Chapter 28 Beards, Bows, and Bafflements
James eased open the back door of his family's country house and tiptoed into the kitchen, trying to make as little noise as possible. His parents were likely to be at work; Ministry employees had very little time off these days. But just in case they were here, James didn't want to alert them to the fact that he was home.
"How did it go?" inquired a voice. James jumped three feet in the air before he recognized the voice as belonging to Sirius.
"Badly," James sighed, turning round to face his best friend.
"How badly?" Sirius wanted to know, the corners of his lips twitching.
"I - er - spiked Lily's sister's tea with Beardsley's Beard-All Brew," James admitted sheepishly.
"You did?" Sirius snorted with laughter. "Isn't she getting married soon?"
"In five days," James replied in a small voice.
"Lily's gonna kill you!" Sirius was hooting with laughter by now. "That stuff takes weeks to wear off completely!" he managed before he became thoroughly incapable of coherent speech.
"Laugh it up, Padfoot," James said sourly to his rollicking friend. "I'll bloody well remember this when it's YOUR turn, you arse."
"Whatever did the bride do to deserve to wear a full beard on her wedding day?" Sirius asked smarmily after he had taken a few deep breaths and calmed down somewhat.
"She said some really nasty things to Lily, I couldn't let her get away with that!" James defended himself.
"Why was she being nasty to Lily?" Sirius frowned slightly.
"For absolutely no good reason!" James was indignant. Sirius merely looked at him.
"She was a bit hysterical because Lily's owl delivered some mail and then she got REALLY hysterical after I Stunned her fiancée," James admitted grudgingly.
"You Stunned Lily's sister's fiancé?" Sirius howled, tears practically streaming down his face. "This just keeps getting better and better!"
"The stupid git deserved it," James was merciless. "He was chucking things at Lily's owl because it had scared Petunia - "
"Petunia?" Sirius was confused.
"Lily's sister is called Petunia," James explained.
"No she isn't," Sirius dismissed this ludicrous idea.
"She really IS called Petunia," James insisted.
"She can't be, it has to be some sort of cruel nickname," Sirius refused to believe it.
"Sirius, Petunia is the absolute LAST person in the world ANYONE would nickname, trust me," James said earnestly.
"But NOBODY - "
"SIRIUS! WILL YOU JUST SUSPEND YOUR BLOODY DISBELIEF AND LET ME GET ON WITH IT?!"
"All right, all right," Sirius huffed. "You were saying?"
"So Vernon, the fiancé, was chucking things at Lily's owl because it had scared Petunia -" Sirius shook his head in disbelief - "and Lily went to stop him, so he started chucking things at Lily and this fork nearly hit her eye - "
"Fork?" Sirius interrupted again.
"I think he'd thrown all of the food by then," James explained, "so he'd moved on to silverware. But the fork nearly hit Lily in the eye, which made me mad - I mean, why would anyone want to hurt LILY of all people? - so I Stunned him before there were any more close calls," James finished.
"So basically this civilized afternoon tea with Lily and her parents turned into a food fight that culminated in your rendering the future son in law unconscious and psychologically scarring the sister?" Sirius summed up. James nodded. His best mate certainly did have a way with words.
"Leave it to you, Prongs," Sirius shook his head.
* * *
While the next few days of James' holiday felt uneventful by comparison, Lily found that the madness was just beginning for her.
She had woken up Thursday morning to Petunia's terrible shrieks. Assuming that it was Artemis with the post - she had written to Alice yesterday evening to "thank" her for the good luck letter she had sent that Artemis had been delivering during tea, so Lily was expecting Alice's reply anytime now.
Still half asleep as she ventured into the kitchen, expecting to see nothing more than her owl and distraught sister, Lily was completely unprepared to find her parents gathered round an hysterical bearded horse.
Lily uttered a shriek nearly as ear splitting as her sister's had been. It took Lily a few seconds to realize that what she had thought was a bearded horse was actually her sister - and that said sister was blaming Lily for her new waist-length beard
Nearly incoherent in her frenzy, Petunia sobbed accusations at Lily about freaks, evil juvenile delinquent boyfriends, ruining weddings, and humiliation while Lily tried desperately not to laugh at Petunia's furiously wagging beard.
"Petunia," Mr. Evans reentered the room wearily, " I've got my electric razor - really, darling, there'll be nothing to worry about."
Petunia burst into a fresh round of tears and it was quite a few minutes before Mr. and Mrs. Evans could calm her enough to be able to shave her beard without cutting her in the process.
"Will it be gone in time for the wedding?" Petunia asked tearfully as her father spread shaving cream over her chin.
"Of course it will be!" Mrs. Evans enthused. "Won't it, Lily dear?"
"Oh, absolutely!" Lily overcompensated. "These things wear off quite quickly, you know," she added reassuringly, trying not to remember how Davy Gudgeon had spent all of third year with a tail after James and Sirius had spiked HIS drink.
* * *
Two days later, Petunia's beard still had not gone away despite repeated shaving, so the day after Christmas, Lily wrote to St Mungo's for emergency advice, which was remarkably unhelpful. The reply advised them to wait it out and if the beard had not gone away in six to eight weeks Lily should schedule a consultation. In the meantime, the letter suggested, they should braid Petunia's beard and trim it with flowers and ribbons so that it would be festive for the wedding.
Petunia, who already blamed Lily for her new facial hair, went through the roof when she heard this and it was touch and go whether or not Lily would be in the wedding after all. Unfortunately, Mr. and Mrs. Evans were adamant that they would not pay for the wedding if Lily wasn't in it, so once again Petunia capitulated, much to Lily's disgust. She had seen her completed dress now and had actually had nightmares about it, but it seemed that the bloody thing was in her future no matter what she did. Even if she were to give Petunia pointed ears and white hair to complement her beard, she would probably still have to walk down the damned aisle in that accursed dress.
The one saving grace was that the beard diminished a bit every day. On the day before the wedding it was only shoulder-length unshaven and it took it almost twice as long to grow back.
Mrs. Evans had gone out to buy some emergency beard-trimming equipment (Petunia refused to leave the house in case her beard sprouted unexpectedly) and had bought two very efficient electric razors and a packet of plastic ones, extra blades, shaving cream, and moisturizer and concealer for the stubble. Then she and Lily had gone to Diagon Alley to find some sort of magical remedy, an excursion Mrs. Evans highly enjoyed, and went home with a hair removal potion that sounded quite promising, but Petunia absolutely, utterly, and shrilly refused to use any sort of magical cure, breaking two pink centerpieces in the process. As Petunia was hanging on by a thread already, Mrs. Evans decided to capitulate before the wedding had to be cancelled altogether due to the bride's having to be committed.
