First and Only
By Nor of Kiamo Ko
A/N: I'd like to dedicate this to my FF girls—Casey (Penguinperson), Meggie (GalindaBurroughs417), Kat (even thought she doesn't normally read fan fiction… Hope she reads this one anyway), Kelsey Rose (theatrics—we may be collaborating sooner than we thought), LostOzian, and The Pixess—and hope that they don't message me angrily after I post this. :)
"Severus! Severus, wait—"
What did I ever do to them, anyway? Spoiled little pureblood prig and his puffed-up friends… Wait a minute! I'm a half-blood Slytherin. What's not for them to hate? I mean, I committed the crime of actually existing, and then being sorted into Slytherin on top of it… Of course that demands public ridicule. I'd expect nothing less from them.
After venting all of this bitter sarcasm, Severus took the time to notice that the voice and footsteps coming up behind him were feminine and completely the opposite of threatening. He slowed to a stop on the shore of the lake and flopped down in the grass to wait for his pursuer. It didn't take her long to catch up.
Slowly she approached and sat down next to him. For a few moments, they didn't speak. Then she broke the silence.
"Severus," she said softly, "don't listen to them. James is an idiot. All that stuff about 'pure blood'… it's rubbish, all of it. And what they were saying about Slytherins back in the Great Hall isn't true. I'm sure not everyone who goes into Slytherin comes out bad. You… you couldn't. You're too good for that."
Severus sighed, staring out over the lake. "Thank you, Lily," he murmured. He smiled a little half-heartedly and snorted. "You're right; Potter is an idiot." He turned and looked at her solemnly. "An idiot who likes redheads."
She rapped him lightly on the shoulder. "Don't start that, please," she groaned. "I've gotten enough of it from the Gryffindors; don't make me take it from my best friend, too." He grinned, and she smiled back as she stood up and offered him her hand. "C'mon, we're going to be late for Charms."
He took her hand and let her help him up… and suddenly the world around them stopped as he realized their fingers were intertwined.
Memories came to him in a river…
Ten-year-old Lily, flying off a swing in the Muggle neighborhood where they used to live, the epitome of childish happiness…
Lily sitting across from him in the forest on the outskirts of the same neighborhood, enraptured by his description of the wizarding world, looking at him like he was the only thing that had ever mattered to her…
Lily on the train to their first year at Hogwarts, crying because of her sister's snub, and being comforted by his words…
Sweet, spunky, smart, beautiful Lily.
He looked at her for a moment, and then did something that surprised them both: he reached out the hand that wasn't holding hers and lightly ran it through her hair.
He didn't expect it to go any further than that, but she reached up and touched his face, and suddenly he was leaning toward her—
--and he was kissing her; nothing too serious, just the lightest taste of her lips on his. He heard her gasp and he almost pulled away apologetically, but then he felt her kissing back, and he couldn't move. All he could do was kiss her, and run his fingers through all that magnificent hair…
And it was over. He was looking into her eyes and still holding her hand, but their lips were no longer touching.
"We're going to be late for class," she whispered.
He nodded, still in a daze. "Right."
They arrived in Charms still holding hands. Potter looked flabbergasted.
Ten years after the first and last kiss they ever shared, Severus and Lily went to the same service at the same church. They were both gazing at the dearest love they'd ever known; the only differences between them were that only Severus knew that they were both present, and Lily was in the ceremony rather than just watching it.
And her heart grew, instead of breaking like his, with every word the preacher said.
"Do you, Lily Evans, take James Potter to be your magically wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?"
Tears were shining in her eyes as she looked at her husband to be, her love, her new best friend. Severus remembered a time when she had given him that look, and a hole expanded a little in his heart.
"I do." Two little words that hurt so much.
"Then I declare you bonded for life." Severus quietly Disapparated while tiny silver stars danced around the happy couple.
Hours later, long after the Potters and their guests had gone home from the reception, Severus Apparated back to the church. He stood in the aisle for a few minutes, thinking, and then boldly marched up to the trellis and picked a rose off of it. He inhaled its scent deeply, acutely feeling Lily's joy, and her love, however long ago the time had been when he had held a piece of it.
In that moment, he decided that he wanted Lily—his first love, and his only love—to be happy… even if that meant seeing her wrapped up in Potter's arms instead of his own. No matter how much it broke him, he wanted her to smile and laugh and know that she was loved… for the rest of her life.
He tucked the rose into his breast pocket and Disapparated again before the single tear that escaped his eyes hit the floor.
A/N: Just posted this on a whim, there's no real NEED to review... although, if you'd like to, by all means do. :)