He still loved her. He loved her, but she was in love with someone else. Wholly and irreversibly in love with that bloody arrogant prick, James Potter. His Lily, his love, his joy, his heart, his life, was James Potter's to love and hold and touch –

His train of thought was interrupted when he saw Potter and his gang of bloody idiotic gits, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and… Lily? She was there, laughing along at whatever Lupin had said, Potter's hand loosely in hers.

They stopped by the lake. The place it had all gone wrong. "Lilykins," That was Black. "Remus, Pete and I must bid you farewell; so goodbye red headed maiden!" And then it was just Lily and Potter, Potter and Lily, alone. It made him sick. Sick with envy and longing and desire, but no. Sadly, it was not to be.

"So James," Lily peered up at the bespectacled boy. Oh how he wished to rip those bloody glasses off of his face, and then break them, transfigure the shattered glasses into a rose that he could give to his darling Lily (ironically, she despised lilies). Apparently Potter was in the know as well. He produced a bouquet of at least a dozen roses. Passer by's begun to stare.

"Lil, I wanted to take you here because well, I asked you out here and you said yes," (Don't remind him, that left a bitter taste in his mouth for days). "I kissed you here for the first time," (Another bad memory, Snape scowled). "So, I wanted to ask you this, here. Marry me?" And he looked so bloody HOPEFUL, and Lily, his gorgeous Lily, was grinning and laughing and crying tears of joy. She said yes. His heart broke in to about a million pieces, his Lily, (Potter's Lily now he reminded himself unhappily) had said yes.

She radiated joy, absolutely positively beamed as he slipped the ring on her finger. "James," She said breathlessly, "I love you." And now he beamed, but it wasn't as good as her beam. And they kissed. Passers by began to cheer and egg them on, Snape heard a few wolf whistles too.

"Lil, I'll be maid of honor, yeah?" That was Marlene McKinnon, Lily's best friend. She occupied the space that he did, once upon a time.

"Yeah, 'course Marls! And Alice can be another bridesmaid!" Lily called back. A few years ago, Lily would've made him be there, somehow, or maybe married him. But now, she ignored him, drinking in the love surrounding her.

"Go Prongsies!" Black was back. "I'm best man, of course!"

"Well, duh!" Came the arrogant voice of James bloody Potter. He smirked arrogantly, but instead of turning away, maybe snorting in disgust, Lily giggled. She GIGGLED. That never happened around Severus. She only laughed around him, no cutesy giggling! He felt the white hot rage inside his body. He'd just wait until she was alone, and demand answers. That seemed like a solid plan

TIMESKIP

She still glowed.

She glowed. He grabbed her. "Lil, can we talk?" Lily glared at him.

"It's Evans!" Then, as an afterthought, she added "And no."

"Please, please Li- Evans."

"Snape," She sighed tiredly. "Fine, five minutes. Go on." He smirked victoriously.

That smirk soon transformed into a scowl as he asked, "Why him?" And he ploughed on before Lily could answer. "I mean, why him and his gang of INGRATES?" He hissed. "You promised to hate him forever! You could have anyone!"

"Oh that's nice, insult my fiancé when he proposed and I was having the best day of my life." She snapped. "You lost any and all chances of having a say in who I date when you called me a filthy mudblood."

He flinched.

"Now, if that's all I'll be leaving. If that's not all, I'll be leaving anyway."

He watched her go; she had her head held high, her back straight and her posture stiff.

He sighed, going back into the courtyard. He tried to remember when they'd started dating.

Oh, right. At the start of his sixth year, a tentative friendship started, and by the end of it, they were dating.

FLASHBACK

He stayed behind, to watch her. He had called her a Mudblood without meaning to a year ago, and now their friendship was over. He watched as Lily sat near the lake.

"Um, Evans?" Came the voice of that prick Potter, "Listen, I know you don't like me, but can we try to be friends?"

Lily blinked, beautiful emerald eyes disappearing for a second. "Yeah, I guess so." She said, sounding cautiously optimistic. Snape growled, teeth grinding together almost painfully.

And then, at the start of the last term of their sixth year, something changed. Instead of the platonic relationship he was so unenthusiastically used to seeing, there was kisses. Unwillingly, he was there when the asking out happened.

"Hey, Lil!" Called Lupin, he was tolerable, Snape supposed, apart from being a bloody monster, in his true form once a month.

"Remus! Hey, what's up?" her hair was in an unruly braid. Two long curls framed her face. Her green eyes sparkled. For Potter, for Lupin and Black and Pettigrew, not for him, oh no, never for him, never again, at least.

"James has asked me to hand you this." It was a note, probably written in Potter's messy scrawl, that used to be undecipherable for both him AND Lily. But now, Lily skimmed it, her face softening as she read farther and farther.

"Aw, James." She sighed. "You're a dork."

"But," She added. "You're a cute dork."

He fled, after that. (Only to further in the shadows, mind you). Severus couldn't handle her cooing over the note when he was there, a perfectly acceptable male specimen, apart from the greasy hair and skin which Potter and Black teased him about, he reminded himself.

"Lily flower!" Oh joy of all joys, Potter was back. "I wanted to ask you, now that we're actually friends and stuff, if you Lilian Marie Evans, would accompany me on a date to the next Hogsmeade trip."

Lily laughed. "Sure, Potter." She said.

"It's a date, Evans." He replied.

Severus sighed as he came out of his memories. She didn't know what she did to him. She would never know the way that she made him feel.