Try as she might, Lily couldn't quite feel terrible over Petunia's predicament, nor could she be properly mad at James for putting Petunia in it. True, she was a bit irked with James over the whole thing because of the trouble it had caused her, but Petunia had caused Lily too much pain over the years for her to feel a great deal of sympathy for her now, especially since she was so upset over her marriage to a dolt like Vernon.
No one else knew about James' role in this beard debacle, Lily was almost certain. Petunia blamed Lily for her new beard, but then she blamed Lily whenever anything went badly in her life. Mr. and Mrs. Evans may have suspected that James had had some sort of role in it. But Lily was fairly sure that they too suspected that Lily had been behind it and just hadn't said anything, either because they thought she had done it accidentally like she had used to do things when she was little, or because they thought Lily had been provoked after that disastrous tea. Either way, neither of them mentioned Lily as having any sort of role in Petunia's new facial hair.
In spite of everything, of the disastrous tea and its equally disastrous aftermath, Lily was glad that James had met her mum and dad and even, in a very small way, that he had met Petunia and Vernon. They were the skeletons in her closet, the very worst part of her life, and James still wanted to be with her after meeting them. It was a relief in a way, not having to worry that one day James would decide that dating Lily wasn't worth putting up with Petunia and Vernon and bugger off. Just the opposite in fact; he was averaging two letters a day to Lily now, full of news about his holidays and their friends and the wizarding world in general. Lily was finding it a bit difficult to stay irritated with him actually, and that was a bit disconcerting; not so long ago Lily would have been appalled by this beard practical joke. This was definitely some sort of step, but she wasn't exactly sure that it was in a good direction.
* * *
Petunia's wedding day dawned clear and bright, the sunrise as pink as the mountains of taffeta in the Evans household.
The bride herself was in a somewhat cheerful mood, having discovered that her beard was barely collar length this morning; she was almost civil to Lily as she went off to shave.
Lily, however, had rarely felt worse in her life. Not only was that pea-brained, pompous elephant officially joining her family today, this was also the day that she would have to wear and have her picture taken in the dress she had been dreading wearing since she had heard the words "pink taffeta."
To make matters worse, she'd had to share her bedroom with Petunia's bridesmaids, including Vernon's sister Marge, who thought she had been given leave from juvenile detention to attend this wedding.
"What are you doing, darling?" Lily's mother's voice was a bit panicked. "Start getting dressed! We're due at the church in half an hour!" Lily scowled; she couldn't delay it any longer. Heaving a great sigh, she picked up her dress and slipped it over her head.
After making the finishing touches, Lily stood back and surveyed the damage, then very nearly cried at what she saw. It was loads worse than even what she had imagined.
Lily's bridesmaid dress had short, very puffed sleeves and an extremely full skirt, full to the point of poofiness, causing Lily to resemble a walking Easter egg. To make matters worse, every edge of the dress was trimmed with lacy ruffles and there was a small bow at the neckline and on each of the sleeves. But the real piece de resistance was the enormous multilayered bow in the back that rested just over Lily's bum and draped down over it in tiers of pink taffeta swoops and puffs.
Fabulous, Lily thought as she turned so she could survey the damage in back, not only am I wearing the least flattering color possible, but it looks like a giant bow is eating my arse. Jamming the matching wreath on her head and stepping into her matching bow-bedecked shoes, Lily was as ready as she'd ever be.
Downstairs, a freshly shaved and radiant Petunia was accepting compliments from the assembled bridesmaids and family members.
"Lily!" Mrs. Evans exclaimed at the sight of her younger daughter. "Don't you look lovely!"
"Smile!" added Lily's Aunt Beatrice as she snapped a picture. Lily fought the instinctive urge to hunt, kill, and eat her aunt and then bash the camera against Petunia's head until she was quite sure it would never take another picture.
After several minutes of conversation and compliments on her appearance, Petunia caught Lily's eye and motioned toward the corner. Bracing herself, Lily followed her sister.
"I'm warning you," Petunia began menacingly, "if you do anything to ruin this day for me, you will regret it very deeply."
"Are you threatening me?" Lily felt her face go red. Perfect, one more thing to clash with her dress.
"Mum and Dad can't protect you forever," Petunia hissed. "And when they can't anymore I'll still be here. Just remember that."
"If you're trying not to get disinherited you're doing a very poor job of it," Lily pointed out calmly. "You're hissing at me like an angry goose and Mum and Dad are both watching."
"I'm aware of that," Petunia snapped, drawing back her teeth in the semblance of a smile and causing herself to look more horselike than ever. "I'm not stupid."
"I didn't say that you were," Lily retorted coolly. "But then again, you were the one who chose pink dresses with enormous ass bows, and some things speak for themselves, don't they?"
"Petunia darling, it's time to go!" Mrs. Evans called to her daughter. Shooting one last furious glare at her sister, Petunia swept out the door and into the waiting car, her own ass bow quivering back and forth as she went.
* * *
The Wedding of the Century went off well, Lily grudgingly conceded. No one had thrown any food, or made any objections during the ceremony, and everyone had tactfully ignored the bride's five o'clock shadow. In a pink covered church, her sister had promised to love, honor, and cherish that blustering hippo in front of God and all their relatives in a teary voice, the enormous bow above her arse giving the audience something to focus their attention on through the boring bits. Then everyone had adjourned to the reception hall her parents had rented for dinner, dancing, and an enormous amount of wine.
There Lily had dutifully taken a turn round the dance floor with all of her male relatives and a good number of Vernon's and watched her constantly teary-eyed sister, who had only had to sneak away to shave three times, accept congratulations and marveled that Petunia could be so happy to be tied for life to such a staggering eejit.
Nearly all of Vernon's side got more than a bit tipsy, including his large, robust, sensible parents, who led a conga line round and round the buffet, and his large, robust, mannish sister Marge, whom Lily was fairly certain she saw making a pass at the waitress.
Then it was time to see the newlyweds off, and after one more quick shave, Petunia tossed the bouquet to Marge, who looked hopefully at the Dursleys' family friend Lieutenant Fubster, and Petunia and Vernon were off for their honeymoon in Majorca.
