The Roaring Sound of a Thundering Bass

Severus sat on his bed sorting things out from his trunk. He tossed out empty jars of ink, broken quills, and useless notes. Eventually he found his box for potion ingredients. It was a small wooden box full of smaller boxes that could hold ingredients and glass vials. It had been a gift from Lily for his birthday in their second year and had been, despite its simplicity, one of his most prized possessions.

It was empty though. He took the Snidget's feathers out of his bag and placed them in the box. He then placed a modified colloportus spell on it, so that only he was able to open the box. Once satisfied, he hid the box underneath the mattress.

After having everything sorted in his trunk, he grabbed his bass. It was just a simple Fender, four string bass, borrowed from school for his music lessons. He checked his school schedule. Music class would be tomorrow at the end of the day.

Lily was probably going to wonder how he gotten so bad at playing all of a sudden. The last time he touched a bass had been at the end of his fifth year, no longer caring about making music.

Gently he plucked a string and by the sound of it, it was clearly out of tune. He had just placed his bass back in the case when a voice yelled 'Levicorpus!' and he felt himself dangling upside down, as if by an invisible rope, from the ceiling of the dorm room.

'Mulciber!' Severus spat. 'I know it's you!'

Mulciber and Avery appeared from behind the door. 'You shouldn't have taught us that spell, Snape,' said Mulciber.

'And I thought I taught you better by doing it non-verbally,' said Severus while spitting out some of his hair.

That wiped Mulciber's grin off his face. 'Malfoy wants to speak with you.'

'You know Mulciber, you could've just told me that without using my own spells against me.'

'It's because we're worried about you Snape,' Avery added. 'Last year you were practically leading us to become Death Eaters and now you're avoiding us like the plague.'

'I can guarantee you Avery, it is merely just the stench of you that keeps me away.'

Severus felt a fist hit his stomach, knocking the breath from his lungs. 'Didn't know you had it in you to fight like a muggle, Mulciber,' he wheezed.

'Fuck you, Snape,' Mulciber said angrily, probably for being compared to a muggle. 'You better not betray us or something bad might just happen to that mudblood girlfriend of yours.'

Avery whipped out his and muttered 'Libracorpus,' and with a thud Severus fell back on his bed.

Mulciber and Avery left the room and Severus snapped the curtains of his four-poster bed shut. He couldn't care less about dangling upside down or Malfoy getting suspicious. He was angry for the fact that Lily was being threatened over something that wasn't meant to be her problem. But of course, Severus growled at himself, it had everything to do with her.

...

The next morning during potions class Lily showed Severus a fishbowl that she had placed a Reducio charm on and had hidden in her backpack.

'How do you plan on putting a fish in it?' Severus asked as he crushed up some griffin claw for his strengthening solution.

Lily smiled. 'You'll see.'

By the end of their lesson, Lily and Severus remained seated while the rest of the students left.

'Professor, we have something for you,' Lily said to Slughorn.

Slughorn looked up with delight. 'Oh really, you know I do love surprises.'

Lily took the fishbowl from her bag, mumbled 'Engorgio' to bring it back to its regular size, and by the use of the Aguamenti spell she filled the bowl halfway with water. She took the bowl and placed it in front of Slughorn on his desk.

Both Severus and Slughorn looked at it with curiosity. From between her potion supplies, she pulled out an orange coloured lily petal and dropped it on the surface of the water where it floated around. 'It takes a moment professor, but you'll see.'

Together they left and peaked through the crack of the dungeon door. Slughorn's eyes were fixed on the petal. As he watched, it sank and transformed, as a cloud of orange ink in water, into a goldfish.

The last thing they saw were Slughorn's tear stained eyes as he looked at the little fish.

'How did you do it?' Severus asked Lily once they entered the entrance hall.

Lily stopped and looked up at him. She reached out for a strand of his hair and tucked it gently behind his ear. 'Now that, is a secret between your mother and I.'

...

The study of ancient runes was nothing but a blur to Severus. His mind was too occupied with how Lily had touched his hair and it distracted him so much that Professor Babbling nearly gave him extra homework to do by the end of the lesson.

Once the bell rang, Severus quickly dashed off to grab his bass and headed for the music classroom on the sixth floor.

He hadn't entered the room once since he became a teacher and had nearly forgotten what it looked like. A beautiful concert piano stood central in the room, while many instruments were stored against the walls. It was also the only classroom where all the four houses mixed together for practice.

Today was devoted specifically to muggle music and Severus expected to be one of the very few Slytherins present.

Lily walked in followed by Lupin, Black, and Pettigrew, but fortunately not Potter. Alice followed suit a bit later hand in hand with Frank. Some Ravenclaws Severus didn't know came in too and to his surprise, so did Regulus.

Severus saw Lily hugging her Gibson SG like a newborn baby. She had picked the SG specifically, because she was probably the biggest Tony Iommi fan Severus had ever laid his eyes on.

'You do remember the song we picked out last year to practice during the summer, right?' Regulus asked him with an irritated tone.

Severus shook his head. 'I… I forgot.'

'What the hell Snape, you never forget anything! Pull your head out of the clouds and start practicing.' Regulus walked off to set up his drum set when Lily came up to Severus with her guitar already slung over her shoulders. 'Ready?'

'Lily, I have to admit that I haven't played for a for a long time.'

Lily gave him a look of disappointment that managed to make him feel very guilty. 'You haven't practiced at all this past summer?'

'I'm sorry Lily I—I just wasn't up for it.'

'But I finally got to convince everyone to practice our song. OUR song Severus and you didn't even practice?'

With a flick of her hand she tossed her hair behind her shoulder, and it was clear to Severus that she was both angry and disappointed in him.

'Our song?' he asked carefully.

Lily's eyes shot fire. 'Did you just forget about our song? The song that was constantly listened to when my father brought it home when it just came out? The song that was our dirty little secret because nobody knew but you that I was a witch at that time?'

To be fair, Lily had the uncanny ability to frighten Severus more than the Dark Lord had ever done.

'The Wizard by Black Sabbath,' he said quickly. 'Please don't be mad,' he said in a voice that didn't sound remotely like his own.

Lily's angry glare softened up, but only a little. 'Sev, what is going on with you lately? You hold yourself so differently from what I'm used to.'

'Lily, there will come a time where I will tell you everything, but now is not the time.'

'Don't make me wait too long. Which reminds me, I still want to know everything that you talked about with Dumbledore.'

'Can we do that tomorrow, after our astronomy class?'

'Fine, now if you please, try to bullshit your way through the song.'

Lily stomped off to join Lupin, who was playing something behind the piano. Despite Lily's outburst, Severus did have to grin to himself as he tuned up his bass.

The Wizard. It was the first song he ever learned how to play on the bass just to make Lily happy. That was a song, that even after all those years, he wasn't likely to forget.

A/N The Wizard by Black Sabbath came out in 1970. I recommend looking up the song and lyrics. It's simple, but extremely fitting. Toni Iommi is the lead guitar player and is usually seen playing his signature Gibson SG.