Hi everyone! Thanks for reading and reviewing, as always.

Warning: This chapter contains some OC's in Severus and Lily's return to Hogwarts. I understand that some people are rather put off by OC's so I wanted to give fair notice.

Iphooqui: hashkanashi dosheh, girl!

I'm definitely not JKR!

Chapter 7— Juniper

Severus rode with Lily and her parents to King's Cross Station. They were late leaving home so goodbyes were rushed before boarding the train. Severus wasn't very excited about returning to Hogwarts for once. It was usually a relief to get away from his home life but he'd actually had the most amazing summer ever. Going back to school meant he'd be seeing less of Lily and more of the people he despised. His separation from her began immediately as she was a prefect and had to ride in a special train compartment along with fulfilling other prefect duties. He wouldn't be surprised if he didn't get to speak to her again until tomorrow. He at least had his meeting with Professor Slughorn to look forward to. All 6th year students were required to meet with their heads of houses just as they did in fifth year but this time they were to discuss the actual results of their OWLs and plan out their schedule. There was one course that had already been scheduled for all third, fourth and sixth year students; a new course called "Wizarding Recreation." The Ministry of Magic had decided that all students needed a few hours a week devoted to fitness and physical activity. First and second years already had their flying lessons and Severus supposed that fifth and seventh years were cut a break because of OWLs and NEWTs Wizarding Recreation would involve learning how to play different magical sports and exercising— something Severus saw as a sure set up for humiliation, especially seeing as Gryffindor and Slytherin were already paired up for the class. At least boys would be separated from girls.

Lily made her way to the first train compartment for the first prefect meeting of the term. She sat down next to Remus Lupin but they didn't have time to catch up as the new Head Girl, Cynthia Pritchett, began to speak. Lily and Remus exchanged several sideways glances as Cynthia haughtily described her plans to totally revamp prefect behavioral management policies. Remus scoffed under his breath when she whipped out individualized notebooks detailing when and where each of them should report to duty and how to handle over 150 different behavioral infractions. He and Lily both knew James and Sirius would make it their mission to come up with 150 new ways to get into trouble. They could only hope the two tried out their antics for Cynthia rather than their prefect friends.

After nearly two excruciatingly boring hours Cynthia released the prefects. They were each assigned a train car to patrol for 30 minutes before getting 45 minutes for lunch. Lily quickly scanned her car, hoping to see Severus but he wasn't there. The car was entirely filled with annoyingly inquisitive and hyperactive first-years.

Lily found Severus at the very back of the train at lunchtime. He was sharing a compartment with Natalie Rivington from Ravenclaw and fellow Slytherin, Sampson Rhew. Natalie blushed and scooted herself into the very corner of the compartment when Lily entered. She was one of the brightest girls of their year. She was very pretty, striking really, with shiny white-blonde hair and large bright brown eyes but she had a slight stutter and got teased about her height, standing almost 6'2." It didn't help that she was a bookworm and extremely introverted. Lily figured that she likes hanging around Severus because he knows how to leave people alone— and because he always gets good grades. Natalie kind of reminded Lily of Severus, which made her wonder whether or not, she has someone somewhere waiting to recognize how amazing she is.

Sampson was an eager, chubby guy with neatly styled hair and expensive shoes and robes. He'd spent the first two years of school desperately trying to fit in but for one reason or another, people didn't like him. Other than Lily, these were the only two students Severus could ever really been seen spending time with or holding a conversation with. Lily didn't know if they could really be considered friends of his though. If so, they were definitely just the kind of friends that communicated during school. They seemed likely to lose contact forever after their time at Hogwarts was complete.

"Hello Lily," Sampson started brightly, "Come on in. Have a seat. Make yourself at home!" Lily sat next to Severus and smiled at Natalie who gave a feeble smile back, avoiding eye contact.

"Hi Sampson. How was your summer?"

"Excellent!" he started with sharp enthusiasm. "My family and I spent it in southern France."

"Oh, wow. That does sound excellent," Lily replied.

"Indeed. Indeed. How was yours?"

Severus watched Lily's cheeks turn the palest shade of pink.

"It was great," she said with a smile.

"Yes? What made it so?"

Lily smiled and looked at her boyfriend. They hadn't made a plan for revealing their relationship to others. They figured their actions would make it obvious enough. Severus gave a slight shrug.

"Severus," Lily said, answering Sampson's question.

He looked at Lily then at Severus and then back at Lily a couple of times before realization hit him, "Well that's all right! Good to hear! Good match, you two are," he said cheerfully clapping his fleshy hands together. Natalie made a little squeaky noise in the corner before burying herself back in her book. Lily thought it sounded congratulatory.

