Sorry for not posting - but I've been seriously busy these last days. Besides I don't have my copy of Deathly Hallows with me so I won't be able to post in a while - AND I'm also working in another fic... totally disastrous, my net life is xp

Severus slowly backed away from the laughing Slytherin gang, taking the opportunity they were having too much fun bullying a lonely first year Ravenclaw, and hid behind the door of an open classroom, but it was not long before he heard Avery ask for him.

'Where's Severus?'

'Must've seen McGonagall with the results of the test,' he heard Mulciber say, and the rest of the boys started laughing.

'Talkin' 'bout McGonagall, d'you think we could possibly get that Pimpling Powder in her chair...?'

'Of course, let's just find the Powder again...'

The voices started to grow fainter and fainter, and Severus took the risk of stepping out – no Slytherins around. He sighed, and started walking hurriedly to the gardens, Lily's favorite place to be. The last time he had seen her she had been calming down a crying Mary McDonald after she'd encounter Mulciber on her way from the dungeons, and Lily had – glared at him. As if he had done something wrong. As if it was his fault that Mary was so stupid and naïve.

'Sev?'

Severus wheeled around to bump into Lily, and immediately felt himself blush.

'I was going to the courtyard to look for you,' he said quickly, following her into the sunlight, but Lily was busy searching with her eyes the distant trees and the edge of the lake. 'Um – Lily?'

'I can't be with you right now,' she replied coldly, and Severus froze, 'I'm looking for Pat.'

And, smiling and waving her hand at someone in the distance, she resumed her walking. Severus looked at her, and when he felt he could move again, he ran to her side.

'But – what about me? You barely talk to me these days and I – you hang out with all your Gryffindors and I – I thought – I thought we were supposed to be friends? Best friends?'

Lily immediately turned her direction to somewhere Severus was not paying attention to, and he simply followed her, nervous and scared by her answer.

'We are, Sev, but I don't like some of the people you're hanging around with! I'm sorry, but I detest Avery and Mulciber! Mulciber! What do you see in him, Sev? He's creepy! D'you know what he tried to do to Mary McDonald the other day?'

Oh, so it was about that after all. He watched Lily lean against a pillar and stare at him full in the face, things in his mind he did not want to say trying desperately to get out.

'That was nothing,' he said, ignoring the battle raging inside himself, 'It was a laugh, that's all –'

'It was Dark Magic, and if you think it's funny –'

As soon as she pronounced 'Dark Magic,' Severus couldn't hold all what he wanted to say to her.

'What about the stuff Potter and his mates get up to?' he felt himself blush again from anger; he wanted her to understand...

'What's Potter got to do with anything?' she said, frowning, and Severus attacked again.

'They sneak out at night. There's something weird about that Lupin. Where does he keep going?'

'He's ill. They say he's ill –'

Expected answer.

'Every month at full moon?' he asked her.

He already knew – he knew what was happening, but as Dumbledore had forbid him to tell anyone, at least he would try to give Lily hints – but Lily was against him.

'I know your theory,' she said slowly, coldly, 'Why are you so obsessed with them anyway? Why do you care what they're doing at night?'

'I'm just trying to show you they're not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are,' he replied truthfully, staring at her into her deep, sparkling, green eyes. It was the truth – the 'amazing Potter' had nothing of amazing in him. An arrogant, a bully, a rule breaker – but he was distracted by Lily, who had just blushed.

'They don't use Dark Magic, though,' she muttered, and Severus felt a strong urge to hit something, 'And you're being really ungrateful. I heard what happened the other night. You went sneaking down that tunnel by the Whomping Willow and James Potter saved you from whatever's down there –'

With anger, he remembered the scene of the werewolf and James' words, if they kill you, they kill me – he had never cared in hurting, humiliating, or jinxing him, and suddenly he had 'saved his life'? He had surely boasted about it – but Severus knew better, he had only 'saved' him because the consequences of Sirius' acts would affect him and Sirius too. And now Lily was defending them!

'Saved? Saved? You think he was playing the hero? He was saving his neck and his friends' too! You're not going to – I won't let you –'

But whatever he was going to 'not let her' do she never knew, because now Lily had narrowed her eyes and was glaring at him furiously, saying, 'Let me? Let me?'

Severus quickly tried to find words and again found his insides raging.

'I didn't mean – I just don't want to see you made a fool of – he fancies you, James Potter fancies you!' and there they went: the words he loathed so much, and now they were spitting out because he couldn't control his emotions when around Lily, 'And he's not... Everyone thinks... Big Quidditch hero –'

And now he was making a fool of himself.

'I know James Potter's an arrogant toerag,' she said interrupting him, 'I don't need you to tell me that –'

But Severus was not listening any more. She hated Potter. She hated him. She – Lily Evans – hated James Potter. He glanced at the sun and, to his surprise, it seemed to be brighter than before, and the people around the lake, happier. Lily Evans was not a fool at all – she knew what was best. She hated Potter. She hated him.

Only when Lily stopped talking and stared at him frowning he realized he was being addressed, but instead of asking her to repeat, he started walking away from the pillar, Lily by his side.

'So,' Severus said cheerfully, 'd'you know the next date for Hogsmeade?'