A/N: Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to my reviewers! I swear I tried to get this chapter up earlier, but real life kind of got in the way :P

I hope you like this chapter, I know I said there would be a Christmas time-skip in this chapter, but I wanted to add more to the plot in between now and Christmastime, so...enjoy!

~Usual disclaimer applies~

"Forty minutes left!" Slughorn's voice echoed around the sullen walls of the dungeon, reminding the first years to hurry and finish the day's assignment.

Sev inwardly groaned from his seat at the very back of the class. He was pretty sure Lily was irritated as well, but her face remained blank as she carefully measured a vial of eucalyptus extract and poured it into their cauldron. Seconds later, a layer of orange smoke rose from the potion; Sev knew it was supposed to be hunter green at this point, but he wasn't about to correct her mistake.

Ever since their fight three days ago, Lily had been avoiding him like the plague. He ruefully assumed it was because she was angry with him— not that he blamed her— but he had missed having someone normal to talk to. Instead, without Lily around, Sirius and Remus figured that Sev could use the company, so they left James with him.

The boy hadn't made much progress memory-wise, and his previous arrogance had been replaced with annoying politeness. Sev figured there must be another way to help the boy, rather than spending all of his extra free time pointlessly tutoring him, but he hadn't found a solution as of yet.

Today in Double Potions with the Slytherins, Lily had been unsuccessful in her attempt to avoid Sev once more; thinking the two were still the best of friends, Slughorn had paired them together.

"You're cutting it wrong…chopping it would be faster," he absentmindedly informed Lily as she began slicing the Waterrock roots as instructed in the next step the book. She paused and darted a quick glance at Sev; not wishing to make eye contact, he turned his attention away. Up at the front, Sirius was chatting amiably with Melika, the partner whom he had been assigned to today. Remus hadn't been so lucky: he had gotten James as a partner, though the poor flustered-looking boy was doing all of the work, since James was more interested in sticking kaulard beans up his nose at the moment.

Lily moaned silently. Sev was probably still mad at her for losing control of her temper the other day. Now he wouldn't even look at her, even though all she wanted to do was to apologize and beg for his forgiveness. He was just trying to give her some advice, she didn't need to go off on him like that…only now did she realize her mistake…too late to correct it now that he was this angry with her…

Sighing to herself, she dully reached across the cauldron for the jar of hill worms. Just as she grasped her hand around the jar, she felt Sev's hand brush by hers. He had apparently read the instructions already and was trying to make some progress on their brewing, which looked pretty dismal at the moment.

They looked up at each other, and Lily unwillingly blushed, feeling rather ill at ease around the boy who was supposedly her best friend. She quickly removed her hand and mumbled an apology before determinedly focusing her attention on one of the cobwebs on the uppermost shelves around the dungeon.

Ignoring his own embarrassment, Sev hastily dumped the final ingredient into the pot and tentatively raised his hand for Slughorn to come over and inspect their potion. He knew it was awful, but neither partner seemed able to concentrate today, so what was the use in forcing the issue?

The portly potions master hovered over their simmering cauldron for a few moments before frowning at the two.

"Not up to your usual brilliance."

Sev couldn't help but glance at Lily, who was exceedingly pink in the face by now. She knew it was her fault the potion was a disaster, but she didn't want to have to admit that herself. She already felt terribly ashamed of herself for possibly ruining her closest friendship.

Slughorn seemed to be waiting for an explanation, but neither of them had anything to offer.

"Sorry sir," Sev muttered at last.

xXxXxXxXx

"You know? Melika's not all that bad," Sirius said casually as the four boys made their way back to their common room after Potions. Noticing the odd looks on Remus and Sev's faces, he quickly amended his words: "For a Slytherin anyways…I mean, she hates the house she's in— not that I blame her, who could possibly want to be in Slytherin?— and we share the same loathing for all the other Slytherin girls! Especially Evans," he added fiercely.

"Shut up about Lily," Sev shot back, feeling it would be appropriate to defend her even if she currently hated his guts.

Sirius was about to fight back, but once again, the ever-so-clueless James decided he'd get in on the conversation too: "Who's Lily, Sev? Your ickle girlfriend?"

Wow, now that sounds like the James I know and…hate.

"No, she's the one who knocked you off that broom, remember?" Sev sneered, feeling more and more irritated with Potter the longer he was around the insufferable boy.

"What?!"

Sev smirked. "That's right. Oh, and by the way, two days before you lost your memory, Professor McGonagall caught you mooning the Hufflepuffs during Transfiguration…the first of your twenty detentions start tonight…in the Forbidden Forest."

Sirius snickered, loving the mortified expression on James' face. The terrified boy had stopped walking altogether, and stared on at the trio as they walked up to the Fat Lady's portrait. Sev never laughed, but found it impossible to hide his amusement.

