a/n: i literally have no idea what i'm doing. i know this probably would never have happened but the idea kinda popped into my head and i really wanted to explore what would happen so there you go.
disclaimer: i do not own the characters etc, that all belongs to jkr. the title is by elbow and has nothing to do with anything really, i just like it.
the one where she saw him by the bus stop
...
A coil of the clear, viscous gel took shape in the base of Lily's palm.
She dipped a finger through the stuff. Brushed a stroke under each eye, with a painter's precision. A stroke down the length of her nose.
The aloe vera was cooling; a pleasant feeling of relief seeing as her skin was red and peeling from sunburn. If you put a hand over it you could literally feel the heat rising off her.
The rest of the gel was distributed upon her forehead, shoulders. It felt disgusting to move with the stuff caked on, so Lily sat still, trying not to touch anything.
A year ago, the doorbell rang.
Lily had been expecting it, but still it came as a small surprise. She went to the door. The strange round circles sculpted into the glass, like if you froze ripples in water, distorted his image into a dark blur, but she knew it was him. In this town, who else would it be?
"Sev." She grinned.
"Hi, Lily," His voice was airless, excited. He pushed hair from his face. "Ready?"
"As I'll ever be." Lily replied, unhooking the spare keys from their peg beside the door. "Let's get out of here."
Out of here constituted a sweltering bus ride into Cokeworth Centre. Lily's legs lay across several seats, flip-flopped feet dangling into the aisle. Severus sat in the seat across the aisle. Nobody minded, especially since it was just the two teenagers and the old, quiet driver.
"So," She said presently. "What should we do?"
"What's there to do in Cokeworth, anyway?" He asked, sounding bored. She couldn't blame him.
"There's shops, and a cinema. We can see if anything good's on-"
"Muggle rubbish, I expect." He interrupted impatiently. "I miss Hogwarts, and being able to do magic."
"Yeah," She agreed. "Yeah, I do too. But, c'mon, let's go and see a film. I'll pay"
"Fine," He said grudgingly. "Muggle rubbish, though."
Lily didn't say anything. She liked the cinema.
They stepped off the bus onto warm pavement.
"Or d'you wanna go Bournemouth, then? We could catch a train…?"
"Nah… nah, a film is fine."
Lily pulled her hair back into a ponytail. Strands of hair tugged at her scalp.
The clock chimed.
The clock in Lily's kitchen had birds decorating the face instead of numbers, and the corresponding bird call to mark each hour. Over the years they'd had it, Lily had learnt to recognise which birdcall meant which hour.
One o'clock, morning dove.
It was a year since she'd gone to the cinema that day with Severus, and Lily was back in her kitchen. Her face was stiff and sticky with aloe vera.
There were dirty coffee mugs everywhere, and plates littered with crumbs… she had to clean up- Lily focused on this task. She piled plates and mugs precariously in the sink, balancing cutlery on top, rinsing it all quickly. A fork slid off and into the drain.
Lily closed her eyes and had to fight back tears. Honestly. It was just a fork, a stupid fork, she could get it back. She got worked up over everything these days.
She stuck her hand down the drain, leaning into the sink so that the tips of her hair brushed through water. Her fingers groped around aimlessly, finally brushing sharp metal and drawing out the fork. It dangled from her fingertips. Lily stared at it sadly. It was a really depressing fork.
She had to get out of here.
Lily placed the fork on the side of the sink.
Out of here constituted a sweltering bus ride into Cokeworth town. Alone. Lily's knees faced the back of the seat in front of her. Her cheek rested against the cool glass of the window. The bus hummed under her flipflops.
She stepped off onto the warm pavement and the bus drove away.
A packet of crisps and a pop. The thought offered Lily a purpose, an attractive thing at present. There was a shop round the corner, and she had money.
Lily stepped over an overturned box of takeaway, dodging blobs of spicy sauce. Something (a bird, presumably) had dragged the contents out onto the street and then gotten either bored or scared off. Serviettes stuck to chunks of curry, the clean ends fluttering like little white flags.
In the shop, Lily bought her chips and pop, exited again.
A pigeon had now taken custody of the curry. Lily grimaced as she took a left, dodged through an alley into the main street, pulling open her packet of crisps.
She thought vaguely about taking a train to Bournemouth… she'd have to have a look at transport to London anyway, as she couldn't exactly floo from the Snape's fireplace anymore.
"Lily?"
Fuck. She looked up from the depths of her crisp packet.
"Get lost." Lily stepped around him, jamming a salt-encrusted finger into the crossing button. Change, change, please, she begged the light.
