Disclaimer: Is not mine. Wish it was.

Okay. I said 25th. Is now 28th. Life has been way too hectic at the moment. Am also kind of annoyed. I'd written much more for this chapter, but then my computer decided to shut down of it's own accord and I hadn't saved part if it. One word: bugger. So I had to re-write. Course, I couldn't remember half of what I'd written, so this is the... other... version. Shorter than I intended, too. Oh well.

"Hey, Snape."

Severus whipped around and saw Avery, a boy who shared his dormitory. What he was doing around here was beyond him. "Avery."

"I want to talk to you, Snape." Severus nodded for him to continue. "Listen, we've indulged you in your friendship with the Mudblood Evans for far too long. It's time to make a choice."

Severus frowned at the use of the word 'Mudblood' in context with Lily, and said "Between?"

"Slytherin and Gryffindor. The Dark Lord and Dumbledore. Where does your allegiance lie?"

Severus said nothing, and Avery continued. "I'll give you time to decide, but it's a no-brainer, really. I want your answer on the train back to Hogwarts. Six weeks, Snape." He left.

Severus walked on toward Lily's house, bemused. He wound up spending most of the day with her, but was distracted by what Avery had told him. He zoned out on more than one occasion, and Lily was becoming increasingly impatient with him.

"Severus Snape, are you even listening to me?"

Severus jumped, and said, "Yeah, 'course. Sorry. Just zoned out a bit for a minute."

Lily glared at him, saying, "That's the equivalent to not listening, Severus."

"Sorry, Lily," he apologised. "Listening now."

The summer passed, and Severus was tortured with the decision he was expected to make. Over the nine and a half months he had known Avery, he knew to take him seriously. He was leaning towards one option, although he didn't really like it.

You don't want to be a pawn of the dark lord. If you do, chance of torture and death: high.

If I don't: very high.

Do you want to stay... friends with Lily? You can't do that if you're a Death Eater.

Hold on. Avery didn't say anything about being a Death Eater.

No, but he implied it.

If I do, I can protect Lily.

And she'll fall in love. With someone else.

I'm willing to risk it for her protection.

I can't believe you! You're trying to convince yourself to become a Death Eater! You know what they get up to!

Shut up.

Seriously. Don't do it.

Go away.

Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Severus shook himself. He'd made up his mind. Standing on the platform, he saw Avery looking intently at him. Severus' face betrayed no emotion, gave no hint in regards to his decision.

He looked around and saw Lily, who began gesturing for him to go and join her. He took a deep breath and turned away, walking toward Avery.

That hurt him, and he didn't want to make it worse by looking back at her to see her reaction to his blatantly obvious rejection.

He stopped walking as he reached Avery, but still said nothing.

"I'm proud of you, Snape. You made the right decision."

Severus nodded, still not overly happy with what he'd done.

Avery looked over Severus' shoulder at Lily, who was staring after Severus, confused. The other boy smirked. "She doesn't look too pleased. I'm guessing you didn't tell her what was going on?"

"No."

"A wise decision, I think. Come. I think it's time you learnt what was going on."

Avery led Severus onto the train, pushing their way past younger students to get to a compartment almost at the end of the train. Finally, they reached said compartment, and Avery slid open the door, gesturing for Severus to enter. He did so, and as he sat down in a free seat, Avery had slid the door behind him, taking his own seat.

Severus looked around him. Others present were the other boys from his dormitory, and a couple of what were now sixth years that Severus didn't know, at least not by name. After a moment, he noticed that the other boys were looking expectantly at Avery, and decided to follow their lead. It appeared that Avery was in charge of this whole thing.

The train began to move, and Avery started to speak. "The time is drawing closer," he began. "The time when we will be kicked into action. As you know, the Dark Lord is strong, and is rapidly gathering followers. Soon, we will be given a task to do for him while we are all still at school. We will be given something to do above his older, more experienced followers. What we need to start doing is getting the students in the place under control, but not so as to alert the teachers to our movements. At the same time, we will also need to recruit more Slytherins to help us."

He paused here, and one of the sixth years spoke up. "Avery, wouldn't it be mainly the Gryffindors who need we need to be in control of?"

Avery inclined his head at the boy. "Correct, Jenkins. They are the most... troublesome. Ravenclaws are clever enough to not stir up trouble, and Hufflepuffs are too scared to move around the castle after hours without the rest of their house with them. Gryffindors, however, are annoying, forever curious, and the biggest threat to us."

The meeting finished shortly after that, the main gist of it being that Gryffindors needed to be controlled, Slytherins needed to be recruited, and Severus and the sixth year boys were to be presented to the Dark Lord during the next set of holidays.

Severus made his way down through the train, just going for a walk to clear his head. However, he didn't get very far, as he was all but accosted and pushed into an empty compartment.

"Ow! You little – Lily?"

Lily glared at him, arms folded. "Hello, Severus."

"What the shit was that for?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the fact that you blanked me on the platform?"

"Oh. Right." He didn't want to have this conversation now. He picked himself up off the seat by the window and attempted to push past Lily and get back out into the corridor.

Lily barricaded the door, denying him entry to the corridor.

"Care to tell me what's going on?"

Severus didn't want to do it, but he felt it was the only way. He didn't want to prolong the pain for either of them. "It has nothing to do with you, Evans." He drew his wand. "Move, Mudblood." He winced internally, but kept his wand trained on her, face impassive.

Shock passed over Lily's face, which was quickly replaced by anger. "Right. I see. Fuck off, Snape."

Severus stalked out, not looking back at her. He wondered what would happen now.

Term began, and Severus began to notice that Potter and his group were accompanied by Lily more often than not. Of course, the fact that Potter had what he wanted, i.e. the absence of Severus around Lily, did not stop Potter hexing Severus whenever he got the chance.

Severus figured he may as well tell the boy so.

Potter only laughed at this, saying, "Well, I could, but I've been doing it for six years, Snape. I don't see why I should break the habit now."

Lily was with them for this particular encounter. She remained passive, doing nothing to encourage Potter, but doing nothing to hinder him either.

Once Potter let him go, Severus spared a glance in her direction, which was only met with a glare from her.

Severus sighed. It was going to be a long year.