Severus Snape had been roaming the halls of Hogwarts late at night, hoping to exhaust himself enough to fall asleep. Usually, his guilt and rage and jealousy would keep him up into the small hours, while he stared up at the green canopy over his bed. He hated the way that things had turned out, but mostly he hated James Potter and his merry band of troublemakers. After all, Potter was the reason that Lily wouldn't speak to him anymore.
He couldn't believe that Potter had been made Head Boy. What a farce! Dumbledore must have really lost his mind. But then again, what else was new?
When he rounded the corner, he heard the noises of two people obviously enjoying one another. He slunk around quietly, before slipping behind some statuary to hide. He, unfortunately, was yet to enjoy the warm embrace of a witch. But, that didn't mean that he wasn't curious about what went on.
Immediately, he felt his stomach churn at the unmistakable sight of Sirius Black. Of all the boys that could have been involved in this little tryst, Black was just about the worst person. He would never forgive the wizard who had played a prank on him that could have gotten him killed. And the witch...the witch was none other than Hermione Granger. Dumbledore's niece, apparently.
Severus found himself disappointed. He really would have expected her to have been sense than to be swayed by Black's dubious charm.
Just as their joining was reaching new heights - Black had lifted her into his arms and pressed her feverishly against the wall - Potter and Lily turned around the corner. Severus watched with narrowed eyes as Potter gave the pair detention. His own best friend! It was surprising. Severus would have expected Potter to let his friend off scot free. But then again...Black didn't seem too broken up about getting yet another detention.
To his dismay, he noticed that Lily seemed impressed with Potter's choice and she was...actually flirting with the big, dumb idiot after Black and Granger slinked away to their Common Room.
He could barely contain his growl. Ever since that witch had shown up, it seemed like Potter was growing closer and closer to Lily! He had to put a stop to it! He would show her...he would show Lily that James fucking Potter wasn't the responsible good guy he was pretending to be.
Severus Snape had been an annoying thorn in the side of James Potter for days now (well, since first year if you wanted to get technical). He hated that greasy git more than anyone in the whole school because of the way he treated everyone else like they were dirt beneath his shoes.
Honestly, their feud had started out harmless enough. James and Sirius, who had become great friends on the platform, ran into Snape pushing Peter Pettigrew around. And really, Snape was one to be rude about appearances when he had to be just about the ugliest boy that James had ever seen. Peter might be a bit portly, but at least he didn't have a huge, crooked nose that was always shoved into a book.
Through the years, their animosity had only grown, seeing as Snape was best friends with one Miss Lily Evans - object of James's affections. He couldn't understand what she saw in the greasy git and even as a twelve year old, he desperately tried to show her that he was a much better boy. This usually manifested as him showing off in classes, trying dangerous tricks on his broom, mussing up his hair, and of course, putting down Snivellus at every chance he got.
Then, last year, he had hung Snape up with his own spell, revealing to dozens of Hogwarts students that Snape wore atrocious grey underwear. He'd been surprised when Lily came to help the Slytherin, but he was even more surprised when Snape actually called his precious Lily flower a mudblood. Even thinking about the word made James shudder.
With the relationship between Lily and Snape now non-existent, James was hopeful that Lily would be much more susceptible to his charms, but she'd patently ignored him for the rest of term. The only bright spot was knowing that Snape was a persona non grata as well.
But now, in his efforts to show Lily that he was growing up and he could take his responsibilities seriously, he had put a moratorium on pranking Snape. He'd even told Sirius, Remus and Peter to knock it off...and Remus had come up with some really brilliant pranks over the summer. However, Snape seemed to be persistent in his efforts to make James's life difficult. He'd finally decided that he could get back at Snape when the lanky boy did something to him first.
Just, it seemed like Lily was always there whenever he did do something wrong and she wouldn't even try to see it from his perspective. She didn't seem to notice how much the pranking had dropped off. Of course, she'd been there on Sunday morning when he told the lads about how he'd charmed Snape's papers to be slightly incorrect (but that was only because he'd been hexed first).
And on Monday, Snape had sent a jelly legs jinx his way during their practical in Defense Against the Dark Arts, despite Snape and his partner being on the completely opposite side of the room. But, James knew he'd been the one to do it - Snape looked at him with that infuriating smirk and whispered "whoops", clearly enjoying seeing him fall flat on his arse. When he'd decided to retaliate and hex Snape back with a rather clever cleansing charm he'd modified (it forcibly scrubbed the person, causing soap bubbles to form all over the person's body), Lily just looked at him, disappointed.
On Tuesday, James overhear Snape and Regulus Black talking about Hermione and Lily in the library. Snape was telling Regulus about how he'd heard that Sirius was caught snogging Hermione against a wall, earning them detention. Regulus had said he wasn't surprised that Hermione was a filthy blood traitor given that she spent so much time with mudbloods like Lily Evans. James had immediately felt his blood boil and sent a nasty hex to stick your tongue to the roof of your mouth.
