It was two days after that night in the common room. Lily still turned slightly red when she thought about it. It wasn't that it was embarrassing for her or anything, it was just that it made her really happy for some reason. She loved James's smile. It was… she didn't know. Cute.
No, that made her sound like some random girl in a Jane Austen novel, but it was the only word she could think of.
The halls were practically deserted. It was a hogsmeade weekend and even most of the teachers were gone. Lily had only seen one other student all day. The first years were too shy to come out of their dorms quite yet and most of the second years were out on the grounds sulking about having to wait a whole nother year before finding their own way into hogsmeade.
Lily wasn't headed anywhere in particular. She was kind of just walking around. She enjoyed the castle when it was like this. It was peaceful. That's the reason she stayed behind in the first place. With it being sixth year and all Lily knew was that she would have many more chances to go to hogsmeade, but not quite as many to see the castle like this. She would miss it.
Lily was so caught up in her feelings of nostalgia that she didn't see him at first, even though he was standing right in front of her.
"Hello, Severus." she coolly greeted him
"Hello, Lily." he said back to her "why aren't you in hogsmeade?"
"I could ask the same of you." Lily defensively crossed her arms over her chest. Snape opened his mouth to answer, but before he could he was cut off by another voice.
"Ahhh, Severus, there you are. I thought you had gotten lost." it was the voice of Lucius Malfoy, whom Lily despised. Openly.
"Hello, Lily." he said
"Malfoy." she spat back in greeting.
"Well that's no attitude to take with a pureblood, now is it."
"I'll take whatever attitude i please. it makes no difference if you're a pure blood or not, you're still a rotten git."
"Oooh," Malfoy laid a hand on his chest in mock betrayal "i'm truly hurt. Why would you say such things, mudblood." Lily's blood boiled at the term.
"It's not as if i say things that aren't true."
Malfoy was about to open his mouth to retaliate once more, but he turned to see the source of the footsteps behind him.
"Nerys, Abigail, how nice of you two to join us!"
"Who do we have here?" Abigail asked as she neared the group "ooo, mudblood." she hissed, placing a manicured hand on Malfoy's shoulder.
"Why aren't you in hogsmeade, mudblood?" Abigail taunted
"Because i have things to do. Productive things. You might have heard of that? Being productive?" and with that she turned to leave, but she heard a murmur and was suddenly bound by invisible ropes. She struggled for a moment, then realized that's probably what they wanted her to do and immediately became still. The ugly face of Lucius Malfoy came into focus as he stepped out in front of her, wand drawn.
"I didn't dismiss you yet, Evans," Severus appeared behind Lucius and muttered something quietly.
"Please." spat Lucius, his upper lip curling "you're standing up for mudbloods now, Snape? What's next? Running around saving little kittens from trees? No, i don't think i will let her go. Not yet anyway..." and he turned back to Lily "i do suppose you've heard, haven't you?" he asked her "about your kind? You're being wiped out. All you useless mudbloods."
"I'm not half as useless as you." Lily cut him off
"You can think that, and it might even be true, but it doesn't matter, because i'm not the one with a price on my head."
Lily's anger was bubbling inside of her, but she could not let Lucius see that, because that's exactly what he wanted. He had struck home with the comment about the price on the head of mudbloods. They were all being hunted. On the orders of Voldemort.
"Alright." he stated "very well. If you won't get angry i'm sure i can evoke another emotion." he waved his wand again and the binding spell was lifted, but as Lily was reaching for her wand, she heard someone behind her whisper
"Cruccio." and all thought of her wand was forgotten.
Lily didn't scream, she never screamed when she was in pain, but she dropped to her knees in unbearable agony almost immediately.
She started whimpering and hot tears made their way out of her eyes and down her face. She didn't even care that she was crying in front of a group of now-snickering slytherins. No, Lily didn't care about much of anything right now. She had fallen over on her back and was simply writhing on the floor. She wanted to escape her body somehow. She just needed the pain to end.
But it wouldn't. it wasn't ending. It was the worst thing Lily had ever felt in her life. She broke an arm when she was little, and a couple fingers last year. But that was nothing compared to this. She would take that a thousand times. A million compared to this. She was writhing in agony. It was all she could do. Someone needed to make it stop.
Lily heard a shout from the end of the hall. She was hardly paying attention, though.
She had finally given into yelps of pain. The pain was only getting worse as it went and she was so relieved when it stopped that she stayed on the floor crying. Or at least, she would have if someone hadn't reached under her and picked her up.
Within a few minutes Lily had calmed down enough to stop crying. It was at this point she noticed who was carrying her. She was in the arms of James Potter. The odd thing was, she didn't even mind. A few years ago, hell, even one year ago, she would have had a cow. But now, she found this thought comforting.
James carried her into the common room and set her on the couch. He disappeared for a few moments, before shortly returning, two glasses of water in hand. He handed her one, and sat down on the couch next to her.
He didn't say anything for a few minutes. Just stared at the ground.
"Are you okay." he finally asked her.
"Yeah i'm fine." she lied. She could still feel the ghost of the pain in her body. She was still waiting for it to come back.
"I'm gonna kill him." James muttered
"Oh no you're not." Lily interjected
"Why not?" James stared at her incredulously.
Lily smirked "because i'm gonna kill him first."
James stared at her for a while before the edge of his mouth went up.
