Chapter One
Disclaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to the queen, J.K. Rowling.
Severus swung his bag over his shoulder as he left the Great Hall, falling into step with Avery and Mulciber. The former was sneeringly making fun of Arthur Weasley's robes.
"-obviously hand-me-downs, much too short for him, and is that a jam stain on the right sleeve? I wouldn't be seen in anything near them for a hundred Galleons, I would die of shame."
"Which he probably doesn't have, anyway." Mulciber sniggered and added.
Severus nodded, attention drawn to where that insufferable Potter boy was making some arrogant comment which Black evidently thought was hilarious.
Avery jabbed his side with his elbow to get his attention. "Hey Snape, what do we have next?"
"Double Potions with the Gryffindors," Severus responded, checking his schedule.
"Ugh, I may as well have stayed in bed this morning then." Mulciber groaned in disgust.
"Hey, I bet you we'll get a laugh out of that Macdonald girl," Avery made his voice ridiculously high-pitched and mimicked the voice of the girl in question. "You stop that Avery! I'll tell Professor Slughorn!" is eyes slid over to Severus to see his reaction, suspicious of how quiet he was that morning.
Severus, who hadn't noticed what Avery had said, gave a quick laugh.
"Or that Mudblood Evans," Mulciber added. "Fierce ones are always the funniest when they break down and cry."
"Severus used to fancy Evans, didn't he?" Avery asked. "You two used to hang out all the time."
Severus, whose face had contorted slightly at the word Mudblood, looked up and said shortly. "We used to be friends, yes."
"Used to? You lovebirds had a falling out?" Mulciber inquired.
"It's a good thing, filthy little Mudblood that she is." Avery said decisively.
Severus was spared a reply by their arrival at the Potions classroom. They entered and took their seats at the back, Professor Slughorn at the door dropping a greeting and a smile here and there as the students entered in groups of green and silver and scarlet and gold.
Severus pointedly didn't pay attention when Potter's gang entered, closely followed by a group of Gryffindor girls, including Mary MacDonald, Gwendolyn Cresswell, and Lily Evans.
"All right then boys and girls, let's get started. Today we'll be working on an Elixir to Induce Euphoria. Now, you want to be careful when adding Shrivelfigs and Sophorous beans, because.."
Severus's attention wandered from the lecture, he already knew it all anyway. Evidently, Potter and Black felt the same way, because a few moments later a note fluttered onto his desk. Flipping it open cautiously, Severus saw a line of James's scrawling hand-writing.
Been using your mother's hair products, Snivellus?
Severus crumpled up the paper with one hand and turned to glare at the pair of them, who just smirked. Gritting his teeth in annoyance, he turned back to Professor Slughorn, who was finishing up his lecture.
"-and don't forgot to stir it exactly six times, or all that wormwood will be wasted and the potion will turn a bright green instead of that nice sunshine yellow. Now, today you will be separated into pairs for your assignment. Let's see, Potter and Macmillian, Avery and Nott, Macdonald and Cresswell, Lupin and Prewett, hmm, Evans and Snape, then.."
Snape groaned quietly as Slughorn continued. There went his plan to avoid Lily for all of sixth year. Each pair were assigned to a cauldron, and Severus headed over to theirs, and busied himself sorting out good porcupine quills to use for the potion.
A minute later, a flash of dark red in the corner of his vision and the flowery, cinnamon-y smell washing over his nose told him that Lily had joined him at the work station. He tried not to look up as she silently began juicing the Shrivelfigs.
They continued working in an awkward silence. The work stations were small, so they had to keep brushing and nudging each other as they reached for ingredients or to drop something in simmering cauldron. Severus tensed up every time they touched, all too aware that they hadn't been this close since before the Mudblood incident. Lily kept up her silence pointedly for a while, but it's pretty much impossible to brew a potion with someone else without speaking. Little by little, she loosened up, muttering "I'll chop the wormwood," and that kind of thing as they worked.
Despite the tension, they were an excellent team. Lily was also skilled at potions, and whenever Severus deviated from the textbook's instructions (which was often, because he didn't agree with the textbook's instructions for the Elixir at all), she didn't get annoyed or confused, instead immediately understanding and changing whatever she was doing intuitively.
