A/N: Thanks again for all your reviews! I'm so excited to see new readers enjoying the story, in addition to my wonderful 'veteran' readers ;)

This chapter will seem fillerish, but I swear most of it is more relevant than you know. I happen to use foreshadowing quite a lot in my writing, and this chapter is no exception. Enjoy~

"—as I was saying, we just finished the Dusk series by American author Stefanie Mayer in my Literature class. They were quite possibly the most despicable pieces of fiction I've ever been forced to read!"

"Oh it must have been terrible for you!" Petunia cooed sympathetically to her new boyfriend, completely oblivious to the snorts and giggles that occasionally erupted from her sister's side of the table.

Daniel set down his fork and gazed adoringly into Petunia's eyes the way a husband would to his wife; not a fifteen year old boyfriend to his slightly-younger girlfriend. "I know, my dear. I tend to prefer modern European literature, myself. You know what I love the most though?"

"What?" Petunia asked breathlessly.

"Romeo and Juliet."

Lily gagged. This definitely had to be one of the most disturbing meals she had ever been at; she felt sorry for Severus, whom had been forced to suffer along with her. For Merlin's sake, her sister was fourteen! Why did it seem as though Petunia had just added five years to her age?

The answer was obvious, of course: Daniel Granger. The bushy brown-haired boy had seemed alright when she had first met him, but once they got him talking, he was impossible to shut up. As shocking as it was, he had more arrogance than James Potter, and he spoke endlessly of his academic and literary accomplishments.

"Bloody know-it-all," Severus muttered under his breath, making Lily giggle until she noticed her sister giving her the 'warning look.'

Just before Petunia had introduced Lily and Severus to him, she had cornered them in the downstairs bathroom, threatening to inflict horrible things upon them at the slightest mention or display of their "freak theatrics."

"Ooooh…you mean magic?" Severus had asked slyly, making Petunia turn scarlet and scream that was exactly what she meant. Lily and Severus didn't bother telling her they couldn't do magic over the summer; leaving her to figure that out for herself was much more entertaining.

After an excruciatingly long hour of listening to Petunia gushing over Daniel's achievements, Lily and Severus had had enough. They were bored to tears, but Lily's parents would not excuse them from the table, saying that it would be impolite to leave their newest guest. Lily wondered if they were only saying that so they wouldn't have to suffer alone, but she still did as she was told. That didn't mean she was going to keep quiet any more, though…

"Hey Sev," she said very loudly, cutting into Daniel's boasting. "Can you pass me the potion?"

Severus stared quizzically at her, not quite understanding what she was getting at. "The what?"

Lily laughed obnoxiously. "Oh silly me! I suppose I'm still used to school. I meant the tea."

"Where do you two go to school?" Daniel inquired, eyebrow raised slightly. Lily wasn't sure if he had heard her say "potion," but judging by the look on Severus' face, he had caught on by now.

"It's not important!" Petunia said shrilly, her face red with fury as she shot a death glare towards Lily. If her sister said one word about that school for freaks, she would kill her…

"Do you attend Smeltings? Finest school in Britain, isn't that right Petunia?"

"Yestheygothereitiscertainlythebest," Petunia said all at once. They were getting dangerously close to the subject of the place and she could only hope that Lily remembered her threats and went along with it.

"I disagree," Severus replied quietly, staring down at his food as he spoke.

Daniel gawked at him as though he hadn't even noticed him until now. Undoubtedly Severus' strange Muggle clothing was what intrigued him the most; he himself was wearing a neatly pressed navy polo with tan slacks that made him look very much like a professional golfer.

"You what?"

"I said 'I disagree.' Smeltings isn't the finest school by any means."

"Well!" Daniel bristled, looking quite irritated from having a little nerd in rumpled clothing speaking to him in this manner. "What school could possibly be better, then, hmm?"

Severus noticed Lily watching him out of the corner of his eyes. She had a scared look on her face; even she wouldn't have dared to press as far as he had, no matter how bored she was.

"Well," Severus said thoughtfully, "I would have to say—"

"OI!" Lily shrieked in pain and flipped backwards out of her chair. Severus jumped to his feet, wondering what in the world had just happened. Lily was lying on the ground in agony, clutching her shin for some reason. As soon as she glared back up at the table, Petunia and Daniel's plates did a very peculiar thing: they flew up and, with quite a bit of uneaten food still on them, flew at their faces. Lily hadn't even realized what she was doing; it was accidental magic. Unbelievable. On her first night back from Hogwarts, she had already performed magic again.

