"Look at the idiot." Snarled James, rumpling his hair in frustration, the gesture not looking quite so layed back as it usually did.
"Who?" Asked Peter, startled by the sudden out burst.
Remus thought he knew. It was a beautiful summers day and they were sat by the lake under their usual tree. It was May; Summer had come early that year, and everyone seemed to be in high spirits. Even, it seemed, the likes of one Severus Snape, his sixteen year old self was sat under in the shade of a tree with none other than Lily Evans, who seemed to be laughing about something, the pale skinned Slytherin watching her with an amused smile.
"God knows why someone like Evans would want to spend so much time around that freak." James grumbled defensively, anxiously raking his hand back through his hair. He scowled when Remus roled his eyes at his critical words.
"Don't worry, mate." Said Sirius, clapping James on the back. "You know Lily, she probably just feels sorry for him. All she'll ever have for the git is pity."
"Perhaps..." James sighed, "But it still makes me sick seeing them like that." He wrinkled his nose in disgust. "I don't want to know what foul, pervy things running through his mind when she's all up close to him like that-"
"Now James," Remus cut him off, "You're getting malicious."
"Good!" Snapped James, in the only way a gloomy sixteen year old can. "That's how I feel."
Lily's grin turned to that of concern. "What's wrong, Sev?"
"Oh... nothing." He had often thought that had it been anyone but Lily talking to him, he would of been less than pleased at being called 'Sev', however, he was perfectly content that Lily considered him on friendly enough terms to call him that. "It's just..." He nodded in the direction of the Marauders, who were all gazing fixatedly at them. "I think we should go somewhere else. They don't look pleased, and that never ends well."
"What?" Lily asked disbelieveingly. "That's just ridiculous. Me and you have just as much right to sit here as they do." And to his horror, she blatently glared back at the gawping boys, of which James seemed to recoil slightly.
"It's not you that they don't want around." Sighed Severus.
"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow stubbornly. "Well if what you're implying is that they don't wnat you around, then I'm afraid to say that I chose to sit with you, and if you go, I go." She finished. James seemed to of heard this, and muttered something to Peter, who functioned as a reliable laugh-track, as always. Lily made a noise of great anoyance, followed by, "That's it, I'm going over there."
Severus looked rather alarmed. "Lily, just leave it! You're far too quick to anger sometimes." But by this point, however, she had already turned and was storming toward them. Severus glanced round at the castle, glanced at Lily, glanced back at the castle again before ultimately muttering "Damn." under his breath and hurried after Lily, almost certain that he was now within minutes of being hexed beyond humiliation.
The mumbles of the boys fell into silence at the sight of the girl stood before them, hands on hips, glaring down at them.
"Something funny?" She asked, angrily.
"I-" James began, but decided against it, resolving that the witty retort he had ready would not display the correct impression to Lily. "No." He said simply, eyeing snape who was situated cautiously by Lily. How pathetic, he thought, as Snape avoided his gaze.
"Come on, LIly,let's go." Mumbled Snape, reaching out to take her arm.
"Oh that's right, Snivellous, you run away." Called Sirius. "Nothing out of the ordinary, I suppose, you coward." He hissed the word, trying with all his might to be as hurtful as posible.
"I suggest," Began Lily, in a dangerous voice that made them all take her seriously. "That you keep your opinions to yourself, Black." She turned her back on them, "Come on, Severus, you're right. Let's go, thay aren't worth it." And with one hateful glare back and James, she and Severus walked off towards the castle.
James put his head in his hands. "That went well." He grumbled.
"I can't stand him sometimes." Lily told Severus, as they headed off towards the castle.
"I can't stand him all the time." He grumbled in response. And he really couldn't. James Potter was so big headed it was unbelieveable. Once, during his first year, after being on bad terms with Potter for several months of attending the school, he decided that, out of character as it seemed for him, he was going to try and talk to him, perhaps get him to back off a little. The thing was, though Severus considered himself about equally as adept at magic as him, at least more academic, by that time it was becoming apparent that Potter was set out to become much more popular than himself, and, though he had no intention of becoming like that, he didn't want to become the object of James' bullying. He sourly regretted his past foolishness. 'Fuck off Snivellous," A few of their goggling classmates had gasped at the swear word, as eleven year olds do. Most of them giggled at the nickname. "I don't want to talk to you." And he walked away, his cheeks red, his class mates sniggering behind his back, a couple of them echoing his new nickname which he already detested. That was the day that made his life hell, for after that he couldn't even walk down a corridor without getting some sort of abuse.
Lily smiled. "I know you can't, Sev, you have told me, many, many times." Severus decided that he actually loved being called Sev by her. It was strange for some one to address him so casually, all the same. But that was the beauty of Lily Evans. She could appreciate people for who they were. She could always, no matter how hard, pick out a good quality in someone. He supposed James Potter had a good quality in Lily's eyes. The only reason she didn't get along with Potter was that he gave people like himself such a hard time.
