Into the Woods
"Stop being such a scaredy-cat, Severus!"
Lily pushed on Severus's back, pushing him forward through the Forbidden Forest. She kept forcing him forward, making his feet catch on twigs and muddying his already stained shoes. He didn't know how he'd let her convince him to do this. He wanted to spent his evening quietly making potions and reading his books, instead he was here.
After class Severus had made an effort to hide himself, with James and his gang prowling the halls for Severus, he really didn't feel like being seen by anyone. Instead Severus stuck to the shadows, keeping his robes over himself and his head done. With freshly loaned books from the library he found an abandoned room somewhere up the many staircases of Hogwarts.
He was satisfied alone in the shadows, using whatever herbs he'd stored in his school bag, though to her frustration he didn't have enough supplied to make any potions. Then entered Lily.
The red-head was beamed, her freckled face in Severus's.
"I finally found you!" she burst. "What are you doing here?"
Severus blinked explaining plainly what he was doing and Lily had suggested simply,"Let's go to the Forbidden Forest and find supplies then!"
There was no doubt in his mind that she was very bored bur Severus had to admit he was far from apposed to the idea. Honestly the excitement of Lily had been the thing that convinced him most to go. Lily's eyes were practically glowing at the idea. Just a small adventure that no one had to know about, and it would help Severus make more potions in private, so he agreed.
"Okay."
Even with James, Peter, Sirius and Remus in the halls, Severus knew he'd be safe with Lily. James had eyes for her, and was always kinder to Severus when she was around. But to his relief they didn't run into any of them. They freely passed down the stairs and out the front doors of Hogwarts with no problems.
Quietly they snuck into the woods, careful to anyone who maybe watching, students were never allowed to go alone in the Forbidden Forest. This would land them with lost points to both their houses and a detention (though Severus very much liked the idea of detention with Lily).
The idea was good in theory: go to the Forbidden Forest and collect different twigs, mushrooms and herbs so Severus could practice mixing potions. Simple and straight forward… Right? If only it was that simple.
Once the pair reached the towering trees of the forest that reached so high they had to crane their necks to see their tops, Severus had a change of heart. The mouth of the forest was filled with gloomy shadows and howling cries.
"Let's go back!" He'd demanded, pulling on Lily's hand, but Lily had seized the opportunity.
Now they were here. With Lily pushing him into the forest as his heart hammered.
"Oh! What's this?" Lily bounced over to a tree, and pointing at a plant sitting at it's trunk.
"Bubotuber." Severus explained plainly.
"What does it do?"
"It's pus treats acne."
"Oh! What about this one?" Lily treated onward pointing at another plant.
Severus told her, as they walked further and further through the glum forest, him answering her questions calmly telling her the use of each plant and how to make them into potions. Ailments for aches and pains or something that could cause someone to have uncontrollable nosebleeds.
Not sparing any details with her, Severus recalled everything he had read in 'One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi'. Lily listened to him carefully helping him gather plants and placing them into the bags they carried. They cut at roots, scrapped bark, pulled plants out of the ground, and picked leaves.
The two walking through foliage and shrubs, over bark and dirt. Him and Lily following in collecting them together. She pealed bark off a oak tree and then bent down reaching for a large green plant growing from the earth. Severus's heart dropped as he ran to her.
"Stop!" Severus grabbed Lily's hand as she reached for the plant.
"Wh-what?" Lily asked, googling at Severus.
"That's Stinging Nestle!"
"Stinging what?"
"Stinging Nestle!" Severus huffed letting go of Lily's hard and shaking his head. "It's poisonous. If you touch it it'd give you an awful rash, it's quite painful."
"Oh," Lily flustered, jumping away from the plant.
"I don't think it'd be easy to explain the a teacher how you ended up getting a nasty rash!" Severus said."You don't see a lot of them growing outside the school grounds."
"Oh I see...wait, you pay attention to stuff like that?"
"Of course."
The sky was beginning to turn dark, and Lily and Severus decided to make their way back to the castle, only on their way back they couldn't help but get distracted by a glowing white light far away in the shadows, glistening between some bushes.
"What's that?" Lily said.
Severus shrugged,"Who cares, let's get back."
But Lily didn't Severus back to the castle. Severus stopped and watched her carefully as he trod slowly towards it and away from him. Twigs crunched under her feet, as she walked slowly. Edging closer and closer past trees.
"Lily, let's go back!" He growled under his breath.
The sky was growing darker, clouds heavy and grey above them, the trees becoming more shadowy with each passing second. The glowing remained clear, growing stronger the less light there was. Severus pulled out his hand, the wind hissing at their ears.
Lily got closer to the light.
"Lily,"Severus said desperately.
Then there was a rustling, something bursting out from the dark, Lily screamed. Severus ran to her side.
"Protego!" Snape yelled, pushing Lily behind himself.
The wind continued to hiss past them, neither of them moving. Both of them shivering, waiting for something to happen, there was more rustling. They stared at each other, their hearts beating in their ears. Lily pulled out her want and uttered,"Lumos."
A light shot out of her wand, as both of them stared right ahead of them, as the light lit up the face of a scared deer. The skinny doe shivering, staring at them with fearful black eyes before it ran away, shrouded by shadows and out of sight. Both of them gave a sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness," Said Lily.
Severus felt reassured that she was safe, but he couldn't shake a bitter feeling rising in him.
"You're so stupid!" Severus snapped. "Who knows what that could have been? As far as we know it was a Were-wolf! What would we have done if we'd gotten bitten?"
"I don't know!" Lily said.
She glared at him coldly and mumbled,"I'm not stupid!"
"You shouldn't be-"
There was the sound of a snapping behind them, both of them shook pressing close against each other, both there eyes wide looking through the darkness. There was a howling somewhere faraway in the distance.
Severus's hand shakily gripped at Lily's robe, fearfully scanning around them. Nothing came out. They were alone, as far as he could say.
"Let's just go back," Lily muttered, beginning to walk back the way they came. She didn't push of Severus, letting his grip slide down to her hand as she led them further and further out of the woods. Past tall trees, as the howling wind grew quieter and quieter. Soon they reached the edge of the Forbidden Forest and Hogwarts came back into sight.
They shuffled to hide from view of any teachers, hoping no one would find out their secret, as they opened the front door. No one noticed them pass by and it wasn't curfew yet, so they were allowed to be out in the Hogwarts halls. No person knew none the wiser why their robes were so dirty, they could easily explain it off as they sat near the lake, no one would question it.
At some point while other students were around Severus's hand had found it's way back to his side, Lily had given him all the things she had gathered in the Forbidden Forest and by the time they were about the part ways, Severus felt himself sweating.
Lily waved at him about to turn away, and before he could stop himself Severus burst out,"I'm sorry!"
Lily blinked,"Why are you sorry?"
"I called you stupid. I'm sorry."
Lily smiled. "It's okay, I know you didn't mean it!" She gave Severus a hug and turned around waving at him,"I'll see you tomorrow, alright?"
Severus nodded, waving back and making his way to the Slytherin common room feeling a comfortable warmth inside himself, as he smiled all the way there.
AN: I was listening to the "Into The Woods" soundtrack and this came out. Please feel free to leave a review!