Chapter one: New Friends Same Enemies

As the students rushed through the halls getting to their classes on one of the cold days of Hogwarts. It was almost Christmas, November the 16th to be precise and they had just started to put the decorations up and it looked Christmassy as ever. Two of the students weren't looking where they were going, one bewildered by the hanging decorations and clashed into each other, dropping their books and anything else they were carrying. Both of them apologising repeatedly to one another, as they helped pick up their books.

"Uh, sorry," he said softly as he looked up, at first noticing her long red her, struggling to get words out "What's your name?". he finally blurted out.
"Lily," she replied "Lily Evans. And you?"
"Uhm, uh", he mumbled awkwardly, pushing his black hair out of his face "Snape, Severus Snape". Moments passed before anything else was said, they stayed there, staring at each other, unsure of what to say next. "So what class do you have?" said Snape shyly.
"Potions! I love potions" said Lily.
"So do I, aha. Are you in.."
"Ravenclaw. I think it suits me, I was thinking about Gryffindor but it doesn't seem like I'd fit in much."
"I'm sure you would have I'm in Ravenclaw too by the way"
"Do you want to walk to class together?" asked Lily.
"uh, sure" Snape replied, with a surprised sounding voice.

As they walked to class they went back and forth asking questions about themselves and didn't stop until Madam Crystal noticed and threatened to take off 10 points each if they didn't be quiet. But as soon as class was over they went straight back to talking to each other. Discovering their differing and similar interests. Their backgrounds, what their home is like. "I have a sister" said Lily "Petunia, she doesn't like me very much. Because I'm magic".
"I just bet she's jealous" Snape assured her.
Lily wished that it was true. Petunia was always so nasty to her and teased her and called her things like freak for being a witch. She was happy being magical but all she wanted was for her sister to love and accept her.

"So" said Snape attempting to change the subject "you said that you liked potions. Is there anything else that interests you?"
"Well, I've always like char-" Lily was about to finish her sentence as another boy and his friends following him walked up and positioned themselves in front of Lily and Severus.
"Morning Severus" The boy snarled. "Lily" he said as he winked. She sighed.
"Just go away James, leave us alone" ordered Lily.
"Now why would I do that?" said James as he moved his face uncomfortably closer to Lily.
"Because she wants you to" asserted Severus. James Potter and his friends called themselves the Marauders. They always found a way to make Severus upset or uncomfortable. He usually wouldn't stand up to him but there was something about Lily that made him want to.

"What was that Severus?" said one of James's friends from behind him.
"I said, she wants you to leave her alone, Sirius. So do it". Severus said, as he felt his courage crawling up.
As he said this one of the other boys pushed Severus off of the seat.
"Peter!" yelled Lily. James picked him off of the ground and held him for a moment and said "Remus, you want to have a turn?"
"I don't think that we should be doing this James" Remus replied as James pushed Severus to the ground again. As Severus reached for his wand James swiftly tore out his and said "Expelliarmus!". Severus's wand flew straight out of his hand and landed at least 10 metres away, he was defenceless. James used the spell once more as Severus had gained footing, but then fell sharply backwards. Now winded and struggling to breath James strolled over to him and whispered "Pathetic", and strut away, winking at Lily a last time, followed by the rest of the group.

Lily quickly ran to Severus's side to ask if he was okay. "I'm fine" replied Severus "nothing out of the ordinary".
"I expect nothing else from a Slytherin" Lily said spitefully. She had a sad, empathetic look on her face as James told her the stories about what The Marauders had done to Severus. She helped him off of the ground and into the Ravenclaw common room where she sat him down, and they continued on from their conversation before James interrupted.

It was finally Christmas time and most of the school had left to be with their families and relatives to enjoy the festive Christmas season. Lily and Severus however, chose to not go home but instead spend their holidays at Hogwarts. As everyone was filing out James bumped into Severus intentionally, and Lily over heard him talking about the 'poor people staying at Hogwarts for the holidays' and him boasting about what he's going to be doing and the gifts that he'll be receiving. Not many other students stayed during the holidays, most wanted to be with their families but Lily didn't want to deal with Petunia and Severus enjoyed Hogwarts too much. But the main reason that both of them wanted to stay was to spend more time with each other, unbeknownst to them.

