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"Mr. Snape……."

Severus didn't even hear Madam Pomfrey call his name.

"Mr. Snape……."

The frown on his pale face deepened as he gazed down at Lily with sad worry in his dark eyes.

"Mr. Snape!"

Severus started violently as Madam Pomfrey shrieked.

He turned his attention from his darling to stare at Hogwarts' healer with a pleading expression.

"Visiting hours are over, Mr. Snape." Madam Pomfrey nodded as she cleared her throat, "You can leave Miss Evans in my care and report to the Great Hall for dinner now."

"I'm not hungry." Severus answered honestly. His low voice conveyed a heavy sadness as he asked pitifully, "...May I please stay with her a moment longer?"

"Mr. Snape….." Madam Pomfrey began as she scowled and crossed her arms.

"Please……" Severus begged, "I….I can't bear to leave her alone. A moment more…….allow me a moment more….please?"

Madam Pomfrey's stern resolve melted as she frowned at the genuine sentiment she saw in Severus's dark eyes.

"Very well, Mr. Snape, a moment more, but that's all I can allow." Madam Pomfrey nodded.

"...Thank you." Severus answered in a tone barely above a whisper.

Madam Pomfrey mirrored Severus's sad frown as he turned back to Lily and held her pale hand in his while he stared down at her mournfully.

Severus's lamentful display earned him more than a moment longer at Lily's side.

Madam Pomfrey thoughtfully let another hour slip by before she finally shooed Severus away for the night.

As he walked down the hallway to head to his dormitory, he gnashed his teeth as he worried that Lily would wake to find herself alone.

The possibility turned his stomach.

Severus Snape never wanted Lily Evans to know the pain of loneliness.

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To Severus's dismay, Madam Pomfrey declined to release Lily from the Hospital Wing the next morning.

As soon as he had managed to swallow down a few bits of bacon and a couple bites of waffle at breakfast, he scurried out of the Great Hall with the Marauders' eyes following his every move.

Severus paid no attention to his watchful tormentors as he rushed out into the stone hallway, raced up the stairs, and threw open the doors to the Hopsital Wing.

Madam Pomfrey blinked at his sudden appearance.

"Back so soon, Mr. Snape?" She asked incredulously.

"Is she awake?" Severus replied, "I know that visiting hours start sharply at eight o' clock."

"...Will classes not begin soon?" Madam Pomfrey retorted as she narrowed her eyes.

"I have twenty minutes to linger without being tardy." Severus hastily explained.

"Very well, then…….Follow me." Madam Pomfrey replied as she frowned, turned on her heel, and led Severus down the long room that served as the school's infirmary.

He struggled to reduce his pace to a speed at which he wouldn't run over the healer while his eyes scanned the beds.

Empty….

Empty…..

Empty……

"LIlY!" Severus cried as soon as his dark gaze fell on his darling, who lay in bed with her emerald eyes blinking tiredly in the early morning light.

Severus nearly knocked Madam Pomfrey down as he swept past her and hurried over to his flower's bedside.

"Hey, Sev……." Lily quietly greeted him as she managed to flash him a weak smile.

"Lily……" Severus breathed as he gazed down at her.

"...What are you doing here?" Lily frowned, "Shouldn't you be at breakfast?"

"I was, er, I already ate." Severus said dismissively as he sat in the chair by Lily's bedside and took her hand in his.

Lily sighed and closed her eyes for a second while Severus worriedly asked, "How are you feeling this morning?"

"A bit out of sorts." Lily chuckled quietly after she opened her eyes and blinked at Severus, "Quite sore, too…..Madam Pomfrey warned me that's to be expected for the next few days."

Lily's eyes flickered over to her healer, who had stood at the foot of her bed while she and Severus enjoyed their brief chat.

Confident that their behavior would not be inappropriate, Madam Pomfrey nodded at Severus and Lily before she moved on to continue her morning rounds tending the few patients who lay ill or infirmed in Hogwarts' Hospital Wing.

"Lily……" Severus drawled in his low voice as he frowned while his dark eyes scanned her face for clues, "...What happened?"

He remembered the conversation he had overheard between Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall perfectly well, but Severus wanted to hear what Lily had to say.

His frown deepened when a tragic pout formed on her lips as she sighed again and said, "I……I'd rather not talk about it."

Severus swallowed as he reeled from the emotional blow his beloved dealt him with that single statement.

For the first time since they had formed their bond, Lily refused to confide in him.

"Lily….." Severus frowned, "It's me…….You can tell me anything, you know that…..What do you mean you'd rather not talk about it?"

He kept his frown while he went on, "We'll always be us, right? You and I?...Severus and Lily?"

He furrowed his brow as he watched Lily's face contort in anguish.

Tears welled in her emerald eyes before a deep, lamentful sob crackled from her sore throat as she cried, "Oh, Sev! We will! We will! But I…..I can't tell you what's happened! I can't! Or….."

Severus narrowed his eyes in mortal concern for Lily as she raised her hands and placed them on his face while a strangled wail escaped her lips.

"Lily……" Severus purred in his low, velvet voice, "Lily, you can tell me anything. You can-"

"-I CAN'T!" She screeched.

Madam Pomfrey glanced over at the young couple while Lily let go of Severus's face and sat up in bed.

Lily placed her hands over her eyes as Severus frowned at Madam Pomfrey.

