Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter 8

Severus waited at the Slytherin table while everyone left. Lily had not said where they were to meet, and after that fiasco, she might decide to never see him again.

It was not his fault that Potter wanted to put on an embarrassing exhibition for everyone to watch. It had helped Severus in a way, but even the most vindictive Slytherin found it going a bit far to marry Evans in order to get one over on Potter.

He supposed Lily meant to walk with him since she did cross the Great Hall in order to march by him with her hands clenched into fists and talking to herself. He followed and listened to her recap everything Potter had done in the Great Hall and other things he had done at Hogwarts. She was not so blinded by rage that she blurted out for anyone to hear what Potter had done to her over the summer.

It was not till they were back in their apartment and Lily circled it a few times that she finally addressed him directly.

"Could you make some tea, Severus?"

"Alright," he agreed and got to work on that while Lily rearranged her belongings while muttering to herself.

He was probably laying out the items incorrectly, but did remember to put milk in a tiny pitcher and the little tongs for the sugar cubes. Lily did not take lemon in her tea.

Severus was nervous. Tea at the Evans was very polite and precise. Should there be something to eat with tea after dinner too? He threw some of the biscuits on a plate, than took some time to fan them out along the edge, and put that in the middle with the milk and sugar. He stepped back to take stock. Two cups, two saucers, two spoons, two napkins. He looked in the cabinet for any reminder of what else could be missing from the table.

Lily did not notice anything amiss till she tasted the tea.

"I might have been too caught up with what I was doing, Sev. Did this brew for five minutes?"

"I think so."

"Hm. Uh, one tablespoon per cup of water?"

"Tablespoon of what?"

"Tea."

"That much? It'll turn brown with less."

"While Hogwarts is paying for it, let's live it up and use the whole tablespoon per cup."

"Alright. Just so you know, we save it at home for more pots so don't get caught throwing it out."

"Save it?"

"Yes, tea can be reused for multiple pots."

To Lily, it sounded like she would not be enjoying a good cup of tea at the Snapes.

She changed the subject, "So uh … what do you have in mind?"

"In mind for what?"

Thinking it might seem suspicious if four people went missing between now and tomorrow morning, Lily simply suggested, "Tonight."

"I'm not particularly tired, but if you are going to sleep, I can lay down. I don't have anything new to read yet."

Read. That was not anything new. Sev told her numerous times that he did not sleep all night because he liked reading. Lily just didn't expect him to talk about reading their first night together as a married couple.

"So you're interested in taking things slow then?"

"Slow?" Severus repeated.

"I mean we both know that we've … you know … multiple times, and we're married."

"That was different. I know you married me to stay in school, not for me to take liberties with you, Lily."

"We're still married," Lily responded. Why would Severus marry her so she could still go to school?

"Yes."

"It's for the rest of our lives, Sev."

He nodded his understanding.

"So you don't …?" Lily let her question hang, unsure of what Severus wanted or did not want.

"I don't want us to fight, Lily. I don't want to live without you talking to me for over a year again."

Severus had already told her this, that afternoon and evening by the river.

"You didn't like uh … what we did?"

He turned his gaze towards the tabletop, but Lily could see the flush of color to his face. Severus confessed, "It was incredible. I've never felt anything like that before."

His reaction sort of confirmed for Lily what she thought she saw that day. Severus had been scared. She reassured him, "I thought you were brilliant too, Sev."

Severus was not sure if Lily meant that or not. The potion could have altered her perception of what occurred. Yes, that was it. It would have wanted her to enjoy and continue having sex.

Lily waited for Sev to reply, then suggested, "I guess I'll take a bath. Did you want to go first or after me?"

"I took a bath this morning," Severus muttered at the table. "But I can take another one if you want me to."

"You go do what you need to do first," Lily replied carefully, afraid of insulting Severus, "and then I can take all the time I want in there."

"Did you want me to clear this up first?"

"I'll get it, Sev. Thank you for making the tea."

Lily did not mind cleaning up. She needed to think, without talking to herself aloud, as she had over Potter. Sev had been her best friend for a long time so he wasn't necessarily a stranger, just strange. Why had she thought marrying him would make things all right? Well, they weren't all right, since she was pregnant with twins, but being married to Sev only seemed to solve the dilemma regarding attending Hogwarts while giving her the problem of living with him. For now, Sev seemed willing to defer to Lily's wishes, but that would change if she got too pushy or opinionated.

Severus emerged from the loo too quickly for Lily to have decided anything, other than she needed to think before she spoke. Between his parents and her, she believed Sev was thoroughly confused as to what was going on. At least Severus was agreeable to concentrating on schoolwork.

She noticed Severus hovering by the bathroom door when he came out.

"Did you forget something at home, Sev?"

"No," he replied half to himself as he went to put his things away in his bureau. His mother yelled so many contradictory things at him this morning, he was not sure what he had been doing wrong.

"All right then. I may be a while," Lily added, in case Sev thought she'd be as quick as him.

Lily actually spent a lot of time dawdling in the lavatory. She had even brought three different types of pajamas in with her. Her mum had given her a couple new ones, and now that she had the baby doll set on, it looked all wrong in the mirror. It was pretty, but the flimsy fabric was a bit much to spring on Sev, at least until she knew what he wanted to do. Perhaps he was angry over the whole thing and never wanted to touch her again. Not sure if that was the case, Lily put on the ankle-length summer weight cotton, flowered nightgown.

