The Prince in Love
Chapter 1 - Severus
"I don't want to talk to you, just go away." She said quietly, stepping out from the portrait hole, dressed in her pyjamas.
"You came," he sighed, relief racing through his body, "Oh, I'm -"
"Go away." She said again, raising her voice slightly.
"But… I'm sorry."
"I'm not interested."
"I'm sorry! I -"
"Save your breath." She interrupted, her voice getting louder and sharper. "I only came out here to tell you to go away; Mary told me you were threatening to sleep here."
"I was, I would have done, I will, unless you listen to me!"
"Fine!" She snapped, folding her bare arms over her body, "You have thirty seconds."
"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it; I never meant to call you a mudblood, it just -"
"Slipped out." She finished, her voice cold and hard, pitiless.
He didn't nod, but his face obviously given him away.
"It's too late. I've made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious little Death Eater friends." She paused, inviting him to speak, evidently hoping for a protest that didn't come, "you see, you don't even deny it! You don't even deny that's what you're aiming to be! You can't wait to join You-Know-Who, can you?"
He opened his mouth to protest.
"I can't pretend any more. You've chosen your way, I've chosen mine."
"No - listen, I didn't mean -"
"- to call me Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, why should I be any different?"
He tried to speak, but no sound came out. She turned and walked back through the portrait hole, and he could have sworn he heard a small sob.
"But Lily, I love you," he said, but she had already gone.
He hung his head and began to walk away, and his eyes prickled with tears for the first time since he was a kid. He usually tried to be tough. In first year he hadn't cried when he hadn't received post from home; he had not shed a tear when the marauders had jinxed him in third year; he had stayed strong even when he was hung upside down in the air, surrounded by taunting students earlier that day.
The tears began to stream, then flood down his face, and his shoulders began to shake. Nothing he had ever been through was as terrible as loosing a best friend.
Suddenly he felt a soft hand on his shoulder.
"What did you say?" Asked Lily.
Severus quickly wiped his eyes, hoping she would not realise he had been crying, and turned to face her.
"I said I love you." Severus repeated sincerely, a small smile breaking out on his blushing face.
Lily's emerald eyes widened with shock, and she opened her mouth to speak three times before she was finally able to get her words out.
"As a friend, right?" She asked; her expression unreadable.
Severus didn't know what to say. He loved her as more than a friend, but if he told her that, what if she laughed, or worse; went back through the portrait hole and decided she didn't want him, even as a friend.
He decided it was a time for telling the truth, "No," he began, his eyes fixed on her face, trying to read her emotions, "I love you as more than a friend, I always have done, and I always will."
Severus realised that he had probably blown his chances with her forever, and his face fell. He felt hurt and pain and sadness flowing through his body, and felt like crying again.
Then, Lily leaned towards him, "Oh Severus," she whispered, "I never knew you felt like that."
Snape couldn't believe what he had just heard.
"Didn't you ever wonder why I kept saying no to James Potter?" Lily asked.
Severus shrugged, "Because you didn't fancy him?"
"No," Lily said, "Because I liked someone else."
With that, she pulled him towards him and their lips met. Severus felt his heart beat fast and butterflies fluttered around his stomach. He had been waiting and hoping for this moment since he was about ten; since he had first seen Lily Evans all those years ago, and told her that she was a witch. He lost himself in the kiss.
"Lily," said Alice, who was stepping through the portrait hole, in a voice which sounded like she had rehearsed a speech, "I came to check that you were OK, only we realised you'd been out here about half an hour, and - oh." Alice's eyes fell on Lily and Snape, her eyeballs almost popping out of her head.
Lily pulled away from Severus, blushing slightly, and Severus marvelled at how the pinkish glow of her cheeks made her look even more beautiful than usual. He cleared his throat.
"Well… I'd better be going then I guess." He said awkwardly.
"Yeah," Lily said softly, "See you tomorrow then."