As she watched her sister and new brother in law depart, Lily felt like a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. True, Vernon was now part of her family, but the tradeoff was that she'd no longer have to live with Petunia, would no longer have to put up with her taunts and insults whenever she came home from Hogwarts. Lily smiled genuinely for the first time that day; finally, after loads of pink taffeta, bridesmaid dresses with arse-eating bows, months of bad moods and minor disasters, and worst of all, Vernon, something good was coming of this wedding.
* * *
Lily was still in an excellent mood two days later when she met Alice, Morwenna, Kathleen, and Dorcas in Diagon Alley to go dress robe shopping. She was in such a fabulous mood, in fact, that the entire wedding and disastrous tea with James seemed much funnier than they had previously, and her friends were in stitches as she told them about her holidays thus far.
The five girls were bubbling over with good humor and nerves as Morwenna's New Year's party was in only two days' time. Morwenna was desperately excited to finally be allowed to attend one of her parents' posh New Year's balls after years of watching them from upstairs. Alice was excited to go to one of the Marchbankses' elegant parties after hearing so much about them from her parents and brother but was also extremely apprehensive about finally meeting Frank's formidable mother. Dorcas was looking forward to seeing some of the most prominent witches and wizards in the wizarding world and nervous for that same reason. Kathleen was both dreading and looking forward to seeing Remus again and giving him the answer she had promised him. Lily had never attended any sort of wizard gathering outside of Hogwarts and was both looking forward to and anxious about this party, especially since she was going to meet James' parents and the fiasco with her own family was still fresh in her mind.
At Madam Malkin's, Morwenna and Alice, who already had their dress robes, threw themselves wholeheartedly into finding robes for Lily, Kathleen, and Dorcas, all of them plying Morwenna with one question after another.
By the time the five girls emerged with satisfactory dress robes, it was getting a bit late and they didn't have much time before they were due at home. After making quick stops at the shoe store and a jeweler's, it was time to go.
"Sure you're all right, Lils?" Morwenna asked. She and Kathleen, who had arrived from her home in Ireland just yesterday and was staying with her for the rest of the holidays, were meeting her parents in Flourish and Blott's and Alice and Dorcas, who was staying with the Prewetts, were meeting her brothers at Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlor. So only Lily had to go back to The Leaky Cauldron and through into Muggle London to meet up with her dad.
"I'll be fine," Lily reassured her friend with a smile. "See you lot day after tomorrow!" The rest chorused good-byes to her before going their separate ways.
Lily walked briskly through Diagon Alley, intrigued, as always, by the fascinating and unusual shops all round her. As she drew closer to The Leaky Cauldron, Lily caught sight of a side street she hadn't really noticed before. Knockturn Alley, the sign said. Curious, Lily started round the corner.
* * *
Severus Snape sat in the window in The Leaky Cauldron, nursing a butterbeer. A people watcher by nature, Snape was well entertained by the passing shoppers and had been for a few hours now. Snape had taken to spending a good deal of his time away from his home over the holidays. It had never been a particularly pleasant place to be at the best of times, but now that he was in the Dark Lord's service, Snape found it nearly unbearable. There were constant messages and visitors with invitations to participate in all of the usual Muggle-baiting, Mudblood torture, and general mayhem that the other Death Eaters found so enjoyable. Snape accepted some of these invitations, knowing all too well how a fragile a thing the Dark Lord's trust was and how literally lethal it would be to fall into his poor graces. But Snape didn't enjoy these pursuits as the others did and this, Snape knew, was perceived as a lack in him.
Any important summons, such as those from the Dark Lord himself, would be able to find him no matter where he was; that was what the Dark Mark was for, after all, and if the Dark Lord wanted to see him privately he sent a certain eagle owl to Snape with a message. These were the ones Snape knew he could not miss, but the best way to avoid these more trivial ones was to stay away from home, so Snape did so as much as possible.
Despite his reluctance to engage in the usual activities the Dark Lord's followers favored, Snape seemed to be gaining a special place in the Dark Lord's trust. There had been a few private summons now, and Snape would Apparate to the specified location where he and the Dark Lord would discuss or conduct experiments pertaining to their shared obsession: immortality. Due to these private sessions, Snape perceived that the Dark Lord regarded him in a special light, almost as a student or protege. The two shared a keen intelligence and viewed the world in similar ways, which led to an understanding between them. As a result, Snape was being entrusted with more and more secrets and special tasks and he felt as though he were drowning under the weight of them. He respected his lord's intelligence, had a healthy admiration for his abilities, and understood and shared his obsession with eternal life, but Snape had grown weary with most of his leader's practices and ambitions. All of this baiting and torture was unnecessary and pointless as far as Snape was concerned and he privately felt that this thirst for power was consuming the Dark Lord, making him reckless and perhaps even ebbing away at his sanity. No, nothing was as it used to be, nor was anything the way Snape had expected, and he didn't know how he fit into this unexpected world.
Something red out on the street caught Snape's eye and he turned to see Lily Evans rounding the corner into Knockturn Alley. Foolish move; Knockturn Alley was one of the last places a Mudblood should go unescorted. Snape debated. He could go and warn Evans before something happened to her or he could stay out of it and stay in the Dark Lord's good graces. The choice was obvious.
But then, Evans WAS a Mudblood; it was entirely possible that no one had ever warned her about the dangers of Knockturn Alley and its inhabitants. And Evans wasn't actually a bad sort, for a Mudblood Gryffindor. True, she had abysmal taste in boyfriends and a habit of being a bit too proud and stubborn for her own good, but Snape had a long memory and never could he recall Lily Evans ever laughing or even just standing back and saying nothing whenever Potter and his lot or any of the others had teased and taunted him; she always told them to stop, no matter what she thought of him personally or what it cost her to speak up.
Snape gave himself a mental shake; why on earth was he thinking that he owed Lily Evans anything; she was just a Mudblood, after all, and was dating Potter into the bargain. If something happened to her it would be through her own stupidity and ignorance of the wizarding world, nothing more.
But then, Snape considered, an attack on Evans could actually be quite detrimental to the Dark Lord's efforts; Evans was a Mudblood but an influential one. She was Head Girl and a special pet of Dumbledore's, and Snape had noticed that the Dark Lord did go to some effort to avoid a direct confrontation with Dumbledore. It seemed that the rumors that Dumbledore was the only wizard the Dark Lord feared had some truth to them. And James Potter was head over heels for Evans; an attack on her would incur the further wrath of the very influential Potter family. Really Snape would be aiding the Death Eater's cause by warning Evans.
