Written for the All You Need Is Love Competition; the Pick a Number Challenge; the Pick a Card, Any Card Challenge.


"Hi, Lily."

It was Severus, and Lily turned around to greet him.

"Hi, Severus," she responded with a smile. "Everything alright?"

"Yeah, I guess," he said after a small pause. "Hey… Lily. I was wondering… I was wondering if maybe… did you want to go to Hogsmeade this weekend?"

"Oh. Oh, uh, sure!" she said, surprised. She knew Severus rather liked her, but she hadn't thought him courageous enough to actually ask her out, though it was fifth year and he'd surely liked her since they were small. He wasn't a very courageous person, see; Severus hated Gryffindor, she feared, not because he was a Slytherin and all Slytherins hated Gryffindor, but because he knew he would never be a member of it.

"Good, thanks," he said awkwardly and walked back to Mulciber with a rather conspicuous spring in his step.

Now came the problem: Lily really, really didn't want to go to Hogsmeade with Severus. Sure, she liked him, but of course, it was not a romantic liking; so, a Gryffindor through and through, she marched up to him and asked him, "Severus? Why do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me?"

"Well," he said, stuttering slightly, "I like you a lot. Your smile is… it's really beautiful."

Lily was truly touched by the confession, but nevertheless, she still wasn't convinced that she was happy about her newly upcoming date.


"C'mon, Lily, just give him a chance," said her friend Linda, a Muggleborn girl a year younger than her who didn't know Severus at all.

"Don't give him a chance, Lily, Severus is a shitty person," said Mary, another friend of hers, who despised him. "Stop being friends with him at all, really, Lily."

"That's rude!" exclaimed Adrian, a Hufflepuff who she had befriended in Herbology.

"It may be rude, but it's true," said Nona, a Ravenclaw.

"It's still rude!" said Adrian and Linda in unison.

"So what?" and "Doesn't matter!" were Mary and Nona's replies.

Perhaps it had been a bad idea to ask for her friends' advice on the matter.

"I just want a clear answer, everyone," pleaded Lily, yet they all continued to argue; it was no use to stop them.

"You're being stupid - "

"I'm being stupid?! I'm the Ravenclaw!"

"Doesn't mean you can't act like an idiot!"

"Everyone, please stop - "

"Linda, Snape's a jerk!"

"I don't care, it's rude to blow him off if she said yes already!"

Lily sighed and exited as dramatically as possible; the four friends she'd asked for help from were still too engaged in their argument to notice. The portrait hole door slammed shut as she left, inciting an indignant "Excuse me!" from the Fat Lady, but she soon realized that all of the noise was not from the door: a small boy, likely a first or second year, had yelped in fear upon her leaping frustratedly out of the portrait hole.

"Erm, hello," he said in a timid voice that she would have expected from him. "I'm looking for Lily Evans, she's been sent a message from Professor Dumbledore."

"That's me," she said, confused. What could the headmaster need with her?

"Oh, well, here it is," he replied quickly, thrusting the parchment at her hands so that she barely had time to catch it and running away quickly.

She unravelled the parchment and read its concise message:

Miss Lily Evans,

Please meet me in Classroom E-13 immediately after receiving this message.

Thank you kindly,

Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

Shit. Why was Dumbledore asking her to come to the classroom in which he offered homework help?


The question weighed on her for the entire five-minute journey to Classroom E-13. Was she in trouble? Had she gotten a Troll on her Transfiguration essay? Was she obligated to complete homework help due to the Acceptable she'd received on her last Arithmancy assignment? Dammit, dammit, dammit. Another problem to add to her list under the Severus dilemma.

Lily waited outside the door for nearly a minute before choosing to turn the doorknob; she opened the door, and several students she knew to be rather bad at completing their homework turned and looked at the newcomer. Lily's face flushed a rather deep red that contrasted strongly with her pale complexion. She could be here with them, could she?

"Miss Evans," said Dumbledore calmly. "If someone can only fall in love for your smile, then they are not truly falling in love with you. I hope you take this into account. You are dismissed."

"Oh, er, thank you, Professor," she said, rather perplexed, as she pivoted and shut the door behind her.

Severus wouldn't be too happy, she knew - but did he really love her at all?