Disclaimer: I hardly ever own anything I write. The only thing I ever write about that I truly own is me. So unless a fat girl shows up and starts glomping Remus and Sev, then you can safely assume that I don't own it.
A/N: I wrote a chapter! Actually the first few paragraphs have been up since I put up the last one, but I never had the time to finish it, what with Super Bowl preparations and whatnot. Go Colts! Anyways, here, chapter four of The Last to Know.
Chapter Four: Potter and His Necktie
She was running again. She wasn't aware that at her destination, he was not pacing. The thought didn't cross her mind once. She wasn't focusing on anything but the movement of her legs, back and forth, how it always was when she ran. Her hair was falling down, the emerald scrunchie holding only a few bare strands of her auburn locks, but she didn't care.
She skidded to a stop when she saw a professor headed toward her. Ducking behind a coat of armor, she had to suppress a scream as someone caught her around the waist.
"Shhh, the old man'll hear you."
Every muscle in her body relaxed as she recognized the voice. She had been frightened that it would be a professor, the caretaker, or worst of all, Potter. She quietly watched as their danger passed. He spun her around, and she could tell by the look on his face that he was in a horrible mood. She hated to upset him anymore, but it was the reason she had been looking for him in the first place.
"Look, Lil-,"
"Wait. Before you even get started. When I left, yesterday, I went back to the common room. And James was there. He knows, Sev. Or else he's really good at pretending." She cast her eyes to the floor, waiting for his response.
"How would Potter know? He's certainly not smart enough to figure it out himself. Did he say how he knew? Or what he knew?"
"He said he heard us. Heard what, I don't know. We were laughing pretty loud yesterday, but then again, you're not supposed to be able to hear through the door when the -,"
"The Silencing Charm. I thought I had forgotten something. Oh, Merlin. What are we going to do now? We don't have time to come up with a good plan. I can't imagine how he's going to act around me tonight." Severus peeked around the sides of the armor, watching a stray Hufflepuff pass. "If we're not in class, he'll be even more suspicious. Or rather, one of his more intelligent friends will be. I doubt Potter could figure out his own necktie by himself." He moved to step from behind their hiding spot.
"Wait," Lily said, burying a hand in his robes to pull him back. "What do you mean, how he'll act tonight?"
"Oh, that. Old Slughorn, the bastard, decided that Potter needs a tutor, and I'm the unlucky winner. I have to show up at the classroom at eight tonight. And he didn't say anything about when I could leaveā¦"
The rage that flooded his eyes scared Lily a bit, but she knew that it would pass soon. He had told her, in a rare moment of post-giggling soul-bearing, of a talk he'd had with his mother before she died. Eileen (for that is what he had called her, not mother) had asked him, after a particularly horrid encounter with his father, to never be as violent as he was. He, although only eight years old, had taken it very seriously, and hadn't laid a hand on anyone since. He never hesitated to hex or curse, but she knew as well as he did that he would never throw a punch.
She watched what color had appeared in his face drain and his sharp features relaxed. He carefully freed his robes from her grasp and grinned. "Transfiguration waits for no one," he said, giving her a peck a on the cheek. With a final dramatic glance, he swooped from behind the armor and into the empty corridor.
Lily smiled as she watched Severus get smaller and smaller. She smiled, not at him per se, or at his leaving, but at her curious situation. She was the girlfriend of one of the most hated boys in school, and she was loving every minute of it.
A/N: Hi everyone! Okay, before I get serious, Sev grinned! Yay! Okay, I'm done with the exclamation point key. For now. If anyone's interested in the bit about Snape and his mother, I'm writing a sort of one-shot/short story, featuring old Sevie visiting the memory, it will be finished and up son. It is post-HBP and compliant. Anyways, enjoy chapter four, chapter five will be up on my whim. Or whenever I'm ungrounded and not assigned anything in computer (I'm skiving off two assignments to post this).