So much for being a courageous Gryffindor. This new Potter was a coward.

"You're lying," he whispered, though it was loud enough for the others to hear him from where he was now on his knees ten paces behind them. "There's no way…I'll die out there…surely first years don't get assigned detentions out there…what if…what if I get attacked by thestrals out there?!"

"You can't see thestrals, mate. But the good news is that you won't have to watch them as they kill you," Sirius snorted.

Remus glared at Sev and Sirius, and went back to pull James to his feet. He was shaking in terror at the prospect of spending his evening in the Forbidden Forest, but relaxed slightly when Remus put his hand on his shoulder comfortingly.

"It's just a joke James, you're fine."

"Are you sure?" James asked in an uncharacteristically tiny voice. Everything about this new Potter was really starting to get on Sev's nerves…

"Yes," Remus rolled his eyes in exasperation and led the naive boy over to where Sev and Sirius stood with arms crossed, unhappy with Remus ruining what could have been an interesting night, had James attempted going into the Forbidden Forest after all…

Once through the portrait hole, Sev begrudgingly made his way over to a desk to begin his Potions essay. It wasn't due until Wednesday, but Severus Snape was no procrastinator, unlike Sirius and James, who never did their work until the hour before it was due.

Wishing there was some way things could just go back to normal, Sev unwillingly pulled out his potions book and a few quills. Remus told him that tutoring James later was his responsibility, so he wanted to accomplish as much as he could now before that nuisance interrupted all of his precious study time for the third night in a row.

As he flipped open the book, something fluttered out. He was normally too organized to resort to shoving his papers into his book; what could it be?

Curious, he picked up the note that had fallen onto the ground next to his chair and carefully unfolded it. It was a short, handwritten letter:

Sev,

Meet in the library at 9.

Lily

xXxXxXxXx

"Oh, I give up!"

Lily darted her head up at the sound of her friend's frustrated scream. There were only a few students in the Slytherin common room right now; most of them were still enjoying themselves at dinner.

Lily had just finished her essay— it wasn't due until Wednesday but Lily Evans was no procrastinator— and had just begun to work on another one of Chapluck's ridiculous assignments when she heard Laika pound the desk across the room from her. None of the others had bothered asking what was wrong, so Lily took it upon herself to make sure her friend was okay. She'd definitely been more withdrawn and tense lately; ever since that late-night conversation with Lucius that Lily accidentally overheard. Lily hoped things would improve between the two siblings soon, because seeing Laika like this was unnerving. She had hardly spoken a single word to Lily or Narcissa, and judging by the black rings under her eyes, she wasn't sleeping too well either. She was a first year, so it wasn't like she was loaded up on extra classes or anything, so why was she so stressed?

"Laika? Are you okay?"

The girl jolted up from burying her face in her hands and wildly looked around the room before she realized that Lily was standing right next to her.

"Oh…it's you," she said dully. "I'm uh, fine. Just…tired."

Lily eyed the other girl doubtfully for a moment, then leaned against a nearby bookcase and looked over her friend's essay. It was the one Slughorn had assigned them earlier that day, and while Lily had twenty inches written, Laika had just three. Ink was splattered all over the parchment, and Laika was now cursing fluently under her breath at the ink that had spilled onto her robes and hair.

"Want some help with that?" Lily finally asked. Her Muggle wristwatch told her it was only seven o'clock; hopefully Sev had gotten her note by now and would be meeting her in the library in two hours. Plenty of time to help a friend in need.

Laika's eyes filled with hope at the sound of Lily's offer. "Would you? Would you really do that for me?"

Lily nodded.

"Oh Lily, thank you so much! I haven't gotten any sleep lately…I can barely concentrate on anything…"

"Oh no problem—" Lily trailed off as Laika thrust the essay, quills and potions book into Lily's arms. She had offered to help. But did Laika really think she'd do the entire assignment for her?

As much as she wanted to shove everything back into the other girl's hands and tell her to do it herself, Lily felt a twinge of sympathy nagging at her heart…after all, Laika had gotten her out of that tight spot back when the girls and the Gryffindor boys had gotten caught by her older brother at the duel…without his sister there, Lucius probably wouldn't have been too lenient…perhaps it was time Lily helped her as well…

Taking advantage of Lily's indecision, Laika rounded behind her and gently placed her hands on the redhead's shoulders.

"Oh thank you, Lily," she whispered breathlessly. "This means more to me than you know…I'll remember to pay you back for this later on, I promise."

With an encouraging pat on Lily's back, Laika spun on her heel and darted out of the common room; doing her best to hide the smirk of pleasure on her face until she was out of Lily's sight.

xXxXxXxXx

At 8:55pm, Lily nervously made her way into the library. It was quite late for students to be out, but since curfew wasn't until ten, she figured that going there closer to curfew time would ensure more privacy.

