When fourteen year old Lily Evans went outside to get a bit of sun after a particularly horrible History of Magic lecture, she had a lot on her mind. Classes were turning out to be extraordinarily difficult for her for the first time ever, her best friend wasn't speaking to her for no other reason than she had found herself a boyfriend and preferred his company to hers, and she had just received a letter from her older sister Petunia that was absurdly nasty and dripping with jealousy.

Yes, a good hour or so of rest as she laid in the grass by the lake and closed her eyes was exactly what she needed right now. There was nobody out there for once, and she was suddenly rather excited to have the opportunity.

The bit of happiness that had gathered in her stomach as she plopped down at the edge of the lake and looked out at the giant squid quickly disappeared though, as she realized that she wasn't alone after all.

Sitting about fifty meters from her under the lone tree that towered under the lake was a boy who was in the same year that she was. He was sitting with his rather long legs stretched out before him, and was reading an gigantic book with such absorption that Lily imagined that he had no clue that she was there.

Looking at him for a moment, Lily wondered if she should approach him and say hello. She actually wondered if he'd be able to say hello back to her because ever since Lily had first noticed him during their first year, she hadn't heard him speak a single word to anyone. For the past four years, each time Lily had been in a class with him, passed him in a hallway, was near him in the Great Hall or anywhere else she noticed that the boy exuded such a sense of terrible sadness that it made her heart hurt for him. She didn't like it when people were sad. Her friends always told her that she had a "helping people complex" that she needed to work on getting rid of, but she couldn't help it. When Lily saw someone that she thought she may be able to make smile for just a moment, she jumped at the opportunity.

Rising to her feet and making her way toward the boy, Lily thought that he may hear her walking toward him and acknowledge that she was there. To her dismay, he simply kept on reading his book even when she was standing no more than a meter from him.

"Um…excuse me?" Lily thought that her voice sounded a bit tense, so she cleared her throat and tried again when he didn't respond to her first words to him. "Excuse me?" Thinking that he may have actually been ignoring her at this point, she reached down and gently squeezed his shoulder.

Lily thought that she had ignited a bomb beneath him. In an instant the boy slammed his book shut, scurried to his feet and was suddenly looking down at her with a glare of something that appeared to be a mixture of terror and anger all over his face.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry! Did I scare you?" Lily pressed her hands to her mouth and looked up at him again, expecting him to glare her once more and storm back inside the school. Instead, he turned up his nose, opened his book again, and sat back down continuing to read.

Lily opened her mouth to say something, but before she could get a word out she was surprised to hear an actual word come from the boy himself. "No."

"No what?"

"No, you didn't scare me."

He spoke at a near whisper that Lily could barely hear because his nose was so buried in his book. Lily wanted to reach out and take it from him, but she didn't dare. Noticing that the boy had a deep, remarkably pleasant voice she sat down on her knees next to him and looked out at the lake for a moment. When she looked back at him, Lily spoke up once more. "Well, I'm glad I didn't scare you." From the way he had jumped Lily knew that he was lying, but no boy would ever admit that a girl had startled him. "I 'm Lily, by the way." The boy simply continued to read and pretend that she wasn't there, but Lily refused to back down. "You're Severus, right?"

Those words seemed to strike a nerve with him, and a slight grin spread across Lily's face as the boy stopped reading and looked up at her for just a moment. The fear and negativity that she saw behind his eyes moments before was replaced with something that almost resembled appreciation - but only for an instant. Turning back to his book, he turned a page and spoke up again. "Yes."

"Well, it's nice to finally meet you, Severus." Lily held out her hand thinking that maybe he'd shake it, but as soon as she did so Lily knew that she was kidding herself. She put her hand back down and continued to talk to him. "So, what's that you're reading? It doesn't look like any of our textbooks."

"It's An Illustrated History of Eastern European Dark Magic."

"Oh, sounds interesting," Lily lied. She couldn't imagine reading something so dull. "Are you reading it for Defense Against The Dark Arts extra credit or something?"

To imply that he needed extra credit in that class seemed to offend him somewhat, and he simply rolled his eyes and kept on reading.

"Sorry. I guess not. Ummm…" For one of the first times in her life, Lily couldn't think of what to say next. She almost regretted making an attempt to talk to him. Looking closely at him while he read, Lily was reminded of all of the times that she had felt so sorry for him. She never saw him with any friends, he never smiled, and some of the more idiotic kids in their year could be incredibly cruel to him. Reminded of the time in year three when she saw that ridiculous Potter boy jinx him so that all of his long black hair stood straight up on his head and numerous other childish pranks he and his gang of bullies pulled on him, Lily suddenly realized why Severus was probably so afraid to talk to her. She was far from conceited about it, but Lily knew that she was one of the more popular girls in their year. This poor boy more than likely thought that she was working up to playing some kind of terrible joke on him.

"Listen Severus, I'm not like them. You can continue to read, but I want you to hear me out. The first time I ever saw you I thought that you looked like a scared, sad boy who needed a friend and I regret never talking to you until now. I promise you that I'm a nice person, and if you ever need someone to talk to you are more than welcome to approach me any time you want to. I'm a good listener." It didn't look like he had heard a word that she said, but she refused to give up on him. "Okay, you can ignore me but I know you're not deaf and that you can hear me. I really mean it. If you ever need a friend, just…just remember that I'm always going to be here."

Surprised at her own boldness, Lily leaned over and gently kissed Severus on the cheek before getting up from the ground. A bit disheartened that he didn't appear to care about anything that she had just said as he relentlessly ignored her, she simply said "see you later" and make her way back toward the castle.

For some reason, right before she went back inside, Lily turned back toward the tree and had to smile a bit when she saw that the boy was touching his cheek on the spot where she had kissed him. Perhaps she had made an impression after all.