Severus awoke at 6am after a restless night. The sky was still dark and the house was silent. What little light there was glimmered through a tear in his greying curtains, providing dim light to the small room. Severus' was the most unkempt room in the house, this was not through neglect or lack of trying by his parents, but purely because of Severus' severe dislike of change. Whenever his parents had attempted to redecorate or even clean his room they were met with stern dispute from their unwavering son. As a result, many of the surfaces were covered in a thick layer of dust and a chest of drawers stood broken, but still functional in a far corner. On top of the drawers was an accumulation of old, damaged school books from his mother's days at Hogwarts. The only one not laden with dust was a large potions handbook, which had clearly been read regularly. Behind the books, patches of ancient wallpaper lay limp from the walls and the brown carpet was as tattered as the curtains, but this space was his, and his alone. Severus found the dim light, and dull colours comforting.
Sighing deeply, Severus rolled over and reached under his bed to retrieve a small box that had been set aside months ago. He opened it carefully, as though afraid, evaluating the contents slowly and carefully.
"Hmm.. Just once more." He whispered as he delicately tipped out a beautiful white flower onto the crumpled bedclothes. With as much care as he had opened the box, he ran his mothers' wand over each petal in turn, covering it in a silvery glow.
He and his mother had been working on preservation spells for a long time, although he had never told her why. He had been collecting the most striking flowers from the bush in the park, where he had first met Lily, and after several failed attempts at casting the charm and consequently destroying the flower, Severus was overjoyed when he finally got this one right. It was perfect. He was sure it was the most beautiful flower that he had found. Once the glow had subsided he delicately placed the flower back into the small box and wrapped it with great care, using some old brown paper he had found in his father's study. The final touch was a scrap of bright green ribbon, that his mother had thrown away, tied in a dainty bow on top.
By 9 o'clock he was leaving the house with an unusual spring in his step. He was wearing his nicest trousers, best fitting shirt and one of his dad's old blazers, although it was too large for him he felt it made him look much smarter. Today was Lily's birthday, and they were meeting in the park at 10 o'clock. It only took him 15 minutes to get from his house to the park – less than 10 at the speed he was moving today – so of course, he was early. He settled behind the bush cross legged facing the direction of Lily's home and waited. At quarter to he removed the small box from his blazer pocket placing it in the middle of the ground in front of his crossed legs, nervously shifting it from side to side until he was quite sure that it was directly in the centre. Although an energetic swarm of butterflies had not left his stomach all morning, by 11 o'clock the excitement had begun to fade.
"Maybe she just lost track of time." He said to himself as he made his way toward her house.
He smiled, but with a cold sting of panic. Although he was still talking himself into it, he had decided that if he didn't see her on the way then he was going to call for her at home, her home, where her family were, her normal family. Her muggle family.
"Oh stop it." He growled at himself. "At least they won't know your family." Lily had told him on many occasions how lovely her parents both were, and even if she was lying they could never be as bad as his own.
As he turned the corner into her road he could feel his heart beating in his throat and was finding it impossible to swallow.
"It will be fine." He whispered, over and over again. "Just fine."
For the first time in 15 minutes Severus looked up from his feet, but as he did he stopped suddenly. Although he had reached the house, he didn't feel any more at ease. Severus stood across the road, frozen. The house was decorated from roof to rosebush with large sparkling 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' banners and music was blaring through an open window to the right of the front door. Through the window he could see that the house was full of children laughing, dancing, singing and playing games. He swallowed hard, after walking all this way he couldn't justify turning back now. Just seeing her face would be worth it, he could just give her the present and leave. Turning the box over and over in his hands he walked slowly towards the door, but as he reached out to knock a sudden movement caught his eye. Petunia was standing in the window, and although she was laughing he could see the malice in her eyes as she pulled the curtains closed. Her gaze cut right through him and he felt every ounce of courage he had built up slowly drain away. Without blinking he placed the box on the doorstep in hopes that it would be found and made his way, slowly, back to the park.
For the remainder of the evening he sat on the swing set, swaying only because of the wind. It was a cold January afternoon, and the park was empty. He had no risk of anyone interrupting his thoughts. It had been dark for an hour when Severus thought it best that he head home, but as he rose from the swing the bush opposite him seemed to move. Although he was sure that he must have imagined it, and he had assured himself that he was most definitely not scared! Severus decided to stay put, just a little while longer. After another half an hour of staring almost unblinking at the bush Severus decided the creature must have gone, if it had even existed, and so began to make his way home. He made his way toward the bush, smiling faintly at how silly he had been to even hesitate. What could there possibly be that he would be afraid of? In Cokeworth? But nonetheless he moved cautiously around the bush. As he slowly peered around he saw a small, dark -figure laying in the grass. He moved slowly towards the unmoving form, until he was close enough to see definitively that this was a person. As he examined the form to check that the person wasn't injured the clouds cleared, the moonlight illuminated a familiar shade of red. It couldn't be…
"Lily?!" He gasped falling to his knees beside her. "Lily! Are you okay?" He sat her up in his arms, shaking her gently, pleading for her to move when she let out an immense yawn.
"Oh, hello Sev." She smiled calmly. "What're you doing here?"
"I wa-wait why are you here?" he stuttered in a stunned response, her cool serenity had caught him off guard.
"We had a meeting remember?" She smirked, fidgeting in his arms, but rather than sitting up she settled her head on Severus' lap, her face directly below his.
