Well I positively hate long author introductions but I hope you'll indulge me a bit. This is a really old story, like I wrote it before Deathly Hollows was even published let alone movies made. I like to think of this as a companion piece to a story I'm currently working (shameless plug its called Bellum and will be posted shortly) on. I will likely being posting multiple one shots that I've written, all little bits and pieces that are companions pieces to Bellum – I hope you enjoy!

One last warning – I am a TERRIBLE, fluffy romantic, please don't judge too harsly! Happy Reading! -R

As it ya all didn't know - characters not mine but the great JK Rowling

Like a Thousand Angels above Me

"Walk with me?"

Sev looked up from his potions book, Lily looked down at him eagerly awaiting his answer to her whispered question.

"Where?" always the practical down to earth one he never supposed or made room for whimsy that could be had on a fine autumn day.

"Everywhere…to the moon and back again, maybe to the bottom of the ocean, across the universe if it'll have us…just walk with me Severus…please?" Lily beamed stretching out her hand towards him.

Severus would have glanced around to see if Madam Pince was near ready to shush Lily who was speaking in a qualifying whisper of a voice but was still louder than she ought to be, but he didn't, he was entranced in Lily's deep green eyes as he always was when in them he looked.

"Okay," he heard himself answer putting his hand in hers without hesitation.

"Good…it's just a perfect day for The Forbidden Forest," she looped her arm through the crook of his and squeezed, she was beaming brighter than the afternoon sun.

Severus on the other hand was an even paler shade of white.

"You know I don't like going into the Forbidden Forest – it is against the rules," Severus argued even as Lily took the lead in guiding them towards the looming wood.

"We just went last week…" Lily pointed out though her attention was on feeling the crisp wind against her cheeks – on taking in the glorious fall colors around her.

"And Slug hasn't let me forget it, and if going into the woods wasn't enough to get detention I was there with a Gryffindor…" Severus grumbled but all the festival pointed out to him insistently by Lily was finally catching his attention.

"He didn't give you detention, don't make it sound worse than it is– you're his best student…not to mention the only saving grace for Slytherins' Quidditch chances…and if all that weren't enough," she paused to gesture broadly, "I'm his second best student and he really likes me," she turned to look at Severus closely, "Even if I am a Gryffindor," she laughed freely siding up a tad closer.

It didn't matter to Severus that they had been best friends since they were eleven, it didn't matter that it had been a year now that Lily had confessed her 'more than friendship feelings for him', it could have been a hundred years from now…he could be seventy-five instead of sixteen but he would still find it a miracle, an honest to goodness miracle that Lily Evans even spoke to him, let alone professed to love him – and was walking next to him.

He smiled when she mentioned Quidditch or rather he smiled when she complimented him, it was new to him, having this person who had unflappable belief, unmovable trust…a person who actually thought he was worth something. She was the only one who believed in him, and she was the only one he would smile willingly, genuinely for.

"Lily…" he said stopping their pace just outside the tree line.

"Yes?" she stopped her chatter looking up at him her lips turned up in a smile that made his heart fail yet warmed it too.

Every thought that he had in his head which he intended to convey to her fled, as they most often did when in close proximity such as this, he had so many words he wanted to give her but not one could he think of so instead he focused on the colorful leaves falling about them and how they accented her coppery auburn hair, "Autumn suits you…"

She quirked her head and furrowed her brow in the slightest, "Thank you…I think," so then because she was used to his awkward compliments she laughed warmly hugging herself against him again, "I think I suit the best with you." And with that she tugged him into the blurring line of towering trees.

It thankfully was on the way out from the wood that Professor Slughorn caught Lily and Severus last week so that their hidden bit of refuge was left just that – hidden. Just beyond the first thin but dense ribbon of trees there was a clearing, a clearing with grass that was as tender and supple as a crushed velvet blanket and it was void of uncomfortable roots, weeds and other ill things often found in the Forbidden Forest. Here there grew tall aspens among the thicker meaner trees making a circle of seeming sanctuary around the velvet nook.

It was theirs, only theirs and seemingly the only place where Lily and Severus could exist without the constant pressure put on them by their school ties of red and green. Here it wasn't school, here it was them…here it was something more, it was a little like the forest – forbidden.

They had only been coming to the area for the last month, but still a ritual of sorts had been unconsciously adopted. Severus liked repetition, liked things to be predictable and to follow a strict schedule; he knew that when the pattern and formula was set and known one could prepare for all the variables – he didn't like the unknown. Lily on the other hand, as she was proving today, liked spontaneity and for life to be fun and blissfully undisciplined which meant that she only tolerated Severus planning most of their activities, his scheduling of their events during holidays and Hogsmeade weekends…went along with his tough as nails homework schedules and his going to the same fallen tree with the pale green moss that laid in the middle of their Forbidden Forest clearing to sit – because she knew that when it counted the most he would always take a walk with her if she asked.

