Picking Sides

It was Remus who found Snape there in the morning. "Sev?" he called questioningly. "Have you been out here since we got in?" Severus had eventually fallen asleep, his head drooping, his cheek pressed against his knee. Remus shook his friend's shoulder, and Snape woke with a shudder. He looked around, disoriented, and then his face fell. "What are you…" Remus trailed off mid-sentence and gestured helplessly, his hand sketching circles in the air.

"Am I late for class?" Snape asked dully, not really caring if he was.

"No. It's Sunday, there are no classes. We're going to Hogsmeade today, aren't you excited? Breakfast's already started, and when you didn't show, we wondered if you'd overslept after staying up late last night. But why are you out here?"

"Hogsmeade? I… I don't think I'll come today." Snape was dreading his next encounter with Lily, and he certainly didn't want to see her in Hogsmeade that day.

"Oh, c'mon mate, please? Why are you -" Remus stopped and shook his head. He, of course, knew all about awkward secrets, and didn't push the matter further. "Well, okay, then. But we'd all love it if you came," he added hopefully.

I'll have to see her sometime, thought Snape, and he sighed resignedly. "Alright, I'll come. Here - let me get ready first, won't you?"

Ten minutes later, James, Sirius, and Remus saw Severus making his way through the throngs of chattering students to meet them. "What's up, Severus? Did something go wrong last night after we left?" James asked, but Remus gave a slight shake of his head, and when Snape didn't answer right away, he shrugged. "Okay. Whatever, mate. Hey, Evans!" he called, catching sight of Lily, who stood a few feet away. She glanced up for a moment, but then tossed her head and looked away.

"Huh. I thought she got over loathing you after Prince's detention. And she was talking to Severus before we left yesterday…" Sirius mused aloud. Snape wildly hoped that Padfoot would stop talking, and to his amazement, he did. But when Snape dared to raise his eyes, which had been absorbed in something carefully away from the faces of the other Marauders, Sirius was watching him curiously. Their eyes met, and Sirius raised his eyebrows, but said nothing else. Leave it to Black, Snape thought bitterly, to be able to guess what had happened. Of all people, Severus didn't want to deal with Padfoot, who was far more perceptive than Snape was comfortable with. Why couldn't Sirius be like Remus, who didn't question, but just went along with it all? Soon, Professor McGonagall gave them all permission to leave, and Severus was grateful that they were finally doing something.


"Okay, so what's up with you and Lily?" Sirius leaned forward eagerly, across a mug of hot butterbeer in The Three Broomsticks. Prongs and Moony were still poring over particularly pungent new brand of dungbombs in Zonko's Joke Shop, and Padfoot had motioned for Snape to slip away while there was a chance.

"Nothing is up with Lily. She always hated James, what's the big deal?"

"That isn't a big deal. But she hasn't always hated you. She was your best friend." persisted Sirius. Snape half smiled at hearing that Lily had been his best friend; he'd known it, but it was good to hear the words from somebody else's mouth. His grin quickly twisted into a grimace, however, because the past tense was painfully stark in Padfoot's short, frank statement.

"What does it matter to me if her disgust for us Marauders is more important than what we had?" Severus all but snarled at Sirius. "I. Don't. Care." Snape tried very hard to make his words sound like the truth, but the effort was far too transparent.

Sirius, of course, knew when to stop talking, and he shrugged in an offhand manner, feigning his indifference much more smoothly than Snape had. "Whatever. But I thought you'd quit pretending with that whole, 'I don't care, it doesn't matter,' thing."

Severus slammed his ceramic mug on the table in exasperation, but his hand slipped and it broke. "Bloody hell," he muttered savagely. "Won't anything work properly? Reparo." And then, turning to Padfoot, he said, "Fine. But mind you, I'm only telling you this because it concerns you and Prongs and Moony as well, okay? I don't want to discuss Lily and me at all, you understand?"

"Can do. Muffliato," Sirius answered, silencing himself with his own wand, then miming the action of locking his lips and tossing the key over his shoulder. Severus told Padfoot everything that had occurred between himself and Lily, from their truncated discourse the evening of the full moon to her threatening words when they had all returned from the Shrieking Shack. At the end of his narration, Sirius removed the silencing spell from himself, and said confidently, "I don't think she'll actually follow through with the blackmail, especially now that we'll all be on our guard against doing anything suspicious. It was good that you told us, though. Should I let Remus and James know about it, or shall you?"

"You can," Snape replied quickly, turning away to leave.

"Hang on a minute. I know I promised not to talk to you about Lily, but I just though maybe, if you don't want to see her, or rather, her to see you, then you can take the Invisibility Cloak with you. Go on," Sirius urged, seeing Severus hesitate. "Take it. James won't care, for Merlin's sake, Prince, you're a Marauder."


Snape sat on a fallen log at the very outskirts of Hogsmeade, near the Shrieking Shack. It was March, and very cold. The Invisibility Cloak kept him warm, but there was a strong gale of wind, which kept making the ends of the Cloak flutter and billow out away from his body. Severus turned his back to the wind, and watched the students come and go in small groups. Suddenly, there was a hand on his shoulder, and he jerked away as though he'd been struck in face instead. "Whoa. Calm down. It's just me. Just Lily. Can I sit down?" she didn't wait for an answer before settling herself next to Snape.

"How did you -"

"Your feet are sticking out of the cloak. Pull them in a bit - there, now I can't see you." Lily sounded rather smug. Severus just stuffed the Invisibility Cloak into the pocket of his robes, there being no point in using it anymore. "So, have you made your choice yet?"

"There's no choice to make, Evans," Snape's voice was hard. "Were you under the impression that I didn't think about it before I went and asked to become an Animagus? Before I willingly watched a werewolf transform? You think I'm going to abandon my friends just because you have a grudge?" Severus realized that this was almost verbatim to the conversation they had after the Quidditch match that earned him a detention - except this time, the roles were reversed.

"Do you really want to know what I think? I think that if you start strutting around the school like James and Sirius, people are going to hate you more than they ever did," snapped Lily.

"So did you just come here to bother me, or is there anything else you want to say?"

"I want to know whose side you're on, mine or James's?"

"Sides, Evans? Since when were we picking sides?" Snape suddenly realized that he and Lily were shrieking at each other, and he glanced up in horror at the ring of onlookers who had gathered.


A/N: This was a rather dramatic chapter, so I hope it wasn't unrealistic or anything. It took me a while to get the dialog to sound right. Thanks to my readers and reviewers. I always want feedback, good or bad, so reviews are very much appreciated.