Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
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Severus wore an unusually pleased smile that autumn as he and Lily walked through Platform Nine and Three-Quarters after they waved goodbye to their families.
Tobias hadn't come, but Severus didn't mind since Eileen had been there to see him off.
Lily's eyes were as wide as Severus's while they boarded the magical train with their trunks.
At the tender age of eleven, Severus displayed the chivalry of helping his darling with her luggage.
As soon as they found an empty compartment, they hastily claimed it for themselves.
Severus placed their trunks above their heads and sat down next to Lily.
She flashed him a bright grin when the Hogwarts Express began to move and he gladly returned her happy gaze.
"I'm really excited, Sev! From what your Mum told us, Hogwarts must be amazing!" She beamed.
"Yes……" Severus nodded as he gazed into Lily's eyes while the train chugged along, "I'm certain it will be…….amazing."
As Lily laughed, Severus could not suppress his grin.
It had saddened him to leave his mother behind, but he felt elated to finally be freed from the cycle of abuse in which his father kept the Snape household trapped.
Although Lily thought the castle would be incredible, Severus knew for a fact that no thing, place, or person could possibly be more incredible than her.
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The two best friends stayed cocooned together in their own secluded world during their ride to school.
Lily eventually left Severus's side to use the lavatory, not knowing that her innocent trip would shatter their blissful privacy.
The compartment door remained open while Severus waited for her to return.
As he stared out into the hallway at the hundreds of students that hurried up and down the train's narrow corridor, nervousness crept into his mind.
Severus had never seen so many other children in one place.
Lily's words echoed back to him and for a moment, he sympathized with her fear that someone would threaten their friendship.
Out in the hallway, Lily walked back to the compartment after she had finished her errand, but she happened to catch the eye of the wrong person.
A boy with messy, brown hair scowled at her as she passed by.
In the flurrying scurry of people that drifted through the train's hallway, Lily didn't realize she had been followed until she sat back down beside Severus and a voice called out behind her, "Hello."
Lily had just smoothed her skirt.
Once she noticed that Severus stared towards the open compartment with a frown on his face, Lily looked over…….
The brown-haired boy she had passed without acknowledging blinked at them both until Lily answered, "...Hello."
"I'm James Potter." The boy introduced himself before he bragged arrogantly, "I'm a first year student, but I'm more than ready to start. My father's already shown me a few spells…..Who are you?"
Severus bristled at the cocky tone in the boy's voice.
He was too young to identify it, but jealousy rose in his heart as he watched another boy show the audacity to come out of nowhere and brazenly approach Lily.
Severus could sense that James Potter's intentions towards his darling flower were not something that he appreciated.
"I'm Lily Evans." Lily nodded with a friendly smile. She laid a hand on Severus's shoulder and introduced him as well, "This is Severus Snape, my best friend."
"Hello." Severus quietly greeted James.
"Does your best friend not enjoy shopping for new clothes?" James asked Lily with a laugh.
It wasn't the first time that someone had mocked Severus for the mismatched garments he wore due to his family's low economic status.
However, an insult against his clothing had never stung as badly before.
"Actually, I think his clothes look lovely." Lily disagreed with James as she frowned.
Severus felt his rush of embarrassment bloom into a feeling of warm comfort as Lily took his hand in hers and held it firmly while James sneered.
"Nice to meet you, James." Lily nodded coldly as she put her back to him and turned to face Severus.
Severus watched a dangerous scowl cloud his new enemy's face as James Potter took Lily's hint and stomped away.
As soon as she knew he had gone, Lily reached behind herself and closed the train compartment door.
"I'm sorry about that, Sev. What a terrible person!" She frowned.
"It's alright, Lily……" Severus started to say, anxious to change the subject.
He wasn't worried about his own feelings. It pained him to see his beloved flower look anything less than happy.
"No, it's not alright at all, Sev!" She snapped.
Severus blinked as he observed a strange wildness manifest in her emerald gaze.
"It's not alright at all! I don't like that boy!...This is exactly what I told you about! I knew something like this would happen!" Lily exclaimed.
Severus's black eyes widened as Lily stood up, moved over to the opposite seat, and sat down in a huff to stare out the window.
Severus contemplated what he should do for a moment.
During one of Tobias's rare sober days, his father had warned him that women could often be unpredictable.
For a few, fleeting seconds, Severus wondered if that had actually been a decent piece of advice or not…..
A deep frown marred Severus's pale face as his attention was called away by the soft sound of gentle weeping.
He stood from his seat and stepped over to the opposite side of the compartment as he sat down beside Lily, reached out, and took her hand in his.
"Lily?" Severus asked quietly, "Why are you crying?...He insulted me, not you."