They all ate lunch together with Sampson and Lily doing most of the talking. It wasn't long before Lily had to rush away to tend to her duties. When she'd gone, Natalie relaxed. "L-Lily is a really nice girl, Severus. I always knew h-how much you liked her." Severus looked at Natalie curiously.

"Oh yes, Severus. It was always quite obvious to us. Honestly it was the only interesting piece of gossip floating around our little group. Granted Natalie and I only brought it up behind your back so you couldn't have known," Sampson added plainly.

Natalie nodded. "I thought you seemed different t-today."

"How so?" Severus asked.

"Well I d-dunno," Natalie started, recoiling a bit from Severus's direct gaze before finishing, "you seem happier. N-not the way like everyone else seems happy but you know— happy."

"By that she means you neither smile nor present a cheerful demeanor and yet somehow contentment seems to be radiating from you," Sampson said opening a magazine titled, "Fashion of Elite Young Wizards."

"Is that right?" Severus said with a half smile. Natalie blushed and scooted still further into the corner. "Well I suppose it was up until this minute," Sampson said.

Severus pulled out a book that reminded him about a day he and Lily spent by the creek a couple of weeks ago. They were having a "who-can-keep-a-straight-face-longest" staring competition. Severus had no problem winning all 16 rounds, especially seeing as the last 10 rounds lasted little over 2 seconds before Lily burst into laughter. She was still determined to beat him.

A few hours later the train arrived at Hogsmeade Station. Severus, Sampson and Natalie waited a few minutes for the larger part of the crowd to clear the train. None of them were particularly social people and preferred to avoid large crowds (well, except for Sampson but not too many people cared to socialize with him). The three stood up and started to gather their small things. Sampson seemed particularly squat next to the long lanky frames of the other two as he placed a feathered hat on top of his head. "Well! Cheers to sixth year!" he shouted, dramatically flinging his cloak over his shoulders and leading the others out of the compartment.

As they climbed the steps outside of the great hall for dinner, an enchanted rubber ball smacked Severus in the back of the head. He stopped walking and took a deep breath. He was 99% sure Potter was behind it. His suspicions were confirmed moments later when James appeared with Sirius and Peter trailing close behind.

"Snivellus Snape!" he called out as he grew nearer.

Severus started walking again.

"Ohh. Oh c'mon Snevvy. Why so grouchy? Oh— Oh dear. Yes I see… I'd be in a foul mood too if I'd had to wear the same outfit all summer. Unfortunate for all of us that you never got the opportunity to wash it…"

Severus rolled his eyes. He was not in the mood to listen to Potter's lame, senseless cracks at him.

"Really, no fabulous comeback? No hex? Oh you're killing me Snape! Although I suppose it is a bit early in the year to be getting into trouble. Or is it that I finally put you in your place at the end of last year? Honestly I meant no harm— I was trying to help, actually! I just thought maybe the ladies would give you more attention if you showed off your goods. Obviously I was terribly, terribly, wrong but can you really hate me for trying?"

Severus stopped walking. He hated that this guy could piss him off so easily. He was about ready to punch him in the head when Natalie tugged lightly on his arm looking scared and making a strange noise. Severus assumed she trying to tell him to ignore James but was talking too quietly.

"Oh!" James started with a laugh, "oh so it did work. You have found yourself a girl… kind of," James taunted, referencing Natalie.

Severus took out his wand.

"Break it up! Break it up!" shouted Professor Peabody who was quickly making his way to the small crowd of students that had begun to gather around the boys. Severus shoved his wand back into his robes and quickly disappeared into the crowd, pissed off.

Sampson and Severus sat at the very end of the Slytherin table. Sampson excitedly watched the sorting of the first years into the different houses while Severus had his eyes on the Gryffindor table. Lily and her friends were welcoming the nervous looking raven-haired first year girl that was just sorted into their house. He was happy to see that Potter and his cronies had taken seats at the opposite end of the long table.

The sorting seemed to take forever and Severus was really hungry. He'd begun to daydream.

"Severus? …Severus!"

"What is it, Sampson?"

"Are you paying attention?"

"Obviously not."

"Hogwarts is accepting transfer students again."

Severus tuned into Dumbledore who was welcoming a girl a with a big afro puff.

"—Joining us from the Salem Witches Institute in Massachusetts, United States. This will be the start of her fourth year of magical education." Professor Dumbledore placed the sorting hat on her head. "Ravenclaw!" It shouted after a moment. The girl calmly searched for an open seat at the table and found one near Natalie. One male student from Mahoutokoro School in Japan joined Slytherin as a second year, as did a pretentious looking girl called Anais from Beauxbatons. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw each received one of the Carvalho triplets from the Brazilian Wizarding School.

"Fascinating," Severus mumbled, completely bored.

