Written as Chaser 3 for the Wimbourne Wasps in the Quidditch League Challenge. My two characters were Severus Snape and Lily Evans and my relationship was Friendship.

…

Lily sits, her head bent, and lets the rain fall around her. The day is cold and dreary and wet and if this was a muggle movie, something either totally depressing or outstandingly romantic would be about to happen. Instead she sits in the rain, alone, because no one walks anywhere when it's pouring – not even in Paris, and especially not at Hogwarts.

So she sits and remembers days in the rain in the past, when she could almost forget how much she hates the dreary weather.

…

December, 1970

They're ten, right at the beginning of that foolish age where you're not quite young and you're not quite old. Ten means more than that, though. It means that it's December and that January is going to change everything for them and it's impossible to explain how perfectly their birthdays line up.

He turns eleven on the 9th and she the 20th and so they don't have to share a birthday but they're never different ages for long. He tells her that means they'll learn to apparate together but she doesn't quite care, she just wants to know that they'll get their Hogwarts letters together.

That's the only thing keeping them going. He can't wait to escape his family, can't wait to say goodbye to Spinner's End and never have to return for anything longer than a summer. She loves her family, loves her home, but this is still a fairytale to her and she can't shake the feeling that it's just a wonderful dream. She can't wait to get to Hogwarts to confirm it and so they sit on her porch and watch the raindrops and wait.

They're ten and they're together and it's raining.

…

Lily hates the rain. She hates being wet and she hates being trapped inside and she hates mud. Two of those influence the third quite a lot and so she has to spend a lot of time indoors when it's raining and she hates it.

That sounds so unromantic because in media, rain practically symbolizes love now and what kind of person hates love? Except rain is the furthest thing from romance in real life and that's what people need to spend a lot more time focusing on.

…

September, 1971

They're eleven and it's September and that means they're first years and they're at Hogwarts and it's amazing. They're the runt of the litter but who's counting?

It's also raining, as it tends to do, but for once Lily doesn't mind it. She just grabs Severus's hand and they run through the storm, heads bent, from Herbology towards the castle. They're soaking wet when they arrive but their books are dry because Lily cast a charm on them (a real charm!) and they're grinning.

It might be pouring, but the castle is dry and warm and fireplaces are lit and there's a murmur of chatter, like people don't want to raise their voices higher than a whisper. And that almost makes up for the fact that Lily and Severus have to part ways at the Great Hall- to go to different tables and, ultimately, different lives.

But they still have a few more memories, a few more rainy days, before they have to part ways and they might as well enjoy them.

After all, they're eleven and they're at Hogwarts and they're part of this amazing world.

…

It rains, years later. It continues raining. It'll rain until the day they die and after.

That's just how it works.

It doesn't seem to matter to anyone how much Lily Evans hates the rain.

…

January, 1973

They sit in the library, in one of the big window seats. Lily's leaning against the glass, which is steaming up from the rain, but neither her nor Severus notice. Instead they're pouring over a history textbook, one of many in the library. This particular one is about Hogwarts and while Lily never used to like history, these things change when you're learning about the wizarding world instead of the boring, normal Muggle one.

The fireplace is going, and the library is quiet, and she's reading with her best friend- and Lily thinks that maybe she doesn't hate the rain as much as she likes to pretend. Maybe it leads to good things, good memories- even if nothing much ever happens. Because nothing big has to happen for a memory to be fond. It just has to be remembered in the right light. People forget a lot of things in their memories but we can forgive them.

All Lily knows is that she's reading this book with Severus and that it's one of a million memories that are all the same.

…

The truth is that people rarely hate weather. They can say they do. They can swear up and down that they can't stand the snow, or the rain, or thunderstorms, or whatever it is they 'hate'. They hate the memories that they associate with the weather. Which is not to say that humans don't hate things without reason, they certainly do, but if you look long enough, there's always something that can convince them that they're right. Because as long as you're right, who cares if you hurt someone.

But that hardly matters.

Because maybe Lily hates the rain because it reminds her of Severus and their friendship and how well it all worked out… until it didn't.

There aren't any memories after their second year. Or maybe there are, and she won't let herself think about them because they're that bad. Who knows. Who'll ever know?