A/N: Finally, I wrote Snape :D
For:
The Mood Ring Competition, prompt: Royal Blue (defensive), Severus Snape
Scrabble Challenge, prompt: humility
Story beginnings challenge, prompt: 'He almost died yesterday.'
The Flower Language Challenge, prompt Hollyhock (write about a Slytherin)
Opposite Day Challenge, prompt: Snily
Perdition
"He almost died yesterday."
"Isn't that exaggerating the situation a little too much?"
"No, I'm serious! If Lily hadn't found him…"
"What was Lily doing out by the lake at midnight, anyway?"
"Who's to know? She hasn't spoken a word to anyone since last night..."
The floodgates in Lily were dangerously past denial and were now on the verge of absolute collapse. There was only so much she could take before breakfast; the constant whispers that tailed her coupled with the shock she'd received the previous night threatened to render unconscious with fatigue.
Still, there was one thing she felt like she absolutely had to do, and Severus shuddered internally as he watched the enraged redhead search for him angrily.
"Sev!" She yelled out for him, the shrillness in her voice making the hair on his arms stand on end. He excused himself from the Slytherin table, tried ignoring the sniggers that erupted at the sight of Lily and walked towards her, guiding her out of the Great Hall.
"What the bloody hell is wrong with you, you disgusting cowardly little bastard!"
"Lily. Were you busy sobbing at James' bedside the whole of last night? Your eyes are rather red." His cold words cleverly concealed the immense sense of loss he was feeling right then. Lily was slipping away from him and he could only blame James.
"You nearly killed James! Are you out of your mind? What in Merlin's freaking name were you…were you even thinking?" Her second vicious outburst for the day demanded a response, and he looked at her in surprise.
She hit him then, a sharp, stinging slap that resonated across the lake and caused a huge flock of birds atop the weeping willows to now take to the skies.
He automatically put a cold palm to his stinging cheek, unable to respond for a moment while she glared at him. The frothing anger changed her, temporarily blurring the immense sense of loss that was consuming her happiness.
"How long would you like to continue torturing me, Lily Evans?" The eyes that were once crinkled at the corners after hours of smiling at the thought of Lily were now reduced to hard, cold stones.
"Continue? I haven't begun something to continue it, unlike you and your sudden mental thirst for blood!"
"You sound awfully enthusiastic for revenge on your dear James' behalf, Lil. Can I take the rumours to be true, then? Do you fancy James?"
"What makes you think that I am as motivated for cheap revenge as you are?" Every bit of her emanated deep fury coupled with a disappointment so shaking, it made her want to realign the universe just to have her friend back. "And you're the one who left him for the dead, making it my responsibility to save his freaking life. Stop doing things to encourage rumours, Sev."
"Revenge? Cheap? Watch what you call me, Evans."
"Oh, so we're on a last-name basis now? Sorry I missed the memo, Snape." She spat the words out and he pulled back.
That stung.
He'd forgotten just how sharp her tongue could be for those on the receiving end of her ire. He also couldn't remember the last time Lily had ever called him by his surname. Or was this the first time?
"Please, stop." His voice softened the slightest bits a thoughts of losing her began crawling into his mind, each new entry uglier than its predecessor. But the empty words did nothing to soothe his former best friend.
"You stop."
"What do you want from me, Lily? Do you want me to beg for forgiveness? Or is it an apology you're after?"
"Some regret would be fine, thank you very much; along with some humility. I don't quite fancy this strange arrogant yet defensive pride you have working there."
"I have every right to be proud of myself."
"Proud of what, near-murder? Have the dark arts addled your brain so much? Where's the Severus I met when I was ten?" Her voice was now pleading and her eyes shone with tears that the dregs of her self-control wouldn't let her shed.
He reeled at the thought of himself at ten. The poor, shabby accident of a broken marriage who could be looked at with nothing but pity. The boy who came to life only when warmed by the fiery muggleborn he'd befriended by the field. The only impoverished Slytherin with not a penny to his name. The only numbers that were of any consequence to him were the scores he garnered year after year; scores that followed the hours of hard work he'd invested in his education.
Along with Lily. He knew very well that had it was Lily who'd sparked the fire of his passion for education.
"All I did was to give the boy a few scratches; it's nothing quidditch wouldn't have given him to begin with!"
Her eyes grew sharp, sharp with disbelief and sharp with contempt at the lies he so easily spun.
"You think I don't know about you poisoning the Gryffindor's sweet stash? Or about the duel you two had on the roof of the Astronomy tower after eleven? Or the curse you hurled at him just as he was about to win, fair and square?"
Images of the terrible scars that were etched upon James' back danced before her eyes, brining tears along with them. She brushed away at her eyes and continued her tirade, her voice wobbling only the slightest bit.
"What has he even done to you, for you to be so…vicious? Wicked?" She was losing her best friend to an evil that she couldn't yet completely decipher, too, and it terrified her more than she'd like to let on.
That was the moment that Snape knew. He'd wanted Lily; he'd wanted her ever since he'd shown her magic and watched her eyes sparkle with happiness at the sight of the flower petals dancing on their own will.
He'd perceived James and his persistent flirtations towards Lily as a threat to their friendship. She hadn't been particularly impressed by his childish advances, either. But had it not been for his current indulgence in the dark arts, Severus knew that he would have never had it in him to inflict the wounds that he did on James the previous night.
"I am sick and tired of worshipping the ground you walk on, Lily," he said sharply, not allowing himself to react to the instant look of immense pain that marred Lily's beautiful features. "Every man seems to want to be with you, and I am ashamed to have been one amongst those mongrels. Consider yourself rid of me. Your pathetic James will live; he's been getting more attention in the past few hours than what the Minister of Magic got during his whole tenure as the incompetent minister that he is." He paused to draw a breath, struggling to hate someone he remembered loving for nearly half his life
"Sev-"
"Goodbye, Lily. I'm sorry you don't see the beauty that lays in power, but I do. The dark arts are my true calling and nothing has given me a reason to believe otherwise."
"So I could be on the receiving ends of your temper, too? Is that what you're saying, Sev? First James, then me, then who? All the mudbloods in school? The others like me?" She flung the words at him in a desperate attempt to ignite some guilt in him, but nothing came.
"You have no reason to fear. Neither does James. I wish you two a happy life together."
Before she could respond, he was gone.
And Lily Evans lost her childhood best friend to the dark arts forever.
I hope you enjoyed the story - please do leave me a review, it's the first time ever that I have Snape as a character in my story and I would love to have your opinions :)