"Lily! Lily!" A young girl's small feet pattered against the asphalt as she ran down the road. "Lily!" she shouted again, nearly tripping over her own feet as her long black/brown hair flew in her eyes.
"Colette! Colette! Colette, what?" Lily shouted back at the top of a hill, her green eyes sparkling as she smiled.
Colette bumped into Lily. Grinning, she twirled in place. "Psst," she hissed loudly.
"Psst?" Lily asked her best friend, raising her eyebrows in over exaggerated eagerness and surprise.
Colette nodded. "Psst… I have a secret," the dark-eyed girl stage-whispered. She hopped from one foot to the other, silently inviting Lily to guess her oh-so-well-concealed secret.
"Really? Who is he?" Lily guessed. She spun around Colette, repeating "who" in a singsong voice.
"Oh. Uh, I don't really kn-" Colette began, until Lily interrupted.
"You don't KNOW?! What do you mean, you don't know?" she shouted.
Her friend rolled her eyes in exasperation. "No, I don't know his name. But he has this great shaggy black hair, and gorgeous dark eyes. He's rather tall, and- oh, he's just perfect!" she trilled.
The two girls walked up the hill to Lily's house, wondering who Colette's crush could be.
Flutter. Flap. Whoosh! The sound of beating wings, flapping papers, and shrill calls echoed down the chimney. "Tuney! Tuney, come quick!" Colette and Lily called, summoning Lily's sister, Petunia, and Lily's parents.
Two owls and a pigeon flew down the chimney, covering themselves in soot. Both owls were carrying letters. The grey pigeon looked confused, as if asking itself how and why it was there, and promptly flew out the window.
One owl, a pure white one, dropped the letter it was holding in front of Lily and flapped back up the chimney. The other, all-black owl released its letter into Colette's outstretched hands and disappeared just like the other one.
The girls gasped in delight. They both knew what the owls meant.
"All right, so we've got our wands, our quills, parchment, books, oh, and of course I can't forget my little kitten, Somadhi. Miss Lily Evans, I believe that we are rea-Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh! There he is, coming our way, oh my gosh!"
Lily turned and grinned. "Severus! What a pleasant surprise! Well, not really, as I knew you'd be here, but my friend here did not. This is my close, personal friend Colette Victoire Aspen."
Severus took Colette's hand and shook it. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Colette Victoire Aspen."
Colette 's pale face blushed scarlet. "Please, call my Colette. Or Victoire. Or Penny. Or, well, whatever you like, Mister Severus…" she paused, not knowing his last name.
"Snape. But you can call me Sev. Erus. Severus. Or just Sev. But, Lily, Colette- this is real! We're really going to Hogwarts!" Severus said, the excitement in his voice unmistakable. "I hope you two are in Slytherin," he continued.
As they continued walking through the train, a retching noise was heard from one of the boys in the nearest compartment. The sound came from the taller of the two. He was lean, dark-haired and had a haughty way about him. "Slytherin? Who wants to be in Slytherin? I certainly don't. I aim to be in Gryffindor, like my father, where the brave hearts go," he said, brandishing an imaginary sword. The boy next to him half-smiled, his hair mussed and his shirt wrinkled.
Severus repeated the gagging sound. Gryffindor prodded Sev's shoulder challengingly. "Oh, you have a problem with that, do you?"
"No, but if you would rather have strength than smarts…" Severus began.
"Oh, but where will you go, you having neither one?"Messy remarked. Gryffindor laughed loudly and hysterically, when both Lily and Colette glared at them with contempt. "Merlin," Colette muttered, furious.
Lily said breezily, "Come on, Sev, Colette. Let's go to a different compartment. This one is far from suitable for my personal taste."
But Colette had something to say. "Oh, you two think it's humorous, putting other people's choices down? Well, I will not tolerate such diabolical insolence from unimportant, arrogant pieces of animosity such as you! It would be well within my right to read you from end to end, but you'll be ashamed at what I can uncover. So instead I will just do this," she snapped, bringing her face ever-closer to theirs.
Both boys leaned forward as if receiving a secret, but Colette quickly snapped her head back and gave them each a swift kick in the shin. They winced, their hands flying to their calves, and Colette turned to Severus and Lily. Grinning, she said, "And all without my rowan and phoenix feather, eleven inches."
As the trio turned to leave, Gryffindor said, "Just a moment."
"What?" Lily barked.
"I'm James Potter. And this is…" James paused.
"Sirius Black. Pleasure."
House tables lined with flickering candles and Years Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, and Seven. The professors and headmaster looking solemn at the table at the end of the Great Hall, the Headmaster's podium in front of it. The new First Years stood in line, all looking relatively nervous.
"Evans, Lily!" Lily walked forward onto the platform to be Sorted. The not-so-old-as-the-others professor (McGonagall, it was) dropped he raggedy, battered Sorting Hat onto her head. Not even a second later, it cried, "Gryffindor!" A mousy boy and an eternally tired-looking boy followed her to the Gryffindor table, where James and Sirius sat. Lily scowled.
