CH 2

"You don't always have to stand up for me; I can look out for myself."

Severus and Lily were walking together down an abandoned hallway. Lily abruptly drew her arm away from his. The further they got from the courtyard, the more relaxed Severus became and he straightened up his back increasing his height by a few inches.

"Sev, you weren't doing anything and I'm not going to let those guys walk all over you!" she refuted. Severus stopped and turned to look at her. As much as her admired her thick luscious hair and those captivating emerald eyes, he was embarrassed the he was not brave enough to stand up to those guys.

"Well, Lily, you didn't do much good for me now did you? You believe him." Snape look back down at the ground as he felt Lily's hand graze his shoulder. Her light touch send shivers down his spine.

"I'm not sure what to believe. I mean, it's not like you came out and told me what happened that night." Severus looked from the ground up into her eyes. The chills down his back became stronger as their gazes met.

"Please, Lily, I wouldn't lie to you. Just…just don't believe everything they say. He was lying." Snape broke the gaze and continued walking down the hall. He was surprised when he didn't hear Lily's footsteps pattering behind trying to catch up.

"Severus," she called from behind him. "You are my closest friend. My best friend. Best friends tell each other these things. Why don't you trust me?"

Snape stopped again and reached up his hands and relaxed them on his head. He turned around in a smooth twist from the balls of his heels. His robes swished around with him. "I can't." Lily walked closer up to him. He reached his arms out. Their finger tips came into light contact with each other-

"Ey Snape!"

Lily Dropped her hand immediately and turned to see the faces of two boys strutting down the hallway. The Slytherin duo, Avery and Mulciber were coming nearer.

Avery was heavyset, with thick, tough arms, strong from three years as a beater on the Slytherin Quidditch team. He had thick blond hair and a very pale complexion with a nose that strongly resembled a pig. Mulciber, on the on the other hand was tall, much taller than even Sirius, with tan skin and short tan hair to match. Although his skin was dark, it was still easy to tell that he was lightly freckled.

"Snape," Mulciber called out again. "Hey, we saw what happened back there. Let me be the first to say it was PATHETIC!" Severus took a deep breath and then gave a forceful smile and stepped towards his friends and shoved Lilly aside, who nearly lost balance.

"Oh, I'll get them back…I'm already planning the revenge." Snape slyly smiled at the two boys. Avery lost his normal dim-witted and confused look and smiled.

"Revenge? Oh Sev-" Lily was cut of by Mulciber.

"Oh, thanks for interrupting, Missy."

"Her name is Lilly," Snape retorted.

"Oh I'm sorry," Mulciber continued, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "You see, Snape, if we are going to be friends, you can't go around having mudbloods look out for you." Mulciber grinned.

Lily's eyes widened. She knew that people used the awful word mudblood, but she had never been directly call one before. She stood aside waiting for Severus to say something.

"Guys, that's not cool. Don't call Lily that. She just doesn't always know her place." Severus first glanced at Avery and Mulciber for their approval and then at Lily. Her eyes were no longer sparkling emeralds, but they rather reflected fury of anger.

"I don't know my place?" Lily hissed, trying to keep her voice from shaking. "My place?" she repeated. "I'll see you around Snape." She took off down the hallway. When she got the end, she turned the corner and stood listening the Severus' conversation.

She recognized Avery's deep and somewhat gurgled voice. "Did you see what we did to Gizela, you know that Hufflepuff first year yesterday?"

"What?" Snape asked. There was no trace of remorse in his voice.

Avery continued. "Her mother sent her a new kitten. And, well, I saw it on a muggle news show. First we dangled it by its tail. Mulciber did that part. The cat hung three feet above that girls head! And then we put it in a paper bag and threw it in the Lake!"

Lily, upon hearing this, stifled a cry and shoved her hand over her mouth to prevent herself from making any noise. She had been on prefect duty when Gizela received the kitten and the young girl had let Lily hold it. It was plain white with unusual blue eyes.

"No way, did she cry?"

"Yeah she did! And some other first year boys tried to stun us, can you believe that?" Snape began to laugh at the thought. "Then," Avery continued, "It would have been great, but that lousy Potter boy saw Gizela crying and he dove into the lake and got the bag."

Snape had been laughing and now his smile was wiped off his face.

Avery apparently didn't see this and continued on laughing. "It would have been great. But Potter, I would have stunned him, but uh…"

Mulciber cut in. "Black threatened to tell McGonagall and Avery is already in trouble for talking back to her."

Lily had had enough. She walked to the staircase the go up to the common room.

"Lily!" Lily's friend, Mary, was walking down the hallway towards her. Mary's pale bland hair was wrapped tightly into bun on the top of her head how it was everyday. "I've been looking all over for you! I need help on my charms essay and its due tomorrow morning and I don't know where to start because the-"

Lily braced both of her hands on Mary's shoulders. "Mary, take a deep breath. I finished the essay last night. We'll get it done. Come on, let's go." Lily put her arm around Mary's should and they walked up the several flights of stairs to the Gryffindor common room.

"Redcap," Lily stated to the Fat Lady portrait.

"New password?" Mary asked.

"Yeah, McGonagall told me this morning."

