Lily
Once Marlene returns from the common room I tell all the girls about the Junior Order.
"And you get to choose?!" Mary gasps, once I've finished explaining, "That's so cool!"
"This is what I was talking about at dinner!" Alice says excitedly, "Frank mentioned Edgar Bones! I thought he was in the Order!"
"Well you were right, and he's running it!" I reply.
"You're gonna choose us, right Lil?" Marlene asks.
"Of course," I say, "But you can't tell anyone, okay?"
They all nod so seriously that I burst out laughing, which causes everyone else to start laughing simultaneously, and soon we are clutching our sides and tears are forming in our eyes and none of us have any idea why we are laughing.
After we have recovered from our laughing fit (which takes a while) we open up a block of Honeydukes chocolate and we continue to discuss the Junior Order and half an hour later we have some how gotten into the topic of the muggle boy Mary met over summer.
We are deep in conversation when we all turn our heads as we hear a 'tap-tap' on the window. A scruffy looking tawny owl is sitting on the ledge with a letter in it's beak. I recognise it straight away.
"No, I think it's for me," I say to Em, who has stood up to let the owl in.
I open the window and take the letter from the owl. The owl flies off into the night.
"Who's it from?" Marlene asks straight away. I ignore her and unfold the parchment.
Lily,
We need to talk.
Please meet me in the third floor corridor in an hour. There is a small room on the left, the one next to the knight.
Please, I need to talk to you.
S
I feel my stomach tighten and I clench my jaw.
Severus. Why?
"Who is it?" Marlene insists. In reply I hand her the letter.
She scowls as she recognised the hand-writing and rolls her eyes before handing it to Alice, who's sitting next to her.
"You can't be thinking of going?!" Marlene says as the letter is passed around to everyone.
"Of course I'm not," I reply, almost too quickly, "I vowed not to have anything to do with him anymore."
"You know what his lot did to Mary!" Marlene adds furiously, "You can't-"
But I cut her off before she can finish, "For fucks sake Marlene, I know! I'm not going, okay?! I can make my own fucking decisions!" I snap angrily, snatching the letter out from Em's hands. I chuck it into the fire and watch the flames eat it up.
I stand up, "I'm going to bed," I say bluntly.
"Lil, I'm sorry," Marlene protests, I just ignore her, grabbing my pyjamas out of my trunk and stalking into the bathroom off the side of our dormitory.
As I slam the door I know they are all sharing a glance that clearly says, "Lether be, she'll cool down," which of course makes me fume even more.
When I come back out they have already changed and are chatting among themselves.
As we all climb into bed and blow out the candles, the dying fire now providing the only light, we continue to chat and I add just enough 'yeses' and 'I knows' and 'mmms', to make them think I have forgotten about Severus's letter.
Two hours later I am still awake, a purring Percy curled up next to me and Marlene's soft snores are filling the room.
I look into Percy's eyes, his pupils so big that you can barely see the ring of gold around them, "Should I go?" I whisper.
Percy purrs and head butts me.
I look up at the ceiling. I don't owe Severus anything, I don't have to go. But, he was my best friend, should I at least give him a chance to apologise? Assuming that's what he wants to talk about...
But what he and his so called 'friends' did to Mary, I roll over to look at her asleep in the bed next to me, that was awful, that was dark magic.
"Perce?!" I whisper urgently, "what should I do?"
This time Percy meows urgently and stretches out a paw, touching my cheek with the soft pad.
"You're right," I whisper, "I have to give him a chance."
I get out of bed slowly, making sure no one else is awake. I pull on a dressing gown and quickly exit the room, murmuring, "Lumos," holding my now alight wand in front of me.
I creep down the stairs and through the (thankfully) empty common room.
As I push open the portrait hole I hear the Fat Lady mutter to my retreating back, "It's the first night and already the Head Girl is up past curfew, what a year it's going to be!"
I stop a moment to turn and hush her, before continuing down to the third floor corridor.
It occurs to me that Severus might not even still be there, I am an hour late. I shake the thought away, if he really wanted to talk, he would wait.
I am right.
I pull open the door he mentioned in his letter to find him sitting on a stool, watching a candle, "Lily!" He whispers as soon as I walk in, "thank you for coming."
He doesn't even mention that I'm an hour late.
My throat is dry, to be honest I have no idea what to say, eventually I croak, "What do you want?" It sounds rude, but it's true.
He looks at me, his hair casting a shadow over his face from the light of the candle, "I want to talk about us," he says, he sounds as though he has been rehearsing this conversation for two past hour.
"There is no 'us', Severus," I mutter.
He sighs, looking away, "You're my best friend, Lily."
"Really? I thought I was just a mudblood," the angry sarcasm slips so easily off my tongue.
Severus snaps back up and looks straight at me, "I said sorry for that," he says with forceful precision.
"Sorry for what? Calling me a mudblood? Ditching me for death eaters? Performing dark magic on one of my best friends?" My voice becomes more heated with each question and my eyes flash angrily.
"I wasn't part of that!" Severus snaps.
I laugh hollowly, "You were and you know it." My eyes are now nothing but angry slits.
Severus glares back at me and for a moment neither of us speaks.
"I saw you," Severus finally says, his voice a whisper again.
"Saw me when? Taken up stalking again?"
