.

Chapter 25: Hang on Tight!

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the story which directly takes ideas from JK Rowling. This story is not being used for commercial purposes it is simply for pleasure and fun.

Author's Note: JupiterJack567 Snape did indeed invent sectumsempra, however, it was something he developed over time. He took a spell that already existed and altered it to make it more powerful, at least that's what I'm going with. I don't suspect Snape came up with most of his spells out of thin air. bookivore even once Voldemort came back his horcruxes, like the locket, continued to act of their own will. Athene thank you, on top of moving I have several other stresses keeping me from writing (although my angst poetry collection is flourishing), I hope you review more!

iiiiiiiiiii

Snape woke up and stretched. Instead of hopping out of bed to begin busying himself, Snape decided to just lay there a while. He took a deep breath and smelled fresh pine and gingerbread. Christmas. The first week of December was almost over and it seemed like Dumbledore finally gave the go-ahead to decorate, even if the school could be closed any day now. The Room of Requirement was no exception. Like magic, and likely with, the room was decorated with numerous wreaths and garlands. Snape closed his eyes and imagined Lily and himself skating down the Seine in Paris. Caught in a moment of optimism Snape decided he was going to make a move on Lily in Paris. Yes, he would. Maybe at the top of the Eiffel Tower, and it had to be snowing.

Snape was in such a good mood he started humming a carol while he was brushing his teeth.

"Someone's in the spirit!"

Lily came giggling into the bathroom. She too was beaming.

"You should see the Great Hall, it looks beautiful. Really outdid themselves this year, suppose they are trying to keep everyone's mind off, you know the attacks."

"You went downstairs already?"

"Yeah, couldn't sleep too well."

"Is it the withdrawal?"

"Maybe. It could just be stress though. Anyways today is the last day of exams for the week! Just gotta get through this and everything will be fine, everything will be fine."

"Until next week that is."

"Shush it you! Don't ruin my happiness mantra! Rubbing in your 1 exam…"

"It was just chance that I only had one exam the last day."

"Yeah well no need to show off. I can already feel the hand cramp I'm going to have from the Defense Against the Dark Arts exam, should have taken Divination instead, it's at the same time, I'd ace that."

"Hahaa! I wonder why they put them at the same time."

"Well if you can see danger coming you wouldn't need to defend yourself would you?"

"Touché."

Lily smiled brightly and Snape momentarily considered it would be worth being wrong for the rest of his life if it made Lily smile like that.

iiiiiiiiiii

"Gahhhhhh! The pain!"

Lily just emerged from the exam room clutching her hand and in dramatic manner.

"I can't go on, History of Magic exams always have essays. Sev, break my hand so I'll get out of it."

"That'll just hurt more than the cramp and Pomfrey will fix you up in no time. You won't get excused."

"Then you go in my place, we'll magic your hair red. Binns will never know the difference."

Snape smiled and jokingly pushed Lily, who was clinging onto his cloak, away. Just as Lily started to laugh too Potter, Lupin and Black also stepped out of the room. As though they could feel their ominous presence without seeing them both Snape and Lily turned back towards them.

"Guess the rumors are true then?"

It was Black who spoke. James had his hands in his pockets and was looking at the ground. A few other students turned at Black's voice and looked at Lily and Snape. Lily flipped her hair and, feigning ignorance, asked,

"What rumours?"

"Lily don't you know that as a prefect you have to uphold the honour of the House of Gryffindor?"

"Huh, please. As if Lupin is some sort of great example."

Lupin, who had been staring straight ahead, allowed his eyes to flick to Lily for a moment before he went back to staring at the wall. This seemed to annoy Lily, she walked up to the group.

"What's wrong Potter? Jealous? You shouldn't be, I mean how would Mary feel if she was here?"

"Why would I be jealous of that pathetic ball of slime?"

Potter shouted, but he didn't looking at Lily when he did, he was staring Snape down.

"You have some nerve calling him pathetic. How many years have you chased after me now? Huh? Five and a half isn't it? Why don't you just give it a rest?"

"Why are you always defending him? Can't he speak for himself?"

"No Potter, Snape doesn't speak. After all these years I figured you'd have cottoned on. He curses, very well might I add."

"Yah he's got a mouth like sailor. What could you possibly find attractive, in…. THAT?"

Black gestured toward Snape with both hands and took on an exasperated tone.

"Why? Why when you could have Potter. I mean, he'd lay down his life for you Lily!"

Lily smirked.

"I bet Mary would blow a gasket if she heard this. So is it true Potter? Would you die for me?"

Potter didn't lift his head but a faint "Yes." was heard.

Everyone seemed terribly touched by James' honesty. Lily looked less impressed.

"Talk is cheap. I don't think you really feel anything for me. I think I've become a habit, a big joke. Why else would you treat someone so important to me so awfully? It's all just pride. I'm a trophy you want to win."

