A/N: Hello people! It's been a while since I published anything, but here is a new story I wrote! This has been submitted for the IWSC forum, I hope it goes well! Check it out if you have time, there are some really cool stories and people there!

This was written for and dedicated to the lovely Paceso! Thank you so much for being a wonderful friend, an inspirational writer and an all-around awesome person! Also, a shout out to Esme who has been an absolute godsend of a beta reader!

School: Beauxbatons

Year: Second

Theme: Circinus, the Compass [Finding one's way when lost]

Main prompt: [Event] Astronomy homework

Additional prompts:[Action] Stargazing, [Dialogue] "If I had a star for every time you brightened my day, I would be holding a galaxy."

Word Count: 1666

MILD SPOILERS: [Paceso requested a Snape-centric loss (or) journey kind of theme, drawing slight inspiration from Agatha Christie's 'Ordeal By Innocence', his feelings towards the Marauders, especially James, seeing Lily as his 'unreachable star' and Snape's own vulnerability. And, naturally, her name is synonymous Snily!]

And now, without further ado, I present to you The Fallacy of Youth.

The Fallacy of Youth

By AK

The dirt that caked underneath his nails and gave way underneath his knees did little to console him. Darkness, so black that he could barely see the outline of his arms in front of him, hung around him like a shroud.

His heart felt like the flutter of the wings of a hummingbird within his chest. His arm throbbed from where anger-strong hands had clutched at him and his bruises throbbed from where he had been thrown to safety. He tasted fear in his throat, bitter and heavy.

With a hoarse cry of anguish, he burst out of the ground into fresh air and moonlight. Not daring to stop, he tore straight through the green like a shooting star through the night sky. He looked at the sky with an air of bewildered hurt and anxious uncertainty. A bright moon, full and lovely, shone down through dark willowy branches silhouetted by the gentle light.

He shuddered. Merlin and Morgana knew that he would never look at it the same ever again.

Lily Potter put her quill down thoughtfully. Looking through her star map, she had an inkling that she had gone wrong somewhere. Sighing to herself, she opened her reference charts and went through the long and arduous process of cross-checking her diagram with her telescope. Focusing on the pole star, she noted the degrees as she moved the instrument at a snail's pace.

Tapping her finger on her desk, she cast her eyes through her meticulously plotted points, which symbolised each heavenly body seen that night. Neat words embellished with graphite dotted the expanse of parchment.

If she was quick and lucky, she could finish this up a little after two and have a good night's rest… by which she meant at least four hours of sleep before her first class of tomorrow – potions, was it not?

She dimpled a bit at the thought of Professor Slughorn, that old dear had let her skip the two feet long essay that was to be submitted tomorrow! If he hadn't, Merlin knows what she would have done!

Heavens, the OWLs were rough… How she wished that she could go back to the days of her fickle childhood! How she missed the way she'd rolled around the lawn with Petunia! How she missed the way she'd chatted with Marlene and the others during recess! She even missed butting heads with James and his gang, or the Marauders as they called themselves.

But the thing she missed the most… was her time spent with Severus.

The secrets kept so carefully and the nights spent whispering them to each other. The sky underneath which they'd lain, and the grass that had laid beneath them. The light in black eyes that had burnt, not with a fierce passion, but with a slow, unyielding warmth that she'd found comfort in, and the stars that had lit up the sky, ever present but so often taken for granted in their constancy…

Yes, Lily missed him most of all.

Different Houses, different subjects and different friends had driven a wedge in between them. A ravine that was so wide that she dared not cross recklessly. She knew that it was natural for childhood friends to drift apart, but oh how sorely she wished that it was not so!

Rubbing her temples to ward away a headache, she bent over her notes once more.

Severus Snape had always prided himself in his steadfastness. But as of now, his heart was in turmoil. His thoughts, in complete disarray. All that he'd thought he'd known was turned upside down.

He had confirmed many things that he had previously guessed at.

Regulus's brother was a no good scoundrel. The Marauders were mixed up with rule-breaking, trouble-making, and down-right illegal activities every full moon. Remus Lupin was a werewolf.

But one thing… one thing set his world on tilt. One thing had sent him into the state he was now in. The mess he was now in.

James Potter had saved his life.

The mere acknowledgement of the fact had his legs giving out and nausea building up. Finally out of the Whomping Willow's reach, he allowed himself to fall flat on his face. His eyes were burning, and despite what he told himself, it wasn't just because of the dust.