As Severus walked away from the Fat Lady's portrait, he pinched himself a little harder than he had planned to.
"Ow!" He said; his arm stinging.
He thought of his fellow Slytherins, and what they had said earlier when they realised that he was going to apologise to Lily. They all believed that 'the filthy little mudblood had gotten exactly what she deserved.'
He wondered what they would all say if they knew what had just happened…
And then he decided that he didn't care.
Chapter 2 - Lily
Lily walked through the portrait hole with Alice at her side, marvelling at how long they'd been out there - it definitely hadn't seemed like half an hour!
"Lily," Alice said, smiling uncertainly, "Severus?"
Lily nodded, her cheeks still rosy. Inside, her heart was dancing with happiness. She had liked Severus ever since he had first told her she was a witch. Well, admittedly she had initially thought him rude, until he explained that it was no insult and that she really was a witch.
That first summer, they had been inseparable, much to her sister Petunia's disgust. Petunia had always made fun of Lily, calling Severus her 'Freak Boyfriend.' Lily had always laughed and shrugged it off, but inside she knew that she loved him, she just didn't dare to believe that he liked her back as anything but a friend.
She could clearly remember their first day at Hogwarts; the fun they'd had on the train casting simple spells with their brand new wands, the laughter they'd shared whilst rowing across the lake and the sinking feeling she had experienced when Severus was sorted into Slytherin, and she was placed in Gryffindor.
Severus had assured her that they would stay best friends, and they did for the first few days, but then they slowly began to drift apart. Severus had fallen in with a gang of wannabe Death Eaters led by Lucius Malfoy, and Lily had become part of the popular Gryffindor crowd.
Their choice in friends couldn't have been more different, but somehow up until the end of fourth year, she and Severus had, against all odds, managed to remain close friends.
And then it had happened; Lily could remember the day clearly. I was a sunny summer's afternoon, after the fourth year exams were over, and she was taking a walk with Alice and Frank. They were chatting about a particularly difficult question on the transfiguration paper, when they saw a flash of light coming from their left.
Lily and Frank had jumped and hidden behind a group of trees, but Alice hadn't been so fast - she was hit by a bat-bogey hex.
"Damn!" Mulciber, whose hex it was, had sworn, "I meant to get the mudblood!"
And then, Lily could remember as clear as day, Severus, who had been walking with Mulciber, had laughed.
He had explained to her that he was only laughing to try to fit in, and that he didn't really mean it, and in the end, she had forgiven him, even if ever since then she had felt an invisible divide between them. But, Lily really had been heartbroken after Severus called her a Mudblood, but somehow Severus had fixed it again, and made it beat about a million times faster.
She had fully intended to make him leave when she went out to talk to him, but after she heard him say those three words, she had to check that her ears weren't playing tricks on her.
It had turned out that they hadn't been, and now she and Severus were a couple…
"Lily," Alice said in a sing-song voice, "Are you awake?!"
Lily jumped and snapped out of her daydream. She assured Alice that she was paying attention to her.
"So, are you going out with Severus now?" Alice asked, her nose scrunching up the way it always did when she was confused, "I thought you were going to tell him to get lost!"
"Well," said Lily, her cheeks flushing yet again, "I was going to, but I decided it wasn't worth throwing away five years of friendship because of one careless comment."
"Awww," said Alice, who was smiling again, "How sweet!"
Lily was glad that her best friend understood, because ever since the Bat-Bogey incident, Alice hadn't been too keen on Snape. But Alice was kind and trustworthy, and of course she knew about being in love - she had been going out with Frank since third year.
"Oh my god!" Said Alice, nudging Lily, "James Potter's coming over - good luck telling him - I'm sure he'll be as understanding as me!"
Lily nudged Alice back playfully and laughed, but she felt deeply annoyed. She was tired - too tired to bother talking to Potter. She quickly began to head towards the girls' dormitories, but Potter's seeker reflexes meant that he was able to catch her. He lightly grabbed her shoulder.
