Chapter 2
Lilly nervously waited to see what Severus's reaction would be. She honestly thought he would just walk away. He wasn't one to start a fight, and he was generally a respectful person when not tormented. He stood there for a while, looking like a war was going on in his mind.
"Please?" Lilly asked as a last resort. Silence was all that followed. Not wanting to make a nuisance out of her, Lilly gathered up her D.A.D.A. book and notes and got up off the ground. "I'm sorry for troubling you," Lily spoke as she headed back inside Hogwarts. Snape just let her go.
Taking his seat once again, the young student resumed his homework. He was stuck on the same paragraph for nearly ten minutes. No notes were written, and his homework time was being wasted. He mentally cursed Lilly for her intrusion, but took it back afterwards. He wasn't feeling hate for her, just confusion. True, she was showing him kindness, and he knew it. But what kind of kindness was it?
Kindness can be shown in many ways, such as true kindness, when the person really means it, deceiving kindness, when the act of being kind is just to get something from you, as well as others. The one he was most familiar with himself was the false kindness. Good example of this was when he first came to Hogwarts. He was pulling his belongings, mostly books and his suitcase, onto the Hogwarts Express. His parents had just dropped him off to let him find his own way to the platform, so needless to say he just made the train. Making his way down the passageway, the first-year opened several compartments to see if there was room to sit. He finally came to an empty one near the back, and he sat down with his focus out the window.
Next thing he knew, a bunch of other first years barged in, expecting the space to be empty. They didn't seem to mind at all that Snape was there, for it gave them good entertainment for the long trip to school. First came the usual questions, such as your name and what house would you like to be in. Then it became clear that the only reason they seemed interested was to find a way to pick on you. This was all done in a way that looked like friendly intentions, but their only intentions was to dig up something that would hurt when they threw it back in your face.
Snape shook that memory from his head. He couldn't help but to put Lilly's kindness in that category, because it was what was shown to him the most. Why would some one popular like her want to treat him with kindness and respect? Logically, something didn't add up. Severus wasn't about to let him be easily fooled by the first pretty female who didn't back away in disgust at the sight of him. Besides, how did he know that Lilly had not taken up Snape-bashing for a hobby?
Drops of water soon fell on his D.A.D.A. book and parchment. These warning drops soon turned into a full-fledged storm, and Snape tried his best to get his book inside his bag before they became waterlogged. The drenched student made a b-line right for the door.
"Why didn't you just use a water repelling spell grease ball?"
Snape pushed the wet stands of his stringy hair out of his eyes to see who yelled that at him. It was hard to tell who yelled what when the hallway was packed with laughing people. James and Sirius soon pushed their way out to the front. Peter looked enthused as well, but took to standing behind Sirius. Remus just turned away as he usually done. Snape must have entered the castle near the route the Gryffindor's took to the dining hall. They surrounded him. All the laughing and taunting faces looked the same. All Severus wanted to do was to get out of there, and fast.
"Because he is too stupid to think of that," Sirius answered James.
"Leave him alone," Lilly shouted once again to the two bullies.
"Why do you care Lily?" James curiously asked, for no one was supposed to care how Snape felt.
"Because I do," Lilly snapped back at James. " All you are is a big bully who is not even good at showing off!"
Sirius tried butting in, but the two were bickering back and forth. This gave Snape the perfect time to vanish, for many people were preoccupied with watching the argument. Snape ran down the hallway leading toward the Great Hall. Several pictures yelled out to him to slow down, but he paid them no attention. Most people didn't listen to them anyway.
Rounding the last corner, Snape entered the hall and walked quickly to the Slytherin table. He had time to eat, and then it was off to the library for studying. Other students were slowly gathering in, all chatting mindlessly among themselves. Severus looked at the food options, and decided to try the soup, although he did not know what kind it was. All he knew is that it had celery in it.