Severus couldn't say he didn't enjoy the mortified expression on Petunia's face after the plates clattered to the floor, leaving half her meal on her face. Some mashed potatoes in her hair, some cold peas up her nostrils, a piece of half-eaten chicken on her head…and to top it all of, she had ugly brown gravy streaming down her entire face. He quickly helped Lily to her feet, and she too, relished the scene with revengeful pleasure. Daniel couldn't figure out what had happened, and for once, he was at a loss for words.

Severus understood that Petunia had tried kicking him underneath the table to stop him from uttering "Hogwarts"— not that he was going to, since that would be a severe breach of the International Statute of Secrecy— but instead, she had misaimed and ended up kicking Lily instead. Petunia had always been good at football, so it was unsurprising to see Lily in so much pain.

"Uh…thanks for the food," Daniel said at last, trying to jostle his way through the dining room and towards the front door. He hadn't bothered wiping the food off his face; he just wanted to get out of there as soon as he possibly could. Mr. and Mrs. Evans did nothing to stop him— partly because they were secretly glad to see him go, and partly because they were wondering if Lily or Severus had anything to do with what had just occurred.

"Daniel wait!" Petunia wailed, running after him. He paused and waited for her, though his smile was very strained.

"I need to get home, Petunia. My mum will be wondering what's been keeping me."

"But Daniel!" Petunia pouted, but it was no use: without even the slightest goodbye, he departed.

Severus and Lily looked at each other nervously. While the evening had been delightfully hilarious after all, there would be hell to pay later…

xXxXxXxXx

"I thought you said it didn't matter."

Severus looked up. Lily had stopped swinging a while ago, and was now looking at him with a pensive expression on her face. He was just sitting in the sand, content to do nothing but ponder the mysteries of the world until Lily wanted to talk. It looked like that time had come.

"What didn't matter?"

"Being Muggleborn," Lily replied quietly.

"Oh…"

Severus concentrated on the sand once more, not wanting to explain the intricacies of the minds of the pureblood idealists that existed mainly in the house Lily had been Sorted into. Of course it mattered if you were Muggleborn. He had only lied to her so she wouldn't worry so much. He couldn't begin to describe how horrible he felt…telling her she'd better be in Slytherin, only to see himself end up in the rival house instead. Irony was cruel.

Lily got off of the swing and sat in the sand next to him, waiting for a response. Severus was never good at explaining things, however; especially when it was his best friend whose feelings he could possibly hurt. He remembered the day he told Lily she was a witch…he never wanted to see that hateful expression directed towards him ever again.

"Why did you want me to be in Slytherin?" she prodded him further.

Severus unwillingly looked up. He could see tears swimming in those green eyes. Damn it…

"I…well…I dunno," he admitted awkwardly. He didn't really understand why he had ever wanted to be in Slytherin in the first place. As much as he fought McGonagall those first few days, he actually grew fond of Gryffindor as the year passed— even if Sirius and James were royal gits most of the time. While they weren't exactly "best friends forever" yet, they had still formed a decent friendship, however dysfunctional it was at times. Which was more than what he could say for Lily.

Severus would place more trust in a furious hippogriff than either of the Malfoys, and Narcissa Black wasn't much better. After all, her older sister was pretty much insane, judging from what Severus had heard from the older Gryffindors. The sibling connection alone made Severus wary of Narcissa.

Other than those two, she had no friends in Slytherin. Oh, why couldn't she have just been in Gryffindor too?

"Why do you ask?"

Now it was Lily's turn to look away. "I'm…scared," she whispered ashamedly. "I know I shouldn't be, but Sev…they're awful to that Muggleborn, Melika— no, not Narcissa or Laika," Lily added quickly as she noticed the suspicious look on her friend's face. "But you should have seen the way the older Slytherins treat her…it's…it's…its just horrible! I mean, she doesn't do anything bad as far as I know, but still…what if…"

"You're afraid they're going to find out?" Severus asked quietly. Tears fell from Lily's eyes as she nodded silently.

"It was such a terrible thing to do, I know…I wish I didn't…but I couldn't help it. I just want to fit in."

Severus knew the feeling all too well. After he realized that he was going to be stuck in Gryffindor for the rest of his school years, he had constantly fretted whether he would ever be a true Gryffindor. Lily was the first and only friend he had ever had at that point; now he had Remus, James, and Sirius in addition to Lily. It was weird having friends, but it was a good feeling. The trouble was that Lily would never truly fit in with the Slytherins if she was completely honest with them. Old biases died hard, and she had suffered enough this past year. Revealing her little secret would not improve her standing in the house, and it would probably lose her two of the three friends she had. But how much longer would she be able to continue living this lie?

It must have been quite a shocker for Lily not to have a lot of friends surrounding her anymore; after all, back in Muggle school, she was always the centre of attention. She had dozens of friends to confide in and gossip with there; but at Hogwarts, she had a grand total of three. Two of them shouldn't even count as friends in Severus' opinion.