"Get off me!" She said irritably, turning around to face James.
"I know you love me really!" Smirked James, subconsciously messing up his dark hair with the hand that wasn't clutching her shoulder.
"No, I really don't." Said Lily, jerking her shoulder away.
But James wouldn't give up, "Come on Lily, when are you going to stop pretending; you know as well as I do that we would be perfect together!"
Lily was amazed at how arrogant Potter was; assuming that she fancied him just because more or less every other girl in the school did.
"Lily, will you go out with me?" He asked, without a hint of the sincereness that made her love hearing Severus' voice.
"No." She replied simply.
"Please Lily." James persisted.
"No!" She repeated, her voice getting steadily louder.
"Please Lily, just go out with me. One date?" James said, looking over at Sirius Black for support.
Lily realised there was only one way to shut him up, "No! I will not go out with you!" He exclaimed, loudly enough for the whole common room to hear, "because I am going out with somebody else, who I like a lot more than I like you!"
Lily heard scattered laughter, but James didn't seem fazed.
"Really?" He questioned disbelievingly, raising a single eyebrow, "Who then?"
"Severus Snape," Lily whispered, hoping that only James would hear. It wasn't that she was embarrassed or ashamed about Severus; she just wanted to wait for the right time to come clean about it to her other friends.
"Snivellus?!" James sniggered loudly, regaining his unattractive cocky air, "Good one Lily!"
Lily just stared at Potter, incredulous at how conceited he was, and watched his expression change as he realised she was serious.
The whole common room were also staring at James Potter and Lily Evans. Some were laughing at James, and some couldn't believe Lily was going out with a stinking, snivelling Slytherin.
"Oh." James spluttered, "b-b-but…" He stopped, evidently electing to shut up, so as not to embarrass himself any more. He walked off, his cheeks flaming red with anger and humiliation and his head hung, towards the boys' dormitories.
Lily realised that it was the first time that she had ever seen Potter blush, and felt quite proud of herself for being the person to cause it.
Lily noticed that her fellow Gryffindors were still all staring at her, and went up to bed without saying a word to any of them.
She fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow, and her dreams were filled with the events of the last hour. She was content.
Chapter 3 - Severus
Beep, beep, beep, beep! Severus groaned and hit his alarm clock. He hated the mornings! But then, he remembered that this was not just any morning - it was his first morning as Lily Evans' boyfriend.
He smiled as he thought about the events of last night - the best night of his life so far.
"Oi, Sev!" Shouted Mulciber, waking up the other three boys in the dorm, "What are you smiling about?"
Severus' heart began to beat fast, and he began to breathe heavily. His 'I don't care' attitude of last night had dissolved. He was now extremely worried about not what the other Slytherins would say, but about what they would do to him if they knew about his relationship with Lily.
Part of him, the brave part, wanted to shout and tell the world about the thing that had made him so ecstatically happy, but the more sensible half of him told him that, for now, he should keep his mouth shut - Gregory Mulciber was pretty good at hexing people!
"Oh, Nothing." Lied Severus, his hands shaking slightly - the way they always did when he wasn't telling the truth.
Dolohov, who wasn't happy with been woken up, stubbed his toe and swore loudly, making Mulciber, Avery and Rosier snigger. Even Severus let out a small laugh. He was happy for the change of subject, and Dolohov did look quite funny hopping around the dormitory clutching his right foot.
Dolohov jumped onto his bed, which gave way slightly under his weight, and put his foot up onto Severus'.
After Dolohov's foot had sufficiently healed and the boys had gotten dressed, putting on their Slytherin robes, they walked into the common room.
"So then Sev," Dolohov began, "What happened with the filthy little mudblood last night, eh?
"Well," started Severus, the rest of the sentence still not fully formed in his head.
"Please tell me you jinxed her!" Interrupted Avery.
