AN: Rags to Riches: Yay! My first finished fanfiction, finally.
Ember: It took you long enough. Look at the long list of my successful and well-loved stories. Then, look at your list of non-existent--I mean in progress--stories.
Rags to Riches: Hey, they're in progress! Which means in like a billion years they'll be finished.
Ember: Yeah, in a billion years.
Rags to Riches: Anyway, this is about this fic which IS finished.
Ember: Exactly. A toast! Raise your peep on a stick!
Rags to Riches: To fanfiction and yummy gooey sugary goodness!
Ember: YAYY! And now...
Rags to Riches: I should probably give you all some context or you will be confused, more than you are already.
Ember: For you see...
Rags to Riches: I said screw it to Snape being in love with Lily Potter and created my own character for him to love.
Ember: Who just so happens to be named...
Rags to Riches: Lily! However, this is not to be explained until I finish the master fic this has spawned off of. Which I will finish!
Ember: But basically, there is another Lily with red hair and green eyes running around Hogwarts, this one not quite so much a witch as a shapeshifter.
Rags to Riches: Her shapeshifting abilities focus solely on fantastical creatures. She also can communicate with them and heal them, you get the picture. When this fic occurs my Lily and Snape have been dating for a little over a year and are both currently sixteen.
Ember: And they are still cute and in the middle of a lovefest! How they do this, I'll never know. Though, I can't say anything, having never been involved with anyone in such a way.
Rags to Riches: Me neither. . .but that is besides the point! So now to reward you all for reading all the way through this I leave you too the fic. Please enjoy the fluffiness!
Ember: Enjoy!
A Morning in the Snow
Severus woke up to something bouncing up and down excitedly on his bed. Lily giggled at his shocked expression upon beholding her.
"Lily!" he practically yelped, grabbing a spare blanket for her while trying to keep his blankets around himself. "What are you doing in here? How did you get in here?"
"I asked the house elves how to get in here, it's changed since last time and--" Lily got up with the blanket wrapped around her-- "it's snowing!" she announced throwing open the curtains.
"Lily, it's been snowing," drawled Severus as he got up to join her by the window.
Lily gasped dramatically. "But it's the first snow of the new year! That makes it special."
"All right, then." Severus hugged Lily to his chest and she relaxed into him, enjoying the solid warmth at her back.
She looked up at him and he smiled down at her. Turning around, she leaned up on her tiptoes and Severus closed the remaining distance, closing their mouths in a gentle kiss. Suddenly she was gone and Severus whipped around to see her firmly ensconced on his bed, huddling on the fading warmth from where he had slept.
"We should go outside after breakfast," she suggested, smiling mischievously.
"Well if we want to get breakfast I need to get dressed so. . ." Severus gestured towards the door.
"Oh come on, Severus. Here, I'll put the blanket over my head, okay?" And Lily did just that.
Severus shook his head at her antics and decided there was nothing for it but to get dressed.
"So," Lily's voice sounded muffled from the blanket over her head, "Do you want to just ask a house elf to bring breakfast to the Slytherin common room?"
"Yeah, that will be much warmer than the Dinning Hall," agreed Severus.
By the time they made it down to the common room, breakfast was laid out on a table, complete with hot chocolate. Lily was eager to get out into the snow, so Severus obliged by eating as quickly as she did. They were standing in the Great Hall, and Severus was about to cast some warming charms when Dumbledore walked up.
"Going to have some fun outside?" he asked.
"Yes, Professor Dumbledore," Lily said happily.
"Where's Alexander? I thought he would be eager to go with you," he commented.
"He's out hunting with a few griffins in the mountains; you know, a 'spend time with your own species' kind of thing," she explained.
"Oh, well. Have fun."
"We will," assured Severus.
Dumbledore wandered off, presumably to do whatever he had been doing.
Severus shrugged. "He shows up at the most random times."
"It's Dumbledore," was all Lily offered as a response.
