Who is this girl?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY THERESA!! I HOPE YOU LIKE IT! HAPPY SWEET SIXTEENTH!! Snape says Happy Birthday as well...)

"Why did you let him get away with that?"

Who is this girl? And why is she putting her two-sense in?

"Mind your own business," I muttered. I didn't want to have to deal with any more crap today.

"I was only wondering why you didn't put James in his place," the girl continued on, obviously disregarding my comment. God, she was bloody annoying.

"I said butt out," I murmured a little bit louder this time. She wasn't backing down so I decided to just walk away.

"But that James boy ought to have his arse kicked, so why the hell didn't you curse him or anything? You had all the right to, he's the one who started all the trouble," she persisted. This girl just didn't know when to shut up!

"Will you leave me the bloody hell alone?! I don't need any of your bloody arse comments and I don't need you to tell me what I should have done!" I snapped at her. She stood there in silence, not exactly shocked at my outburst, but almost rather expecting it.

"My, my. Someone ate a bitter chocolate frog this morning." I ignored her irritating remark and quickened my pace. As I sped up, so did she. Ugh. Stupid git. "He really is a prat, that Potter boy. Just doesn't know when to leave innocent people alone and when to stop."

I snorted.

"He just has too much fun making fun of others, trying to be cool in front of his friends and all that, and I really think that he should—" I began my trek up the long staircase towards my next class, completely blocking out her worthless commentary. But then her name struck me. "—Lily."

I spun around and spat, "What?"

"I said he only does it all to try and impress Lily."

"Get out of here." This time, she was bewildered, but I could care less and I continued back up the stairs.

"Hold on a tick!" She ran and caught up with me, yanked my shoulder and turned my whole body around and smiled, a huge grin spreading across her face. "You…like Lily Evans?"

"No." I'm an idiot.

"You DO! You like LILY EVANS!" she practically screamed.

"Will you SHUT. YOUR. BLOODY. MOUTH!?" And this time I sprinted up the staircase and into my classroom as fast as my lanky legs could take me. I dropped my belongings onto the desk and plopped right into my seat, attempting to catch my breath. "Merlin, who is that girl?"

She was in Slytherin? Why had I never noticed her before? She was there all right, sitting at the Slytherin table, eating dinner with all of the other Slytherin gir—

Uh oh. She saw me staring at her.

I looked away quickly pretending I was scanning the whole entire table, looking for a seat. She either fell for it, or didn't care because she waved me over to an empty seat next to her. I reluctantly took it because it was the only seat left. I sat down and she smiled and said, "Good evening Sevy!"

"What did you call me?"

"Sevy! It's too much to say Severus and I figured it was a better nickname than Snivellus," she replied grinning, but it was a completely innocent smile. "Chicken wing?" she offered, holding out the bowl to me. I took one and placed it on the plate in front of me, not really planning to ever eat it. I wasn't that hungry. "Sooo…" she slurred, taking a sip of her juice. "What's new?"

This girl was so strange. She acted like nothing ever happened this morning.

"Uh…nothing really."

"You never have anything to say," she said matter-o-fact. I was taken aback by her statement and didn't know how to reply. "It's okay though. I understand. You're just a quiet person."

"Uh…well, for one thing I don't even know who you are," I mumbled.

"Oh! I'm sorry! My name is Theresa Colella!" and she held out her hand for me to shake. I just stared at her and she quickly dropped it. "Well, yea. I also wanted to apologize for this morning incase I annoyed you at all. I didn't mean to get on your nerves or anything, I didn't know you were so quiet and that you didn't really want to talk about it, because boy, do I hate that kid, and I just really wanted you to fight him and—"

"Fight him?"

"Well, yea! Of course! I mean, he practically invited you in for a fight!" she said, excitement on her face.

"Yea. Four against one. I was sure to win," I grumbled.

"No, four against two. I would have gladly joined in! Do you know how long I've been waiting for an excuse to blow Potter's bloody head off?" I smiled at her response and even let out a chuckle. "Well now, that's the first time I have ever seen you smile, let alone laugh!"

