Spilt Milk

Chapter Three: Gaining trust

Severus Snape was sitting at the back of the library trying to finish the charms homework. He was finding it rather hard to do considering the fact that his stomach was one massive ache – and his shoulder hurt from being shoved into the wall. It was only after they had gone down three flights of stairs that Severus had managed to get rid of the muggle girl, Lily. She had become very irritated by the fact that he was so rudely shoving her off that she called him ungrateful and a bunch of names. He decided not to make anything of it and chalked it up to PMS.

"Damnit!" He said softly, leaning back in his chair and loosening his grip on his quill. "How am I supposed to concentrate with this goddamn bruise…" he muttered to himself, "Maybe I should have let Evans take me to the hospital wing…"

"Severus?" He turned around to see the pretty redhead standing beside the bookshelves. "Look, I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gone all mad at you, I was still venting about Potter and his friends… even if you were a tad ungrateful."

Severus tried a scowl, but it didn't seem to work right because she kept staring at him meaningfully – like she expected something from him. What? An apology?

"Right. Whatever Evans…" he stared back at paper determinedly, hoping that if he ignored her she'd just go away. Instead she sat down next to him, perfectly cheery again.

"Do you need any help? Charms is my best class…" She said with a smile.

"No. I don't need help. I'm perfectly fine, thanks." Severus, unnerved by her warm attitude and nearness, shifted away and gave her a suspicious glare through his long, greasy hair. Lily made an exasperated sound, and stood up,

"Fine. I don't understand why it's such a big deal to accept help and friendship from a mudblood!" she snapped, several people turned and looked at her stunned. But Lily paid no attention and instead turned on her heel and left Severus to his thoughts and homework.

Peter Pettigrew had arrived in time to see the whole thing. He was standing by the door holding the Gryffindor prefect's books and staring openly at Evans and Snape. Lily brushed past him and into the hall without even seeing him.

"L-Lily!" He called after her, half afraid she'd turn on him like she had James and Snape. "Y-you forgot your books!" She stopped mid-stride and twirled around.

"Oh."

"Here you are then…" Peter said shuffling over to her, he was actually a couple inches shorter than her, he tipped the books into her arms. "Sorry, about earlier… um, I just… they're so much bigger than I am, a-and… I, uh…"

"It's all right Peter." She said calmly, "It makes sense that they bully you around too. I'm sure James loves having his own personal friend-admirer – no offense of course. I guess you have to hang around him if you're friends with Remus too… I just thought… well it doesn't matter."

"Sure it does!" Peter said nodding, he was watching her with rapt attention as they walked down the hall towards the common room he supposed. "Your thoughts and feeling are really very important – well, um, t-to me an-and uh, James is – is a… he doesn't see… these things."

Lily looked at him, really looked at him. Sure he wasn't exactly physically attractive and she had never really considered his mind or personality to be attractive – but then again she'd never really talked to Peter before. True she was dating someone else, and even if she hadn't been she doubted that Peter would ever interest her in that way. But he was still sweet.

"Does James do that a lot? Pick on people and bully them?"

"Uh… yeah…"

"I should have known…"

Peter swallowed, wondering what exactly he was doing. He really liked Lily, and a lot of people knew it. James seemed and Lily seemed to be the only people that didn't pick up on it. And here he was, walking and talking with her – the girl of his dreams. He had the chance to show Lily what a caring person he was – and what a bad choice James was? He knew that Sirius and Remus would be mad at him for this – but James just wasn't right for Lily anyway! Besides, James could have any girl he wanted – and Peter only wanted one.

"He's just, um, doesn't seem to care what other people think or feel. That's just the way he is… It's not really his fault." Peter added the last bit as a sort of mental apology. They were standing outside the portrait of the fat lady.

"Yeah, well I'm done with him." Lily said resolutely, "Golden Glitter."

The picture swung away and the two Gryffindors entered the tower, Lily smiled at Peter as way of goodbye and headed up to her dorm. Peter went up the stairs on the other side, feeling both overjoyed and guilty.

Sirius was the first to finish the potions test. He sat up and looked around, toying with his anti-cheat quill as he watched the back of James's head. James had been the last one to arrive at the dungeons, he was still scratching away at the test paper, focusing all his attention on it.

"Done Mr. Black?" The professor asked quietly, coming to collect the paper and quill. "You may leave now." Sirius lingered for a moment, fidgeting with his shoelaces and pretending to have lost a something from his pockets, at last he gave up and left. He didn't go far, just up the stairs to the entrance hall where he took a seat on the great marble stairs. The halls were unusually empty because everyone was still in class. Sirius wanted to talk to James, he wasn't sure what there was he could do, but he knew that he had to try something.

"Sirius?" a soft female voice questioned. Sirius tilted his head and saw Emily Brown, Lily's friend. She came over and took a seat beside him on the steps.

"Finished your test already?" Sirius asked idly, his mind still distracted – James usually finished second, how come he was taking so long? And why was Ms. Brown finished before him?

"Yeah, it was pretty easy. I've been studying potions in my spare time. I think I might do something potions-related in the future. I mean it's one of my favorite subjects." There was a pause, when she realized that Sirius wasn't paying attention. "Thinking about your girlfriend?"

"Huh, what? No… I mean, I don't have a girlfriend." Sirius gave Emily a mildly annoyed look but she just stared back at him smiling. It became apparent to him that she had only made that last comment to get his attention. Now that she had it, Sirius frowned at her. Like Lily, Emily was an intelligent, pretty girl with a few close friends and a million not-so-close ones. She was a little more girlish than Lily thought, writing notes and giggling about boys in the common room. Lily never seemed to have time for that sort of thing. Sirius's bored gaze flickered across her body and he let himself think perverse thoughts of her. To his surprise, when he met her blue eyes he saw desire there – not that he didn't get that look from a lot of people, but he never really expected it from her. His eyelids drooped slightly, and he gave her a smoldering look through long black lashes, a tiny smile playing across his lips.

Remus sighed and put down his quill. He looked around, the class was mostly still writing – Sirius of course was gone, as were a few others, but to his surprise James was still bent over and scribbling madly. He signaled the professor and handed over his finished work, picked up his bag and left. Where was Sirius anyway? The common room most likely, it was a bit windy outside and he didn't really like to be alone. Staring at the floor, Remus turned up the marble staircase but seeing movement out of the corner of his eye he looked up. Sirius and Emily were together at the corner where wall met stairs, Emily had her face buried against Sirius's neck and he had his head tilted back and his hand up under her shirt.

Remus couldn't help it, he stared. It was almost as though he'd walked through a ghost and had been frozen into place. He could hear the soft guttural noises they made, the rustle of clothing against each other and their quiet panting. Quite suddenly Sirius's dark, chocolate eyes snapped open and locked onto Remus's own pale honeyed eyes. For a moment Remus could think of nothing except the fact that they were probably going to have sex, then he tore his gaze away and ran up the rest of the stairs to the seventh floor and the common room.

AN: Ja! Thank you everyone who reviewed! I hope I can keep this one going, I think it might get more serious and more romantic/sexual… if you have any ideas or suggests feel free to tell me! *grins* Cheers everyone!

Disclaimer: don't own anything.