Severus cast the warming charms and they stepped out into the gently falling snow. Silently they walked out until amidst it, holding hands. Occasionally Severus would spin Lily out and back in. Lily had chosen that day to wear thick wool leggings with a wool skirt so every time Severus spun her it fanned out over the snow.
Eventually Lily began frisking around, pulling a willing Severus into it. She skipped around, taking quick leaps and bounds until she tripped and disappeared face up into the deep snow. Severus quickly ran up to her and looked down.
"I don't believe I'm familiar with that particular movement. Would you demonstrate it again?" he asked.
"Just help me up," Lily groused but not unhappily.
Severus obliged and as he did Lily shoved a handful of snow in his face.
"Hey!" he yelled.
Lily laughed, having bolted the moment she was on her feet again. Severus ran after her, catching up on a small hill. However, she just eluded his grasp and spun around out of reach. They faced off in the snow, shuffling back and forth, back and forth. Unexpectedly, Lily came right at Severus and tackled him. Together they tumbled down the hill, not even able to tell which way was up. Finally they rolled to a stop and with a touch of luck Severus ended up on top.
Severus could not keep his breath from catching in his throat. Beneath him Lily was laughing, her hair splayed over the white snow redder than blood, her green eyes bright and sparkling, and her pale skin flushed from the cold.
"What?" asked Lily, cocking her head to one side.
He blushed, "I was just thinking how beautiful you are."
This time Lily blushed, a light dusting of pink staining her cheeks.
"Well, it's only fair, as I think you are the most handsome man I have ever seen."
To Lily it was true, especially in the snow. Severus's coal black hair was as stark a contrast to the snow as her own. It fell around his pale face after escaping the bond of his hair tie. Perhaps he wasn't what everyone would call singularly handsome but to Lily no one could compare.
Green eyes met black, and for the second time that day Severus's lips covered Lily's. The kiss was soft but prolonged, neither willing to end it. Finally, though, Lily pulled away with a contented sigh and plopped back down into the snow.
"One of my favorite things about break is being able to kiss you almost whenever I like," she admitted unabashedly.
"Hard to argue with that," he agreed.
Suddenly Lily shot up, nearly knocking heads with Severus in the process.
"Come on," she urged while grabbing his hand.
"Ah!" he yelped when she nearly pulled his arm out of its socket. "What, Lily?"
"A Swedish Short Snout is coming in the land by the lake! He wants to meet us. Well, mainly me, but he won't try to eat you as long as I'm there," she explained.
They hurried over to the lake with Severus practically being dragged by Lily in her eagerness.
"You know," he said breathlessly along the way, "I would be afraid to meet all these beasts if you weren't there. Most of them really aren't safe."
"It's a good thing I'm here, then," Lily pointed out.
By then they had made it to the lake and there was indeed a Swedish Short Snout that had landed by it. He was a beautiful blue-silver individual with delicate wings extended against the sky. The dragon was a young male, not having yet reached full size. Patiently, he allowed Lily and Severus examine every inch of him. Severus practically had to yank Lily back from climbing all the way into the dragon's mouth while inspecting his teeth. When Lily glared at him, Severus commented,
"What if he sneezed?"
Lily rolled her eyes but bit back the retort, instead saying, "Do you want to go for a ride? He's offering."
The dragon nudged Lily softly with his head as if to agree.
"Let's go," replied Severus.
Lily clambered up on the dragon first, followed closely by Severus. The dragon took a galloping start and then leapt into the air. Lily flung her arms out and let the air dance around her; flying was one of the best things about being a shapeshifter. It was so freeing and evidently Severus felt the same way as he put out his own arms to match and hold onto hers. As the dragon began to dive and flip, Lily kept her arms out but Severus wrapped one arm around Lily's waist and held onto one of the dragon's spine spikes with his other hand. For over half an hour, they careened in amazing acrobatics across the sky. Finally, though, it came to an end and the dragon slowly descended back to where it had first landed.
Severus slid off first and then caught Lily as she followed, setting her lightly in the snow. She was grinning from ear to ear, and he was certain he was as well. They both had a thoroughly windswept appearance and Severus's warming charms were beginning to fade after being subjected to so much cold, especially high in the air.