"Isn't it!" Sampson clapped, unaware of Severus's sarcasm. "I must say those Brazilian robes are sharp! What do you think they're made of? I suppose none of them had to opportunity to make the trip to Diagon Alley for traditional blacks. Hmph, lucky them. There is hardly any room for expression through fashion at this school. Shame," Sampson sighed. Severus had a headache and found himself growing increasingly irritable by the second.

After about ten more minutes of various introductions, welcome speeches and announcements, dinner appeared. Severus served himself some roast chicken with corn and carrots on the side. Sampson had some steak and kidney pie with a large serving of mashed potatoes and gravy.

The noise level in the Great Hall steadily rose as people completed their meals and caught up with friends. The remains of dinner disappeared and were replaced by a large assortment of desserts including chocolate éclairs, fruit, ice cream, rice pudding, candies and… blueberry pie. Severus smiled and looked toward Lily. She was already looking his direction with a humored expression on her face as she held up her slice of pie. Mary Macdonald was looking curiously between Lily and Severus before she scooted nearer to Lily and whispered something in her ear. A few moments later Mary squealed loud enough for Severus to hear from across the room. Severus was uninterested in people's reactions to his relationship with Lily (perhaps with the exception of Potter and Black) but he'd have to deal with it for a while. It was bound to be huge gossip as Lily was well known and well liked and he… wasn't— At all. He also realized that Mary, Sampson and Natalie were likely to be the only ones to respond positively to the news.

After dessert, all of the prefects led the first years to their dormitories. Severus said goodnight to Sampson who seemed intent on befriending the new Slytherin transfers. He didn't bother trying to catch up with Lily. Both of them had their class scheduling meetings early in the day so he'd try to find her after that. He hoped they'd have potions together at the very least and that Marauders would either choose not to continue the subject or be ineligible due to their OWL scores.

Severus was a bit apprehensive about heading to the Slytherin common room as he made his way to the dungeons. He'd made a plan to start avoiding that whole area of the castle unless it was bedtime. The pressure to join the Dark Lord's side had begun to mount toward the end of last term. It was true that for some fleeting moment, the idea of joining the death eaters piqued Severus's interest but that was before he actually started reading up on the practice of dark magic and listening closely to the conversations of his older housemates. It was a shame that majority of his fellow Slytherins who were on board with becoming death eaters were mindless followers that never once considered that those higher up could possibly be feeding them distorted information. Each year Evan Rosier would describe the Dark Lord's goals and ambitions to the newest members of Slytherin and to their young minds, it just came off as a way to be safe, protected and ensure total freedom for wizards. If their parents hadn't instilled a prejudice in them before coming to Hogwarts, those in line to become death eaters took it upon themselves to begin embedding it as soon as possible. Severus had decided he didn't want anything to do with them last year, which would potentially cause him problems in and of itself, but he knew that they'd be highly unlikely to take the news of his relationship with Lily, a Gryffindor and a muggle-born, positively.

Severus realized that many people found him to be rather forgettable so he hoped lying low would encourage that. The one thing about him that hadn't gone unnoticed, however, was his academic talent. Severus wasn't one to show off in class. He really only spoke or answered questions when called upon, but many of his professors gloated on him when reviewing or returning assignments. There was no doubt in his mind that once professor Slughorn reviewed his OWL results, he'd make it known to as many people as possible that one of his Slytherins had received an Outstanding mark on each of the ten subjects he tested in.

When Severus reached the common room, he could instantly tell it was going to a loud, long night. Music was blasting and several members of the quidditch team were unpacking large cases of butterbeer. Severus made a B-line for his room, hoping he'd be able to fall into a deep sleep before things got too crazy. If not, he could always pull out the special earplugs Lily bought him last year during O. when he'd been finding himself easily distracted by outside noise.

The next day, Lily entered the Great Hall for breakfast while examining her new schedule. It was nearly nine o'clock so she really wouldn't have much time to eat before the house elves cleared away the meal. She was mostly hoping Severus had waited until after his meeting to eat too and that she'd spot him. Unfortunately, he wasn't there but she went ahead and had a seat and started nibbling on some bacon.

"Good morning, Evans," James Potter said just a couple of minutes later, his hazel eyes sparkling.

"James."

"Is that your new schedule you've got there?"

"It is."

"How thrilling. I haven't got my meeting until just before lunch. I have a feeling McGonagall scheduled them according to OWL scores. Seeing that you've already met with her, I'll have to assume you did well."

"I did fine. Seven O's, three E's."

"Ha, fine? As if anyone else could do better."

"Severus did."

James furrowed his brow, "he doesn't count."

Lily put down her schedule and looked James in the eye, a fierce expression on her face. "Why not?"

"Oh c'mon, Evans. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to get you all worked up defending your little friend early in the morning."

