His heart was about to pound out of his chest; his ears felt as if someone had lit a match to them; every part of him felt as if it had been hyper sensitized. Calming his breath down, he slowly peaked out of his current hiding place; there were two large, bulky men directly in front of him. He held his breath as they turned around and stared directly at the spot he was out. After seemingly hours, they turned around and, as if someone had called them, ran in the direction he had just come from.
Breathing a small sigh of relief, he deemed it a good time to find another place to hide, in case the two guys came back. After squeezing out of the wall, he hesitated a moment before deciding to go to the one place he knew none of the henchmen could go.
Heading towards the fifth floor, he recollected the events leading up to this situation. It had been a day just like any other: class, homework, D.E meeting…. He'd felt particularly pleased with himself that afternoon: he had finished a rather large chunk of the massive homework he had for the week. Feeling as if he'd deserved some sort of a break for staying put on a Saturday, he headed to go sit out by the lake, despite the rather bleak way. He actually preferred it this way, the less people out the better.
He was not exactly a loner, nor one who particularly enjoys being alone all day on a Saturday, or any day of that matter. No, he quite liked people, most did not like him. With jet black hair that always looked greasy, despite what herbs and potions he put in, hand me down robes, and a rather large nose that genetics had not been too kind to bestow upon him; most shied away from him, figuring him to be some misunderstood kid ready to stalk you if you so showed him any kindness.
Some, however, were more than willing to look past this and get to know him. The rest, however, were in an all but different category. There were a group of four guys, the Marauders, they called themselves, that even the very thought of them provoked the reaction of him balling his fists up. The four of them had managed to take anything and everything worth anything out of his life; particularly his best friend Lily.
Heading down to the lake he took his mind off of them, deciding not to ruin this rare mood he was in. It was then when he saw her, Lily, sitting by a tree deeply intent on a book. He tried not to, but wound up studying her as he unconsciously started towards her. He liked her hair the way it was now: thrown up in a way that looked as if she simply rolled out of bed and headed down here. Though they hadn't been particularly close sense that fatal day when he let slip and called her a mudblood, he was still absolutely certain he was the only one in the whole school, with the exception of her two pesky friends, that knew the real and true her.
Realizing he was just a few yards away from her, he looked cautiously around before finally deciding to approach her. Thinking back to it now, he had no idea what possessed him to do it, although they'd been getting along great, working on their friendship, he now realized that it was not nearly far enough.
He made a point to step on a few branches and twigs, hoping that he wouldn't startle her as much as he would if he'd just walked up and said hi. She, obviously, so engrossed in her book, did not hear his futile attempts, so he gave up all pretenses and tapped her shoulder. She had just the reaction he'd thought she'd have: she jumped a foot in the air, letting out a few choice words on her way up. She then turned around to glare at whoever her attacker was, and, upon finding out it was he, all the fury in her face seeped away. She then smiled and motioned for him to sit down.
As he comfortably rested his back against the tree, she maneuvered from her original spot and sat directly across from him, her legs folded underneath her and her face lit up like a kid on Christmas day.
"Sev!" She ecstatically shouted at him. It made him break a little on the inside, knowing that despite everything he had done to her, she'd forgiven him. He felt as though he should still be getting the silent treatment, but never said so. He felt as if a hole was stabbed through him whenever he thought of not talking to her again. No, he'd much rather feel guilty and talk to her than feel deserving.
"Lily," he replied back, with not nearly the enthusiasm she had, "What are you doing outside on a day like this?" he had to ask, there was no one besides the two of them within viewing distance.
"Are you kidding? It so cool outside, you know, the way the fog looks on the lake, it's both pretty and eerie; and anyway it sets the tone perfect for the book I'm reading."
He smiled, knowing how fascinated by muggle murder mystery books she was. He never in all his years knowing her understood their appeal. He pointed out to her, several times in fact, that the heroine was nearly almost entirely dimwitted, claiming that if they had even half a brain they would not have gotten themselves in the idiotic situation they were in. She'd always laughed and rolled her eyes at his speculations clearly stating that he obviously hadn't met some of the people this world had to offer.