His decision made, Snape rose and strode purposefully out of The Leaky Cauldron.
* * *
Lily rounded the corner into Knockturn Alley cautiously, curious but slightly hesitant. She'd been in the wizarding world long enough to know that it probably wasn't a spectacular idea to go off to a place she'd never heard of by herself, but honestly, she was in a crowded public place in broad daylight. She would be all right for ten minutes.
She was wandering toward some shops on the left side of the street when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Startled, Lily spun round to find herself face to face with Severus Snape.
Oh Merlin, Lily thought. He really is a Death Eater and now he'll probably kill me or sacrifice me to Voldemort or something.
"Evans," Snape was as impassive as ever. "What are you doing in Knockturn Alley?"
"I fail to see why that's any of your affair, Snape," Lily eyed him levelly. Snape sighed in faint irritation, annoyed both with Evans and with himself. Couldn't she see he was trying to prevent her from an unpleasant fate? Snape had had little social experience with those outside his House and other Death Eaters and such; he'd never spoken to a Mudblood civilly in his life and really didn't know how to communicate with one. He'd never really felt the lack of this until now.
"You're correct, it isn't my affair," Snape returned crisply. "I was merely curious as to why a Mudblood such as yourself would be venturing straight into the lion's den, so to speak. Or were you not aware that Knockturn Alley must be the most dangerous place in London for a Mudblood to go surrounded by a team of Hit Wizards, let alone unescorted?"
"No, I was not aware," Lily's eyes flashed menacingly. "Thank you so much for informing me. Now, have you come to escort me directly to Voldemort for execution, or should I wait in the queue like everybody else?"
"Very clever," Snape was a bit amused in spite of himself. "I had simply planned on escorting you to a safe place, but if you'd rather stay here I have little doubt that a meeting with He Who Must Not Be Named might easily be arranged."
"I don't need your help," Lily replied stiffly. "I'm perfectly capable of finding my way back to Diagon Alley, and besides, it's not as though anyone here would recognize my bloodlines on sight anyway."
"There are those who know who you are," Snape stated simply. "And they wouldn't hesitate to hurt you. Public place or not, the Death Eaters have friends and allies here who wouldn't intervene and might even encourage them."
Lily shuddered slightly, defeated. Snape was right, and maybe he really was just trying to help her. Snape wasn't the worst of the Slytherins, Lily knew from long experience. He wasn't deranged like Bellatrix and Lestrange or mindlessly cruel like so many of the others. And if he tried anything, she'd be sure to have her wand ready.
"All right then," Lily conceded grudgingly, and immediately Snape turned, pushing her slightly and none too gently ahead of him, and began striding purposefully out of Knockturn Alley.
"Where is it that you're going?" Snape asked, keeping up the brisk pace.
"I'm meeting - someone - in front of the shop next to The Leaky Cauldron," Lily replied hesitantly. In case Snape was like the rest of the seventh year Slytherins, she had no intention of admitting that she was meeting her father.
"There isn't a shop next to The Leaky Cauldron," Snape was, as always, impatient with stupidity and with Evans' poor attempt to conceal who she was meeting. He sighed. "What's the name of the place you're supposed to be meeting Potter at?"
"I never said I was meeting James Potter, and yes there IS a shop next to The Leaky Cauldron, on the Muggle side," Lily was equally as impatient with Snape's assumptions and condescension.
Instead of answering, Snape picked up the pace, irritated at himself this time. His assumptions had indeed made an ass of him this time. But Mudbloods were notorious for not knowing where they were going or whether or not they ought to be going there, or so it had seemed.
When he reached The Leaky Cauldron, Snape stopped. "You ought to be safe enough now, so I'll leave you here," he informed Lily stiffly.
"Thank you for your help," Lily offered Snape a small smile. "I didn't realize Knockturn Alley was so dangerous."
"Just remember not to go wandering in places you know nothing about in the future," Snape replied curtly, surprised in spite of himself. It wasn't very often among his peers that someone said thank you. In Slytherin House, virtually any deed that benefited someone else benefited the person doing the deed as well. Expressing gratitude was a social grace, something one said to one's elders to be polite and didn't bother with in informal circumstances or when among one's peers; it would simply be artificial anyway, to say something you didn't mean. But Lily Evans appeared to be sincere, and Snape didn't quite know how to handle it.
"I suppose I'll see you round, then," Lily looked at Snape expectantly. Snape merely returned the stare. Why waste breath on making some inane, insincere farewell with artificial promises to see this Mudblood soon when they both knew it wasn't true?
"Er - well - I'd best be on my way," Lily smiled at Snape again, a bit embarrassed now.
Snape watched, curious, as Lily tapped the bricks to open the wall to Muggle London, a world Snape knew nothing of firsthand but one he had always heard referred to as an inferior, filthy, and ignorant place that produced inferior, filthy, ignorant people.
But Lily Evans didn't seem to wash with any of those descriptions; she seemed just the opposite of the quintessential Mudblood, in fact, intelligent, witty, proud, and pleasant. If Snape hadn't known exactly who and what she was, he would never have guessed. She seemed no different from a pureblood witch, really, and actually had better sense than a good number of them.
"Good bye," Snape surprised himself by saying, as Lily was about to go on her way.
"Good bye," Evans sounded rather surprised herself but was pleasant in spite of it. She stepped out into Muggle London, making sure that her wand was securely in her pocket. "Thanks again," she added as she moved away, tossing Snape a brief but genuine smile over her shoulder.
Snape watched her go as the wall began to close, still highly curious. Lily Evans did not fit with anything he'd heard all his life about Mudbloods. And really, Snape reminded himself, he knew very little about them, having never come into contact with one on an individual basis before, so he didn't even know if Evans was some sort of exception.
Now that he had time to consider it, Evans was actually quite pleasant. It was simple enough to talk of exterminating Mudbloods and purging the wizarding race when you didn't know one personally but Snape found it rather difficult not to think of Lily Evans as a person.
Shaking himself, Snape tried to get hold of his thoughts. Feelings and sentiments like these would not be permitted inside the Dark Lord's inner circles. Period. He was in a precarious position already; he didn't need any rumors of some sort of friendship with a Mudblood to finish him off.
Still, his encounter with Lily Evans had left him with dozens of questions, questions he couldn't seem to get out of his head.
* * *
Author's Note:
I don't have much time, but I thought I'd post the story now and keep the author's note really short. Thanks for the reviews, everyone, especially to gruftschnitte. I'll have the next chapter up in the next few days; enjoy the holiday season till then. Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!