"What do you mean? I smile all the time."

I thought about that for a second.

"Most of the time."

Well…

"Some of the time."

"Not really, Sevy. You're always moping. I mean, from the looks of it, it always looks like someone in your family died of some horrible curse or something," she said blatantly. "Either that or you're playing the Smile Game."

"Smile Game?" I repeated.

"Yea! It's a challenge between two people, and whoever smiles first loses. So you try to have on a serious face the whole time and it's really tough," she explained, excited that she finally got me talking.

We played a few times, I mostly won, except for once. I lost. I don't know why. We were both just so serious, staring into each other's eyes so intensely, it was just funny. I think. Either that or I was smiling at her because she—

Whoah.

Who was this girl?

She just kind of, walked into my life. All because of James and his stupid antics.

And for once, I could thank him for something.

After a week of talking and getting to know each other, I came to like her more and more. What was ironic was that she was the complete opposite of Lily. This girl was sarcastic, cool, confident, and she just talked to me with so much ease. Unlike Lily, who now it was awkward to talk to. Theresa's short, jet black hair was a huge difference between the two, especially her chocolate brown eyes. And it was strange to say, that her eyes were even prettier than Lily's. I was actually frightened at my liking for this new girl, because I didn't know if she spiked my drink one dinner with a love potion or something of the sorts. But, whenever I was around Theresa, I forgot about Lily, about James, about his three goons, about everything. We often lost track of time and were sometimes late to classes or meals. But finally, the weekend came around where we had all the free time in the world to talk.

"So how's the whole Lily thing going?" she asked as we walked together to the empty quidditch field. I was surprised at first that she brought up Lily, because it was so unexpected because I hadn't been thinking of her at all lately. Then I got nervous. She probably still thought I was infatuated with Lily. But I wasn't. I really wasn't.

"What do you mean?" I asked, trying to earn more time to think about how to word what I was going to say to explain myself.

"Well, you like her don't you?" Those words cut into me like a knife, and I wanted her to know that the answer was no. But how do I get around that without her asking why?

"What makes you say that?"

Wow. I was truly a git. The biggest bloody git there ever was. I was so nervous around girls. I always have been. Bloody nerves.

"Umm…" she stared at me like I was stupid. "Remember? On the staircase? You got all embarrassed when I figured out you digged her." Her eyes were killing me. They were so much more beautiful than any green eyes I had ever loved before.

"Well. I did."

"You did?"

"Yea. I did."

"Oh, well, what happened? Did you two get into a fight or something?" she questioned, her expression now worrisome.

"Oh, no, no! No, we didn't fight at all. We're friends still, nothing happened. I just…I'm not fond of her like I used to be."

"Oh."

Her simple words were painful. I wish she would change the topic or just drop it.

"So why have your fancies changed?"

Of course not.

"I…well I don't know."

No. I was being an idiot. I had to tell her. Just blurt it out. It's now or never. When was this topic ever going to come up again? I had always been the shy, quiet, weird, awkward, strange, introverted Severus Snape. No more Snivellus. No more fearful Severus. No more frightened Severus. I needed to use some guts. Just tell her. I begged myself to have the courage…

"Sevy? You okay?" I heard her voice say.

Sevy…

"Because of you."

Silence.

"What?"

"I don't like Lily Evans, not anymore. Because I met you."

Ugh. How cliché. Go me.

"O—oh. " She didn't know what to say. I wish she would just say something already.

"I'm sorry. Forget I said anything, anything at all, please," I begged her.

Backing out as usual.

"No, no! It's, it's fine. I just, didn't know you felt the same way was all."

I smiled at her. She smiled back. No more had to be said.

She grabbed my hand, and I tightened my grip, and we continued walking in silence for a while, but it was the least bit awkward.

It was like my heart had vanished and was then found again. I was so happy, the happiest I had been in so long. I was saved. I was found. I was loved.

I looked into the eyes of the girl who found me, I leaned down, and kissed her passionately on the lips. I whispered into her ear, "Who is this girl? This beautiful girl?"

We smiled at one another.