Sunset Over Spinner's End
A/N: Guess who saw HP twice in a 24 period?
I did, I did!
I know this isn't War and Wonder, but I love tiny Snape so so so much. I love him. So I might be barfing more Marauders era stuff all over the internet in the coming weeks, who knows. It's been a long time since I've read the later books, so if I flub up any of the dates or wee details, please tell me! And, as always, if you like it, let me know. Concrit is like oxygen, guys! Enjoy. :]
She wasn't coming.
It had been a beautiful day. It had since grown into a beautiful evening. The rain had finally stopped and the field he frequented, the place they shared, had started to dry properly. A wet summer had produced fields and forests of an even deeper, more perfect green than Britain normally boasted, and the wildflowers had grown with more enthusiasm than usual. Pollen drifted lazily through the early night air. Severus sniffed; he was badly allergic. Even so, he was normally happy for any excuse to be out of the house. Not tonight. Tonight he simply did not care.
Where was she?
He sat with his back against the tree trunk, absently digging in the soil with a stray twig. He tried to keep clean, he did, but a certain amount of grubbiness seemed to follow him everywhere. There was always a layer of dirt encrusting his nails, and a smudge on his cheek, and his hair never seemed quite clean no matter how often he washed it, but what did it matter? Lily didn't seem to mind. But then, Lily didn't seem to mind much of anything. She was too nice. Forgave too easily. And she wasn't coming.
Granted, when Lily has promised to meet him later, she hadn't really specific when later would be. But Severus has been waiting all day in their spot and Lily never just didn't show. Never. She must have been mad at him. What had he done? He couldn't remember doing anything. Maybe it was her sister. Maybe she had said something to make Lily hate him. Panic began to bubble just below Severus' chest and his stomach threatened to flip over. What would he do without her?
Anxiety rising, he had to stand. He paced around the base of the tree, wringing his hands, trying to breathe normally. She wouldn't just not come. Even if she was mad, even if he had done something, she was too nice. She wasn't like that. Lily was his best friend. She had to-
"Sev!"
Severus' head snapped up. Coming over the crest of the hill leading to their little hideaway was the source of all his agitation. Relief washed over him. Relief and rushing adoration. She was wearing a neat yellow sundress that had fit when she had gotten it, but a recent growth spurt meant it hung an inch or two too high. Her hair bounced with every step and streamed out behind her, blazing like fire in the late afternoon sun. She clutched something carefully to her body, but Severus couldn't make out what it was. He didn't really care.
He was beaming by the time she made it to his side. Panting, she dropped to the grass and Severus followed suit.
"I didn't know if you were coming," he told her.
"What?" gasped Lily as she caught her breath. "Sev, why wouldn't I? I always come."
He shrugged, unable to totally wipe away his smile. "Where were you?"
Lily's face lit up. "Ooh, Sev! Mum and Dad took Tuney and I to the London Zoo. Have you ever been?"
It was a perfunctory question. They both knew no one had ever taken Severus to the zoo, but they both liked to pretend it wasn't such an outrageous idea. Severus shook his head, content to let his friend chatter.
"We'll go someday," she promised. "You and me. You'll love it, Sev. They've got monkeys and elephants and polar bears, and an entire pool full of penguins, and real peacocks just walking around with the people!"
"Are they mean?" he wondered.
"The peacocks? Nah. Tuney was scared of them, but they're sweet. They mostly just strutted around, all big and poofy, like, look at me, I'm a peacock." She stuck out her elbows and bobbed her head in her best peacock impression. Severus laughed. Lily was one of the only people that would ever hear him do so.
"Was it a special occasion?" he asked.
"Kinda. They took us because school starts soon, and we'll all be separated all year." It was at this point that she held out whatever it was she clutched so carefully. She was offering what appeared to be a small, round lump of something, maybe the size of a plum, wrapped in pastel tissue paper. Severus accepted it with hesitation. "Since we're starting school together, I thought it should be special for both of us."
Severus looked at her with wide, disbelieving eyes.
"Go on," she coaxed him.
Uncertainly, Severus pulled off the tissue paper, careful not to tear a single corner. Inside were two polished stones roughly the size and shape of flattened golf balls. They were a deep and perfect blue, each emblazoned with the delicate gold outline of an animal. One sported what looked like a giraffe and the other boasted an antelope. Severus turned them over in his hands, awestruck. Perhaps if he had been the sort of boy whose parents took him to the zoo, he would have known that they were cheap souvenirs hocked in the gift shop to thousands of children every day, but he was not that sort of boy, and even if he had known it wouldn't have mattered. Severus had never held something so fine.