The rest of the night Lily spent preoccupied explaining to Mary the uses and significances of the Substantive Charm. They were nearly done with the thirteen inch paper when flat out gorgeous girl stumbled through the portrait whole. Her eyebrows lowered in anger didn't take away any of the beauty that Aurélia possessed. Although she was only fifteen years old, Aurélia possessed a long and willowing body, only an inch short of Sirius's height. She had dark tan skin and deep chocolate colored hair with specks of natural golden highlights. She didn't need to put color on her lips because they were already naturally a rich red and she didn't need mascara for her vast eyelashes. It was the type of beauty everyone could appreciate and the only person who pretended he didn't see it was Sirius Black. He had tried for her attention until finally giving up third year. Even he, the master of male flirts, couldn't use his charm on Aurélia.

"I am so angry!" she said through grinded teeth.

Mary looked concerned. However, Lily knew that Aurélia had a short temper and last time she had been "really angry," it was because she had stepped in a water puddle in the great hall left by peeves.

"What's up Lia?" Lily asked, trying to show some sympathy in her voice.

"That Avery boy! Just because his father is in with You-Know-Who doesn't make him the dark lord of Hogwarts! That pig!"

Mary patted her friend on the back. "We all know how disgusting he is, but what did he do?"

Aurélia made a noise like and angry hippogriff. "That pathetic excuse for a man grabbed my butt – AGAIN!"

Lily began to laugh. The last time Avery had attempted to touch her, Aurélia had screamed so high pitched that he wasn't able to hear out of his right ear until Madam Pomfrey poured some of her hearing tonic in it. Aurélia's great-grandmother was a veela who married and Italian wizard. They moved to Manchester and had a son who married a Puerto Rican witch and that is how Aurélia got her beautiful and somewhat exotic looks.

"Why are you laughing? It's not funny! If I am going to have someone's hands on my butt, they should belong to someone attractive, like Brennan Carey's. Oh man, that boy is fit!" Aurélia's face changed from extreme anger to a dreamlike smile.

"Didn't Brennan just break up with Helena? The Hufflepuff?" Lily asked.

"Yes he did," Aurélia state proudly. "And you should have seen how quickly that girl rebounded. She and Sirius were all over each other today!"

"I know, I saw." Memories of the afternoon came flooding back to Lily. She had finally put it out of her mind when now her troubles returned. What should she do about Severus? They had been friends for more than five years, and he was the one who introduced her to the wizarding world…

"Hey, Lily, do you still hang out with Severus?" Mary asked innocently. She didn't know what had happened in the courtyard. She only knew that Snape was friends with Avery.

"Um," Lily started. She told the girls what had happened. Towards the end, especially when she got to the part about the kitten, she began the cry. Both Aurélia and Mary put their arms around Lily.

"Don't worry, Lily, I'm sure the kitten was fine," Mary said sympathetically.

"It's not the kitten," Lily sniffled. "It's the fact that he found it funny. I just don't know what is happening. I mean, I always knew that he was odd but – around me he always seemed calmer, more normal, you know? He even acted kind of sweet." The tears began pouring out of her eyes.

Aurélia took Lily's hand. "Lil, I know I haven't been friends with him as long as you have been friends with Severus, but believe me. When you first introduced him to me, it was creepy. He reminds me of the essence of every single death-eater I have ever imagined!"

Lily let out a huge whimper. "Don't say that! Severus is not a death eater!"

Mary stared at Lily. "Lily, look at who he is hanging around. Avery's father is a well-known death-eater. And Mulciber's father is in Azkaban for using the Cruciatus Curse."

Lily calmed down slightly. "Girls, I don't know what to do. I want to be friends with him, but if he continues down the path he is currently taking….I just don't know. The dark arts are…just that, they are dark."

At that moment, the portrait hole burst open again and in walked a muddy James Potter, carrying his Nimbus 1500 in one hand and his Quidditch goggles in the other.

"What a practice!" he exclaimed to anyone in the common room who was listening. "The Quidditch Cup belongs to Gryffindor this year!" A group of fourth years near the fire cheered. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Lily, you need to cut that boy some slack. Yeah he's arrogant," Aurélia added in quickly noticing the look on Lily's face. "But he is so in love with you!"

"I know!" she replied exasperated. "Sev told me today. I think he's jealous."

When James walked through the portrait hole, the first thing he noticed was Lily surrounded by her two best friends. After his exclamation, he searched the faces of the rooming, hoping to find that Lily's was one of the ones cheering. However, what he found was that she was not paying any attention to him at all, and rather her eyes were wet with tears and her friends looked as though they were trying to cheer her up. Oh god. She hates me. She's probably crying because of what I did to Snape. At that moment, Lily looked up from her friends and caught his eye for a mere second and then looked away.

James walked up to Lily and said, "Aurélia, Mary," the girls looked surprised to see him. "May I have a moment alone?"

The two got up and Aurélia flounced away up the stair case, while Mary uneasily went and sat a couple chairs over, not sure if Lily wanted her to leave or not.

"Lily," James began. "I don't want you to say anything, just hear me out. I apologize for what I did today. Okay? I shouldn't have embarrassed him the way I did. This doesn't mean I like him, or that I'll ever even be nice to him. Just, today, it was me. I was wrong."

Lily reached out and touched James' hand. "Thank you," she said quietly.

Her touch sent his nerves for a spin, feeling dizzy and stable at the same time. This is what he wanted.