After having a great night with Amelia where they both enjoyed their time together, he left Amelia sleeping peacefully and then left the Ravenclaw common room.

He thought about staying with her, but if anyone found out he could give Amelia a lot of trouble, so he decided to leave to prevent this from happening.

By now Slughorn's feast should have been over half an hour ago, after all the party invitation said it was until one o'clock.

As Severus made his way to his dormitory in Slytherin, he ran into a teacher.

When McGonagall met Severus outside the dormitory at half past one, he simply said that he had left Slughorn's feast late, he apologised and headed back to Slytherin.

One of the advantages of attending Slughorn's feast is that one can stay up past curfew and have a valid excuse...

Still, the party was until 1 o'clock, so the teacher deducted points anyway and if he wanted to claim anything he should do it with Slughorn.

So it was that with only ten points deducted, McGonagall left after warning him to hurry to his dormitory if he didn't want to lose any more house points.

For a moment, Severus wondered what McGonagall would be doing near Ravenclaw tower at half past one in the morning, but finding the remains of Slughorn's feast around, rubbish everywhere, food and drink, Severus knew that McGonagall had forcibly dispersed the people who had gathered here, the people who had gone to the feast and put them to sleep.

'There seems to have been more than one naughty boy tonight...'

'It seems that today the wardrobe Pandora spoke of had plenty of visitors...' Severus smirked at the thought.

As he walked back to his dormitory, he again crossed paths with an unexpected person...

Well..., two actually...

"Sev...?" said Lily with her green eyes wide as she came out of the bathroom and saw Severus out there.

He frowned slightly as he heard her call him out of the blue, it had been a while since she'd called him that... the only person who currently called him 'Sev' was Pandora.

"Huh?" Alice beside him looked confused as if she didn't believe Severus was really there.

The first thing Severus noticed was that the two of them were drunk, Alice and Lily were pale, their breaths were ragged, their eyes were red and inflamed and they were barely standing upright helping each other...

Though Alice clearly looked a little better than Lily, or at least she was more lucid.

Severus guessed that they had both been in the bathroom to avoid being discovered by Professor McGonagall.

'Hmm, two model students and drunk Gryffindor prefects outside the dormitories at half past one..., that would be asking for trouble' Severus thought with amusement but shook his head at the thought, he had no intention of exposing them.

Yes, the idea was interesting, but he wasn't that kind of person.

"Is it really you Sev?" said Lily as she walked wobbly and slowly towards him, causing Severus to frown again at how she called out to him again.

"This... Lily..., Lily wait a moment or you'll fall," Alice said nervously, but it was too late because as Lily moved towards him, she stumbled forward and began to fall forward.

Alice tried to move in time to grab her hand and hold it, but she couldn't reach it...

And Severus in front of Lily reflexively reached out and held his hands making Lily fall into his arms, he instantly noticed that her body temperature was quite low, it seems that she had taken a very strong drink if she ended up in this state.

"Hmm, oops...looks like I slipped," Lily laughed lightly.

'Wow, when you pulled out so much muscle, so... hard" she added as she lightly touched Severus' arms.

Severus looked at her with a raised eyebrow and realised that she was completely drunk, her entire behaviour was far too different from the Lily he remembered.

Still, he smelled the sweet fragrance coming off her body, and even though it was mixed with the smell of alcohol, it was still very pleasant.

She was also wearing a nice white dress with a green plaid coat that completely exposed her beautiful legs with thigh-high stockings fishnet fencenet lace white

Shaking his head and stopping thinking about those things, he ignored Lily who kept saying incoherent things, and stared at Alice.

Severus saw Alice give him a grateful look for helping Lily and at the same time give him an apologetic look for her behaviour.

"Sorry, it turns out that Professor Slughorn's liquor is stronger than we thought," said Alice embarrassed, not realising that she was admitting to drinking the Professor's and Head of Slytherin's alcohol, any other snake could do a lot of things with this information.

" S-So... well... Lily was the one who drank the most" she added smiling weakly, Alice was making a great effort to stay mostly conscious and on her feet, still she was saying things without thinking them through very well.

