Disclaimer:JKR owns the Harry Potter world - I just like to play in it.
Severus heard the footfalls and knew who it was before even looking up. How strange that he would recognize her individual tread. He smiled to himself at the secret knowledge. He was ensconced at a little study table in the corner of the library that afforded a clear view of the entryway through a slit in a row of bookshelves. 'They' usually left him alone while in the library, but it didn't hurt to be careful and keep an eye out on the entrances all the same. He took advantage of his position to look at her secretly. She was so damn beautiful. Lily. Just like the flower, white and pure. He frowned a little as he noticed her looking around warily, her steps now hesitant. When she finally came around the corner where she could spot him, he heard a small startled gasp before a broad, warm smile stretched across her face. He could swear the room just got a little brighter.
"I'm so glad it's you, Severus!" she exclaimed in greeting. "But I should have known – who else would spend a Sunday afternoon in the library?" His eyebrows shot up a little at that remark.
"Oh? Looking for me, or avoiding someone else?" Severus asked by way of reply. Then, his eyes widening in shock, he finally noticed what he had been unable to see from a distance; Lily was sporting a vivid bruise on her left eye.
"What happened?" he asked at once, daring to reach up to her face, turning it so that he could more easily assess the damage.
"It's nothing, Severus," Lily answered, laughing lightly. He looked at her face, trying to read her expression – was the laughter forced, her tone of voice a little too bright?
"I got hit by a stray Bludger down at the pitch last night," she continued. "I didn't want to disturb Madam Pomfrey so late, so I waited until morning. Bad idea – she's out until this evening. So, my vanity is making me hide out here, I'm ashamed to say. I must admit I'm glad that you're here though – you can keep me company in my self-imposed exile!"
"An accident?" he asked with skepticism, "I take it you were with him?" His voice was very quiet now. He didn't like the implications of this. If that bastard hurt a hair on her head . . .
"Yes, you ninny, I was with him!" Lily rolled her eyes in exasperation. "You can say his name, you know. James. Say it after me, Ja – "
"Stop. Please just stop," Severus interrupted her. He looked away and down at the table in front of him, his fingers resting very still on the book he had been reading. He had to consciously make an effort not to ball his hands into fists.
"All right, sorry," Lily responded, gently. "Maybe I should go . . . " she said tentatively, and started to pull away. His mind was frantically racing for something to say in the awkward pause, something to make her stay, if only for another moment.
"You know, my mum would call what you've got a real blue beauty - a true cold rose." At her look of confusion, he added, "you know, bruises that bloom overnight . . ." Oh God, why did he say that? What possessed him to say that? He closed his eyes and groaned inwardly. Unbidden, memories flashed through his mind; his father screaming at his mother, his mother's countless bruises, her stammered excuses, the healing charms Severus learned to perform, when she couldn't heal herself.
Lily was looking at him with a strange mixture of compassion and pity. He didn't want pity, and especially not from her.
"Look, I . . . I know this certain spell for anti-bruising," he stammered. "Here, why don't you let me – " and he pulled out his wand and gestured toward the bruise on her eye. She looked at him a moment, then nodded slightly. He murmured the spell and saw the color drain from her eye, the swelling recede.
"Just like new," he said. She reached up a hand to touch it, and smiled at him.
"Thanks," she said to him, then added teasingly, "Severus Snape, healer-in-training, who could have guessed?"
"You're welcome," he replied. "You know, you can tell me . . . anything, right?" he asked hesitantly. Would she tell him? Would she tell him if James had done this to her? She'd seen how they overpowered him. Would she think he couldn't do anything for her?
"Yes, Severus," she replied, a sweet smile on her face. The smile faded a bit as she added, "you know you can too, right?" And there was that look again. Pity. Emotion threatened to overpower him - he couldn't stand to have her looking at him that way.
"I've – ah – got to get back to my homework here," he said. He would rather she slapped him in the face than give him that look she was giving him right now. His eyes were lowered, his body already twisted away from hers.
"Oh, all right," she replied, a note of hurt in her voice, "I'll leave you to it then."
He kept his eyes on his book while he listened to her footsteps as she walked away from him. When he heard her nearing the entryway, he looked through the slit in the stacks. She paused there, her hand on the doorknob, a worried frown on her face as she looked towards the back of the library, in his general direction. Then, turning, she opened the door and was gone.
Severus stared at the doorway for a long while after she'd gone, lost in thought. Lily. Sweet, perfect Lily. He will never deserve you. He will never love you like I do. And if I find out he's hurt you, he won't live to see another day. Then, with a heavy feeling in his heart that he was quite used to by now, he bent down his head and continued to read.
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A/N: The phrase 'cold roses' is from the Ryan Adams song of the same title. And no - I don't believe James hit Lily - just exploring the idea that Snape might have thought so.