They Didn't Know We Were Seeds
They sit on the overhang outside Lily and Petunia's bedroom window. Occasionally, a summer breeze passes by, ruffling their long hair and jimjams. Under the cover of the night's darkness, they trade their Hogwarts letters and talk in whispers of what's to come.
"Do you think you'll be sorted into Slytherin?" Lily asks after a time.
He eyes her sideways. If Severus is honest with himself, he's not sure he will be placed there any longer. So much of what he did during the wars was characteristic of a Gryffindor, not a Slytherin. Yet… Severus wants to be a Slytherin. Being a part of the Slytherin house had an integral part in shaping him into the man he is today. To imagine going anywhere else feels ungrateful. Like he would be turning his back on all it taught and gave him.
Finally, he says, "Perhaps."
The barest hint of amusement flickers across Lily's face. "Is 'perhaps' really all you have to say on the subject?" she questions, as she playfully digs her elbows into the space between his ribs. Unfortunately, Severus isn't expecting it and can't stop himself from gasping in pain. Lily goes stiff. "You were in another fight, weren't you?"
Severus can't stop from grinning like a werewolf who's caught his prey. "I got the wanker in the face."
Lily sighs. "You're a grown man, you shouldn't be fighting schoolchildren."
"I've told you!" he hisses, "they start it! What am I supposed to do? Let them shove me around? Lily, get your head out of your arse. I'm not just going to stand there and get beaten to a pulp, just because I'm technically forty and they're twelve-year-old boys."
She says nothing. He fidgets, then, finally, asks, "You don't let that twit sister of yours insult you and get away with it just because she's thirteen and you're actually twenty-two, do you?"
"…Not every time."
Severus gently knocks their knees together, drawing Lily out of her reminiscing. "I don't like fighting them." Lily turns her head and stares back at him, gaze uncertain. Almost disbelieving. It stings, just a little, knowing she doesn't trust his word – after everything he did for her and her son. "I was a professor to children like them. I have a very good idea what their home lives are like," he says, pointedly leaving out he'd once been the same as those boys— Is one of them again. "I know what kind of thoughts, feelings, and impulses fill their heads."
He takes a breath and searches Lily for any indication what he's saying is getting through to her. "But just because I understand, and feel sympathy for them, does not mean I'm going to let them hurt me. What good would that do anyone? It wouldn't do any, that's what. If I let that happen, they could very well end up killing me. Then where would they be? In prison! And you? Alone."
Her face takes on a stricken shade. "I just…" Lily looks to her knees. "I don't like it. It's not right."
"There are many things in the world that aren't right," Severus replies.
She opens her mouth as if to argue, but, in the end, closes it. Severus watches her another moment as she rakes a hand through her hair and exhales. He raises an eyebrow she looks at him with burning eyes. "You may have a point," she relents.
He doesn't smirk or laugh at her concession. Instead, Severus nods. "Thank you," he replied before resting his chin on his fist and turning his attention to the Evans' family garden below. As much as they may want that perfect world that Lily seems to think they live in most of the time, it does not exist. Thing aren't always right or fair and so, sometimes they have to do things that aren't always right or fair in turn.
-o-O-o-
The moment James Potter and Sirius Black waltz into his and Lily's compartment on the Express, Severus wants to punch them in their faces (Black especially). The only reason he doesn't is because Lily grabs his sleeve and yanks hard. Severus whips his attention to her and sees that Lily is smiling at him. However, there is a hard edge to it. An edge that Severus reads easily as don't. He leans back in his seat and sighs. Lily lets him go and turns her grin, now much softer and affectionate on her (would-be?) husband and Black.
"Hello," she says.
Potter grins back in response. "Mind if we share with you?" he asks. "There aren't any other compartments with two free seats."
"Of course," Lily chirps. Getting up, she offers her hand to Potter. Magnanimously, Potter leans in and presses a kiss to the back of it in lieu of shaking it. When he straightens back out, he introduces himself. "I'm James Potter, by the way."
As Lily blushes, Severus rolls his eyes. 'Show-off,' he thinks.
Softly, Lily murmurs, "It's a pleasure to meet you." She says, "I'm Lily Evans." Then, turning back to Severus, she reaches for his hand and pulls him to his feet. "And this is Severus Snape, my best friend."
His mouth falls open in shock. He hadn't realized he's regained such an esteemed position. And after all that he's done too…
Severus knows he doesn't deserve his renewed position in Lily's life. Even so, he's not going to object – at least not now. Not in front of this pair of dunderheads. To show his gratitude (and worthiness), he decides to play nice for the rest of the ride to Hogwarts. He doesn't try to start anything with Potter or Black when they gloat about their families (in the case of Potter) or complain about them (Black) and bites his tongue when the mutt insults Slytherin.
Sirius's cruel remark is just the push Severus needs to decide where he wants to be sorted. Up until now, he's been wavering between just letting the Sorting Hat decide for him and fighting to be placed in Slytherin once again. He'll go to Slytherin just to show Black just how wrong he is about the type of people who end up there.
As the afternoon progresses, Severus finds he has to tell himself over and over, 'You only have to be polite for a while longer.' And keeps himself in check with the thought: 'Lily is calling you her best friend again. You don't want to make her regret it by getting in a fight with her child-husband and his friend.'
Surprisingly, it works quite well. While he can't always hide his grimaces from the duo, he does manage to stay silent for most of the ride and let Lily do most of the talking for the both of them.
-O-
That evening, when the Sorting Hat is plucked from Severus's head after shouting "SLYTHERIN!", seeing Black and Potter's gobsmacked faces more than makes up for the hours of having to listen to them prattle about quidditch, their families, and the virtues of all the houses besides his own.
How do you all like this chapter? What did you think about the conflict between Lily and Severus in the first scene?
Thank you all for taking the time to read this!
EDITED: 5/23/20