The next day, Lily woke up at 7, refreshed and extremely content. Events of the past day floated back to her, and she turned her head to regard the wand on her bedside table with affection. A glance at the clock hung on the other side of the room told her it was half-past seven, and Lily wasted no time in getting out of bed and brushing her teeth. She slipped on a white chiffon dress with a black waist belt, before heading down to eat breakfast. She was halfway down the stair when her wand sprang to her mind, and she backtracked to pick her wand up and slip in into her pocket.

That day's breakfast was a somewhat subdued occasion. Neither Mrs Evans or Mr Evans talked much, instead focusing on eating their full English breakfasts. Lily was immersed in her thoughts, wondering what the best way to keep her Hogwarts materials away from a spiteful and vicious Petunia was. Would she snap her wand in half if she found it? Surely she would not be so daring, because after all, they were still living under the same roof as their parents. Digging into her memories to find recollections of Petunia, Lily was not at all surprised to find that Petunia had gotten more malicious after moving out of the house to live with her boyfriend, a piggish man with a ridiculously inflated head who often took himself too seriously. The last she remembered was that they had a child named Dudley Dursley (seriously, were they setting the child up for a life of mocking? What sort of name was Dudley?) who was a positive terror.

She would make sure her Harry would never have to interact with Dudley or her horrid sister and brother-in-law ever.

"So what did you do in Diagon Alley, Lily?" Mr Evans asked her an undertone of curiosity in his voice. Startled, Lily snapped her head up from her sausages.

"Mum and I bought my school stuff. We met another Muggle-born, a witch or wizard born to non-magical parents, and her mother, the MacDonalds. I got along quite well with the Muggle-born, Mary, and we got our wands together," Lily recounted.

"Ah yes, the MacDonalds. Janet McDonald was timid, lacked a backbone and didn't have an opinion on a lot of things. Not the friend I was looking for, but she does supply a lot of information on this new world Lily now is a part of," Mrs Evans said, shrugging lightly.

The sound of the doorbell ringing interrupted whatever Lily was about to say. Leaping up from her seat, she announced that she would get it, and walked to the living room to receive whoever it was outside the door.

When the door swung open, Lily unintentionally let out a small gasp. Standing in front of her was a younger version of Severus Snape with chubby cheeks and the milkiest skin she had ever seen. His hair wasn't greasy... yet.

Revulsion and disgust for the past— wait, no, future version of Severus left a bitter, acidic taste in Lily's mouth. He had let his humiliation and embarrassment take him by the reins and called her a Mudblood in fifth year, knowing full well the effect of the name that wasn't just a mere word to Lily. It represented her failure to fit in with the Wizarding community, and he knew it, Lily having poured her heart out to him and told him her insecurities before the incident. Afterwards, he joined the group of Voldemort's lackeys, the Death Eaters, and allowed himself to be branded by that vile and pathetic excuse of a human. Severus didn't tell her, and he hadn't needed to, because she could physically feel the evil radiating off the snake-and-skull tattoo on his left wrist.

"Lily?" Blinking rapidly, Lily was faced with the perplexed face of one Severus Snape. "Are you alright? You look... odd."

She desperately wanted to slam the door with a bang right in his face, but she had to fight back the compulsion and force down her contempt. It wouldn't do for Lily to ostracise and offend Severus over something he, technically, hadn't done, lest she sent him down a path of self-destruction and depression worse than the one he was on the previous time.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine," she shrugged it off, before fixing him with a stare that had him squirming slightly under her gaze. "What are you doing here?"

An expression of hurt and upset crossed Severus' face for a split second before his usual look of indifference took over.

"I... don't you remember? We agreed to go to Diagon Alley today, after breakfast. I thought I'd come around and see if you were up yet..." he trailed off uncertainly, raising an eyebrow when Lily's eyes widened in utmost horror. Had they really agreed to go to Diagon Alley together? She flipped through her new self's memories, clenching her teeth in anger at her carelessness. Of course, Severus would have wanted to introduce her to the Wizarding World because he was the one who told her about it in the first place. How could she neglect that fact?

However, in the end, Lily steeled her face into a mask of insouciance and regarded Severus with a sort of apathy. "I don't remember anything of the sort. I think you must have been mixed up, Severus, because I certainly never talked to you about going to Diagon Alley together. In fact, I went to Diagon Alley yesterday and got my Hogwarts things already."

This time, Severus didn't even try to mask the misery and dismay on his face as his mouth opened slightly to form an "O". He visibly struggled to speak for a few moments, looking discombobulated by her sharp tone of voice.

