Chapter 11

I believe Severus loved Lily, in his own, strange brotherly way. Oh, he was never kind to her in public, and never nice to her directly. But when it spread around the castle, about her dreams, he asked me if I wanted to him to brew some Dreamless Sleep potions. The strangest instinct prompted me to say Yes, I did, before I was even aware of it. I didn't know *when* I'd have the chance to give it to her; I never saw her often.

Meanwhile, Trelawney, our Bug-like divination teacher, had taken to following Lily around the hallways, always speaking in the same, worried voice.

"My dear, my dear, you must listen to me, I sense in you the inner eye!"

Lily, on the other hand, looking incredibly harassed, would clutch her books tighter to her chest and keep walking, her head down. Then, after giving another one of her long-suffering sighs, Trelawney would shout in an exasperated voice, for the entire hall to hear, "But my dear, you *could* be one of them!" There was no need to ask who *them* meant; almost as popular as Lily's dreams was Trelawney's 'The-fate-of-the-world- rests-on-three-students' prediction.

Her outbursts and warnings had become a daily occurrence. And, during one of them, my chance came. Just as Lily was making her escape from bug-woman's sighs (ducking around a corner and into another corridor), she bumped into me. Literally fell into my arms. Her books went flying, and, all of a sudden, like she'd just decided to give up, she practically collapsed onto the floor in tears.

Unsure of what to do, I knelt down beside her on one knee and patted her head rather awkwardly. I was used to dealing with women, but not *crying* women. I was a heartbreaker, yes, of course. I just left them *before* the dreaded tears started.

At least the corridor was deserted. Students usually chose to use the other, newer one, as this corridor was rumored to house a banshee of some sort. That was just a rumor. I highly doubted Dumbledore would permit a banshee wandering around school. Lily was, by no means, wailing or howling like one. Don't get me wrong, she *crying*; my awkward patting had changed into more of an awkward hug, and I could feel her tears wet on my shoulder, feel her body wrack with silent sobs.

This wasn't as hard as I'd thought it would be. All I had to do was hold her! And all along, I'd been afraid (yes, the *great* Lucius Malfoy *is* or, *was* afraid) of crying women. It would probably be much more dangerous if *I* was the cause of tears; then, I'd probably be at the receiving end of a hex (if she was a Slytherin), a slap (if she was a Ravenclaw), an insult (if she was a Gryffindor), and a glare (if she was a Hufflepuff).

Now that I thought about it, I actually kind of liked it, hugging her. She was so small, so soft, and so warm in my arms. Well. All good things have to come to an end, and eventually, she did stop crying. I let go of her, quite reluctantly.

"Thank you, Lucius. I'm sorry, I just couldn't--" She said, wiping away her tears. I said the first thing that came into my mind, at that moment.

"You're beautiful when you cry." Her face broke into a watery smile. Now, you must understand, I wasn't saying this just to make her feel better. Her nose *was* rather red, but her green eyes seemed to sparkle with more radiance than before. Maybe they were just the tears. But whatever it was, I wasn't lying, when I said she was beautiful. "Are you feeling any better?" She nodded, but couldn't seem to meet my gaze, as if she was embarrassed. I searched my mind for something to talk about. I could *definitely* feel some tension in the air. "If you. . . don't. . . mind my asking, what happened?" I already knew, of course. But I just didn't think it was polite to let the object of gossip know she was being talked about.

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A/N: *sigh* I know it's a pretty short chapter : (

But if it's any consolation, I've already GOT chapter 12! Just press that little 'submit review' button, and you'll have it in no time!

Addy---this is totally for you!!!! Good luck with your exams!!! : ) Lucius says good luck too, to quote him, he says (or mumbles, actually) "stupid little muggle exams, maybe I should torture a teacher or two." And, after reading that thing you said about the movie, he said:

"I know I'm scary *evil cackle* *arrogant smile*"