They walked into the great hall that evening to find Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall, talking about Christmas and their plans for Christmas day. Realising that they had no business there they said their hellos and walked back to the common room together, playfully hitting each other and laughing. Lily trips over and lets out a high pitch cry for help. Severus catches her moments before she hits the ground, their eyes meet. He helps her to her feet not once breaking eye contact. Seconds pass and Mr Filch walks around the corner and asks "what are you two doing out here wondering the halls?". Lily quickly asks if Severus wanted to go and study for their exams, especially potions.

They both race each other to the Ravenclaw common room, as Severus is getting close the stair case that he was on starts moving away from where he wanted to go, stuck all he can do is wait and stare at the painting that marks the entrance to the room. Lily however finds a different route and beats him. She doesn't enter; she just stands there taunting Severus until the stairs move back into positions.
Severus, slowly walks down the stairs, with his head hung admitting defeat, then races at the last moment and beats Lily inside. "I win!" Severus says as he jokingly pokes his tongue out at Lily. She softly slaps him on the face and tells him to get his notes.

They spent the rest of their night revising and looking upon notes and remembering ingredients and pronunciations. As they grew weary and tired they collapsed onto the bed together. When they awoke, it was 5:23 a.m. Severus woke first and was about to go back to sleep until he noticed that his arms were around Lily, whose arms were around him. Her head facing him, he could feel her warm breath on his cheeks. "You're so beautiful" he said quietly to himself. Moments passed of him just being happy in the moment, and then Lily woke up. He thought that as soon as she awoke she would move away immediately but to his surprise, she just looked at him and held him tight and said "Good morning" sweetly. He had never felt happier than in that moment.

Several hours passed before they heard someone coming and quickly scrambled out of bed and to their books. Wizards and witches aren't allowed to sleep in the same rooms, let alone the same beds while at Hogwarts, it was strictly forbidden. It turned out to be nothing although. They sat there for a while, not talking because they felt like they didn't need to. They went back to holding each other in no time. But after a while Severus turned to Lily and said "So, are we going out now?" somewhat shyly.
"I guess so" replied Lily. And as she uttered those three words, he knew that it was the start of something amazing, something beautiful and special. Something… Magical.

Chapter 2: Potions, Transfiguration and Dark Stuff

As the students' final exams drew closer, stress levels were rising and any spare time and nights people had were spent memorising recipe after recipe and countless charms and spells. Lily didn't mind potions, she absolutely loved them and she thought it was amazing how a few seemingly random ingredients can make such wondrous things. So Lily didn't mind staying up studying for her potions and helping Severus with his but she couldn't quite wrap her head around other subjects. Mainly Transfiguration, fortunately Severus was enthralled by them.

"Severus" Lily said "can you come over here and help me with this spell"
"Yeah sure, of course" replied Severus.
"Thanks, I can't pronounce it. Den, uh Densaugo?".
"Densaugeo." James said as he chuckled. "Why are you learning that anyway, I doubt it'll be on the test".
"Well maybe I want to be prepared." Said Lily.
"Okay fair enough. Do you want to go to the Library to get some books to help with Herbology?"
"Yeah okay" Replied Lily.

They entered the library and started walked straight for the section on plants and started looking for Herbology books. After an hour or so of reading they hear a familiar voice. Neither of them associated with many people, they just spent time with each other so the only person that voice could have belonged to was James Potter, but he was alone this time. None of his friends were with him, which was an extremely rare sight to see. He was frantically looking through books muttering to himself. Stroking the spines of the books. He was obviously looking for something that he couldn't find. He was in the Defence Against the Dark Arts area.

