First

Severus and Lily

A/N: Two updates in two days! What is this black magic?

So this is the first installment of what might be a pretty big project, which is to say a collection of one-shot pieces about first kisses. None of the pieces will be very long, but there's a lot of love to go around in the Potterverse and no shortage of potential material. I know what couples I'm going to use for the first three chapters, but after that, it's up in the air. If you have any requests or favorite ships, be sure to say so!

This particular piece takes place in third year, but I'm pretty sure you could gather that from the text itself. As always, if you dig it, please to be letting me know. If there's something you think I could do better, please to be letting me know! Concrit is always welcome. Like, the way cake is welcome to a fat kid.

Enjoy!

"So you add the powdered goldenrod, then stir clockwise until the whole cauldron starts to froth-"

"It doesn't need to froth," said Severus. Lily glanced over with a question on her face. "It takes longer, but if you just let it simmer on a low heat for half an hour or so, the batch is somewhere between twenty to thirty percent more potent. Just be careful not to touch it. Let it sit."

"The book doesn't say anything about that, Sev," Lily groaned. "The professor didn't say anything about that. My notes don't say anything about that." She waggled her notes in mid-air for effect.

"The book was written by a buffoon," Severus explained.

"It was written by our professor!"

"Our professor is a buffoon."

"Sev." Lily was laughing in spite of herself. "You can't just call him a buffoon. He's old! He knows way more than we do."

"Fine, he is an educated buffoon," Severus amended. The tiny smile that warmed his eyes was something reserved just for her. "The simmer works better. Trust me."

"If you say so," was Lily's resigned response. She scratched out a line on her notes and scribbled his advice in tiny, perfect script beside it. Severus' smile grew a little wider. She'd have the best swelling potion in Gryffindor, hands down.

Study hall was an oasis. It was a respite from the pace their lives were beginning to adopt, and it was Severus' favorite part of the day. For one uninterrupted hour, it was just the two of them. No outsiders. No professors. None of her new friends were there to swoop in and take her from him like a flock of chattering, mindless birds. This was the time Severus took to revel in Lily's presence, to whisper words only she was allowed to hear and to reassure himself that he was still her number one. Her best friend. Her favorite. She was getting so busy with other people and sometimes he wondered. Sometimes he worried, and sometimes it scared him. But they still had study hall.

And it was almost over.

"You wanna go to Hogsmeade this weekend?" asked Lily as she began rolling up her parchment. "Dad sent me some money and I thought we could go to the Three Broomsticks or something."

Severus lit up – or did whatever vague approximation of lighting up he was most capable of, anyway. "Yeah," he responded, "yeah, that sounds good. Sure." In truth, Severus had no interest whatsoever in going to Hogsmeade. He had only gotten his permission slip signed because Lily had insisted on it, and his first trip to the village had proved disastrous. Crowded, noisy, crawling with people he had no desire to see or speak with – he would much rather say inside and find new ways of calling attention to the potion master's ineptitude. But Lily had asked him. And wherever Lily was was where Severus wanted to be.

So they began the process of gathering their things and clearing their table, grumbling their lamentations about the rest of their day. On Thursdays, this was where their houses parted. Lily was off to charms and it was time for Severus to suffer through herbology, whether he wanted to or not. (He didn't.) He normally would have sulked his way through the remnants of the afternoon, but the week was almost over and the prospect of a whole Saturday together, just them, cheered him marginally. So it was that Severus listened attentively as Lily worried about an upcoming exam, slung his satchel over his shoulder and followed her into the hallway, happy to trot along beside her as long as he could.

The worst thing about Hogwarts – aside from all the students, anyway – was how drafty the corridors could get. As soon as the weather turned, ice cold winds would whip through the passages and freeze anyone unlucky enough to be traversing them straight to the bone. Halloween was fast approaching and a brutal chill had already set into the air; that winter was going to be a cold one. Severus and Lily both clutched their cloaks tightly around themselves as they walked, sticking close for warmth.

"You'd think they could enchant the hallways to be a little less glacial," Severus complained. "The rest of the castle stays warm."

"Maybe they do it on purpose," Lily suggested. "You know, to wake the students up between classes. Like a cold shower."

"Only Gryffindors would need a cold shower to pay attention for an hour at a time."

Lily laughed. "Now that's not fair. I have seen plenty of Hufflepuffs snoozing through history."

"Well that's because-"

But no one would know what Severus thought of the sleeping patterns of Hufflepuffs, because at that instant a roughly child-shaped object shoved its way past them and knocked Severus clean to the floor. He yelped and Lily squealed, but it didn't dissuade the peal of laughter that followed. When Severus pushed himself up, hair flopping into his eyes, he was met with the four people he least wanted to see.