"Yeah, do share Sev;" said Rosier cruelly, "We could do with a good laugh!"
Severus cleared his throat loudly, and stared around the common room, trying to think up a distraction. His eyes fixed on the large green clock that hung above the flaming fireplace.
"Oh," he said in mock surprisement, wishing he had a better excuse to use, "Look at the time, it's almost time for breakfast. We want to get there quickly - there might be… bacon." Severus crossed his fingers.
Dolohov took the bait, "Yeah, bacon and sausages!" He grunted, whilst licking his lips. His piggy eyes lit up with glee at the thought of a full English breakfast.
Severus was quite proud of himself for once again avoiding the subject, and led the other four towards the common room's exit.
"Not so fast!" Exclaimed Mulciber, extending his muscly arm to block Severus' way, "You haven't told us about the mudblood!"
Severus groaned audibly. He wondered why Mulciber had to choose that particular moment in time to be clever, for he usually had the mental capacity as a, very stupid, ant.
"Is there something you're not telling us Severus?" Asked Rosier curiously, though with a hint of malice in his voice.
Severus took a deep breath, "Ididntalktohershewasntheresoijustleft."
"You what?!" Grunted Dolohov.
"I didn't talk to her - she wasn't there." Severus repeated, his hands shaking again - he really did have to work on being a better liar.
"Oh, shame." Said Avery passively, already loosing interest.
"Hey, wait a minute, how come you were gone for about forty minutes then?" Said Mulciber, "And why are you going red?"
Severus swore under his breath. It was just his luck that Mulciber had decided to make two smart observations this morning, excelling himself greatly.
"Answer me!"
Severus couldn't cope with the bombardment of questions. He decided that honesty was the best policy and took a deep breath.
"Alright then," He said, choosing his words carefully, as knowing his mates they could be his last words before a long stay in the hospital wing, "I'm going out with Lily Evans."
Severus kept hold of his breath, and touched the wand in his pocket, waiting for their reaction.
Suddenly Mulciber started to laugh heartily, and the others, albeit confusedly, joined in.
"Good one mate!" Shouted Mulciber, beside himself with laughter, "I really thought you were serious for a minute then!"
Severus smiled weakly, and didn't protest, deciding to quit while he was ahead. He suggested again that they head down for breakfast and they left the common room, still laughing.
"Watch this!" Mulciber exclaimed, pointing his wand at a random, innocent passer-by. "Locomotor Mortis!"
The small first year Gryffindor who Dolohov's wand was aimed at jumped in shock, her legs snapping strait beneath her. She toppled over and hit her head on the dark dungeon wall. Her head began to bleed, the deep red liquid staining her curly blonde hair. She started to silently sob, trying desperately to undo the curse, but only succeeding in setting fire to her socks.
She gasped in pain, and quickly cast an Aguamenti charm, which was stronger than she had anticipated and put out the fire, but created a large puddle of water around her.
Mulciber, Dolohov, Rosier and Avery laughed.
"Well, serves her right for being in our corridor!" Commented Avery.
Severus stood still, staring at the poor girl collapsed on the floor, his heart filled with pity. He knew exactly what it felt like to be stuck in an embarrassing position, with people laughing and making fun of him - thanks to the Levicorpus incident of the previous afternoon.
The other boys had started to walk away, "Oi, you coming?" Mulciber asked Severus sharply.
"Bacon." Dolohov muttered randomly, maybe hoping to entice Severus into coming, or maybe just daydreaming.
"I'll be down in a second," replied Snape, "I just need to… go back up to the common room to… finish the potions homework."
Luckily the others didn't realise that they didn't even have potions class today, and as soon as they walked out of sight, Severus ran over to the girl.
"Don't hurt me." She whimpered, and Severus realised that he recognised those blue eyes, but couldn't remember where from.
Snape quickly cast the counter-curse, and did his best to dry her off and fix her head. The girl looked shocked.
