Argh, I had trouble with this one. I tried this idea one time and it just didn't work, it was too choppy. I guess that's because I've only slept around 8 hours in the last 3 days. That's what I get. Also, jet-lag, how I loathe thee.

I decided to try a different idea for this... I was sure most people would read 'green evergreen' and think immediately "Christmas!" but I didn't want to do that. It felt too... overdone, I guess. Then I remembered The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. This is very, very loosely based on that, because I decided I wanted to do a sentient tree with her love for her human boy. :)

Please enjoy!

In the middle of the park placed in between Magnolia Crescent and Spinner's End, there was a very special tree. It had grown in the middle of a cluster of oaks, and was different from them in every way.

This tree was an evergreen.

No one knew how it came to be there, where it obviously didn't belong. Some thought a careless gardener or landscape artist had dropped a seed, others thought it was planted on purpose, a Christmas tree to be cut down as soon as it was fully grown. But the majority of the inhabitants of the surrounding neighborhoods didn't even know it existed. Parents heard of the Christmas tree from their children who explored the park frequently, but chalked it up to childish imagination and impatience for the holiday season.

This tree was special in its uniqueness, but it was made even more special by the fact that it was magic.

Inside the thick trunk, there was a small kernel of magic. It pulsed through the tree and surrounded it during harsh weather, creating a barrier to protect it. And as all the old myths went, non-sentient things, which were immersed in magic often, became sentient, so this tree had a mind, a conscious and personality.

She became conscious of those around her, she developed her own attitude and she remembered.

She remembered the different animals who swarmed around her, the birds who used her as a perch and the bugs who used her as a home. These things didn't annoy her; in fact, she encouraged it. The evergreen didn't feel as alone when she was with these smaller beings. Surrounded by completely different kinds of trees, she was a sort of outcast. She stood tall and proud, but the trees around her swayed and bent away from her, leaving her enough room to spread out comfortably, but isolating her.

As well as her small friends, she also kept an eye on the humans. The evergreen knew who the humans were- most of them were small, or so she'd observed. She rarely ever saw a tall human, an adult. The children were the ones who ran through the trees and played, shouting and laughing. The children were the ones who found her, and chattered excitedly about some sort of 'Christmas' before turning and sprinting off without further thought.

The evergreen was pretty sure the humans were harmless. Every now and then, she would hear a horror story from one of her raccoon friends about how aggressive they were, but she didn't quite believe it. She knew from experience how irritating the raccoons could be sometimes. She wouldn't really blame the humans if they'd chased the annoying little animals away.

But as much as she was curious about the humans, none of them ever stayed. They all came and visited once, then left and never returned. She longed for one of them to stay so she could learn more about them, but she was too far away from the playground area. On quiet days, if she listened very hard, she could hear the screams and shrieks of young humans. She listened as long as she could, until they disappeared, and then waited patiently until the next time she would spot one of them.

Then one day, it all changed.

It was summer, and the heat was creating a comfortable atmosphere. It was not too hot and not too cold, and the evergreen felt content to stay still and feel the slight breeze run through her leaves. Suddenly, she heard the loud cracking of a stick on the ground, and heavy footsteps. It was too heavy and loud to be one of the animals that usually passed and kept her company.

So she waited, curious and impatient, for the animal to come into view. From the noise, the evergreen could tell it was drawing closer and closer, and finally, she could see it.

It was a small human boy, with long dirty hair and patched clothes. He was covered in dirt and dust like most of the little boys the evergreen usually saw. The only difference was his attitude. Instead of running, always moving, always jumping all over the place, this human picked his way carefully through the forest. Not carefully enough though, thought the evergreen, not quite as stealthily as he should be if he really wanted to be quiet.

The small human reached her trunk, and the evergreen almost thought he was going to pass her by. But he halted a few steps away and looked up, craning his neck. She was amused at the surprised look on his face. This little boy had obviously never heard of her before.

Hello, little one, the tree thought, and waved her branches gently, allowing a few leaves to fall onto the human. He jumped as one fell onto his face, and grabbed it before it could fall to the ground. He looked carefully at it, tracing the many veins with one finger.

If trees could blush, the evergreen was sure she would have. She was flattered at the attention he was giving her leaf. The boy looked back up into her branches, and smiled.

It was a strange sort of smile, like he hadn't done it in some time and had almost forgotten how. It was crooked and pinched, but the evergreen loved it straight away. She urged him mentally to sit and rest, and spend some time under her shelter.

As if he could read her mind, the young human dropped to his knees at the base of her trunk and stroked it, then turned around and settled against it. He sighed contentedly and the tree could only wish she could do the same.

He stayed for a long time. When night was close to falling, he got to his feet. The evergreen was upset; she didn't want him to go. She liked his company. There was something about him, something in him reminded him of her. She couldn't quite put her branch on it, but it was something important. She knew that if he left, he wouldn't come back. All humans were like that. But she couldn't voice her thoughts, and he left after patting her trunk twice.

Surprisingly, the next day, he came back. The evergreen was overjoyed! For the first time, a human child had come back to see her. She tried to create the perfect atmosphere for him as he sat leaning against her, reading a book. She coaxed a few birds into chirping a pleasant tone and she convinced the bugs to not bother him. She asked a couple of squirrels to collect scented flowers and place them in the hollows of her trunk, so it would smell good.

The human sat reading his book a good portion of the afternoon, and the tree was happy just sitting in the silence, but after a few hours, the boy put the book down and looked up at her.

"Hello," He said simply. "I'm Severus."

She couldn't believe it. He was speaking to her! She shuddered in an attempt to show her excitement, and to her delight, it worked. The small human jumped in surprise, but quickly relaxed again.

"Nice to meet you," He grinned.

