Wand work, the young man thought, really is a rather foolish thing. He was feeling quite irritable at the moment, overheated as he was with his long legs cramped to the confines of his four-poster bed. It was late January and he was in the Slytherin common room (which was chilly even in mid-summer) but sweat beaded on his large forehead just the same.
"Come on," he murmured, poking with his wand at the sheet of parchment that was smoldering on his bedcovers. "Change!"
He had holed himself up on his bed with the curtains drawn and the silencing charms cast to avoid the jeers of his fellow Slytherins, knowing they would find the thought of presenting any Gryffindor with a gift absolutely horrifying, but was just now beginning to realize just how much heat magic generated in a cramped space, and was also observant enough to take note that everything around him—his sheets, the curtains—was quite flammable.
To his immense relief, color spread from his wand-tip over the surface of the parchment. It wasn't quite the shade of blue he had in mind, but it'd do. With his tongue clamped between his teeth, he encouraged the color to spread, to make patterns, to become a lighter tint near the edges. At long last he was rewarded with quite an attractive- if abstractly patterned- parchment. He sat back on his pillows with a sigh of satisfaction.
All that work, and it's just the wrapping! He marveled, thinking of the witches in shops that claimed prettying up anything was a snap. With careful fingers, he removed a vial from his robes and placed it in the center of the paper before rolling the whole thing up into a bundle and tying it with a piece of twine. At least I know that this is perfect, he decided rather smugly as he put the package back into the confines of his pocket. I hope she loves it.
Lily Evans gave a little shiver and drew her fur-lined cloak tighter about her shoulders. The snowflakes drifting into little fluffy mounds outside the window were beautiful, but she was too cold to care. Where is he? She thought with impatience as she stamped her boot-clad feet to keep them warmer. Despite her efforts, she felt as if her backside were becoming an icicle itself from the stone bench she was perched upon.
She perked up as the unmistakable sound of somebody running reached her ears, and she sat up straighter. "Sev!" the loud greeting echoed in the stone room as her breath left her mouth in a white mist.
The awkwardly skinny teenager hustled to her side, stopping a few steps short as if he were nervous to approach too closely. Lily had to give a sad smile; Severus always acted a little stand-offish at first, as if afraid she would suddenly yell at him. He was like a puppy who had been kicked one time too many.
Unclipping the ruby fastener at her throat, Lily spread her cloak wide and enveloped her friend within it alongside herself; despite the cold, a flush spread across his cheeks as they stood nose to nose (or, Lily noticed with some surprise, nose-to-collarbone; Severus had grown even taller over the Christmas break from school).
"How were your holidays?" Lily beamed. "Did you have a good birthday? You'll have to forgive me—I sent an owl order for your present and the blizzard kept the dratted bird from leaving on time. But I should have it within the week—I promise!"
"Oh," Severus looked a little taken aback at her words. "You didn't need—"
"To get you a birthday present? Of course I did! You're my best friend. I only wish I could have gotten to it by your proper birthday. Damn weather!"
Severus' crooked teeth showed in a brief grin; Lily had noticed a while back that he was always a bit tickled when she swore. "Alright then; I'll look forward to it!"
Lily noticed that he had sidestepped an answer to her question regarding his holidays, but she was used to that; Severus rarely liked talking about his visits back home. He's taller, but I think he's lost some weight, she observed, taking in the more prominent pallor to his features than usual. And he looks very tired.
To fill the silence, they did what they had always done: Lily talked while Severus watched her, a blank expression on his face. She had wondered when they were children if he actually listened to her until after she called him on it, he was able to repeat back everything she had said verbatim.
"I had a wonderful time," she told him, leading him with small steps back to her stone bench she had been waiting for him at. They sat, so entangled in her cloak that their knees were forced to touch. "I was glad to see mum again, of course, though dad was away on a business trip. Petunia…" she felt the smile on her face waver a bit at the mention of her sister, but forced it back in place. "Well, she has a boyfriend now! Isn't that exciting? She brought him round for dinner once or twice and he seems a nice one."
