Chapter 10 – As The Winter Passes

Winter that year had been rather brutal, which caused Lily and Snape to be confined to the castle on evenings and weekends. Their autumn walks throughout the multi-coloured grounds had been brought to an abrupt end by early storms.

Lily had been released from Madam Pomfrey's care in mid-November, but Dumbledore felt that it was not safe for her to return to living in the world at large, and insisted that she stay at the castle. He arranged sleeping accommodations for her in the staff's quarters and gave her a job giving remedial Potions classes, since Snape did not want to do it, as he and Dumbledore were spending even more time in private discussions these days.

Snape and Lily had spent a lot of time talking about the plans Dumbledore was developing with the Order's help in regards to Voldemort's downfall, and surprisingly enough, Lily had solved their Horcrux destruction dilemma. She had suggested there probably wasn't one single way in which to do it.

Together, over the course of six weeks, she and Snape had brewed the Eradicus Totalus Potion. On a particularly cold night near the end of January, the three of them were all congregated in Snape's dungeon when the potion was ready.

The locket was the first to go. The black potion hissed and boiled violently as the golden locket made contact with the liquid. The metal seemed to melt and a terrible scream issued from it as it vanished.

They all cheered when they realized that this was yet another obstacle eliminated from their path. One by one, they dropped the Horcruxes into the cauldron of the steaming, vile potion. Half an hour later, all the Horcruxes were gone, and Snape had disposed of the deadly mixture.

Dumbledore had excused himself to attend to a previously scheduled appointment with a group of students, leaving Snape and Lily in Snape's office.

Lily's eyes drifted to the pile of papers on his desk. She snickered.

'You just can't stay on top of them, can you?'

'I don't know what's worse, reading their stupidity or putting up with it in class.'

She smiled. 'It can't be that bad. You said yourself that there are worse things.'

He sighed. 'I guess I should be grateful, then.'

Lily smiled and sat down in the large chair behind his desk. Taking a quill from the stand and opening a bottle of ink, she picked up the first paper on the pile and began reading.

Snape stared at her. Lily, feeling his piercing stare, looked up from the paper a few paragraphs in.

'What?' she asked.

'You don't have to do my work for me.'

'I have nothing better to do at the moment,' she said. 'I'll just end up going back to the staff room, spending time alone, thinking about…'

Great, Snape thought. We've arrived here. He had done his best to be a compassionate listener as Lily poured her heart out to him over the past three months, but he didn't know how much more he could handle hearing about James Potter and how he was a terrific husband, a wonderful father, and really a decent human being. He didn't mind hearing about her son, as he could sympathize with her grief over losing him. But every statement that painted James in a positive light caused an error message to flash through his brain.

'If you don't want to be alone, Lily, there are other things you can do besides marking papers,' Snape pointed out.

Lily brushed a few stray tears from her eyes. 'Well what do you suggest, Severus?' she said, placing the paper back on the desk and giving him her full attention.

He stood in thought for a moment. There were several things that came to mind, but he knew that she probably wasn't open to those things, at least not yet.

'Seeing as how tomorrow is your birthday and I'll be away with Dumbledore until Monday, why don't we go down to Hogsmeade for a quiet dinner?'

She looked at him with an air of heartfelt surprise. 'You remembered.'

'Of course I remembered. There are some things you always remember.'

She nodded. 'Okay, but on one condition.'

Snape eyed her suspiciously. 'Conditions are more of a Slytherin trait, my dear Gryffindor.'

'Well, having the courage to basically flip You-Know-Who the finger right under his – well, I was going to say his nose –' they both chuckled, '– is clearly a Gryffindor trait, my dear Slytherin.'

'What is your condition, then?' asked Snape, clearly enjoying himself in having his old friend back.

She rearranged her features in a serious expression. 'That you'll stop telling your students that my knowledge of Potions is only satisfactory,' she lingered over the word.

Snape narrowed his eyes at her. 'Are you serious? That's your condition?'

'Yes,' she smiled. 'You never could handle the fact that I was better than you at Potions.'

'Not even you appreciate my unique sense of humour,' said Snape in mock disappointment.

'Oh, I appreciate it,' she said, standing up and walking toward him. 'I just don't appreciate my talents being debased by it.'

'You know I don't mean anything by it,' he said.

'You know what your problem is?' she said, sticking her index finger into his chest. 'You just don't like being shown up.'

'Well, I always liked to think our skills were evenly matched.'

Lily smiled and scoffed. 'You wouldn't call us evenly matched if you were the better potion maker.'

Snape considered her. 'This is true.'

Her face broke into a huge grin, her eyes alight with mischief. 'I'm going to get you for that one, Snape,' she said, her voice full of mock offense. She hadn't spoke to him like this since before their estrangement. He was thrilled that they could still get on like this and that she hadn't been hardened by her grief.

'In your dreams, Evans,' he said dismissively in his silky tones. 'You don't have the nerve.'

'You know perfectly well that I do, and you'll get yours if you don't stop giving your students the impression that you are better potion maker than I.'

'And what is it I should I be fearing, exactly?' asked Snape in mock concern.

'Wouldn't you like to know…' she taunted him. 'If I told you it would defeat the entire point.' She smirked and turned her back to him, heading to the door.

Without really thinking what he was doing, Snape dodged after her and grabbed her arm and pulled her back around. She twisted around to face him, but he had expected her to put up a fight. She was coming toward him too fast… so close…

Before either of them realized what had happened, their lips met. For a moment they stood frozen together, their wide eyes only inches from the other's. Lily was the first to relax; she closed her eyes and kissed him back, bringing one hand up to cup one side of his face. Snape took a bit longer to relax, but he, too, eventually eased into the moment.

After a minute or two – or maybe even a day, Snape couldn't really tell – they drew apart and Lily stood up on her own. She looked at Snape and then to the floor, her cheeks flushing bright red.

'That was a dirty trick, Snape,' she said playfully, her tone clearly at odds with her expression. 'If we're going to dinner, we should get going.'

She turned around and disappeared out the door, leaving Snape both thoroughly thrilled and confused. He had been waiting for that moment since he was nine years old. But did she really think that he had planned that?

He ran to catch up with her, and suddenly the image of James Potter floated across his mind's eye. He was the last thing Snape wanted to think about, but after a moment, he smiled to himself. He could only imagine the look that would appear on James's face if he knew that he, of all people, had just kissed his wife.