James eased open the back door of his family's country house and tiptoed into the kitchen, trying to make as little noise as possible. His parents were likely to be at work; Ministry employees had very little time off these days. But just in case they were here, James didn't want to alert them to the fact that he was home.
"How did it go?" inquired a voice. James jumped three feet in the air before he recognized the voice as belonging to Sirius.
"Badly," James sighed, turning round to face his best friend.
"How badly?" Sirius wanted to know, the corners of his lips twitching.
"I - er - spiked Lily's sister's tea with Beardsley's Beard-All Brew," James admitted sheepishly.
"You did?" Sirius snorted with laughter. "Isn't she getting married soon?"
"In five days," James replied in a small voice.
"Lily's gonna kill you!" Sirius was hooting with laughter by now. "That stuff takes weeks to wear off completely!" he managed before he became thoroughly incapable of coherent speech.
"Laugh it up, Padfoot," James said sourly to his rollicking friend. "I'll bloody well remember this when it's YOUR turn, you arse."
"Whatever did the bride do to deserve to wear a full beard on her wedding day?" Sirius asked smarmily after he had taken a few deep breaths and calmed down somewhat.
"She said some really nasty things to Lily, I couldn't let her get away with that!" James defended himself.
"Why was she being nasty to Lily?" Sirius frowned slightly.
"For absolutely no good reason!" James was indignant. Sirius merely looked at him.
"She was a bit hysterical because Lily's owl delivered some mail and then she got REALLY hysterical after I Stunned her fiancée," James admitted grudgingly.
"You Stunned Lily's sister's fiancé?" Sirius howled, tears practically streaming down his face. "This just keeps getting better and better!"
"The stupid git deserved it," James was merciless. "He was chucking things at Lily's owl because it had scared Petunia - "
"Petunia?" Sirius was confused.
"Lily's sister is called Petunia," James explained.
"No she isn't," Sirius dismissed this ludicrous idea.
"She really IS called Petunia," James insisted.
"She can't be, it has to be some sort of cruel nickname," Sirius refused to believe it.
"Sirius, Petunia is the absolute LAST person in the world ANYONE would nickname, trust me," James said earnestly.
"But NOBODY - "
"SIRIUS! WILL YOU JUST SUSPEND YOUR BLOODY DISBELIEF AND LET ME GET ON WITH IT?!"
"All right, all right," Sirius huffed. "You were saying?"
"So Vernon, the fiancé, was chucking things at Lily's owl because it had scared Petunia -" Sirius shook his head in disbelief - "and Lily went to stop him, so he started chucking things at Lily and this fork nearly hit her eye - "
"Fork?" Sirius interrupted again.
"I think he'd thrown all of the food by then," James explained, "so he'd moved on to silverware. But the fork nearly hit Lily in the eye, which made me mad - I mean, why would anyone want to hurt LILY of all people? - so I Stunned him before there were any more close calls," James finished.
"So basically this civilized afternoon tea with Lily and her parents turned into a food fight that culminated in your rendering the future son in law unconscious and psychologically scarring the sister?" Sirius summed up. James nodded. His best mate certainly did have a way with words.
"Leave it to you, Prongs," Sirius shook his head.
* * *
While the next few days of James' holiday felt uneventful by comparison, Lily found that the madness was just beginning for her.
She had woken up Thursday morning to Petunia's terrible shrieks. Assuming that it was Artemis with the post - she had written to Alice yesterday evening to "thank" her for the good luck letter she had sent that Artemis had been delivering during tea, so Lily was expecting Alice's reply anytime now.
Still half asleep as she ventured into the kitchen, expecting to see nothing more than her owl and distraught sister, Lily was completely unprepared to find her parents gathered round an hysterical bearded horse.
Lily uttered a shriek nearly as ear splitting as her sister's had been. It took Lily a few seconds to realize that what she had thought was a bearded horse was actually her sister - and that said sister was blaming Lily for her new waist-length beard
Nearly incoherent in her frenzy, Petunia sobbed accusations at Lily about freaks, evil juvenile delinquent boyfriends, ruining weddings, and humiliation while Lily tried desperately not to laugh at Petunia's furiously wagging beard.
"Petunia," Mr. Evans reentered the room wearily, " I've got my electric razor - really, darling, there'll be nothing to worry about."
Petunia burst into a fresh round of tears and it was quite a few minutes before Mr. and Mrs. Evans could calm her enough to be able to shave her beard without cutting her in the process.
"Will it be gone in time for the wedding?" Petunia asked tearfully as her father spread shaving cream over her chin.
"Of course it will be!" Mrs. Evans enthused. "Won't it, Lily dear?"
"Oh, absolutely!" Lily overcompensated. "These things wear off quite quickly, you know," she added reassuringly, trying not to remember how Davy Gudgeon had spent all of third year with a tail after James and Sirius had spiked HIS drink.
* * *
Two days later, Petunia's beard still had not gone away despite repeated shaving, so the day after Christmas, Lily wrote to St Mungo's for emergency advice, which was remarkably unhelpful. The reply advised them to wait it out and if the beard had not gone away in six to eight weeks Lily should schedule a consultation. In the meantime, the letter suggested, they should braid Petunia's beard and trim it with flowers and ribbons so that it would be festive for the wedding.
Petunia, who already blamed Lily for her new facial hair, went through the roof when she heard this and it was touch and go whether or not Lily would be in the wedding after all. Unfortunately, Mr. and Mrs. Evans were adamant that they would not pay for the wedding if Lily wasn't in it, so once again Petunia capitulated, much to Lily's disgust. She had seen her completed dress now and had actually had nightmares about it, but it seemed that the bloody thing was in her future no matter what she did. Even if she were to give Petunia pointed ears and white hair to complement her beard, she would probably still have to walk down the damned aisle in that accursed dress.
The one saving grace was that the beard diminished a bit every day. On the day before the wedding it was only shoulder-length unshaven and it took it almost twice as long to grow back.
Mrs. Evans had gone out to buy some emergency beard-trimming equipment (Petunia refused to leave the house in case her beard sprouted unexpectedly) and had bought two very efficient electric razors and a packet of plastic ones, extra blades, shaving cream, and moisturizer and concealer for the stubble. Then she and Lily had gone to Diagon Alley to find some sort of magical remedy, an excursion Mrs. Evans highly enjoyed, and went home with a hair removal potion that sounded quite promising, but Petunia absolutely, utterly, and shrilly refused to use any sort of magical cure, breaking two pink centerpieces in the process. As Petunia was hanging on by a thread already, Mrs. Evans decided to capitulate before the wedding had to be cancelled altogether due to the bride's having to be committed.
