STORY: A DECK OF CARDS.
SUMMARY: It's Valentine's Day and Lily has a tough choice to make; James or Severus. Vote for your favorite. I will write accordingly.
DISCLAIMER: I am not the owner of Harry Potter. The whole idea belongs to JK Rowling and I am just borrowing it.
On the morning of February 13th, Lily Evans woke up to the sound of quiet giggling. This was not uncommon as the four girls she shared a room with happened to be the silliest girls one could possibly imagine. They giggled for everything; poor grade, bad dates, boys and the odd occasion when something actually funny occurred. However this particular high pitched giggle was reserved for conversation about guys.
Lily lay quietly on the bed so they wouldn't know she was awake. From the corner of her eye she could see that they were wearing their finest Red and Gold jumpers. That day just happened to be a Quidditch day, which meant that the girls acted sillier than usual. She listened to their conversation for a while.
"I heard their playing Robbie Keane since Bent is out with that fractured skull," Victoria Adams said gloomily.
"I head James telling Sirius that he reckons he's faking it. Poor bloke was scared for life," Emma explained taking a seat on one of the four poster beds.
"That idiot Pakinson must be real pleased with himself. That whole Slytherine lot could just vanish to the Sahara is you ask me."
They all nodded in agreement.
Victoria suddenly got a bright look in her eyes, the kind she got when she received a particularly juicy piece of gossip. "Do you think James will do it? Odds are 10 t0 1 that he'll chicken out."
"What's Potter going to do now?" asked Lily sitting up at last. "Why Dumbledore thought it was a good idea to make him a prefect I'll never know."
The girls turned to look at her. "You're awake."
"I guess," she said leaving her bed. "What's Potter up to?"
They looked at each other and smiled. "Well, haven't you heard?" asked Melinie Brown.
She shook head. The looks on their faces were beginning to scare her.
"He says he's publicly going to announce his undying love for you before the match."
"WHAT," her face was already turning red with embarrassment.
Emma seemed to be enjoying it immensely. "He also said when he catches the snitch he's going to transfigure it into a heart and have it follow you around to remind you of his love for you."
Lily sat on the bed feeling her cheeks burning. "Why me," she cried.
"Why not me?" replied Victoria.
They gathered around her all smiling. "Oh, don't fuss Lily, no one thinks, he's going to do it."
"Exactly how many people know about this?"
"Only the Gryffindors, a couple of Revenclaws, and a handfull of Huffelpuffs," Emma explained.
"And I think I heard Bellatrix form Slytherin making a joke about it to that slime ball Serverus," added Victoria.
Lilly passed her hand through her hair. "So the whole school knows and no one thought about telling me."
They giggled at this again.
Lily sighed. "That's it; I'm not going watch the match. I'll patrol the corridors or something."
James never exactly hid his feeling for her but if did what he planned to do no one would let her hear the end of it. She couldn't stand the thought of people teasing her about James, especially when he was the last person she would ever consider dating.
Lily Evans sat in the empty Potions class rooms listening to the loud cheers coming form the Quidditch match. She hated to miss a match but she had to. How could she possibly go after what she heard? James Potter had a way of ruining things for her.
She looked up at the ceiling letting the tension in her back ease away. There was something very comforting about the classroom. All the ingredients and potions book made her feel like there was no problem in the world she couldn't find a solution to whipping up cauldron of some potion. As the years went on she was beginning to feel like this was less true. Was there such a thing as an 'out of love' potion? If she could make a batch of that and slip it to James it would be the best day of her life. She flipped trough her copy of Advanced Potions and stopped at Felix Felicis. She always wanted to try out a really difficult potion but she never had the time. She was just about to go to the stores when she heard someone stir behind her. She turned around to see a familiar face.
There with a cauldron in his hand stood the thin hook nosed figure that belonged to Severus Snape. She observed him as he awkwardly sat his cauldron on the table and his potions book aside. "Hello Severus," she said teasingly. She knew Severus long enough to know that he never talked to her. He and his lot all thought that she was worst sort of filth to walk the earth, a mudblood, as he called her once before.
Severus made a slight glance in her direction and nervously opened the book to a potion. She continued to look through various bottles, taking the ingredients that she needed. She looked at Severus again. He looked anxiously at her and she took her time collecting the ingredients. She chuckled. "Oh Serverus, don't be silly, we mudbloods don't bite. Come and take what you need."
Severus reluctantly got up and walked to the stores. He opened his mouth as if he was about to say something then stopped himself.
"What is it that you wanted to say?"
He shook his head.
"Are you deaf mute Severus? Both you and I know you can speak."
Lily seemed to have touched a nerve. "I was going to say that I would have thought that you would be at the Quidditch match given the givens."
She rolled her eyes. "Oh like I really need that arrogant show off embarrassing me."
She chuckled at this like he couldn't help himself.
