4
Everyday I fight a war against the mirror
I can't take the person starin' back at me
I'm a hazard to myself
As the days wore on, taking their sweet time with them, the group, already close-knit, became knitted even closer. Snape came to visit them almost on a daily basis, and though he and Lily were broken up, James's hostility had not let its guard down. James, making pathetic attempts to avoid Lily, did not realize how mean he was being to her. This led Lily to think that his constant bad mood was because of her, which it was, and thus she spent all of her time with her résumé at Florean's in the mornings, and working her butt off in the afternoon. She was getting pretty sick of his customers hitting on her, but she was even sicker of James. While she was there, he spent his time trying to be mean to her, and when she left, he would mope around. His moping around was really attracting Sirius's dates, and whereas Lily and James spent their time being sick of each other, he was sickest of them.
Don't let me get meI'm my own worst enemy
It's bad when you annoy yourself
So irritating
Don't wanna be my friend no more
I wanna be somebody else
One such occasion, Lily had gone to visit Snape at Hogwarts. As a cover, Snape had started teaching Potions for Dumbledore. An owl had come to Lily one night when James was particularly preoccupied with one of Sirius' hotter flavours, that Snape was in direst conditions. It was highly likely that it was fatal. Sirius had insisted on coming with her: anything to get away from Mr. Sensitive.
"Lily!"
"Oh, Severus! Who did this?"
There were black bruises all over his exposed chest, and surely in places she could not see also. There was a liquid encasing on his neck, something Lily recognised as a Spine Straightener Spell. Mme. Pomfrey had used it many a time on the Quidditch players' unfortunate accidents with the Slytherins. Lily was practically one of the Quidditch players as she dated Tai Fletcher (Mundungus' brother) until seventh year, when he went insane from torture in the Massacre; that too, right after they had broken up because she had 'issues.' Her parents died in a snowstorm in a horrible car crash. Mysteriously, the guy who started the chain reaction apparently let the wheel go for one minute when it had started moving all by itself. The Dark Mark was found on the scene, but the muggles did not notice because of the overcast sky.
She had been deeply wounded and somehow it still hadn't healed. Then, after one earnest and revealing conversation with the Slytherin Head Prefect, she found something more in Severus Snape. And there goes Voldemort torturing him too. She wished she would find someone that would stick with her, instead of being afraid.
Doctor, Doctor, won't you please prescribe
Somethin'
A day in the life of someone else?
'Coz I'm a hazard to myself
"Lily, may I speak with S—Sirius alone?" With surprise evident on both faces, they gawked at Snape's half shut/swollen eyes. "Lily?"
"Oh yes, of course, why not?"
When she had left Snape looked at Sirius earnestly. Sirius looked like he was about to run away. After gaping at his arch-nemesis for a second, although, he realised that this must be something serious (A/N: aackk, nope, I didn't mean it). Snape wouldn't be doing this unless there was something really really wrong.
"I have to tell you something about Potter and Evans," he whispered urgently. His eyes shifted as if he was afraid something would jump out of the shadows at any moment. It had succeeded in getting Sirius's attention. He paled noticeably.
"You better not be paying some joke, Snape," there was a threatening twist in his voice, then he whispered, "Or I'll skin you to finer pieces than the Dark Lord has managed," pause, "with my bare hands." Snape swallowed painfully, both from the sudden pain he felt from the Spine Straightening Spell and from the belief that there were so many people in the world that didn't trust him.
"Go ahead," Sirius prompted. He failed to mask the little falter in his voice.
"You-Know—Voldemort is after them." Sirius smiled a bit.
"Hey, we didn't know," he answered sarcastically.
"No, you moron," Sirius said nothing to the sudden name-calling, "he's after them together."
"Ha! Are you kidding me? I've been trying to get them together for almost eleven years now, and they're blind as bats!!" Snape stared. Sirius shut up because his humourous and hyper tone did not match the solemnity of the wounded Death Eater.
"The Mast—VOLDEMORT would not sound worried if he had no evidence. Your friends have been engaging in intimate activities behind your back," he spat.
"Hey, say it don't spray it man!" Snape took on an expression of warning. "Anyway, how do you know all this anyway? How am I to believe you, then?" Both individuals eyed each other with suspicion, and finally, Snape retorted with a slight degree of loathing.
"Malfoy is our Rat," Sirius rejoiced at hearing some Mobspeak1 again, but listened carefully nonetheless, "I've been slipping Veritaserum in his Ale when he comes to our gatherings at The Broomsticks. I've altered the Potion so that he only tells me what I want him to, and subtly so that the others don't notice." The marauder sized him up. He wasn't all that bad when he had no choice but to be good. But why was he telling him, and not Lily or James? Why his own worst enemy?