When James and Sirius had entered, they had given him their usual glare before they sat down. The Slytherin, for even the mystery soup proved to be more interesting then those two, did not pay them much attention. ((Does that sentence make sense? Word changed it on me.)) Finally building up enough courage, he tasted the soup. It wasn't very good, but the soup was edible.
A distracting catcall was heard coming from the Gryffindor table. The ruckus was enough to make Severus look up, and to his surprise, it was Lilly's turn to take some abuse from James Potter. He was all over her as if he was the best man in the universe. Snape couldn't help but to laugh at how ludicrous James looked. James was doing his best to impress Lilly by trying to get her to sit next to him. Now, what was so impressive about sitting next to an idiot? Snape couldn't tare his eyes off of the scene that was playing in front of him.
"Let me be," Lilly cried out. She attempted to whack him with her handbag.
"Come on Lilly," James said as he ruffled his hair a bit. "This is the best seat in the house, and I am going to let you have it for real cheap." Sirius and Peter were laughing in their seats.
"Even if it were free, I wouldn't take it!" Lilly shouted as she kicked his shin. James let go of her arm, and Lilly dashed away to the other end of the table to sit with her friends. James just acted as if she didn't really mean what she had said and sat down with his friends.
Several of the students at the Slytherin table were looking at the laughing Severus. He silenced himself and returned his attention to his soup. He stole a glance at Lilly, who was now chuckling with her friends about something. He was in the process of imagining Lilly cracking jokes about James when a roll bounced off his forehead. It didn't take much detective work to find the culprit. Sirius was gesturing with his finger as if he was picking his nose and then acting as if he was going to eat it, while his clownish friends pointed in his direction and laughed.
Severus found himself not in the mood to deal with them, so he left his half eaten soup at the table and made his was out of the dinning hall. Best head to the library for some extra time to study. Most likely he would have the place to himself, for many people would be eating still. Snape made his way up the empty corridors and found the way to the library without a glance up.
He picked his usual studying spot that was located in a corner of the library. He found that he was less distracted there. It did face a window that had a nice view, but at least it was facing outside and not in the library. When the room was full of people, the view outside sure beat looking at the other students.
Opening his D.A.D.A. book once again, Snape made his second attempt at his homework today. Just like the last time, he was interrupted by Lilly once more.
"What do you want?" Snape asked without looking up.
"I just want some help with the D.A.D.A. homework," Lilly said trying to sound nice, which was hard when someone talked to you without care.
"And I just want to get mine done," Snape replied even more harsh then the first.
"Well, if you would just help me, I would be forced to stop asking, now wouldn't I?" Lilly said as she sat down next to him. She dug her book out of her bag and plopped it on the table. She retrieved her parchment, quill and ink as well.
"Fine." Snape said. "What do you need help with?"
"Well," Lilly started out. "I wasn't exactly paying attention in class…"
"That explains why you need help." Snape rudely interrupted her.
"I wasn't paying attention in class due to a certain annoying person, and I missed the assignment." Lilly said.
"We have to read chapter 7 and write 1,ooo words about it."
"Ok, seems easy enough," Lilly replied as she turned to chapter seven. "Well, since we are both here, and have the remainder of the lunch hour left, why don't we work on it together?"
Snape never liked working together with people. Doing homework with another person usually meant him doing the work, and the others just copying. He didn't think it was fair for one person to do all the work. Snape was about to say this to Lilly when he noticed that she had already started reading, as well as taking notes. Snape just shrugged and started to work on his own.
"Just take down important notes Severus," Lilly said causing him to look up.
"Well, you certainly won't get a good grade by doing that," Snape barked.
"No silly," Lilly replied. " Just take notes, and when we are done, we can collaborate our information. That way we have two people gathering info, and we will exchange it, and then write our own papers. That way, not one person is doing all the work."
"Ok," Snape agreed and began to work on his homework once again.
Thirty minutes had passed, and the assignment took longer then each had anticipated. They each had fifteen minutes to get to their next class, which was Potions for both of them.
