A/N: I hate bridge chapters. You know, all the stuff that has to take place between something you just did and the something you're trying to get to? Even worse is when a bridge chapter just goes berserk and requires being split in twain. Hopefully second half of this bit will be up tonight. I have about fifteen pages of miscellany just waiting to be spliced at the right moment, it's just taking some time to create those moments. Bear with me, folks :)

It had been three weeks since he threw her out of his classroom.

While the professors were cloistered in the castle during term, Lily found it frustrating that she could not simply orchestrate a chance meeting – she would have to go to Hogwarts purposely. And that gave her too much time to think, too much time to try and convince herself out of it.

She was sorry she'd jumped to conclusions. But she was also still frustrated (maybe even a bit angry) that he'd not given her a chance to explain herself. He'd jumped to conclusions too, and while that made her feel better about her own mistakes, it still all came down to the fact that she had tried to jump into a romance with someone she barely knew anymore.

People did it every day – they started new relationships with strangers.

But her and Severus were not strangers – they had a past that was rife with bad memories. Good ones too, for sure.

"No, no, you can't just stab at it like some drunken harpy! Gods, Lily, who taught you how to do this?"

"Nobody, stupidface. I'm a Muggleborn, remember? I don't learn how to get into Snap-Pods when I'm five" she responded smartly, and shook her knife at him.

"Three."

"Three?!"

"Three. They're great fun, and if you weren't brandishing that knife around, you'd have a better go of it. Here." He shook his head at her, as though at a child, rather than his peer, and grabbed her hand. He pried the knife out of her fingers and set it far away from the tray. He'd finally started to hit his growth spurt, and just shy of fourteen, he was beginning to be taller than her. He stood behind her, and took both her hands in his.

"Now, watch."

He used her right hand to clutch the elongated mango-sized orange pod in her palm."

"Sev, I'm left handed."

"Oh. Sorry." He switched the pod into her left hand. Then he lifted her right and made her point a finger.

He leaned in close, and whispered in her ear. "Now, slowly, slowly now, run your finger down that ridge there."

His hand still clutching hers, she reached for one of the darker orange ridges that striped the pod.

"Yeah. Careful. Can't just poke at it. You see how well that worked."

"Har har."

She stroked the ridge once, twice.

"Okay, now with just a little more pressure," he said, and leaned back from her body a little, almost removing his hands from hers.

She bit her lip in concentration, and pressed just a little harder with her finger, peering close to the pod.

And it split open with a loud pop!, surprising her to breathlessness and showering her and their lab table with pound coin sized green curls.

He picked one out of her hair and smiled. "See?"

She smacked him on the arm. "You didn't tell me it was going to do that! I almost peed myself!"

That only got her a bemused cock of his eyebrow. "Not my fault you don't do the reading."

"I do too!"

"Obviously not for this assignment."

"I was busy."

"Mmm hmm," he said, clearly disbelieving.

She picked up a green curl and threw it at his face.

She smiled at the memory. That was before awkward, before uncomfortable, when they were just Lily and Sev, before they started arguing.

And Remus! He'd been insufferable. As though a person other than herself could know what she wanted, what might make her happy, he had paraded her insecurities and half-truths in front of her like the Address to the Haggis at a Burns supper. Complete with pomp, circumstance, and a few dramatic reimaginings.

"Oh Severus Snape! You brooding hook-nosed gorgeous" he coughed, upsetting his shrill imitation, "man!" He batted his eyes dramatically and threw a hand to his forehead. "Oh la!"

"This is not funny, Remus. Stop that."

Harry giggled from his highchair.

"He thinks it's funny."

"He thinks everything's funny," she deadpanned. "I'll have you know that Sirius tramping around the place like a werewolf, which, were we not so close to the situation, we might actually find funny, amuses the little snot to death. He even slathers at the mouth."

"Harry?" Remus looked slightly worried.

"Sirius, you fool," she said, and reached out to smack him on the arm, which he gracefully avoided.

"Oh, but I'm not finished," he said with a grin, and reached for her, pulling her to him as she yelped.

"Oh Lily, Lily Evans, I've been in a deep obsession with you since we were children and I spied on you like a creep from behind a few bushes." He made a growling noise and made as though to bite her. "Be mine for all eternity!"

She couldn't help but laugh at his deep, gravelly voice which was more accurate than his impression of her had been. She pushed him away. "He's not a vampire, Remus."

"And you know that for sure, do you?"

She paused as if in sincere contemplation. "Reasonably sure, at any rate. Besides, we always sat outside when we were at school. He was in the sunlight a lot."

"I don't knowwww," Remus looked skeptical. "I seem to remember always finding you two in the shade rather than direct sunlight. I mean, Dumbledore did hire a werewolf to teach his students," he put both his hands on his chest proudly, " who's to say he doesn't have the same equal opportunity policy with other creatures of the night?"

"Stop that," she laughed, and reached out to smack him again, this time actually succeeding.

Sirius had brought his work "home", and agreed to sit for the tot while she used her much-needed day off from the Department of Muggle Relations to visit Hogwarts.

