Lily walked through the hallways, her footsteps echoing off of the silent corridors. It was an hour before any of the classes started and the air was still chilly since none of the teacher's had cast warming charms yet.

After not seeing Severus in lunch the other day she had gone back to the common room with this odd lump in her throat. She had tried to ignore it but ultimately couldn't. As much as it annoyed her, and even scared her, she had wanted to see him. All last night she had lain awake and thought about their last conversation and how awful she had been. It seemed so stupid now, how she had re-acted to what he said. In a situation that she had pegged him as the bad guy, he was now the victim of her childish anger and ability to hold a grudge for a flipping long time.

Focusing her thoughts back to the present, Lily managed to duck behind a column as Professor McGonagall walked by, flicking her wand as she went to warm the chilly halls. Lily's heart was beating double time and she laughed quietly, shaking her head at herself. "You aren't breaking any rules Lil" she mumbled to herself as she regained her composure and set off down the hallway towards the room that would eventually change her life.

"It's called Aquamenti." Severus said from his spot in the back of the Defense against the dark arts class. "You use it to spray a jet of water. It's useful for a number of things, including making your enemies shut up."

Professor Higgins stared back at Severus for a few moments, her eyebrows going up for the briefest of seconds before she continued, awarding four points to Slytherin. Severus knew she was wandering why her best student had added the sarcastic comment at the end but Sev could have cared less. His day was made even better as he heard Lucius mumbling obscenities at his back from the table behind him. Not that it would have mattered if Lucius stayed mad at him for the rest of his life. His whole world had been flipped sideways as he had walked into class that morning.

A note had been placed on his desk, exactly where he would have sat. Intrigued he had opened it, knowing who it was from almost immediately.

As Professor Higgins dragged on in his lecture, Severus pulled out the tiny folded note from his robe pocket, inhaling Lily's scent as he did so. The note smelled like the perfume she used to wear, a mix of Jasmine and vanilla. Checking to make sure no one would see, he opened it and re-read the note.

Sev…

I hope you get this. I know you used to always be early for DADA and hopefully you still do that….Anyways meet me behind the blue tapestry on the fourth floor after dinner but before curfew.

-Lil

His whole head was filled with her voice, how he thought she would sound saying those things. He couldn't believe she had remembered that he was always early to DADA simply because he couldn't wait to learn everything there was to learn. The sharp sound of a bang brought his attention back to the present and he noticed Professor Higgins standing at the front of the room, a huge trunk on the floor near her feet. "Can I please have a volunteer?" She asked, her eyes automatically landing on Severus. He nodded and stood, careful to replace the note before he went forward.

"Lily, are you ok? You've been acting weird all day."

James looked over at her, a look of concern on his face. She smiled, shaking her head. "I found out I have a test next class. I'm just worked up about that. You know how I am with my tests." James shot Remus a look that said should have guessed that one, and went back talking to his friends. Lily on the other hand wasn't ok. Her stomach was in knots and she couldn't keep her leg from bouncing up and down in nervous anticipation. It had started shaking so bad one time, she had hit the bottom of the table and almost knocked over her glass of pumpkin juice.

To make matters worse, she could feel his eyes on her back. She had always been able to tell when he stared at her but after their falling out, she had blocked him out. Now it was causing her back to feel like it was on fire. Every part of her wanted to turn around but if she saw him before they were supposed to meet, she was worried she would lose her nerve and cave. Grabbing a tart from the tray, Lily bit into it and counted down the seconds until dinner would end.

Severus made sure no one was following him before ducking out of sight down one of the hardly ever used stair cases. James Potter wasn't the only one who knew his way around Hogwarts and Severus knew about every hiding place there was which was why he knew where Lily was going to be exactly. He ran through what he could say and what he wanted to say but the only thing that he kept thinking about was what if this is a trick? He had glanced over at her almost the entire night and she hadn't looked over once. The only thing he had seen was Potter acting overly cocky and as he walked the more on guard he became. The last thing he wanted was to be made a fool of again. He rounded the corner and saw the tapestry, fluttering slightly as if someone had just crossed behind it.

Taking a deep breath, he withdrew his wand, keeping it hidden as he slipped behind the curtain. It was dark at first but then he heard her speak. He was so shocked it really was her that he didn't hear what she said. A light was cast around them, and they just stared at each other.

She looked so timid, standing there before him with her arms crossed in a defensive stance and he felt his heart break as he realized she thought he might actually try to harm her. Shaking his head, he backed away from her, tucking his wand into his pocket as he moved.

"I'm not going to jinx you Lily so stop standing there like I'm about to attack."

She jumped, only the tiniest bit but he noticed it, as she dropped her arms and frowned at him.

"I didn't think you were going to jinx me Sev, but how can you blame me for standing like that? We haven't talked in ages and everything has gotten so…..messed up." She sighed, running a hand through her red hair. He was having a hard time focusing because she had called him Sev, again. It was her old nickname for him but nicknames are for people who like each other and get along, not people who haven't talked in forever.

She opened her mouth and then closed it again, reminding him of a fish as it gasps for air. He could see thoughts running through her eyes, emotions crossing her face as she searched for the right thing to say. He stood quietly, letting her process her thoughts since it was her after all who had wanted this meeting. He found his gaze wandering over her body, and then she was speaking again.

"I was wrong. For getting so mad at you like I did. James was being stupid, like he always is, and I should have listened to you and stayed with you. You were my friend Sev and I just…I just tossed it aside like it was nothing over a stupid nickname." Tears were forming in her eyes and Severus started getting nervous, not knowing how to react. He wasn't exactly the warmest person and he definitely didn't know how to handle girls crying but before he knew it, she was hugging him.

Her face was buried in his shoulder and her arms were wrapped around his back as she mumbled apologizes about how awful she had been to him but none of it even mattered. He would have forgiven her anyways. After the tears stopped, she pulled back, laughing at herself as she whipped her eyes.

"You have no idea how bad that has been bothering me." She shrugged, taking in a deep breath as she met his eyes. "So what do we do now?"

Severus blinked, not sure what she was asking. A thought immediately popped into his head of what they could do but he stopped it before it took hold. He had told himself long ago to not think of Lily like that. "We go on. You have James and your friends and I have mine. If I see you, I'll smile and you can do the same back but I don't think we can ever be friends in the open again Lily. Too much has changed."

He smiled sadly, pulling aside the tapestry to walk away before he could see the hurt he knew was going to be on her face.