Disclaimer: I don't own anything JKR

Well, this is my first attempt at writing in a few years and I'm trying to get back into it. I'm hoping that this will receive some decent reviews because it's good writing practice! Any and all reviews would be appreciated! And don't worry… keep reading because it will get better as I go!

I heaved a huge sigh and glared across the room. I was struggling through my Transfiguration homework in the Gryffindor common room, but the noise that my fellow Gryffindor's were making was extremely distracting. Annoyed and frustrated, I threw my quill down on the parchment and stared at the offending troublemakers – James Potter and Sirius Black. Their other friend, Remus Lupin, was standing slightly outside the center of the group, quieter than James and Sirius; and Peter Pettigrew was standing next to him, gazing adoringly at his idols. I snorted. I considered telling them off or handing out a detention or two, but I decided against it. The other Gryffindor prefect, Remus, wasn't bothered by the boisterous show-offs, so I decided not to let it bother me. Exhaling hard and blowing a piece of hair off of my face, I picked up my quill again and set to finishing the homework. However, this was much easier said than done

"Oh, just go tell them off already!" my friend Sarah finally exclaimed after about the tenth disgruntled sigh/glare.

"There's no point," I replied. "They'll just enjoy the attention more!"

Sarah laughed. "You're probably right."

Sarah was my closest girlfriend, and we are as opposite as two people could be. I'm tall, with bright green eyes, pale skin and freckles all over my cheeks. Sarah, on the other hand, is shorter. She has dark brown hair that is almost black, a tanned complexion and bright blue eyes. She is probably one of the prettiest girls at Hogwarts, if not the world – the contrast between her dark hair and bright eyes turned almost every boys' head her way. I am definitely nowhere near as pretty as she is. Plus, I'm really shy and reserved, but Sarah is confident, outgoing and fun. Even though we have such different personalities and looks, we have been close friends since our first year at Hogwarts.

"Why don't you pack it in for the night, Lil?" Sarah asked, looking concerned. "I know this year is OWL year and all, but it's only January. Exams are months away!"

"I know. I just have to do well. Transfiguration is really difficult right now, and what if I fail?"

"Lil!" Sarah exclaimed, laughing. "Relax! You're the best in our year. You'll be fine!"

Reluctantly, I grinned and rolled my eyes. "Fine, I guess you're right. I think I'll head off to bed now, though."

Sarah flipped her hair. "I'll be right up. I'm just going to… um, check the noticeboard!"

She flounced away, stealing covert glances at Sirius Black. Laughing, I hauled my heavy bag upstairs to the fifth-year girls' dormitories.

I dropped my bag beside my bed, grabbed my quill again and a sheet of parchment from beside the bed and curled up to write a letter.

Dear Sev,

I know that you're probably still a little bit annoyed with me right now, and I'm sorry. You know why we haven't been hanging out much lately. The people that you're associating with are not good people and you ARE a good person, inside and out! You know that you will always be my best friend, forever. Please don't be too mad at me. If you want to talk to me, we can meet up at lunch tomorrow, but if you don't want to, that's alright.

Miss you

Xoxo

Lily

I rolled up the parchment and went to the window, where my brown owl, Merry, sat on a ledge. The owl hooted softly and stuck out his leg.

"Take this to Severus for me alright?" I said, stroking the owl's head. Merry blinked and took off into the night, making his way toward another part of the castle. Sadly I watched him fly away into the darkness.

My best, best friend, Severus Snape, had been ignoring me for several days now because of some 'concerns' I had raised to him about the people he had been hanging out with. I am dead against the Dark Arts in every shape and form, and I know that some of the people that Sev is spending his time with are practising Dark magic. Plus, the majority of them are super creepy!

Severus was in Slytherin house, which had a bad reputation in the first place. It was famous for producing Dark witches and wizards, and having an unacceptable tolerance for the Dark Arts. When I voiced my concern about his new 'Death Eater' friends, he got really defensive and angry and stalked off.

I hopped into my bed, thinking about Severus and how I should never have said those things about his friends (whether they were true or not) in the first place. The only thing that mattered to me was his happiness; and if these new friends made him happy…who was I to put them down?

I rolled over in my bed and stared moodily at the hangings around my bed. Most of my Gryffindor friends had no idea what I saw in Sev. Granted, Gryffindors and Slytherins were traditional enemies at Hogwarts, so that obviously didn't win him any points in my friends' eyes. But they didn't see his sweet and sensitive side. They didn't see him when we were alone together, taking walks by the lake, or helping each other study, or talking about our family lives, both of which were strained. He was such a good person, and it frustrated me that he was getting sucked into the 'Slytherin' way of doing things.

The door suddenly clicked open, and I could hear Sarah walk in, giggling with the rest of our roommates. I could hear them talking about James and Sirius and how cute and funny and charming they were and blah, blah, blah…

The next time I opened my eyes, it was morning. I got up to take a shower before the rest of the girls woke up and spent all morning in the bathroom. The rest of the girls in my dormitory were forever in the bathroom, primping and putting on makeup and doing their hair. I, on the other hand, didn't really have the time to bother with hair and makeup.