"How dare you speak about Lily that way? Didn't her friendship mean anything to you?" he'd demanded. But Snape could only look on helplessly as Regulus tried to figure out a spell that would release his mouth. James stomped away, not bothering to give the pair any more attention.
Later that night, Lily cornered him in the Common Room and told him that she didn't need him to fight her battles, especially if it involved hexing someone in the library. James was embarrassed.
On Wednesday, Snape didn't pull anything. THey had double potions and Snivellus loved the subject too much to lend any attention to his adversary. James was itching to confund him, so he'd get a Troll grade for the day, but he held back. For Lily.
On Thursday, in Charms, Snivellus was goading Remus about his lycanthropy, which always got Sirius hot under the collar. Sirius still felt terrible after realizing that Remus could have seriously injured Snape when they let him overhear about the Shrieking Shack and how to get into the tunnel. James had saved the stupid boy. He didn't want his friend to be a murderer and, if he was honest, he didn't really want Snape dead. But Merlin, if that git had just kept his abnormally large nose out of their business nothing would have happened. James knew that the Slytherin had been made to take an Unbreakable Vow with Headmaster Dumbledore to keep quiet about Remus's condition, but he loved to skirt around the truth as much as he possibly could.
And really, Remus didn't deserve that. He shouldn't be treated differently than anyone else, especially since his friends were able to keep him entertained during the full moon now. So, James sent a glamour at Snape's head when he was too busy making innuendo about the moonlight to notice. It turned his normally greasy, black hair a bright purple color. No one told the snide Slytherin until lunch time.
All four of the Marauders had gotten a good laugh out of that. But, the laughter died James's throat when he saw Lily glaring at him over her pumpkin juice.
Hermione had been happily eavesdropping on her roommates who spend the evening giggling and discussing the boys in their house and of course, some of the other houses. She listened as Marlene gushed on about the rugged handsomeness of Remus Lupin. Mary suggested that Regulus Black was looking rather fit recently, as she'd seen him shirtless after Quidditch practice. Apparently, he was a seeker.
The girls didn't discuss Sirius Black anymore, as they now seemed to think that he was off limits on account of Hermione's presumed feelings for the wizard. She did have some feelings - specifically the kind that made her weak in the knees when she thought about what he could do with his mouth - but that didn't mean she had any sort of claim on him. He could date whoever he liked. Really, he should date anyone but her, Hermione thought darkly.
When they finally began discussing James Potter, Hermione's ears perked up. They loved to tease Lily about the boy and it seemed like Lily was finally beginning to admit that she did have feelings for the messy-haired wizard in the opposite tower. Earlier that week, she'd gushed about how responsible he'd seemed, but now...
"I don't know girls, I thought maybe Potter was changing, but now I'm not so sure," she said, with a frown. "He has been tormenting Sev-Snape all week."
"Come on, Lily. Why do you still care so much about that creep? After what he called you?" Marlene asked, clear disapproval in her voice.
"Yeah, he slept outside of the Common Room for two days for a chance to get a glimpse of you," Mary added snidely. "Talk about a stalker."
Hermione did feel a little bit badly for Professor Snape, but his current incarnation left much to be desired. He was rude, short-tempered and cruel, even crueler than he was as a Professor. Not to mention, it was clear that he'd been baiting James all week! It seemed Lily was completely unaware of the nasty things her former friend was up to.
"I know, but the unprovoked hexing has got to stop. He jinxed Snape's hair bright purple in Charms. And that's going too far," Lily said, sounding sad. "I don't want to date a bully."
Hermione flicked open the locket. After the initial rush of feeling that James was responsible, Harry had been nearly fully formed again, but not one hundred percent set in stone. Now, Harry's leg seemed shimmery again, as if Lily were becoming more and more unsure as each day wore on. It was promising to hear Lily say that she was considering dating James, but the little picture Harry looked at her with doubt in his eyes, giving her a grimace before waving up at her. She needed to do something about it.
Hermione shoved open her curtains. Lily looked at her with the same guilty face she had been using to look at the wild-haired girl for the whole week. Lily bit her lip. "Hermione?" she asked, sounding nervous. "I wanted to say…I am really really sorry for how I treated you last week. It was wrong of me and I was just jealous. Is there any way I can make it up to you?"
Hermione smiled at the girl. "Don't worry about it, Lily. I am just glad that we can put it behind us and be friends," Hermione reassured her.
Lily sagged in relief at the words. She really did feel awful. Usually she was so nice to everyone, and especially as Head Girl she should have been more accommodating. But James Potter made her crazy.
"And, as for a way to make it up to me…what are your plans for Hogsmeade?" Hermione asked, with a devious smile gracing her lips.