Notes: Avery's, Wilkes's, and Crabbe's first names were never given in the Harry Potter books, so I just made "Floyd," "Daniel" and "Rhett" up. And I just can't seem to make up my mind about Severus. I don't want him to be the antagonist! I wanted to end this scene with prose instead of dialogue, but the end seemed to fit. It just…flowed to a stop there.

Chapter #10: Promise

There. He said it. He'd gone and told her. Not the entire secret, but quite a large bite of it, as though it were a new experimental meal cooked for the first time using a faulty recipe.

Severus gulped and watched Lily Evans's expression, waiting for her first reaction—good or bad? Positive or negative?—to the meal. What if she hated it?

It seemed like eons had passed before the lines of her face rearranged themselves to create a new look, though it took less than a second.

Lily kissed his cheek.

Before Severus knew what was happening, it was over.

"Oh Sevvy, that's so sweet!" she said, putting her arm around him and hugging his skinny body. "And I am much happier now because of this. It's the best present—and greatest surprise—I've ever received! Now, Mum and Dad's presents are nice, and the Remembrall that Gwen gave me is cool, but I've gotten nothing like this before. So magical, so big! WAY beyond the treasures of Christmas."

Severus blinked, having trouble processing everything that had just happened through his usually very keen senses. His skin seemed to have become paralyzed by the brief pressure of Lily's lips on his face.

"Sev? Severus?" Lily shook her friend gently. Severus jumped and looked at her with wide eyes.

"Oh, uh, y-yeah, thank you—I mean—no problem! No problem, I'm glad you like it." Was he blushing? He certainly hoped not, yet he could feel the heat rising in his neck and cheeks by the second. "Er, ah, so. A-hem. Uh."

Lily was watching Severus and started chuckling. "Sev, are you okay? You don't normally stutter."

Severus gulped. "Yeah, I'm—I'm fine." He cleared his throat and tried to do the same with his mind. "So how was your day, Lil'?" He added a grin along with his feeble attempt at small talk.

Lily grinned. "Other than receiving this great surprise of mine?" But the smile faded and she sighed. Severus watched her with a curious expression and said, "I mean, besides that incident with Lucius, wasn't the rest of your Hogsmeade trip with Gwen fun?"

She nodded. "Oh yes, it was, but I wasn't with Gwen. Now, Sevvy, please don't get mad at me. I…I let Potter take me for a drink at Three Broomsticks after the incident."

"You WHAT?" And, like that, Severus was on his feet and shouting. "What happened to staying away from Potter and the rest of his friends? What happened to all that 'Potter sucks,' and 'I won't let Potter get to me, Severus,' and 'I hate him worse than the rest of the Marauders put together' business?"

"Severus, please." Lily pleaded. "It's not that bad! I mean, you've got to admit that him saving me from Malfoy was a pretty nice thing of him to do. I mean…"

Severus punched a fist into his other palm. "If only I'd been there…if only I had gone to Hogsmeade…maybe I could've been the one to kick Lucius Malfoy's ass for you…" And for just a moment, his eyes narrowed so thinly that they looked like a snake's eyes. Or its nostrils. They flared.

"No!" Lily cried, looking quite shaken, and grabbed her friend's arms and pushed him back down on the trampoline. Severus bounced lightly on the flexible material, but his expression did not change. It frightened her whenever her best friend got pissed off like this. "Don't be upset, please! I am glad you weren't there, but that's only because I didn't want you to get in trouble. James and Malfoy both got detention for it, see?"

He was livid. It felt like a rhino—or perhaps an entire stampede—was charging inside of him, as though it were caged and wanted to get out. Out. "James? JAMES? You're going by first-name terms now? Lily, how could you? Soon you'll be calling Sirius Black—the wretched dog!—Sirius, and the Lupin character Remus, and—and…!"

But then, Severus stopped at a noise that sounded like pure music to him. Lily was giggling in peals.

"Oh, Sevvy! Have I made you jealous? What a terrible J-word…" And, without a warning, she was hugging him again. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to."

"Jealous?" Severus spluttered that word out as if it was a swear, but Lily kept going.

"You know you'll always be my best friend, Severus!" she said, sounding very much like her young child self again. "This one outing with James Potter won't change a thing between us! It couldn't! Even if on the, uh, unlikely event that wizard and I become friends, he will never mean anything like you mean to me. Don't you see, Sev?"