"Please, Sev……." Lily whispered quietly once he turned back to her, "I don't want you to know……They won't hurt you if you don't know……."

Severus's dark eyes narrowed to spits as he asked, "...What are you talking about, Lily? Who won't hurt me? How are they going to-"

"-Mr. Snape, I believe that's enough for now." A voice suddenly interrupted him.

Severus's head snapped over in the direction of the sound before his eyes widened as he gazed at Madam Pomfrey, who stood beside him with her arms crossed in disapproval.

"Madam Pomfrey, I was only trying to speak with her and find out what happened." Severus frowned while Lily quietly wept.

"Yes, well, Mr. Snape, it's important that Miss Evans doesn't excite herself…...For the good of her recovery, I'm certain you can understand." Madam Pomfrey nodded while she began to usher Severus away from Lily's bedside.

"Visiting hours have only started! I still have time before class!" Severus protested as Hogwarts' healer urged him to leave.

"Be that as it may, Mr. Snape, you can come back later if you like." Madam Pomfrey sniffed.

As he found himself shoveled towards the door to the Hospital Wing, Severus turned around and reached out as he shouted, "LILY!"

"She's perfectly fine, Mr. Snape." Madam Pomfrey reassured him, "...Perfectly fine."

Severus Snape was no idiot.

From his beloved's hunched over posture, to her haunting words, to the miserable way that she continued to consign herself to silent weeping, he could clearly see that Lily Evans was certainly not fine.

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Severus asked no more questions, although throughout the remainder of Lily's Hospital Wing stay, he visited her at every available chance, while James and his cronies declined to make a single appearance at her bedside.

Lily could have cared less, but Severus began to grow suspicious.

He wondered if it had been his nemesis who had forced his darling to hurt herself by cursing her to eat those objects?

Had James threatened Severus behind his back?

Were the Marauders who Lily had referred to?

A new set of maddening questions weighed on his heart as Lily returned to class after her eventual release from the infirmary.

Severus walked beside her to each one and carried her books to lessen the strain of an average school day on her recuperating body as much as possible.

While they worked side by side in a chosen partnership during Potions class one afternoon, Severus's suspicions heightened as he noticed the way the Marauders snickered at Lily, not him.

They jeered as if the leftover paleness that had taken hold in her complexion from her ordeal were a great joke.

The sight alone made Severus want to cast his slashing curse against each and every one of them, but Slughorn's voice called his thoughts away as the proud professor paced around the room and gave his instructions, "Now that you've all chosen a partner for today's assignment, take a look at the massive cauldrons that sit on your tables!"

Around the room, every student looked at the oversized, pewter brewing apparati that had been placed on each of the wooden tables, one cauldron for every partnered pair.

"First, you will each need to hold a handle to insure the pot itself doesn't try to quiver away once we begin brewing! Bruner's Tourniquet can be a very tricky elixir, believe you me!" Professor Slughorn chortled.

Slughorn's students reached out and grabbed a handle of one of the large cauldrons.

Severus obediently followed his professor's command, but he frowned at Lily when he noticed that she failed to do the same.

"Lily……" He whispered.

Her emerald eyes flickered over to him as he silently nodded at her, then at the cauldron.

"I can't." She whispered to Severus with a frown marring her fair face.

"Miss Evans!" Slughorn exclaimed as he saw that one of his favourite pupils had failed to comply, "Go on, then, grab that handle and we'll move on to our next step!"

"I….." Lily stammered as the other students turned to stare at her, "I'm sorry, Professor Slughorn, but I can't."

Behind him, Severus could hear James and the Marauders snickering through their gossiping whispers.

"Miss Evans!" Slughorn laughed in disbelief, "My dear girl, what do you mean you can't?"

"I…..I have a pewter allergy, sir." Lily nodded.

The other girls in the classroom giggled quietly amongst themselves.

"Nonsense!" Slughorn replied with an incredulous chuckle, "Why, just last week you could use cauldrons without any trouble at all! Go on, then, give the handle a firm grab!"

Severus saw the dread that welled in Lily's eyes.

Her expression twisted into one of melancholic terror as if she had been condemned to torture.

"Professor…..?" Severus called doubtfully to Slughorn as Lily hesitantly reached towards the cauldron.

The scream that tore from her throat the moment her fingertips brushed against the pewter handle made Severus nearly as sick as the sound of her searing flesh.

"AAAAAAGGGHHH!"

Slughorn's eyes widened as he rushed forward while Lily staggered back and clutched her scalded hand.

"MISS EVANS!" Slughorn cried as he hurried to tend his injured student while surprised gasps rang out around the room, "MISS EVANS!"

The pain on Lily's face made Severus grit his own teeth as he rushed forward to reach her and aid Slughorn.

His anger and fear sent hatred coursing through his veins.

Severus Snape was enraged at the entire world and everyone in it who seemed intent on hurting his darling flower.

He hated the Marauders for laughing, although he began to doubt his suspicions about their connection with Lily's odd behavior in light of what he had witnessed that afternoon.

He hated the other students who looked on and did nothing while Lily held her scorched hand.

Above all, he hated his bumbling Potions professor who had forced Lily to injure herself.

While Professor Slughorn hurried over to his cabinet and retrieved a jar of healing salve, Severus helped Lily lean against him as she sank to her knees.

He didn't care that the others all watched as he soothingly stroked her long, red hair.

Severus didn't care about anything at all, except Lily and her well-being.