They worked twice the speed of the other pairs, and were soon almost done. Recalling something Severus had read a while ago on counterbalancing ingredients, he added a sprig of peppermint as Lily finished adding the Sophorous Beans. Professor Slughorn called time, and began walking around inspecting the various elixirs.
He nodded in approval at Lupin and Prewett's, wrinkled his nose at Mulciber and his partner's, then came up to Severus and Lily and peered into their cauldron, where a sunshine yellow mixture bubbled merrily, letting off a pleasantly sweet smell.
"Oho, what have we here?" He exclaimed. "This is practically perfect! Excellent work, you two, well done indeed." He beamed at Lily, ignoring Severus. Collecting a vial of the potion, he turned to rest of the class and began enumerating on all the good points of their elixir, how completely perfect it was.
Forgetting for a moment that they were no longer friends, Severus turned at smiled at Lily – then wanted to kick himself for forgetting. To his surprise, however, Lily gave him a small smile in return, then seemed to remember she was ignoring him and quickly turned away and walked over to where Macdonald was attempting to clean the orange glob that was her elixir out of her cauldron.
What was that about? Severus wondered as he left he dungeons. She had made it extremely clear to him that she wanted nothing more to do with him. What if-
"Oi, Snivellus! How did you manage to make such a perfect potion while you were making goo-goo eyes at Evans the whole time?"
Severus gritted his teeth. Potter.
"You're just jealous that Slughorn didn't pay any attention to your potion. And hurt that Lily thinks you're an arrogant toerag - which you are." Severus spat back.
Potter reached for his wand, seething, and was about to curse Severus, who reached for his own, when Black came up from behind and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, mate. Moony and Wormtail are waiting for you."
"You got lucky this time, Snape." He spat out Severus's name with disgust. Let's go, Sirius." Still furious, Potter tucked his wand back in his robes and shoved Severus to the side as he left with Black.
xxxxx
"-and I just can't figure out what went wrong with my Elixir, I thought I was doing just fine when it started turning into a blob. And Aggie tried her best to help me, but you know she's much better at Transfiguration, so it wasn't much good, and I'm sure Professor Slughorn is so disappointed. Did you know, he actually said my Shrinking Solution was passable last week, and I was improving? But of course, Avery decided to lob Sophorous Beans at my head the entire time, so I just couldn't focus."
Lily nodded sympathetically. "Avery is an ignorant, self-centered, son of a-"
"Hey, Evans, MacDonald - seen James anywhere?" Sirius's drawling voice interrupted Lily's response.
Mary shook her head, sparing Lily having to respond. "No, why?"
"He seems to have forgotten that he promised to show Wormtail his new broomstick after class." He directed a charming smirk at the two girls. "You ladies can come watch if you want."
Lily narrowed her eyes and replied coolly. "No thanks."
"Have it your way, then." Sirius shrugged and walked past them, towards the direction of the Slytherin common room.
Mary sighed as she watched Sirius swagger away. "He is sooo hot."
"Really, Mary, Sirius? He already has plenty of girls fawning over him, and there are plenty of other guys to moon over, you know." Lily rolled her eyes.
"But seriously, have you seen that smirk of his?" Mary said dreamily. "It's to die for."
Mary continued to elaborate on Sirius's good looks, and Lily let her thoughts drift back to today's Potions class.
It had been the first time she had talked to Severus since he had apologized to her again back in Cokeworth, over summer break. She still remembered how vulnerable he had seemed, asking for her forgiveness under their childhood meeting place. She had wanted to forgive him so badly at that moment, to go back to being best friends as they always had been.
But then she had remembered the longing in his voice when he talked about Dark magic, and he and his friends' wish to join up with You-Know-Who, who had already murdered innocent witches, wizards, and Muggles. How he had brushed aside her attempts to show him the cruelty of his Death Eater friends.
Maybe I shouldn't have started ignoring him, though. Lily thought to herself, biting her lip. What if it just pushes him closer to the Dark Arts?
Hey guys,
Thank you so much for the follows, favs, and reviews so far! I'm really glad to hear that you guys like it :D This chapter wasn't super plot-ful, but next chapter there will be some sirius rising action going on *evil author laugh*
On a more melancholy note, it was so sad to hear about the death of Alan Rickman ;( He was an amazing actor and man and will ALWAYS be remembered. *raises wand*
I'd love all positive feedback and constructive criticism, so please review if you have anything to say :)
FelixFelicis13