"Crap," Lilly said full of worry. " I still need to go to the Gryffindor Tower and get my books for class. How about we meet up after class and finish this? We are almost done the chapter." Lilly stood there for a moment waiting for a reply from Snape. He didn't even stop jotting down notes to acknowledge what she had just said. "Sev-"
"Agreed, Lilly," Snape said as he continued on his work. He didn't have to go back to his room for any books. He also didn't want to leave the library the same time as Lilly Evans did. James Potter was known to follow her around.
"Well, see you later," Lilly said before she darted out of the library.
As soon as she had left, Snape closed his book and rolled up his parchment. He needed to get to class and hope that the good seats were not taken. The halls were just starting to get crowded but Snape made it through with little trouble. He got to class with three minutes to spare. The seats in the back were taken already, Sirius was one of them, but Snape made his way to the front. No one liked the front seat very much. Neither did he really, but he was always guaranteed an empty seat there.
He set his bag down and emptied out all the items needed for this class. Their cauldrons were not needed this time. This class would be spent prepping the ingredients for their next potions class. After laying out the items on the list, Snape sat back, for this would be an easy class.
Just as the Potions Professor was about to start class, Lilly burst in the door. She was short of breath, and took the seat her friend was saving for her. James followed in next, looking rather disturbed and took a seat next to Sirius.
Twenty points were taken from Gryffindor for the two of them being tardy, and then class began. The chopping of ingredients was heard, and whispers filled the room. The class was going fast, especially for Snape, for he was sent to the hospital wing within the first ten minutes. Apparently, James thought he was in Charms class and charmed Snape's knife to chop by itself. The injury wasn't major, but Severus milked it for all it was worth. He would be able to do the preparations on his own later that night, and it sure would beat having his ingredients messed up due to fowl play by other students.
After examining the bandage on his hand, Snape wondered the halls. He was going to head back to the Slytherin common room, but noticed that the rain had stopped. Having the yards to him would be nice, since majority of the other students were in class.
The ground squished slightly under his feet as he made his way to the lake. Snape gathered up his cape to make sure the mud wouldn't dirty it any. However, he was more concerned about Lilly. TO be more exact, he was more confused then concerned. It wasn't normal for anyone, let alone a pretty, popular girl, to have any kind of interaction with him that did not involve making an idiot out of him. Maybe she is coming down with an illness.
The lake was calm despite the downpour that had come this morning. The weather was still warm as well. The water in the lake seemed to beckon him, and with a quick glance to make sure no one was watching, Severus took off his cape, shoes and socks. He carefully rolled up his pants to just above the knee, and walked calf deep into the lake. The cool water felt refreshing against his legs and he let all his problems leave his mind. All except how pale he was. His reflection made him look like a ghost. He stood there looking at his own reflection for a few minutes, and then kicked the water causing his reflection to be lost.
Snape nearly fell into the water when he heard a laugh from behind him. He spun around to discover that, once again, Lilly was standing on the shore behind him. He felt his cheeks flush ever so slightly and he tried to hide his skinny pale legs from view. He was very self-conscience about his scrawniness and other people seeing. He realized that it was too late now, Lilly had already seen judging by her laugh.
"You made your point," Severus said bitterly.
"Oh no," Lilly said trying to stop. " I wasn't laughing at you." She tried to contain her laughs.
"What's so funny then?"
She felt a bit guilty, for she had been laughing at him, but not meant to be in a mean way. "This was the last place I'd expect to see you," Lilly said. "Was the cut really bad?"
"No,"
"Just felt like cutting class?"
"No."
Lilly bit her lip and took off her cape and sat down on it. "Aren't you afraid of the monster?" Lilly looked around the lake as if searching for any signs of something moving.
"I never seen one," Snape said. " So how does one know that there really is one?"
"True," Lilly replied. "Still, I don't think I'd stick my feet in."
"I thought Gryffindor's were supposed to be brave?" Snape wished she would leave, or at least did not sit down right next to his belongings. Now in order to leave, he would have to walk right next to her.
