James, Sirius and Severus all turned. Severus wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve quickly, and swallowed the remaining soap to clear his mouth.

The girl was coming up from the lake's edge, her thick, dark red hair bouncing at her shoulders, every hair in place: which was odd, considering how quickly she was approaching. Her startlingly green, almond-shaped eyes were crinkled slightly in anger: Severus fully expected her to be angry at him, as she would never be upset at her dear husband: but to his full relief, Severus remembered that this was five years ago, and he and Lily were still friends.

"All right, Evans?' James' voice was suddenly deeper, pleasant and mature. The hatred inside of Severus continued to build up: Lily, he thought, don't believe him! It's all a facade!

But of course, Lily couldn't hear him speaking inside his head.

"Leave him alone,' Lily repeated. To Severus' great relief, her green eyes seemed to be looking at James with every ounce of hate that her beautiful mind could hold. 'What's he done to you?"

"Well,' said James. 'It's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean… "

Again, several onlookers chuckled at James' endless wit. Lily, thankfully, was not one of those people.

"You think you're funny,' Lily shook her head in disgust, still looking upon James with a great amount of loathing. 'But you're just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone."

And then one of Severus' worst fears came true. He had hoped that his revisitation would have changed things, but it did not, and so he had to witness the horrific event once more. For Severus had always considered the next eight words had been the event that had caused his life to go in such a decline.

"I will if you go out with me, Evans,' James said quickly. 'Go on … 'go out with me and I'll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again."

If it were possible, Severus would claim that even more hatred had blossomed inside of him, but as he was already past breaking level, it was impossible for him to hate James Potter even more. The Impediment Jinx had now worn off, and Severus took James' distraction with Lily as the time to fetch his wand from the grass below. He inched towards his wand slowly.

"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid.' said Lily, and Severus felt quite happy about that.

"Bad luck, Prongs,' said Sirius briskly. To Snape, who he noticed had just reached his wand, he cried: 'OI!"

How dare that asshole Potter ask Lily out: she was far too good for him, she needed a sensitive and quiet man instead of an outlandish and arrogant one. With great concentration, Severus remembered a spell that he had invented: "Sectumsmpra".

A flash of light revealed that a nice deep, bloody gash appeared at the side of James' face. James whirled, and within mere seconds, Severus was hoisted up in the air, his robes had fallen over top of his head to reveal his pale legs and greying underpants.

He could hear the crowd cheering, and for a second time, he fully regretted allowing the illustration of the girl's face take him back in time. How she did it, he was unaware, but he hoped that she would be able to take him back to the present immediately, to escape the laughter and humiliation.

"Let him down!' demanded Lily. Severus smiled feebly when he remembered that she was still there, sticking up for him. And then he wished for his robes to be covering his legs and underwear again, as the thought of Lily being there made him quite happy.

"Certainly,' said James. In an instant, Severus fell from mid-air to a crumpled heap on the ground. He quickly got on his feet, wand at the ready, but was back on the ground within seconds.

"Petrificus Totalus!' Sirius said almost lazily.

It is a curious thing to be petrified. It is as if you are frozen in time, cannot move, yet somehow everybody around you can move and are living normal , laying flat as a board on the grass in the Hogwarts courtyard, could not move, yet he was fully aware of everything that was happening around him.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!' shouted Lily.

"Ah, Evans, don't make me hex you.' said the deeper, suave voice that normally did not belong to James Potter, but for the time being, it did.

"Take the curse off him, then."

James sighed, then turned to Snape. James muttered the counter-curse, and Severus got up to his feet.

"There you go.' said James. By the sound of his voice, it was evident that nothing had turned out like he had planned. 'You're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus-"

Now Severus, who was in a great rage, remembered what he had said at the initial occurrence of this event, and how it had ruined any chance he had at happiness for the rest of his life. Although it was Lily who had received the insult, it was more directed at James when Severus had said: I don't need help from filthy Mudbloods like her!

And although he was very much tempted to repeat the same sentence, he knew how terrible it was to call Lily a 'mudblood': after all, wasn't he there for a second time to fix the event? And so, after a small pause, Severus said:

"Damn right I am."