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Obsession, Admiration, and Rash Revenge


Lily looked about as she stepped through the door off the entrance hall and snuck down the slanting stairs to the docks that lined the dark black water. She looked around, but Severus was not there yet. She walked down the steps carefully, using her wand to aid the flicker of the torches. It was pretty dismal down there, and she wondered fleetingly why Severus chose such a bleak place to meet up with her. She moved closer to the water, leaning over the edge of the docks to peer in. She couldn’t see a thing.

The door leading out from the Slytherin dungeons creaked open and Lily looked up from the edge of the lake. Severus snuck through the door looking back down the hall behind himself as he pushed it closed quietly behind himself. “Colloportus,” he whispered, and the door clicked locked behind him.

When he turned back around to face the water, he seemed surprised to see Lily was already there. “Were you waiting long?” he asked.

LIly shook her head, “Not long.”

Severus came across the cobblestone floor, his shoes making a funny scuffling sound. They were a size too large, bought second hand, and so the heels clopped funnily on the rock as he moved. He ducked under a cobweb that hung in the frame of the little doorway and made his way to where she stood. He reached into his bag and pulled out the stack of letters. They were exactly as he’d found them in Regulus’s room, he hadn’t touched them a bit.

Lily took the letters, relief melting through her veins the moment she held them in her hand. “Thank you,” she said thickly. She held them tight in her hand and moved closer to Severus, pulling him into a hug, squeezing him close.

Severus melted into her touch. But it didn’t last near enough.

Lily pulled back and tucked the letters into her book bag. “You have no idea what a relief it is to have them back, Sev,” she said. She hesitated, then, “Or do you? You aren’t looking at my mind again?”

Severus shook his head, “I’m not.”

Lily smiled. “Good,” she said. Then she stared backing up, away. “Well.. I’ll… um, I’ll see you.”

“Wait,” Severus frowned, “Wait. Stay. I thought that we could have a picnic.” He reached in his bag again and pulled out a couple of smooshed-looking sandwiches and a bottle of Butterbeer.

Lily looked about the dirty, cold dungeonous room. “Here?” she asked.

“Well we certainly can’t go out on the grounds,” Severus said, his voice a bit sharper than he’d intended it to be. “We’d be soaked with all the snow.”

Lily hesitated. She didn’t want to really. Up in the Great Hall, it was bright and there was probably snow to see flecking in the windows. There were her friends, too. But she didn’t want to upset Severus, he looked so hopefully at her as she contemplated it. And he’d already gone through all the trouble of getting the food. Plus, she did sort of owe him one - taking these letters from Regulus Black couldn’t have been easy, and certainly it wouldn’t get him any cool points in Slytherin if anyone found out what he’d done. Really, Severus had risked quite a lot for her by coming here with the letters. “Alright,” she agreed, and she stepped back toward him.

A smile split Severus’s face and he juggled the sandwiches and butterbeer in the crook of his arm as he pulled out a wrinkled green Slytherin duvet and shook it out on the dock. “Here we are,” he said.

Lily walked over and she hesitantly sat down on the cold stone floor. The duvet was thin, barely worth having bothered with, and it smelled a bit as though it hadn’t been washed in some time -- but it was better than nothing, she supposed. Severus sat down, too, sinking to his knees and putting down the butterbeer and sandwiches before her. “I tried to get some treacle tart, too, but I couldn’t get my hands on any.”

“Peter Pettigrew is excellent at nicking stuff from the kitchen,” Lily said off handedly.

Snape scowled at the mention of Peter. “Amazing. Although it does make sense - given the shape of him. I suppose we all have got to have something we’re good at.” He turned to the food and reached for the butterbeer, uncorking it, being very careful not to spill a single drop of it. He held the bottle up to her. “Here you are,” he offered.

Lily took it. “Thanks,” she replied, and she took a sip. She’d been about to say something about Peter Pettigrew - she knew she was, but when she took the sip it very suddenly escaped her what she’d been about to say. She felt… funny. She blinked a couple times, trying to adjust her eyes - for it felt as though there was something odd happening with them.

“Are you alright?” Severus asked, leaning closer, eager.

“Y-yes, I think so…” Lily looked down, rubbing her eyes with her fists. After a moment, she looked up at him, blinking in apparent disbelief.

“Lil?” he asked.

