Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. But I'm counting the days until the next book. NINETEEN AT THE MOMENT. NINETEEN.
A/N: Yeah… nineteen days. And an infinite amount of fangirling. After rereading OOTP, I was hit by a sudden epiphany: WHAT IF SNAPE WAS IN LOVE WITH LILY??? (Even though we ALL know he's actually gay, OBVIOUSLY.) And thus, this little number popped up out of nothing but boredom and anticipation… and just so everyone knows, SNAPE IS GOOD… don't try to tell me otherwise. (cries)
Severus Snape swore repeatedly as he trudged down the hallway. He could hear students' laughter as he passed, and it only made him curse more severely. He didn't quite feel as festive as the rest of them, regardless of the Christmas decorations twinkling all around him. Several students made snide remarks as they saw him and he would repay them with a particularly rude hand gesture, but that would only cause them to laugh harder.
As he rounded the corner a flash of red hair greeted him. "Severus!" Lily Evans stopped and lifted a hand to her mouth in shock. Her friends instantly burst into giggles, but dispersed in silence after Lily gave them cold looks. "What in the world happened?"
She was, of course, talking about the fact that Snape was covered in stinksap from head to toe, practically dripping. Snape glared. "Potter happened, what else, Evans? Come to laugh at me too, Mudblood?" He pulled his wand out, pointing it defensively at Lily.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Who do I look like, Sirius?" She pulled out her own wand and gave it a flick in his direction, but nothing happened. Her brow furrowed as she studied his robes, still dripping in the thick sludge.
Snape lowered his wand and sighed. "He hexed me so the only way I can remove it is by actually washing it off." He explained.
Lily scowled. "And I'm sure he followed the hex with a laugh and some rude comment on your hygiene?"
The silence that followed explained it all. Now it was her turn to sigh. Without hesitation she grabbed his sleeve, ignoring the foul smelling substance that was now oozing onto her fingers. Snape let himself be dragged, only because he was too tired to put up another fight. She released him as they reached an empty hallway. Snape stood dumbly in front of a tapestry of Barnabas and Barmy as he watched Lily pace in front of him with a look of extreme concentration on her face. He was surprised to see that at the third pace, a door appeared on the empty wall. Lily didn't seem the least bit surprised, though, and she simply opened the door and looked expectantly towards him to follow.
"What the hell is this, Evans?" Snape asked, hesitant to follow her into some unknown door that had just appeared out of nowhere.
"It's the Room of Requirement." She explained impatiently. "It'll become whatever I want it to. Just come in. I'm not luring you into some absurd trap."
Snape figured that, as much as he disliked her, Lily had never done anything like hex him before, so it was safe to trust her. He followed her into the room and she closed the door. The room was empty except a couple of stools and two buckets of soap and water. Some other bottles of cleaning fluids sat in the corners and there was a sink on the back wall.
"What do you want?" Snape asked as she pushed her roughly onto one of the stools.
"Take off those robes."
"WHAT?" He jumped up.
Lily pushed him down again. "I didn't say your clothes, dimwit, just your robes. I trust you're wearing something under them after the little two years ago?" She raised an eyebrow with a smirk.
Snape blushed. It seemed nobody in Hogwarts had forgotten James's little joke on him on OWL day. Not even Lily, which irritated him greatly for some reason. He pulled off his robes, to reveal clean clothes underneath. His face, neck, hair, and hands were still covered in stinksap, however. Lily placed the robes in one of the buckets and let them soak.
"Why are you doing this?" Snape asked as he just sat and watched her look through the bottles in the corner shelf.
"Well, frankly, I don't trust you to wash it off properly. And sitting next to you in Potions is not going to be fun if you smell like Stinksap for the next month." Lily said simply, apparently finding what she wanted and turning to the sink to soak a towel with warm water.
Snape just scowled. She always just pities me—I can tell…A foul taste filled his mouth (not helped by the stinksap that still covered his face). His eyes wandered around the room. "What's with the decorations?" He asked, indicating to the tinsel and other festive trimmings that covered the bare walls.
Lily laughed and pulled the stool opposite to him dangerously close and sat down. "It seemed the room sensed my festive mood. I really like the holidays, so I suppose I might have been a bit distracted by the decorations as I asked the Room of Requirement what I wanted it for, and the result reflected that." She attacked his face with the wet towel wiping the stinksap from his hooked nose.
Snape slapped her hand away, blushing for some odd reason. "I can do it myself!" He snatched the towel from her hands and she threw them up as if in surrender.
"Whatever, just make sure to scrub thoroughly." She got up again. As he wiped his face, he felt a trickle of warm liquid on his head. He tried to turn around, but Lily had dug her fingers into his roots and started scrubbing his hair with vigor.
"What the hell are you doing—I can do that myself too!!" Snape growled, but made no move to escape the delicate fingers massaging his scalp.
