Chapter Thirteen – The Best Thing She Ever Did
A/N – I am so so so so so sorry! I do have legitimate excuses but I don't want to sound like I'm complaining about my life. So yes. LAST CHAPTER! SIRIUS' BOOK TO COME!
Disclaimer – Not mine, yada yada yada.
Lily excused herself from the party in the Gryffindor common room to fetch more ice for James. Half of them were celebrating the victory of Edward's team, the other half were celebrating Remus' try, oblivious to the fact that they had lost.
She was almost at the kitchens when she felt a strong pair of hands grab her arms from behind and pull her back.
"Silencio," a familiar voice said, silencing Lily's screams.
She struggled against her captor until the voice said,
"Merlin! It's just me, Evans!"
The hands spun her around and Lily's eyes widened as she recognised the man standing in front of her.
Severus Snape.
"Promise not to yell if I take the spell off you?" he asked.
Lily nodded slowly.
As soon as Severus had let go of her, Lily hit him with all the force she could muster.
Severus swore loudly, holding his hand to his now red cheek.
"Fine. If that's the way you're going to play," he muttered, grabbing Lily once again.
He dragged her to an empty classroom and sat her down.
"I can't be seen with you," he mumbled.
"What? Stop joking Severus it's not funny," Lily said, unamused.
"Joking? You think this is all a big joke?" he hissed.
He loomed over her imposingly, a look of anger on his face.
"I fail to see what is so funny."
"Woah, Severus! Calm down! What's wrong?" Lily said.
He ran a hand through his black hair.
"Let's just say that I've changed…"
Lily took in a deep breath.
"When did you get the Mark?"
A look of surprise came over Severus' face but soon changed to one of annoyance.
"I'm that easy to read am I?" he asked.
"Oh come on Severus, you can't give me the "I've changed speech" and a pout and then expect me to not assume the worst! Besides, there's been rumours for months."
Severus rolled up his sleeve to reveal the Dark Mark, the black tattoo a sharp contrast against his pale skin.
"I just think that know that I am… this, it would be better for me to stay away from certain types of people."
Lily looked down at her hands.
"People like me?" she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Severus looked down at her, a flash of gold catching his eye. And although the Gryffindor lion hanging from Lily's neck seemed to be warning him not to do it, he ignored it…
Severus stood up, his chair scraping against the floor, grasped Lily by the shoulders…
And kissed her…
James stalked down the corridors. Lily had been gone way too long for his liking. Sure, he hadn't noticed until a few minutes ago but hey, it was easy to get distracted with the Hayes twins dancing on the table.
He turned the corner heading towards the kitchen when he heard the sound of a chair scraping against the floor in one of the classrooms. He quickly headed towards the door and opened it just in time to see Severus and Lily…
Kissing.
"Funny. I don't see any ice around here Lily," James said, his voice hard.
Lily broke away from Severus, her eyes wide.
"James, this isn't what it looks like," she said desperately.
"Oh yeah? Well to me it looks like you were kissing Snivellus in an empty classroom. Or was that just an unorthodox way of applying lipstick?"
"James – "
"Forget it Lily, you've obviously made up your mind here. I hope you're so happy together," he said sarcastically.
He turned on his heel and strode out of the classroom.
"Lily, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that," Severus said, breaking the uneasy silence.
"No, you shouldn't have!" she cried, rushing out of the classroom.
Lily shovelled another mouthful of choc-chip cookie dough ice cream into her mouth.
"And you haven't spoken to either of them since?" Meg asked, sitting opposite Lily on her bed.
"Nope," Lily sniffled, wiping her nose on her pyjama sleeve.
"But it's been a WEEK!"
"So?" Lily mumbled.
"So? SO? Do you want to stay caught in the middle all your life? Do you want to end up an old spinster with CATS?" Meg cried.
"No."
"Well this is just stupid! You HAVE to say something to James!"
"MEG! USE HIS CODE NAME PLEASE!"
"Sorry," Meg cringed. "You have to say something to Gryffindor Prince."
"Oh as if the Gryff Prince would listen to a word I say!" Lily said, spooning more ice cream into her mouth.
"That's it," Meg cried, wrestling the ice cream away from Lily. "You are going to get cleaned up right now and go tell him what happened and how you feel."
"How I feel?" Lily mumbled through the large chunk of cookie dough still in her mouth.
"As in – Gryff Prince I'm hopelessly in love with you and want to snog you until we both develop pash rash oh and the Slytherin Slimeball doesn't mean anything to me."
"I would protest about Severus' code name but I'm too depressed to," Lily said.
"Yeah, yeah."
Lily sighed deeply before allowing herself to be dragged to the bathroom by Meg.
James dismounted his broom, feeling better after having flown for over an hour. He had been doing so every night since discovering Severus and Lily kissing.
His face darkened at the thought.
He started walking off the field when a voice to his left startled him.
"She loves you."
"Merlin, Snape, you really do have the whole "Man of the Shadows" thing going on don't you?" James said, annoyed at being taken by surprise.
"Did you hear what I said? She loves you! She chose you!" Severus said.
"What do you mean, she 'chose' me?"
"Why else would she still wear your necklace? And don't deny it's yours, you flaunt it enough to us Slytherins. Oh and Potter, a Gryffindor lion? How bloody sentimental," Severus said.
"Shut up Severus."
"Look, just admit that you know she loves you."
"She sure has a funny way of showing it," James muttered.
"I kissed her. She didn't want it!"
"Really? Then how come she didn't push you away?" James spat.
"Try pushing away someone twice your size and strength," Lily said from behind James.
"In Merlin's name! Why can't people announce themselves or something?" James cried, shaken by her sudden arrival.
"I'll leave you two to it, then," Severus muttered, striding back towards the castle.
"James I – "
"Is it true? You wear my necklace?" he interrupted.
"You mean this?" Lily asked, drawing the lion pendant out of her clothes, "I hoped it was from you."
"Yeah well…"
"Look… I know it looked bad, but the truth is that Severus kissed me. I tried to push him away but at the same time I was just so shocked, I mean he's a friend! And then you showed up and oh Merlin, James I'm so sorry…"
"Shhh…" James hushed, placing one finger over Lily's lips. "So is it true what he said? Do you love me?"
Silently Lily nodded.
Struggling to keep his face from breaking into a smile, James continued.
"I love you too Lil."
Lily pulled James' finger away from her lips and pressed her mouth against his.
James pulled away after a while and looked at Lily.
"So you want to start again? Give us a proper go?"
Lily nodded, a smile creeping across her face as she pulled him back into another kiss.
Turns out giving James Potter another go was the best thing she ever did.
A/N – SIGH! ALL OVER! Oh and the best thing she ever did? I mean that she was with the guy she loved and got married and had a child and was all happy – let's just ignore the fact that she was killed by Voldemort for the moment eh?
Bear hugs to all my reviewers!