"And that is ten times worse!" Lily wailed as she turned her tear-stained face to Severus. He blinked at her as she went on, "People are going to tear us apart, Sev! If not James Potter, someone else…..I know it! They're going to take us away from each other! Far, far away where we can never come together again!...I don't want to go to Hogwarts anymore! I just want to go home!"
Severus had been upset by James's sudden appearance and rudeness too, but it alarmed him to see Lily become inexplicably hysterical about the incident.
"Lily, it's alright……" He coaxed as he held his hands up, "No one's going to seperate us, not unless we let them. There's no need to cry…..calm down…."
Severus expected her to regain her senses and smile at him, apologize, or chide herself for her reaction, but what she did instead shocked him.
Lily threw her arms around Severus and laid her head against his chest to hear his pulse as she sobbed through the rest of her anguish.
Severus frowned to himself while he placed one hand on Lily's trembling back and used his other to gently comb through her scarlet hair.
As the ride to the castle dragged on, eventually, Lily's sobs stopped.
Once Severus finally dared to look down, he noticed that she had fallen asleep.
He smiled proudly that she had chosen him as her pillow, sought comfort in his embrace, and used his heartbeat as a lullaby…..
There, alone with Lily in their private compartment, Severus bent his neck and placed a sweet kiss against Lily's forehead.
He would not allow anyone, especially not a git like James Potter, to sever their bond.
After Severus's lips graced her skin, a wide smile spread across Lily's fair face while she slept.
Her eyes remained closed, but her arms continued to hold him tightly.
Even in her dreams, Lily felt the pleasant, soothing affection of the one she cared for most.
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She woke with the sudden jolt of the train as it came to a stop.
Severus's heart sank in reluctant disappointment when she sat up and released him from her grip at last.
"Sorry, Sev….." Lily murmured as she rubbed her eyes groggily and tried to straighten her disheveled hair.
"Don't be." Severus replied with a slight frown.
Riding those hours with Lily cuddled against him had been some of the best in his recent memory, why should she apologize?
It made Severus's chest ache when he considered that the next time they would be able to snuggle remained unknown.
"Mum said we'll be sorted into houses as soon as we get to the castle." Severus reminded Lily as they stood up.
He pulled their trunks down from above the compartment, but Lily stayed silent.
When he noticed that a nervous frown had planted itself on her lips, he forced a smile on his own face as he added, "...But that doesn't mean anything…..You and I will always be you and I, right, Lily?"
"Yeah, Sev." Lily said with a soft smile, "We'll always be us."
Severus nodded at her, but Lily felt that uncomfortable, gnawing feeling return as she stood in front of Severus there on the train, while they both faced the real possibility that they may be placed into different areas of the castle.
An unyielding urge to be near Severus overtook her and before he saw it coming, Lily stepped forward, stood on her toes, and pressed another meaningful kiss to his lips.
It had been months since he had received the first one, but Severus closed his eyes and tried not to groan as he accepted the next bit of tender affection from his…...friend…...that fed his wounded heart.
"We'll always be us, Sev." Lily said with a confident nod as she pulled away.
An hour later, Hogwarts' first year students rode across the Black Lake in the school's small boats.
In one of those boats, Severus and Lily sat together and held hands with looks of awe on their faces as they stared up at the massive castle ahead.
James Potter scowled at the couple as he sat next to his new friends, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew.
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Unbeknownst to their enemies, the bond that had already been formed between Severus Snape and Lily Evans went deeper and farther than James Potter, or anyone else, could comprehend.
A magic existed in Lily's kiss which had nothing to do with the talents that had landed her at Hogwarts.
The Sorting Hat placed Severus in Slytherin and Lily in Gryffindor, but neither of them felt disheartened.
Although they ate their dinner at different tables, they kept turning back to glance at each other and signal to one another what they meant while they waited for the meal to conclude.
"You should get to know your new housemates, Evans." James sneered at Lily.
He had made sure to sit directly across from her at Gryffindor's table after he had been sorted.
James Potter's friends watched with smirks as he attempted to engage Lily in a chat.
"Actually, I prefer to do otherwise, James." She said with a tense smile, "Please let me eat in peace, or I'll be forced to tell Professor McGonagall that you're bothering me….and then you'll get detention."
James scowled as Lily turned back around to continue her long-distance conversation with Severus.
She frowned though when she saw him talking to an older boy with long, blonde hair and a girl with a wicked grin.
Lily felt anger boil in her veins until Severus ended his brief discussion with his own housemates and focused his attention on her again.
Her smile returned but her insides quivered with anxious anticipation.
No one in the room understood that Severus and Lily's love would bloom to be one of the most influential relationships ever seen in the wizarding world, especially not the two children themselves.