"Thank you!" She said, looking up at Severus.
Severus smiled and advised her to go up to her common room before breakfast, so that she didn't run into his mates alone again.
She nodded, and then spoke, with a slight lisp. "Wait a minute; you're Severus Snape, aren't you?"
Severus nodded uncertainly.
"I'm Millie McDonald, Mary's sister." The girl said, smiling.
Severus suddenly realised whose blue eyes they were; the girl was related to one of Lily's friends. He nodded, and wondered what Lily had said to this girl about him. His question was not answered however, as the girl said goodbye, thanked him again, and scurried off, evidently trying to leave the dungeons as quickly as possible.
It was then that Severus fully realised how different he was to his friends. They hated muggle-borns and he didn't. They enjoyed hexing everything that moved and he didn't. They wanted to join Voldemort, and… he didn't.
To him, Voldemort attacking muggles and muggle-borns was just the same as his friends attacking first-years - cowardly. Severus quickly tried to wipe that thought from his head. He had heard rumours that Voldemort could read minds, and dreaded to think what the Dark Lord would do if he knew what he had been thinking.
He realised that he should get himself down to the hall before his friends became suspicious. He walked down the corridors and up the stairs to the Great Hall. He sat down next to Dolohov, whose plate was full with five rashers of bacon and six sausages.
Severus took a slice of unbuttered toast and bit into it.
"Sev, I've got a bone to pick with you," said Mulciber, "we don't even have potions today!"
Severus started to eat more quickly, Mulciber had caught him out too many times already today - and it was only half past eight!
And then he say Lily walk in, with Alice, Mary and Millie. They were deep in conversation.
"Sev," exclaimed Mulciber in a mocking voice, nudging Severus, "there's your girlfriend!"
Dolohov laughed so much that he spat out a mouthful of bacon, which attracted the attention of most of the hall.
Severus then noticed that Lily was heading over to him, and tried to tell her wordlessly that he would speak to her later. She missed the hint however and ran towards him.
"Millie told me what you did!" She exclaimed happily, taking hold of Severus' hand.
Severus saw his friends looking at him and Lily incredulously and didn't know what to do.
"Can we go somewhere else, Lily?" He asked her quietly.
"Why?" She asked, "Are you embarrassed of me in front of your friends?"
"No," he said sincerely, seeing tears well up in her emerald eyes, "But…"
Lily sighed and walked away. Severus guessed what she was thinking - if he didn't want his friends to know about her, how could their relationship ever be real?
It was unfair. For less than a day he'd had the most wonderful thing in the world, and now someone was taking it away from him again! He could only think of one thing to do to prove to her how he felt.
He reached out to her, and pulled her close to him, ignoring the wolf whistles and insults from the Slytherin table. He kissed her deeply and earnestly.
Chapter 4 - Lily
"Put that poor girl down at once Severus Snape!" Screamed McGonagall, walking towards Lily and Severus, her lips forming a thin, angry line.
Lily jumped and stepped away from Severus. She had been so surprised by the kiss that she had forgotten that she was in the Great Hall, in plain view of practically all of the students and all of the Hogwarts staff.
"I'm sorry." Said Severus to Professor McGonagall, looking down at the ground.
"That will be fifty points from Slytherin house!" She decreed.
Lily gasped. Fifty points was a lot, and she guessed that Severus would already be less-than-popular with his fellow Slytherins.
She opened her mouth to tell Professor McGonagall that it was her fault as much as it was Severus', but he shook his head sharply, letting her know wordlessly that he didn't want her to take the blame.
She shut her mouth and stared into his deep, dark eyes, which were looking straight back into her emerald pair.
"Don't you two both have revision to be doing?" Asked McGonagall sharply, her eyebrows raised in high arches. "Snape, you are confined to your common room until your transfiguration examination this afternoon!"
Lily wondered why McGonagall was being so harsh towards Severus, but he didn't seem too bothered. He shrugged and mumbled, "Yes professor."