Potter slowly lifted his head as Lily spoke.

"It doesn't matter if we are together or not, as far as your pride is concerned if I don't hate Severus its some sort of loss to you isn't it? If you really loved me you'd accept my friends."

"Friends?"

"Believe what you want I don't care. But don't go around acting like you're some big deal. You are an insolent, undeserving, spoiled, arrogant little prat and I'd no sooner date you than I'd hang myself from the astronomy tower."

Snape felt like he was having a moment of déjà vu. Lily then turned to Black, Lupin and Pettigrew who seemed to have materialized at some point in the argument. Snape stayed back with his hand on his wand just in case.

"And as for you, Lupin. Do your damn job properly, if you can't be a prefect then step down. Don't think that this pity party is going to last forever! And you, Mr. Not-So-Sirius, how about you fix your own personal life before giving others tips, huh? You'd pretty much shag anything that jiggled!"

Lily turned to leave but then reconsidered and turned back.

"And when Mary is un-petrified you will explain this to her and either apologize or break up with her. I won't have you toying with her just because I'm no longer providing enough entertainment."

Then Lily stalked off and Snape motioned to joined her but Potter called out his name. Snape stopped and turned his head slightly in Potter's direction.

"You heard her right? You're just friend, don't get any crazy fantasies going."

Snape just smirked and stalked away. He honestly didn't know what he would have said to Potter. He knew there wasn't anything between Lily and he but it sort of hurt to hear. The miniature figures of he and Lily that were happily skating in his head suddenly fell and the ice beneath them crumbled causing them both to fall in. After a few tense moments a lone skate floated to the top. The dream was dead. But at least they were friends right? Right?

iiiiiiiiiii

Lily and Snape hadn't talked much during lunch as Lily was still fuming and studying for her History of Magic exam. When she took off Snape just weakly smiled and waved, unable to say anything. As soon as she was gone he fell into a chair and sulked until she came back with two plates of food for them to eat. Lily didn't seem to be in the best of moods either, she kept stabbing at her potatoes without really eating them. So they both just sat there pretending to eat. The cheery, festive atmosphere seemed to be mocking them and the holly centerpiece on the table just seemed pretentious. Snape glanced through the red holly petals at Lily's sunken expression and knew it likely mirrored his own. Snape was trying to come up with something to say and Lily was lost in her thoughts and neither realized they had been sitting there for a good half an hour, the food now stone cold.

"If they keep serving us this holiday roast every night we'll all get sick of it by the time Christmas comes 'round."

Lily looked up suddenly and smiled at Snape's words but the smile vanished as soon as it had appeared. Lily took a courtesy mouthful of food only to discover it was cold and grimaced as she forced herself to chew the food and swallow it. Then she put her fork down and pushed her chair away from the table.

"Should probably call it a night. I haven't gotten much sleep this week so I should, you know, catch up."

"Yeah. Yeah you should I guess. Do you have enough potion to keep you going?"

"Yeah I should… be okay."

"So, what happened with, you know before. Was it the symptoms?"

"Yeah, a bit I guess, I just… I don't know how he does it but Potter just manages to irk me, well like magic."

"He, you know seemed sincere."

"Yeah, I'm sure he thinks he is but, you know I don't wanna talk about this."

"Yeah, I get it, you know, I didn't want to bring it up and, you know make it worse or anything."

"No, I don't think that."

Lily avoided eye contact and played with her hair behind her back. There were a few moments of awkward silence when no one moved.

"So I guess I'll go then."

"Yeah night Lily."

"Night Severus."

Lily was just nearly at the door when Snape suddenly had the urge to say it, just to see how she'd respond.

"Hey Lily. I'm... I'm really glad we're friends."

Lily slowly turned around to face Snape.

"Me too. Friends."

She gave that half-hearted smile again before walking out of the room.

Snape walked straight into bed and pressed his face into his pillow. The day had started out so hopeful and was now, well just another rollercoaster ride. It seemed more mood swings were going to be in Snape's future as long as Lily was around. And Severus couldn't honestly say he was enjoying it.

iiiiiiiiiii

Morning. Whatever. Snape had zero desire to get out of bed. None. What so ever. He was determined to remain behind his bed curtains and squalor in gloom until that annoyingly cheery sun set. Friends, pfft, what a stupid word.

About an hour into his self pity party, Snape heard the door open. Then the pitter-patter of excited feet scuttling across the office to the door of his bedroom.

"Sev, you up?"

It was Lily. What was she so happy about?

"Sev?"

Lily whispered again before she slowly opened the door and peered inside. Snape decided to try and pretend to be asleep so she'd leave him alone. She may be all happy and chipper but Snape was still in his dark place and he kinda like it there, he didn't need her trying to pull him out.

