Whenever James saw Lily and Severus hanging out, his friends learned to expect a very bad-tempered mate for the rest of the day. To cheer him up, Sirius would double his efforts to make Snape's existence as miserable as possible, Remus would take it upon himself to do James's homework, and Peter would unashamedly pile on the praise for his idol. Even the Headmaster seemed to have picked up on James's mood swings. Every time James got sent to Professor Dumbledore's office for purposely setting Professor Flitwick's hat on fire, or for turning the Care of Magical Creatures' Professor's nose into a tomato, the brilliant wizard would look down upon the miscreant a little sadly and say, "James, James, causing Hell for a girl? I can hardly see why she doesn't see the romance in that."
Once, Sirius, Remus and Peter decided enough was enough. Their friend was stubborn, and they knew he was in too sour a mood to listen to anyone, so they decided to round up Lily. The redhead had turned down the group's invitation to hang out with them during the Hogsmeade weekend in order to spend the whole day at the Three Broomsticks giggling over a cup of Butterbeer with Snivellus. The Slytherin's fate was thus sealed; the next month of his life would undoubtedly be the worst (or so swore Sirius), but it was Lily they now had to placate, to plead with.
"No," she said, before the trio could get a word out, "I know what you're going to say, but no."
Remus and Peter exchanged apprehensive looks, but Sirius took a deep breath and raised his chin.
"Oh come on Evans, you know James is only pissed because of you and that dick -"
"Severus is not a dick -"
"- and he's our friend, our best friend, so we're obligated to ask you to just ditch that dick -"
Sirius never finished because his face had just made contact with the hand of a very annoyed-looking Lily Evans.
"Bugger off, Black. And you two morons," she added just as harshly, glaring at the frightened-looking Remus and Peter, "Stop following those two like freaking dogs and get lives of your own."
Needless to say, the trio's mission to bring Lily Evans onto their side and to get rid of Snivellus did not go according to plan.
"What was that about?" asked a slightly breathless Severus, who'd been hiding behind a column watching the encounter. Lily marched past him, tossing her hair behind her shoulder impatiently.
"Morons," she muttered hotly, "Those morons. Come on Sev, you promised me you'd teach me the basics of the Vanishing Spell. Do any of those morons even have brains? Sev, you coming?"
A dazed look crossed the hook-nosed face, his eyes lighting up as he hurried, and stumbled, after the redhaired girl. He was carrying two sets of the same books, but at that moment he knew he would do so, so much more for her.
"So – so is this a work date?" He blurted out before he could stop himself. Severus's eyes widened in horror and his hands clasped over his mouth. Lily arched a graceful eyebrow, the expression in her green eyes clearly laughing at the panicking boy in front of her.
"You know me Sev. I would never have a date in a library, how lame is that?" She threw him a mischievious - and, dare he think it? Flirtatious? - look, and leaned over the table, so close to Severus that he could count the individual eyelashes above those hypnotic eyes of hers, "If you wanted to ask me out on a date, you'd have to do so, so much better than that."
Lily slumped back into her seat, burying her nose back into the Transfiguration textbook, a strand of ginger hair falling in front of her eye. Severus stared at her open-mouthed, not really sure he'd really heard what he imagined he heard. He fought down an almost overwhelming urge to brush away that strand of stray hair, and forced himself to swallow the strangled noise he could feel stuck in his throat. Instinctively, the Slytherin turned towards the table down the other side of the aisle of books, and was just in time to see a murderous-looking Potter storm quite childishly out of sight. Severus sighed, knowing fully well what to expect for the rest of the year, but sneaking a glance at his best friend, a smile flitted across his face.
It's going to be okay, he thought warmly, it's going to be okay because we will always be friends.