A clear example was that she was saying all this to Severus..., a Slytherin and Lily's former friend who was currently at odds with her.

"I kinda notice..." Severus replied lightly as Lily continued to say incoherent things next to him as she pressed herself closer to him.

It would be a lie if he said his heart wasn't beating fast enough at Lily's bold move to be pressing her body to his as she ran her hands over his muscles.

He knew that if he let go of her she would instantly fall back down and he actually thought about doing it, but it didn't feel right despite the awkward situation he was in...

Of course, it had nothing to do with the fact that the feeling of her body next to his felt really good.

No..., he was just doing the 'right' thing.

"You know Sev, I'm glad you finally decided to take care of your hair, I always told you that with a little care it would look really good" Lily commented with a drunken grin as she began to shamelessly touch Severus' hair.

Alice who saw this from the outside turned a little red as the image the two were giving was quite intimate with Lily leaning on him while looking at him and touching his hair... the only thing missing was for them to start kissing to complete the image.

"Yeah... right..., well, I should get back to my dormitory, so..." began Severus already thinking of leaving quickly, he didn't want to tolerate a drunk Lily, he preferred the conscious Lily who still stayed away from him...

With a drunk Lily, he couldn't do much since she wasn't aware of her actions... yes, nothing he could say to her would do any good now, so the best thing to do was to just leave.

"Wait!, this..., can you help us return, please..., just... just to the corridor that leads to Gryffindor..." asked Alice with some hope in her eyes, she thought that maybe he would sympathize with them a little, although she doubted it, after all since the beginning of Hogwarts Severus had been ignoring Lily completely, something that used to be completely the other way..., but she had to try.

"You know, it's on the way to Slytherin so you wouldn't deviate too much... it's just a few more steps..., please," she added trying to be convincing, but her words sounded more like a beg.

Alice knew that the two of them alone would take a long time to get to Gryffindor and in that time some professor might find them and that would get them into a lot of trouble..., she didn't even want to imagine the consequences as not only would there be a massive loss of points for her house, there would also be a proper punishment.

Of course, she hadn't thought through who she was asking to help them, but at this point, Alice had no choice but to ask him for help.

Severus sighed, not knowing what to do, he didn't dislike Alice, in fact, if he remember correctly, she was the one who treated Snape the best, she even supported him more than once when he had problems with Potter and Black..., she didn't like the pranks they played on Snape and she used to say it..., although she didn't like Snape's methods of revenge either.

But it was undeniable that she was a good person.

As for Lily... he just wanted to keep her away..., something he was doing rather poorly at the moment.

Severus looked at Lily who was completely leaning against him as she kept saying a lot of embarrassing things that she surely had no conscience about, he just shook his head and decided to ignore her completely as she kept talking and he focused on Alice who at least was conscious.

" Let's go, McGonagall isn't far away so we'd better not delay any longer," Severus said suddenly taking the decision that it wouldn't be too much trouble to help a little, you could say that this was payback to Alice for supporting Snape when most in Gryffindor only saw him as a vicious and annoying snake.

And no..., it had nothing to do with the fact that the feeling of Lily in his arms was nice...

Alice was very surprised when she heard him say that since she hadn't had such high hopes that he would agree to help them, but it was a great relief...

She smiled in gratitude and gave him a quick nod as Lily continued to make rather... strange comments, which Alice was sure she would regret later... luckily she saw that Severus seemed to be ignoring Lily almost entirely.

Alice was repeatedly embarrassed along the way as she listened to her friend say some very embarrassing things to Severus, she could only glance at Severus in apology, while he just continued to ignore Lily completely and focus only on her.

With Severus' help, the two of them reached the corridor leading to the Gryffindor common room fairly quickly, Alice thanked him repeatedly and then peeled Lily away from Severus with some difficulty.

Lily moaned and seemed very reluctant to let go of him, but drunk as she was she had little strength to resist, so she finally gave in and let go of Severus...

