Severus puts his Legilimency to use! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!

Severus Snape was ecstatic on the inside. He would never show it on the outside, but inside he was squealing with excitement over having finally mastering legilimency over the summer. Granted, he had had much more time this summer to practice, what with Lily not speaking to him because of the incident at the lake that was caused by James Potter. Severus' face turned into a definite sneer, which he felt was a fine face to show the world. Otherwise, people might come talk to him and he would much rather be alone…or with other people who appreciated the dark arts for what they are, a work of art and genius meant to be explored. Or Lily Evans. Lily was always welcome as long as no one important was around to see them together.

Snape's mind quickly wandered back to his recent accomplishment and how he was oh so glad that he was on the Hogwarts Express headed into his sixth year. At Hogwarts, he would have plenty of time and people to be able practice legilimency. And who knows, maybe who could find someone who was an occlumens. And, though he was loathed to admit it even to himself, he was very interested to see if Lily still thought of him. He wanted to see if there was any chance she would take him back, as an acquaintance at the very least. He had even gone to their shared park several times over the summer to see if he could have already practiced on her, but every time he went, she was no where to be seen. Not to mention, maybe he could finally figure out what Potter and his cronies were always up to.

Severus Snape sat in his first potions class of the year with the pudgy Professor Slughorn trying to excite the teenage class of Slytherins and Gryffindor's by having three unknown potions sitting at the top of the classroom. Severus figured he would be able to determine what they were fairly quickly after Slughorn took off the lids, but Slughorn was still raving about some famous wizard prime minister that had attended a party he had over the summer. Severus thought he just liked to brag about his connection. Not like it mattered in this world unless they were pureblooded. A barking laugh from Sirius Black interrupted Severus' thinking and he ground his teeth together, hoping this wretched class would just end so he could go back to his common room, free from blood traitors and imbeciles alike. Just when Severus thought he could not take any more laughs from the group of Gryffindor boys sitting at the back, Professor Slughorn finally opened one of the lids of the potions. An overwhelming smell wafted through the room, finally quieting the snickers and whisperings of Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew. Severus almost stood up to get closer so he could enjoy the pure enchantment of the powerful love potion. It smelled of parchment, old cloths, and…he really tried not to notice this part, but it smelled like the flowers Lily used to open and close from when they were younger. Daisies. He couldn't help leaning forward to inhale the nostalgic scent. He worked to control his thoughts by holding his breath and willfully leaning back, thinking this would be the perfect time to see if Lily was thinking of him. He shook his head once more to get rid of the blissful haze and focused on the red-headed girl a table down on his left. Lily was looking starry-eyed and was also leaning forward, her face propped in her hand on the table. She was blinking slowly and breathing deeply to get as much of the scent as she could. It took Severus a few minutes to get the spell working, whispering legilimens under his breathe and honing in on Lily. The pictures he saw were a wee bit hazy, but he willed himself to concentrate more and was finally able to make out some of what she was thinking. He recognized old story books, though he did not recognize the title. It must have been a mudblood thing. He kept searching and saw freshly made treacle tart sitting on a table from the great hall, and then saw something that stumped him. It was quidditch broom cleaning serum. Why would Lily need or have ever used broom cleaning serum? She was terrible at flying and even if she did go to the quidditch matches, when would she have ever come into contact with the cleaning supplies? Severus kept searching until he stumbled upon an older memory. One he decided he did not like. It only showed half of the body of the person, but that person was decidedly male, and was polishing an older clean sweep 1000 with the broom cleaning chemicals. He paused at that memory hoping it would show who the man was, but he could only hear the laughter coming from him. Severus recognized that annoying sound and instantly retracted from Lily's mind. It was James Potter. He was sure of it. But when would she have seen James polishing a broom? It didn't look like the Gryffindor common room, but he also hadn't been there in a while, so it was hard to tell.

Just then, the same laugh from the memory echoed up to the front of the room as Slughorn finally closed off the Amortenia potion. Snape decided he should not have invaded Lily's mind when she was so obviously under the influence of the potion. Meaning that the memory he had seen had only been meaningful because of the aroma from the potion. Not because it actually meant something to her. Or that she was attracted to it. Because that would mean she was attracted to Potter, and there's no way she would go from being his best friend to finding Potter romantically attractive all in one summer. It was impossible and he rejected the idea.

Severus forced himself to stop thinking about what he had revealed in Lily's mind and to instead focus on Slughorn's lesson.

It was now nearing the end of the term and Severus Snape had just been stopped, he refused to say rescued, from entering the secret trapdoor beneath the Whomping Willow by none other than his archnemesis. James Potter. Severus was fuming, yelling at James and internally berating his idiotic, danger seeking friends. He cursed, insulted, and degraded James while James just continued making sure Severus kept walking back up the passageway by holding his wand at his back and Snape's wand in his other hand. Again, Snape was fuming. But at least he had found out the Remus Lupin was a werewolf. Now, he could tell Dumbledore what had happened, and he could get Black and the monster expelled. Potter would practically be alone and much less able to annoy him. Severus had been able to wandlessly and nonverbally cast the legilimens spell one time but knew now was the perfect time to try again. He stopped his internal rampage only to try the spell, successfully being able to investigate his enemy's head. He was not surprised to see memories of Sirius swirling around, particularly one of him with torn clothes, soaking body, and a bloody face while a storm raged on outside. It appeared Sirius was standing in a doorway while James ushered him in, calling for his house elves to bring him the emergency kit. Severus knew Sirius had been blasted off his family tree when he was disowned, and he wondered if this was when Sirius had left his pureblooded lifestyle for good. Severus' thoughts turned towards jealousy at the fact that Sirius had been able to leave the place he hated while Severus was stuck with his mudblood mother and vicious father. He quickly squashed that feeling and instead filled his mind with more hatred. He moved on to another memory, this one a much more recent one involving Lily. James was sprinting towards the common room door while Lily raced after him, firing question after question about what was going on, James answering as vaguely as he could. More loathing filled Snape's head. He could not believe that James had told Lily about this before he could. James made it sound much less sadistic than it was. But Severus intended to tell Lily his version of events once Sirius and his werewolf friend were long gone.

