AN: Disclaimers and stuff in chap one, chapter title taken from Hamlet and Chapter 2 now reviewed. That oughta cover it.

Chapter 2 – To sleep, perchance to dream

Severus didn't sleep much that night. He wasn't in pain, nor was the bed uncomfortable. He wasn't still beating himself up over messing up his potion either. To his own great annoyance, Lily Evans had been the only thing on his mind since her unexpected (to say the least) visit earlier. What had she wanted?

… well, that was an obvious answer; she had wanted to see how he was doing. And he had just thrown her out.

'But who's to say she was here on her own accord,' he thought.

Lily was friends with Sirius and James, and he wouldn't put it past them to find a way to torment him, even if he was in the Hospital Wing. But one piece didn't fit the puzzle; Lily being in on it. He remembered all too clearly the way she had stood up for him after the OWLs last year, and couldn't imagine why she would suddenly have gone over to "the dark side".

All the same, he felt bad about his previous rudeness, which both surprised and annoyed him. It wasn't like he wanted her there, she had done enough harm that day already, by far. He didn't even like her.

'What was there to like?' he thought. 'Just because she's pretty it doesn't.'

'Pretty, is she?' a little voice in the back of his mind interrupted.

'Of course she is,' he snapped at it. 'She's very pretty…'

Which was true. Fair enough, she was no siren, and she always insisted on keeping her hair in that ridiculous bun, which parts of it was far too short for so she always had tufts of hair falling in front of her face. He didn't know how often he had watched her… well, he hadn't exactly watched her. Glanced in her direction, more like. And seen her push the locks back behind her ears. And those eyes. Entirely too green, she was almost frightening. But still, she had an attractiveness about her. The way she carried herself, always with her head held high, even when Lucius or some other Slytherin would throw 'mudblood' after her in the halls.

No, Lily Evans was altogether something. Something far and beyond his reach.

'Then why did she come visit you?' The annoying little voice was back.

'Because someone probably put her up to it,' he replied and, ignoring any further comments, rolled over and attempted, not for the last time that night, to fall asleep.

Lily slept like a baby all night, despite having a very strange dream. Usually, her dreams consisted of nonsense she would remember little to nothing of when she woke the next morning. But this dream was different, and left her with a very vivid image that stayed with her all through breakfast, her morning classes and far into lunch. An image there was simply no use in trying to shake; Severus Snape. And herself. Kissing.

The very thought was appalling. She had tried to tell herself it was her visit to the hospital-wing that brought it on, that it was nothing to worry about. Only a very nasty coincidence. But that was useless.

"Are you ok?" her best friend Marianne asked during their Arithmancy class at the end of the day.

Lily usually did fairly well in that class, but this afternoon her calculations had been so off track that her parchment exploded in pure frustration.

"Fine," Lily muttered, wiping soot from her cheek. "Slept badly, that's all."

Severus was glad to find the common room empty when he came back from the hospital wing. Madam Nitgale had fussed for well over an hour that morning, and only agreed to discharge him if it meant he would go straight to his house and to bed.

"You poor thing, you've been through so much it's only fair you get a day off," she had insisted. "And I dare say you didn't sleep much last night, I heard you tossing and turning long past midnight."

And then, having checked his temperature for the fifth time that morning, she sent him off. Now he was standing in the dark, gloomy Slytherin common room looking forward to being alone for a while.

He ruled out sleep, since this was one of his very few chances to enjoy the common room in it's best state; empty. Instead, he sat down on one of the black leather couches, and stared into the fireplace. Sleep was too dangerous anyway. He might dream again. He had last night, which was altogether strange as he couldn't remember ever having dreamt in his life before. This was why he studied Occlumency in his spare time; the things your mind allowed itself to imagine… Like he even wanted to kiss Lily Evans.

'This is all Sirius' fault,' Lily thought as she sat in the library that afternoon, trying to do her potions homework. 'If he hadn't brought on those suggestions last night, I wouldn't have gone to bed with them in my head. And then I would have had one of my nice, nonsense dreams that I don't remember in the morning.'

Anything was better than this.

