Disclaimer: Alright, alright. So you finally dragged it out of me – no, I am not J.K. Rowling! Nor do I resemble her in any way, especially the money and rights to Harry Potter ways!! So please, don't waste your time and mine suing me because I am just a poor, poor kid!!
"All right," Severus said quickly.
"All right?" Lily questioned cautiously. "All right what?"
"All right, you can be my girlfriend!" Severus said as though Lily were incompetent and thoroughly out of reality.
Lily almost burst out laughing hysterically, but somehow managed to hold it in and looked up into Severus's eyes. "Why Severus, however did you know that's what I was talking about?" she asked sweetly.
Severus looked at Lily, preened, and said modestly, "Well, lots of people say I have this way with women."
Lily raised her eyebrows, but merely said, "Oh you do, Sev – can I call you Sev?" Lily gave him her best puppy dog look.
Severus pursed his lips and said, "Well, maybe it could be your secret nickname for me."
Lily nearly gagged with all of his sugary sweetness that did seem to be pathetically real.
Severus sidled toward Lily and put his arm around her waist. "So, does that mean that you'll come join me at dinner, tonight?"
Lily, while trying not to breathe in his intensely smelly breath, said, "Well, if you don't mind, Sev, I'd kind of like to keep us going out a secret for a while. Is that okay with you? I mean, I just want to keep this between you and me."
Severus smiled broadly and agreed as they each went their separate ways back to their common rooms, each badly needing to speak to someone about the events that had just occurred.
* * *
Lily had gone back to her common room to talk with James, or more accurately, to break up with James.
She quickly found James, in the center of attention, as usual, and quietly pulled him away so they could talk privately. They went to an abandoned classroom and Lily sat James down while she paced quickly, explaining to him the reasons they must break up.
"I just don't feel the same way about you anymore, James," Lily lied. "I don't think we get enough alone time. It's always you, the Marauders, and then me. I'm sick of our alone time being the Marauders plus Lily time."
James looked confused, as if this was coming out of nowhere (which, of course, it was), and voiced his opinions. "When did you start feeling like this, Lily? If it's really that much of a problem, we'll just tell them we need our space. I'm sure they'll understand."
Lily took a deep breath, forced herself to roll her eyes, and say, "James, this has been going on throughout our entire relationship. I just can't take it anymore! Look, I don't even want there to be an us anymore."
James couldn't believe his ears. He jumped up and grabbed Lily's hands. "How can you say that? We are perfect together! Lily, you complete me! How can you not feel the same way? I know people say that we're too young to really know what we want, but Lily, I know you're the only one for me! It's always just been you. Even when I dated other girls or messed around with them, you were always the girl in my dreams at night. I...I love you, Lily."
Lily's heart completely shattered, but she hardened her resolve. She gently removed her hands from James's own hands and said, "No, you don't James. We are too young to really be in love and I," Lily took a deep breath, "I don't love you. Not like that." She turned on her heel and walked out of the room.
James, who was too devastated to move, stayed frozen in the classroom until Peter, Remus, and Sirius all found him, in the same position Lily had left him in, hours later.
* * *
Meanwhile, Severus had returned to his common room to talk to Malfoy.
Author's Note: Hey, hey, I'm back!! Took me long enough, huh? I'll say! Well now I'm out of school and the wonderful (ha!) state that I live in does not want to give me a summer job because they have a hiring freeze right now!! GRRR. Well, as angry as that makes me, it should make y'all happy since now I have free time to write more!! And the first thing that I did after I got out of school was read The Ultimate Unofficial Guide to the Mysteries of Harry Potter by Galadriel Waters, or something to that effect! Anyway, you should definitely read it, it's quite mind-boggling. And because that fantastic book gave terrific insights and possible plot twists, I'm going to center this fic around them. And it's quite amazing, because all of the book's ideas will fit in perfectly in this story!! How exciting is that!!
And if you're in an extremely generous mood, you should definitely try out my other fic, Everything Changes.
And pleasepleaseplease be kind enough to review and tell me what you think about this new chapter! How are James and the Marauders going to react to Lily and the fact that she broke up with James? What is Snape going to talk to Malfoy about? Tell me your guesses and why you think what you do! I'm really interested in hearing your thoughts and opinions on this story!!
