Skinny Boys and Freak Girls
They're thirteen and hiding out in their favorite place to be together, the park. Today, they are beneath the park's slide, which, given their ages and appearances, will likely scare off any respectable child that may wander their way. It's not hot, but the sun shines brightly for once, leaving the earth around them warm, rather than cool. Even so, they keep tucked beneath the slide's shadows, as Lily chose hours ago. If Severus had the choice today, he would have picked to hang out on the swings, but it hadn't been his day to decide and even if it had been, he would have forfeited it. Lily's covered every inch of her arms and legs today and he knows what that means. So, Severus sucks it up and pretends he's not shivering when Lily looks away from him to scowl at something in the far distance.
Poking little twigs mindlessly into the dirt, Severus, for the first time, looks fully at Lily. This draws her attention back to him, however, when she feels that his stare isn't casual. When she meets his gaze, Severus sees there's a darkness around her eyes that not even 'Tuney's cover-up can hide. On top of the darkness, Severus notices a far too familiar weariness to Lily's tragically beautiful green eyes that, not for the first time, makes him want to trace them. Frowning in agitation as he continues to stare with silent scrutiny, Lily crosses her arms over her blooming breasts with a self-consciousness he hasn't seen since Petunia's began to grow before they went to Hogwarts.
"What is it, Sev?" she demands with a harshness that makes the boy's heart pick up a notch. Briefly, he is reminded of Father and how his voice gains a similar tone when he is annoyed with Severus too.
"When did he stop bothering 'Tuney?" he babbles, knowing very well what the answer is even as he asks.
Lily scowls. "When she got her period, you know that," she grumbles. Carefully shifting her body weight, she curls a lank strand of fire-red hair behind the shell of her ear. "Now, what do you really have to say, Severus?"
Sighing, the boy lets go of the stick he was toying with and smooths the wrinkles from his mother's old blouse. "I–" he pauses, and licks his chapped lips. "They asked me if I was interested in joining the Lord's followers upon coming of age," he whispers.
Lily pulls an incredulous look. "Why? You're only a half-blood, I thought they were for purity and all that shite," she says bitterly.
Severus flinches, hating the reminder of how he failed her. He'd told her Hogwarts was as magical as the people who resided there; a place where all was good and wonderful. That it was a place where they could forget their worries. A place where it would stop. He'd been wrong, of course, and he'll admit that it stung, (but why? He's always wrong). To have it thrown back in his face by his only friend in the world hurt a lot more than he could take, however.
So, he countered her prickly observation with a viciousness usually only reserved for that gang of Marauders at school. "They are, but, you see, at least I'm not a filthy Mudblood," he hisses so menacingly she blinks.
A moment later she grins, no, sneers. "Ah, finally showing our true colors, huh? Guess you were always a snake in sheep's clothing after all!" she says. With that, Lily makes to get up, but with more terror than he's ever felt before, even when he was certain his father would never stop, Severus grabs her wrist.
"Don't," he chokes. "God, oh God, I didn't mean it! Just don't - I'm sorry, okay?" he apologizes in one slurred breath, nearly turning blue as Lily stands obscure in that too bright sun.
A moment later, she sits back down. She then twirls a lock of red hair around her pale finger in silence for a minute more. "A decent bloke doesn't insult his friends, Severus," Lily says.
Ashamed, Severus wraps his skinny arms around himself. "Yeah," he murmurs, "I know."
There's a bit of scuffling and then he feels Lily lay her warm head against his sharp shoulder. "I don't trust anyone like I trust you, Sev," she whispers into his shoulder. Hot tears begin to scald him through his thread-bare shirt.
Severus is overridden with guilt and a need to make things right. Swallowing down his own urge to cry, Severus says fiercely, "And I you!"
Lily's hands come to grip his arm, her nails dig into his flesh with a vindictiveness freakish for a girl of her age. "Then do not insult me so," she warns in something akin to a growl.
Centimeter by centimeter, Severus shifts so he can push Lily's wild mane behind her ears. He takes care to ignore how she stills at his touch. "I won't do it again," he swears. "I shan't."
They stay like that a long time, Severus and Lily. Lily and Severus. A skinny boy and freak girl curled beneath the rusted side of a slide at a children's park. After a time, Lily pulls herself upright. Eyes piercing, she stares into the fathomless darkness of Severus's gaze and asks, "Are you going to follow Voldemort?"
Running his tongue over his lips, Severus doesn't answer right away. "I don't know," he eventually replies.
Toying with his sleeve, Lily suggests, "Maybe you should."
Astounded, Severus frowns. "I thought you disliked their prejudiced views."
She hums in agreement. "The way I see it is, you can either grow up to be your father or your mother. Who would you rather be, Sev?" At his turmoil, Lily tells him, "I'd rather be my father. Mother is a disgusting, passive waste of a human, but Father… dear Daddy is a monster, yet he's a successful one, no?"
Swallowing, Severus nods. "I'll put in a good word for you," he says.
Ethereal laughter bubbles up from Lily and soon, he joins her. It's funny to them. It's funny to even pretend that someday they'll ever have sway in the world, unbelievable even. Yet, neither sees the future.
Someday, not too far away, they will be on opposite sides of the coin. One their mother and the other, their father, fighting out a battle they never witnessed in their homes, (but was always in the undercurrent).
A short One-Shot, who do you think became their mother and who became their father? This is obviously a rather dark AU, but, I'm curious what do you think of Lily and Severus's relationship?
Thank you all for reading and I hope you'll choose to review.