to go to bed now. Goodnight, Sev.”
“Goodnight,” Severus murmered.
Lily awoke on Friday morning feeling restless and excited. Although she had been a little hesitant to agree to fill in as Chaser, she really was looking forward to flying at practice that night. She almost wished she’d tried out for the team... if it was not for all of the added alone time with James. Lily sighed. Hopefully he would try behave himself tonight.
The morning passed fairly quickly, her classes flying by. Finally, all that remained was a Gryffindor/Slytherin combined double Potions period before she was dismissed for dinner and then practice. Normally, Potions was Lily’s favorite class, as the subject came very easily to her. And since they shared the period with Slytherin, she and Severus could pair up. Severus was very talented at Potions as well, which made for an ideal partnership.
Unfortunately, this Potions class was not shaping up to be as enjoyable as usual.
“Alrighty-o, class, we’re going to be working on a Draught of Living Death today. I want you to pair up and by the end of the class, the pair with the best draught will win twenty points to their house, for each partner,” Professor Slughorn announced as the students took their seats. Lily and Severus grinned at each other, but the rest of the class grumbled. These in-class competitions always ended the same way, with the top students taking an easy victory.
“Oh-ho! I know what you’re thinking: Miss Evans and Mr. Snape got it in the bag, haven’t they? Well, we’re going to mix things up a bit and separate the pair, that way you’ll have a better shot.” Slughorn winked at his top students. This announcement caused the atmosphere to brighten a little as the other students hurried to get to work, now that they had motivation.
“Shall we give a less, ah, experienced pair a chance to have some help?” Slughorn glanced around the room. “Ah, Black and Potter, why don’t you pair up with these two?”
Sirius and James, who had been goofing off in a corner, as usual, were not paying any attention to Slughorn. They looked up when their names were called.
“Mr. Black, you can partner with Miss Evans, and Mr. Potter with Mr. Snape.” Slughorn beamed at the four of them as if he were doing them a favor and walked away. James and Severus stared at each other, horrified.
“Switch with me!” James hissed to Sirius, glaring at Severus.
“You want me to work with Snivellus instead of lovely Miss Evans over here?” Sirius grinned. “Sorry, mate, you heard the professor!”
“You-”
James was evidently about to call Sirius a very unpleasant name, for he immediately stopped talking when Slughorn appeared again.
“Any problems, boys? You should be getting started!”
James mumbled something incoherent under his breath and reluctantly sat down beside Severus.
“Don’t touch anything,” Severus snapped at James. “I’ll do it.” He started looking over the instructions, scribbling notes in his book as he went, his nose pressed to his book. James folded his arms and leaned back in his chair, watching Sirius and Lily’s progress across the room.
“So it says here we need the juice of three Sopophorous Beans,” Sirius said, peering at the instructions in his book. He grabbed a bean and tried to cut it up, but the bean slipped from under his knife and jumped up to land in Lily’s hair. Lily laughed.
“You have to crush it with the flat side of the blade,” she informed Sirius, pulling the bean out of her hair. “Here, why don’t you read me the instructions and I’ll do it. I don’t know about you, but I want those class points.”
“That was torture,” Snape grumbled as he and Lily walked from Potions class to dinner. He and James had spent the entire double period in silence, shooting glares at each other while Snape worked on the potion on his own.
Lily shrugged. Surprisingly, she had found that working with Sirius was not all that torturous; in fact, it was almost enjoyable. Sirius was quite funny, and he was actually helpful with their work. The pair of them had earned forty points to Gryffindor by the end of the period.
“Well, you lived, didn’t you?” Lily said brightly. She was in a good mood now that there were no classes to get through before Quidditch practice, and she was not going to let Severus bring her down. “I wish you were coming to Hogsmeade with us. I heard that Honeydukes got a huge shipment of new chocolates that they’re putting out for the first time this weekend.” Lily glanced at Severus to see if she could persuade him to change his mind.
Severus sighed. “To be honest, I kind of wish I was going too. But I promised Avery.” He gave Lily a small smile and bade her good-bye to sit at the Slytherin table.
Lily took a seat next to her best friend at the Gryffindor table. “Hey, Mary,” she greeted her.
“Hi, Lily.” Mary smiled at her. “Great job in potions today. How did your new partnership go?”
Lily shrugged. “It wasn’t bad.” She piled food onto her plate. “Actually, it was kind of fun working with Sirius. Plus, we got forty points to Gryffindor, instead of twenty to us and twenty to Slytherin like Sev and I would’ve gotten.”
“Also, it made James really mad to see you having fun with Sirius while he and Severus were pouting,” Mary offered lightly. “So that’s a plus.”
Lily grinned. “Was he really?”
“He knocked a whole pile of Valerian roots that Severus had cut up into the cauldron. Severus nearly strangled him.”
Lily’s ringing laugh echoed through the Hall. “I’ll bet!”
“You have Quidditch practice tonight, don’t you?” Mary inquired.
Lily nodded. “I think I can make it through an hour of him if it means I can get up in the air.”
“You know, James or not, you really should have joined Quidditch. They definitely need you, we already lost to Ravenclaw. And that was with James catching the Snitch, too.”
“Ugh, that was a terrible game. Don’t worry, I plan on flattening Hufflepuff.” Lily grinned. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to head down to the pitch a little early and warm up. See you!” she called over her shoulder as she exited the Great Hall.
