Author's Note: This story is completely Alternate Universe. In it, Severus and Lily come from completely different sorts of families. Lily and Petunia are twins as well as sisters. The chapters cover the summers after each of their years at Hogwarts, when Lily is at home and Severus is the unlikely third in their trio of friendship. I know my readers will be disappointed that this is not SSHG, but this story was in my heart and mind and wanted to be told. Thank you for coming along with me on the ride. ~Subversa

Chapter 1: Summer After First Year

The midday summer sun shone on the tree-lined Harrogate suburban street, casting very little shadow. Twelve-year old Pepper Evans looked over at her sister, who sat on her bed painting her toenails bright pink. 'Salty, there's a boy across the street wearing one of those robe-things you wear at your school.'

Lily screwed the top on the nail varnish. 'Are you sure?' She sat up tall, craning her neck to see over the windowsill. 'Where?'

Pepper indicated with her pinkie, keeping in mind her mum's oft-quoted dictum that it is rude to point. Surely it did not count if one used one's smallest finger? 'Across the way, behind the trunk of that tree – see?'

Lily made a face. 'If I stand up, I'll smear,' she fretted, pausing to blow ineffectually on the pink nail polish. 'Tell me what he looks like,' she temporised, picking up the latest issue of Jackie magazine from the bedside table and beginning to fan her wet toes.

Pepper squinted. 'He's got black hair,' she began.

'I know loads of boys with black hair,' Lily objected. 'Is it long? Short? Messy? Oily?'

'It's longish,' Pepper said.

Lily's brow furrowed. 'I know three boys in my year alone with longish black hair. What is his face like?'

Pepper shrugged. 'I can't tell from here. But if number nine sees a boy in a black robe lurking in the shadows, she'll call the police.' She watched Lily's frantic fanning. 'Why don't you just magik them dry?'

'I told you!' Lily responded exasperatedly. 'I'm not allowed to use magic outside of school. The Ministry for Magic can track such things.'

Pepper abandoned the window. 'You said you'd do me next,' she whinged, watching as Lily put the nail polish in a drawer.

'Later, Pep – I promise. But I have to see who this is.' Lily stood and crossed to the window, walking carefully so as not to smear her carefully painted toenails.

Pepper's head jerked up when Lily gasped. 'What is it?'

Lily did not answer, but slipped into her new summer sandals and flew to the door, concern for her nail varnish forgotten.

'Where are you going?'

'You might have told me he has a big black eye!' Lily snapped before thundering down the steps.

'I didn't see a black eye,' Pepper said to the empty doorway. Sighing, she slipped on her own new sandals, trailing down the stairway and out the front door. Breaking into a run, she crossed the road with Lily.

'Severus?' Lily said softly. 'Severus, show yourself.'

From around the trunk of the large tree came a scrawny boy, dressed in plain black wizard's robes. He was about the same height as the two girls and as thin as Pepper. His prominent hooked nose dominated his somewhat pinched face, and his dark eyes were narrowed in suspicion as they rested on Pepper.

'Who's she?' he demanded of Lily, never taking his eyes from Pepper's face.

Lily reached out her hand and lightly touched the purple bruise beneath his left eye. 'What happened to you?' she said, concern flooding her voice.

The boy flinched away from Lily's hand as a wild thing bolts from humankind. His sudden move caused him to stumble, and he landed on his bum in the dust.

Pepper laughed.

He was on his feet again in a flash, a length of polished wood clenched in his fist. 'Shut it!' he hissed, advancing on Pepper threateningly.

Lily interposed herself between them, taking the boy's wand-bearing arm in a sure grip and inducing him to lower his weapon. 'Severus, this in my twin sister, Petunia – but she's called Pepper.' Maintaining her hold on the boy's wrist, Lily turned to her sister. 'Pep, this is my friend from school, Severus Snape.'

The insolent boy yanked his arm from Lily's grasp, and he thrust the piece of wood out of sight, up the sleeve of his robes. 'You would do better not to go about laughing at people,' he snapped at Pepper, then turned from her, effectively dismissing her.

'She didn't mean anything by it,' Lily told him in a reproving tone.

Severus shrugged, then crossed his arms over his narrow chest and said, 'I told you I could find your house.'

Lily giggled. 'You never told me that! But I did invite you to come visit, and here you are.'

Pepper stared at her giggling sister. Why was Lily suddenly behaving like a stupid girl? She gave an undignified snort, which drew a disdainful glare from the dark-eyed boy. Lily had the grace to flush and give her sister an apologetic smile.

'You lot may want to speak with the police when she calls them on us, but I am going to go inside,' Pepper said, jerking her head towards the face silhouetted in the curtains at the window over the garage at number nine, Claret Drive.