There was a silence after she had finished explaining her holidays to him, and she was just searching for something to ask him that wouldn't pry too much into his home life when he shifted, his elbow pulling the fabric of the cloak so that she was forced to lean onto him even more. "Hey—"
"I have a present for you," he interrupted. His dark eyes seemed unwilling to meet her gaze- was he embarrassed? - as he pulled a small, clumsily-wrapped package from his pocket. Lily had to wriggle one of her hands free to take it from him.
"A present for me?" she beamed at him, feeling its slight weight in her hand. "You're so sweet, Sev; it's not even my birthday until next week!"
He shrugged. "I just wanted to give it to you a little early, is all. Happy sixteenth birthday, Lily."
Unable to free her second hand, Lily used her teeth to untie the twine from the blue parchment that covered her gift. Once the parchment was removed, Lily tilted a tiny vial in the weak sunlight streaming in from the window.
"Is it a potion?" she asked Severus as she heard liquid sloshing around inside the bottle. "Did you make it yourself?" she was well aware that Severus was perhaps the most uniquely gifted potions student in a century and was, in fact, quite proud of him for it.
"Not quite a potion, no, but I did make it," he told her. "Hold it upright."
She did so and, with his only free hand, he popped the cork free.
"Smell," he told her. "Tell me what you think."
He had taught her a while back the correct way to sniff a potion; never directly over the top but wafting the scent to her nose with her hand. Since she had no free hand to waft with, she instead took a tiny sniff directly from the bottle before sitting back, stunned.
"Well?" he asked, his thin lips curling into a smile despite himself. "What does it smell like?"
Lily struggled for the correct answer. "It… wow, it's very layered, Sev, but somehow the scents don't clash like they should." She gave another sniff. "Yeah, first I get a nice, warm smell, like baking bread… no, just like baking bread, the bread my mum sometimes does. You should try it sometime, it's lovely, all thick with raisins and nuts…"
At her friends raised eyebrow, Lily tried to focus again. "Right. And then that bit fades away and I smell clean laundry, like right after the house elves change the sheets and they get that nice fresh smell. And then…" she sniffed again to be sure.
"Smoke," she finally decided. "Smoke, like…" her eyes narrowed. "Hang on."
She leaned forward and sniffed his hair. "Like you!" she exclaimed. "Just like you. Why did you put all these scents here, Sev?"
The flush that had appeared on Severus' cheeks earlier seemed to be spreading slowly across his face and down his neck, Lily observed with curiosity.
"It's perfume," he told her. "I made it… Well, I designed the whole thing myself. It's supposed to smell like everything you like best."
"Me?" Now Lily was curious. "How do you know what I like to smell the most?"
"I don't," replied her friend. "I didn't really mean you, personally… It's designed to target the pleasure point in a person's brain so that each individual smelling it recalls the scents that make them happy."
Lily gazed at her friend in admiration. "Oh, that's brilliant, Sev; why not sell the recipe? You could make a fortune, it's so amazing—"
"But," Severus interrupted, "I wanted it to be just for you."
"Oh…" Lily felt something warm start to heat her cheeks as well. "Well, thank you, Sev; it's a wonderful gift. Would you?"
She tilted her head, and Severus dipped his finger into the bottle before dabbing a small amount behind each of her ears.
"I love it," she told him, leaning closer to give him a big hug, and was amused to feel his chest expand against hers as he inhaled.
"So what do you smell?" she asked.
He murmured something unintelligible.
"What was that?" she asked, genuinely curious. Snape stood and extricated himself from the cloak, walking to the door.
"I've got to get to class," he told her. "I have a full schedule this term."
"Oh, come on, Sev!" Lily insisted. "Please tell me!"
Now looking as red as a tomato, Severus took off at a fast-paced walk. "Lilies," he said over his shoulder before disappearing around a corner.