DISCLAIMER: See first chapter for disclaimer.

Author's Note: This is the second scene from a series of 10 or so. This scene takes place during detention a couple of days after the previous scene, in late spring of 1976. That is Snape, Lily, and the Marauders' 5th year. Spoilers for all HP books to be expected.

Scenes From the Life of an Outcast

Scene 2

An Awkward Apology

It was the third night of their detention, and Severus Snape was staring with morbid fascination and the red-headed figure of Lily Evans. She was sitting across from him, busily slicing up a sopophorous bean. And she was humming. How utterly repulsive. It was bad enough that he had to endure her presence. She didn't have to make horrendous noises as well.

He opened his mouth to say just that, but then shut it abruptly as he remembered that they weren't speaking to each other. Lily had tried a little at first, but when he refused to answer her, she had frowned at him angrily and joined him in an unspoken vow of silence. Severus was quite content with silence, and it made him secretly quite pleased to have irritated Lily. Unfortunately, his ingenious plot had backfired somewhat.

Horace Slughorn, their Potions professor, had been delighted to find that he had at his disposal his top two Potions students and had given them the task of making some of the less complex potions which were needed to restock the stores of the hospital wing. To Severus' dismay, this meant that he now had to work quite closely with the Evans girl, and since they weren't speaking, he was forced to watch her closely to ensure that all the steps were completed, and in the right order. Adding twice the correct amount of lacewings to a potion would definitely ruin it.

Lily finished cutting the bean and raised her head to look at him. Merlin. He had forgotten to look away again. He cursed himself as his bemused expression quickly snapped into a scowl. Lily frowned, looking annoyed. "Come on, Snape! Just give it up!" He scowled even more ferociously. Looking quite disgusted, Lily sighed. "I'm willing to ignore the fact that you called me a Mudblood, if you will overlook the fact that I tried to help you."

He looked away without speaking. "We're going to be stuck here for the rest of the term. We might as well be civil. We'd get a lot more done," Lily said. Well, he supposed it would be a lot easier. But he'd make her regret it! Having come to a decision, Severus turned on his heel and stalked over to the cabinet to get some more sopophorous beans. " Fine, Evans. But don't expect me to be nice to you. And no more of that… caterwauling noise. " Lily giggled involuntarily and clapped a hand over her mouth.. What the hell! Did she think this was funny?

Severus glowered into the cabinet as he yanked a package of sopophorous beans down from the top shelf, knocking a jar over and sending some unknown substance cascading onto his head and shoulders and splashing all over the floor. Blast, he thought. Lily leapt to her feet, her wand pointing at him. "Scourgify! Aguamenti!"

He stood there, dripping and soapy, spluttering in indignation. "What the hell are you doing, Evans!" Lily stared at him with a concerned look on her face. "Are you okay?" She came over to him. "Look," she said, and pointed to the floor/ The mystery substance was sitting in a greasy pool on the stone floor and it was starting to bubble and smoke. "Argh!" Horrified, Severus quickly slapped a hand to his face to ensure it was still there. "Hold on, I'd better make sure we got all that off. Take your robe off," Lily said. "What!" "It's covered with that smoking stuff." He glared at her. "Come on!" He removed his outer robe and stood there in his black shirt and trousers, soaking wet and shivering, with his arms folded obstinately over his chest. Why him? It was always him! Why was he always getting humiliated?

"Now, make sure you scrub it all out of your hair!" Severus opened his mouth to protest, only to be silenced by the jet of water she directed at him. Lily continued to assault him with soap and water until she appeared satisfied and pronounced him clean. She then performed a drying charm on him.

No longer wet, but still just as miserable, Severus refused to look at Lily. She came up to him and reached her hand up toward his face. He jerked his head to the side. "I'm not going to hurt you, Snape! I'm just checking to see if we got rid of it all." Her cool fingers touched his face and brushed gently against his hair. The corners of Lily's mouth twitched upwards, and she looked suspiciously amused. "You know, Snape, you should consider showering more often. You hair is quite gorgeous like this, really."

He was mortified, but couldn't seem to find any words to express his indignation. What was worse, he realized that he was quite fascinated with the sensation that her hand on his face had produced. And he still couldn't look away from those big emerald-green eyes that made him feel guilty and defensive and vulnerable and very intrigued all at the same time.

Feeling slightly hypnotized, Severus finally looked at the floor and mumbled something under his breath. "What?" He looked at the wall. "I'm sorry." Lily's eyebrows shot up in surprise as she stared at him incredulously. "You're sorry?" Still determinedly staring at the wall, he said, in a voice scarcely louder than a whisper , "For calling you a Mudblood." "Oh…" Lily looked a bit unsettled. "It's all right… I - I'm sorry for calling you Snivellus," she said as she turned slightly red. "Um, well, let me go find Professor Slughorn." She turned and virtually fled the room.

Severus stood there, confused. He didn't know what was wrong with him. He really was sorry for calling her a Mudblood, even if she was an interfering little chit. Well, he'd have to snap out of it, he couldn't afford to have a conscience.

Lily hurried back into the room, accompanied by Professor Slughorn, who examined the mess and commended her for her quick thinking and said cheerfully, "You have a lot to thank Miss Evans for, my boy. This could have been quite nasty indeed." Brilliant. Now he was supposed to thank her, too. This was turning out to be extraordinarily humiliating, and for once Potter didn't have anything to do with it. Severus struggled to keep a pleasant face in front of Slughorn, but the best he could manage was a sort of sickly sneer. He forced a strained "Yes" out from between his clenched teeth.

Professor Slughorn told Severus and Lily that they were free to goas heset about cleaning up.. As they left the room Lily turned toSeverus and, with a bit of a smirk, said gleefully, " I noticed that Sirius is still in the infirmary. Nice hex!" "Yes, and I see that Potter's hair is still pink. Rather impressive work… for a Gryffindor," he replied dryly. Unperturbed she said "Thanks!" and proceeded to bounce happily out of sight down the hallway. Severus watched her go.