Lily headed straight out the door through the Entrance Hall and out on the grounds. She was alone and unnoticed, as the rest of the students and faculty were still at dinner. She set off for the Quidditch pitch at a fast walk which quickly turned into a run, her hair whipping behind her in the crisp winter air as she ran.
“Accio broom,” she said breathlessly once she reached the pitch, her wand pointed towards the castle. She caught her breath while she waited for her Silver Arrow as it zoomed from her dormitory window to where she stood. Lily mounted it, kicking off the ground and rising into the air.
The sensation she received immediately upon leaving the ground was the most wonderful feeling Lily had ever experienced. She was above the world, flying around the Quidditch pitch in a blur of speed. She pulled up slightly on the handle, rising higher and higher above the pitch until she had disappeared into the thick fog of clouds. Then, suddenly, she dived straight down at an incredible speed, pulling up just before she touched the ground. She looped easily around the field, flying in and out of the goalposts. It was such a peaceful feeling, Lily wished that nothing would ever interrupt her and she could float above the world forever.
Unfortunately, it was not a perfect world.
“Oi!”
Lily looked down at the ground far below her when she heard the voice that floated up to catch her attention. She was not entirely surprised to see James standing below her, mounting his own broom. In a moment, he had caught up to where she was hovering in the sky.
“Hey, Evans.” James grinned at Lily. Her windswept hair was blowing around her face, her cheeks flushed from the night air. Her eyes were bright, not even James could ruin the high she got from flying.
“Hi, James.” Lily brushed her hair out of her face. Her greeting was much more civil than the annoyed tone she automatically took up when addressing him.
The two of them remained in the air, sharing a brief moment of peace from their usual bickering. Lily leaned back on her broom and sighed contentedly, her eyes closed.
“You miss this, don’t you?” James’ soft tone was so different from his usual jaunty speech that Lily opened her eyes in surprise.
“Yeah,” Lily admitted quietly. “I do.”
“Look, Lily, I know that you’re... well...” His hand brushed through his hair absentmindedly as his voice trailed off. “Well, you know, if you wanted, you could always join the team permanently.”
Lily paused a moment before responding. “I don’t know, James. I mean, I didn’t try out, I don’t think it’d really be fair.”
James chuckled. “Come on, Lil, everyone knows you’re the best chaser we’ve got. I don’t think anyone would mind. Well, Roger might, especially when I tell him he’s been replaced...”
Lily laughed, throwing her head back so that her long hair rippled down her back. Just then, they were interrupted by the arrival of the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
It was a successful practice; the addition of Lily to the team seemed to inspire the others to play their best, and as a result, everyone performed well. The team ended the practice on a high note and returned to the ground.
“Great job everyone, we’re going to do really well against Hufflepuff next week,” James called out to the team. Lily returned the Quaffle to its holding place and then turned to follow the rest of the team out of the pitch.
“Hey Lily, wait up a second?” Lily looked back to see James wrestling with one of the Bludgers, forcing it into it’s straps. “There,” he said triumphantly, and caught up with Lily.
“What’s up, James?”
James shrugged. “Just didn’t really want to walk by myself. Scared of the dark, you know.” He grinned at her. “Good practice, by the way, you were excellent.”
Lily smiled. “Thanks. It felt good to be back out there.”
The walk back to the Gryffindor Common Room was mostly quiet; the pair was not entirely sure what to say to each other. Their brief conversations about Quidditch or classes felt a little unnatural, since they were so used to quarreling.
“So, uh, I’ll see you in Hogsmeade tomorrow, maybe?” He asked uncertainly once they’d reached the Common Room.
“Sure, maybe,” Lily said. “Night, James.” She ascended the steps leading toward her dormitory.
“Goodnight, Lily,” James called softly up the stairs after her.
Lily sat at the end of her four poster bed. There were a few other girls chatting in the room, but Lily pulled a book out and pretended to read it so as to not be disturbed. But really, Lily was thinking about the surprising Quidditch practice she had just had. Although it felt natural for her to despise James, he acted so different from his usual cocky self when they were at practice. He had been almost... a gentleman. It felt weird for Lily to admit that to herself. Unnatural, almost. But truthfully, she had actually slightly enjoyed James’ company. In a mix of happy and confused thoughts, Lily lay back on her pillow and allowed sleep to take her.
Meanwhile, James had remained in the nearly empty Common Room, pausing to stand by the fire for a moment. He wanted to collect his thoughts before he returned to his dormitory, where Sirius and Remus would undoubtedly be waiting to harass him about Lily. The time he had spent with Lily tonight had been so... civil, it had thrown James off guard. More than civil, actually, it was downright pleasant. For the first time, he had not felt as though Lily was disgusted by his very existence. It was surprising, in the best way possible. Feeling entirely content, James took the steps up to his dormitory two at a time.
The Untold Story by StarkidSkyler
Chapter Notes:Author’s Note: Another change- I believe that, according to JKR, James was supposed to be a Chaser... But I really wanted to make him a Seeker. It just seemed more natural. (Seekers are obviously way cooler.)
Chapter Endnotes: Hey guys!Just to let you know~ if you want to suggest any technical changes that would make the story more readable (formatting and such), I would definitely appreciate that. I'm really new to this whole thing, I'm still learning the ropes.
And, of course, any other suggestions at all are welcome!
Thanks!