Suddenly she realised she was being watched. Snape sat in his usual corner, eyeing her. Deciding she didn't owe him anything after his rude behaviour last night, she pretended not to notice him.

'Just go over and tell her you're sorry.'

Severus was ignoring the little voice, which was now beginning to seriously annoy him. He didn't need to apologize. He hadn't done anything wrong. So, he had been a bit cross with her. If she couldn't take it, tough luck. Besides, she didn't much look like she was interested in getting an apology. Unlike the previous few times they had been in the library together, when she barely took her eyes off him, it now seemed she was completely unaware of his presence. Which was fine by him. Maybe he could get some work done for a change.

But knowing she was sitting across the room made concentration impossible. He wondered why he was letting this get to him. It had been a dream. That and nothing more. And the visit last night? Well, someone had clearly put her up to that… and he strongly suspected that someone to be Sirius Black. It was just the kind of this Black would do. The guy seemed to care nothing about how others came out as long as he got a good laugh out of it.

"Severus?"

He looked up. Lily was standing by the table.

"Yes," he snapped. A natural reaction whenever a fellow student addressed him.

"I just…" Lily started.

Severus gave her an impatient look, and she shifted nervously.

"What?" he asked harshly.

"I just…" she started again. It wasn't like her to be short for words.

"If you don't mind, I'm rather busy," Severus interrupted. "Unless you haven't noticed, not all of us can get through school with well-placed winks and smiles."

He regretted it the moment he said it. Half expecting her to explode, he was surprised at Lily's calm, cool reply;

"No, but I'm sure it would help if you were in fact able to smile."

She didn't say anything else, just turned on her heals and left the library.

'Now why did you say that?' the little voice asked. 'You know it's not true.'

"Shut up," Severus muttered[B1] .

"Taken up talking to yourself, Snivellus?"

Severus turned to face Sirius, who was wearing his usual devious grin.

"Sod off, Black," Severus muttered. "Haven't you got some fifth year girls somewhere waiting to have their robes charmed off them?"

Sirius wasn't listening. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at a chair in the corner.

"Accio," he said, and the chair shot through the air, missing several shelves by only an inch.

"Don't mind if I join you, do you?" he said, sitting down without waiting for a reply.

Severus looked up at him.

"I'm really not in the mood for you today, Black," he said. "Do you think you could reschedule whatever your about to say to a time when I've got less homework?"

"Now where would the fun be in that?" Sirius flashed a grin. "But this is important."

"Really?" Severus snorted, hardly believing Sirius was capable of saying anything even remotely important. "What have I done this time?"

He returned his attention to his book. Suddenly, it snapped shut inches from his nose. Severus jerked his head up.

"What was…"

"Leave Lily alone," Sirius hissed.

"Sorry?" Severus started.

"Leave her alone," Sirius said slowly.

Severus could hardly believe what he was hearing. Him, leave Lily alone? She was the one who was practically stalking him.

"I will if she stops showing up everywhere I turn." He smirked back at Sirius. "What's the matter Black? Jealous?"

"Lily's my friend," Sirius said calmly. "You are treating her like crap, and she doesn't deserve it. She's only trying to be nice. Leave her alone or I'll neatly re-arrange that excessively large nose of yours."

"Oooh," Severus said sarcastically. He was no stranger to threats.

"I'm not trying to be funny, Snape," Sirius said quietly. "Stay away from her."

He got up and shoved the chair back into a corner, causing a world of racket.

"As you were, Snivellus," he grinned and disappeared.

'I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. I hope he trips in that remarkably long nose of his. I hate him!'

Lily was again furiously making her way back to the Gryffindor tower, cursing Severus Snape.

'He's obnoxious. He's grumpy. He's ugly. He's an arse. He's…'

Why had she ever bothered with him? It wasn't like she had a reason to.

Against her own will, tears welled up in her eyes.

'And you're crying because of him,' she thought furiously.