It would be difficult for an outsider to understand. James Potter had everything that Severus didn't have and all that he had ever wanted. What more, James was nothing of what Severus had always been. Yet still, James had crossed swords with him for the one single light of Severus's life – Lily Evans.

Severus had found it easy to call him a monster whenever James overstepped Lily's boundaries. He had found it easy to call him the teacher's pet when James aced the classes that Severus struggled in and the fool when James struggled in the classes Severus was partial to.

It was so easy to be hypocritical, so easy to dehumanise him, so easy to tell himself that no, James Potter was a mean, no-good piece of trash that liked to play around, held respect for nothing at all, and that he was not worth a mere second of Lily's attention.

But then James Potter had to go and risk life and limb to save his mortal enemy from his best friend turned monster.

Severus didn't dare to think what Potter had thought at that moment, what he had felt at that moment. Haunted by those fierce eyes filled with countless emotions, all he could do was flee.

The walk back to the castle had never seemed as long as it did now. Lifting himself into a half sitting, half reclining position, he chided himself for not having the strength to do more. Glaring up at the sky, his face reddened with defiance, he pressed his lips into a thin line and refused to let his tears fall.

"Aha!" cried Lily aloud. "I found you!"

With a feeling of immense satisfaction, she placed her finger between the Cygnus constellation of the Summer Triangle and Arcturus that connected the northern and southern skies. A little innocuous thing, but it had nearly set the entire chart askew.

Circinus, the Compass.

She wondered what that little thing was doing all the way over there, but she eventually chalked it up to exhaustion. She had been running on fumes all day. Stretching her hands above her head, she deliberated over the option of going to bed.

It was unlikely that she would be able to complete her star chart before sunrise. While it would be a shame to have her work pile up, she did have another day to submit it. Looking at the door with unmistakable longing, she weighed the pros and cons.

By leaving her work unfinished, it would be one victory for procrastination. She had worked very hard to get rid of that habit.

But by going to bed early, she was living a teensy bit healthier. Drinking water as and when possible would only go so far in powering her through her exams.

Oh! And she could also wake up bright eyed and clear headed for tomorrow's lessons! Heavens knew that it would be an absolute Godsend for the sleep-deprived students of her year.

Then again, if she didn't finish her work up satisfactorily, Professor Sinistra might have her redo it. That would be counterproductive.

And if that happened… she would have even less time to see Severus.

With a final sigh of longing for her warm bed that was awaiting her and would wait for her a bit longer, she pulled her telescope to the fullest. Scrunching up her nose, she realised that she had set it ajar. She pointed it, not to the sky, but to the ground to redo the preliminary adjustments…

And blinked as she caught sight of an all too familiar pair of shoulders stiffly set and sticking out of the dark grass lining the ground.

"Severus?!"

Severus felt dazed. His heart was a complicated tangle of emotions but his mind was blank. The strain from his OWLs combined with his late-night searches for answers had finally made itself shown. His muscles felt as if they were spasming, caught in between the state of loose exhaustion and the tautness that accompanied a sudden bout of exercise without the proper warm-up and cool-down.

Footsteps sounded, and in a moment of madness, he wondered if Lupin had come after him to finish him off. But no, those footsteps were definitely human, slightly feminine and familiar by the gait. Within seconds, Lily's worried face came into view.

Crying out in surprise and no little anger, she leaned over him, her long hair tickling his face. All of a sudden, it felt as if his wounds had been healed, his spirit replenished and his soul at peace. "Ah," said Severus, reaching a sudden moment of enlightenment.

This was what he was fighting for. This was what he would protect. This was what he would never, ever, ever give up on. His guiding light, his compass, his pole star...

His lovely Lily Evans.

Looking up at her, pale-faced with worry and asking anxious questions, he curled his lips up in a feverish smile. Delirious in his exhaustion, he gazed at her taken-aback expression. "You're like a star, Lily. No, you're the sun! You… you never fail to brighten up my day."

Lily Evans patted her burning cheeks in an attempt to cool them down. Before her, Severus had already given in to exhaustion and had fallen into a dead faint. Looking at his sharp features and furrowed brows, she sighed. "Oh Severus," she whispered. "If I had a star for every time you brightened my day, I would be holding a galaxy."

A/N: Well, that's it for now, folks! I hope you liked it!