Disclaimer: Credit goes to the ah-mazing J.K. Rowling. Part of this chapter is from The Prince's Tale in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I do not own the characters, except by oc Nichola Lewis.


Sadness. Humiliation. Anger. Confusion. Betrayal.

Lily Evans sat on her four-poster bed, her knees pressed to her chest as she hugged them. She was waiting, waiting for her eyes to spill the tears that were pooled in them, however they did not budge, so all she accomplished on her curtained privacy was a leg cramp.

She would be lying if she said she hadn't been expecting what happened earlier that day. Months and months of endless bickering led to this, she saw how humanity was leaving his eyes, making them impossibly darker. He hadn't smiled in months, not even at her witty jokes that used to provoke a slight upward in his lips—it didn't seem like much to others, but coming from Severus, Lily knew it was a pretty huge deal—but what did bring him satisfaction was taunting other who he thought were below him.

Mudbloods, to be more specific.

She had heard those nasty Slytherins whisper that word behind her back, but never paid them mind, as their opinion mattered very little to her. When Severus—Snape—had practically shouted at her, it was not the word that cut through her like a million knives, it was the look in his black eyes, a look of pure loathe and disdain. He, who had told her it didn't matter she came from a non-wizarding family when they were kids, was now looking down at her as if she were scum. The world had stopped for Lily and any hopes of rescuing Snape from the greedy claws of the Dark Arts were now lost, shattered like their friendship was now.

So she ran, ran from Snape's accusing eyes, ran from Potter's pleads to please wait.

She had spent all day in her dorm, staring at her brightly painted toes and waited for sleep to take over. It did not.

Mary Macdonald and Emmeline Vance occasionally brought supper from the Great Hall and placed it on Lily's night table, which she ignored and was now laying cold after three hours.

Sighing and wiping her eyes, she drew the curtains from her bed and stood up. Her third roommate, Marlene McKinnon was already tucked in bed, her dark hair in a messy bun on the top of her head and she was reading what Lily thought, her finished Ancient Runes essay.

At the sound of Lily's bed creak, Marlene looked up from her essay and gave Lily a sympathetic smile, "All right, love?"

Lily had always liked Marlene, she was her first friend at Hogwarts, aside from Snape and despite coming from a pureblood family, and she had always respected Lily. So she nodded and gave the best smile she could produce.

After getting her dressing gown from her trunk, she made her way to the loo. Inside it, she stared at her reflection in the mirror, expecting to see what she was feeling inside project on her face. But everything was normal, there was no pain in her eyes, they were only blood-shot from the tears.

She shook her head and got dressed quickly, tying her auburn hair in a messy ponytail and exited to her dorm. Mary and Emmeline were back, as well as Nichola Lewis, their fifth and final roommate. Marlene was asleep; Nichola as well and Emmeline was reading her Potions book. Mary, however, got to her feet when Lily re-entered.

"Um, Lily," she nervously started, "I-I don't know if you want to hear this and I wouldn't blame you if you didn't, but he was very persistent, the slimy git but-"

"Just spit it out Mary."

Mary sighed, "Snape's outside the Common Room, I told him to get lost but he threatened to stay the night if you didn't go out"

"You don't have to go Lil," Emmeline said, looking up from her book, "So what if he stays the night in the hard floor? The prat deserves that and more for what he did"

Lily considered this, she had nothing to say to Severus but she also considered that if she didn't get things straight with him now, he would be pestering her for what was left of the year.

"It's fine, I'll go," she slid her slippers on and despite Emmeline's protests, she made her way down to the Common Room.

Despite the late hour, it didn't surprise her to see the Marauders there. Remus was engulfed with a book, while Peter, Black and Potter were commencing a round of Exploding Snap. As if he had a radar, Potter lifted his eyes to her and his hand quickly went to his hair, which he seemed to regret when Lily rolled her eyes and continued her way to the portrait hole.