Lilly opened her mouth to say something back, but no words came out. A determined look overcame her face, and she quickly kicked off her shoes and tore off her socks. Before he knew it, she was splashing around in the lake as well. However, she did peak out to the center of the lake every few seconds to make sure nothing was coming toward her.
"I don't think there is anything out there to be afraid of," Snape said as he glanced across the lake. "Knowing my luck, if there was something out there, it would have attacked me first." Lilly gave a little smile towards him, but still kept her guard up.
"Why are you not in class?" Snape finally asked her. She didn't appear to be picking on him, so he minus well try and talk to her this one time. Seeing that Lilly was looking for words to say but not saying them, he finally told her she did not have to tell him if she did not want to.
"When did you—Ouch!" Snape yelled as he tried his best to stand on one foot. Balancing on his right foot proved to be harder then he though, and he soon found himself splashing to a sit. Lilly was wide-eyed in fear, asking what was wrong and if something grabbed a hold of him. Snape brought up his left foot and showed Lilly. "What is it?" Not even wanting to admit this to himself, Snape feared that he had stepped on something horrible, and for a split second, Lilly's monster snapped into his mind.
Another burst of laughter was heard, and Lilly was crying due to her current display of emotion. She walked over to the foot and apologized several times for laughing.
"You should have seen the fear in your face," Lilly said as she grabbed his foot. "Feared it was the monster?" Snape remained quiet as Lilly grabbed the sharp object from the sole of his foot. She then showed it to him. It was a pointy shell. Lilly took to laughing once more, and Snape wondered what was the matter with her. Is all she does is laugh? How could some one ever be that happy? Lilly stopped when she saw that he was not laughing at the situation.
"Oh Severus, really," Lilly said. "Do lighten up. Just because I am laughing in your presence, does not mean I am laughing at you." She held out her hand to help him up.
Snape ignored her hand, but managed to get himself up out of the lake. He was completely drenched and his foot was now sore. Lilly watched him ring out his clothes and head back to shore. He sat down on the wet ground and put his socks on. Lilly followed him back and sat down right next to him.
"Do you have any more classes tonight?" Lilly asked as she pulled her socks on.
"No, that was my last one," he replied as he dug for a hair tie in his bag.
"I have one more to go. It will be over at five-thirty. Want to meet up afterwards to finish our D.A.D.A. homework?"
"Sure, I guess." Snape replied as he tried to gather up all the stands of hair. "Where?"
"I don't know. Here," spoke Lilly as she grabbed the hair tie and sat behind him.
"I am quite capable of pulling my own hair back," Snape irately replied.
"I am well aware of that, but it would have looked horrible." Lilly pried his hair out of his hands and neatly pulled it back for him. Severus was glad she was behind him for he was blushing a bit against his will. "How about…" Lilly paused to think of a spot. "The Library? Simple enough."
"Ok." Snape said as he stood up and tried to make the wet clothes not look so grimy. "I'll see you in the Library then, don't forget your notes."
"I won't," Lilly said as she watched him hurry back into Hogwarts.
A/n: Ok, I don't know if I like this chapter that much. It started out good, then, I don't know. I think I lost it in the end part, with the whole lake. When I thought about it, it sounded good, but writing it down is another story.
Anyways, let me know what you think. AND BE HONEST!! I don't mind reviews saying the ending is crappy ((as long as you say it in a constructive way) I can always rewrite it.
I am hoping both are still in character with reguards to the SS/LE pairing. I honeslty find it hard to write snape in character when it is a love theme. I hope I didn't butcher it this time. ;)
Grandfather clock… where the heck did godfather clock come from?? LOL.
Elvensorceress~~ Ok, your on!! You can be the beta reader!!! I didn't send you this one because I was almost done when you reviewed. (Though it turned out to take longer for me to finish the last few pages then the rest of the whole story). Next one you will get. You may beta these 2 chappys, but you don't have to. Anyways, I will be emailing you soon.
Thanks for the reviews!! Feel free to crit/ suggest stuff!!!
Evilraditz