"Sn-Severus, why are you telling me this?" For some reason, Snape looked like he was about to laugh.
"Don't worry, Black, this doesn't mean my hatred for you is going to subside anytime soon," Snape spoke like it was some kind of cruel curse to hate anyone, as if he was only doing it because he had to, but the fact of the matter was that he was.
"I want you to try harder to get Lily and James together because their child is said by a seer to bring Voldemort down, plus I'm working on the Longbottom couple's case right now."
"Alright! Frank finally got lucky, eh?" Sirius winked, but Snape didn't seem to be getting any of it.
"Was your mother on something when she was pregnant with you? You don't seem to care much that your two best friends are about to die!"
"Hey, don't tell me what I do and don't care about, Slytherin."
"Don't get cocky with me Black, this isn't about you." Sirius settled a bit. This wasn't about him, no, not at all. It was time for the serious-Sirius to surface. (A/N: I meant it that time! SweetSinger says its lucky, lol)
This was about his best friends, and as much as he tried to cover it up with sarcastic, but funny remarks, the truth remained (A/N: Baby, you're gone! Ooh, you're gone!! *cough* sorry, its one in the morning, and I'm trying to contain all my hyperness. I think that's why Sirius is rubbing off on me tho... sorry 'bou dat...), his friends would definitely die. He had no say about it but in destroying this Dark Lord as soon as he could, whatever it meant for his destiny. And what about this Lily and James sneaking around behind his back thing? He was long overdue for an open and candid discussion with that girl about him.
I'm a hazard to myself
Don't let me get me
I'm my own worst enemy
It's bad when you annoy yourself
So irritating
Don't wanna be my friend no more
I wanna be somebody else
A/N: That chapter was pretty short, sorry about it, but I have a question for you readers (who can't be bothered to review {except for Quack, she's excepted 'cos she's special, and plus I think I've tortured her enough}) The Question is: *drumroll please* do you want me to keep Lily and James apart? Or get them together in the next chapter? Its a u-pic fic(yay!)...I doubt that anyone but you, Quack, will respond to this poll, but its a nice way to get people to review anyway. Maybe I should just take your advice and forget about the reviews and write for the heck of it (which I already do, by the way, I just need encouragement so that I don't feel thoroughly stupid. I mean if I'm just doing it for my own pleasure, I might as well keep it to myself instead of struggling with the just-got-even-more-extensive-procedure of putting it up on ff.n {j/k: it's not that bad -_- but still what's life without whine? Lol, get it? Whine, wine? Haha...anyways...}) I think I'm finished now; Oh! I almost forgot! The Mobspeak (1) thing, you'll get it if you read ASW (A simple wish, my other fic) I have this thing planned where he's actually involved with the mob, along with his sister that got adopted by a different family at birth (and Lily and Sirius and this girl *wink-wink* were part of the same orphanage for the first few years of their lives b/c Lily has this complicated life, right? And then Sirius goes and makes it more complicated and in the end I'm so confused, and you're so confused, but then it all has such a simple ending {it ends with 'A simple wish' that Lily asks of James and then he screams in frustration, and it all leads up to a dramatic climax, and then there's this sequel which is all depressing and crap, and there's also the Dramatic Irony, which makes it alll the more worthy of your reviewing. I make the reader feel all special like in this book I once read, and then you find out that it was a big, large hoax and you're all tingly inside, and wish for a sequel, but you won't get it 'coz the fic is just so messed up by now and its so confusing that if there were really a sequel, it would ruin the whole effect of it..}) Wait, all I wanted to say was that I'm sorry, and I know that 'Rat' is not really Mobspeak, but I'm so hyper that I couldn't stop to think what else I could come up with. Damn, this is the longest A/N, it's so long that I could post it up as an entirely different chapter, which I won't 'cos no one would read it and I...just...can't....stop...t..y..p...i......n...g.... *breathes heavily b/c her fingertips are out of oxygen and her laptop is warming up her lap so much that she just has to shut down the computer....now!* AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MY ASS IS TWEETCHEENG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SUGGA HIGGGGGGHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
R AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNDD R
Oh, I forgot to say Ciao,
-Parsel
Wait, the song belongs to Pink; it's called 'Don't Let Me Get Me,' and its pretty spiffy stuff. You ppls should give it an ear. It's about teacher-student relationships so all you Hermione/Snape shippers should love it. Not really, there's one line-and it goes 'Teachers dated me, my parents hated me," oh, oh, and her socks don't match, plus, LA said she could be a pop-star if she became Britney Spears (who she hates b/c she's pretty 'pparently, and think i should shut uP now...
Love yers,
-Pars