"Sev, it's me. You up?"

Of course it's you, who else would it be?

"You won't believe what I found!"

Is it someone else to bother?

"Are you really sleeping?"

Snape adjusted himself slightly, trying to make it look like she was waking him.

"Well, alright then. I guess I'll just have to go back to Westminister Palace all by myself and see if this is true."

Westminister? The clock tower? Lattimer?

Snape stretched out and yawned.

"Oh Lily, what are you doing here?"

Lily smiled knowingly and in an obvious tone said,

"Oh sorry Sev, I didn't mean to wake you. Forgive me?"

"How could I stay mad at you anyways? What brings you here so early?"

"It's 11:30 Sev. It's so weird everyone is either writing exams or they've left for the weekend so the hallways are all deserted and echo-y."

"You came here to tell me that?"

"No Mr. Grumpy. Look at this!"

Lily handed Snape a piece of torn paper with a set of runes on it.

"You found someone's trash?"

"No! Remember how I made copies of a bunch of stuff in Lattimer's office in the clock tower? Well this got swept in with my other papers. I ignored it but then I remembered where it came from. It was under that troll foot paper weight."

"And…?"

"And!"

Lily rolled her eyes.

"Honestly Snape why would someone like Lattimer keep a set of runes underneath a very heavy paper weight on his desk and nothing else?"

"Because he's crazy?"

"No because it's important. Muggles do it all the time, they will write passwords on a piece of paper and tape it to the bottom of the staplers or kick-knacks on their desks. That way if they forget it it'll be close at hand but not lying around where anyone can see it."

"That's a bit of a stretch Lily. We didn't find a safe or anything that needed a password."

"No we didn't, but neither did he."

"What?"

"Remember what the people in the painting said? He was angry, he didn't find what he needed. What if it's still there and this is the password?"

"Why would he keep the password for something so important in such an obviously place?"

"Exactly because it's an obvious place. Hidden in plain sight!"

"I don't know Lily."

"Think about it! He is all about being super secretive and having complex protections and he would assume that Lattimer would do the same, trying to outdo him. But by making it so simple, Lattimer made sure the he would just overlook it, whatever it is and wherever it is."

Snape was still skeptical and really didn't feel like going on another pointless adventure. Not to mention nothing good had come out of investigating that place the first time.

"Come on Severus! Don't you feel we missed something there? Those people in the painting know more than they are telling us. We need to go back and have a better look."

"Can we even go though? Isn't it open to the public now?"

"Sure it is but no one goes to the keeper's office as part of the tours. We can go with a tour group and slip away. Muggles never notice anything."

"Funny that a muggle born would say that."

"Well yes, I would know then wouldn't I?"

Lily seemed to have given up on convincing Snape by being nice.

"Well are you going to come with me or not?"

"Alright, alright, let me get dressed! What do we tell McGonagall and Slughorn."

"We're going to Hogsmede for some last minute shopping?"

Snape shrugged, Slughorn would believe it but McGonagall would be a bit trickier. Snape got his clothes on quickly and packed a few things just in case then went downstairs with Lily.

The first exam of the day was over and people were eating lunch in the Great Hall. Lily and Snape began to walk out across the Entrance Hall when,

"Miss Evans, Mr. Snape!"

"Shizer!"

Lily whispered under her breath. Then she turned toward the professor and in a sweet voice asked,

"Yes Professor McGonagall?"

"Where are you going?"

"Oh just down to Hogsmede to get a few last minute things for our trip to Paris."

"Can't you order it?"

"Well we should really have a look at things before we buy them don't you think Severus?"

"Uhh yeah."

"Can't it wait until next week when the official Hogsmeade Weekend is scheduled?"

"We could but it would be cutting it really close since we leave the next day… I mean we couldn't even really go next week we'll be so busy. Wouldn't it make more sense we make our trip this weekend?"

"Well…"

McGonagall was obviously debating between Lily's rather logical explanation and the intuitive suspicion that they weren't really going shopping, although she probably was assuming other activities to be on their list than really was.

"I suppose so."

Lily gave a noticeable jump of glee.

"We'll be back before curfew!"

Lily yelled as she and Snape made their way out of the castle.

"I should certainly hope so!"

McGonagall looked at the pair leaving for a few more seconds before she turned her attention back to the Great Hall.

"She totally bought it!"

"I don't think she bought it totally Lily."

"Well we can go so that's good enough. Gosh it's cold!"

Snape concurred and shivered instinctively. He should be in his warm bed today, sleeping and moping and pretending yesterday never happened. But then again Lily seemed happy and her laughter was so damn infectious. Snape smiled slightly as he watched her skip through the snow but whenever she turned he would fix his face back into frozen displeasure. It was fun to tease her.