"Okay. We're going to run on three, both at the same time."
"Okay," James agreed.
"One."
A particularly large spider was now crawling dangerously close to James's leg.
"Two."
Lily put her hands on the floor, ready to spring up and get the hell out of there as soon as they said three."
"THREE!"
Lily pushed herself off the dirty ground, and she and James both dove for the entrance to the cave. They made it out, and took off running deeper into the forest, the spiders scuttling after them. James swore loudly and pointed his wand behind him as they ran, sending a jet of blue light at the creatures, who were deterred long enough for the pair of students to run out of sight. They continued running for a few more minutes, rain pouring down on them, and narrowly escaping numerous bolts of lightning, until they came to a large clearing in the heart of the forest. The foliage high above them was so thick that it almost totally blocked the rain out, save for a few drops here and there.
The both stopped running, the danger averted. Lily clutched a stitch in her side, water dripping from her hair and clothes, and James was breathing heavily, his hands on his knees. Neither of them noticed the tall, skinny boy with long, slightly greasy hair stand up and disappear wordlessly behind a grove of trees.
"That… Was… Epic!" James managed to choke out. "Talk about an adventure!"
"Shut up," Lily said, also panting for breath, as she plopped down on the ground and laid face-up, trying to catch her breath. "What if those were poisonous? We could've died."
James followed suit, and practically fell on the leaves, lying much too close to Lily for comfort. He was literally right beside her, with no dirty forest ground in between them. A vicious-sounding rumble of thunder echoed throughout the forest, and they both turned their heads and locked gazes.
"Then I would've died happy, as long as I was with you."
Lily stifled a snicker. "Oh, and where'd you get that line from, your great uncle-"
But James would never know which great uncle she was talking about, because on an impulse, he leaned in and kissed her straight on the mouth, cutting her sentence off and hoping to Merlin that she wouldn't use too nasty of a hex on him when she pushed him away. But she didn't immediately push him away. Instead, for just a fleeting moment, Lily actually kissed him back. And it was the best kiss she'd ever had, hands-down. Too bad it was with James Potter… Wait. Her eyes fluttered open. She was kissing James Potter. She was kissing James Potter. As soon as she actually realized it, she broke the kiss and shoved him off of her, punching him as hard as she could in the chest.
"What… the… hell, Potter?" She said, not quite yelling, but rage laced in her voice nonetheless.
He grinned sheepishly. "I think that just topped our spider run-in, as far as epic-ness goes."
Neither of them noticed the tall boy angrily stepping out from behind a tree and facing them.
"Interrupting something, am I?" His nastily malevolent voice rang out from across the clearing. Both James and Lily jumped up and whirled around, their wands already trained on the source of the voice. But as soon as Lily saw who it was, she breathed in sharply and lowered her wand.
"Yeah, that's right. I'm here. You were supposed to come here to meet me, and instead you bring that Potter with you?" The speaker said James's surname as one might say 'Death Eater' or 'pedophile'.
"Not so keen on seeing you either, Snivellus," James answered, his wand very much still raised, and his eyes narrowed in dislike.
Snape ignored James. "Are you trying to hurt me as much as you possibly can, Lily?"
The redhead opened her mouth in protest, but Snape continued on, not even giving her a chance to explain. "Trying to punish me for something I've paid for time and time again? Trying to make me hate myself?"
"Of course n-" She began again, but he held up a hand, efficiently silencing her. She'd never, ever seen him this horribly angry before, so she didn't protest.
"I thought you were coming here to make amends. I thought that maybe, just maybe, we could be friends again. But no. You came to rub your new boyfriend in my face." He paused, but James and Lily were both silent. "So much for all my fucking hoping that maybe, just maybe, you could forgive me. And so much for fucking love." Snape spat the last word through clenched teeth, and Lily physically flinched at the pain behind his words. Finished with his rant, he turned on his heel and angrily stormed off into the forest.
"Severus, wait," Lily said, but he either didn't hear or didn't care anymore. "Severus!" She said, much louder, running to the edge of the clearing where he'd disappeared. She didn't notice James following her, but he must've, because he still stood by her side. "Sev!" She screamed, loud enough to cause practically every animal within a mile radius to flee in alarm. But still, there was no answer. Severus was gone. Slowly, as if the storm knew that something tragic had just happened, drop after drop of water began to break through the forest canopy with increasing intensity, until there was a steady stream of rain pouring down on the clearing and everything in it.
James lowered his wand and wordlessly took Lily's hand.
a/n; so sorry this chapter was shorter than the last, but it has a lot more actual content. angry snape scared me a bit, even as i was writing it. that's a lot of pent-up emotion. anyways. as i'm writing this, i've had 75 visitors on this story, and one review. what the fuck? not cool, guys. i don't care if your review is five words or five hundred, anything, even critique, is immensely appreciated. so get on that. :D
disclaimer; lol, i don't think JKR would have sev throw an angry bitch fit like that. so i'm not her, and i own nothing. sad, i know. and the story and chapter titles are from the song "the thunder rolls" by garth brooks. i don't own that, either. xD.