After that, he talked and talked. He came back to her almost every day and told her many things. The tree finally figured out why she felt such a connection with him. He had magic, too. He was a wizard, a human who could control magic and was born with it in his blood.

He spoke to her about different herbs and plants, about the books he read, about what he learned everyday… To the tree's understanding, he was young for human standards. Less than a decade old is what she guessed. Knowing this, she thought him quite smart.

Every day he came back, he had something new to say. Sometimes he only spent five minutes talking and then sat quietly for the rest of the afternoon.

And on very rare occasions, he talked about the other humans he knew. There were his parents, but he didn't like to talk about them much. From what the evergreen gathered, his mother was weak, like a partially dead tree. She spent her days shut in the house, and the boy only saw her in the evenings after he visited the tree. He rarely talked to his mother because she wasn't often awake.

He talked even less about his father. All she knew was he was a bad sort of human. He sounded mean and intolerant, not to mention aggressive and unfair. He sounded exactly like the kinds of humans her small animal friends told her stories about, right down to the horrible temper and tendency to lash out violently. Every time Severus felt the need to mention them to her, she wished she could bend her branches down like a willow tree and hug him tight.

There was only one other human he ever talked about. The evergreen thought this human sounded like someone she would like to meet. Her boy, for he was hers now, described her wondrously.

"She has red hair," He said one afternoon, in the middle of fall. "Like the sunset, almost, but prettier! And bright green eyes. She's so smart and pretty, and guess what…" He lowered his voice to a whisper, and the tree tried to lean in closer. "She's a witch!"

The evergreen was stumped for a moment. A witch? As if sensing her confusion, Severus continued to explain.

"A wizard is a boy who's magic," He said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And a witch is a girl who is magic."

The tree smiled then, in her own way. She shivered and swayed, and her boy smiled back at her.

"She's brilliant…" Severus sighed. The evergreen felt inclined to agree. She did sound amazing.

"I want to bring her next time." He said next, and she nearly shook again in her excitement. "But I can't."

The tree froze in confusion.

"It's not that I don't want to, I do!" He continued, resting his chin on his knees, curled up against her trunk. "It's just that… she'll think I'm bonkers."

After another moment of silence, he said:

"Talking to a tree and all."

She didn't understand. What was wrong with talking to her? Would this human girl not want to speak with the evergreen?

"She's muggleborn." Severus scowled. "She grew up with Muggles, people without magic, and hardly believes me about anything, but I've started convincing her. She just wouldn't get talking to you."

The evergreen wanted nothing more than to talk in that moment, to persuade him to bring this girl so she could meet her. Even if this other human didn't like talking to trees, the evergreen would be content with listening to her conversation with Severus. She seemed as bright as her boy did, and the tree wanted to know what her voice sounded like. She wanted to feel that same connection that she felt towards Severus, when her own magic reached out and mingled with the small boy's.

But it turns out she needn't have worried. The next visit, Severus was accompanied by a human girl with flaming red hair. The girl's bright green eyes darted from one thing to another, enchanted with this part of the park that she'd apparently never been to before. And when Severus stopped before the evergreen, she stopped too, and stared wide-eyed and awed at the tree. The evergreen drew herself up to her full height with pride.

A beautiful smile fell upon the girl's pink lips, and before she knew it, the evergreen was being hugged by the little girl.

"Oh, isn't it gorgeous, Sev?" The human exclaimed, holding on tight.

Severus smiled, surprised at her reaction.

"It's so pretty…" The red-head continued, stroking the trunk reverently. "Why isn't it like all the others?"

"Because she's special." Severus said proudly, and the evergreen felt a rush of affection for the little human boy.

"She?"

"Oh, yes," The dark-haired boy nodded. "And I'm sure she's very pleased to meet you."

The girl frowned, a little dip formed on her forehead. But as soon as it appeared, it was gone. She was smiling again, sincerely.

Backing up from the trunk of the evergreen, the red-head did a little curtsy in her simple brown dress.

"Nice to meet you too, Miss! I'm Lily!" She cried happily, and skipped forward again to plop herself down against her trunk.

Amazed as he always was at her easy acceptance, Severus sent a small smile to the tree who was watching joyfully, and joined his friend on the ground.

The two children played underneath her shade all afternoon and well into the evening, until the sky grew dark again. As they left, Severus said his customary quiet goodbye and Lily added in her own enthusiastically.

After that day, the two always came back. Sometimes Severus came alone, but most of the time Lily was tagging along. The evergreen grew to recognize their presences by their magical signatures, the feel of their magic against hers.

They both spent most of the time they were together playing little games, or reading Severus' books on magic. But in winter, when the snow had finally fallen and covered the ground in a thick layer of pure white, the two tired themselves out quickly playing in it, snowball fights and snowmen, then collapsed to the ground, exhausted.

It was one of those afternoons, when they had both laid down on the ground, side by side, hands interlaced between them, that Lily asked:

"Severus, why is she still green?"

Severus, who was staring at the evergreen's leaves, bright against the winter sky, turned his head to look at her. He shifted in his thin jacket, cold seeping in, and said:

"Well, she's an evergreen, of course."

The tree was mildly surprised. She hadn't known her boy knew what type of tree she was.

"Oh." Lily said.

"My mother told me." Severus added quietly.

There was a peaceful silence.

"What's an evergreen?"

Severus let out a giggle. The evergreen was overjoyed at the noise. She didn't hear her boy laugh very often, after all.

"It's a tree that keeps its leaves all year around, it's always green. Even in the winter."

Lily and Severus had both turned their heads by now and were staring into each other's eyes.

"But how do they do that?" Lily asked, bewildered.

The evergreen herself waited for his response. She didn't know either.

Severus merely smiled and said:

"Magic."