She emerged to find that most of the room was in darkness. The candles next to the bed were lit, along with the one on her dresser. Lily put her things away quietly, in case Severus had gone to sleep, then turned to realize the bed was still made up.

"Sev?" she whispered loudly.

"Yes?" he answered.

"Where are you?"

"On the sofa."

"Aren't you going to lie down?"

"I am."

"I meant in bed."

"You can have it."

Lily's lips twisted to the side in frustration as she processed that tidbit, then she firmly responded, "We're both going to sleep over here, Sev."

"Won't you need more room soon?"

"Not that much, Sev. Get over here."

Lily looked at Sev as he moved into the light. He had been wearing clothes when he came out of the loo, rather than pajamas. Sev had changed into his clothes that he wore at home, rather than leaving his uniform on.

Before she blurted out a request for him to change, Lily recalled she had not seen any pajamas in Sev's drawers. If he normally slept in his underwear or less, she did not know, and at the moment thought she better not order him to strip.

"So is the side next to your things all right with you, Sev?"

He nodded.

"Well, I guess I'll get the lights so you can get ready for bed. Nox."

Lily was slipping under the covers when she felt the mattress respond to weight on the other side. She doubted Sev undressed since she had not heard anything. It was all right if he wanted to keep his clothes on tonight. They needed time to get used to being around each other again.

As the silence lengthened, Lily slid her hand tentatively towards Sev to touch him, and maybe hold his hand. This did not have to be some sort of punishment for him. She reached an obstruction. He was not between the sheets, like her.

"Did you want me to move over?" she heard him whisper.

"No, I wanted to hold your hand. Why aren't you beneath the covers?"

"I didn't feel like it."

Lily found his arm and shifted to get her hand comfortably in his. He let their fingers comfortably weave together. At least, he was not being stubborn about this.

She lay still listening to Severus slowly breathe. At least he admitted he enjoyed what they did, so it wasn't as bad as all that. If nothing else, they had their joint hatred of James Potter.

** Dumbledore's a Dunce ** Dumbledore's a Dunce ** Dumbledore's a Dunce ** Dumbledore's a Dunce ** Dumbledore's a Dunce ** Dumbledore's a Dunce ** Dumbledore's a Dunce **

Sirius continued his fuming as they headed up to Gryffindor tower. "Dumbledore's gone too far this time. He can't expel us. In fact, you could even say we're actually the victims of this whole farce."

Remus had been quietly keeping his own council through dinner, but this was going too far. "Victims? How do you see us as victims, Padfoot?"

"Obviously this whole display was planned in advance to make us look stupid."

"Yeah," Peter chimed in, "he was waiting for Prongs or any of us to make a move."

"We were told not to speak to any of them."

"It's just talking," James exclaimed. "What I don't get is why he took Snape's side. Snape's always wrong. He's a sneaky bastard, and now he's ruined Evans' life."

"Cut it out about Evans," Sirius growled. "She made her choice."

"No, she didn't. I bet he used some sort of love potion on her. There's no way she'd even touch that greasy git. Just wait, when we see her in Gryffindor, she'll be all befuddled. If she starts saying things about how nice Snape is in any way, then everyone will know."

"It was our potion," Remus declared. "She must have still been under its effects when she went home. Doesn't she live close to Snape?"

Sirius made a face and disgustedly replied, "What kind of slimeball takes advantage of a girl in that state?"

"Us," Remus answered.

"No," James denied. "Evans fancies me. It has to be something he did to her. You know how wonderful and kind Evans is, even to you, Moony ..." James was interrupted by Peter's giggle, so he added, "and you too, Wormtail. He probably started crying about something and she couldn't help trying to comfort him, and that's when the slimy git got her."

"Maybe she deserves it then," Sirius suggested. "If she's that gullible."

"Yeah," Peter agreed, "she came when you wrote her that letter about the head boy and head girl spending time together, Prongs."

"Hey, who's friend are you? This is not about what I did. I've paid for that, when Evans sent aurors to our houses. It's what Snape has done, and how he tricked Dumbledore. We have to expose him."

"Not again," Peter said while making a face. "It was so gross."

"Yeah, even scared and upside down, Snivellus was hung like a muggle," Sirius complained, while feeling his pudding threatening to come back up.

"Yeah, like an animal," Peter agreed.

Horrible realization crept into James' mind regarding Snape doing things to his beautiful and innocent Lily. Was it even physically possible? From what he saw of Snape, he was grotesque. Doubtless, Snape would try, and he wouldn't give a damn how much it hurt her. James just had to guard Lily to keep her and Snape apart, even if he had to sleep inside the portrait hole to keep her from sneaking out.

In the meantime, he'd have to work on figuring out what Snape gave Lily to get her to do all this and then get an antidote into her. Then they could get Snape sent to Azkaban where he belonged. Maybe it would be so bad, he'd get sentenced to getting kissed by a dementor.

When James found out that Lily no longer was staying in Gryffindor tower, but was somewhere with Snape, he no longer cared about trials, Azkaban and dementors. He'd kill that slimy bastard himself.