Professor McGonagall nodded severely and walked back towards the teachers' table. Severus said goodbye to Lily and headed up to his common room.
"Stinking mudblood!" Shouted one of the boys seated at the Slytherin table.
"Filthy scum!" Exclaimed another, who sounded like his mouth was full of food.
Lily walked back to the Gryffindor table, trying to ignore the stream of abuse being fired at her. She didn't really care what the Slytherins thought, but it was still fairly upsetting.
Mary and Millie had left the hall, so she sat down next to Alice, who gave her a funny look, and continued to eat her egg roll. Lily helped herself to some melon, and the two girls ate their lunch amid an awkward silence, neither of them really sure what to say.
Luckily, the silence evaporated as they were walking up the final staircase to their common room. Alice spontaneously burst into laughter and Lily wondered what was so hilarious.
"You should have seen James Potter's face!" She giggled excitedly, "Honestly, if looks could kill, your dear boyfriend would be six feet under by now."
Lily laughed, and said the password, causing the Fat Lady to swing open.
Lily stepped through the hole followed by Alice, and was confronted by an extremely unappealing sight. James Potter was stood in the middle of the common room, snogging Mary McDonald, in plain view of all the Gryffindors.
Alice let out a strange sound, which sounded lake a laugh crossed with an exasperated scream, and turned around and walked out of the common room again, mumbling about the library. Lily just stood still in front of the portrait hole, her mouth wide open in shock. Part of her was watching, but the other part was repulsed. Mary didn't even like James - everybody knew about her crush on Sirius - and James didn't fancy Mary, as far as she knew. And yet, there they were, snogging as if there were no tomorrow.
"Oh, hi Evans," said James coolly, turning around to face Lily, and fluffing up his hair with the hand that was not around Mary's waist. "Have you heard about me and Mary?"
Lily spluttered, and then composed herself, "No," she said, making her eyes wide, the picture of confused innocence, "what is there to know?" She realised after she had spoken how unusually high-pitched and stuffy her voice had just sounded.
James smiled coyly, "We're dating." He said, looking very proud of himself.
"Oh," Lily said stiffly.
Mary evidently felt the tension, as she began to contort her body, trying to free herself from James' arms.
"I'll leave you two to talk." She said uncomfortably, finally pulling free of James.
James faltered, and then looked at Lily as if daring her to comment.
"So, how long have you been, um, 'dating' for?" Lily asked. She put air quotes around the word 'dating' and still spoke in the same stiff voice.
"Not for very long." Replied James, looking slightly shifty.
"Since this morning?" Lily suggested sarcastically.
"No," James said quickly, "since last night."
"So, since I rejected you then?" She clarified, her voice missing its usual warmth.
James took a deep breath, and Lily could almost hear the cogs in his brain turning as he tried to think of a decent comeback. She couldn't help but smile. Inside, however, she was confused. She knew that she loved Severus, but she didn't like the thought of James Potter having a girlfriend.
She realised how selfish she was; she had always rejected Potter, so she really had no right to tell him who he couldn't date. It was just that a small, insecure part of her loved the fact that James Potter could have picked any girlfriend - and yet he persistently chased her. It made her feel special.
James spoke, releasing Lily from her thoughts. "Not everything revolves around you, you know!" Potter spoke loudly, his voice filled with anger. "You just can't stand that I've found someone who I like more than you!"
Lily stood, staring at James. She couldn't believe what he had just said. He made her sound like a self-centred, egotistical little girl. And the worst part was, what he had said was true.
Tears sprang to her eyes, and she quickly turned away from James. As she glanced back, she saw that a concerned look had appeared on James' face. She looked determinedly away again - she didn't need his concern, or his pity.
She ran up to her dormitory and lay on her bed, sobbing for what seemed like hours. Her tears soaked her pillow, and the transfiguration textbook that was sat open next to her pillow.