Reluctant as she was to admit it, his words had hurt her. Sure, Lily was a top-grade student, but it did not come from "well-placed winks and smiles." It came from hard work. She'd spent every summer holiday since she started Hogwarts studying. It wasn't like she had any friends. Her sister Petunia had put an effective stop to that by telling all the kids in their street that Lily would turn them into frogs. It wasn't true, of course, but try telling that to terrified 11-year-olds. And even if that was years ago now, most of her old playmates now regarded her more of a freak, and wanted nothing to do with her. So Lily had plenty of time during her holidays to bury herself under truckloads of books, hence her good grades.

She turned a corner, and headed up the last flight of stairs to the tower. All she wanted was to throw herself onto her bed where she could continue to curse Severus in peace. As she neared the portrait, James Potter came out of the common room. Lily quickly wiped her eyes, hoping he wouldn't notice.

"Lily, hi!" he called, hurrying over to her. "I was just off to train some quidditch. You wanna come?"

'Not unless it involves Snape and a pair of unusually nasty Bludgers.'

"I'm sorry, I can't," she apologised. "Too much homework"

James looked slightly disappointed.

"Some other time, maybe?" she said, only to cheer him up and his eyes lit up a little.

"OK," he said. "See you later, then?"

"Of course," she assured him.

Rumour (that being Sirius) had it that James Potter had quite a crush on Lily. Lily herself refused to believe it, for the most part because it came from Sirius. In the five years she had known him, she could count with the fingers on one hand how many times he had told the truth. Besides, they had been friends since their first year. Surely if James was in love with her, he'd have acted on it by now.

James bumped into Sirius on his way to the quidditch field.

"Have you seen Lily?" Sirius asked, and James nodded.

"Yeah, just a second ago. She looked a bit… off."

Sirius cursed.

"What did you do this time, Padfoot?" James asked, glaring accusingly at Sirius.

"Me? Nothing," he protested. "Why do you always have to think that if something is wrong I'm behind it?"

James arched an eyebrow and Sirius grinned.
"OK, don't look at me like that," he said and, resuming a more serious tone, continued; "I overheard Lily have a little chat with Snivellus in the library."

"Snape?" James asked in disbelief, and Sirius nodded.

"Yep. Or she was trying to anyway. Snivellus did most of the talking, truth be told. He practically called her a suck-up."

James' brown eyes flashed.

"No wonder she was crying," he said furiously.

"She was crying?!" Sirius interrupted.

James nodded "Snape better not let me get a hold of him."

"I've already threatened to fix his face if he doesn't leave her alone," Sirius said. "I'd be more worried about her staying away from him, if I were you. Looks like you might have competition."

"Don't know what you're talking about," James dismissed.

"I'm not kidding here James," Sirius said quietly. "This is not one of my plots to get you to admit that you fancy her. I can see that clear enough for myself. I'm just saying that if you really want her, now might be a good time to do something about it."

James smiled, and put a hand on Sirius shoulder.

"Thanks for the tip," he said, "but I assure you I have no interest whatsoever in "getting" Lily Evans. See you later."

He disappeared down the hall, and Sirius watched him go.

"Idiot," he muttered, and headed for Gryffindor Tower.

"Lily, what's the matter?"

Lily jumped at the sound of Marianne's voice. She had just thrown herself onto her bed, expecting to be alone as usual.

"Nothing," she assured her friend, wiping her eyes. "Just tired."

"Yeah right," Marianne dismissed, sitting down on the bed. "Is it James?"

"Why the hell would it be James?" Lily asked in astonishment, forgetting her anger for a moment.

"Well, you know…" Marianne hesitated. "I just figured."

"Oh, for heaven's sake," Lily exclaimed. "How many times do I have to tell you? James and I are not together, we're just friends."

"But Sirius," Marianne started.

"Sirius Black lies like a rug," Lily interrupted. "If I were you I wouldn't believe a word he says."

Marianne blushed, and Lily rolled her eyes.

"And especially not if he says stuff like that."

Her friend just shrugged.

"I happen to think he's cute," she said.

"Yes, you and every girl in school," Lily pointed out. "And boy does he know it."

"So, what's wrong then?" Marianne asked, ignoring Lily's comment.

"Nothing," Lily sighed. "Just something Severus said. Never mind, I was stupid to let it get to me. Let's just play some chess or something."

The two girls seated themselves on the floor and began playing, Lily forcing herself to stop thinking about Severus.