Lily looked up quickly, where the pug nose and cats-eye glasses of the neighbour-lady could clearly be seen. 'Hello, Mrs Parker!' she called, smiling and waving. 'We're working on the costumes for Pepper's school play next term!'

The figure at the widow snapped the curtains closed and Lily grabbed Pepper's wrist with one hand and Severus' with the other. 'Get your broom,' she hissed at him as she began to tug them across the street. 'We can't have you wandering about in wizard's robes!'

Severus jerked his wrist from Lily's grasp and retrieved his rather battered-looking broomstick from the ground. 'Do you want me to shove off, then?'

'No!' Lily replied, releasing Pepper and turning to him again. Pepper fidgeted impatiently as Lily stayed to coax the boy. 'Come on, Severus – we're going to find you something else to wear.' Lily did not attempt to touch him again, but once she was sure he was following her, she led the way across the road and up the drive to the front door. Pepper broke from them and ran into the house. Pausing on the stoop to check for witnesses, Lily opened the door and nudged Severus inside before following him in and shutting the door behind her.

'Salty, have you lost your mind?' Pepper fairly shrieked, standing in the entrance hall with her hands on her boy-like hips. 'Mummy and Daddy will go spare if they find out you brought a boy in the house while they're not home!'

'Oh, tosh,' Lily said, waving a hand at her sister. 'Severus isn't a boy –' she giggled at the indignant look on his face, 'he's a school chum.' She smiled conspiratorially at Severus. 'Come on up and let's find you some jeans to wear – you can't parade around Claret Drive in school robes.'

Pepper rolled her eyes, but accompanied Lily as they began to climb the steps up to the first floor – but Severus stood his ground. 'I didn't come here so you could give me clothes,' he said. 'I just wanted to see if I could find your house after you told me I couldn't. I'll go now.'

Lily paused on the third step up, looking down at him with her almond-shaped green eyes, a doubtful expression about her mouth. She had cut her dark red hair since end of term, he noted; she had it tied back in a queue, just as she wore it in Potions class with Professor Slughorn. Her twin sister paused as well and the two of them stood side-by-side, awaiting his decision.

It was interesting to note that although their faces were shaped the same, their features were very different. Pepper's eyes had only a hint of Lily's emerald green, falling more in the hazel range. Her hair held none of the russet of Lily's, but hung about her face, the colour between dirty dishwater and the fur of a common field mouse. The girls were the same height, had the same arms, tapered fingers, and pretty little feet, although Lily had a bandage on one ankle. One stark difference between them was that Lily bore about her face and her tummy the slightest vestige of baby fat, rounding her features to a pleasant degree. Pepper, on the other hand, was extremely thin, the bones of her wrists and clavicle protruding almost painfully from her skin. Neither of them was shaped in a materially different way from Severus – but he was still uneasy. There was something about their femininity that was daunting.

Now Lily spoke to him. 'Don't you want to come back to see me again this summer? We have a lovely wood no more than half-a-mile away – we can explore, and you can help me find what potions ingredients might grow there. You're better at Herbology than I am.'

Severus stood on the flagged entranceway, wearing school robes which were too short in the wrist and in length, his matte-black hair hanging about his face in stringy disarray, his eyes narrowed.

'All right,' he said, finally. 'I'll come back. Merlin knows what trouble you'll get into if I'm not there to keep you out of the Rhus radicans.' He began climbing, darting a wickedly teasing look at Lily.

'I can't believe you brought that up!' Lily cried, dancing up the steps ahead of her companions. 'How was I supposed to know it was poison ivy?' she demanded of Pepper.

'Every three-year old knows that,' Severus scoffed.

The three trooped into the bedroom Pepper and Lily shared, where Lily went directly to the clothes cupboard. 'Where is that pair of jeans that was too tight for me? Mum gave them to me at Easter, but the zip wouldn't go up.' She began to rummage in the bottom of the cupboard.

Pepper sighed dramatically, going to a battered highboy in the corner and opening a drawer, pulling out the jeans in question. 'You had me put them in my drawer to hide them from Mum,' she said. 'You didn't want her to say anything else about you getting fat.'

Lily pulled the garment from her sister's hands with a huff. 'Thank you for mentioning that in front of company,' she muttered.

Severus accepted the trousers thrust into his arms along with a faded tee-shirt bearing an odd logo. 'This is my old Manchester United shirt,' she explained. 'It's like a Quidditch team, for Muggles,' she added.

'I know what football is,' Severus muttered.

'You can change in the loo,' Pepper offered, pointing him down the hallway. 'Make yourself at home.'