She picked up the book, deciding that a bit of transfiguration revision would distract her. She read about Switching Spells and turning furniture into animals for about half an hour, before deciding to show her face in the common room again.
She looked in the mirror on the way out, and was happy to see that her face was no longer tear-stained.
She walked down the steps to a near enough deserted common room. Most of the younger students were in lessons, and she assumed that most of her year were either in the library or outside in the sun.
Her eyes fixed on Remus Lupin, who was sat on the comfiest chair by the fire buried in his transfiguration textbook. Remus had always been her favourite of the marauders - James and Sirius were too proud and Peter Pettigrew was just plain weird.
"Hey," she said softly, "do you want me to test you?"
Remus turned to her, looking slightly shocked but nevertheless happy. "Alright then, if that's OK."
Lily smiled and sat opposite him, picking up the textbook and flicking through the thick pages.
"Hmmm… What classification of animal are the simplest to vanish using a simple Vanishing Spell?" Asked Lily.
Lupin smiled, and answered correctly, "invertebrates."
Lily nodded, remembering how easy it had been to vanish a snail, and yet how hard it was to make birds disappear. Remus looked through his textbook, looking for a question to ask her.
"You do know that James was really worried about you earlier, don't you?" Remus said, still looking down at the book.
Lily shrugged, not really knowing what to think.
"Okay then," said Remus, finally deciding on a page, "What is the definition of a Switching Spell?"
Lily was sure she remembered revising that earlier, "Um… it's altering only a part of some object, like giving a human rabbit's ears?"
Remus nodded and smiled, "That's right."
"So, what did he say then?" Lily asked curiously.
"Well, he said that you hated him," said Remus democratically, "and then he said… well, he said he couldn't really care less how you felt about him."
"Oh," Lily said, putting on a brave voice but feeling like someone had slapped her in the face, "anyway, Name one of the principal exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration?"
"Food: it can't be conjured from thin air, but we could all tell he was lying. I mean, come on, you must know how much he fancies you." Remus said.
Lily blushed, not knowing how to respond, "Hey," she said softly, "it's your turn to ask me a question now."
"Sorry," said Remus, "Describe the five main points of the Devereux Principle?"
Lily thought hard about this one, she couldn't remember learning anything about it at all.
"I know you have Severus now, but how do you feel about James?" Remus asked.
"I don't know." Said Lily.
"How can you not know how you feel about him? You either like him or you don't." Said Remus, sounding quite confused.
"I meant the question, I don't know the answer." Explained Lily.
"Oh, so how do you feel about James?" Asked Remus again.
"Has he told you to ask me?" Questioned Lily suspiciously.
"No," said Remus, suddenly sounding quite defensive, "I just wondered, because why would you care about him going out with Mary if you didn't like him?"
Lily was stumped, but the perfect comeback came to her, "Well, why would James Potter care about me going out with Severus if he liked Mary?"
Lupin smiled incredulously, "Lily, you're not stupid."
"Pardon?" Lily said.
"You must realise that James doesn't actually like Mary," he said, in a slightly patronising voice, as if he was explaining the two times table to an unintelligent seven year old, "he's only trying to make you jealous because he likes you, and now you like someone else."
Lily just sat on the chair open mouthed, putting down the transfiguration textbook.
"Of course," said Remus, beginning to laugh softly, "It doesn't help that you've chosen his worst enemy!"
"Oh." Lily said lamely.
"He'll get over himself eventually," said Remus, still chuckling, "I think that deep down, he just wants you to be happy, and if you're happy with Severus…"
"I am." Lily said quickly, meaning it wholeheartedly.
"…he'll just have to accept that in the end."
Lily smiled, feeling glad that she had talked to Remus, everything seemed clearer now.
"Do you want to carry on testing me then?" Asked Lupin, as if the conversation had never happened.
"Of course!" Said Lily, smiling widely and reaching for the textbook.