"Lily, can we talk? Please, I just want to-" Severus Snape said. His fingers twisted into a knot of pale skin. He was so thin- the t-shirt he wore did not quite hide his spine as he hunched over anxiously.
"No, I don't want to hear it." She said, fingers tightening round the neck of her bottle.
He dropped the cigarette he was holding, put it out under the heel of his shoe. "Lily." God, he was really pleading with her now.
"No." The stoplight switched to green. Lily walked, but he followed. She'd known he would. Her hand delved into the packet of crisps, drawing out several at once.
"Ready salted?" He asked quietly. "I thought your favourite was salt and vinegar."
"Yeah, looks like you had a lot of misconceptions about me, doesn't it?" Lily said through a mouthful of crisp.
He couldn't reply to that, obviously.
"Go home, Severus." She said, coming to a halt on the other side of the street.
"And if I don't?"
"I'll ignore you." She said simply. "Or walk into the police office and tell them there's this creepy fucker won't stop following me. It's true enough, isn't it?"
She met his gaze. "We're not friends anymore." Lily continued. His face tightened up like he was about to explode. "Go home."
The coke bottle was slippery with sweat. Lily's mouth felt dry and salty. Probably from the chips.
"Go home." She said again. He did this time.
Lily headed back to the bus stop.
When she got off the bus, James Potter was there.
He was frowning at the bus stop sign as if it were the most fascinating thing he'd ever seen, a crinkle of bemusement forming above the bridge of his glasses. He looked slightly dazed.
Her fingers clenched round the bottle of pop. There had been a moment of debate, when she'd only seen the back of his messy head (berk) and she thought it was him, although she wasn't absolutely positive until he turned and she knew the nose, the mouth that was not (for once) twisted into that cocksure grin, the glasses framing hazel eyes. It was definitely him.
Now that was settled, what was he doing here? In Cokeworth, in her town. He and Cokeworth were so fundamentally different, so removed from each other within Lily's mind that he looked like an oddity, probably stranger than if a fucking UFO had landed in the middle of town centre.
"What the hell are you doing here?" She snapped.
She had no idea what would come out of his mouth, but it didn't matter. James Potter had exactly two connections to this place, and since one of them took the blood purist form of the person he hated most, she was prepared to bet it was the other one. Her. Lily Evans was the reason James Potter was wondering round Cokeworth looking as though he'd been bonked on the head with a heavy object.
He turned at the sound of her voice. She waited for him to grin, or ruffle his hair or chuck some comment at her.
All she got was a brief flicker of something in his eyes- recognition, mixed with puzzlement, as if he knew but couldn't place her exactly.
"Hi," He said. His voice sounded strange, like it'd lost something important. "D'you know where I am?"
"You're in my town, fuckwit." She was not in the mood to deal with James Potter today. "What are you doing here?"
James frowned. "Look, princess, sorry if I offended you by... talking, alright, but I'd really like to know where the hell I am."
"Cokeworth." Lily snapped, wondering what game he was playing. "What do you want? I assume it's me you're here for, since you would never willingly go near Severus and you don't know anyone else in this town-"
"Hold on- you know me? You know who I am?"
"What's this all about, then, Potter?"
"Potter." He turned the word around and around like a kid with an interesting new toy. "Funny name. Anyway, just listen, alright? I woke up, middle of somewhere, and my memory was completely blank. I remember facts and things, but everything I've done, everywhere I've been, everyone I know- that's all gone."
Lily stared at him impassively. His little speech had bounced off her, hail on metal sheeting, barely leaving a dent. "Very funny. Black put you up to this?"
"What? No, it's not a prank or a joke or anything. Would I lie about something like this?"
"Yes." She said, and turned to go because it seemed like a sassy place to exit the conversation.
"Wait," he said. "I don't remember you, not exactly, but there's something… I think you were important. Are we- friends?" Even Lily noticed the hitch of breath before 'friends'. There was an awkward and irritable pause.
"No," She said. "We couldn't really stand each other to be honest. Look, Potter, points for creativity and all that, but I really don't need this right now."
"I can prove I'm telling the truth!" He said. "Ask me something only I wouldn't know."
"What? That doesn't even make any sense." Lily could feel definite signs of an oncoming headache.
"Look, I am not fucking around here, I swear." James sounded so serious that she stopped, uncertain. "I don't particularly want to be in this piece of shit town with no memory any more than you apparently want me, so couldn't you just do us both a favour and help me out?"
This was unbelievable. And bloody typical! Of course it had to be her town he wandered into in his amnesiac state. She supposed that she believed him, then- even James Potter wasn't that skilled at acting.
"OK, fine. We'll contact… Black, how about? He'll want to help you out, at least. And once you get your memory back I'll kill you. Alright?"
