Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
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Severus and Lily quickly became best friends.
After their initial meeting, they spent nearly every day playing outside together.
Lily felt relieved to have finally met someone who shared her incredible talents.
Severus felt relieved to have finally met her.
Lily's arguments continued with Petunia over the next year and by the end of the following summer, she lay on the riverbank next to Severus while they chatted one warm afternoon.
Severus listened to the peaceful sound of the flowing water while Lily lay beside him with her red hair spread out in a crimson circle behind her head.
"She's jealous, you know." Severus said quietly.
Lily looked over at him as he glanced at her and added, "...Because she's ordinary and you're special."
"That's a bit of a conceited thing to say, isn't it?" Lily frowned.
"No." Severus blinked as he gazed at her, "It's the truth."
Lily laid her head back against the grass with a sigh.
While they lay there, their fingers found each other as they clasped hands, not in a romantic display, but in a tender gesture of fond affection that only childhood innocence could allow.
"I'm glad you're my best friend, Sev." Lily confessed as they lay there in the tranquil, summer stillness.
"I'm glad you're my best friend too, Lily." Severus answered.
She took a deep breath as he asked, "Do you think your Mum will be home soon?"
"In a couple of weeks." Lily shrugged, "She goes on holiday with her girl friends every year. Remember last summer? She was gone for two months."
"You must miss her terribly." Severus frowned as he considered what it would be like at his home if Eileen left him alone with his father for that length of time.
"No……" Lily said as she gazed at what she could see of the water, "Actually, I feel like she's with me even when she's not…..That's odd, isn't it?"
"I don't think so." Severus answered supportively.
He and Lily continued to hold hands when a voice screeched at them suddenly from the top of the hill, "Lily! LILY! Get up, lazy! Dad said you have to stop playing with that awful boy and come inside! NOW!"
Severus's heart clenched, but Lily scowled as she sat up, turned around, and looked at her sister, who stood under a large oak tree.
Lily didn't fall for Petunia's lies as she answered, "Tuney, if Dad wants me to come inside so badly, then he can tell me himself."
Lily glanced over as Severus sat up and turned around to aid her in her battle against Petunia.
When Petunia saw the smirk that crossed Severus's pale face at Lily's fiery refusal, she narrowed her eyes at him and snapped, "Oh, what are you smiling at?! You're dressed like a ragamuffin, look at you! I've seen better clothes in rubbish bins!"
Severus's smirk melted into a dangerous scowl.
Too young to control his magic, his anger caused one of the branches from the tree above Petunia to snap, fall, and crash down on top of her.
Lily gasped for a moment when her sister cried out, but Petunia quickly shoved the branch off herself to prove she was unhurt.
Severus smiled at the way that Lily giggled when she saw her irritable sibling's hair full of leaves.
"Fine, Lily! Spend your time with him! You make me so ANGRY!" Petunia shouted at the top of her lungs before she turned and stalked away.
"You shouldn't have done that, Sev." Lily chided Severus while she flashed him a mischievous smirk.
"She shouldn't have shouted at us like that." He replied.
Petunia had hurt Severus's pride by insulting his clothes, certainly, but she had incited his rage the moment that she had screamed at Lily.
He would drop all the tree branches in the world on Petunia if the need came.
Severus would do whatever was necessary to protect his precious flower.
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The snow crunched underneath Severus's thin, black shoes as he ran across his backyard on the frigid morning of his eleventh birthday.
He crossed the bridge, dashed up the hill, and knocked on the Evans family's front door as he clutched an envelope in his cold hand.
The envelope's seal of red wax had already been broken.
Lucy Evans opened the door and smiled down at her young visitor in greeting as she spoke, "Severus! Happy Birthday, dear! Come in, Lily's in the den playing with her dolls. We just finished putting your cake in the oven!"
"Good morning, Mrs. Evans, thank you." Severus nodded politely before Lily's mother moved to the side and let him rush into the house.
Since Severus had become friends with Lily, his dreary world had brightened considerably.
Lily's parents had gladly welcomed him and on his birthday, they gave him his own cake and some presents.
While he greatly appreciated Mr. and Mrs. Evans' kindness, each year, his favorite gift was always the card that Lily handmade for him.
As he walked towards the den, he already knew his birthday card would be full of bright colors and a tender message that referenced their friendship.
Severus kept his previous cards from Lily closely guarded in a box under the bed in his room at home.
He walked into the Evans' den and Lily looked up once she heard footsteps.
As soon as she saw Severus, she scrambled to her feet as a bright smile spread across her face, "SEV!"
"Good morning, Lily." He nodded at her politely.
"Happy Birthday!" Lily cried as she ran to him and threw her arms around his neck in a tight hug.
"Thank you." Severus whispered. His dark eyes closed for a brief moment as he enjoyed the feeling of her embrace.
When Lily pulled away, he gladly told his friend, "Look, something special came for me this morning."
Lily glanced down as Severus held the letter up for her to examine.
She reached out and allowed him to place it in her hand as she read over it silently for a moment.
Severus thought that she would be happy for him, but instead, a frown marred her fair face.
"You've….You've been invited to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?" She blinked at Severus.
"Yes, I have." He replied with a soft smile. His smile faded when he saw that her frown remained as he asked, "...What's the matter, Lily? Aren't you happy for me?"
