Beauty and Beast

The grass was warm, and tickled the bruise on his thigh. Severus propped himself up on one elbow so that he could see Lily sprawled beside him. Her eyes were closed, her hair spread out around her face like a fiery sunburst, and she had tilted back her head so that it soaked up directly the sun's warmth. Her long bare legs lay crookedly in the grass, all odd angles like a rag doll, and her arms were flung wide.

A breeze blew across her face, making Lily's eyes flutter open. Her eyes met his and he realised, uncomfortably, how close he was to her, too close, and began to scramble away. Lily, however, merely gave a snort of surprised laughter and levered herself up onto both elbows in one artless, fluid motion.

'What?'

Severus was instantly defensive. 'What what? I wasn't doing anything.'

Lily tilted her head towards him so that her hair fell from her shoulders in a curtain. The sunlight, he noticed with a jolt, had picked out her freckles like dark constellations. 'You were staring, Sev. Do you know that you do that? Like, all the time?'

He was silent, staring down at his scrawny knees. Lily was obviously worried she had offended him, because a few seconds later she said:

'It isn't like I mind… just, other people might. At Hogwarts and stuff. If you stare at them.'

'I wouldn't.'

Lily frowned and nodded, chewing her lip. 'We'll still be friends, won't we? At Hogwarts?'

'Course we will. Always. Why not?'

'What if I'm in a different house from you? Like, maybe a Hufflepuff or something, you know?'

He snorted. He didn't know quite why the idea was so ridiculous, but he knew that she was too brilliant, too beautiful, too Lily to be a Hufflepuff. Only duffers were Hufflepuffs.

'Only duffers are Hufflepuffs. You're not a duffer.'

Lily raised her sandy eyebrows at him. 'I think it sounds nice. I'd like to be one. What's so brilliant about Slytherin?'

Severus found himself momentarily unable to think of a single reason he could want to be in Slytherin.

'It's where all the important people go. The ones from the good families.'

Lily looked crushed. 'Oh.'

Severus fumbled for something to say. It bothered him, he couldn't pretend it didn't, Lily didn't fit with any of his ideas of how muggle-borns should be. Right now, though, her air of ease had vanished and she was refusing to meet his eyes.

'All the important people go there, though. You'll be important. Even if you're not- it wouldn't matter.'

Lily smiled, although he got the feeling that she didn't quite believe him. 'Why will I be important?'

He hesitated, unable to imagine a world that didn't have Lily at its centre. 'You just will be. I can tell.'

There was a brief silence, during which she focused her attention on a daisy growing by her elbow. When she did speak, he noticed that a flush was spreading across her face, filling in the gaps between her freckles.

'Sev… have you ever kissed anyone?'

He turned it over in his mind. Most people had probably kissed someone, even if it was their parents, but he couldn't remember a single kiss. His parents' face loomed in his mind, his mother sullen and withdrawn, his father glowering and threatening. He couldn't imagine kissing either of them.

'Don't think so.'

Lily's eyes went wide. 'Never?'

'Why did you ask?'

Lily was blushing furiously. 'Just… Petunia said… she said that wizards and witches were… freaks so…they probably wanted to…kiss, like, all the time, because freaks are like… like animals. And that I didn't know anything about it and so they'd… they'd make me do things. And I… I know it's stupid but I don't want to never have kissed anyone when I get to Hogwarts. I mean, I'm already going to be, going to not know anything everyone else does-'

Severus' throat had gone completely dry. His breath hitched in his throat.

'I could close my eyes...'

He clenched his fist, gripping a handful of grass to stop it from shaking. Lily glanced up at him from under her eyelashes.

'Do you want to?'

Severus nodded, and Lily squeezed her eyes shut. He edged forward, feeling awkward and ugly and misshapen, feeling as though any minute he would slip and hurt her somehow. Her cheek was close enough to count the freckles, to see the layer of minute hairs covering it like down. As his hand touched it, he felt her jump, and he felt ill at the sight of his own sallow, scrawny hand, and the awful contrast it made with her beautiful skin.

'Sev?'

He closed his eyes. When his dry lips touched her skin it was warm and alive, and as he inhaled he caught a faint sweet smell he could not place and would never forget.

Lily shifted. His lips caught on her skin and then they were touching nothing but air. He opened his eyes to see Lily's green ones, worlds of gold and emerald and grey, filling his vision. She leant forward a fraction, an expression of intense concentration on her face, and her eyes fluttered closed once again.

Her lips brushed against his. With the concentration of someone performing a complicated dance, she pressed further, warm lips covering his thin ones almost completely. Lily's hand came up and rested on his sunken cheek, holding him in place. Slowly, tentatively, Severus pressed back, angling his head to one side. Their noses collided. Lily giggled and tilted her head the other way, so that her hair fell between them and tickled his face, feathery soft and sweet smelling and warmed by the sun. He could not seem to think straight, could form no thought except to appreciate the faint taste of her mouth, salty and sweet, and the way strands of her hair seemed to be everywhere, surrounding them like a halo, and the soft, warm pressure of her hand on his cheek. He didn't ever want to think again.

Lily broke away, breathless and laughing, and Severus jolted back to reality. She was pink-faced, flustered, as she flopped down onto the grass.

'That was… nice. Did you think it was nice? I didn't expect it to be.'

He nodded.

'I'm glad it was you, Sev. I think we could show those Hogwarts animal freaks a thing or two.'

The glorious sunshine bathed them both in golden warmth. As he lowered himself to lie next to her, he barely noticed the twinge of pain in his thigh.