"No way, I don't trust you to wash your own hair—not by the way it usually looks!" Lily insisted, scrubbing harder.
Snape chose to ignore the underlying insult and focus on the fact that she had taken so much of he time to help him out. It was awfully nice of her, and it unnerved him a bit—even if she was just doing it out of pity.
The two of them finished cleaning in silence, and Lily finished blow-drying his hair using hot air from her wand and combing it out (despite his protests), his robes hanging to dry.
She came and sat down in the stool again, grinning. "You know, Snivelly, you're not half bad when you're all nice and clean." She seemed to say his nickname without much malice, but rather as a friendly joke.
"Y-You're not bad, either, Evans… f-for a Mudblood." Snape muttered, his face feeling oddly warm. Lily noticed he added the Mudblood forcibly as an afterthought, not wanting to admit the first part of the statement to be true, and a small chuckle escaped her.
She smiled and stretched. As she did, her eyes rested on something above them. She laughed. "Look, Severus, mistletoe." She pointed upwards.
Snape's heartbeat quickened as his eyes darted to where she was pointing. He pulled them down again to rest once again on Lily. He had never noticed before what a vivid green her eyes were until he stared into them at that moment.
"What's wrong, Snivellus—scared to kiss me?" Lily teased, leaning closer.
Snape didn't answer, finding his throat to be quite dry.
In his lack of response Lily leaned forwards and pressed her lips against his. What Snape remembered most about the moment was the overwhelming scent of lavender that filled him as her soft lips caressed his own. His knuckles had turned white from how hard he gripped the edge of the stool.
She pulled back, and stood. "Well, anyway, I have to go." She picked up her bag and looked back at Snape, who was staring at her, white-faced not having said a word. She rolled her eyes. "Oh please, it was just a kiss. Or are you afraid your lips have been stained by my 'Mudblood' ones."
"N-No…" Snape said quickly.
"Then I don't see the problem." She flashed him a last smile. "See you around, Severus."
The door to the Room of Requirement shut behind her, and Snape regained his usual composure. He gathered his things and left as well, giving the mistletoe one last glance before leaving.
He headed for the Great Hall, considering it was nearing dinnertime, and weaved his way through the crowds. As he entered the Entrance Hall, he saw a hint of red just ahead of him, next to the towering Christmas tree. He quickened his pace, thinking to properly thank her one last time.
Before he reached her, however, there was a loud creak, and before his eyes, the great Christmas tree of Hogwarts keeled over. The students all gave alarmed cries and scattered away.
Lily's scream echoed louder than anyone else's, her being right in it's path. Snape pushed forwards to answer it, panic rising in his throat. Just as he reached the front of crowd, he heard a deep male voice call out.
"LILY!" The tree hit the ground and Lily fell at Snape's feet, her red hair splayed inches from his shoes. On top of her was James Potter, who was the one who had cried out and pushed her out of the way. His legs were now caught under the massive weight of the tree.
"A-Are you all right, Lily?" James stammered, wincing with pain.
"Yes, but James—what were you thinking??" She cried, looking close to tears as she tried to help him up. "Are you going to be okay??"
James smirked. "Nah, this is nothing. I think it was some prank planned by a couple of Slytherins—I heard them talking about it. I'll be fine." He leaned on her for support and gave her a grin. "I'd feel better a lot faster if I had a date with you to look forward to."
She hugged him. "God—fine! Idiot!"
At that point Dumbledore and McGonagall had arrived on the scene, with Filch and the two culprits in tow.
The crowd around him buzzed, but Snape felt slightly numb all of a sudden. He looked up at the hugging couple, and his eyes caught Lily's emerald ones above James's shoulder. She smiled and gave him a slight wave, but Snape glared in return. He had meant to say "thank you", but in a sudden burst of anger, mouthed "filthy Mudblood" menacingly at her instead. Her smile faded and she looked at him with a look close to hurt, before glaring and burying her face into James's robes.
Snape, not being able to watch much longer, turned on heel and headed towards the dungeons. There was a distinct feeling of being ripped apart plaguing his chest and a searing hatred for James Potter in his clenched fist.
"Did you see everything I saw?"
A full-grown Severus Snape stood before the nearly carbon copy of James Potter, who was staring defiantly back at him during Occlumency lessons. Snape didn't answer for a moment. He had seen—there in the Room of Requirement, Harry Potter and Cho Chang's lips nearly touching before he had been repelled. Yet it reminded him distinctly of a moment many years back when his lips had touched another's for the first time. He stared into the striking green eyes that had challenged him that evening under the mistletoe, sliding to a close… the scent of lavender…
He cut himself off before he could delve further into his memories. "Flashes of it," Snape lied with a smirk, looking purposefully at a point on the wall behind him, rather than into those eyes. Every time he did, a pang of weakness stung his insides.
After that day, Lily Evans never smiled at him with those soft green eyes again.