"Yes.." Severus smiled, "At 10 o'clock this morning, not in the evening." He teased.
"AH!" Lily exclaimed sarcastically, "So that's where I went wrong!.." She rolled her eyes and as she did they shimmered in the moonlight. "I am sorry Severus." She said, her tone dropping.
"It's-I-Wh-What happened?" Was all he could manage in response, much to the disgust of his conscience. He couldn't even maintain eye contact.
"Surprise party." She groaned, rolling over and burying her face in his knee.
Over the next hour or so Lily explained how she had been preparing to leave the house that morning, just as early as Severus had, when her aunt and uncle arrived and intercepted her in the driveway. Then once guests had started arriving they didn't stop. She proclaimed for all to hear how few of the guests she 'even liked anyway', and how the music was far too loud, and her baby cousins would not leave her alone. By mid-afternoon, when the house had finally calmed down, she was expected to sit down for dinner with her family. She told him how she ate it so fast she had given herself stomach ache! Which of course was just, yet another inconvenience to the day. When she'd finally went to leave the house she had seen the box on the doorstep and went back inside to ask her parents who had been. She didn't need to, however as the smirk on Petunias face had given her away, after a rather heated discussion with her sister about whose abnormally small nose should be kept in their own business Lily had stormed from the house and straight to the park.
"-I don't know why I still thought you'd be here but I had to try," she yawned, "and you were here." A smile spread across her face the likes of which Severus had never seen before, though maybe that had something to do with her being upside down.
"You know I'm always here," He smiled amiably back at her, "well, not here… I do go home to sleep." He continued thoughtfully.
"Haha, yeah I got that Sev," she taunted, wrinkling her nose "anyway!" she sighed sitting up and turning to face him.
'Please don't leave yet.' He thought.
She pulled her hands into view and it was only now that Severus realised that she was clutching a small brown box with a small green bow. When he saw it was unopened he was flooded with fear that she was here to give it back, to tell him she didn't want gifts from the likes of him. The same feelings of dread that he had at her door rushed over him again, and he suddenly felt cold.
"You know you didn't have to Severus!" she smiled softly.
"No?.. I-Sorry." He stammered in response, panic struck and he reached out his hand expecting her to return his heartfelt gift.
"Oh no" she giggled, "It's mine now!" she held the box as high as she could above her head. "So, what is it?"
"You'll have to open it and see.." smirked Severus, feeling his confidence slowly returning.
Lily mockingly glared at him, rotated the box in her hands, then gently removed the bow without untying it and placed it in her pocket. She then proceeded to remove each individual strip of tape and gently remove the brown paper.
"A box!" she exclaimed, "I'm going to be unwrapping forever!"
"Only because you take forever!" Severus replied, "It's not going to bite you, you know..."
"Oooh a clue! So it doesn't have teeth…" she said gazing off thoughtfully into the dark that surrounded them.
As she opened the box Severus closed his eyes, he couldn't bare seeing the look on her face if she didn't like it. When he opened his eyes Lily's face was glistening, and it was at this moment that he realised that she didn't appear to have even grabbed a coat when leaving her house. He removed his dads' old blazer and reached over to place it around her shoulders, as he leaned back he grabbed hold of her cold hands.
"You don't like it." He mumbled, more to himself than Lily. As he leaned closer and tried to apologise Lily flung her arms around his neck.
"No! I love it!" She cried, "Oh Sev, it's beautiful! Where did you find this? It looks just like these!" she said leaning back and comparing the flower to those on the bush.
Severus mumbled inaudibly in response before reconsidering and repeating his statement louder "It's from here… I… I charmed it."
"You what? Sev! That's so cool… That's so sweet!" She beamed, "Oh Sev, I love it!" As she spoke she gently placed the flower in her hair over her right ear.
"How does it look?" she asked with a pout.
"Beautiful." Breathed Severus blushing. Though he never looked away from her eyes.
It was really getting late now. They were both shivering, and agreed that they should each be heading home. Lily would not let Severus walk her back, however she did cave upon his insistence that she keep the blazer until tomorrow. They shared a brief hug and went their separate ways, Severus was dragging his feet with a dreamy smile on his face when he was knocked to one side by Lily flying at him, throwing her arms around his neck and tenderly kissing his cheek.
"Thank you." She whispered in his ear, before disappearing running back down the street yelling, "I'll see you tomorrow!"
Severus smiled the whole way home.
4.1 Half a Day Late
As Severus arrived home he heard the clock chime 9 o'clock. His eyes widened,
"Oh Merlin…" he breathed as he lowered the door handle. Before he even had a chance to step over the threshold, the silent house erupted into life.
"Eileen, your son is home!" Tobias yelled from his armchair by the fire.
"I see that Tobias!" she quipped back, "Where the well do you think you have been? You've been out all day, no note, no mention of when you'd be back?"
"I was at the park…"
"You could have been DEAD for all I-we, for all we knew!" his mother spoke . over him, striding to stand between Severus and the door.
"The park?.. Again? What do you even do there all day?" his father called setting down his pipe and moving to stand at Eileen's side.
"I was-I jus-I" Severus stuttered shrinking towards the stairs.
"I don't want to hear it." His father said sternly, "Go to bed, you're grounded."
"How lon-"
"NOW" his mother shrieked.
Even though Severus' room seemed darker than ever that night, and he could hear his parents discussing his punishment downstairs, he still couldn't help smiling as he fell asleep with his cheek still warm from her touch.
'She loved it.'