Try as she might, Lily couldn't quite feel terrible over Petunia's predicament, nor could she be properly mad at James for putting Petunia in it. True, she was a bit irked with James over the whole thing because of the trouble it had caused her, but Petunia had caused Lily too much pain over the years for her to feel a great deal of sympathy for her now, especially since she was so upset over her marriage to a dolt like Vernon.
No one else knew about James' role in this beard debacle, Lily was almost certain. Petunia blamed Lily for her new beard, but then she blamed Lily whenever anything went badly in her life. Mr. and Mrs. Evans may have suspected that James had had some sort of role in it. But Lily was fairly sure that they too suspected that Lily had been behind it and just hadn't said anything, either because they thought she had done it accidentally like she had used to do things when she was little, or because they thought Lily had been provoked after that disastrous tea. Either way, neither of them mentioned Lily as having any sort of role in Petunia's new facial hair.
In spite of everything, of the disastrous tea and its equally disastrous aftermath, Lily was glad that James had met her mum and dad and even, in a very small way, that he had met Petunia and Vernon. They were the skeletons in her closet, the very worst part of her life, and James still wanted to be with her after meeting them. It was a relief in a way, not having to worry that one day James would decide that dating Lily wasn't worth putting up with Petunia and Vernon and bugger off. Just the opposite in fact; he was averaging two letters a day to Lily now, full of news about his holidays and their friends and the wizarding world in general. Lily was finding it a bit difficult to stay irritated with him actually, and that was a bit disconcerting; not so long ago Lily would have been appalled by this beard practical joke. This was definitely some sort of step, but she wasn't exactly sure that it was in a good direction.
* * *
Petunia's wedding day dawned clear and bright, the sunrise as pink as the mountains of taffeta in the Evans household.
The bride herself was in a somewhat cheerful mood, having discovered that her beard was barely collar length this morning; she was almost civil to Lily as she went off to shave.
Lily, however, had rarely felt worse in her life. Not only was that pea-brained, pompous elephant officially joining her family today, this was also the day that she would have to wear and have her picture taken in the dress she had been dreading wearing since she had heard the words "pink taffeta."
To make matters worse, she'd had to share her bedroom with Petunia's bridesmaids, including Vernon's sister Marge, who thought she had been given leave from juvenile detention to attend this wedding.
"What are you doing, darling?" Lily's mother's voice was a bit panicked. "Start getting dressed! We're due at the church in half an hour!" Lily scowled; she couldn't delay it any longer. Heaving a great sigh, she picked up her dress and slipped it over her head.
After making the finishing touches, Lily stood back and surveyed the damage, then very nearly cried at what she saw. It was loads worse than even what she had imagined.
Lily's bridesmaid dress had short, very puffed sleeves and an extremely full skirt, full to the point of poofiness, causing Lily to resemble a walking Easter egg. To make matters worse, every edge of the dress was trimmed with lacy ruffles and there was a small bow at the neckline and on each of the sleeves. But the real piece de resistance was the enormous multilayered bow in the back that rested just over Lily's bum and draped down over it in tiers of pink taffeta swoops and puffs.
Fabulous, Lily thought as she turned so she could survey the damage in back, not only am I wearing the least flattering color possible, but it looks like a giant bow is eating my arse. Jamming the matching wreath on her head and stepping into her matching bow-bedecked shoes, Lily was as ready as she'd ever be.
Downstairs, a freshly shaved and radiant Petunia was accepting compliments from the assembled bridesmaids and family members.
"Lily!" Mrs. Evans exclaimed at the sight of her younger daughter. "Don't you look lovely!"
"Smile!" added Lily's Aunt Beatrice as she snapped a picture. Lily fought the instinctive urge to hunt, kill, and eat her aunt and then bash the camera against Petunia's head until she was quite sure it would never take another picture.
After several minutes of conversation and compliments on her appearance, Petunia caught Lily's eye and motioned toward the corner. Bracing herself, Lily followed her sister.
"I'm warning you," Petunia began menacingly, "if you do anything to ruin this day for me, you will regret it very deeply."
"Are you threatening me?" Lily felt her face go red. Perfect, one more thing to clash with her dress.
"Mum and Dad can't protect you forever," Petunia hissed. "And when they can't anymore I'll still be here. Just remember that."
"If you're trying not to get disinherited you're doing a very poor job of it," Lily pointed out calmly. "You're hissing at me like an angry goose and Mum and Dad are both watching."
"I'm aware of that," Petunia snapped, drawing back her teeth in the semblance of a smile and causing herself to look more horselike than ever. "I'm not stupid."
"I didn't say that you were," Lily retorted coolly. "But then again, you were the one who chose pink dresses with enormous ass bows, and some things speak for themselves, don't they?"
"Petunia darling, it's time to go!" Mrs. Evans called to her daughter. Shooting one last furious glare at her sister, Petunia swept out the door and into the waiting car, her own ass bow quivering back and forth as she went.
* * *
The Wedding of the Century went off well, Lily grudgingly conceded. No one had thrown any food, or made any objections during the ceremony, and everyone had tactfully ignored the bride's five o'clock shadow. In a pink covered church, her sister had promised to love, honor, and cherish that blustering hippo in front of God and all their relatives in a teary voice, the enormous bow above her arse giving the audience something to focus their attention on through the boring bits. Then everyone had adjourned to the reception hall her parents had rented for dinner, dancing, and an enormous amount of wine.
There Lily had dutifully taken a turn round the dance floor with all of her male relatives and a good number of Vernon's and watched her constantly teary-eyed sister, who had only had to sneak away to shave three times, accept congratulations and marveled that Petunia could be so happy to be tied for life to such a staggering eejit.
Nearly all of Vernon's side got more than a bit tipsy, including his large, robust, sensible parents, who led a conga line round and round the buffet, and his large, robust, mannish sister Marge, whom Lily was fairly certain she saw making a pass at the waitress.
Then it was time to see the newlyweds off, and after one more quick shave, Petunia tossed the bouquet to Marge, who looked hopefully at the Dursleys' family friend Lieutenant Fubster, and Petunia and Vernon were off for their honeymoon in Majorca.