"I don't understand. You were so excited while talking about going to Diagon Alley. There's no way you didn't say anything about going to Diagon Alley because you clearly did," Severus murmured, his eyes glazed over and Lily guessed he was thinking about her words.

Lily was saved from any further explanation when her mother's voice travelled from just behind her, greeting Severus politely before asking her what the hold-up was. Lily explained that Severus was merely asking if she had gone to Diagon Alley.

"Oh, yes, Lily and I went to Diagon Alley yesterday. If you're wondering why she didn't invite you," at this point, Lily made a frazzled motion to indicate to her mother that it was time to stop speaking, but the unknowing Mrs Evans continued. "She said she didn't want to disturb you because she thought it was noble enough that you introduced her to the Wizarding World, and she wanted to explore on her own without needing your assistance."

Mrs Evans obviously believed that she was helping Lily's place in Severus' heart go up a notch higher, but her words achieved the opposite effect. Lily knew Severus could see through her small lie, and she didn't anticipate the reaction she would get. Like she expected, immediately after Mrs Evans stopped speaking, Severus shot her a look so full of hurt and sorrow that Lily felt a momentary pang of guilt. Averting her eyes to focus on the beige wall, Lily hoped for this all to be over soon so she could go back to her room and spend time in her library.

"Why don't you follow Lily up to her room and read her new books together? I'm sure you'll be interested in them since you both have the same interests," Mrs Evans suggested innocently.

"No!"

"Sure—" Both Lily and Severus turned to scrutinise the other. Green eyes surveyed him coolly without a shred of warmth and Severus unconsciously shuddered, unused to the unfriendly and positively glacial version of Lily. He ducked his head, unwilling to look into Lily's frosty gaze, before shaking his head politely.

"Since Lily doesn't want me around," he purposely added a razor-sharp edge to his voice, feeling amused when Lily flinched at his tone. "I'll leave."

"No, don't be that way," Mrs Evans directed a reproaching look at Lily, who adopted her most meek-looking face the second it was sent her way. "Lily, bring Severus up to your room and show him your new books. You can have breakfast with us if you haven't already, Severus."

"Oh no, it's fine, I've already eaten, but thank you for the offer," Severus replied cordially, shooting a grateful smile at Mrs Evans. Lily noticed he was glimpsing at her and promptly gave him the surliest look she could muster, after which he diverted his eyes away from her face. She couldn't help it— she still couldn't get the much older and much more wicked Severus out of her head. Lily knew it wasn't right to load all the things future Severus had done onto his younger and alternate self, but every time she looked at that face, she felt nothing but hatred. The Death Eaters killed Marlene, tortured Frank and Alice until they were nothing but shells of their original selves, killed Dorcas' family and extended family and, while they were still in school, inflicted trauma onto Mary, so much that whenever she saw violence or heard someone being assaulted, she would burst into tears and have a panic attack. Had Severus been part of these? Even if he hadn't participated directly, joining and pledging allegiance to their cause, which targeted Muggle-borns like her and Mary, was enough to sever their ties of friendship in half.

She trudged up to her room, an air of annoyance and hostility surrounding as Severus followed quietly behind her, no sound of his footfalls at all. Wrenching the door to her bedroom open, she made a beeline for her bed beside the window, picking up Pureblood Etiquette and Social Customs and making sure Severus didn't read the title before gesturing to the pile of new books.

"Pick a book and start reading," Lily told him curtly, moving to her bed and resting her book on her knees. She quickly started reading, ignoring Severus' presence in her room, hoping he didn't ask her any more stupid questions she didn't know how to answer.

Unfortunately, he did. Only ten minutes had passed before he cleared his throat, gazing at Lily, who tried her best to pretend she did not hear a single thing.

"Lily," he started, slightly unsure as to what her reaction would be.

"What?" she snapped irately, squaring her jaw at him.

Wincing, he continued, "Why are you so hostile to me?"

Panic rose up in her as she gulped slowly, her expression resembling a deer caught in headlights. Lily had been hoping he wouldn't be so direct as to ask her why she was acting that way, instead opting to figure it out on his own, but this wasn't the case. An awkward silence hung in the air as Severus stared at her intensely, and Lily knew she had to come up with a good reason, fast.