Lily’s green eyes were a bit hazy, the green dimmed ever so slightly. Normal people probably wouldn’t notice, but Severus did. He glanced at the butterbeer bottle, and for the first time since the Potions book had fallen open on his desk, he wondered whether this was a good idea after all. She blinked at him in confusion for a moment… which slowly warmed and melted and softened, and a smile spread across her face.

“What? What is it?” he asked, desperately fighting himself to keep his cool and act natural. After all, it would never do if she ever suspected what he’d done.

Lily reached over and gently ran her hand through the hair that hung over his forehead, smoothing it back. It went at an odd angle due to how greasy it was, but she didn’t seem to care or notice. Her emerald eyes blazed right into his dark ones and she said, “When did you get to be so handsome? And why haven’t I noticed it before?”

Severus swallowed the lump that had risen up in his throat. His hands shook slightly. “I… I dunno, I imagine it must be a somewhat, er, recent development.”

Lily giggled, a sweet musical thing that he hadn’t heard since the early days, when they’d truly been best friends. He was transported to another time, another January, far away, by another lake. They’d fallen into a pile of powdery white snow and she’d showed him how to make angles in the snow. She’d laughed that very same bubbling tune she did now. Severus felt his insides knot up - this was a sign that what he’d done was okay with the gods. He had tested his luck with something as dangerous as brewing a love potion to force her to give him a chance, but the gods were smiling upon him and giving him the very wish he wanted.

Here you are, Severus Snape, they were saying, casting a beam of hope over him, We’ve put you through enough dungpiles, let’s give you something good in your life. Here she is, the fiery haired Lily Evans. She’s yours.

He smiled at the thought of it.




Lily ran out to the pitch late for practice. She tore into the locker room and changed into her quidditch robes hastily, throwing her hair into a messy braid. James watched from where he was hovering on his broom by Sirius as she ran through the snow, still tugging on her gear. She leaped onto her broom and clumsily soared up to where the rest of the team was at.

“About bloody time you decided to join us, Evans,” James called as he guided his broom toward her, grinning, “And you talk about my ego. At least I made sure to be on time for practice, since I know it’s not just my skills I’m impacting if the team doesn’t get it’s full practice in.”

Sirius smirked at James.

“Bugger off, Potter,” Lily replied hotly, and she flew the opposite way down the pitch.

“Oohhh,” Sirius snorted, “She’s got a case of the Sassy today. Merlin almighty, you’d better be careful, Potter, or Evans will turn you into a toad.”

James stared after her, then let out a bit of his frustration by turning a couple of quick loops through the air on his broomstick.




“Merlin he’s so dreamy.”

“And so good.”

“It’s like he was born on a broomstick!”

“I’ll bet he was.”

“But Merlin, isn’t he just so dreamy?”

Annalee McKinnon, McKenna Alliston, and a couple other Gryffindor girls were sitting in the stands of the pitch, watching the Gryffindor team practice… or rather watching James Potter. They were practically falling over one another as he zipped to and fro across the pitch, sinking quaffles through the rings as though it were no big deal. He hovered a few feet away and they all sighed dreamily and stared up at him with rapt expressions.

Remus climbed up the stands, shuffling along between the rows of seats until he’d settled himself down. James turned and, seeing Remus sitting there, he waved. Thinking he’d waved to them, the girls all waved back excitedly, and they very nearly hyperventilated, arguing about which of them James Potter had noticed first. Remus smiled and waved back.

The girls with their tittering chatter wasn’t easy to overlook or ignore. Remus kept sneaking glances over their way, laughing to himself quietly as they gushed over James Potter. He couldn’t help but think that the girls would sing a different tune if they had to share a dorm with Potter. Even Lily could hear them from out on the pitch when she’d fly past on her broom; she kept rolling her eyes and muttering things under her breath. “The ninnies,” she whispered when they squealed about James having stretched high enough that his quidditch jersey showed his belly, as though they’d never seen a patch of skin before in their lives. “It’s not even a particularly nice patch of skin,” she thought, annoyed.

She wondered what Severus’s stomach would look like.

She blushed.

There was a moment, too, when James was nearly hit in the head by a misaimed bludger and the girls screamed for a penalty on Frank Longbottom. “THAT’S NOT HOW PRACTICE WORKS!” shrieked Ali Prewitt, annoyed.