As she watched her sister and new brother in law depart, Lily felt like a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. True, Vernon was now part of her family, but the tradeoff was that she'd no longer have to live with Petunia, would no longer have to put up with her taunts and insults whenever she came home from Hogwarts. Lily smiled genuinely for the first time that day; finally, after loads of pink taffeta, bridesmaid dresses with arse-eating bows, months of bad moods and minor disasters, and worst of all, Vernon, something good was coming of this wedding.
* * *
Lily was still in an excellent mood two days later when she met Alice, Morwenna, Kathleen, and Dorcas in Diagon Alley to go dress robe shopping. She was in such a fabulous mood, in fact, that the entire wedding and disastrous tea with James seemed much funnier than they had previously, and her friends were in stitches as she told them about her holidays thus far.
The five girls were bubbling over with good humor and nerves as Morwenna's New Year's party was in only two days' time. Morwenna was desperately excited to finally be allowed to attend one of her parents' posh New Year's balls after years of watching them from upstairs. Alice was excited to go to one of the Marchbankses' elegant parties after hearing so much about them from her parents and brother but was also extremely apprehensive about finally meeting Frank's formidable mother. Dorcas was looking forward to seeing some of the most prominent witches and wizards in the wizarding world and nervous for that same reason. Kathleen was both dreading and looking forward to seeing Remus again and giving him the answer she had promised him. Lily had never attended any sort of wizard gathering outside of Hogwarts and was both looking forward to and anxious about this party, especially since she was going to meet James' parents and the fiasco with her own family was still fresh in her mind.
At Madam Malkin's, Morwenna and Alice, who already had their dress robes, threw themselves wholeheartedly into finding robes for Lily, Kathleen, and Dorcas, all of them plying Morwenna with one question after another.
By the time the five girls emerged with satisfactory dress robes, it was getting a bit late and they didn't have much time before they were due at home. After making quick stops at the shoe store and a jeweler's, it was time to go.
"Sure you're all right, Lils?" Morwenna asked. She and Kathleen, who had arrived from her home in Ireland just yesterday and was staying with her for the rest of the holidays, were meeting her parents in Flourish and Blott's and Alice and Dorcas, who was staying with the Prewetts, were meeting her brothers at Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlor. So only Lily had to go back to The Leaky Cauldron and through into Muggle London to meet up with her dad.
"I'll be fine," Lily reassured her friend with a smile. "See you lot day after tomorrow!" The rest chorused good-byes to her before going their separate ways.
Lily walked briskly through Diagon Alley, intrigued, as always, by the fascinating and unusual shops all round her. As she drew closer to The Leaky Cauldron, Lily caught sight of a side street she hadn't really noticed before. Knockturn Alley, the sign said. Curious, Lily started round the corner.
* * *
Severus Snape sat in the window in The Leaky Cauldron, nursing a butterbeer. A people watcher by nature, Snape was well entertained by the passing shoppers and had been for a few hours now. Snape had taken to spending a good deal of his time away from his home over the holidays. It had never been a particularly pleasant place to be at the best of times, but now that he was in the Dark Lord's service, Snape found it nearly unbearable. There were constant messages and visitors with invitations to participate in all of the usual Muggle-baiting, Mudblood torture, and general mayhem that the other Death Eaters found so enjoyable. Snape accepted some of these invitations, knowing all too well how a fragile a thing the Dark Lord's trust was and how literally lethal it would be to fall into his poor graces. But Snape didn't enjoy these pursuits as the others did and this, Snape knew, was perceived as a lack in him.
Any important summons, such as those from the Dark Lord himself, would be able to find him no matter where he was; that was what the Dark Mark was for, after all, and if the Dark Lord wanted to see him privately he sent a certain eagle owl to Snape with a message. These were the ones Snape knew he could not miss, but the best way to avoid these more trivial ones was to stay away from home, so Snape did so as much as possible.
Despite his reluctance to engage in the usual activities the Dark Lord's followers favored, Snape seemed to be gaining a special place in the Dark Lord's trust. There had been a few private summons now, and Snape would Apparate to the specified location where he and the Dark Lord would discuss or conduct experiments pertaining to their shared obsession: immortality. Due to these private sessions, Snape perceived that the Dark Lord regarded him in a special light, almost as a student or protege. The two shared a keen intelligence and viewed the world in similar ways, which led to an understanding between them. As a result, Snape was being entrusted with more and more secrets and special tasks and he felt as though he were drowning under the weight of them. He respected his lord's intelligence, had a healthy admiration for his abilities, and understood and shared his obsession with eternal life, but Snape had grown weary with most of his leader's practices and ambitions. All of this baiting and torture was unnecessary and pointless as far as Snape was concerned and he privately felt that this thirst for power was consuming the Dark Lord, making him reckless and perhaps even ebbing away at his sanity. No, nothing was as it used to be, nor was anything the way Snape had expected, and he didn't know how he fit into this unexpected world.
Something red out on the street caught Snape's eye and he turned to see Lily Evans rounding the corner into Knockturn Alley. Foolish move; Knockturn Alley was one of the last places a Mudblood should go unescorted. Snape debated. He could go and warn Evans before something happened to her or he could stay out of it and stay in the Dark Lord's good graces. The choice was obvious.
But then, Evans WAS a Mudblood; it was entirely possible that no one had ever warned her about the dangers of Knockturn Alley and its inhabitants. And Evans wasn't actually a bad sort, for a Mudblood Gryffindor. True, she had abysmal taste in boyfriends and a habit of being a bit too proud and stubborn for her own good, but Snape had a long memory and never could he recall Lily Evans ever laughing or even just standing back and saying nothing whenever Potter and his lot or any of the others had teased and taunted him; she always told them to stop, no matter what she thought of him personally or what it cost her to speak up.
Snape gave himself a mental shake; why on earth was he thinking that he owed Lily Evans anything; she was just a Mudblood, after all, and was dating Potter into the bargain. If something happened to her it would be through her own stupidity and ignorance of the wizarding world, nothing more.
But then, Snape considered, an attack on Evans could actually be quite detrimental to the Dark Lord's efforts; Evans was a Mudblood but an influential one. She was Head Girl and a special pet of Dumbledore's, and Snape had noticed that the Dark Lord did go to some effort to avoid a direct confrontation with Dumbledore. It seemed that the rumors that Dumbledore was the only wizard the Dark Lord feared had some truth to them. And James Potter was head over heels for Evans; an attack on her would incur the further wrath of the very influential Potter family. Really Snape would be aiding the Death Eater's cause by warning Evans.
His decision made, Snape rose and strode purposefully out of The Leaky Cauldron.
