The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Season 5, Round 1 – Not My OTP
Montrose Magpies
CHASER 3: "Write your Chaser One's NOTP" – Snape/Lily
Optional Prompts:
7. (object) broken wine glass
8. (dialogue) "If I'd wanted you to then I would have asked!"
10. (setting) the beach
Wordcount: 1739
Kissed by the Sun
Lily Evans was a force to be reckoned with. A real force of nature.
Young Severus Snape had never seen himself as the kind of person who would spend his time on a beach — ever — for any imaginable reason. But then again, as with anything that involved the aforementioned witch, most of his preconceived notions about himself quite suddenly didn't apply anymore.
The girl had somehow managed the impossible: not only had she talked her, often grumpy and unsociable, friend into joining her for a day at the seaside, but for reasons unknown to him, he also found himself sporting a pair of rather ill-fitting swimming trunks. At least they were not a glaring shade of pink or anything. But still.
The young wizard might have — reluctantly — agreed to be there, but that did not make him any more comfortable with his surroundings. He kept looking around, feeling like he was the proverbial sore thumb sticking out, which everyone was compelled to stare at. He was so far out of his comfort zone that he was unsure he would ever find his way back in again.
The only thing that made him forget about everyone else, and their incessant need to stick their noses into things that didn't concern them in the slightest, was having the sole attention of his best friend. Just a hint of her smile could sweep the rest of the world and its inhabitants right out of his head. But when she turned that smile up to full power, it was enough to knock him right over. As it was, she was only giving him her content-with-life-and-current-situation one, which did nothing more than leave him wobbling on mysteriously weak knees.
Then, there was the chance to see the one and only Lily Evans in a swimsuit. That in itself almost made it worth all of the unwanted attention.
The two unlikely friends spent the morning lazily basking in the sun's warming rays. It was beaming down on them from its highest point in the sky, and the waves crashed against the shore in a repetitive and soothing rhythm. They indulged in some easy conversation away from everything and everyone else they knew, free of the stress of school and studying. As they chatted about everything and nothing, he more or less forgot about the presence of others and his current state of undress and simply began to enjoy their time spent together.
The two of them were quite a pair. They couldn't be more different if they tried. Everything from their eyes and skin to their clothes and disposition was as contrasting as it could be.
The young Muggle-born was as bright as the sun, in all meanings of the word. With her flaming hair, lightly freckled skin and friendly demeanor, she was colourful and full of life. Her mood may have gone up and down and all over the place — like any teenager — but, no matter what, she was always a little firecracker.
Severus, on the other hand, favoured the dark spectrum of life. With his bony limbs and skin so pale that it looked like it had never been exposed to the sun a day in its life, some might say he looked as pale as a ghost or like something that had been buried for a long, long time. Technically, it wouldn't be a lie to say he had been buried — or hidden, at the very least — for months, but it would be more figurative than literal as he tended to spend his free time in the dungeons — the Potions classroom, to be precise, as Slughorn allowed him to use it in his free hours — or in the library rather than playing Quidditch or strolling around the lake.
"They've started early," the redhead commented idly as one of the celebrating people at a party further down the beach stumbled over a chair and landed in the lap of a guy who looked like he might be fast asleep where he sat.
"Or are finishing late," the wizard suggested, a hint of wry amusement colouring the tone of his voice.
"What?" his friend responded, an incredulous brow raised, and leaned in to speak directly into his ear to avoid being overheard by the people in question.
Severus was hit by a strong whiff of something fruity as a few loose strands of her hair almost caressed his face with her sudden movements. The smell was difficult to determine, but it was sweet and distinctly fruity. Oranges, maybe? But it wasn't only that; there was a hint of something else as well. It could have been melon... or peach — or maybe a different combination altogether.
What a ridiculous thing to waste his time thinking about! If he wanted to know so badly, he could just ask her! It wasn't like she would bite or hex him or something even worse. Probably. She might laugh at him, though. Or perhaps she would reward — or punish, depending on whether you identified with the glass half-full or half-empty mentality — him with one of her wonderfully lethal smiles. Either way, the results didn't bode well for either him or his sanity.
