Chapter 1: Three Days

Lily was walking on the grounds by the lake. She always walked there when she wanted to think, and today she had a lot to think about. James Potter had asked her out at least twice a week every week since fifth year. She had always thought that he was an arrogant, self absorbed, idiot, but, now that they were spending more time together, she realized that he wasn't. Remus was Head Boy, and she was Head Girl, so they were sharing the Heads' Common Room, which they naturally shared with her friends. A little group of seventh years comprised of Remus, Lily, James, Sirius, Peter, Frank Longbottom, Alice Prewet (Franks girlfriend), Mary McDonald, and Rachel Boot could be found in the Heads' Common Room every night, and they were a very tight-knit group.

She and James became close friends, but by Halloween she was sure she liked him. She wouldn't have figured it out, except that one day she, Alice, Rachel and Mary had been in the Heads' Common Room with James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Frank. She, Mary, and Alice were chatting happily while the boys played exploding snaps across the room. It was then that Alice noticed her staring and said, "You love James." It had been a simple statement, that Lily had tried to deny at first, but she figured out pretty quickly that it was true.

She was walking by the lake, thinking over James' many amazing qualities, when a big, black dog came trotting over, and beside it, none other than James Potter.

Siruis' POV:

"Hey Evans!" They still called each other by their last names, but it was friendly now, not at all mocking. I couldn't believe he was going to try this again. Moony thought that she might say yes this time, but I was pretty sure that she thought of them as just friends.

"Hey Potter! What's this?" she gestured towards me.

"Oh, he's my pet," said James. Pet? I am not his pet. I let out a low, long growl.

"He doesn't seem to like me."

"No, that's just how he is."

"Oh," they sat down by the lake, and Lily started absentmindedly patting me. I didn't really mind, Prongs and Moony do that a lot when I'm a dog, the weird part is that she doesn't know it's me. They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before I decided that I needed to give him his chance. So, I jumped up and trotted towards the forest. Luckily, dogs have insanely good hearing, so even from there I could hear every word they said.

"Hey Evens?"

"Yeah?"

"I know that you've heard this one before, but, will you go out with me?"

"Sure," she had said it without hesitation, and she was beaming. In that moment my world turned upside down. There were few things about the world that I was certain about, but when I was certain, I was certain. It was just one of those things, the sun rises in the east, you go to Hogwarts and age 11, and Lily Evens always refuses James Potter when he asks her to go out with him. This was unheard of. "I realized this year that you're a decent person, and that I misjudged you." She did not just say yes, I must be dreaming, because there was no way that Lily Evans had agreed to go out with James Potter.

"That and the fact that you just couldn't resist my good looks any longer," he joked, but he was beaming.

Without conscious thought both leaned forward and they kissed. It started slowly, but James deepened it, and Lily responded. I was obviously happy for Prongs, but it was getting out of hand. At this rate they wouldn't come back to the castle until after the doors were locked. So I bounded forward, and barked loudly, but they didn't notice. I knew that Prongs would kill me later, but it was my only option. I bounded straight into Lily and knocked her down. Then, just for the fun of it, I went towards her, putting on my best evil growl.

"James," she said looking terrified, "your dog doesn't bite does it?" She still hadn't gotten up.

"Sirius!" said James in a warning tone.

Lily looked confused, "James, what—"

"Oh so it's 'James' now?" I asked, morphing into the human me. I wasn't really worried about Lily. She already knew that Moony was a werewolf (she's pretty smart, and could detect the pattern in his absences) and it was only a matter of time before Prongs showed her his trick.

"Sirius?" Lily nearly screamed.

"Bring it down an octave Lily, really!" I said. Soon it would be so shrill that only bats could hear it. "Anyway, I thought I'd leave you two alone while James gave it one more go, but it looked like you wouldn't be resurfacing any time soon, and it wouldn't do for the Head Girl to be caught snogging by the lake after curfew."

By now James had helped a startled Lily up, but they still held hands.

"Can you turn into a dog too?" asked Lily, looking at James.

"No, what I do is much cooler," and with that he turned into the stag, and came up so that she could pet him.

Lily laughed saying, "So this is how you guys go out with Moony! I guess I can come with you too now!" and with that she turned into a doe. James, who had turned back into a human, and I gaped as she transformed back. "And I'm not the only one, Rachel turns into a fox, Alice turns into an owl, and Mary turns into a tiger."