"Will I get in trouble for last night?" she asked him out of the blue, clearly wanting to change the subject.

Severus shook his head. "Usually they won't get you for something as minor as that…you probably shouldn't have done that anyways, but I'll admit that's the funniest thing I've seen in a long time."

"I think I even heard you laugh."

"I did not!" he shot back defiantly. Severus Snape did not laugh.

"What's wrong with laughing?" Lily teased him. She knew him too well. He really hadn't laughed last night, but maybe he would…someday. Who knew? Perhaps Potter and Black could have a positive impact on him after all…

xXxXxXxXx

The summer passed by rather slowly for Lily and Severus. They were more excited about going back to school than the free time that summer offered; something most normal kids would have thought as strange.

Daniel ended up getting together with Petunia again a week after the incident, much to their surprise. Petunia was deliriously happy when he did, though she was careful to keep him away from Lily and Severus at all times. This was fine with them, because it meant that they could talk freely about Hogwarts and magic and their summer homework without having Petunia explode into a temper tantrum.

Still, as much as Lily loved Hogwarts and magic, she wouldn't trade anything in the world for the long walks she and Severus would go on every day around the local park. Oftentimes, neither of them spoke for most of the walk, but instead enjoyed the nice weather and pleasant scenery around them. After a couple months of sheer misery, it was great being able to feel so peaceful again.

Of course, "peaceful" didn't always mean boring. Towards the end of July, James had owled Severus a small box of joke shop items, writing: Just in case Evans bores you too much.

Lily had been none too pleased by this— so what if she was obsessed with studying and following the rules? That didn't mean she was boring to be around, was it?

Severus had quickly assured her that he enjoyed her company, and even went as far as writing back to James, telling him that he should be nicer to Lily.

The box of prank items were put to good use: Severus restricted Lily from doing anything to her sister…unless she caught her snogging Daniel. Then she had his full permission to unleash the entire assortment of goodies James had sent.

Once they had gone through every last item— and Petunia's constant screaming had nearly rendered them deaf— it was back to the simple walks around the park. Being straight-O students, both of them had finished all of their summer homework within the first two weeks of June. It was almost sad to think they had no studying left until the next year began, though Severus managed to find some of his mother's old books for them to read over together when they grew tired of walking.

On the last day of July, Lily and Severus were sitting under their favourite tree in the park, reading a book about Disillusionment Charms. It was one of the last books from Eileen Snape's humble collection that they hadn't read yet, and although it was quite old, Lily found it fascinating.

"So it's really possible to be invisible?"

"Well, sort of…look at this picture here…it's temporary, see—"

"How do you know when it's going to fade then? That'd be scary to be in a bad situation and have it wear off, wouldn't it?"

"Well, you can try to predict when it's going to…it'd actually just be easier having an Invisibility Cloak."

"Like the ones they sell for those ridiculous prices at Borgin and Burkes?"

Severus was startled by this, and almost dropped the book in shock. "Since when have you been inside that place?"

"Never mind that," Lily rushed. "Do the cloaks last much longer than the actual charms?"

"Not by much…though James' cloak has lasted a lot longer than most of the ones in stores have…"

"Potter's got one too?"

"The Potters are filthy rich."

"Well obviously…you can see it just from the way he— Sev? What's that?"

Her sudden change of subject threw Severus for a loop. Looking up, he saw something small and all-black walking towards them from the playground. It had four oversized paws, long crooked whiskers and it was extremely furry. Joy.

"Sev, I think it's a kitten!" Lily cried excitedly, leaping to her feet and chasing after it. Unfortunately, this action frightened the poor thing, and he darted towards the bushes as quickly as its wobbly little legs could carry him. Lily stopped at once, feeling bad for scaring the helpless creature. She carefully got down on her knees and called for the kitten to come closer to her, but it wouldn't budge. His yellowish-green eyes watched her warily, and he hid his face behind his tail as though this would protect him from the rambunctious preteen.

"Come on Sev, help me get the kitty…here kitty, kitty…I won't hurt you…I just want to pet you…"

Severus rolled his eyes. Leave it to Lily to fuss over some stupid cat.

"Come here…please? I just want to pet you, that's all…come on, kitty, kitty…Sev, it's not coming," Lily pouted as the kitten simply stared at her from its position ten feet away.

"Just leave it then."

"No! Poor thing can't find its mum or its owner…we have to help it, Sev," Lily begged with a manipulative pleading glint in her eyes.

"We? No," Severus replied flatly. "You help it."

"But Sev! Look, he's all alone…poor thing…"

"Then you save the damn cat."