Lily wondered if now would be a good time to break the news to him that Severus was much more than a "little friend." She imagined the look of utter disappointment that would be on Severus's face if he missed James's reaction and laughed to herself.

"Did the sun come out or did you just smile at me?" James asked, interrupting Lily's daydream.

"Neither. I forgot I was sitting here with you and smiled at something far more interesting that popped into my mind. Come up with some better lines, James," she said, rising from the table.

"Oh, ouch! Words like daggers, Evans. But I'll work on those lines. Just for you," he said with a wink.

"Not for me, James. I'm a lost a cause."

"Never that," he said, taking the bacon out of her hand and running off.

Lily stood there feeling like she'd somehow led him on. She had no plans to break the news to James in front of Severus. As disappointed as Severus might be about that, Lily did think of James as a friend and didn't want to hurt him. She also realized she'd have to tell him very soon if he wasn't to find out through the grapevine, or worse, witness it for himself.

Lily made a plan to tell James later that evening as she grabbed an apple and headed toward the library. She wouldn't be surprised if Severus was already studying.

Lily found Severus in a back corner of the otherwise deserted library. He wasn't studying, just sitting there absently doodling on a scrap piece of parchment. She thought he looked nice in his white shirt and green and silver Slytherin tie.

"Hey, Sev," she said quietly sitting next to him.

He looked up at her with pleasant, warm eyes. "Hi, Lily."

"I missed you," she said with a grin. "And I was looking for you this morning."

"You know the library is always the best place to look. I figured you'd end up here."

She stood and pulled her chair next to his. Before she sat down she leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on his lips, her shiny dark red tresses shadowing them from view. "How was your meeting?" she asked, unfolding her schedule.

"It was good. Professor Slughorn raved about his skill as head of Slytherin house and potions professor because naturally it was these two things that resulted in my high test scores."

"Naturally," Lily replied with a laugh, finishing off her apple.

"Anyway, we agreed I'd be suited for a career that could combine my skill for potions with my interest in defense against the dark arts. Maybe something in healing— you know, coming up with antidotes to remedy different poisons or curses."

"You'd be so good at that, Sev. I'm not really sure what I want to do. Sometimes I see myself doing something big and important— like being an auror. And other times, I could just see myself opening up a friendly little shop in a place like Hogsmeade. I could also see myself teaching pre-Hogwarts aged witches and wizards… or working on muggle relations at the Ministry of Magic…or writing!" she finished excitedly.

"You would be great at any of those things."

"Well, let's have a look at our schedules. What do you have on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays? I've got History of Magic, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Herbology before lunch and potions and charms right after. Friday mornings I have apparition lessons instead of History of Magic"

"I dropped History of Magic. We have two classes together. I've got Ancient Runes, D.A.D.A, and charms. Potions is my only class after lunch. How about Tuesdays and Thursdays?"

"Umm let's see… Care of Magical Creatures, Transfiguration, break, lunch, Wizarding Recreation. Pretty light day."

"Yes, sounds like plenty of time to mentally prepare yourself for Mondays and Wednesdays. I've got Herbology, Arithmancy, Transfiguration and Recreation after lunch. No real classes together but we'll be done at the same time. My apparition lessons are Fridays during my free period after potions."

Lily laughed and shook her head.

"What is it?"

"Nothing. That was just a very… dry conversation and I'm bound to take weeks to remember my own schedule, let alone yours, so don't be surprised if I am surprised to see you in class."

Severus just looked at her the way he does sometimes.

"Sev, I do have something important I wanted to talk to you about…"

"Alright…"

"Well… it's about James. I know he isn't your favorite person—"

"Bit of an understatement."

Lily continued as though she hadn't been interrupted, "but you know he really fancies me and has for such a long while. I'd just like to personally tell him about you and me. I don't want to be responsible for any broken hearts."

"If he cares about you, Lily, then there is no way you can tell him that you only want to be friends without breaking his heart."

"Oh. Well, I at least want to tell him myself. It seems better that way."

"I suppose if I had to hear that news, I'd rather it come from you…"

She grinned, "Well the only news you'll hear coming from me is how much I love you," she said in a teasing voice wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him.

"That was awfully… saccharine. And I do hope to hear other news from you. I value our stimulating conversations but I don't see them going very far if you respond to everything by declaring your love for me, as much as I enjoy hearing it," he laughed.

"You're such a nerd. I've got to get ready to go to duty. Let's meet up after lunch," she said standing. "And by the way… I think you look really sexy in your uniform," she said tugging lightly on his tie.

Severus scanned her body. "Same to you," he replied, gliding his fingertips across the skin right above her knee. He badly wanted to throw his head under her skirt a cling to her lower body. He sighed. Lily's body and the library: Severus Snape's two most favorite places in the world, a heavenly combination.

Thanks so much for reading!