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 could barely stand the distance that seemed to creep between him and Lily over the next few months.
Regardless, they retained a sort of subtle normalcy to their interactions.
He studied with Lily, chatted with Lily, walked with Lily, but her bright smile had dimmed.
Her expressions became sullen and her demeanor often seemed withdrawn.
More than once, Severus caught her gazing at the Black Lake with a solemn frown of seriousness on her fair face.
Severus and Lily spent their winter break mostly together.
He shivered from the air's icy chill whenever she insisted they stand on that little bridge that went over the frozen river.
As he trembled in his thin outerwear and clasped his holey mittens to his chest in an effort to find some warmth, he scowled at Lily as he asked, "Aren't you cold? You aren't even wearing a coat."
Lily stood next to Severus on that little bridge and stared down at the crystallized water, clad only in her velvet dress as she shook her head and shrugged, "No, Sev……It feels fine out here to me."
She blinked as Severus suddenly reached out to press the back of his mitten-covered hand against her forehead.
"What are you doing?" Lily laughed as she looked over at him curiously.
"Checking for a fever." Severus huffed.
As more soft snow flurried down around them, Lily laughed at his irritated attitude.
The snow landed on Severus's hair, coat, and mittens as the white, fluffy flakes soaked through each surface, determined to linger and trap him in a prison of uncomfortably low temperatures.
He noticed that strangely enough, Lily did not entirely share his plight.
The snowflakes that touched her face, head, and hair all became instantly absorbed, as if her body itself possessed enough heat to melt the coldest part of winter.
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Time passed.
Seasons changed.
As the spring of Severus and Lily's fifth year at Hogwarts arrived, Severus found himself at a stalemate.
Things remained miserable for him at home, but Severus had few ideas on how to improve the circumstances for himself and his mother.
Lily continued to be mysteriously distant while Severus continued his unending quest to devour each book in Hogwarts' collection and discover if his suspicions were true or if he had the wrong idea entirely.
He kept receiving conflicting information.
Lily had no violent tendencies, therefore she couldn't be a siren.
Surely?
Yet…….she did have a demonstrable pewter allergy, a quality that Severus's studies had led him to believe only people with heritage from the sea possessed.
He sighed to himself as he walked up the grassy hillside next to the Black Lake one afternoon in early March.
He had tucked his latest library book underneath his arm, intent on spending the next hour reading and peering out over the water.
Severus had become so consumed with his quest to discover Lily's hidden secret that he hadn't paid the Marauders as much attention in the previous months.
Their bullying towards him had decreased greatly after he had shown his foes his frightening new weapon.
However, Severus underestimated the lengths his enemies would go to in order to cause him pain.
James Potter lacked the genius needed to invent a spell, though he was more than capable of learning one.
While Severus walked up the hillside that day as he held his library book and kept to himself, James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus rushed to catch up with him.
"Hey, Snivelly!" James shouted.
Severus whirled around as soon as he heard James Potter's voice.
His dark eyes widened as he watched all four of the Marauders crawl towards him like sneering spiders.
Severus felt his body flood with panic as his hand shot to his pocket.
He hurriedly removed his wand and brandished it at his enemy.
"Oh no, you don't! Not this time!" James hissed.
Severus moved his mouth to form the words of his most useful curse, but James beat him to it as he shouted, "EXPELLIARMUS!"
Severus's eyes widened as a bolt of bright light zipped towards him, struck his wrist, and sent his wand flying from his hand.
"Nice one, James!" Sirius chortled behind his best friend.
The Marauders laughed while Severus's pale face twisted in mortal dread.
"Thanks." James smirked at Sirius before he turned to Severus with an awful grin of pure malice.
Severus's blood ran cold.
His throat went dry.
Nausea produced by the sheer weight of his anxiety pressed down upon him and threatened to send the bile rising in his throat until a voice shattered the tension.
Its singsong familiarness cut through the uncomfortable atmosphere like a knife.
"STOP! You leave him alone, James Potter!"