"Wow, I don't believe I have ever seen that emotion from you Severus."
He smiled to himself.
Lily looked at him as he took some powdered snake venom into his cauldron. She shuddered at the thought of what he was making; nothing good had that ingredient in it.
"What's that you're making?"
He shrugged. "Nothing."
"Okay so you don't want to tell me." Lily took her ingredients and went back to her cauldron. "I'm making some Felix…"
"…Felicis" he completed. "I've tried that before it really difficult. And it takes ages."
She shrugged. "I know but I think I can manage." She saw the look of envy in his eyes or was it admiration. "I can show you if you like."
He hesitated with the thought for a moment. She could only imagine how it irked him to have a "mudblood" help him. He finally nodded. She smiled at this and walked over to the other desk where he was seated. She looked at him and watched her take his copy of Advanced Potions. She scanned through the pages and stopped on Felix Felicis.
"What are you going to do with it?" asked Severus slightly worried.
"Don't worry," she replied giggling at the look on his face. "I'll make some notes for you." She took up his quill and dipped it in the ink and began to cross out some things and add her own instructions.
"And this will work?" he asked.
"Yes, I do it all the time. I change things up a bit. Improve it if you will."
"Is that right, how do I know you're not making me a batch of poison because Potter asked you to."
She gave him to look as if to say the idea was revolting an insulting but the social odd ball didn't catch on. His expression stayed the same.
She sighed in defeat and made her way back to the shelves and took out from a jar something shriveled up and dry. She marched over to Severus and pulled his hand that was nowtracing her handwriting in the book and placed the object in his hand.
"A bezoar?" he asked, looking at her questioningly.
"Yeah, if it's poison then you can take it. But just so you know this will not poison you."
She went back to jotting noted over his potion.
He smiled awkwardly.
She handed him the book when she was finished making her adjustments. "Now you can give it a go," she said.
He took the book and bowed his head deep in it to read. He always read and wrote like that, with his nose was dangerously close to the page. On many occasions she thought of asking him if he needed glasses but she was never on speaking terms with him. Only recently she realized that it was something he did unconsciously, especially when he was concentrating.
She walked back to her table and got a fire going, then conjured up a pitcher of water. Absentmindedly she began to hum the tune to a song by the Beatles while adding ingredients to her cauldron.
"The Beatles," she heard Severus say in a low voice.
She looked at him with her eyebrows together. "How did you know?" she asked.
He suddenly looked a little paler than usual. "My father was a big fan, has every single record there ever was."
She nodded. "My mom is always singing all their songs. After the first year of Hogwarts when I got home she asked me if I could conjure up Paul McCartney in the living room."
"Did you?" He asked.
Lily shook her head. "They don't exactly teach you how to conjure pop stars, do they?"
He shook his head silently.
Lily then looking over his way pinned her read hair behind her ears. "I didn't know that wizards listen to the Beatles."
He didn't respond, instead he just went pack to reading the potion she had scribbled over, clearly trying to determine if she was indeed trying to poison him.
She sat in an awkward silence for a moment and was about to enquire further when she heard a loud cheer erupt from the stadium. "Sounds like someone caught the snitch."
"I suspect it should be heart shaped any minute now," Severus muttered quietly.
She sighed at this. "I think I'm going to Slughorn's Party tomorrow. That's the one place on earth where he can't pop his messy little head," she explained. "Who are you taking?" She knew that Severus would probably have a hard time getting someone to go with him. Bellatrix and their lot never looked the sort to attend a Valentine's Day party."
"I forgot about that. He said if I don't show up he'll hunt me down." Snape sat up and in a wave of his wand all the ingredients vanished. "I don't know. I imagine James would not be coming with you."
She rolled her eyes at him. "I promise you Severus, I won't bring James if you don't."
Just as Lily said this someone came through the door. She turned around to see James Potter with a smug look on his face. "Severus, are you holding Evans hostage?"
Then before another word could be said Severus gathered up his things and left the classroom leaving Lily with James.
James looked at her questioningly. "What you doing here with Severus."
Lily rolled her eyes at him. "James, I don't recall ever agreeing to marry you so I can't see how it could possibly be any of your business."
He looked at her with his eyebrows together. "Seriously though, when I saw you were down hear with him I was seriously worried."
This was not new to Lily, he always had a way of knowing where she was all the time and who she was with. It was so frustrating. If she didn't know any better she's say that he had an invisibility cloak. But she couldn't imagine where he would get such a thing.
"I think I feel safer with him than with you. Now if you'll excuse me, this classroom is off limits to you." She pushed him out the classroom and shut the door in his face.
She looked at her potion bubbling and in a wave of frustration cleared it all up. She was no longer in the mood to make any sort of potion.
Author's Note: Hello this my fist HP fanfic in a really long time. I would love to have some reviews please. Also don't forget to Vote for your favorite paring. Lily/ James or Lily/ Snape.