But before letting go completely she stretched her head forward slightly and quickly planted her full lips on half of Severus' cheek and the other half of her lips kissed his lips...

yes, it was something strange...

...a half kiss maybe?

It was only for a second because the instant she kissed him, she pulled back and now Alice was holding her.

Severus stood still for a moment not understanding what the hell happened, he didn't react..., no, his body didn't react, he saw her approach and he could have dodged her but his body didn't want him to do this..., it was strange and annoying, but the feeling of the warm kiss overcame his discomfort.

'Since when can a simple kiss make me forget everything?' wondered Severus with a frown unable to believe what was happening, although if he remembered correctly when Padme used to kiss him she also managed to make him forget everything for a moment.

'Hell, it wasn't even really a kiss' he groaned inwardly unable to believe this.

Alice looked at Severus strangely as she didn't know what had happened, but she watched as he stood completely frozen and lost in thought.

'This... wow, he went like this for a simple kiss on the cheek..., hmm but Lily used to tease him by giving him kisses on the cheek...' thought Alice confused since she didn't notice that Lily actually half kissed Severus, but instantly she remembered that Severus always reacted like this when Lily kissed his cheeks so it wasn't strange that he still reacted like this for the same thing...

'It seems that as much as he ignores her now... he still has feelings for her, Merlin, they're both in the same situation' sighed Alice, she gave a last thanks to Severus and left together with Lily to their common room.

Severus finally reacted and just shook his head and went back to his dormitory before McGonagall arrived.

He may not have cared about the Slytherin points, but he didn't want to get into any more trouble either.

Tonight he would have a lot to think about, though he really hoped he could sleep without thinking about anything else for the night.

…..

…..

- Hogwarts, 13th December

The next day, Severus woke up feeling full of energy, the night he had spent with Amelia was really amazing and he enjoyed it a lot... he wasn't going to lie, he really hoped it would happen again, but it wasn't up to him alone to make it happen.

She had made it very clear that it was a one-time thing and that it would only happen again if they both wanted it and agreed to it... but no strings attached.

As for what happened with Lily..., well it was still something he had to process, but for now, he would continue to stay away from her, what happened didn't change everything that had happened and his plans remained the same.

Severus pressed that memory behind the walls of his mind, where his emotions for Lily lay asleep.

He was actually surprised how being near her made his memories and emotions flow despite being locked away in the deepest part of his mind.

But considering that Snape was not well emotionally, Severus believed he had done a good job in keeping all these emotions and memories away most of the time.

Anyway, right now he had to get his things ready to catch the train back to Prince Manor along with Hermione.

While Draco had decided to stay at Hogwarts this Christmas break, he didn't know the reason, but it wasn't something he cared about either.

'Looks like I'll be a little late for breakfast today' Severus said to himself seeing that he had already wasted enough time thinking about some things and now he still had to get everything ready to leave after breakfast.

….

…

When Amelia Bones woke up this morning, she found herself lying in her dressing gown a little pained.

Instantly she remembered everything that had happened last night and her cheeks turned red, but her whole body felt liberated, all the pressure she had felt during the year was gone with the help of just one night with Severus...

It was both breathtaking and intoxicating.

She felt beyond good, she was filled with energy.

Amelia would really consider repeating that night if it had such effects, it was very convenient and beneficial...

"Yes, it's definitely for convenience and benefits..." she murmured with a slight smile on her face.

'The fact that it was incredibly pleasant is just an addition, nothing more' she thought with a serious face but still red from just thinking about that night.

….

…

Hermione was in the library early today, she had already prepared everything to go back to Prince Manor.

At first, the idea was that both she and Draco would return, but Draco seemed to have other plans...

She was a little annoyed by this as they both had several things to do, but as she could also do them alone, she decided to let Draco enjoy this holiday, Hermione wasn't an idiot and she knew that he was staying because the young witch he was dating was staying too.

'Right, nothing serious' Hermione scoffed as she remembered Draco saying he had nothing serious with this woman.

