Severus regretted instantly calling Lily a Mudblood, but he could barely dwell on these thoughts before he felt himself being jerked back up by the ankles.

"Who wants to see me take off Snivelly's pants?" Potter laughed. Those idiots that called themselves the Marauders laughed, as did much of the surrounding crowd. Severus tried to summon his wand and tried to grab hold of his pants, but before he knew it, they were being pulled with almighty force up towards his ankles. Many of the crowd cheered at this.

"Hey, you can see why Evans likes him so much can't you?" Black shouted and the others roared with laughter. Then Potter used a jinx that Severus didn't recognise, but gave him a rise. He tried to fight it, but images of Lily kept forming in his head and before he knew it, he had a full boner. The crowd loved this, they cheered and jeered at Severus.

Potter said: "So, it isn't just your greasy hair that's dirty, is it Snivellus? I reckon you could do with a wash", and with a flick of his wand, Potter sent Severus flying into the Black Lake. As he hurriedly swum to the side (he didn't want to be attacked by the Giant Squid, let alone the merpeople) the crowd had a last laugh and a few last jeers at him, then dispersed, chattering happily- obviously the entertainment had cheered them up after an arduous DADA exam.

Severus clambered out of the lake and went to pick up his wand and school bag, then ran inside to find Lily. He ran first to the library, where she sometimes worked, but he didn't see her there, so he started to go to the owlery, when he saw her walking along a corridor, probably on her way to Gryffindor Tower.

"Lily, hey, Lily!" he yelled as he ran to her.

"Go away, Snivellus"

"Listen I'm so SO sorry about what I said, you know I didn't mean it- I would never…Lily, you KNOW me" he begged

"Yeah, I thought I did, but I was wrong" she said, rounding on him, then her eyes filled with tears and she stormed off.

Severus followed her, "Please Lily, I'll never forgive myself for saying that, I'm really, really sorry." He tried to touch her lightly on the shoulder, but she jerked away.

"Don't touch me, you creep. Don't you know that all these years, whenever you've come near me, it's made me feel physically sick? I only put up with it because I felt sorry for you, but now I guess I shouldn't have. I don't blame Potter for picking on you- you're a FREAK, just as he said. I don't even blame your Dad, if I had produced spawn like you, I'd want to hurt it too."

"Yeah? Well, maybe you were right, Lily, maybe we can't be friends" Severus said in a hard voice that wasn't his own. Lily glared at him and stormed off, but this time Severus didn't follow her, but walked briskly in the opposite direction, trying to fight the tears that were threatening to trickle down his cheeks. He told himself that she had no right to say those things- no right whatsoever. Hadn't she said herself less than an hour before that he had done nothing to hurt any of those stupid Gryffindors? He was just convincing himself that she was totally out of order saying those things, when he heard a piping voice behind him say:

"Severus?"

"WHAT?" Severus shouted as he spun around. He saw a frightened –looking forth year.

"Sorry, Regulus, I've just got a lot on my mind right now" Severus told his closest friend besides Lily.

"Oh, then I won't bother you."

"No, it's fine, I could use a little distraction. What's up?"

"Well, I was wondering if you could help me with a potions essay? I'm really stuck- you know how much I hate potions."

"You shouldn't, potions is great once you learn how. But don't you usually ask Lily for this kind of stuff?"

"Yeah, but I saw her going into her common room and she looked really upset. Like I said, if you haven't got the time…."

"No, it's fine. What's the question on?"

They had reached the library by now and Regulus got his parchment out, at the top of which was written "The Uses and Dangers of Monkshood". Regulus got out his copy of "Magical Drafts and Potions".

"It doesn't say anything about Monkshood anywhere. I even looked in the index but it's not there!" Regulus complained. Severus smiled, he had a suspicion of why this was.

"What about Wolfsbane or Aconite?" he asked.

"Yes, it says quite a lot about Wolfsbane, but what's the use of that? Professor Slughorn specifically said Monkshood!" Regulus told him urgently. Severus tried and failed not to laugh and Regulus looked at him blankly.

"Monkshood and Wolfsbane are the same thing, idiot" he told Regulus, "I learnt that in first year."

"Oh," Regulus looked a bit crestfallen, "I bet everyone but me knew that, right? God, I'm so stupid!" Severus felt a bit guilty- he didn't want to upset both his friends in one afternoon so he said:

"No you're not Reg, I couldn't make a snail vanish until a couple of months ago and you don't think I'm stupid, do you?"

"Of course you're not stupid, but vanishing snails? Even I can do that! I can make my quill disappear- look!" Regulus took out a quill and pointed his wand at it, but before he could say the incantation, Severus muttered:

"Better not", nodding at Madame Pince, who was prowling between the bookshelves and glared at the two boys suspiciously. They both automatically put on an innocent smile until she walked off, and then laughed silently. Regulus looked solemnly at the title and confessed:

"I still won't be able to write two feet on that and Professor Slughorn wants it in first thing tomorrow AND I've got quidditch practice tonight. Looks like I'll get put in detention."

"Come on, Reg, you're in the Slug Club, right? He isn't going to put YOU in detention. But I guess I can help you with it now if you want. What time's quidditch?"

"In two hours."

"That's plenty of time, come on, we'll do it together, providing you help me with my transfiguration essay tomorrow, OK?" Regulus nodded eagerly. Unbeknown to him, Severus didn't actually need help with his Transfiguration essay- it was just three feet on "The Theory of Bathsheba Darling Fount" and Severus already knew mostly what he intended to write. However, he knew that this would make the kid feel better, so he decided to pretend he didn't have a clue.