A/N: The title is from The House at Pooh Corner: "Poetry and Hums aren't things which you get, they're things which get you. And all you can do is to go where they can find you."

Pale gold sunlight filtered down through leaves to where Lily and Severus sat against the trunk of a tree. She was pleased he had allowed himself to be persuaded to leave the castle's dim halls and come outside to study, as it was a comfortably warm spring day with a light breeze. Lily was paging through her Transfiguration text, but only half paying attention to the words; the other half of her attention was given to the sounds of leaves and grass rustling and the splashing, laughing noises carried up on the wind from the lake.

As Lily drowsed a little, she caught a hint of a low musical sound, with a kind of buzzing or rumbling quality to it. What the...? she thought, glancing around in a vague sort of confusion. That's never a bird? Birds aren't pitched like that. Well, I suppose anything could happen at Hogwarts, really, but I must have been daydreaming...

Then it hit her.

Severus was singing.

Well, humming, to be precise, but it amounted to the same startling fact: musical sounds were coming out of his throat.

Lily kept her eyes glued to her book, lest he notice she had heard. She either didn't recognize the tune, or else he was not following one, but it was a pleasant sound all the same. Lily had always liked the way he spoke, especially once his voice had changed, and from the sounds of things, he would have a very nice singing voice if he would ever open his mouth and use it. Right, she thought wryly. Severus singing in front of anyone. Under the Imperius Curse, maybe! I bet he doesn't even sing in the bath. Shame, though...

All too soon, however, Severus stopped, a doubtful look on his face as he studied the book in front of him. Shaking his head as though disagreeing with the text, he tapped his finger twice on a particular sentence and then started writing a note on the sheet of parchment he had covering the opposite page. Lily sighed a little, disappointed that he had ceased his little music, and Severus, hearing her, looked up at her mid-scrawl.

Lily looked back at him. "Oh, hello," she said, feeling caught out. One of Severus' eyebrows drifted towards the other in the barest hint of a frown—how does he do that with just one at a time? Lily thought, her brain nervously grasping at any possible distracting topic—but he smiled a little at the same time, apparently trying to work out what this slightly daft response had meant.

Feeling her cheeks warming, Lily closed her Transfiguration book with a little too much of a snap. "Er - I think I've had enough of this marvellous sunlight and fresh air for now, haven't you, Sev?" she said, hoping it came out as dry humour and not hysterical nonsense. "It's far too nice out here; I can't possibly concentrate. Maybe you Slytherins are on to something with that whole lurking-in-spooky-dungeons business."

Severus stared at her blankly for a moment more, then closed his eyes and shook his head in a clear gesture of girls are crazy; I give up. "All right," he said, packing his things back into his bag. Relieved, Lily followed suit, and they began walking towards the castle. She didn't really want to go back inside, but maybe getting something cold to drink would be a good idea. She'd had to say something besides "I was enjoying you humming; please don't stop," hadn't she? Not only would it have embarrassed him, but knowing Severus, he would probably have taken especial care never, ever to do it again. Can't have that; if he doesn't know I know, he might...

Lily was a little surprised at how suddenly this idea seemed to have consumed her imagination. The thought of Severus singing made a fluttery feeling start in her stomach, and she hastily fled from the mental picture of him singing to her when she felt tears beginning to sting her eyes. That's insane, she reminded herself. I'll count myself lucky if I manage to catch so much as another note under his breath.

She glanced surreptitiously at Severus and saw him tapping the same finger that had been silently reprimanding the book's author gently against his own lips, likely still pondering the exact way in which he was sure he was more correct. To Lily it looked, ironically, as if he were making a shushing gesture, and she raised her eyebrows in amusement at the general perversity of the universe. Well, she consoled herself, at least I have his speaking voice. Severus and I will always be talking to one another, right?