"It's just that… Well, you told me about Hogwarts houses," she said slowly, tilting her head downwards as the gears in her head spun rapidly to come up with a follow-up story for that. "You told me that you wanted to go to Slytherin, but after I looked at the characteristics of Slytherin, I found that they were blood-purists and that detested Muggle-borns like me. I realised that there was no way I would go to Slytherin and that if you wished to go to Slytherin, it means that you hate people like me. You mentioned house rivalries between Gryffindor and Slytherin before, Gryffindor is the house that suits me the most, while Slytherin is your chosen pick. Why bother even being friends with each other when the house rivalries and peer pressure are going to force us apart?" Lily's face morphed into one of desolation as she lifted her head to blast Severus with the full force of her woeful emerald eyes.

Severus looked horrified that Lily had taken his words so seriously. So seriously, that she wanted to break their friendship up just because of something as insignificant of house rivalries. Hiding a smug smile at how easy manipulated Severus was, Lily kept up the gloomy façade as she waited for Severus to reply.

"Oh, no, Lily, I didn't mean it that way!" Severus whispered, his eyes shining with regret and distress. "I'll always be your friend, no matter which house we go to."

"Really?" Lily's eyes lit up like the decorative lights on a Christmas tree, her spine instantly straightening at the thought of being unaffected by the house rivalries. At least, that was what Severus assumed.

"Really," he confirmed, cracking a small, friendly smile at her.

"That's great!" It physically hurt Lily to act so childishly and happy, but the thought of arousing suspicion and messing up her half-formed plans compelled her to carry on with lying through her teeth and continue her acting, which Lily thought quite realistic. She wondered if she could win a Best Leading Actress award in the Muggle world if she tried out for a lead role in a movie. It was an intriguing wish that she thought she could have gone after had she not have been admitted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

They spent around an hour in Lily's room, looking through her new books and discussing spells and jinxes. Neither of them mentioned the house rivalries, and Lily was relieved Severus didn't bring the subject up again. Spending the time with idle chatter and discussing their plans for the future was a surprisingly hard thing for Lily to do because the fact that Severus would grow up to be a Death Eater kept bouncing around in her brain. It kept reminding her that Severus was another one of her let-downs, another one of the people she failed to keep out of harm's way.

Lily pursed her lips, so preoccupied with her thoughts that she didn't even bother listening to what Severus was rambling about. It wasn't too late to change Severus for the better, starting right then, and Lily was sure with enough time and effort on both their parts, Severus could avoid a path of certified death.

A loud rapping of knuckles on the front door could be heard out of the blue. Lily flinched sharply, having been abruptly jolted out of her musings.

"Mum, Vernon's here," Petunia's high-pitched shriek as she bolted down the stairs travelled up, through the shut door and into Lily's ears, who winced at her sister's behaviour. Had Petunia and Vernon, their then-neighbour down the street, started being friends at the age of thirteen the last time around? Did their relationship already progress until a stage where Vernon could show up at their house unannounced and simply expect to be let in? No, Lily couldn't make it easy for them to do anything, especially since Vernon had been such a prick to her in the other universe.

She dimly realised she was hypocritical as she marched to the door, flung it open and ran down the stairs. Severus had shown up unannounced in the morning too, and Mrs Evans had welcomed him, even sending him to Lily's room so they could look through her books. Petunia hadn't said a word about his appearance; ergo Lily shouldn't have had any problem with Vernon suddenly turning up at their doorstep. However, she convinced herself Vernon had been the most disagreeable, irksome, troublesome, annoying, irritating, vexatious, displeasing, nasty, horrible, appalling, terrible, awful, dreadful, hateful, detestable, miserable, abominable, execrable, odious, invidious, obnoxious, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, disgusting, distasteful and ugly entity she had ever encountered. He'd taunted her about her magic, along with Petunia, and it took her three years before she found the courage to talk back to him and scare him off with threats about her magic.

Find any word that means repulsive, and Lily would be sure to apply it on Vernon.

It's not like you and Severus haven't acted rudely to Petunia, a snide voice sneered inside her head, remember when Severus Snape dropped that tree branch on Petunia's head?

That was harmless. She just ran off with a squeal, Lily countered with a roll of her eyes. She deserved it for eavesdropping on our conversation anyway.

He dropped one of the three main boughs of the tree on her skull! How can you say that was harmless? If I were her, I would hate the both of you for the rest of my life. Plus, she was already jealous of you and Severus and even wrote the letter to Headmaster Dumbledore, pleading to attend Hogwarts. The rejection, coupled with your parents' pride and the fact that she will never achieve the things you will, make her bitter and Vernon, having never truly interacted with you, believed his wife's side of the story in which you were evil and practised sorcery with malicious intent.