"Really?" asked James, "now all of us can go out together, because Frank turns into a frog, and Peter turns into a rat."

"Fit's his personality," I muttered. I didn't like Peter much; I just kept him around because James liked him.

Both of them ignored me, but I saw Lily's lips twitch as she said "Come on, let's go have dinner."

"Okay," said James, kissing her on the cheek. I thought I was going to gag. This was going to take some getting used to.

Severus' POV:

I was sitting with Avery at dinner when I noticed her come in. We hadn't spoken in years, not since that day, and yet I still watched her. She was beaming, and it took me a minute to notice why. She was holding hands with Potter! Potter, I tell you! I thought I was going to vomit. I knew that looking wasn't the best idea, but I couldn't stop myself. They sat down by Prewet, McDonald, Longbottom, Boot, and Potter's usual gang. I didn't notice anything around me; I was transfixed by the sight before me. It couldn't be true; she would never go out with Potter! I was distracted by her tinkling laugh. I loved it when she laughed. She and Potter seemed to be telling a story, and it looked like Black was involved, because he kept butting in. And then, without any warning, they started kissing, right there! It took all my self control not to break down. I started to get up, when I saw her and Potter leaving their table. They walked hand in hand out of the hall, and I couldn't resist following them. As I got closer I could hear what they were saying.

"I wonder how long it'll take for Padfoot," I cringed; she was already using their stupid nicknames, "to ask out Mary. My money's on another two weeks, at most."

"Are you joking? Padfoot wouldn't ask out Mary, he only ever does one night stands, he doesn't ask girls out."

"But it wouldn't be a one night stand with Mary. He wouldn't do that to one of his close friends, would he?"

"Which is exactly why he won't ask her out, he might like her, but he doesn't think it'll last."

"Say what you want, my money's still on two weeks." They both laughed. I felt sick at how comfortable she looked with him. Without conscious thought I started getting closer to them, wanting to catch every word.

"You know, as much as he likes her I think she'd be smart enough to say no if he actually did ask her out," said Potter.

"So you admit he likes her?"

"Yeah, a lot, almost as much as I like you." Lily laughed and leaned in and kissed him.

"It's amazing how natural this feels!" said Lily in amazement.

"What?"

"This. Us. Once I realized I liked you I thought it would be really awkward if we went out, but it isn't. I mean, I've liked you since Halloween, and I was waiting for you to ask me out again. When you didn't I thought you didn't like me anymore and—"

"What? You thought I didn't like you? I've always liked you! I just thought that you would never like me, so I decided to stop trying at the beginning of this year, and see what would happen."

"Well, I'm really glad you never gave up on me James."

"I would never give up on you, I love you," the words seemed to slip out of Potter's mouth against his will. I thought I was going to be sick.

"Wait," he said, "no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that!"

But Lily put a finger to his lips and said, "I love you too. It just took me a bit longer to figure it out." They leaned in to kiss, and against my will I vomited.

They turned around, and I could tell Lily was angry. "Snape!" I cringed, hearing the hatred in her voice, and remembering the happier time when that was reserved for Potter, "What are you doing, spying on us?" Both Potter and Lily had their wands pointed at me.

I sneered, trying not to show the hurt I felt, "Why would I be spying on a mudblood like you?" Before I could do anything James had hexed me, I wasn't even sure what he used. All I knew was that one minute I was looking at them and the next I was frozen."

"Apologize," he said, he looked furious, but not as furious as I was.

"James," I felt sick listening to the care in her voice, that turned into indifference as she spoke again, "Just leave it, it isn't worth it." I felt like I was being stabbed, she had just called me an 'it.' "If it's still here when Remus and I do our rounds then we'll deal with it."

Potter looked like he dearly wanted to jinx me, but instead, he put his wand inside his robes, took Lily's hand, and they walked away, leaving me there. I couldn't move, and it felt like hours before Avery came up next to me.

"Who did it?" he asked as he reversed the spell.

I thought. Lily would be even more furious with me if Avery went after Potter. I knew I shouldn't have cared, but I did. "I don't know," I said, "they did it from behind."

"Ugh, filthy mudbloods," mutter Avery, "probably one of the Gryffindors, you know how cozy they get with the mudbloods."

My insides ripped apart. To cover up the pain on my face I said quickly, "We'd better go before the prefects get here on patrol."