"Hey, Severus, do you have anything on you that could hold dragon blood?" Lily asked randomly.
Severus quickly followed her line of thought. "Not immediately, but I think I could charm something to hold it so we can bring it to Dumbledore."
He took off one of his gloves and muttered at it while pointing his wand at it for several minutes. Finally, he shook it and handed it to Lily. "That should hold it for a bit."
Lily pulled out a small knife she always kept on her and the dragon opened its mouth wide, sticking its tongue out. Quickly, Lily sliced the inside of his mouth with her knife, barely more than a scratch for the dragon and let the blood flow into the glove. Once it was full, Lily placed her still-gloved hand on its tongue and willed it to heal. Within a moment, the scratch was gone. The dragon woofed a waft of warm air at Lily and Severus and then took off. High in the sky, it let loose a long stream of bright blue fire. Lily watched it go until it was far out of sight, then she turned back to Severus.
"We should get this to Dumbledore. Plus, it's almost lunch time anyway," she said.
"Merlin forbid you miss a meal," teased Severus as he took her gloved hand in his bare one.
Lily glared at him for a moment and then in a quick movement ran her tongue up his cheek.
"Ew, Lily!" Severus grabbed some snow and cleaned his face. "Did you really have to do that?"
"Yes."
Severus rolled his eyes at her response; it was classic Lily. Finally, they made it to just outside Hogwarts' doors. Lily felt Severus grab her arm to keep her from opening them. She looked up at him in confusion.
"I love you," he said, caressing her face with one hand.
Lily's eyes went soft, "I love you too."
Just as Severus was leaning down to kiss her, Dumbledore swept the doors open. Lily and Severus jumped apart, startled.
"Er, oven cleaner for you," Lily blurted out, holding out Severus's dragon blood-filled glove.
Severus looked down at Lily in confusion. She looked back at him with a shrug and a look as if to say, 'What? It was the first distraction I could think of.'
"Ah, thank you. I thought I saw a dragon by the lake. I trust you two had a good time," said Dumbledore with that strange twinkle evident in his eyes.
"Yes, Professor Dumbledore," replied Severus somewhat awkwardly.
"Best be along, then. Lunch is laid out in your room for you," Dumbledore informed them.
They didn't move but shifted their weight uncomfortably.
"Oh," said Dumbledore after a moment.
He summoned a proper holding vessel for the dragon's blood and transferred the blood from Severus's glove to it. After returning the glove to its natural state, he handed it back to Severus. "There you go."
Quickly, they walked off towards what had become termed "their room". It was another one of the strange things about Hogwarts. Their room was the room that they had found the first time they ever had dinner together. From then on, whenever Lily and Severus wanted to go to their room, all they had to do was open a door and there it was. No one else, except house elves, could find the room when Severus and Lily were not in it. Even when they were in it, only Dumbledore could access it. It was almost as if Hogwarts was giving them a private sanctuary away from everyone else.
Once they arrived in their room, lunch was laid out for them. Quickly, Severus and Lily stripped off their outdoor clothing down and sat down in the cushy armchairs that always occupied the room.
"That was close," sighed Lily.
"I don't know how he does that." Severus shook his head.
"Don't try to figure it out; you'll only give yourself a headache. Oh, look! The house elves lit a fire," said Lily, abruptly changing the subject.
"That was nice of them. Did you try and thank them again?" Severus couldn't help but smirk a little.
"I gave that up a long time ago. They just don't like it." Lily blew a waft of air to get a few stray strands of hair out of her face.
Severus laughed and reached across to tuck the strands behind her ear. Together they began to decimate the food in front of them, thoroughly hungry from their morning in the snow. The End.
AN: There you have it my first published fanfiction! Thank you to all who read and feel free to review. All flames will converted into energy and used to power my secret labratory. This is something that was inspired by a larger fic and I may add more little stories featuring my Lily and Snape as chapters onto this if I cannot work them into the masterfic. I hope you all enjoyed this and remember reading fanfiction is always more important than your homework.