Severus had never been called sweet before. Lily's words stayed with him as he walked her home, her small, sticky hand in his, and as he walked himself home through the dark streets back to Spinner's End. He had always felt he'd never be rid of Spinner's End, that he would spend the rest of his life there, but Lily's words crowded out all bitter thoughts until there was only one uplifting one left: he was sweet and Lily liked him.
"Severus, have you any idea what time it is?" demanded Eileen once Severus ambled in.
She was wearing an apron and had her hands on her hips. There was a spot of dust on her nose, her hair was gathered in an untidy bun ontop of her head, and she was also wearing rubber gloves. It was clear she had been cleaning without her wand again, for the sake of her husband's rage. She yanked off the gloves, still waiting for an answer.
"Well?"
Severus stood smiling at his mother, humming dreamily. His fists were jammed in his pockets and he pulled one out and opened it under his mother's nose.
Eileen squinted at his hand and then looked at her son as if she worried about his health. "Severus . . . that's a red M&M."
Severus continued to smile.
"Are you ill?" Eileen said in alarm, feeling his forehead quickly.
But Severus only went upstairs to his room and, still smiling, placed the red M&M on his bedside table and went to sleep.
The girl named Lily Evans gave Severus the best summer he was yet to know. They met everyday in the square and had ice creams, or sneaked into the theater through the back exit. They chased each other through the park and climbed trees, had several close shaves with the Muggle police, and once even rescued a lost dog together.
Sometimes they talked with anticipation about Hogwarts and tried to predict their teachers and the other children they would meet there.
"We must remain friends when we go, Severus," Lily would say quietly to the boy as they sat in a tree sharing sweets.
"What if we're in different houses?"
"Houses?"
Severus explained about the four Hogwarts houses. Lily looked crestfallen.
"Oh. But still, we mustn't forget this summer. Promise?"
"Why mustn't we forget?" Severus asked, watching Lily closely. Did she like him as much as he liked her?
"Why, because it's the best summer I've ever had -- and I've been to France." She looked at him and squeezed his hand. "Promise?"
"Alright, alright," Severus answered, shaking her fingers off and sneering. "Girls." But he enjoyed her friendship just the same.
When it came time to go to Hogwarts, Severus had many misgivings. Not only did he dread having to be around other children, he was afraid of leaving his mother alone with his father. Though his presence rarely had any effect on his mother's regular beatings, Severus knew he sometimes served as a diversion for his mother. If he could make Tobias chase him around the house, he could ware the man out until he collapsed, puffing and cursing into his chair, and forgot all about his rage toward Eileen.
"Now don't worry at all about me," Eileen told Severus as they stood on the platform before the scarlet puffing Hogwarts Express, as if she'd read his mind. She was straightening his clothes and smoothing his hair, and now she licked her finger and began scrubbing a spot on his face with it.
Severus squirmed away, "Mum! People are watching!"
And indeed, a tall youth with black hair and attractive features was snickering at Severus with his younger brother.
"Bother them," said his mother, beaming at him and cupping his face. "I want you to have a good time at school. And Severus -- look at me!"
Severus's eyes had alighted on the pretty red-haired girl he'd met at the park in London. She was struggling to drag her trunk onto the train with her father, but a handsome boy with wild hair and glasses hurried forward and offered to help. Lily flushed and backed away, and the boy and her father loaded the trunk.
"Thank you," said Mr. Evans, offering his hand.
The boy shook it, but his brown eyes kept flitting toward Lily, who was refusing to look at him.
"What's your name?" Mr. Evans was asking.
"Potter," answered the boy. He looked at Lily and finally managed to catch her eye. He smiled, "James Potter."
Lily ignored him, kissed her father good-bye, and hurried to board the train. The boy was called over by a couple standing on the platform: a tall woman with auburn hair and a man whose jet black hair was as messy as his son's. The boy hurried to his parents, but kept glancing back at the train as if hoping to catch a glimpse of Lily again.
"Severus!" cried Eileen, snapping her son's attention on herself. "My, my, hardly eleven and you're already oogling the girls," she said crossly.
"I wasn't oogling anyone!" cried Severus, making a disgusted face at the very thought.
The train signaled its departure.
"Oh!" cried Eileen. "Hurry now!" She hustled her son onto the train and stood outside of his compartment window, calling last minute advice. "Have a good time at school! Please make an effort to talk to the other children! Don't ever be afraid of anyone! And if you wake up crying -- " she was jogging to keep up with the train as it sped away, "-- send me an owl!"
Severus shut the window and turned, hoping only a few people had heard his mother and not the fifty or so on the platform. But he wasn't alone in the compartment. The same tall youth that had laughed at him on the platform was laughing at him now, his black hair glossy and falling in two tendrils on his forehead. And another boy, the same one with the wild, jet-black hair who'd called himself 'Potter', was standing beside the first with his arms folded. They were both smirking.
"Can I help you?" said Severus curtly, drawing his wand.
"Yeah," said the taller boy. "We were looking for the bloke who cries at night. Have you seen him?"
"We heard he was in this compartment," added the boy with the glasses and wild hair. His wand was in his hand, but he was tapping it against his shoulder, his arms still folded.
"The whole platform heard, actually," added the taller boy, and the boy with the glasses snickered.
Severus's face darkened. He wasn't even at school yet and already -- but why was he so surprised? He knew it had to happen sooner or later.