"Aspen, Colette Victoire," Professor McGonagall called. Colette carried herself to the stool and sat down. Professor McGonagall placed the Hat upon her head and waited.
"Hmm, we have a tough one here. This one's got the wit of a Hufflepuff, brains of a Ravenclaw, slyness of a Slytherin, and courage of a Gryffindor. But- no, you say? No a Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw, you think? Well, let's see…
"Slytherin!"
By the fourth year, Severus and Lily became closer than ever, but Colette drifted away. She began hanging round with different groups: Arthur Weasley (with his obsession with Muggle plugs) and his friend Molly Prewett, or with Xenophilius Lovegood, his fascination with the unnatural almost fanatical, or even with James Potter, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and Sirius Black.
Everyone knew of Arthur Weasley and his love of plug collecting. Toasters, VCRs, radios, television sets- all with wonderful, wonderful plugs. And, of course, sweet Molly Prewett, with her sweet, lovely, tidy family.
Xeno Lovegood was what you could call eccentric, to say the least. He would gather a group of one or two people and go hunting for Crumple-Horned Snorkacks or Nargles in shrubbery around the grounds. He was always losing his belongings to pranksters who thought it would be funny to trick queer Xeno out of his possessions.
Then there were the Marauders. They (Potter, Lupin, Pettigrew, and Black) were infamous all throughout the school. James Potter, Quidditch hero and ladies' man. Remus Lupin, expert Defense Against the Dark Arts student, ill every full moon. Peter Pettigrew, most sniveling and mousy boy at Hogwarts. Sirius Black, edgiest, most wrinkled boy ever, James' right-hand man.
The Marauders took special enjoyment in tormenting Severus, which drove him over the edge one day. James used 'Levicorpus' to haul him into the air and mock him, when Lily came to his defense. In rage, humiliation, and blind fury, he called her the one unforgivable name: "Mudblood."
"I'm sorry."
"I don't care."
"I'm sorry!" Severus shouted.
"Don't waste your time." Lily barked.
"No, Lily, I didn't mean to-"
"- call me Mudblood? But you call everyone like me Mudblood. Why should I care, why am I different" Lily crossed her arms and tapped her foot.
He took a deep breath. "Because you were the only-"
"- one who knew everything and anything about her? Face it; she only broke away because she thought you… and me… Merlin, you didn't even have the guts to use the information I gave you to tell her! Oh, and do you know what? That day I was going to give you the most important bit: she loved you. I'm not going to stand here anymore. I'm not going to stand here and listen to your sniveling because you 'need' me. You used me, and I let you. No more. Go back to your common room and tell her. I'm never going to speak to you again." Lily turned on her heel and stormed back into the Gryffindor dormitories.
Severus fell onto his knees. He knew his way forward, but he was unsure of how to go about it.
She was waiting in the common room. He was sort of taken aback when he crashed into her when he entered the room. Her arms were crossed, and she wore a solemn expression on her face. "Well?"
Severus sighed audibly. "Penny." He only used that name when he was about to say something important or upsetting.
"Well?" she said again, ruthlessly and bitterly.
"Stop saying that, you know perfectly well what," Severus snapped. He instantly looked as if he regretted his words, his tone, after he had said them.
"So what," she sighed, plunking herself down onto the plush sofa in the middle of the room.
Severus sighed again. "Look, Penny, you know what I'm talking about-"
"Yes, but I want to hear you say it," she mumbled so it sounded like 'Yeh bu ih anna hea oo shay eh.' She promptly turned rose pink.
"I know! Merlin… Why do you have to… You make it so hard to… ugh!" he grabbed his head as he fussed over what to say, his way with words escaping him. She giggled for the first time in weeks as she saw him struggle with his thoughts. He smiled slightly. "Oh, so you're enjoying my verbal agony?"
"Yes. Yes, I am. But you know that I know what you're trying to say, and you know that I won't let you off so easily. Yes, I'm making you say it. And you know what it I'm talking about," she pressed.
Severus took a deep breath and attempted to form speech. All that happened was he made a strangling noise, then he hesitated before doing anything else.
"If you can't say it, then you don't mean it," she said with a hint of melancholy in her voice. The moonlight pouring through the window lit up her face and created a golden halo around her hair. His thin face echoed in hers, their pale skin and dark eyes matching, connecting. Her long dark hair tickled his arm, creating magic without a wand, spell, or charm.
"Of course I mean it!" Severus exclaimed, turning beet red at his outburst.
"Prove it. You have to know of nothingness, but especially of something's existence before you can notice its absence. You definitely did not give Lily enough credit because she, you know… anyway, you know how James Potter is an annoying git? Well, I know someone who is not like him at all, and he is obviously i-"
Severus was suddenly kissing her , kissing her as if she were the only person in the world, and she was kissing back. She ran her hands through his long dark hair. His arms were wrapped around her waist protectively, drawing her body closer to his. They both wanted nothing more than to be there, together, right then.
They pulled apart, flushed and gasping for air. How long had they stood there? Several moments… a few days… weeks… eternity? It seemed so. "Merlin…"