James grinned, and, with a glance toward Lily to be sure she was watching, he flew over closer to the stands and blew them all a kiss - winking at Remus, who rolled his eyes when he saw. The girls went wild and Lily sniffed and turned away. James grinned broadly and flew down the pitch to where she was watching Sirius and Frank batting bludgers back and forth between them, hitting them harder and harder to build up strength in their arms. He soared to a stop directly beside her and grinned, “Those girls are certainly acting rather foolish,” he said, but his voice was clearly gloating.

Sirius looked over, “Foolish? Or blind? They think you’re good looking!”

James laughed, “Well, I mean, I am good looking.”

“And very modest, too,” Frank said, grunting with the effort he put into slamming the bludger back at Sirius.

Lily snorted.

Sirius hit it, but only just. “Oi, I need to work on building up my biceps if we’re going to keep us at this!” he announced, grinning at Frank. “You’re really good, man!”

“I’ve been playing since second year,” Frank said proudly, and he caught the bludger and struggled it back to the case on the ground a few feet below.

Andy Woodhouse whistled for the practice to be over and they all landed their brooms and headed into the locker room to change. Lily changed fastest of all and was out the door within moments. James looked at Sirius as Lily went out the door. “You reckon she’s alright?” he asked, “She looked sort of funny today.”

“Did she?” Sirius asked.

“Yeah… something ‘round her eyes…”

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Sirius replied, unconcerned.

But James was sure he’d seen it. Her eyes had been funny, like the light in them had dulled. He sighed and shouldered his broom and followed Sirius up across the grounds. They were joined by Remus at the crook in the path and they walked up to the castle together.

“Uhoh. Looks like Evans and Snivellus are fighting again,” snickered Sirius as they came over the hill to see the castle. Far enough ahead that they couldn’t hear a word that was being said, they could see Lily and Severus Snape in the snowy path, just to the left of the entrance stairs. But even as they watched, Lily flung her arms around Severus’s neck, staring up at him, and --

“WHAT?!” James’s voice was mortified as Lily leaned up… and kissed Severus Snape. He stopped dead in his tracks.

“Whoa, I didn’t see that coming,” Sirius said, shocked.

Remus’s jaw had dropped.

“Did you know she’s --” Sirius started to ask Remus, but the look on his face was clear he didn’t, and Sirius let the words fall away.

“What is she kissing that grease ball for?” James demanded. “She best be careful or she’ll end up stuck to him, like glue.”

Sirius snickered - hard - and wheezed, “Maybe that’s what’s happened. She was running so fast, she trips and knocks right into him, and now she’s just flailing to get away.” But Lily didn’t look at all like she was flailing or trying to get away. She was leaning into the kiss and had her hands up on Snivellus’s shoulders and pressing against him. Sirius made a disgusted noise, “Uugh. Look at that.”

James shook his wand out of his pocket, and he grinned, “I’d rather not,” he said, and he headed for the entrance hall doors with an air of mischief to him.

“Oh Merlin,” Sirius’s eyes sparkled, “What’re you gonna do? James?” He turned to Remus, “This is gonna be good.” Sirius ran to catch up.

With a sigh, Remus hurried after them, “James!” he called out, “I wouldn’t do anything rash ---”

“Rash?” James said, prancing backwards a moment, pointing to Remus in appreciation, “Excellent idea!”

“No, James, that wasn’t a suggestion. What I meant was --” Remus stammered, trying to stop him, but James wasn’t about to listen. He’d already turned forward and hurried on up toward Lily.

Furnunculus!” James whispered as he was just approaching where Lily and Severus were snogging.

Severus Snape’s arms turned red and the skin seemed to pucker as a great many boils suddenly broke out across him. He let out a shout and jumped backward from Lily, tripping on the snow and falling to the stairwell. James didn’t pause, but he couldn’t help but feel quite accomplished and he slowed to a bit of a swagger when he reached the top of the stairs. After all, his spell had done it’s job of stopping them kissing as Lily shouted in surprise and Severus cried out in pain at the boils. Severus scrambled, hastening to shove his arm into the cold snow to relieve the sudden burning pain that filled his arm. He looked up the stairs in time to see the tails of James’s quidditch robes disappear into the hall, followed by Sirius and Remus, who were running to catch up with him. “Potter,” sneered Severus under his breath.