"But he won't come to me. Can you please call him? Please Sev?"

Severus sighed. He hated when Lily did this, but he couldn't help himself: he wanted his friend to be happy, so he figured he'd at least try.

"Come here you mangy piece of filth."

"Severus!"

"What? You didn't ask me to call it nicely," he said with a mischievous smirk on his face.

"You're horrible."

"Whatever you say."

"Oh come on, Sev, can you at least try and pick it up?"

Severus was getting really irritated at this point, and almost yelled at her that neither of them needed a cat in their lives at the moment, but he restrained himself from doing so. Closing his book, he slowly and unwillingly got to his feet and walked towards the kitten. He didn't return Lily's grateful smile as he walked past her, and when he was within three feet of the trembling animal, he sat down on the grass.

The kitten stood there, frozen in place for quite some time, just staring at Severus as though it couldn't figure out if he was scary or not.

"Hold out your hand," Lily prodded him, and Severus reluctantly followed her orders. After several seconds of just holding his empty hand out, the kitten hesitantly moved towards him.

Damn kitten…if we were at Hogwarts I would have hexed the bloody thing and given its pelt to Sirius as a Christmas gift.

Surprisingly, the kitten actually marched all the way up to Severus. It nuzzled and smelled his hand for a few moments, then sat and stared up at him with its huge green eyes, as though waiting for something. He glanced back at Lily for help, but she shrugged. She had never owned any pets before, and she knew little to nothing about animal behaviour.

Tentatively, Severus stroked the top of the kitten's shiny black head three times, then allowed his hand to retreat.

With a high-pitched meow, the kitten jumped at Severus, much to his displeasure. It was much more exuberant and agile than he had initially believed it to be, and it had playfully clawed its way up to his shoulders before he could even attempt to control it. It took some effort to pry the kitten's claws off of his shirt, but once it was off, Severus did not put it back on the ground. Instead, he held it out for Lily to take away, but she shook her head.

"What are you going to name him?" she asked softly.

"What am I…what?! I'm not keeping this...this...thing!"

"It's called a 'cat.' And I think it likes you," Lily cooed, tickling the kitten's chin as it meowed with delight.

"It's your cat."

Lily smirked. "No it's not. Tuney's allergic to them. Looks like you have to keep it."

"No! What if its owner is around here somewhere?"

"Then they're not getting this lovely little kitty back. They obviously don't love it very much."

"I don't love it at all!"

"Not yet," Lily replied sweetly. "So what are you going to name it?"

Severus scowled. "Lily, I'm not keeping him. We're not allowed to have pets, remember?"

"Actually Hogwarts allows cats. You know, I think he looks like an Arnold…or Fred?"

"Those are lousy names," Severus mumbled, disliking the fact that the cat had just fallen asleep in his hands.

Lily beamed. "So you are keeping it?"

"What are you talking about? I never said anything of the sort!"

"Okay, so what is a good name then?" she asked sardonically, ignoring his previous protest.

Severus glared at the cat. Of course he wouldn't keep it. He hated animals, and there would probably be dozens of new first years that would like to own a sickening cute thing like this. Yes, he could definitely get rid of it at Hogwarts. If not, he'd feed it to the gamekeeper's dog.

"I dunno…he's terribly ugly…and chubby…and, ugh—" Severus spat a few cat hairs out of his mouth. "— hairy…"

"That's a good name!" Lily exclaimed.

"What?"

"Hairy! How about that, kitty? Is 'Hairy' a good name for you?"

Severus rolled his eyes. Lily had really lost it this time. She was talking to an animal that clearly could not understand a word she was saying. What happened to the studious, logical Lily he knew?

The cat meowed loudly and Lily could have sworn it smiled.

"Hairy it is then."

A/N: In case you haven't noticed yet…I'm not a Twilight fan. Oh, and I'm American so I figured it'd be okay to say that European literature is better that ours (in my opinion, of course).

As for Daniel's characterization: I always thought that Hermione had one arrogant parent, and another equally-intelligent but more modest parent (to balance her somewhat). She was kind of a git in PS/SS after all, even if she didn't mean to. And boys tend to grow out of it anyways (as James Potter supposedly did in canon). And I'm pretty sure Smeltings is an all-boys school (I haven't read SS for a while), but for the sake of the story, it's coed.

I'm sorry, but I could not help myself with Hairy…it's too cute for me to cut out of the story, and he is actually somewhat important to the plot later on…

Next chapter: Diagon Alley (lots of fun there!) and Voldy's back...

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, and I strongly encourage any comments, including constructive criticism! (this chapter was supposed to be a filler, by the way…not exactly my finest writing). Almost to 100 reviews! :)