An encounter with Severus
James POV
Sirius and I were sitting by the black lake when we heard the rancid laugh of one Severus Snape. He was with another Slytherin boy who looked just as ugly as Snape did, if not worse. Sirius and I looked at each other our faces both said the same thing. We grinned at each other and got up, sneaking closer to the two boys. As we did so, we could hear what they were talking about. "Why do you even associate with that mudblood Severus? She's nothing, dirt. You should cut ties with her. It could be dangerous in the future." Said the unknown one.
"No. She's different. Don't tell me what to do Avery. I can make my own decisions." Severus said and then this Aery fellow walked off in disgust at the thought of Snape being friends with Lily. I was so mad now. How could he call her a mudblood? How could Snape even look at someone who called Lily that? I walked out from behind the tree closest to Snape and a sneer wormed its way onto my face. I started yelling insults at him and he just looked at me like I was crazy. I knew I was being unreasonable and mean but I couldn't help it. I was angry and he was the only one I could take it out on. Sirius was standing behind me, encouraging me and joining in.
After a while Snape just walked away. I didn't stop him though and neither did Sirius. I slumped against the wall of the castle and just sat there for a while. Why had I done that? What was it about Snape that made me so mad? He was talking about Lily like she was nothing and yet he was still friends with her. Why would he do that? He was so confusing and I didn't want to think about it anymore. I stood up as Sirius looked at me with concern. I walked forward, towards the lake and kept going until I was waist deep. "James?" Sirius asked in concern, wondering what I was doing. The water was cold; refreshing on my hot skin. I closed my eyes and fell backwards into the water, letting it envelop me. I was covered on all sides and it was nice and calm and quiet. After a while, I needed to breathe so I stood up, adjusted my glasses and my tie and walked back to shore. A crowd of people were standing there in concern and I just ignored them. Lily caught my eye and looked as if she wanted to ask me what I was doing, if I was okay, but she didn't open her mouth or walk after me as I headed back up to the castle.
Lily POV
I saw a group of people standing around the edge of the black lake as I was coming back up from my tea with Hagrid and decided to go and see what was going on. As I approached I saw that Remus, Peter and Sirius were among the crowd but James was missing. I wondered where he was. I shoved my way past to stand next to Sirius, thinking that he would have the answer as he usually did to these kinds of things. He was a gossip. "What's going on?" I asked and he looked at me sideways. He didn't smile of try to flirt with me as he usually did which was odd. It also told me that something serious was going on. "James. He went into the water and he's been under for about five minutes. He can hold his breath for about that but I'm not sure what happened. He was fine one minute and then the next he was walking into the water."
He looked troubled by this, maybe seeing as he was James' best friend he was used to knowing what was wrong with him, but not knowing like this had got to kill him. I moved forward and called out to him. "James?" I yelled and there was a stirring under the water were I assumed he was. Then he stood up, straightened his glasses, adjusted his tie and walked out of the lake as if nothing had happened. He didn't look at any of the people in the crowd but I managed to catch his eye. He looked broken and sad underneath a layer of fake nonchalance. I desperately wanted to comfort him, to ask what was wrong but I didn't for some reason. There was an invisible force holding me back. Nobody else followed him either not even the marauders.