As she walked up the pathway to the castle, she was caught by a wind, which whipped her hair around her face, and she pulled her long navy peacoat tighter around her body, hugging her arms to her chest.

October had dawned, gloomy and windy on the highland moors, and she looked up, seeing that indeed, there would even be a bit of rain. She just hoped it didn't start before she got into the safety of indoors.

"Need a lift, miss?" A man with a black top hat, astride a thestral, appeared from the other direction, obviously intending on going down to the beginning of the pathway.

She peered at him, and then at the horse-creature, who was so bony as to certainly be completely uncomfortable to ride. It snorted, then focused a beady red eye on her.

"No, no thanks, I'm not going that way," she said, and gestured her gloved hand towards the castle gates.

"No worries, miss, Hesta here can take two. 'Course, she can't fly with two, no place for a person to sit but up here on her shoulders, and there ain't room for two, but she can go a good canter.

The man was slim and though he had white hair peeking out from under his hat, his face belied no great age. She felt he must have just gone prematurely white.

She walked over to the thestral, and held out her hand. The creature bared its teeth, pulling back its lips as it sniffed her, then pawed the ground a couple of times.

"See? She's alright, is Hesta," he assured her, and leaned over, extending a hand, and with surprising strength, pulled her up behind him. He was riding bareback, and she immediately regretted her decision as he veered the horse up the path, because the vertebrae ground under her very uncomfortably.

"You a student, miss? Don't recognize the likes of you."

"No no," she laughed. "It's been years since I was a student here. I'm afraid I don't know your name?"

"Ach! I'm Professor Ivesmole! Sorry about that, never introduced myself, did I?"

"And what do you teach?"

"Why, Care of Magical Creatures, of course," he said, smiling over his shoulder at her, and tipping his hat. "And you are?"

"Lily."

"What a lovely name, Lily. Your mum fond of lilies was she?"

"She's fond of flowers in general, sir. She named my sister Petunia."

He had a good chuckle at that, and they continued in amiable chatter until they reached the last set of gates before the castle. She could see the grounds were deserted in expectance of rain.

He helped her slide off the creature, who shook its back haunches, as though relieved to be without her extra weight.

"Thank you for the ride, Professor."

"Sorry I couldn't take you all the way up, but 'twould look strange to some to see a man floating in the air, and you as well! I never take them close to the school – unsettles some, it does."

She smiled, and reached out for the thestral, who'd decided that now she was off her back, wasn't so bad after all. It nuzzled her hand a bit, and she was mindful of its teeth, that could sever a finger if she wasn't careful.

Then he turned the thestral back towards the down slope of the path, and tipped his hat. "Good day, miss."

She nodded. "Good day, Professor."

And he rode away, waving to her behind him.

She shifted in her stance, rubbing her backside gingerly – it was rather painful to ride on that creature, but she was grateful for the swiftness, because she was sure it would begin to downpour any second.

Unfortunately, she thought a moment too late.

The sky opened up, and with a rumble and a crash, fat drops of water flew down hard, indenting the soft sod and making puddles in the grass.

She yelped in surprise and, with her hands above her head, a bad shield from the onrush of water, she ran over the gravel towards the school.

She grabbed the first door she could, the nearest, which opened into a stairwell. She looked both ways, and then ran upwards, meaning to find someplace to dry off.

And she collided mid-step with a man coming around the curve, descending in the stairwell.

"Would you watch it, you clumsy!" He shoved her away from him, and she looked up.

Just the person I wanted to see. I guess.

A/N: Incidentally, both of the flashback scenes are inspired by things I was reminded of today whilst doing a cleanup of my eljay icons. The first, being my favorite Cary Grant movie, Father Goose. Strangely or not, this is not the last time that entirely comical romp of a film will be used for my purposes. Sorry Cary. If you're familiar with it, that first scene should remind you at least vaguely of the incident of fish-catching. Of course, being as I didn't want to imbue such a great amount of sexual tension just yet, it's not a true, complete homage. And the second (I hope) is definitely reminiscent of a particular re-enactment that takes place in the third season of Angel ("Fredless", if you're curious), wherein Wesley and Cordelia pare down the intangible angst that is Buffy/Angel. That scene might be my absolute favourite scene in the entirety of the series. Well, almost. Numfar's Dance of Joy is pretty damn hi-larious. I'm finding that I love Remus to death, and can totally see him hamming it up, were he a less-troubled sort of man. And how about Sirius's werewolf impression? In my head, he's stalking about the kitchen with his hands up in some cross-imitation of Nosferatu and a T-Rex. Complete with the T-Rex walk. Of course, if your friends don't run around pretending to be dinosaurs every time anyone even mentions a line from Jurassic Park, you are perhaps not privy to the amusement which can, and does, ensue. In which case, I am sorry you've missed out.

Wow. Long author's note. Mostly to point out that I'm not all that creative here. Plotz.

(Oh, and for anyone thinking otherwise, the Snap-Pods are meant to be modeled on a plant that I do not know the name of which grows wild by my house...whose pods, much tinier, of course, must be gently touched just so to get them to pop like that. I honestly wasn't trying to be dirty there, but upon a re-read, can understand if you take it so. Jus' sayin' it's not, is all.)