"They're friendship stones," Lily explained. "They were both part of one stone once, and then it was split into two halves and polished up and stuff. So you take one and I take one, and then we're always connected."
"I take one?" Severus breathed.
"Of course you do," she laughed. "That's the point, Sev. I didn't know which animals to get, so I just picked a set at random. The card on the display said they're lapis lazuli. I've read those are really good for magic. Maybe they'll come in handy at school, right?"
Severus didn't know what to say.
"Which one do you want?"
"You choose," he responded instantly. Lily tapped thoughtfully at her chin, weighing her options. She eventually settled on the giraffe, being in a phase of loving all things long-necked and silly. Severus cradled the other stone as if it were solid gold.
"Thank you," he whispered.
Lily shot him a brilliant smile. "You're welcome. Mum said Tuney and I could each get one thing, and she got a really cute stuffed monkey thing, but when I saw these I knew we had to have them."
Severus nodded his enthusiasm and gratitude, not trusting himself to speak. Lily slipped her stone into a pocket on the side of her dress, but he didn't dare let go of his. The moment he did, it might stop being real.
"What do you think Hogwarts will be like?" Lily wondered, stretching out across the grass at the base of their tree. Severus did as she did, and together they settled down to peer up into the leaves and the slats of light pouring through them as they had done all summer, and the summer before that, and the summer before that.
"I don't know," Severus confessed in a murmur. "I've only read about it. Never been."
"Never?"
"Never."
Lily raised a hand to catch a leaf as it fluttered to the ground. "But what do you think it will be like?"
"I think..." Severus thought for a moment, considering all he had read about the place, all his mother had told him. "I think it's gonna be great. We'll go to this great big castle far away from here, with hundreds of other witches and wizards just like us, and we'll learn all kinds of stuff. Runes and potions and charms and curses."
"I don't want to learn any curses," Lily complained.
"Maybe there won't be so many curses," Severus hedged. "But we'll be able to do anything by the end. And no one will make fun of us for being different, because we'll all be magical. Everyone will be the same."
"And we'll get to spend all year together, right?"
"All year," he agreed. They turned to share a smile. "It'll be so great, Lily. The best thing ever. You'll see."
"What if I'm no good?" she murmured after a moment. "I wouldn't have even known there was a wizarding world if you hadn't told me so. Everyone else is going to be so far ahead of me."
Severus shook his head. "Nuh-uh. I don't know much more than you do. Not bookwise, anyway, and no one else will, either. And you're really talented. You'll be the best witch in the whole school."
"Sev!"
"No, it's true," he assured her. "I know it! Bet you'll make head girl and everything."
"Well, you'll be head boy," was Lily's happy response.
Severus looked back up to the branches above to savor that thought. Seven whole years with Lily, away from home, learning magic. He couldn't believe his luck. Seven years was an eternity to an 11-year-old, and that evening Severus could see no further than Hogwarts. There would never be another bad night. He would never hear his parents fighting or be at his father's mercy again. He would never stand outside while it rained, finding it preferable to what awaited indoors, wishing with his whole being to see Lily's face. They had an entire lifetime to spend together now.
He had never been so happy.
It was a while before they noticed that the sky was turning purple and the shadows were growing darker. Normally, Severus would have felt cheated. Having his precious time with Lily co-opted by her family always made him angry, but his heart was so light that when she murmured that they should go, it was with an unusual smile that he nodded his agreement. Lily stood and he followed suit; Severus never went home when she did, but he didn't want her knowing so.
Before she took a single step, Lily turned to him, flushed with pleasure in the dying light.
"Sev, will you promise me something?"
He nodded. "Anything."
"Promise me that when we get to Hogwarts, nothing will change. No matter what happens, we'll always be best friends. Okay?"
Severus' smile grew wide and warm. Every fiber of him tingled with joy. "Always," he promised. Lily threw herself over him in a brief and unexpected hug before turning to make the trek back down the hill, calling her good nights and see you laters over her shoulder.
For a long time, Severus stood and watched her go. The breeze kicked up and rustled the grass even as Lily picked her way through it, sliding here, stumbling there. She was the last bright spot on the horizon before the lights of Spinner's End began to blink on. Severus wondered if a Hogwarts sunset would be very different. He wondered if the professors would like him, what house he would be put in and if they could eat all they wanted. But it didn't really matter, not really. Hogwarts could be on Mars for all it mattered. Severus had Lily, and they would always be friends.
The sallow little boy took one more awestruck look at the blue stone she had given him before curling his fingers around it and closing his eyes to make his promise again and again. Always, Lily.
Always.