"Alright." He said, seriousness evaporating despite the death threat. "Who's this Black fellow anyway? And have we all got such awful names?" He grimaces. "Potter… What's my surname?"
"That is your surname. Your first name's James." Lily replied, indicating which way they should go. She started walking, quickly, and he followed.
"James. That sounds marginally better. So we all call each other by surnames, do we? Seems a bit... formal."
"Like I said, we don't exactly get on."
"I dunno, the surname thing's sort of edgy. What do I call you?"
"Evans, mostly." Lily replied. "My name's Lily, though, and you've been known to employ more colourful epithets."
He tilted his head, the beginnings of that cocky smile she knew and hated forming. "Yeah?"
"Yeah, like 'ginger', and 'red'."
James laughed appreciatively. "Colourful. Very funny."
They picked their way across the old train tracks towards the hill. The now-unused tracks were overgrown with grass and coated in rust. Years ago, they'd rerouted the railway to go through the centre of town, by the hotel.
"Down there's Spinner's End." When they reached the best viewpoint on the hill, she indicated the haphazard collection of buildings, darkened and framed by smog from the nearby factories. "Bad part of town, if you like. 'S where Severus lives." Her thoughts soured as they did when they turned to Snape. If she was to make a bad analogy, she might say her one-time-friend was the factory smog to the Spinner's End in her mind.
Something of this gloomy thought must have shown on her face, because James asked: "So this Severus a bit of a wanker, is he?"
"What?"
"I mean, you said before that I didn't like him, and when you mentioned him a second ago you looked like you were reliving a brutal war or something." He said, causing her to immediately rearrange her facial expression. "It's got to be for some reason."
Lily kicked a stone down the grassy hillside. "Our reasons are different. I don't know what yours is, but mine is private." She didn't mention that it wasn't exactly private at all since the whole fucking school was aware.
"Fair enough." He dropped it, which was a bit of a shock since it was so uncharacteristic of him.
"Let's keep going." Lily said.
She was fairly certain the Potters had a manor or something else grand and expensive, but at least he wouldn't remember enough to compare his house with hers. It wasn't as though the Evans home was the worst in the area, but it wasn't much to speak of.
"There's the park." Lily said as they passed it.
"Didn't realise I was getting the grand tour in the bargain." James said. He kept stealing sideways glances at her.
"What are you looking at?" She snapped when she could no longer stand it.
"Sorry, it's just-" James seemed to be at a loss for the right words. "It really feels like- it doesn't feel like I dislike you. I mean, that Sniverus bloke, whatever his name is, even hearing about him is sort of… discomforting, you know? But there's something else with you."
She didn't know what to say to that, because what the hell does one say to something like that?
"And I don't see why I'd dislike you, either." He continued. "I mean, you're well funny, and you're clever, gorgeous…I'm sort of- I'm sort of kicking myself for not getting on with you, to be honest."
Lily felt her face heat up, which was really rather annoying. "I don't like some of the things you do." She said, carefully. "And the way you act most of the time. And the fact that you-"
"Alright, don't be in such a hurry to tell me how big a prick I am." He interrupted. "I'm sorry for doing things, I s'pose. And when I get back to normal I'll try and behave. Honest."
"Behave? You don't even know what that word means." Lily snorted.
James nodded. "Y'know, I had a feeling I was a rebel."
She almost laughed but managed to hold onto decency.
"So how much of your memory is gone, exactly?" Lily plopped down on the settee next to James, handing him a beer. Her dad had left a few in the fridge, obviously trusting that Lily wouldn't drink them but honestly.
"Thanks. Er, basically all of it. Or all of it that has something to do with me." James said. "I mean, I know stuff, like this is England and treacle tart is a rather excellent dessert, but when it comes to me I just go blank. Oh, and…." He frowned, lowered his voice. "I'm magic. It doesn't seem that strange really but nobody else seems to be."
"Well, this is a muggle town."
"Non-magic." James nodded. "And you? Are you magical?"
"I am." Lily replied. "So you remember stuff about magic, do you? Like Hogwarts and who's Minister for Magic and things?"
"Sort of… when it comes to magic it gets a little hazy, but… it's there." He fiddled with his beer, picking at the edges of the label. "D'you think it was magic that did this to me?"
"Probably." She shrugged. "Maybe a spell gone wrong. Or it could've been on purpose."
"You mean, I did this to myself because I wanted to forget something?" Pondered James. "What could I want to forget that badly?"
"Maybe you looked in the mirror."
"Funny."
"It could have been someone else." Lily ventured.
They thought about that in silence.