When the door closed behind him, Pepper whirled on her sister. 'Who is he?'

'He's a classmate,' Lily answered, sitting on the edge of her bed. 'Some of the rude boys in my year are mean to him, but he's very smart and he's always been decent to me. He and I are favourite students of our Potions teacher – that's the class that's kind of like chemistry – and so we've seen quite a bit of each other outside of class, at the teacher's parties. We're the only first-years in the Slug Club, so we usually sit together.'

'The what club?' Pepper demanded in confusion.

'Slug,' Lily reiterated with a grin. 'The teacher's name is Slughorn, so the group of students is called the Slug Club.'

'Why would he be anyone's favourite?' Pepper said, a moue of distaste on her lips. 'He's impolite and scruffy.'

'Well, he's never really rude to me,' Lily said. 'And he's wicked smart, Pep. He actually beat me out in Potions, Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Herbology for top of the class. I edged him out in History of Magic and Astronomy, and even the idiot boys from my House were ahead of him in Transfiguration and Charms – but I was at the top, of course,' she added with a self-satisfied smirk.

Pepper yawned and flopped down on her bed, grabbing the latest issue of Jackie from the table. 'You're such a swot,' she said in disgust. Pepper's marks were perfectly respectable, but she saw no use in killing herself to be the top of the class – she had always left that position to Lily. But this past year, Lily had not been at school with Pepper, who for the first time in her young life realised that the girls she had grown up considering her friends were really Lily's friends. It wasn't that they were unkind to her – but she was no longer included in the outings and parties carried on by the cool kids. Lily had certainly added flavour to the twins' interactions with other students in their year at school, but Pepper had added a spice with her outspoken opinions and barbed comments. If there had been ruffled feelings, Lily had always smoothed things over. Now, Pepper only felt like herself when Lily was home on holiday – and then they were able to carry on as if the time apart had never happened. Lily hadn't changed a jot – she was the same loving, funny sister she had always been.

The boy came back into their room, his robes wadded up in his arms. Lily's jeans fit him quite well, easily fastening across his flat stomach; the football shirt was just long enough to cover his torso. On his feet he wore shabby black oxfords; they were a touch unfashionable, but scarcely noticeable under the belled trouser legs. Both girls looked him over and nodded as one.

'You'll do,' Lily said, popping up from her seat on the edge of the bed.

Severus scowled. 'Where's this wood?'

The three walked together down Claret Drive, across the Town Road, and down a lane sparsely dotted with cottages. At the end of the lane was a field, and beyond the field was a wood. Severus watched the girls critically as they scrambled over the low stone wall separating the field from the lane; they both climbed and jumped as well as he did, himself; obviously, they weren't prissy little girls who sat in their nursery playing with their dolls and having stupid tea parties.

Lily and Pepper noticed that Severus was not beside them, and they stopped to turn and look at him. Smirking, Severus vaulted over the wall. Lily grinned, but Pepper glowered at him.

'Show off,' Pepper muttered, turning and stomping away.

Severus raised one eyebrow at Lily. 'What's got up her nose?'

Lily shrugged. 'She's not used to having a boy around.'

Severus snorted, but did not comment. After a moment, he realised that Lily was staring at him. Slowly, he turned to look into her face. 'What?' he demanded.

'Who hit you?' she asked softly.

Severus looked away from her, watching Pepper begin to follow a path beneath the trees into the wood. 'I ran into the wall,' he said flatly, beginning to walk again.

Lily touched him tentatively on the shoulder, and he stopped to glare at her.

'You came back from Christmas with a limp that didn't get better until Professor Slughorn marched you in to see Madam Pomfrey,' she said. Severus rolled his eyes and looked away from her. Inexorably, Lily continued. 'When we came back after Easter break, your teeth looked as if someone had knocked half of them out and you had put them back yourself – not very well,' she added. 'I'm not stupid, and I'm not going to tell tales at school, Severus.' She kept her green eyes on him until he could feel the weight of her gaze on the side of his bare neck; reluctantly, he turned his face back to hers. 'Tell me who hits you.'

Severus looked at well-loved Lily Evans in her brand new summer clothes and silly sandals with her pink toenails and knew that there was no way she could ever understand his world –charity-shop clothing, slipping into ones home like a ghost, fearful of drawing the attention of a brute with mercurial moods – attempting to stand guard over someone who did not want or appreciate his efforts – no, there was no way to explain his life to her.

'Don't go on about it,' he growled, fleeing into the wood, away from the compassion in her eyes. He heard her following but shoved his hands in the pockets of the jeans, keeping his eyes on his feet. The bruise under his eye was nothing – hardly worth talking about. It was almost a love pat, compared to some blows Grandfather had landed on his body since he and his mum had gone to live at Prince Glen. He had cried when they had left their house in Spinner's End, but Mum had explained that there was no way to buy food with Dad gone away, and she had taken him to live with Grandfather.