"I'm sorry if I go on some times." Said Severus. Lily glanced at him. It was often he did that to her, give an inapropriate apology. She wasn't sure why, perhaps he was scared of offending her. He really was the most intreaguing boy she had ever met. She knew him in her home life, of course, but she never really knew him, it was more the other way around. Severus sometimes visited her house, however, he always seemed to be avoiding letting visitors to his house, as if he was ashamed of it. She knew he lived down at Spinners End, which was a bad place to live, to say the least. She had once been down there at night when she was younger, as a dare from Petunia.
Spinners End was a short road slightly out of the rest of the villiage that led to a dead end, as if the river that ran there had cut it off. Even the river was unattractive. Although the water seemed strangely clear, shopping trolleys and old bikes had been dumped in there, and someone had driven a now rust covered car into it, whilst drunk she assumed. Each side of the road was lined with a row of terraced houses, all of which were rather small, and looked an absolute mess. The red brick was stained charcoal black in patches, ocasionally green grime coated the walls indicating a house full of damp. Alot of windows were broken, some of the owners had made attempts to cover the breaks with newspaper, but most had either given up trying or never tried in the first place. The streets were littered with various pieces of rubbish, occasionally the odd bit of ugly furniature who's owner had had no other place to dump it. All of the street lights had blinked out except for one right at the start of the road, giving an eery feel of the road fading into blackness which kept frightened children away. No one had ever bothered to try and fix them, as if the whole place had been forgotten about.
Her parents had warned her away from the place for years, and Lily knew it would be a terrible place for raising children. The houses being cold and damp as they were (apart from when fires were started), and all of its inhabitants seemed to be either drug addicts, prostitutes, criminals, or all of the above. All, it seemed, accept for the Snapes. Most children had seen 'that Snape boy', wandering the streets with his dirty black too-long hair and pale skin, wearing over-large faded clothes, however the rest of the family remained a mystery. When she had mentioned to her parents that Severus lived down Spinners End, they had been extreamly wary of him, particularly so when they saw his appearance. However, when they met him and he acted with nothing but curtesy towards them, it soon became that her mother was fussing over poor Severus, determined that she should show him better care than he probably got at home. This always made her smile, she knew Severus couldn't stand having someone fuss over him. Ruined his image, she supposed. But he never, ever said anything to her mother.
She was woken out of her thoughts when Severus began to speak.
"So, where are we going? The library?"
"Yeah, sure" They often found themselves in the library. Either because they were doing homework together, seeing as they couldn't share a common room, or simply because the likes of James Potter and Sirius Black would never dream of setting foot in such a place. They would occasionally see Remus Lupin, who would smile at her, nod to Severus and then get back to what he was doing. She liked him. "I have something I need to finish up anyway."
When they arrived at the Library, they did indeed bump into Remus Lupin, who entered a few minutes later. He must have left the lake side not long after them. "Lily." He greeted with a smile on his face.
"Hello Remus." She replied, returning his smile.
Then he turned to him. "Afternoon, Severus."
Snape eyed him warily. "Hello."
"I would like to apologise on behalf of James and Sirius." Severus raised one eyebrow. "They like to impress crowds is all."
"Apparently."
"I hope you know they don't mean it personally."
"Funny, personal comments seem to be the basis of their insults."
Lupin sighed, and looked at him hopelessly. "Well, I did try." He smiled and nodded once more at Lily, then turned and left.
As soon as he had left, Lily thumped him lightly in the stomach. "What did you do that for? He was being nice."
"I don't trust him." Was all he had to say.
Lily sighed. "Why ever not? Remus is lovely."
He felt a pang of jelousy, and began to get slightly flustered. "Well, he appears nice enough, but there's something about him. Where's he always disapearing off to at night?"
"We've had this conversation before."
"And one more thing!" Severus carried on. "Potter and Black didn't apologise at all, they would never as long as they lived to that to someone like me... He's only making excuses for them. I have every right not to accept their apology."
Lily was put down a notch. "...Well... I suppose you're right about that. But what do you expect, coming from them?"
Severus never really understood why Lily put up with him. She could have so many friends, do so many more things without him. She would have the acceptance that she deserved. that Severus, though he would never admit it even to himself, longed for. He decided to ask her.
"Well... I mean... Because I don't care about that stuff." She went slightly pink. "I like you." She all of a sudden found a poster advertising some popular new fiction book terribly interesting. "I mean, I like doing this. I'm not one of those people, I prefer this, I mean..." She decided to change the subject before she got into too much of a verbal mess. "Why, anyway? Why else would I hang out with you?"
"Pity." He answered, honestly.
"Pity?" She asked with disbelief. "Of course it's not pity. Severus, ever since we were nine, you've been my best friend. You mean so much to me." She emphasised the word 'so' so much that even Severus was satisfied with the answer. "I can't believe you'd think that!" And with that, she threw her arms around him in a hug. Severus hugged her lightly back. it was not often he was hugged. Infact, he thought he could probably count the amount of times he had been hugged on one hand. All the same, he was deeply flattered by the fact that their friendship meant so much to her.
He would remember this as a good day.