Severus let out a breath as he watched Lily march up the hillside towards them all as the Marauders turned around.
"Hello, Evans~." James purred, "Lovely day, isn't it? Though, not quite as lovely as you, I'll admit."
"Shut up, Potter!" Lily scoffed as she stopped a short distance away from her enemies. She squinted in the bright sunlight while she ordered her nemesis, "Leave Severus alone and piss off! Go on! Leave!"
"Alright….." James shrugged as Peter, Sirius, and Remus all made antagonizing jeers at Lily's fiery demand, "Very well, Evans. I'll leave Snivelly alone as soon as you agree to go out with me."
"...WHAT?!" Lily asked in shocked disgust, "I'll do no such thing! I'd rather die!"
James laughed mirthlessly at Lily before he turned around and sneered at Severus.
"JAMES!" Lily shrieked.
"LEVICORPUS!" James cried as he brandished his wand at his rival.
Severus's dark eyes widened as his own spell was used against him while James's magic lifted his body into the air.
Helplessly at his rival's mercy, rage boiled in Severus's veins while he struggled and writhed to free himself.
"JAMES! STOP!" Lily demanded.
As Lily screeched at James, a crowd of students slowly began to walk towards her, Severus, and the Marauders, all eager to find out what was happening.
"I'll stop as soon as you agree to go out with me, Evans!" James spat as Severus dangled in the air with his school robes hanging down around him like a black curtain.
"NO!... DON'T DO IT, LILY!" Severus cried as he flailed his arms and legs.
"STOP IT THIS INSTANT, JAMES!" Lily shrieked.
"Do you hear that, Snivelly?" James sneered at Severus, "Your girlfriend's trying to help, you pathetic-"
"I DON'T NEED HELP FROM MUDBLOODS LIKE HER!" Severus roared.
Lily gasped as her emerald eyes widened.
The Marauders all cooed mockingly as they turned to look at Lily while James cast her a smirk over his shoulder, "Ooh….did you hear that, Evans? Snivelly just called you a 'mudblood'. Are you still willing to defend him?...Or would you rather take that date with me now?"
"I wouldn't go out with you if you were the last wizard breathing, James Potter, you bullying toerag!" Lily hissed.
From his position in the air, Severus could see the angry tears that welled in Lily's eyes.
The sickening knowledge that he had caused her even the slightest amount of pain gave him more grief than the Marauders ever could, but James seemed determined to pursue a personal best that day for despicable behavior.
"Fine, then." He grinned at Lily before he turned back to Severus with a wicked grin as he bellowed, "Who wants to see me take off Snivelly's trousers?!"
Gasps and excited squeals came from the crowd while the Marauders guffawed in their revelry as James moved his wand and unfastened his victim's pants.
Severus's mind went wild with horror as he felt the fabric of his trousers slide down his legs until his greyed boxers were exposed for all to see.
Laughter rang out from the Maurauders, echoed from behind them by the herd of onlookers as Severus hung in his helpless state of suspended humiliation.
Severus bore the pain of abject mortification while he hung, dangling and derelict like a fool, suspended by his nemesis's own evil will.
In that hellishly deceptive sunny afternoon though, a single sound shattered his entire existence as it rang out above the mocking chorus of sinister amusement.
He tried to console himself, certain that his imagination had run away with him.
It couldn't be……
Severus let out an audible cry as he glanced over and noticed the bright smile that had spread across Lily's lovely face while she had watched.
A giggle escaped her lips before she opened her mouth and called out, "James Potter!...You really are an idiot to make someone like me angry!"
Severus furrowed his brow as he realized that his beloved hadn't laughed at him……she had laughed at James.
In the middle of his triumph, James turned towards Lily.
He narrowed his eyes at her, angry that she had dared to question his victory.
No one present that afternoon anticipated what happened next.
Entrenched in his own degradation and shame, Severus watched the smile fade from Lily's face as a horrible scowl Severus had never seen there before washed over her features, furrowing her brow and twisting her lips.