"Oops," Potter was laughing. "Sorry, Snivellus."

"It's okay, James!" Black chimed in. "Maybe if he falls and breaks his nose, it'll be a little straighter. Sure can't get any more crooked."

Their laughter echoed down the hall and burned Severus to the bone. Lily flew to his side, eyes blazing, but the damage was done. He shook with fury as he began gathering his books.

"James Potter!" Lily bellowed. "What is wrong with you? You apologize properly right now!"

Amidst the snickers of his obnoxious little posse, James held up his hands for them to quiet. As the laughter began to still, he bent down before Severus with a serious expression on his wicked face.

"Severus, I'm sorry," he said.

Severus glared up at him with a deep and unwavering loathing.

"I'm so, so sorry that Evans pities you enough to hang around you all day."

That was the last straw. Severus was on his feet, wand out and pointed in Potter's direction; a hex shot out, missed and ricocheted off the stone wall. James scrambled up to respond in kind. In a brief flurry of activity, the boys found themselves in an ugly standoff.

"You don't talk about Lily!" Severus snarled. "It's none of your business!"

"Did I hit a nerve?" Potter spat.

Severus raised his wand to reply, but Lily's arms encircled his.

"Don't, Severus," she warned. "Don't. He's not worth it."

Severus shook with rage. It flashed black in his eyes, barely restrained. He and Potter were both breathing hard, frozen, locked on each other, and no one dared to move. Black was sneering. Pettigrew looked thrilled. And when someone finally spoke, it was Lupin.

"Hey, James, come on," he said. "Lily's right. It's not worth it. You and Sirius already have detention, remember? Don't waste your entire weekend on him."

It was a moment or two before Potter's posture relaxed. His scowl melted into a smirk, his wand arm dropped to his side and he shook his hair rogueishly out of his eyes. "Whatever," he drawled. "Let's get outta here, guys. Go flying or something. See you later, Lily."

"Sod off," she snapped.

The boys, with the exception of a guilty-looking Lupin, burst into another round of laughter and turned to saunter away. That laughter rang in Severus' ears long after they had disappeared down the corridor to Flitwick's classroom. He took a ragged breath, clutching his wand so tightly it threatened to snap.

"Lily," he began in a voice that shook, "Lily, I swear-"

"Shh." Lily wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled Severus to her. The sensation of all that was Lily was overwhelming, and nothing else could have calmed him. Her scent. Her hair. Her breath on his neck and the proximity, the perfect, screaming proximity. "Shh, Sev. It's over."

It was a few moments before his muscles began to unclench.

Lily pulled away, both hands on his face, and she peered into his eyes with a limitless gentility, eyebrows knitted together in worry and affection. Severus' pulse had started to slow, but now it was roaring back to its elevated pace. A tiny smile curled at the corner of her lips.

"Don't worry about them," Lily murmured. "They're idiots, Sev. They're not even worth the energy."

"Lily," he whispered, "they have everything. They have everything and-"

"They don't have everything. They have puff and ego and lives of privilege, and they'll never amount to anything. You have so much more."

"What do I have?" Severus asked in a tiny, desperate voice.

"You have the best swelling potion in third year," she responded with no trace of hesitation.

Severus stared at her for a moment. Lily cracked a smile, and then they were both laughing.

"And me," she giggled. "You do have me."

Severus returned her smile in a small and hesitant kind of way. "Promise?"

"Of course I promise."

Lily pulled her friend into a final hug, one he found the audacity to return. He squeezed her tight, imagining she would be his forever, hoping never to let go. But when Lily did pull away, she leaned in and pressed her lips against Severus' pale and pock-marked cheek, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

The world dropped out beneath his feet.

"I've gotta run," she said. "Gonna be late to charms. You've got even farther to go than I do, so hurry up! See you at dinner."

And with that, she turned to dash in the same direction the Marauders had gone, bookbag banging against her knees, exactly as she had done hundreds of times before. It was as if she didn't know that everything had suddenly and permanently changed. Like she didn't know what she had done to him, or that he stood rooted in place by shock and by disbelief and by stunning, consuming joy.

Severus never made it to the green houses that day. He didn't mind the ten point deduction Professor Sprout saw fit to give, or even the two scroll makeup essay he would have to find time to compose – High St. John's root or some stupid thing, he didn't know. The rest of the day passed in a blur, and Severus floated through all of it with an expression of faint astonishment. But what did it matter?

He had Lily.

And nothing Potter could say or do would ever take that away.