Presently, Severus was trying to convince himself that this was not it, regardless of what his feelings for Lily were. I'm not jealous! he thought vigorously. I'm not! I won't admit it! Then, he realized that if he really wasn't, then he wouldn't have had any reason to "not admit" or "admit" anything. Not if there was nothing to admit anyway. He sighed.

"Yes, I see," he muttered in resignation, nevertheless feeling mortified. The rhino—stampede—inside of him started breathing normally again and lowered itself back down. "I know, I'm just being…irrational. Stupid."

"No, no, you're not stupid. Remember our promise, Severus! Remember what we say before every term starts? 'No matter how this semester goes, we'll always be friends till The End. Trust me, Sev, this isn't The End." She grinned and Severus couldn't help not doing so as well.

"It's just…I can't help but wonder…if Potter—" he growled the name, "—can tame you into accepting him (at least for now), why can't I persuade you to give my friends a chance, too?" He folded his hands and stuffed them under his pits, clearly in despair and discomfiture. He kept his eyes near the ground and watched as two phoenixes roughhoused with their beaks like two children.

Lily made a noise, a cross between a groan and a sigh. "Severus! Did I not just tell you that Lucius Malfoy, one of your Slytherin 'friends,' just—"

"I—I meant maybe some of my other friends…" Severus mumbled. "I know Lucius can be mean sometimes, but not all Slytherins are bad."

"I…I know that. I'm talking about your little circle of friends who all just happen to be Slytherins. They're not nice!"

"Have you met any of them besides Lucius? Floyd Avery, for instance? He's a cool guy."

"No, but he glowered at me once."

"Evan Rosier?"

"Who?"

"Daniel Wilkes? Rhett Crabbe?"

"Okay! Okay! I get your point." Lily put up her hand to silence Severus. "Well what do you want me to do? I mean, I suppose I could come with you and hang out with them for a day—"

"Exactly."

There was a one-inch gap between her upper lip and lower lip, showing all of her very white and very clean teeth.

Lily Evans did not know her mouth had dropped until Severus was lightly patting her jaw. "Lily, hello?"

"Hi…" Lily slowly closed her mouth and laughed once. "You know I was kidding."

"No, I think that's a perfect idea. Really." There seemed to be a shiny glow in Severus's black eyes, wide with excitement now. "Hmm…we don't have classes tomorrow so we could all just meet in the library or perhaps the Great Hall. I can tell them all about it tonight."

"But Severus!" Lily was panicking now. It was a terrible stereotype, she knew, but it existed with good reason. She'd known Hufflepuffs, other Gryffindors and even a couple Ravenclaws—particularly top Quidditch players—to be bullied and cornered by big Slytherin hotshots. The Slytherin House was known to be the dark side of Hogwarts. Dark Arts. Severus's thing.

Lily looked down and bit her lower lip until it started becoming painful. The thought of being surrounded by several mean Slytherins all at once—even with Severus beside her—with Malfoy in front made her want to shudder.

Severus was watching her, and she realized that she had just shuddered. "Oh Lil', I know what you're thinking." He scooted closer to her. "Don't worry, I'll be right beside you when I introduce you. I'll warn them to be nice, especially Malfoy. He just likes his little games, that's all. He's really not all that bad. A really smart kid, actually."

Lily heard him but wouldn't look up. She was too busy brushing her trainers against the deep green grass, the grass that Severus had given her. Along with the rest of her utopia.

If she was being honest with herself, she really didn't know if this was a good idea or not. But she did know it would be unfair for Severus if she refused. After all, hadn't she just spent over an hour chatting and spending time with the one person she'd vowed to avoid and abhor for all of her days at Hogwarts? And Severus had done so much for her than he'd ever had.

The least she could do was meet Severus's friends. Like he said. Give them a chance.

She sighed and said, "Okay Severus. I'll try. I can't promise that I won't be disappointed, but I promise to try and be their friends."

"Yes!" Severus was the one hugging her now, his eyes closed and a relieved smile dancing upon his lips. "Thank you, Lily. I promise you won't be disappointed."

"We'll see." And she was grinning too.

If anything, she would promise him this so that he would be happy.