He watched Lily's eyelids close as a loud, rumbling sound shook the earth just as James's magic tickled the hem of his boxers and reminded him that he had not yet found safety.
The laughter from the crowd died down as the ground's magnitudinous rumbling crescendoed.
Lily lifted her wandless hand while a malicious snarl manifested on her face.
Everyone, including the Marauders, frantically glanced around to learn the source of those ominous vibrations that seemed to come from somewhere deep inside the earth
Severus gasped as he saw the rage on his darling's features while she opened her hand with a great cry.
In one incredible burst, water erupted from the basin of the Black Lake, rushed forward, and ensnared James, Peter, Sirius, and Remus in separate pods of watery doom.
Lily's hoarse scream of rage rang in Severus's ears as he violently crashed to the ground once James's spell ended.
He hurried to pull his trousers up, but as his dark eyes scanned across the crowd, the look of terrified disbelief on the bystanders' faces signaled to him that he was no longer the subject of their attention.
Severus's black gaze flickered over to Lily, who stood with that same snarl on her face as she lifted her open hand towards the Marauders.
Slowly, Severus dared to look up.
He sucked in a breath as he watched his four tormentors struggle and writhe in their prisons of freshwater, desperate for a breath of air.
For a brief moment, James's eyes connected with Severus's gaze.
Despite what he had just endured, Severus could see it clearly on James Potter's face, the nearly tangible fear of impending death.
Through the veil of water, Severus watched his foes' faces change colour as their need for oxygen increased to a painful degree.
"Lily!" Severus turned towards her and shouted while the crowd remained silent, "Lily, that's enough! Put them down!"
Lily's green eyes flickered to Severus as her emerald gaze focused on him.
Severus gasped as he watched two trails of water rush from the Black Lake and head straight towards him while he called again, "Lily! Lily, can you hear me?!"
The Marauders thrashed.
Those threatening binds of water hurried over the ground.
As the battle raged on, Professor McGonagalll raced into the clearing.
Shock fell over her face as she scanned the scene ahead before she hurried up the hillside.
Those damning streaks of water had reached Severus by then.
He cried out to his beloved as the watery trails ominously wrapped around his ankles, "LILY!"
Severus had never experienced fright and awe in such a simultaneous mixture as he watched his darling put on the greatest display of wandless magic he had ever witnessed.
It terrified him to anticipate what Lily would do next as she lifted her other hand towards him and-
Her enchantment, spell, curse, or whatever it was ended as Professor McGonagall crashed into her from behind by throwing the weight of her body directly between Lily's shoulder blades.
Severus saw how intentional and precise his Transfiguration teacher's movement had been.
As Lily fell to the ground with water inexplicably spurting from her gasping mouth, he wasn't sure what bothered him more, McGonagall's violent approach or the startling realization that a Hogwarts professor had purposely declined to end a magical altercation with a wave of her experienced wand.
McGonagall stumbled as Lily landed on the ground and panted while she looked up at her professor with wide eyes.
"MISS EVANS!" McGonagall shouted.
Behind her, the Marauders were released from their watery tombs as they all fell to the ground, too close to suffocation to shout.
Those ferocious trails of fluid released Severus's ankles as they exploded and poured into the ground like freshly fallen rain.
He stared at Lily and McGonagall while James and his friends began to dramatically cough and choke, hoping to earn sympathy for their unfortunate victimization.
"I'm afraid I'll need to take you to the Headmaster, Miss Evans……" McGonagall nodded, "...IMMEDIATELY."
Lily frowned as her Transfiguration professor offered her a hand and helped her to her feet.
Speculative whispers circled through the crowd of onlookers while McGonagall pulled Lily away by the wrist.
As Lily glanced back at Severus, his mouth fell open at the expression of sheer bewilderment on her beautiful face.
He burned with the desire to know what had happened moments earlier, but as he stared at Lily, he couldn't help but wonder if she knew the details herself?