First Impressions
The year had begun smoothly, he thinks. Lily and Severus have two classes together - Potions and Transfiguration. Professor Slughorn adores both of them, he often says they could consider careers as potioneers. Lily blushes every time, and it's mostly because of the two boys sniggering behind her. As well as things had been settling down, nuisance had been brewing in one corner of the castle.
One cocky-faced James Potter had befriended another arrogant Sirius Black, and all hell had broken lose. Severus hates the sight of them. The boys are nothing but trouble. Everyone thinks they are hilarious, with the little pranks they pull on each other, and the funny names they call people. Severus doesn't think much of them and neither does Lily, to his utter relief. They seem to be the only two people to dislike them. Black and Potter have a sour attitude towards Lily's friendship with him.
Black calls them star-crossed lovers and Potter constantly jeers "Snivelly loves Lily". Lily can ignore them, he can't.
At the end of September, Severus finds a package outside the dungeons with his name on it. It contains a number of muggle hair products and a note that says "There are some things magic can't fix." He can feel them watching him as he picks up the package and disposes it off.
On Halloween, Severus finds himself standing with one foot on the bench, craning his neck to aim for Potter. He tries to levitate Potter, but fails miserably, because Black catches him drawing his wand out, and throws a stunner his way. The Great Hall gasps as Severus topples off his bench. The ghosts of the laughter that follows haunt him.
In November, Severus enters the library and finds Lily sitting next to Potter. Lily's eyes focus on her copy of 'The Standard Book of Spells' before her, while Potter watches her with a bewildered expression, scratching his head. Potter mutters something, and Lily's lips twitch upwards in a smile. Severus decides that the conversation is already too amicable for his liking. He rushes to their table and promptly sets his books down and sits on the chair across from her's. Lily smiles at him, her usual kind smile, and Potter frowns.
"Are you lost Potter?" Severus gets the first taunt in. Potter raises one questioning eyebrow at him, but then shakes his head and directs his words to Lily, "Thanks for your help, Evans. I'll try to figure the rest of it."
Severus is about to ask him to go away when Potter drops a kiss to Lily's cheek and sneers at him "Your girlfriend is actually very nice, Snivellus." Lily's eyes widen with surprise and she is blushing furiously. But it hardly ever takes her over ten seconds to recover from shock. She jumps up from her chair and calls out to him, "Hey Potter!" She sends a quick tripping jinx his way, and even someone as agile as Potter is unable to dodge it. She then walks over to him, to where he is lying face down on the floor, "I am actually really nice," she says airily. Her face is contorting with her effort not to look smug. "I'll meet you here tomorrow, Sev" she nods at him, and with that she collects her belongings, squares her shoulders and walks away.
Severus contemplates what baffles him more, the fact that Lily had finally raised her wand against someone, or the fact that James Potter was, quite literally, rolling on the floor laughing, or the fact that he sees Lily press a finger to her cheek where she had been kissed, as she exits the library.
By January, Black and Potter have waged a war on both of them. While Severus is infuriated by each and every encounter, Potter and Black enjoy every second of it. Lily says nothing as she claims she doesn't want to fuel an already raging fire. Yet every time they prank someone else, she fights them, and they only seem to get more and more amused.
By May, everyone likes Lily and everyone likes Potter. But they hate each other, so something is right in the world. And so, Severus can plausibly say, the year has ended smoothly.