Whatever. It is true. Lily didn't know when she had been so stubborn and unempathetic, but at that moment, she found herself indifferent to whatever injuries Petunia had sustained after that. The blow from the loss of a sister, a close friend, family had cut deeper into Lily than any razor, knife or insult. The emotional scar that Petunia had left behind was incomparable to whatever physical injury Petunia had suffered.

Perhaps, just perhaps, Lily's absence in her life had impacted Petunia more than she had though it did, the fissures and cracks hidden from view beneath the perfect surface her dear older sister put up. Maybe it was too much of Lily even to consider Petunia felt the same way she did. Either way...

She deserved it.

"Petunia! It's so nice to see you again," Vernon exclaimed, grinning with his teeth exposed. Disappointed that Vernon's teeth weren't yellow, jagged pieces of calcium protruding from an overly bloody enamel like she imagined while coming down the stairs and instead straight, pearly whites, Lily dodged behind a wall just in time for Vernon's entrance. He embraced Petunia, hugging her tightly, before letting go and ducking his head in a half-nod at Mrs Evans. Lily suddenly frowned, feeling confused at something she simply couldn't place her finger on. Vernon's appearance seemed so different, and she couldn't tell why.

"Vernon! Have you eaten your breakfast? It's only half past eight," Mrs Evans tutted, pursing her lips at him when he shook his head slowly. "Look at you! You're so thin and bony! I made bacon and eggs with those fluffy Japanese pancakes Petunia loves. The bacon and eggs aren't as warm; I hope you don't mind."

With a dawning sense of comprehension, Lily finally noticed what was so off about Vernon. The now-boy, who had been a red-faced man with a triple chin, thick limbs and two pounds of fat hanging off every pound of his body, was skinny. He wasn't exactly bony or string bean-like, like Petunia already was, but at least she could see his bones and knuckles.

"Oh no, Mrs Evans, it's fine, I'm here to work on the Literature project Petunia and I were assigned. I'm not hungry. I think you should eat it," Vernon denied politely, exactly how Severus had done an hour ago. Petunia sent him a smile that reached her ears, and he lifted a corner of his lips in response.

Unable to stand the scene in front of her any longer, Lily gagged loudly, revealing her presence to a glowering Petunia and a frowning Vernon.

"Lily! Don't be impolite to Vernon here," Mrs Evans chastised her, eyebrows pulled in a deep frown while the corners of her lips turned down automatically. "Apologise, now."

"It's alright," Vernon, ever the forgiving friend he portrayed himself as, was quick to reassure Mrs Evans and Petunia, placing a restraining hand on Petunia's forearm to prevent her from launching herself at her younger sister. He gave Lily the most insincere and artificial "kind" look and started saying, "I hope you don't do that in the future, though, I—"

"I'm sorry, I have a weak stomach, so I can't stand looking at things which are ugly and repulsive for long before I have to go vomit," Lily threw a triumphant glance at an aghast Petunia, before holding a hand to her mouth dramatically and dry heaving. Then, she scurried off in the direction of the bathroom, holding in her laughter before she took a detour and hurried back to the stairs.

"Mum, you need to scold Lily! The audacity of her to insult my guest! I didn't even say anything when her freak friend came over!" Petunia whined and pleaded in the living room, tugging at Mrs Evan's hand as Vernon Dursley's little eyes darted around nervously.

"Petunia, surely calling someone a freak isn't—"

"Don't interrupt me, Vernon! I need to get this out. I've been holding in for so long and putting up with that freak Lily Evans for so long, yet she always disrespects my friends and me! Mum, please reprimand Lily..."

Mrs Evans still seemed hesitant, and Lily stifled her laughter again. Oh, Petunia, she thought pitifully, Mum still loves me more. I never thought I'd think this, but after ten years of verbal abuse, accompanied by vituperative outbursts, I finally see why Mum was prouder of me.

Lily decided that Petunia was one overly-jealous, narrow-minded little twat that she had the misfortune of being a sister to, and snuck back up the stairs. This time, she wouldn't try to please Petunia or try to help her sister see things her way, instead, they'd live their separate lives, without a reminder that they were once the closest of sisters.

"What happened down there?" The moment Lily opened the door with a determined set of her jaw, Severus lifted his head and asked her curiously, setting down his Potions book.

"Nothing," Lily answered flippantly, plopping herself down on her bed and picking up a random book, "nothing at all."