He gave up his search of the book after several more minutes. And retired to a seat against the wall of the library. But all of a sudden, his face changed from a frown into a gleaming smirk. He saw a sign that read: RESTRICTED SECTION. STUDENTS KEEPOUT. James thought for sure that what he was looking for would be in there. He stood up and approached the librarian, passing right by Severus and Lily, not even noticing them though. "He seems quite odd today, doesn't he Severus?" asked Lily.
"Yeah, I can see it as well" He replied. They could over hear some inaudible muttering from James followed by the librarian loudly bellowing "Students are not allowed inside the restricted area! Now get out before I tell Professor Dumbledore.". Severus and Lily giggled as James trudged out of the library.

They quickly went back to looking at books and ended up borrowing out a copy of Novice Herbology, the book that was recommended for them. Whilst they walked back to the common room they couldn't help but wonder what James was doing in the library, or what he was looking for. They brushed the thought off for a later date. Not much longer after that they see James in the corridor, walking quite fast through the halls. It looked like he was hiding something under his shirt. Lily called out to him. "Hey, Potter! What are you hiding ther-", she was stopped by Severus.
"What are you doing Lil?" he demanded.
"What, I'm not scared of him. And neither should you be." she said "Hey let's follow him, I bet he's stolen one of those book or something else.". Severus agreed and they started to catch up to him. As they got closer and closer, he changed directions, darting around a corner. As Lily and Severus turned, he was gone. It looked like he just vanished. The halls had students in them but not near as many needed for someone to slip away like that. They gave up looking for him and forwarded to the common room. They had a big exam tomorrow.

They spent the rest of the night cramming for Herbology, occasionally taking a break or studying for other subjects. "What do you want to do when you're older?" Severus asked Lily.
"I want to be the Potions master of Hogwarts! So I can teach all of the students, in Ravenclaw, from their first years to their last." answered Lily.
"That's great! You'd be wonderful at it. All of the kids would love you." He said cheerfully. Lily's cheeks blushed a bright red. "Thankyou" she said trying to hid her face. "What about you?" she queried.
"I don't know, maybe I'll work for the ministry, maybe I could be the minister." Severus said as Lily started laughing. "Shut up" he said playfully. They decided that they had done enough studying and chose to stop and rest for the night. So they lay there, on the couch arms around each other, looking into each other's eyes. They were both so happy and content. It didn't matter what happened in the exams in the coming days, they would still be happy, because they had each other. "Forever and always Lil" Severus whispered to Lily. She smiled and pecked him on the cheek. "Forever and always" she replied, as they both drifted off into sleep.

They were woken up by one of their few friends, Jonathan Bloom. He was quite a tall young boy with dark hair and olive skin; he had family from the Ukraine. He'd been on the Quidditch team for the past two years as Ravenclaw's seeker, the position given to only the fastest players and he was good. Although his name was Jonathan he always liked to be referred to as 'Than', he didn't care too much about telling on Lily and Severus for sleeping in the same bed. "Hey, Severus, Lily" Than said as he snapped his fingers in front of their faces "guys wake up, get ready the first exams are in an hour!" after hearing this Lily got up so fast you'd think she wasn't tired at all. She promptly woke Severus up and told him the same thing. They thanked Than as he left the room. They got ready as fast as they could. Putting on their robes and gathering their equipment. Before leaving they skimmed their notes one last time. "Remember how to pronounce it?" Severus teased Lily.
"Yes. Densaugeo." She said slowly. They rushed to class and made it there just in time for their Transfiguration exam, they sat down and Professor McGonagall morphed from a squirrel into her human self.
"I hope that you all have your quills with you, the exam will begin" she paused "now". The students all started writing instantly.

After the day ended, they went to the great hall and feasted in celebration of the exams. The halls were loud with the boisterous voices of hundreds of students cheerfully chatting to each other about how they think they did in the exams. After some time the headmaster Albus Dumbledore gave a speech. "Students of Hogwarts, I hope that you all did well on your exams. Now enjoy the feast!" as soon as he said this more food appeared on the tables, cheers of delight arose from every student.

Everyone slept comfortably that night, stress free from exams and stomachs full of delicious food. Severus and Lily lay next to each other. Happy and waiting for the next day where they can do nothing and do weird magic tricks and tell jokes and be even happier than the day before.

Chapter 3: Q for Quidditch