Author's Note: Well, here's a little bit of severus type angst. I've not really written anything that features Severus in depth so... c: Anyway. I don't own Harry Potter and am not getting any form of payment for writing this. Enjoy~!

When she was little, Lily would sometimes stop what she was doing with her sister and bend down, looking at all the little flowers in front of her feet, much to Petunia's dismay. "Lily! What are you doing?" She'd shout, and Lily wouldn't answer. "Isn't it enough that you beg me for days on end to play house with you? Now you're not even going to talk to me?" Lily still wouldn't say anything, resulting in Petunia huffing and stomping away, muttering about how something about Lily just wasn't right. Without Petunia's knowledge, Lily would eventually pick the prettiest flower and sit on all the rest, pulling single petal by single petal from the center, repeating, "He loves me. He loves me not." Until all the petals were laying around her. However, since Trelawney began teaching her at Hogwarts, Lily knew that this simple game was an old form of fortune telling, and it was only right about 50 percent of the time.

That still didn't stop Lily from playing the game. In fact,

"He loves me."

she's had more than a few detentions from Professor Sprout for

"He loves me not."

playing the game with her homework. What could she say?

"He loves me."

She was obsessed.

"He loves me not. He loves me. He loves me n-"

"Whatcha' doing?"

Lily cried out, and repeated 'He loves me not' over and over in her head so she wouldn't lose her spot as she clung to the branches for dear life. "Severus!" She shouted when his smiling face appeared next to her from under the branch. She gave him a gentle push, hard enough to hurt but not to push him off the tree. A few petals fell from the flower.

"Oh..." They muttered in unison, watching the petals fall. Severus tried to count them, knowing exactly what she was doing, but couldn't get it done before they fell out of sight. "I'm sorry, Lily." Severus said, watching the point where the petals fell, as if they would magically come floating back up.

"It's fine." She said, pushing her hair behind her ear.

"Were you playing that flower game again?"

"Yes. I was wondering if it would tell me that he loved me again."

Severus sighed and kicked his feet back and forth. "Continue." He muttered with a wave of his hand.

The Slytherin sat in silence, watching as the Gryffindor started pulling at her petals again. "He loves me. He loves me not. He loves me. He loves me not. He loves... me. Oh!" Lily's head shot up and she beamed at Severus. "He loves me! James loves me!" Severus sighed again, this time much louder. "What?" Lily snapped, giving a glare in Severus' way.

"You're doing all this for James?" Severus grimaced. "Of course he loves you!" Severus stood, almost losing his balance for a moment, but regaining it. "You guys are a couple!"

"Just because we've snogged once doesn't make us a couple, Sev!"

"Try four times." Severus muttered, getting back down on his knees to climb back to the ground.

"How did you know that?"

"Once at the Shreiking shack, Sirus saw you and spread it around. Behind the one-eyed witch statue in that one corridor, this time it was Pettigrew that saw and he went and babbled uncontrollably."

"Hm? Well? That's only three." She crossed her arms, tossing the center and stem of the flower down from the tree.

"I saw you at the Three Broomsticks." He said quietly, hesitating.

"What does it matter to you anyway, Sev? It's not like you like..." She stopped and gasped. "Severus? Do you li-"

"No. Not at all." He jumped from the lowest branch and scrammbled to his feet, racing to slytherin common room. He dove through the portrait and ran to his bed. He threw open the drawer and ripped out his potions book, opening it to amortentia, the love potion. Scanning his notes for a sense of control, he swept the flower center, stem and all the petals to the ground. He started jumping up and down on top of them, screaming nonsense and "Lies! Lies! All lies!"

"Severus? Are you okay?"

Severus' head swung around, his greasy hair haning in limp strands in front of his face. "Fine." He answered shortly. "Just fine." He whipped out his wand and casted a disappearing spell on the flower's remains. "We were going to go play a round of quidditch, but I can see you're not feeling well. Never mind." The boy walked away, but Severus could still hear him as he shouted, "Amy! You almost got me killed! I'm not ever asking him to play with us again!"

Severus dropped to the floor next to his bed and hung his head between his knees. Crying and potions seemed to be the only things he could accomplish that were worth a damn.

fin