"I don't need any help from a little filthy Mudblood!"

He regretted the words as soon as they came out of his mouth. He hated them. He could see the hurt and indignation in her green eyes, and feel the horror and the shock coming to the surface of his own expression.

With a furious movement of her wand. Lily broke the spell. Potter and his minions looked at her with astonished eyes. He felt himself hit the floor and welcomed the acute pain. He had hurt her; he deserved it.

"Fine, then." He heard her say, her voice broken by betrayal. "This situation will not repeat itself. You need not worry Mr. Snape. I shan't put you through the humiliation of offering my filthy Mudblood help ever again".

The way she said it! Distant, cold, detached. Severus would have rather taken an Unforgivable million times over, than hear her talk to him like that.

"Lily…" he muttered helplessly

"Save your breath!" she snapped.

"I'm sorry" he mumbled, following her inside the castle.

"I don't want to hear it!"

"I'm sorry"

"My, my Mr. Snape, I would have thought you knew better than that: filthy Mudbloods like myself aren't worth your apologies."

She had run for the sake of running, her eyes filled with tears she refused to shed. They went like this through countless moving staircases, and crowded hallways: Lily trying to escape; Severus following her like an automat, incapable of anything different.

I need to get away. I need to get away. I HAVE to get away. I can't let him see me like this.

She looked around, desperate to find a way out, and was grateful two doors that had appeared where there used to be a plain wall. Without stopping to wonder where they had come from, Lily grabbed the handle and pushed the huge doors open with all she had in her. She did so with such force, that she stumbled, and was about to hit the floor in what would have been a pretty nasty fall, when she felt a pair of trembling arms holding her tight to prevent it.

"LILY!" he had screamed, and reached out for her without thinking.

Both stumbled inside, heard the doors close behind them, Severus still not releasing his grip, but allowing her to turn around and face him. All of a sudden, it became too much for Lily. She broke down.

"I can't," she gasped through her fugitive tears. "Why, Severus Snape? Why can't I be angry with you? I bloody well should!"

"I know" he whispered. "I'm sorry". She could feel his tears in her hair. He, too, had been crying. And for the first time in his life Severus Snape, did it freely: without feeling weak, or ashamed because of it. "I should have never said that. I'm an idiot."

"Don't hate me Sev. Please, don't hate me" she choked out.

"Lily, look at me," he pleaded, softly lifting her chin with his long, trembling fingers. "I could never hate you. Ever."

He kissed her head as she buried her face in his robes.

"I'm scared, Sev…" she muttered

"Don't be", he breathed against her silky red hair.

"They'll hurt you Sev. And they will take you away from me. They hate me. And they'll make you hate me, too"

"They won't. They can't" he answered vehemently

"Don't you see? They've already started. They made you call me like you did"

"I'm sorry Lily. I really am," he said for what felt like the hundredth time, never believing it to be enough.

"I know. But why, Sev?"

He knew what she was asking: "Why are you with them? Why do you even listen to them? Why do you insist on revenge?"

"All of my life," he said, forcing the truth to come out; she deserved to hear it. "I have been told I'm no better than the dirt underneath my shoes. I've been stepped on and mistreated. I haven't been able to stand up for the ones I love, not to mention myself. I've had enough of it. They offer me a chance to stop that. They offer me power"

"They just want to use you, Sev!" She said, desperate, hugging him tightly. "They'll hurt you. You're a half-blood for Merlin's sake! They only want you as their traveling cauldron, because, let me inform you, you are a hundred times better than all of their heads put together."

"Well, at least that's something," he muttered bitterly. "Nobody has ever cared about me, Lily. But they do, they want me. It does not matter why."

"Well, it bloody well should! What about me then?" She said fiercely, locking her emerald eyes on his. "I CARE! You are the most important person in my life and I refuse to let them take you away from me. Over my dead body! I'd rather face a damned army of Death Eaters and even yourself to prevent it! If I have to, then so be it."

"Lily, are you serious?"- he asked, eyes wide

"No, I'm Lily. Of course I'm serious, you idiot! What on earth has led you to believe I'm joking? Why else do you reckon I bear with pretending to fancy a bloody toerag?", she answered exasperated.

"Y-Y-You were trying to make me jealous?!" he stuttered dumbfounded.

"By Merlin, Severus, I swear! Sometimes you can be such a dunderhead!" she exclaimed dramatically, with a smirk he recognized as his own, before leaning in to brush his poor astonished lips with her own.

Lily then took a step back and watched him, with his signature smirk still on. It turned into a laugh as she saw a moon-wide smile spread through her best friend's face, who looked at her as had he accidentally fallen inside a cauldron with a recently brewed love potion.

She then heard his deep, incredulous laugh join her own in a joyful chorus, and said smugly:

"I really must be something, huh? Not many people in this universe can have the privilege of saying that they've made Severus Snape, the soon-to-be youngest Potions Master in Europe, laugh his heart out. My friends will be so jealous."

Still in laughter, Severus swiftly closed the distance between them, and engulfed the love of his life in a tender embrace.