* * *
Lily rounded the corner into Knockturn Alley cautiously, curious but slightly hesitant. She'd been in the wizarding world long enough to know that it probably wasn't a spectacular idea to go off to a place she'd never heard of by herself, but honestly, she was in a crowded public place in broad daylight. She would be all right for ten minutes.
She was wandering toward some shops on the left side of the street when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Startled, Lily spun round to find herself face to face with Severus Snape.
Oh Merlin, Lily thought. He really is a Death Eater and now he'll probably kill me or sacrifice me to Voldemort or something.
"Evans," Snape was as impassive as ever. "What are you doing in Knockturn Alley?"
"I fail to see why that's any of your affair, Snape," Lily eyed him levelly. Snape sighed in faint irritation, annoyed both with Evans and with himself. Couldn't she see he was trying to prevent her from an unpleasant fate? Snape had had little social experience with those outside his House and other Death Eaters and such; he'd never spoken to a Mudblood civilly in his life and really didn't know how to communicate with one. He'd never really felt the lack of this until now.
"You're correct, it isn't my affair," Snape returned crisply. "I was merely curious as to why a Mudblood such as yourself would be venturing straight into the lion's den, so to speak. Or were you not aware that Knockturn Alley must be the most dangerous place in London for a Mudblood to go surrounded by a team of Hit Wizards, let alone unescorted?"
"No, I was not aware," Lily's eyes flashed menacingly. "Thank you so much for informing me. Now, have you come to escort me directly to Voldemort for execution, or should I wait in the queue like everybody else?"
"Very clever," Snape was a bit amused in spite of himself. "I had simply planned on escorting you to a safe place, but if you'd rather stay here I have little doubt that a meeting with He Who Must Not Be Named might easily be arranged."
"I don't need your help," Lily replied stiffly. "I'm perfectly capable of finding my way back to Diagon Alley, and besides, it's not as though anyone here would recognize my bloodlines on sight anyway."
"There are those who know who you are," Snape stated simply. "And they wouldn't hesitate to hurt you. Public place or not, the Death Eaters have friends and allies here who wouldn't intervene and might even encourage them."
Lily shuddered slightly, defeated. Snape was right, and maybe he really was just trying to help her. Snape wasn't the worst of the Slytherins, Lily knew from long experience. He wasn't deranged like Bellatrix and Lestrange or mindlessly cruel like so many of the others. And if he tried anything, she'd be sure to have her wand ready.
"All right then," Lily conceded grudgingly, and immediately Snape turned, pushing her slightly and none too gently ahead of him, and began striding purposefully out of Knockturn Alley.
"Where is it that you're going?" Snape asked, keeping up the brisk pace.
"I'm meeting - someone - in front of the shop next to The Leaky Cauldron," Lily replied hesitantly. In case Snape was like the rest of the seventh year Slytherins, she had no intention of admitting that she was meeting her father.
"There isn't a shop next to The Leaky Cauldron," Snape was, as always, impatient with stupidity and with Evans' poor attempt to conceal who she was meeting. He sighed. "What's the name of the place you're supposed to be meeting Potter at?"
"I never said I was meeting James Potter, and yes there IS a shop next to The Leaky Cauldron, on the Muggle side," Lily was equally as impatient with Snape's assumptions and condescension.
Instead of answering, Snape picked up the pace, irritated at himself this time. His assumptions had indeed made an ass of him this time. But Mudbloods were notorious for not knowing where they were going or whether or not they ought to be going there, or so it had seemed.
When he reached The Leaky Cauldron, Snape stopped. "You ought to be safe enough now, so I'll leave you here," he informed Lily stiffly.
"Thank you for your help," Lily offered Snape a small smile. "I didn't realize Knockturn Alley was so dangerous."
"Just remember not to go wandering in places you know nothing about in the future," Snape replied curtly, surprised in spite of himself. It wasn't very often among his peers that someone said thank you. In Slytherin House, virtually any deed that benefited someone else benefited the person doing the deed as well. Expressing gratitude was a social grace, something one said to one's elders to be polite and didn't bother with in informal circumstances or when among one's peers; it would simply be artificial anyway, to say something you didn't mean. But Lily Evans appeared to be sincere, and Snape didn't quite know how to handle it.
"I suppose I'll see you round, then," Lily looked at Snape expectantly. Snape merely returned the stare. Why waste breath on making some inane, insincere farewell with artificial promises to see this Mudblood soon when they both knew it wasn't true?
"Er - well - I'd best be on my way," Lily smiled at Snape again, a bit embarrassed now.
Snape watched, curious, as Lily tapped the bricks to open the wall to Muggle London, a world Snape knew nothing of firsthand but one he had always heard referred to as an inferior, filthy, and ignorant place that produced inferior, filthy, ignorant people.
But Lily Evans didn't seem to wash with any of those descriptions; she seemed just the opposite of the quintessential Mudblood, in fact, intelligent, witty, proud, and pleasant. If Snape hadn't known exactly who and what she was, he would never have guessed. She seemed no different from a pureblood witch, really, and actually had better sense than a good number of them.
"Good bye," Snape surprised himself by saying, as Lily was about to go on her way.
"Good bye," Evans sounded rather surprised herself but was pleasant in spite of it. She stepped out into Muggle London, making sure that her wand was securely in her pocket. "Thanks again," she added as she moved away, tossing Snape a brief but genuine smile over her shoulder.
Snape watched her go as the wall began to close, still highly curious. Lily Evans did not fit with anything he'd heard all his life about Mudbloods. And really, Snape reminded himself, he knew very little about them, having never come into contact with one on an individual basis before, so he didn't even know if Evans was some sort of exception.
Now that he had time to consider it, Evans was actually quite pleasant. It was simple enough to talk of exterminating Mudbloods and purging the wizarding race when you didn't know one personally but Snape found it rather difficult not to think of Lily Evans as a person.
Shaking himself, Snape tried to get hold of his thoughts. Feelings and sentiments like these would not be permitted inside the Dark Lord's inner circles. Period. He was in a precarious position already; he didn't need any rumors of some sort of friendship with a Mudblood to finish him off.
Still, his encounter with Lily Evans had left him with dozens of questions, questions he couldn't seem to get out of his head.
* * *
Author's Note:
I don't have much time, but I thought I'd post the story now and keep the author's note really short. Thanks for the reviews, everyone, especially to gruftschnitte. I'll have the next chapter up in the next few days; enjoy the holiday season till then. Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!