"Let me guess, the girl decides to be extra brave and sacrifice herself for the good of others?" He teased; glad he was back on good terms with her.
"No," she rolled her eyes, clearly expecting him to reply something like that, "there are actually no damsels in distress in this one, it's more of a jigsaw puzzle, and the people have to use clues and stuff to save themselves."
After that, she had closed her book and stuffed it back into her book sack. From then on they just talked casually and light. They talked about their N.E.W.T.S, to which he'd teased her about her procrastination skills, about the previous challenges, to which they both quickly skirted away from, not wanting to relive the accident that had put her in the hospital wing for three weeks.
It was a pleasant afternoon that continued on onto the sun setting. The Marauders hadn't shown up, nor had anyone from the D.E group he was in. This, he assumed was the reason it happened. Spending the day like this, he felt as if they had somehow traveled back in time. She was 10 and just finding out about her being a witch, and he was 11: she was his whole world. They had just gotten to the topic of best and worst past relationships, talking about the funniest date she'd ever been on, while she tried to coax out of him the most embarrassing one, that he'd let it brought it up.
"Remember second year? When we couldn't leave the castle?" She simply nodded, so he continued, "I'd asked you-"
She interrupted him, "if I wanted to go to the kitchens and get some pumpkin juice!" She started laughing, "You wound up tripping…..I don't remember over what though. All I remember is being soaked from head to toe in the stuff because you insisted you wanted a bigger cup because you were thirsty."
He decided not to tell her who had actually caused him to trip, "And then we had to try to explain to the Heads as well as everyone who saw us on the way to the common room."
"My face was probably about as red as my hair that day," she sighed, "not fair you changed the subject!"
"Actually I didn't," he let slip out.
She looked at him for a second before it dawned on her, "You considered that a date?"
He laughed at how incredulous and bewildered her face was, "I was twelve and scared to death to try to ask you on an official outing, besides we couldn't much go anywhere, so yes that was my kid version of a date."
The look on her face, he concluded, was what made him say what he did. She had this awed expression, like he had just told her the most amazing thing in history, like he'd just told her how amazing Hogwarts would be. An ache in him made him realize how much he missed those days.
And that's when it happened, when she awestruck quiet, that's when he'd blurted it out, not even thinking about what it meant, nor the consequences that would proceed. It just felt right.
"I miss you." Her face turned quizzical. He elaborated, "I miss us, and I miss what we used to be. When I was eleven and you were my best friend, when our version of a fight was pulling random sticks out of the ground and poking each other with them. You know, a day hasn't gone by that I haven't regretted everything I've ever said to you. Every day I see you, and I wonder if you're thinking about me. It hurts me to realize that you don't see me like that anymore."
"Wh..What do you mean?" She clearly was confused were this was coming from
"I want you to give me another chance… I have fall-"
He couldn't even get the rest of the words out of his mouth, out of the bushes beside him emerged his friends.
"Well, well, well, look who we have here, a blood traitor it seems to me," Lucius, the leader said first, taking out his wand, which was not a good sign. He jumped up, gave an apologetic look to Lily, before darting to the castle as fast as he could. None of them expected him to run, so his five second head start helped give him enough time to leap behind the nearest spot that would conceal him.
Now, giving the password to the portrait, he knew he had two options: give himself to Lucius and the gang and let her go live the life she's built for herself, or go inside the common room, wait for her and selfishly and vainly hope she'd choose him. As he heard heavy footsteps behind him, he knew he only had now to choose. Taking a deep breath, he walked towards his fate, knowing this would change his future forever.
A.N: So what do you think he'll choose? So you know, while the answer may be obvious, I'm disregarding the HP books completely, and I like Snape, after this I'm probably going to go back to the beginning and explain a lot of the seemingly random things that happened leading up to this, or I may just make this a TwoShot thing, what do you think?