"I'm James Potter," said the boy with the glasses. "He's Sirius Black," he jerked his head at the taller boy, who wagged his fingers at Severus and smiled sarcastically.
"So you're a first year too, eh?" said Sirius Black with a slight sneer.
"Oh, well spotted, can't put anything past you," Severus answered.
"A tough guy," James Potter said derisively to his friend, glaring at Severus. "Better watch your back, Sirius."
They both began to circle Severus, their eyes dancing with ridicule as they took in his ragged Muggle clothing. They themselves were resplendid in wizarding robes.
"Hooked nose -- "
"Greasy hair -- "
"Mean, runty look -- "
"You're going to be a Slytherin," they both said unkindly, stopping in front of Severus again.
"Bet you'd like that, wouldn't you?" sneered Sirius. "Wasn't a witch or wizard in that house that didn't go bad."
"You outta know," snapped Severus, "you're family's been in that house for decades."
"Doesn't mean I will!" Sirius said roughly, banging his chest against Severus's, who staggered into the window. "Doesn't mean I'll be a filthy, prejudiced, Muggle-hating -- "
"What did you say his name was again?" interjected James, "Sev-something?"
"Snivelus," said Sirius, looking darkly-amused with his own brilliance. "The boy who cries at night."
They both laughed.
"Hey," said James suddenly, as if a bright idea had come to him. "Let's see how many hexes will make him cry -- "
But the compartment door slid open, and James and Sirius whirled around to see the red-haired girl standing there looking breathless. She couldn't have seemed more crestfallen to have run into James. Severus, meanwhile, was wildly embarassed to have been found by her in the middle of being hexed and two angry, red spots flushed his cheeks.
Sirius elbowed James, who ruffled his hair convulsively and lowered his wand.
"Hey," he said brightly, innocently to Lily.
Lily wasn't fooled. She drew herself up, "What are you doing?"
"Hanging out," said Sirius, throwing his arm around Severus and pulling a smile. "Making friends with Sni --"
"Severus," hissed James.
"-- Severus here," finished Sirius.
Lily cast the two a comtepmtuous look. "Please leave," she said, stepping aside for them to pass.
"But -"
"Please!"
James looked bad tempered and stormed from the compartment, but not before he'd given Severus a filthy look. Sirius followed, but grabbed a lock of Lily's hair and tossed it playfully in her faceon the way out.
Lily slammed the compartment door, then turned to Severus sympathetically, who'd flopped into a seat, looking furious.
"I brought a game of Exploding Snap. A girl down the train let me borrow it," she said, pretending not to have just saved Severus from his first of many battles with James. She sat in the seat opposite him and began to fiddle with the cards.
Severus ignored her.
"It's supposed to be rather fun," she went on bracingly. "The cards explode, or something of the like -- "
"Why are you here?" Severus cut across her, staring miserably out of the window. His mouth was a trembling line. It seemed he was growing increasingly upset.
"What?" said Lily uncertainly, stopping mid-shuffle.
"Why are you here!" Severus said loudly, now glowering at her.
"I didn't want you to be alone!" Lily snapped back. "But if you're going to continue to be an idiot -- "
"I'm not an idiot!" cried Severus, firing up. But he calmed himself just the same and began to play the game with Lily.
After two trials, he asked her quietly, "Do you like him?"
"Like who?" said Lily, pretending she didn't know.
"You know," said Severus darkly, "That stupid kid -- that Potter -- "
"Oh, him," Lily said and shrugged.
"Liar!"
"Am not!"
"I saw you two on the platform," continued Severus in disgust. "I saw the way he looked at you, and the way you liked it, even though you rushed off."
Lily stared at him. After a while she pursed her lips, a smile puckering around their corners, and shuffled the cards again. "You know what? I believe you're jealous."
Severus's lip curled, "Of you?"
"No. Of James," Lily said simply. "You think I like him, and you're jealous."
"Am not," Severus said grumpily.
"You think I'm pretty," Lily went on, eyes sparkling. "And I bet you even kept that red M&M I gave back to you."
"Shut up," Severus said crossly. He had his wand drawn and pointed it at Lily, "We're on the train now and I can hex you!"
"I'd like to see you try," said Lily, smiling with the hard look in her eye Severus had come to love. She laughed as if she really would.
Severus didn't lower his wand. The two of them were smiling at each other over the tip of it.
"Do you really like him?" he asked again, the wand held absently in his hand as he stared seriously into Lily's eyes.
Lily made a face as if she'd just eaten rotten eggs, "He's a bit of a bully, to tell you the truth. Whatever house he's in, I hope I'm not in it!"
They laughed together, Severus somehow managing to keep his nose crinkled halfway in a sneer. Then Lily offered her pinky finger.
"Forever friends?"
Severus stared at it momentarily as it hung on the air. She seemed so much like one of those girls who would go on to great heights of popularity. And he, Severus, was a bit of a loner. He couldn't see himself keeping up with her, but people like that Potter would be right in her inner circle. He watched her smiling eyes, wondering where the next few years might take them. Would they really remain friends? Or would she forget all about him?
"Severus?" Lily said uncertainly; he'd never paused that long before.
Severus quickly licked his pinky and hooked it in Lily's as she squirmed away and cried out in disgust.
"Forever friends!" he cried, laughing evilly as she yanked away.
"You'll pay for that!" Lily cried, whipping out her wand and looking daring.
But Severus made the tip of his wand explode with water in his attempt to hex her, and she fell about shrieking with laughter as her friend's black hair was plastered to his face.