Severus had been overjoyed to receive his Hogwarts letter.
Eileen had been very proud of her son when the parcel had clattered down the chimney an hour earlier.
He would finally get to learn about magic, all of its parts and intricacies that his mother couldn't teach him.
He would be away from Tobias's drunken rampages for an entire academic year if he chose to stay at his new school during holidays.
He would-
"-Well of course I'm happy for you, Sev." Lily laughed mirthlessly as she handed the letter back to him and gave him a bittersweet smile, "...I'm just….sad…..that we'll be apart for so long."
"What do you mean?" Severus frowned.
"I haven't gotten a Hogwarts letter yet." Lily pouted.
"I didn't get mine until today, on my birthday." Severus reasoned, "I'm sure your letter will come on yours, Lily."
"Right." Lily replied. She smiled as she moved on and asked, "...Are you ready for your card?"
Severus's black eyes glimmered in eager anticipation as he nodded.
Lily retrieved the birthday card that she had spent hours making for him and watched while he held it in his hands, read it, and appreciated in silent reverence every stroke of ink she had placed on the paper.
As she looked at him, that nagging urge she had felt on the day that they had met to keep Severus somewhere all for herself flared inside her once more.
That time though, on Severus's eleventh birthday, the urge was stronger…...nearly unignorable.
Severus had become engrossed in his birthday card.
He didn't notice when Lily turned away from him to wipe away the tears that had gathered in her green eyes.
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During the many centuries that Hogwarts had been in operation, the school had educated a variety of students from many different backgrounds.
The same winter that Severus received his Hogwarts letter, one particular name on the list of rising first year students caused a fair amount of concern amongst the castle's staff.
Professor Minerva McGongagall had her own reasons for recognizing the trouble with that individual's name and she went to Dumbledore's office the day before that student's letter was scheduled to be sent, in hopes of discussing her misgivings.
"Albus, do you really believe it wise to have another one of….them…..here in the castle?" McGonagall frowned.
"Minerva," Professor Albus Dumbledore answered as he looked up over his spectacles at the Transfiguration Professor, "Our school has hosted students from a wide range of bloodlines. Veelas, selkies, fae, nymphs…..they've all come to Hogwarts at some point. Who are we to deny a talented young girl like Miss Lily Evans the right to a proper magical education?"
"With all due respect, Albus," McGonagall nodded, "Veelas and selkies are a far cry from…...sirens." McGonagall grimaced as she said the word, "Have you not considered the danger that Miss Evans could bring to the other students?"
"I have indeed, Minerva. However, I must ask you to remember that Miss Evans' transitional period should be long after her Hogwarts days are behind her. At most, I expect her to be gifted at water charms…...nothing more." Dumbledore answered.
McGonagall nodded politely, but her jaw remained clenched.
She respected Professor Dumbledore's opinion, that did not mean that she agreed with his thoughts.
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Lily's Hogwarts letter flew down the chimney on her birthday, exactly three weeks after Severus had received his own.
She could hardly wait to show him the wax-stamped token that declared they would attend school together.
To have a moment of privacy, away from Petunia's prying eyes, they stood on the riverbank, bundled up in their coats while they chatted that morning.
"My Mother told me we'll learn about potions, charms, spells, the dark arts, herbology, and even maybe, how to duel!" Severus excitedly told Lily.
"It's going to be loads of fun, Sev!" Lily nodded with an eager smile.
"...And we'll make lots of new friends, too." Severus nodded.
The only friend he needed was Lily, but the idea of forming a larger social circle with her by his side intrigued him.
A strange wave of dark anger crept over Lily when she heard Severus mention meeting others.
"Yes……...lots of new friends." She repeated as her smile twisted into a frown.
"What's the matter?" Severus asked as he mirrored her forlorn expression.
"Sev…." Lily said urgently as if she had something very pressing to tell him, "I...I'm frightened."
"What are you frightened of, Lily?" Severus asked with a worried scowl.
He watched the colour drain from her face as she rubbed her mitten-covered hands together and drew in a frozen, shuddering breath before she spoke, "I'm frightened that when we go to Hogwarts, people will try to pull us apart!...Sev and Lily, I want us to be Sev and Lily forever!"
"No one's going to pull us apart." Severus frowned, "...We'll always be us, Lily. What's the matter?...What can I do to help you? Do you think you're ill? Do I need to get your parents?"
"No!" She said quickly, "I…...I just…..I need you to promise me, Sev, that we'll always be us."
Severus looked at her very seriously and nodded, "Alright, Lily, I promise. We'll always be us, you and I, together."
"That's not enough!" Lily snapped.
That desperate, stinging need to keep Severus close pressed down upon her like a heavy, lead weight.
"Well then, tell me what I can do to convince you?" Severus frowned.
His eyes nearly bulged out of his head as Lily stepped forward and pressed her lips against his in a sweet kiss.
Severus's heart threatened to explode out of his chest as he stood there and kissed Lily Evans in the snow.
He had no idea that their gentle gesture cemented much more than the simple, enduring bond of friendship.
As Lily kissed Severus, that unnerving, dark urge to possess him as her own gradually faded as he became hers without even realizing it.
When she finally pulled away, they both blushed.
Severus felt shocked and overjoyed.
Lily felt satisfied…...for that day, at least.