James sniggered at Severus, who felt the blood draining from his face. Nevertheless, this guy was an asshole, whom Severus hated deeply, and he was annoying Lily, who Severus loved deeply. So Severus stood his ground.
"Look at this, then.' James uttered loudly, so that all the other students would know that James Potter was there, and was calling for attention. 'Little, Itty Snivellus, standing up for his little, bitty girlfriend."
Severus furrowed his eyebrow in frustration, with a hand at his waist and the other at his side. Too weak and too scared to shout back, or to cower in fear, he stared stonily ahead. Lily did not move from her seat, and watched the scene with an almost sick fascination.
"What's the matter, Snivell?' James shot, as he started circling Severus. 'Too much of a coward to fight back? What would it take you to fight back?"
Now, Severus knew that this had been intended as a rhetorical question. Rhetorical questions are entirely different from normal questions because when someone asks a normal question, they expect an answer: when someone asks a rhetorical question, they ask it to make a point. The use of a rhetorical question makes the speaker sound more intelligent: at the very least, when used correctly, a rhetorical question can make the speaker seem superior to the listener.
But James did not seem to fully understand the capability nor the purpose of a rhetorical question, as he began to answer his own rhetorical question.
"What if,' he began, pausing in his step. 'Something dreadful were to happen to your school books?"
Severus was still too timid to make any motion in defence of himself, or in defence of his school books for that matter. He stared blankly ahead, blinking nervously, fingers twitching around the wand in his pocket.
Yet Severus did not muster the courage as James raised his own wand, pointed it towards the bench where Severus' books still sat, and set it on fire.
Lily gasped: James laughed maliciously at Severus' lack of emotion.
"What, Sour Grapes Snape doesn't care about his studies?' he mocked. 'Well, what about his precious Evans? What if Snivellus' Mudblood-"
"Don't call her that!' roared Severus, grasping quickly into his robes. He pushed James back fiercely into a stone column, holding his wand to James' throat. James held his hands up mercilessly and eyed Severus' prodding wand.
"Now, Snivellus,' James said cooly, even as he was pinned tightly against the column. 'Let's be reasonable: You-you don't want to do anything too rash, do you?"
Severus squinted in rage, studying Potter's messy black hair. His glasses sat askew, the left eyepiece higher than the right: but, as always, Potter's untidiness made him more appealing. He couldn't honestly kill James Potter: as much of an ass James was, he wasn't worth getting shipped off to Azkaban for.
But still: it was James Potter, the moron who had called Lily Evans a 'Mudblood',
"Ava-"
"Obscuro!"
In the time it took for Severus to contemplate murder, James had escaped from Severus' clutches, and raised his wand. The latter spell was his: and as a result, a blindfold appeared from nowhere, and wrapped itself around the upper section of Severus' pale face. All exterior light and signs of the outside world were shut out, and Severus was slammed to the ground.
"How- dare- you- steal- Lily- from- me!" growled James between hits. James' angry, deep breathing sped up as he continued to beat up Severus.
"James!' cried Lily. 'What are you doing to him! Stop it!"
James did not cease his beating: they became more severe. Severus was drifting in and out of a concussion by that point.
"James!' cried Lily once more. 'Stop hurting him! Please!"
James continued, apparently deaf to Lily's desperate pleas.
Tears were budding in her eyes now, wishing nothing more than for James to stop his merciless attacking. With little on her mind, she stepped up to James, pulled him up by the back of his robes, and slapped him hard across the face.
He clutched at his throbbing pink cheek, and looked into Lily's green eyes. There were bloodstains on his knuckles, and his glasses were barely on his face.
"What the hell, Evans?' he muttered. He glanced from Lily, and down to Severus, then back at Lily. 'That was for him, wasn't it?"
Lily merely stared back at James with deep anger. James nodded: he knew he was right.
And James left the stone hallway.
Lily wasted no time: once James turned the corner at the other end of the path, she fell to her knees. Placing her hands gently on Severus' shoulders, she realized soon that he was fully unconscious, his thin body battered and bruised.
xxx
"You're welcome to go and visit him, Miss Evans."
Lily nodded graciously to a youthful Mademoiselle Pomfrey as she entered the hospital wing, passing by the other mostly empty beds. There was something about hospitals that made Lily feel insecure: perhaps it was the common cleanliness found in every hospital, or the omnipresent feeling of death that continuously lingered.
Finally, she reached Severus' bed. It had been three days since his attack, and he still looked slightly terrified.
"Good morning, Severus.' she greeted pleasantly. 'I brought you something."
xxx
Three days had gone by since Potter had knocked the snot out of Severus Snape: or so he had been told. It is quite difficult to keep track of time while you're unconscious.
And nobody had bothered to visit him in the hospital wing. Not even Avery or Mulciber: Severus suspected they had found him too much of a coward to talk to anymore. Not that he minded too much, especially since his only guest had been Lily Evans.
"I brought you something, Sev.' she said quietly on the morning of his third day in the hospital wing. 'The other night, I went to try and collect your school books: I obviously did not expect to find anything, seeing as how James had set them on fire: but oddly enough, one of your books, this red one, was perfectly fine. I suspect it's a Defence Against The Dark Arts book, and that you may need it."
Severus sat platonically in his bed, face emotionless, making little movement. Lily rested the book on his bedside table. The two sat in silence: to be fair, though, when Severus' had approximately half of his brain knocked out of one of his ears, it was difficult to stimulate any worthy conversation.
Lily seemed to have a problem with conversation, as well. She did take Severus limp hand, and place it on her lap.
"Oh, Sev.' she said tearfully. 'I'm so sorry that this had to happen to you. I don't even know what came over James: he hasn't been acting like his usual self since the end of the OWL exams. And you definitely didn't deserve anything: you're so quiet, so loyal, so - "
Severus turned his head to face Lily: propping his self up onto his bandaged elbows, he leant over and kissed Lily Evans.
To his relief, she did not pull away. To his greater relief, she kissed him back.