She sat next to him as he carefully arranged everything about the moment to his liking, he unwound his Slytherin scarf and accepted hers, which she offered, and he folded them neatly together sitting them out of sight. She waited patiently as he removed his school tie then added both it and hers to the scarves, she squelched a groan as he seemed to take forever to situate his coat on the ground then take his place before pulling her to sit in his lap. She knew that the colors that separated them irritated him, gnawed at him – upset him; it had been that way since Sorting in their first year. She knew, even if he wouldn't admit it, that he somehow held it against her – viewed it as an insult to him that the Sorting Hat had named her Gryffindor instead of Slytherin. It didn't bother her the differences in Houses and colors, there were just that to her, meaningless colors and dormitories where one simply slept and kept things…but because it meant something to him, she let him have his ritual of removing their barriers and putting them away, if it made him feel better, well then that was worth it all.

Finally Severus was happy with their situation and truly relaxed. Lily smiled when she felt his arms around her lose their rigid hold and just simply held her – like he was secure in knowing that she wasn't going to leave him, and that nothing could take her away. She stretched out her legs and sighed laying her head back against his chest feeling content and at ease, she rubbed one of his arms, which was across her middle.

"Thank you bringing me, I love it here…its so…" she sighed again, "Peaceful."

Severus couldn't speak; there was a lump in his throat so large he thought that it might truly be able to choke him. He nudged her soft hair with his chin, resting it there and breathing in her faint but lingering scent of jasmine and vanilla – she wore the perfume he had made her, and that made him infinitely happier, which didn't seem possible but it was so much so he could hardly bear it.

It was such an unusual feeling, this 'happy' feeling. It really was complicated and complex Severus contemplated. There were so many parts that made it up, and it seemed to take on many shades as well. How could something that was supposed to be good sometimes feel so awful? It hurt when he couldn't breathe when he saw her…it hurt when he couldn't think because his head was swimming with the sound of her musical voice saying his name. When he was with Lily he felt so good, he hurt…how did that make sense? It didn't…it was making him daft.

"Sev, what's wrong?" Lily tipped her head back trying to see his face when she felt him suddenly tense.

Severus stirred from his heavy thoughts to look down at her puzzled, "What?"

She silently studied him, trying to weigh what was scrawled across his face. "Nothing…never mind," she faintly smiled but scooted up a fraction of an inch to kiss his chin. "Will you do that thing…please?" she pleaded giving him her best pouting look while shit bit her lower lip.

He could never deny her, but his silence made her believe that he was about to; she didn't realize he was simply memorizing her face – yet again, as he could never get enough of it and wanted to always be able to recall, in unbelievable detail every single feature, from the exact shade of her eyes, to the splattering of the freckles across her nose for it hardly seemed possible that she would always stay with him – he couldn't help but have that tiny sprout of fear that he would one day lose her, as he knew he was so unworthy of her; and if – or when that day came he wanted to at least have the memories of her clearly defined. Finally he nodded his agreement when he saw that she believed he was going to deny her request.

"Close your eyes…" he whispered lips near her ear as she settled back against him. She did and he brought his wand from his pocket and whispered not so much a spell as it was chant, of beautiful, intricate words peppered with an almost undetectable Scottish burr.

Lily's skin tingled with anticipation, she felt the light before she saw it dance across her closed eyelids, and she smiled feeling so vastly content she couldn't have described it even if she had voice enough.

"Okay, open them," Severus held his breath.

She let a small thoroughly awed gasp escape. She had seen this a few times time before, but it didn't matter, the majesty never faded, her delight never waned. The air around them and throughout the clearing was filled with millions of fireflies; they burned the impending darkness with their iridescent glow. They danced and flitted around them; she giggled looking from the bits of scattering light to Severus and seemed surprised that he was too busy looking at her to appreciate the show.

"What are you thinking Severus?" she asked voice so low he could barely hear it.

He took his time in answering, as he always did. He couldn't exactly name what it was he was thinking for it seemed to be everything and yet nothing that he could give name. His thoughts though singular in source were fractured in a thousand ways, toward the glow of the fireflies, to the quaking aspens around them that sang a song so beautiful, so pure he nearly quaked himself, toward the grass they sat upon which was like taking perch on a cloud…all these things swirled in his mind but centered on one thing, on her, always on her…"I'm thinking of you Lily…always of you," he admitted quietly.

Her heart blossomed and burned with love for him, she twisted in his arms to fully face him, and she placed a palm against his cheek. His face was so clearly and easily read, she saw his devotion to her, his eagerness, his possessiveness of her, his so innocent greed of her…he loved her so ardently, so wholly it almost frightened her.

"I love you Severus…"

Severus blinked, once, twice as if trying to clear them of stubborn remnants of sleep as it was certainly some kind of dream her saying the words as it couldn't honestly be real…yet it was and his grip on her unconsciously tightened. "I love you so much Lily…" he whispered back in reply.

She gave him a lopsided smile that told him she knew that already. Their words ceased then as they no longer required them, they just stayed together watching the flickering of dancing light and knew that everything in that moment, no matter what would come after or what they had endured before could mar it.

"I swear…everything is so perfect…so ethereal…I see the fireflies and I swear…it's like there's a thousand angels above me…" Lily observed dazed pulling Severus arms around her tighter.

Severus didn't stir, he didn't tell her that just minutes ago he had been thinking thoughts along those same lines, he didn't mention because frankly those thousand angels didn't mean half as much to him as the single one he had that moment in his arms.

- a ghnàth -

{meaning 'always' in Scottish Gaelic.}