Although she couldn't deny that she rather envied how he was starting to make a life and relationships at this time, Draco was slowly getting used to it and enjoying himself as best he could...

Then she remembered Slughorn's feast, specifically the time she spent dancing with Severus, she really enjoyed that, in fact, it was quite embarrassing to dance with him, but she had a great time and she would be lying to herself if she didn't admit that she wanted it to happen again.

….

…..

Taking a deep breath, Lily went into the Great Hall for breakfast and shook off as many unpleasant thoughts as she could.

She had been with a lot of headache and worry since this morning, after remembering her embarrassing state from last night, even though there are many fuzzy things in her mind that she doesn't remember well and after she left Slughorn's feast with Alice she hardly remembers anything.

But what bothered her the most was that strange dream she had about her and Severus walking together... clinging really close to each other..., while she was telling him some things that she preferred not to remember, Lily couldn't understand why she dreamt all those weird things...

And to make everything worse at the end of her dream she had even kissed Severus..., well a half-kiss, but it was like a kiss for her...

The weird thing was that for some reason that whole dream felt so real, almost as if she could perfectly remember the warm feel of Severus' body next to hers, the strong muscles in his arms, his hair now soft and clean between her fingers, and that kiss...

Lily touched her lips with one of her delicate fingers and almost thought she could still feel when their lips met in the dream, it had felt so wonderful, so perfect, so good, so unique... so special.

But she shook her head repeatedly at the thought, she knew that since it was just a dream, one could come to think and feel that everything was unique, special, and beautiful, after all, it wasn't real.

Everything that happened wasn't real and it was better to stop thinking about it all.

'I'm not supposed to care anymore' Lily groaned internally, she couldn't believe that things like that would cross her mind and especially dreamed about Severus.

Lily couldn't help but think that since they finished 5th year in Hogwarts, Severus had changed a lot compared to his usual disposition...

The change was so abrupt that everyone saw it and no, it wasn't just his appearance, it was him, something in him changed.

This disturbed her, but Lily could be sure that this change was actually for the better, even though he still seemed to be extremely annoyed with her, but she saw no hatred or anger in his eyes, only annoyance as if she was just a problem he couldn't solve or get rid of.

But she saw in more than one of his glances that glow that he showed when he saw her, but it quickly turned to annoyance.

From the moment she told him they could no longer be friends, he had gone through several emotional stages, she always noticed it even though she pretended to ignore him at all times.

Severus was at first depressed and regretful, he tried by many means to regain her friendship, but this only lasted for a while until he was filled with anger, and then he blamed the marauders with all sorts of horrible words, and sometimes he even blamed her in his attacks of rage.

Severus spent the whole 5th year constantly alternating between these emotions, first despair, regret, and despondency, when this happened he would always try to get her to forgive him.

But then at times, he would be filled with anger.

Lily still remembers how his deep, black, hate-filled eyes had followed her for the entire 5th year, blaming her for her decision.

As if it had been an easy decision for her.

As if she wanted to end their friendship.

Their angry glares of betrayal pierced her every time she spoke to Potter or his group.

At least they tried to help her feel better, plus they never practised the Dark Arts or said horrible things about Muggleborns.

They may have made jokes that were way out of line and immature, but they knew when to stop.

Severus, on the other hand, used to lose control unpredictably, he was cold, controlling, violent and angry, and he grew darker and deeper into that horrible Slytherin philosophy every day until Lily could barely see her friend when she looked at him.

And yes, the marauders used to say horrible things about Slytherins and Severus too, but a lot of it had been right and deserved.

He was toxic to her and Lily knew it, but she told herself countless times that they could pull through... until he did the one thing she couldn't forgive after all the things the two of them had been through together, that had been the straw that broke the camel's back.

Lily had to end it.

And now they had no place in each other's lives.

Yeah..., after that, she never got in his way or decisions again, she told herself that it was none of her business anymore.

Anyway, Severus never wanted her to interfere in his private life.

He was so full of hate and anger that he would even rage at her every time she tried to help him.

