Summer, 1974
"Sev, hold up!" Lily laughed, despite knowing her calls were in vain. Severus and she were racing to the top of a hill. If there was one thing he would never do, it was admit that she was faster than him. He cheated, he always cheated. Lily didn't mind, though. Her hair was blowing in the breeze and she had nothing else to worry about except the impending rain. Which, frankly, didn't bother her in the slightest. She enjoyed rain, loved the smell of it and the feeling of the droplets gently caressing her skin. She knew Severus did too.
Eventually, she reached the peak of the hill, laying down on the grass beside Severus, just like they had done when they were children. They spoke of trivial things, playground gossip and what they desired to do when they left Hogwarts. Severus wanted to teach, or explore the fields of alchemy. Lily sought to become an auror. The rain never came and they spoke till the skies around Cokeworth darkened.
If only things could be like that once more.
Summer, 1975
Lily Evans lay in her bed, gazing into the dark July sky outside of her bedroom window and thinking of years gone past. Coming home from school was no longer a welcome reprieve. Petunia had grown colder, now even refusing Lily the taunts she had taken so much pleasure in handing out years before. And then there was Severus. Poor, forlorn Severus. Always the brunt of the jokes of James Potter and his stuck up little band of miscreants. Lily had tried. She wanted to help him, stand up for him. In return, he had called her a Mudblood. Severus Snape, her first magical friend, the person who had readily assured her that being Muggle-born made no difference in their society, had called her a Mudblood.
Her blood curdled at the mere thought of it. She hadn't spoken to him since that day, though she was going to have to, eventually. She did not wish to grant Petunia the pleasure of knowing that another thing in her life had gone wrong. Everything in Lily Evans' life was not perfect, but she could very well lead Petunia into thinking that.
It was with that same determination that Lily left the house the next morning, calling out to her father that she would be meeting Severus and would make sure to be back for lunch. She inched down the path to Spinner's End, not quite knowing what she was going to do. Spending the morning alone was out of the question- Petunia was notoriously good at spying , and Lily would never see the end of it if she was found alone when she had said she would be with Severus.
Taking a deep breath, Lily took hold of the door-knocker and rapped it against the wood.