Lily was mad. Very mad. She wouldn't talk to him. She wouldn't look at him. She was really, very mad.

She just wouldn't believe Severus' lie.

All this time, the entire Christmas Holiday, Severus spent on autopilot, going through the days with little that mattered to him anymore. He had nothing to look forward to, nobody to talk to, and nothing to care about. It was as though he was empty and cold without her there, and it made his head hurt thinking about it.

Severus often thought about telling her the truth, but in the end he always decided against it. He was fairly certain this would pass (his parents fought often and they were still together, and seemed to make up often enough. There was no reason to believe this would be any different).

During these two weeks he was busier than ever. Every free moment he had, he would spend trying to get better and better at spells. He had mastered quite a lot of them already, ranging from easy ones like the Bubble Spell that made bubbles come from the wand (and they never even burst! This had been the spell he wanted to show Lily to convince her she was doing magic) but also some harder ones, like the Seize and Pull charm (which incantation was tricky to master).

He was quickly becoming more and more interested in spells known as Hexes, Jinxes and Curses. The Hair Loss he had caused on Petunia had been a Curse, he discovered. These types of spells were more creative, imaginative and just overall beautiful. There were beauties like the Ear Shriveling Curse (he would have loved to see the creation process of that one!), or the Entrail-Expelling Curse. He was marveled at the inventions.

But in order to practice many of these, he needed an audience to test it on. Some were easy, like the Blasting or Expulso Curses. He would just put a Silencing Charm over the area and blast everything to pieces only to repair it again afterwards.

Magic was brilliant like that. Reversible.

Others, like the Conjunctivitis Curse, were impossible to practice without humans.

As Severus was working on a plan to test this Curse to see if he could do it, it was during recess, Lily had come up to him to see what he was doing.

"Oh, uh, nothing, really," he had answered.

"Severus..." Lily frowned in disbelief. He had several papers scribbled full with ideas. It was obvious he wasn't doing nothing.

"Why are you even talking to me? I thought you were mad," he changed the subject. It had been two weeks. Two weeks of being on his own, working on these spells and nothing more. She had abandoned him for two whole weeks and just came back as if nothing had happened!

"I was," she mumbled. "I was. But not anymore. We can be friends again. I know it's not your fault that branch hit Tuney..." she sighed and looked at her hands.

He smirked. She believed him.

It was silent for a while, and they just sat there, doing nothing, avoiding each other's gaze.

"So what are you working on?" Lily asked again after a bit, trying to break the awkward silence between them.

"Just a little plan," he answered, trying his best to stay vague. He doubted she'd like his plan of how to test the curse... Just like she would hate to learn that he was the one that caused Petunia to wear a wig.

"A plan? A plan for what?"

"Um... That's a secret! It's a surprise."

And what a surprise it was! It took him a few more days, but his ninth birthday, 9 January 1969, would go down in local history as the day the school had the biggest outbreak of Conjunctivitis as of yet.

It was so bad that the school closed down for a while, starting the next day (Friday). Several children were shipped off to the hospital for treatment. Only a few were spared, among them Severus Snape and Lily Evans (although Petunia had caught it among the first ones).

Severus' pride in this disturbance died out when it meant he was stuck inside with his parents.

Not only did being stuck inside remind him of his years where he was locked in his room when he was home alone, not only did it mean it was impossible for him to continue practising his magic because his mother was in the house (the treatments in the hospital didn't work so they closed down the whole town out of fear it was contagious like Conjunctivitis usually was. But since this was all Severus' handiwork, it wasn't contagious at all), it also meant his FATHER was in the house, and that was something he hadn't foreseen.

Maybe it hadn't been so smart after all.

The outbreak didn't last long, by the end of the month they all went back to their normal lives. Severus had remembered that the end of the month marked something else as well, however.

The end of the month brought with it, Lily's birthday. Her ninth birthday.

He had been working on it for a while, copying his mother's copy of a book called 'A History of Magic'.

He copied it by hand since he couldn't use magic around the house, in view of his mother.

And so, the first Thursday they were back at school after the outbreak, he went up to her during recess to give it to her. They hadn't spoken yet all week, and he hoped she hadn't connected him to the outbreak or was mad at him for something else.

He had been staring at her all day — all week! — that's how excited he was to give it to her. He was sure she would love it and couldn't wait to see her reaction.

And now he finally could. There was only one problem.

She was talking to a friend about some Muggle television show he hadn't ever heard about (which wasn't surprising, seeing he had no television). He didn't really dare interrupt them so he stood there, waiting, watching her, hoping she'd notice him and get the message and stop talking to that friend to start paying attention to him.

But she didn't. And so he waited again. He waited and waited, trying to pay attention in class but failing. This seemed to be the longest day ever to Severus. Ages seemed to pass as he waited for the end of school to come.

And when it finally came, he made sure she couldn't escape him.

"Lily, Lily hold up!" He called after her as they left the gate to the school.

She stopped and looked up. "What is it?"

He caught up with her, and was a little out of breath. "Happy birthday!" he beamed.

She smiled. "Thank you!"

"I... I got you a gift."

Lily's eyes widened. "You didn't have to do that!"

"I know, I know but I really wanted to. I have it in my bag. I hope you'll like it."

He took his bag of his shoulders, rummaging through the books and papers and finding what he was looking for. He pulled it out and handed Lily the copy. She stared at the papers and read the title he had written on the front page with huge, emerald coloured ink, just like her eyes.

He held his breath in anticipation as she looked at his gift. "Do you like it?"

She didn't answer, not in words, at least. Instead, she did something Severus didn't know why she did. She did something he hadn't felt before but wanted to do every second of the rest of his life. Something that made him feel happy, secure, loved. It was a feeling he had never felt before.

A hug.

She had flung her arms around him and hugged him tightly, beaming as she did so. Severus had a wide smile himself and his eyes radiated nothing but happiness as he hugged her back. He never wanted to let go anymore. He couldn't remember when the last time he was hugged was... or if this was the first time ever. But that didn't matter. He liked it.

"Thank you so much," Lily murmured into his shoulder.

"No, thank you."

"Thank me?" Lily, much to Severus' disappointment, pulled away to properly look at him. "Why thank me?"

Severus blushed. "Erm... The- the hug. Thank you," he stumbled over his words, slightly embarrassed. He shouldn't have said anything.

"Oh, that! We're friends, aren't we? That's what friends do."

"Oh... Yeah... I suppose it is..." he sighed. He hadn't ever had any other friends. How was he supposed to know that's what friends did? He couldn't even remember the last time anyone had hugged him, let alone his friends.

Lily was his friends.

"What's wrong?" She asked him, a hand on his shoulder.

"Nothing..."

"Sev."

"Fine. It's just, I- I just..." he took a deep breath. "I don't think I hugged anyone before." He didn't dare look in her direction, afraid of her reaction.

"Severus!" He jumped at her exclamation. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. Oh, come here you," she muttered as she pulled him into another hug. He gladly hugged back, holding onto her tightly.

As they held each other, a few tears escaped from Severus' eyes, dropping down on Lily's jacket. They stood there for a few minutes in silence. Nothing mattered except each other in this moment, and he just couldn't keep strong any longer. He couldn't keep back the tears. But that was okay. For once, he didn't have to be strong. For once, it was okay to have emotions. For once, it was okay to cry.

Because he was with his Lily.

His friend. His saviour. His everything.