"You really think they've been at it since last night?"
Mentally shaking off his rambling thoughts to bring his focus back to the conversation at hand, the dark-haired boy raised his eyebrow sardonically, letting it be all the argument he needed.
"I guess you're right," Lily agreed thoughtfully, giving a light shrug that caused her long hair to whip right past his hooked nose again like sparks flying from a fire. "It's not possible to get that drunk in just a couple of hours, is it?"
Any response he might have given to that was interrupted by the shrill voice of one of the women from the party. She seemed to be verging on middle-aged and had clearly had a few too many to drink. "If I'd wanted you to then I would have asked!"
"Don't do that, darling; please be reasonable," a man, obviously her partner, implored in an attempt to placate his female companion. The only reaction his words earned him was the irate woman's half-filled wine glass sailing by his head, barely missing the tip of his left ear and spraying his previously immaculate, slicked back hair with its contents in the process.
"Let's go." The young witch grabbed her friend's hand and led him further down the beach, away from the boisterous party with its squabbling couple, to find a quieter section of sand to lay their claim on.
Lily dragged the quite willing young wizard with her until they found themselves all alone around a bend in the shoreline. Then suddenly, she stopped and turned to face the surprised Slytherin, staring at him with a calculating look in her eyes.
"What is it?" he wondered, trying hard not to squirm — or worse, blush — at the attention, while subtly angling his head down, letting his hair fall forward to partly hide his face. It didn't really help much, though, considering that the rest of his body was practically on display in his worn swimming trunks. He really wished he hadn't let himself be talked into leaving his robes at home that day. They would have made it much easier to hide his discomfort without making it obvious that was what he was doing.
While the self-conscious young man was busy lamenting his lack of clothing and trying hard not to think about why his favourite person in the world was studying him in such a way, Lily had subtly been inching closer until she was so close that tilting her head upward was all it took to bring her warm lips flush against his.
His heart stuttered — and quite possibly stopped completely for a second or two there — before starting up again at double speed, presumably to catch up on the beats it had missed. His world was shifting on its axis, completely out of balance, and he was so disoriented at that moment that he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between a standard size 2, pewter cauldron and a pure gold one in size 5 — but it was all in the best possible way.
The redhead in front of him wore a soft smile, one that spoke of shared secrets, and he found himself overwhelmingly grateful just to have been let in on it. If he weren't so dazed, he probably would have been embarrassed at his complete lack of any sort of reaction, though.
"Come on, Sev." The girl gave an impish grin, not giving him the opportunity to overthink it. "Race you!"
And her hand slipped out of his as she dashed into the softly rolling waves.
Left on the shore, Severus Snape, the newly appointed Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, turned his dark gaze away from the magnificent sight of the slowly setting sun. The descending star was painting both the sky above and the ocean below in a range of colours, creating a more spectacular sight when about to disappear from view than when it had been high in the sky. Soon, there would be only darkness left.
Cloaked in black from head to toe, a light breeze playfully tugging on the hems, the wary wizard blended right into the serene surroundings as the shadows darkened and lengthened.
This time, the cold sand was staining his perfectly polished dragonhide boots instead of tickling the crevices between his pale, bony toes as it had way back when.
The peaceful stretches of sand were littered with rubbish. There was a torn plastic bag rustling in the wind where it had caught on the thorn-filled branches of a wilted rose bush nearby, and a broken wine glass was halfway buried in the sand like a kind of animal trap just lying in wait to ambush some poor, unsuspecting child's bare feet.
The formidable wizard allowed a deep, irrepressible sigh to escape his lips and steeled himself for the inevitable return to his duties, gently pushing his recollections back to be hidden by the impenetrable walls of his mind.
It was time to leave the past behind and focus on the things he could actually do to make a difference for the future of the Wizarding World.