It was the right decision but it never felt right to Lily, but she had no other options when he wouldn't let her do anything.

Today as always, breakfast was somewhat quiet, it used to be pretty quiet even at the Gryffindor table where it was always a noisy affair.

This morning, after taking a potion for her headache and clearing her mind a bit from her dream along with those thoughts and entering the Great Hall, Lily sat down to have a quiet breakfast along with Alice, Marlene and Hermione, while Draco this time was with Sirius Black, it seemed that they both had plans for this holiday, Lily could tell by the look and the way Sirius was talking to him.

However, as she sat down Lily heard Alice's voice sounding a little nervous while the rest greeted her as usual.

"Lily..." said Alice softly.

"Is something wrong?" Lily asked curiously and Alice gestured for her to do the Muffliato charm that she used to use whenever they talked about private things.

Lily quickly waved her wand and cast Muffliato.

Then she, Marlene, and Hermione all looked at Alice curiously, they all wanted to know what she had to say that made her so nervous.

Alice just sighed and stared at Lily.

"Tell me, what do you remember happening after Slughorn's feast?"

Her words fanned the fear inside Lily.

'Did she get into a bad situation?' she wondered.

"Hmm, not much..., just that I went out with you and then I think we went to Ravenclaw tower..., then not much else" Lily replied trying to remember everything with difficulty, it was such a fuzzy memory.

"This..., and you don't remember once we found out that Professor McGonagall was around we left quickly?"

"Now that you mention it yes..., I think we went to the bathroom, hmm yes, I remember we went to the bathroom to hide or something..." nodded Lily a little confused.

"Wait!, please don't tell me we were found out by Professor McGonagall," she added quickly with clear concern in her tone of voice.

"No, we managed to avoid being found out by staying in the bathroom for a while," replied Alice.

Lily sighed in relief that this had not happened until she remembered to ask something else...

"So..., maybe some other teacher caught us?"

"Neither... Lily, we made it to our dormitories without any teachers seeing us" Alice said making Lily nod again relieved, but Marlene and Hermione were confused.

"Bloody hell Alice, if none of that happened, then why do you seem so nervous asking her if she remembers what happened last night?" snorted Marlene in complaint.

"Maybe something happened that has nothing to do with the professors..., in the Ravenclaw tower, in the bathroom, or on the way back to the dorms" commented Hermione also curious to hear what Alice had to say, she doubted Alice would be so nervous for no reason.

And Lily thought the same as Hermione, only that knowing that she hadn't gotten in trouble with any of the teachers was enough to make her feel very relieved, she didn't think anything worse than that could have happened with Alice by her side.

"Well..., Hermione's right..." nodded Alice looking at Hermione and knowing that this news might also cause her a considerable shock, after all this was about her cousin and she deserved to know too.

"So... tell me, Lily... Do you remember anything at all about what happened after we went to the bathroom?" asked Alice now looking at her red-haired friend.

"No..., I just know that I felt really weak I could hardly move my body and..." started to say, Lily.

"Wow, you two really had a good night!" laughed Marlene amused not letting Lily finish thinking everything straight.

"Too bad I missed it, if I had known there was alcohol included I would have found a way to get into the party" she added.

" Just let her finish, this is important" Alice reprimanded Marlene.

"Oh come on, she doesn't remember anything else, leave her in peace, tells us what happened, it's easier... curiosity is killing me" Marlene complained.

Alice just sighed tiredly and shook her head, then looked at Lily as if asking for permission.

Lily noticed this and nodded at her confirming to do as Marlene said, after all, she really couldn't remember anything that had happened in the bathroom or after that.

"Well..., Lily, when we came out of the bathroom we ran into someone..."

"Huh, who?" asked Lily a little nervously, but knowing it wasn't a teacher gave her some relief.

"This..., well..., Merlin..., it was Hermione's cousin," said Alice finally.

"What?!" both Marlene and Hermione exclaimed in unison shocked.

"Severus..." muttered Lily with her bright green eyes wide open, instantly she remembered the dream she had and had a bad premonition.