Words Versus Actions
It was Sirius who noticed it. Every time he himself followed James Potter and Lily Evans around just to piss them off, Severus Snape showed up to. In fact, as he learned from James, Severus Snape tended to show up on almost all of James and Lily's dates. Lily's friends told Sirius that Snape was always trying to get them to tell him where they were.
Sirius figured that Snape was trying to stop Lily and James from being romantic. And as much as Sirius loved making James and Lily sneak around just to kiss, and as much as he loved when other people did it, it was only cool when it was one of their friends.
So he took action. He had the map in his hand and he leaned against the cold brick wall. The Lily Evans and James Potter dots were together in a corner of the library. The Severus Snape dot circled around the courtyard and paused next to Mary Macdonald. A second later it was speeding away; Mary Macdonald did not take kindly to purists.
Next it stopped next to the name of the Ravenclaw prefect for their year. A minute passed, and then the dot headed off towards the library.
Sirius smiled to himself, whispered, "Mischief managed," placed the map in his pocket, and waited for the arrival of James' nemesis.
Severus Snape had greasy hair, pale skin, and a hooked nose; none of the typical aristocratic handsomeness purebloods had. (Well, Sirius supposed that he must have come from ugly stock. Probably both parents.) He was like Peter in that regard, except Peter has great expressions and blue eyes Sirius supposed some girl would like eventually.
Sirius stepped into Snape's path. "And just where do you think you're going?"
"I need to talk to Lily," Snape said.
"Ah," Sirius retorted. "But Evans hates you. In fact, last time you tried to talk to her she threw a textbook at you." That was true. Sirius had never laughed so hard in his entire life.
"I still need to talk to her," Snape said.
Sirius shook his head. "No."
"And why not?"
"Because," Sirius said. He ran a hand through his hair and realized that he was about to try and convince Snivellus with something other than violence – because apparently violence didn't work. If it had, Snape would have dropped out of Hogwarts years ago. No, Sirius was about to try and convince Snape with words. "Lily Evans is the best thing to ever happen to my mate. They're soul mates, and I'm not fucking with you here. Their patronuses fit."
Lily knew their secrets, and she accepted them. Maybe she didn't know all of them yet – she didn't know the werewolf thing, or the animagus thing – but she knew the other ones. She knew about Sirius and his family, about how Dorea Potter has James' grin and they mocked him for it, (hell, she even joined in.) She knew Remus felt guilty about his 'illnesses' and gave him sympathy. She knew Peter sometimes said things, gave things away without thinking because he thought it would turn out okay, and she accepted this because she knew he was still a good person. She knew James and Sirius could fight, hex, try to kill each other, and at the end of the day they'd still be friends. She put up with their quirks, and she knew about the passageways and the map and the cloak. She hadn't tried to kill Sirius for his interruptions (yet).
"They put up with each other's crazy," Sirius said. James tolerated Lily's temper and the fact that when she was mad she came up with the stupidest curse words. He understood her being distant with her family, and encouraged her to try with Petunia much as he encouraged Sirius to try with Regulus. He encouraged her to shout at Petunia when she needed to. He got that when someone called her the word mudblood she would be fierce to their faces, but pace around winding and unwinding her fingers for hours afterwards. He put coffee just the way she liked it in front of her plate before she got down to the Great Hall each morning.
"James loves her. She loves him. There's no changing that even if you wanted to," Sirius said.
He looked at Snape's face, the scowl and the hard eyes, and realized that Snape had already known everything Sirius thought about, or the gist of it. He just didn't care. Snape's scowl deepened. "Yes there is."
"Well you're an idiot, then, because if you try to change that I will shove a branch so far up your arse your mum will feel it." Sirius said cheerfully. Diplomacy didn't work, apparently. He went back to their trusted basics.
And so Sirius retreated into the Library to go bother his friends and relay the conversation, with the intent to follow through on his threat if he ever did need to.
He never needed to, though.
Mostly because the next time Snape tried to talk to Lily, she told him she was going to punch him in the nose so hard his dad would feel it.
A/N: Fun little one-shot I wrote because I felt like it. Reviews are fun.