By the time I had finished drying my hair with my wand (no one likes wet hair hanging down the back of their robes), the rest of the girls were awake and getting themselves ready for the school day. Thankfully, Sarah didn't take as long to get ready in the morning as the other girls, so the two of us walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Halfway through my plate of mixed fruit and toast, the post arrived. Merry swooped down and landed beside me, knocking a jug of pumpkin juice into the lap of sixth year Jack Foster, who shouted and shot me the dirtiest look. I paid him no attention though, because I recognized the handwriting on the parchment.

Meet me in the library at lunch.

-Sev

I frowned at his short reply, but my stomach flip-flopped with happiness and excitement at the thought of meeting up with him later.

"Oooh, who's the love letter from Lillikins?" Sarah cooed, making googly eyes at me. "Is it from Sweetheart Snape?"

By this time, the rest of the fifth-year girls had joined us. Kate, Amy and Bethany laughed and made kissing noises.

I could feel my cheeks burn but I laughed with them. They always called him 'Sweetheart Snape' because they thought that he liked me, which was utterly ridiculous of course.

"Sweetheart Snape? I didn't know that you two had declared your love for each other publicly Evans." James Potter had arrived with Sirius and Remus, closely followed by Peter. I scowled at them.

"It's too bad that you're so in love with your own reflection that you can't get yourself a girlfriend, huh Potter?" I shot back.

The girls laughed. His eyes narrowed for a moment, but a smile lit up his face the next instant.

"You're right Evans. Maybe you should go out with me, and prove that statement wrong," he grinned, ruffling his hair.

"Ugh. I would rather go out with the giant squid than touch you!" I grimaced.

He sidled up to where I was sitting. "Ah, Evans. Don't make me beg. You know you want to go out with me…"

"I've told you no! I wouldn't go out with you if you were the last boy on earth!" I shot back, frustrated with his arrogance. He looked amused at my retort, which made me even more annoyed, so I gathered up my books and stalked off for my first class, Charms. I was about ten minutes early for class, but there was no way that I was going to sit there and listen to James' arrogance.

I heard footsteps behind me and knew that Sarah had followed me out of the Great Hall. She walked up the marble staircase with me in silence, and even let me sit down in my desk before she started in on me.

"Lily, why on earth don't you just go out with him?" She demanded. "He's one of the best looking guys in our year, he's really smart, comes from a great family and he's nice! Well," she stopped, looking kind of guilty, "he's not that nice I suppose…."

"Great observation," I replied stonily.

"Ah, come on Lil! So he can be kind of full of himself. Most guys are at our age…"

"That's not any kind of excuse. Other guys I know aren't like that," I shot back.

Sarah rolled her eyes. "If you're talking about Severus, Lil, he totally doesn't count. You know I have no idea what you see in him," she said, looking at me like she doubted my sanity.

"You wouldn't," I said under my breath.

By this time, the rest of our class was walking in, pulling out books and preparing for the lesson. I buried my head in Achievements in Charming to avoid any more questions about Sev. Sarah looked like she wanted to talk about it more, but she could see that I wasn't in any kind of mood to tolerate an interrogation, so she sighed and gave up.

When lunch came around, I quickly started gulping down my shepherd's pie.

"Where are you in such a hurry to get to?" Sarah asked, staring at me in shock and a very small amount of suspicion.

"Umm… library. Have to finish that essay for Slughorn," I lied quickly, avoiding her curious gaze.

"You're lying," she accused. "I know you finished that essay two days ago!"

By this time I had finished what was on my plate. "I'll see you later!" I shouted back at her confused face, racing out of the Great Hall.

I could feel my heart pounding in my chest as I searched the library for his familiar dark mop of hair. Finally, with another huge flip-flop of excitement (what is this feeling?!) I saw him sitting alone at a booth, books piled all around him so that he was barely visible. I hurried over and slid into his booth across from him.

As soon as he looked up and saw me, a grin broke out across his face that made me feel fluttery and out of breath.

"Lil! I'm so glad you came!" he smiled at me. When Sev smiled at me, his entire face lit up like he was staring at the sun. It made me feel happy that I had this effect on him.

"So am I, I've really missed you! I hate when we fight. Let's never fight again, alright?" I pleaded.

His grin turned soft. "Alright," he said quietly. "I promise."

We sat and talked for the remainder of our lunch break, and we left the library together. Most of the other students were still in the Great Hall eating lunch, or in the library or common room, so the halls were quite empty. All of a sudden and to my very great surprise, Severus grabbed my hand and held it quite close to him. I could feel his thumb tracing circles on my hand very gently. I was so surprised by this that I stopped.

His face turned bright red, which in turn made my face go bright red. He very hastily dropped my hand and turned away.

"I'm sorry," he said, his voice straining. "I shouldn't have done that."

Before I could even react to what had happened, he turned and almost ran down the corridor, disappearing so fast that I doubted ten seconds had passed since he dropped my hand. I stood in the middle of the hallway, probably looking like a fish out of water. I know that hand holding really isn't that big of a deal. But for Severus and I it was. Never before had our friendship strayed past the boundaries of a friendly pat on the arm, or a hug after a long time apart. We certainly never had any physical contact in the halls at school, in the middle of the day. The way that he held my hand felt… romantic. A gesture that couples would do. Not best friends who have known each other for years.