CHAPTER: The Birds and the Bees
He imagined that the way he was feeling was the same way a muggle would feel upon entering Hogwarts, scared and fascinated at the same time. Even though his father was muggle he was not accustom to muggle life. The truth was his father was terribly embarrassed of him and his mother. He never allowed him to venture further than the end of their street by the sign that read Spinners End. He had never taken them out for dinner and movie, no where public, there were confined to his mother's cramped house that he had insisted upon her buying.
The idea of muggles accepting wizards in their home was something foreign to him. He knew some students who came from muggle homes but he didn't know that there were muggle parents who actually liked the fact that they had managed to make magical children. He imagined that his birth was a big disappointment to his father, who always detested magic.
Lily's parents loved her. They were the sort of parents who supported their children. Though he could tell that they tried not to have favorites, he knew that she was theirs. This was perfectly understandable as Lily's sister did not inherit anything from their mother, not the looks, the charisma nor tact. Petunia was not nearly as pretty as Lily; she was brutally honest and was as cuddly as a porcupine. Then again this was the same girl who told her only sister, "I love you but I don't like you." It was like saying I only tolerate you because you are family.
On the first Saturday he spent there they were going to the movies. He had never been to the movies; in fact he had never seen a movie in its entirety. His father who was also a big fan of movies had the television set locked in the basement away from him. He would sometimes tell his mother that he was going to the movies; to provoke her he was certain. He had never once invited them to join him. When he was seven that use to break his heart but by the time he was nine he had learnt not hope.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
He came out the room dressed in a light blue shirt that Lily had brought him during the year. He never wanted to wear it. He was so afraid that he would spill something on it. It was the only gift he had ever received and he planed to keep it forever. However, Lily asked him if he didn't like it and why he never wore it so he decided to pull it out of his trunk where he still had it in its original wrapping.
Petunia looked at him and turned up a nose. He didn't need to read her mind to know she hated him. He was okay with that as she didn't seem like she liked a lot of people.
"Aren't you going to do something about your hair?" she asked after about five minutes of fussing and fuming going ignored.
"No," he said simply. Lily told him to ignore her and that was exactly what he planed to do.
She screwed up and her face in a very ugly way and started to mumble something about 'if my friends see us with him...'
o-o-o-o-o-o
The movie they were going to see was something called Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. (Note: Just totally ignore the fact that this movie came out in 1981). Lily said that all her muggle friends had already seen it and she was dying to see it. Her parents said they would take the family for a night out in London. He had never been out for a night out before. The comparison between his parents and Lily's parents were making him slightly depressed but happy at the same time. It was like they belonged to different worlds.
-o-o-o-o-
After the movie they walked outside the multiplex amid crowds of excited people talking about what just happened in the movie. Severus himself had enjoyed it and was having a hard time resisting the urge to talk to a group of complete strangers. It was one of the greatest experiences in his life. He now understood why his father liked movies so much it was like magic but for muggles.
They were discussing the movie when Lily's father interrupted them. "So what do you say we go get something to eat?"
Lily smiled. "Sure dad."
Lily's father then waved her away with his hands. "Not you Lily I was talking to the boy, what do you say we have a guy's night out?"
Severus who had never been asked such a question looked reluctantly from her father to Lily. What could he mean by it? Lily seemed to have a knowing smile on her face. She nodded at him to indicate that it was okay. "Sure, Mr. Evans."
Mr. Evans then looked over to his wife who had the same look on her face as Lily. "Lily why don't we go get something at that place you like." Lily nodded ad head in the opposite direction with her mother and Petunia who had a smirk on her face.
o-o-o-o-o
Severus and Mr. Evans had walked into an Irish style Fish and Chips restaurant. The place was packed but they managed to get a table in the back of the restaurant. When they took their seats the waitress rested two large pitchers of beer on the table in front of them along with their menus. Her father took a sip of the beer and smiled.
"Beastly cold, just how I like it," he said. He looked expectantly at Severus. "Go ahead try it?"
Severus looked into his eyes. He knew he was cheating but he couldn't help it. "I don't drink sir."
He looked like Christmas came early. "That's my boy. I knew I raised a smart girl." He called the waitress over and ordered some soda for Severus instead. "So…"
"Yes sir…" Severus said cautiously. He knew what this talk was going to be about.