His grandfather had disliked him on sight, although Severus had no idea what he had done to make the old man so cross. He had only met Grandfather twice that he remembered, before they had moved to live with him. Mum had never said anything to Severus about his grandfather, but he had once heard her telling Dad that she hadn't run away from home to live with a man every bit as angry as her father – that had been after Stephy died. He physically recoiled at the fleeting memory of the little hands reaching for him, and he resolutely pushed it out of his mind.

'Lily! It's still here!'

Severus looked up as Lily ran lightly past him to join her sister at a moss-stained old birdbath.

'Remember how we used to sit here waiting for Mr Tumnus?' Lily said, trailing her fingertips in the surface of the pooled water.

'Mr Who?' Severus jeered.

Pepper ignored him and nodded, a reminiscent smile touching her features. 'We took turns telling stories,' she said.

Lily turned to Severus. 'Mr Tumnus, the faun from The Narnian Chronicles,' she said.

'There's no such thing as a faun,' he stated.

Pepper turned on him fiercely. 'I say there's no such thing as a wizard!'

'That's just stupid. I'm a wizard, so wizards are real. Fauns aren't.'

'Centaurs are, though,' Lily said. 'Did I tell you about the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest, Pep? Oh, I wish I could show them to you!'

Severus nudged at the old stone pedestal with his toe. 'Besides, it was a lamppost, not a birdbath,' he complained.

'Well, it wasn't so much that it was a birdbath that made us think of Narnia,' Lily said, seating herself on the grass. 'It's was more that it was a man-made thing in the middle of a wood.' She waved a hand about. 'Why would someone put a birdbath here?'

Pepper flopped down beside her. 'Maybe there used to be a cottage here.'

Severus looked carefully at their surroundings. They had walked a good ways into the wood. The birdbath was in a natural clearing, with pathways extending east and south; to the north and west was a dense growth of foliage. 'What's through there?' he asked, nodding at the brush.

Pepper shrugged. 'We never made it through the brambles,' she said.

'Girls,' Severus sneered.

'It's not as if we never tried,' Lily said. 'I got quite far in on my hands and knees one time –'

'– until she found a bright green caterpillar on her shoulder,' Pepper supplied, laughing.

Severus turned from his investigation of the thicket to stare at Lily. 'You gave up because of a harmless little caterpillar?'

Lily glared at him. 'I was afraid of bugs, then,' she said.

'A caterpillar isn't a bug,' Pepper and Severus said simultaneously.

Lily had to laugh, then, and her infectious giggle soon had Pepper laughing as well, although Severus only smirked. She and Pepper then fell into fond reminiscences about their past adventures in the wood, as Severus attempted to find a way to penetrate the brush.

'This would be so much easier with magic,' he complained, abandoning yet another promising hole in the foliage, unable to push his way through.

'Do it!' Pepper said, her eyes alight. She had wanted to see magic done ever since it had been discovered that Lily was a witch, but the law had thus far prevented her from doing so.

'Don't!' Lily cried, twisting around to see what Severus was doing. 'Don't, we'll get in trouble!' She couldn't see him now, and she stood, moving along the line of tangled brush, looking for him. 'Severus?'

Pepper popped up, as well, peering into the tangle of tall weeds, bushes, bramble, and vines, trying to pierce the murky shadows. Lily called his name, but the dratted boy didn't say anything.

'Where did he go?' Lily fretted.

Pepper scoffed. 'He's hiding to scare us.'

'But he was here just a minute ago!'

'Will you two shut it?' a slightly muffled voice commanded.

There was a great thrashing sound, as of someone struggling through a stubborn hedge, and Severus' head appeared, leaves and bits of twigs tangled in his untidy black hair, a huge grin making his pale face almost nice-looking – except, of course, for the crooked teeth and the black eye, Pepper amended.

'What have you found?' Lily demanded, apparently suspicious of the expression on his face.

'Oh, just another world,' Severus said tauntingly.

'Narnia?' Lily said, beginning to push her way through the brush to Severus.

'Come see and tell me what you think,' he said, turning and beginning to shove his way through again, stomping grass and vines and pushing and breaking branches to make a way through.

Pepper started in behind Lily, unaccountably excited to see what Severus had found. This place in the wood had always been special to Lily and her.

'It's not Narnia,' Severus said, holding back the final branches to allow Lily and Pepper to escape the thicket, 'but it may very well be Camelot.'

The girls could only gasp and stare.