By this point, they were out of the Secret Passage and marching towards the main entrance when McGonagall and Lily burst through the door. Lily paused, surprised to see them so soon, and then quickly fled into James Potter's arms!

"You're okay!" Lily exclaimed with her arms wrapping around the blood traitor's neck and his filthy hands around her waist. Severus' eyes flashed with shock and revulsion seeing his former friend seeking comfort from who she had once claimed to hate. At least James had dropped Severus' wand when Lily had hugged him, so Snape quickly snatched up his wand and stalked inside ignoring McGonagall's demands and going straight to the headmaster's office to inform him of his malicious Gryffindor students.

It was now the middle of the second term. Sirius Black and the abomination had not been expelled. Though Sirius did suffer consequences, Severus did not find them fitting for the crime. And Lupin was still in school with no consequences even though he would've been the one that had actually killed him. Severus was sickened by their presence and actively told them so, but thus far Sirius, Potter, Lupin, and Pettigrew had not retaliated like he had expected. This made Severus even more sick, as if those lowlifes had actually learned something from their mistakes. And Lily believed their little act the most. And that is what sickened Severus the most. His Lily, believed the spiteful blood traitors and half-bloods, were capable of good. He had even heard she was the one that helped reconcile Black and Potter. And her and Potter were always together. Like she didn't have any other friends to hang out with, she had become a part of the Marauder dynamic. It repulsed him and also made him undeniably sad. He had picked her thoughts a few times but had found nothing that hinted at her wanting to reconcile with him.

Still, that did not stop him from seeing that she was spaced out during their transfiguration lecture and deciding to see what she was daydreaming about. Having become much better at nonverbally casting the spell, he was not surprised when he got into her mind easily.

Severus froze as he saw the scene playing out in front of him. He was thoroughly shocked. He really hoped what he was seeing was just her fantasizing and not something that had actually happened. It was a man's torso. A man's lanky midsection filled with abs and slight muscle definition. The scene switched to Lily kissing his neck...

! ! !

IT WAS JAMES POTTER. Severus jerked back disgustedly, really really hoping that had not happened, but still concerned because Lily would have been fantasizing about it anyway. He tried to forcibly move her to another picture, but he only found an actual clearer memory of them kissing after last week's quidditch match. The word secret ran through her mind and finally Severus understood. James Potter and Lily Evans were in a secret relationship, which was why she was willingly spending time with him and his gang. It was why he had not been prepared to see her imagining rendezvousing with Potter. When the scene switched again to James and her walking at their old park, Severus decided he had seen enough. Enough for a lifetime, regrettably.

But he also regretted that it had not been him in Potter's place.

Severus did not invade the Gryffindor's thoughts again unless instructed by the Dark Lord or other Death Eaters.

Author's Note:

To those of you commenting about the timeline of the prank, the evidence leans more heavily towards fifth year, but there are other evidences that refute that. For example, there's a scene that says Sirius is sixteen when he pulled it, however he would have been fifteen in fifth year (James is fifteen at the time of the mudblood incident and Sirius is only a few months older than him thus he would also be fifteen), especially if the prank happened before the mudblood incident. Also, The Marauders became animagi in fifth year, so depending on the timing of the prank they may not have even been able to transform then. There are clips of Severus telling Lily that he saw Remus transform, which probably would have been before the mudblood scene, unless Lily allowed him to talk to her briefly afterward, but that seems unlikely. However, Snape also wondered where they went which doesn't back up that he knew about Remus. Also, he probably would not have been allowed to tell Lily that Remus transformed but his loophole could have been telling her about the whomping willow so that scene doesn't make much sense. Honestly, I think JKR just messed up on her math when adding all of these scenes together or not all of Snape's memories in the pensive are in chronological order, I mean he was literally dying when he was taking them out we can't expect him to do that perfectly. And hp-lexicon says it takes place in sixth year. Also, this is a fanfic and I never said it was canon compliant lol. Obviously I tried to make it that way but we really don't have all of the facts surrounding the Marauder's Era and the HP fandom has been known to take what very little they have and run with it. I like the timing of the prank to be sixth year, I just think it makes more sense especially because Snape could have been trying to prove to Lily that the Marauders are hiding something bad and use that to try and be her friend again. Also I know that their friendship ended fifth year but I do think it's possible for Lily to talk to Snape about the whomping willow incident after the mudblood thing because she heard that James Potter had saved him, so even if they aren't friends I wouldn't put it past her to bring it up to Snape to either make sure he's okay or to confirm that it happened. Sooo yeah Imma leave my fic the way it is! Thanks for reading!