A/N: sorry it took me so long to get this up! But its here now and I'll actually post chapters tonight. Yahoo! Go me!. Please leave reviewsss. I want to know you guys are reading and I am not writing in vain. . Thanks guys so much. And here you are!

It had been a couple weeks since the encounter. Lily wasn't talking to Sirius, and she was barely talking to James. Their relationship had been put on hold for the time being. Lily avoided the common room and other general areas so that she wouldn't have to see him. The occasional dinner run-in never went well. It usually started with, "Could you pass the marmalade?" and ended with one of them getting up from the table to go cry upstairs.

She tried to avoid him as much as she possibly could, but it was very difficult seeing as he was in almost every single one of her classes. She couldn't stand the look on his face. He looked as if all the happiness in the world had been sucked out of him. He just stared blankly ahead, no light in those pale blue eyes that were once the brightest of blues.

A flying folded piece of paper hit Lily in the head, and brought her out of her James-induced stupor. She was sitting in potions, her quill poised above her half-taken notes, due to the fact that she'd started thinking about James. She glanced down at the paper that was now sitting on the edge of her desk. She picked it up, unfolded it, and in very, VERY untidy scrawl were the words

Lily,

Please let me be the big brother to you that I always have been. I'm sorry for everything. Let's talk tonight, okay? 7 o'clock? Quidditch Pitch?

Sirius

Lily stared at the piece of paper, and then looked around the room to find him. Her eyes fell upon the very back table. Sirius and James were attempting to hide the fact that their potion was spitting fiery flames everywhere.

Lily couldn't help but smirk. Sirius looked up almost as soon as she'd laid eyes on their table, and gave her a soft smile. Lily gave a small nod back and then slipped the note into her pocket. Marlene walked over with their potion in a vial.

"I've done almost everything…" She said softly. Lily looked up at her.

"Oh. Marlene. I'm sorry. It's just…I've been so…" Marlene smiled and shook her head.

"No, Lily. It's perfectly fine. I know you haven't been getting much sleep and stuff…Plus I used your notes." She said, flashing her another smile and taking the vial up to Professor Slughorn's desk.

Lily began packing up her things when a hoarse voice spoke her name. She swiveled around almost instantly, and dropped half the things she was holding.

"Christ. Severus…Way to scare the living hell out of me." He gave her a half smile

"Sorry." She shook her head

"No. No…it's fine. Is there something you needed?" she asked him, beginning to pack up her things again.

"I just…wondered if maybe next Hogsmeade trip…you'd want to go with me." Lily closed her bag and slung it over her shoulder.

"Severus…nothing's changed. Just because James and I are…" she closed her eyes for a moment and swallowed hard, and shook her head. "You're still friends with Mulciber and Avery….and no amount of 'I'm sorry's can take back what you said." Lily said, suddenly remembering, like a film in her head – that day by the lake, when Severus Snape, her very best friend at the time, had carelessly called her a mudblood while she'd stood up for him against her future boyfriend .

Oh god…James. It was like a cold weight had been thrown into her body. Thinking about way he was now was one thing, but thinking about the old James…the one she fell in love with…It made her heart hurt. She could feel the tears even before they were visible. Then his arms were around her and she breathed in his scent. Still the same old Severus. The smell of grease and new books greeted her senses.

She couldn't hold herself together, she was ripping apart at the seams and spilling all over him. She hadn't cried this much since the night she'd discovered James injecting himself with that horrible poison. Everything she had been feeling was bubbling inside her, and she felt as if she was going to burst with the burn of it. She could hardly breathe from the crying, and she was practically going numb.

She could feel Severus carrying her out of the classroom. Where to? She had no idea. The corridors were becoming blurs, and she was feeling sicker and sicker the farther they traveled. Before she could even realize what was happening, she was leaning against a shiny porcelain toilet, purging herself of the pain that was in her stomach. And someone was, thankfully, holding her hair back.

Once she could hardly hold herself up anymore from lack of energy, she felt a pair of strong arms lifting her. Soon she was lying on a very soft surface, and the only thing she could imagine doing was sleeping. And before she could comprehend it, she'd fallen asleep.