Bloody idiot.

Outside, she found Snape sitting on the ground beside the portrait of the Fat Lady and she finally came into view, he jumped up and immediately said:

"I'm sorry."

She wanted to believe him, she honestly did but his eyes betrayed any kind of sincerity. Was there regret? Yes, there was but it was not was Lily was looking for. She was tired of this Snape, and when before she felt pity, now all she felt was annoyance.

"I'm not interested," she said folding her arms.

"I'm sorry!" he pleaded again, a slight edge on his voice.

"Save your breath."

She expected him to leave at this, he only stood his ground and Lily glared at him.

"I only came out because Mary told me you were threatening to sleep here."

"I was, I would have done. I never meant to call you Mudblood, It just-"

This caused Lily to explode.

"Slipped out?" Her green eyes were now slits. "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 — you see, you don't even deny it! You don't even deny that's what you're all aiming to be! You can't wait to join You-Know-Who, can you?"

Her hands were shaking from the anger, her cheeks turning crimson with exasperation. Snape opened his mouth to say something but quickly closed it.

"I can't pretend anymore." Lily continued. "You've chosen your way, I've chosen mine." She turned to leave but Snape had more to say.

"No — listen, I didn't mean—"

Lily looked over her shoulder, a sad expression in her eyes, "—to call me Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus." She thought of Mary, and her almost attack by Mulciber. "Why would I be any different?"

When he provided no answer, she muttered the password and climbed through the portrait hole once more. Inside, she dragged her feet through the empty Common Room when a voice made jump.

"Evans?"

Well, almost, empty Common Room.

She turned and came face to face with Potter, who was sitting in front of the fire in his pyjama trousers and an old Tornadoes' Quidditch jersey. She also noticed he was rolling the Golden Snitch with his fingers, and as a Prefect, she glared, knowing he had probably nicked it.

"You should return that."

He stared at her, his eyebrows knitted in confusion. "Come again?"

"The Snitch. I reckon you stole it, so you should probably return it."

She saw how he smirked at this realization, which irritated her, but then again, anything James Potter did irritated her.

"You really don't know anything about Quidditch, don't you Evans?"

She scoffed. "I know all the players tend to be prats, you being the biggest of them all."

A flash of hurt flashed in his hazel eyes and she turned to leave, but again, he spoke.

"They have flesh memories, the Snitches, so we can't really use them again once the Seeker catches it. I caught this one when I played Seeker the one time Morgan was in the Hospital Wing, so McGonagall let me keep it."

"Oh", was all Lily said.

"Yeah." There was a big silent pause before Potter spoke again, "You know, I'm sorry right?"

Lily's natural reaction would've been to glare as this was the second apology involving the parties of the lake incident but once she saw the sincerity in Potter's eyes, her glare turned into a frown.

"You are sorry?"

He just nodded and seeing Potter this way, without his usual air of cockiness and the ever-present smirk on his face, made her consider his apology.

"And not just for today, for all the other years too," he responded.

"Oh," she said rather surprised, "it's alright, I guess."

"It is?" James was just as surprised as Lily was, maybe a little bit more, and she thought he might have expected Lily to blow up and start shouting at him about how much of a sodding git he was. And though she considered it, she was much too tired and was in desperate need of her bed.

She nodded and turned, her feet taking her to the stairs that led to the girls' dormitory.

"Evans?" Potter called once more before she started ascending the staircase, "Am I really that big of a prat?"

"That biggest one I know," was all she said.


I KNOW starting another one, when my previous only has one chapter? (Which is in hiatus because I have no idea how to continue). But this won't be a story, just a serious of one-shots of what I think happened in the Marauder-era. It will not be only Lily/James but also other characters, including the Black sisters. I will really appreciate if you reviewed! And please drop a comment on what you would like to see! (However, I refuse to write au love story between Lily and Snape, only one-sided unrequited love ones).

Hope you enjoyed!

Leah-West