She certainly hoped Sev had gotten her note. But…there was no way he could have missed it…he had most likely written his essay already, and to have done that, he would have needed the book.

Then again…Sev's so good at potions he can probably write a ten foot long essay without the book…

Just as she began fearing the worst, Lily was relieved to hear Sev's voice wafting over the rows of bookcases. She had originally suspected him to be alone, but she was wrong: just as she came around the corner and into view, she saw him sitting next to none other than James Potter.

She squealed at the sight of the messy-haired boy; what was he doing here?!

She had wanted to meet with Sev to apologize for being so temperamental the other day; she had not intended to come here to say sorry to Potter for almost killing him, too.

Luckily, Sev had noticed her presence before she had launched herself behind a nearby bookcase. Gladly excusing himself from the bothersome boy, Sev ran over to where Lily was hiding.

"Lily? Hey I—"

She clasped her hands over his mouth in order to get him to shut up. Ignoring the puzzled look on his face, she shook her head to discourage any questions he might have.

"What's Potter doing here?" she hissed in a low voice, jerking her head to where Potter sat, entertaining himself with the Wingardium Leviosa charm Sev had re-taught him that morning.

"I had to bring him," he said glumly, shooting an apologetic look at her. "Remus and Sirius can't stand to be around him more than five minutes, so they volunteered me to babysit him tonight. Why did you want to meet me here, anyways? I…I thought you were mad at me,' he stammered sheepishly.

Lily blushed. "Me? Mad at you? I came here to say sorry for being such a prat the other day. Why would I be angry with you? I thought you were mad at me."

Sev felt heat rising to his cheeks as well. "I'm not…I just…I'm…I'm sorry."

They were silent for several seconds. Lily seemed to be at a loss for words, and her lack of response made Sev fidget fretfully. Finally, she looked back up at him; a faint pink glow radiated on her face, though Sev wondered if that was just the moonlight reflecting on her gentle skin from the nearby window.

"I'm sorry too, Sev. You were just trying to help—"

"—I was being a little tactless though—"

"—and I overreacted I guess."

More silence ensued as the two waited for the other to say something. Lily continued gazing straight at him, waiting expectantly for him to answer, but Sev didn't know what to say. Lily had always been a little on the emotional side, and he didn't want to upset her by accidentally saying something insensitive again.

"I really am sorry, you know," she prodded him, making sure that he had heard her.

"I know you are…"

Realizing that Sev wasn't going to say anything else, Lily hesitantly spoke up again, but turned her attention away from him as she said it. She wasn't sure why she said it— her mind surely wasn't thinking properly— but she spat it out anyways.

"I know Slytherins and Gryffindors aren't really supposed to be friends so…"

"Are you saying you don't want to be friends anymore?" Sev interrupted her, feeling slightly alarmed by this.

"No! No! I meant that I'd, well…understand if you didn't want to be friends with me—"

"—Lily I wouldn't—"

"Oh come on, I know your friends all hate me."

"No they don't," Sev said firmly, though he knew, deep down, that what she said was true. He didn't want to admit that, though. "And I'll be your friend if you'll be mine."

Lily looked back up at him and smiled softly; her green eyes dazzling wondrously in the moonlight.

"Thanks."

"So uh…do you want to stay? I have to help James with his Potions essay," Sev gestured around the bookcase, where James sat, looking grumpier by the second.

"Oh sure, I've already written two, what's one more?" Lily replied sourly.

"Two?"

"Ugh, long story, let's get started on Potter's essay first and I'll tell you as we work."

Sev stared at her quizzically for a second, but shrugged it off. Something in the way she had snapped at him made it sound like it wasn't him whom she was annoyed with. He started to turn and go back to the table, but Lily tentatively called him back.

"Severus?"

Surprised at her calling him by his full name, rather than the usual 'Sev,' he turned around once more, wondering what she was going to say now.

She didn't say anything. She stared at him for a moment before flinging herself at him and hugging him as though she wouldn't let either of them consider breaking their friendship ever again.

He was quite startled by her sudden change in behavior, but it was a nice hug nonetheless. It felt quite awkward having his best friend nearly crushing all of the air out of him in a public place like this, but if she didn't care what others thought, then he figured he shouldn't either. At last, she reluctantly let go, smiling radiantly and looking happier than she had been in a long, long time.

A/N: I hope that didn't seem to rushed...I've been trying to refine my writing style (I usually go overboard with the details). Anyways, to clarify, there's nothing romantic going on between any of the kids yet, since they're only 11.

Next chapter: James 'sees the light,' Laika's invitation, and the dangers of eavesdropping...

Please review! :)