"So you like my daughter?"
He shrugged. "A little."
Mr. Evans was clearly uncomfortable with the conversation. "A little? That's not what I heard. Petunia tells me it's a little more than that." He looked up at him from behind the menu he was reading.
Severus couldn't imagine what Petunia could have told them. He and Petunia never really had a conversation. The only way she could have known about his relationship with Lily was if Lily told her about it. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Ah…" He didn't know what to say and he was terribly afraid of saying the wrong thing. He still had his eyes on the menu so it was impossible to see penetrate his mind.
"Its okay son, I was once your age. I just think that when we're young we like to convince ourselves we're in love but really at such a young age you can't really know what love is."
How dare he tell him what he was feeling? He didn't know what it was like for him before her.
"I don't mean to seem like one of those preachy adults but…"
He knew that he shouldn't say anything but he had too. He had to understand that he wasn't just some young fool who was incapable of understanding deeper emotions. "I know what you think sir but you're wrong."
He took a while to say anything. He just looked at him with pity in his eyes. "Am I?"
"Well yes… I know I'm young but…"
"Yes…" he said challenging him.
Severus sighed. "Well tonight before we came here, I tried on a shirt I had since I was fourteen. It didn't fit." He could tell by the look on his face that he didn't catch his point. "Well you see I used to get teased all the time because of how thin I am… was actually. I used to try to eat so much to gain weight but I never did… We've only been dating for about four months and suddenly things can't fit me anymore." He looked at him for a long while then nodded. It was strange but he got the feeling that he understood him.
-
"So, what did you and my father talk about?" Lily asked Severus. They were in the basement where they had set up their potion to finish brewing.
He shrugged. "Nothing really."
"He wasn't too hard on you right… I don't know what Petunia said to them."
He smiled inwardly. "Don't worry; I think its fine with him as long as I don't try to do anything… you know…"
She giggled at this. "Oh and what will they do if we already did."
He shrugged. "I don't know but he said if I try to, he's got a forty-five and a shovel."
Lily burst into laughter. "He's such a liar. He doesn't have a forty-five"
He didn't fully understand him when he said that. "What's a forty-five anyway?"
She tried to contain herself. "It's a gun. He's saying he'll kill you then bury you.
"Oh..." It was the best threat he had ever received.
"So what did you think of the movie?" Lily asked after catching her breath.
"It was fantastic, it's sort of like magic isn't it. How did they get those things to fly without magic?"
It always fascinated her, the things wizards were amazed by. "They weren't actually flying, it's special effects."
They talked about it for more than an hour making comparisons to the wizarding world.
" Sev, what would you do if you were about to defeat you know who and he said: Severus I'm your father?."
"Then I would have traded up," he said sarcastically.
"Don't joke, I was being serious."
He sighed. He never told Lily how his father died. "I'll kill him anyway, serves the bastard right."
She got the feeling that he wasn't talking about Voldermort. He always got extreamly touchy about the subject of his father. "Or you can send him to Azkaban."
He snorted at this. "Ha, he'll have a ball in there. It's sort of like that movie, the dememtors, though thier working for the government are also working for him, they're like the Stormtroopers."
She sighed and looked over the motion that was now a perfectly golden colour like the book described. " Do you know much about them?"
He always loved impressing her with his knowledge, infact it was one of the few things he had going for him. "Well form what I read they suck every happy feeling out of you, they feed off misery."
" Well that was smart of the Government to put such creatures in charge of guarding prisons."
"I know but the sort of man power it will require to have regular wizards guard dark wizards..."
There was a loud creaking that forced Lily and Severus to look to the stairs. For while all thye could see was a pair of feet then they saw Petunia, she walked down a little further and peaked in on them them, rolled her eyes and walked back up the stairs.
Lily giggled at this. " She seemed dissapointed. I don't know what she thinks we were doing in here."
" Some how I don't think she'll mind, seeing me shot and burried."
NOTE: This will be last of the uneventful chapters. I just wanted to get some things like Petunia knowing about Dementors out of they way. So now that that is done...I'll be really getting down to business in the next chatper.
BTW..I used a little line from the movie Clueless... did you spot it?
Anyway expect an update on the 4/4/07