Author's Note: I've mostly tried to keep this universe canon up to the Marauders' seventh year, but part of what I wanted to do with this story was cement Snape as a character that is beyond redemption, so this chapter is going to contradict JKR quite a bit. Just wanted to clarify :)

Lily walked back into the Great Hall holding tightly onto James Potter's hand. His hand was about the same temperature as hers, she reflected, with rough calluses on the fingers that he used to hold his wand.

This hand-holding got everyone's attention pretty quickly, coupled with the dramatic appearance James made by sweeping the Invisibility Cloak off out of nowhere. People started to point, laugh and clap, and Lily felt her cheeks redden yet again.

"Yeah, Potter!" a Gryffindor boy hollered.

"Yeah, Evans!" Dorcas said, purposely louder than him.

A couple of Slytherins in the corner were booing, and Lily caught a murmur of "blood traitor." Instinctively, she squeezed James' hand until both of their knuckles went white. "What's wrong?" he asked, brown eyes wide with concern.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it," Lily said easily. "Erm, want to dance?"

"I thought you'd never ask," James said.

He was about a head taller than her, and his arm fit easily around her waist as the two of them began to softly sway together. Lily, of course, had absolutely no idea how to dance, and James didn't quite seem to know what he was doing either, but even knowing that she was embarrassing herself in front of the entire school did nothing to quench the bubble of elation that had settled in her chest.

That bubble felt invincible.

Until she noticed Severus, standing behind James, arms crossed and eyes blazing with terrifying ferocity, and his expression brought everything back to the surface of Lily's mind.

"Sev-"

"Lily, look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"To call me Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?"

"That's what you don't get, you're different, you're special, you're better than any pureblood witch of our age-"

"Oh, so I'm the exception to my blood status? A surprise, considering the circumstances of my birth?"

"Yes-"

"Do you understand how despicable you are?"

"Lily, I love you-"

"No, you don't. No you don't. How on earth can you stand there and believe that you love me?"

"I always have-"

"Shut up! Can you just fucking shut up? I don't want to talk to you again, I don't want to see you, hear from you…"

"You'll regret this."

"I'll regret this?" she had said, dangerously, all of the blood in her veins was boiling, she could barely breathe.

"Lils, don't you get it? I'm in love with you, I'd do anything for you, all I ask is a little respect-"

"Okay. Okay, well." She had taken a deep, slow breath. "If you want respect, don't call me or anyone else slurs. You're a half-blood, for Merlin's sake! Use your brain for a second, I thought you had one. I will never love you." With that, she had started to climb back into the portrait hole, until-

"Petrificus Totalus!" Severus had shouted desperately, and Lily fell to the ground, completely paralyzed, staring up at the man who used to be her best friend.

"I'm sorry, it's just, you have to listen," he had told her.

And this had been the breaking point, for Lily, to have Severus curse her and completely violate any form of bodily autonomy just so she would have to listen to him. He monologued about his love for her, tried to explain that he was not a Dark wizard but rather a wizard with proper respect for the dark arts, and she lay there, staring at the ceiling until he was done, trying to tune him out because he couldn't make her listen.

"Goodbye, Lily," he said finally, sadly. "Do me a favor, okay, and don't date Potter, please, don't you dare date Potter." He wiped a tear away from his beetle-black eyes before he strode away, leaving her there on the floor.

It was James, of course, who found her.

"Evans?" he had asked, confused, quickly swiping his wand through the air in a silent Finite Incantatem.

The minute her muscles began to work again, she started crying uncontrollably. And somehow she found herself telling James everything, and he said he would kill Severus Snape, and she told him to leave him alone and against all odds he had listened, but for all of that work, Snape kept throwing himself in Lily's way.

"James," she muttered, turning him around slowly on the dance floor.

"Crap, why can't that fucker just leave you alone?"

"Erm, he made it pretty clear that dating you would prompt some involvement."

"I'm not scared of Snivellus, okay, it's fine," James said. "Oi, greaseball, what do you want?"

"So, Evans," Snape said, ignoring James. "You're going out with Potter, hm?"

"Yes," she said tightly.

"I thought he was an arrogant toerag," Snape slurred, and suddenly it occurred to Lily that he might be…

"Are you drunk?"

"As a doornail!" said Severus with a twisted smile. James looked at Lily, his eyes wide, almost laughing.

"Why don't you go upstairs, then, and call it a night?" Lily said, trying to pacify him.

"Because, Evans, you promised me you would never do this, ever ever in your whole life…"

"I believe I was petrified at the time."

"This is the biggest betrayal!" he said. "How could you? You don't even like him, you're just trying to get back at me-"

Lily scoffed at that. She pushed her hair over her shoulder, leaned in and kissed James hard, catching him by surprise, but he reciprocated with pleasure. The two stayed locked together for as long as Lily could before she needed to surface for a breath, and when she did, she saw with grim satisfaction that Severus Snape had finally left.