"I saw you with, with him!" He says with disgust.
"Him who? I'm not a fucking mind reader," I mutter, still angry.
"Potter!" Severus spits, "You, you were walking with him and, and you were laughing!" He says it in a way that makes it sound like I've killed a kitten.
I fold my arms and don't say anything.
"Are you dating him?" Severus tumbles over his own words as he says them with a mixture of fear and hate.
"It's none of your business," is all I say.
"Lily," He says, feigning calmness, "you know what he is like, he, he's awful,"
I roll my eyes, arms still crossed.
"Lily?! Are you dating him or not?!" He asks with more urgency.
Something inside me snaps, "It's none of your fucking business who I date, Snape! You're not part of my life anymore! You were the one who changed that, not me!"
Severus opens his mouth, as if to say something, but all he does is exhale to calm himself down.
"Just tell me," he says quietly, "are you dating him or not?"
"Fuck you, Snivillus!" I spit viciously at him. I turn away, tears pricking into my eyes.
I storm out and run all the way back to Gryffindor tower, my chest heaving with anger.
—-
Em
When I am certain that everyone is asleep, I slip out of bed, pull on a dressing gown and pick up a lantern, lighting it with my wand.
I turn around once to check everyone is still asleep before turning and leaving.
I am about to push open the portrait hole when I hear an angry voice coming from the other side. I quickly jump back into the shadows as it opens.
A girl walks in, sniffing, she doesn't even glance at me.
I am about to step through the portrait hole when I look back at the girl.
It's Lily.
She doesn't see me though, too caught up in her own drama, she probably went to see Snape, and by the sounds of it, it didn't go well.
I place a disillusionment charm on myself before sneaking out the portrait hole.
I make my way up to the seventh floor corridor and find the door of the Room of Requirement already there.
I push it open to see a room similar to the common room. Cass is sitting perched in an arm chair.
"Hey," I say, walking over and kissing her softly, "I missed you." I squeeze into the same arm chair and kiss her again, my hand on her cheek.
She pulls away from me and sighs.
"Cass?"
"Em I don't want to sneak around this year," she says apologetically.
"What do you mean?" I feel confused, I feel like she's about to break up with me.
"I mean, we've been doing this for almost a year, and well, I really like you Em, I do,"
I shake my head, tears sparking into my eyes, "Don't do this," I whisper.
"What..? No, Em," she kisses me, "I'm not breaking up with you."
I feel my stiffened body relax and become limp, I kiss her back, "What then?"
"I want to tell people, about us,"
This time it's me who pulls away, "What? B-but I told you, I'm not ready for that."
"Ready for what? We only have to tell our friends, we don't have to sing it to the whole world." Cass says firmly.
"Look, you don't understand, in my family you have to be straight, white and a witch or wizard to be accepted," I say angrily.
"You're their daughter, they love you, they'll be fine with it!" Cass yells.
I roll my eyes, "UGH!"
"Fine! Fine," She shouts, "tell your friends not to tell them!"
"That's not the point!"
"So what is the point?!"
"The point is, the, the point is- The point is I'm not ready yet!" I splutter, "That should be good enough for!"
"I should be enough for you! You shouldn't be ashamed of me or who you are!"
I sigh, "I'm not ashamed of you," I whisper, I lean into kiss her but Cass pulls away, "You can't just kiss me and make everything okay! Just admit you're ashamed of this!" She motions to the air around her.
"I'm not-" I begin, but Cass cuts me off, "Yes you fucking are, you just don't have the guts to admit it!" She spits this venomously, standing back, her arms folded and a stoney look on her face.
That hurt.
I stand back and feel the tears appear in my eyes. I wipe them away stubbornly.
How is it that the people we love most are the ones that hurt us most?
She glares at me, those blue eyes have turned from twinkling to icy.
"I love you," I blurt it out in a whisper.
Cass looks taken aback, "You, you, you can't just," she splutters, "You- I'm not falling for that!" She finally snaps, regaining her voice.
"Cass!" I protest and this time there is real desperation in my voice, "I'm not just saying that."
Cass doesn't say anything.
"It's not that I'm not ready to admit that I am in a relationship with you," I begin, steadying my voice, "If it was just that then I would sing it from the astronomy tower! I'm not ready for everyone to know about me. And I know that my friends probably won't care, it's just I'm not ready, okay?"
I wait for her response, she stands there, still, arms folded.
Then she walks over and kisses me softly.
"I love you too," she whispers, pressing her forehead to mine.
I kiss her again.
"We'll tell people when you're ready," Cass says.
I press my finger to her lips, "Thank you."
—-
Severus
I find a bathroom and splash my face with water, if Yaxley, Avery or Mulciber knew I had been crying then I would be dead.
Once my face is no longer red and blotchy I put a disillusionment charm on myself and head back down to the common room. I pass Filch, who is still busy with the knight I cursed to keep him distracted.
"Hog's Breath," I mutter and the door opens to the common room. It's past midnight so there is barely anyone in there. The few people who are sitting in the common room ignore me. I head straight up to my dorm and see that Mulciber, Avery and Yaxley are asleep at first relief floods through my body, but then the anger sets in.
Anger at Lily. I had tried and I had really tried to say sorry, I just wanted her to be happy and to love me the way I love her.
I punch my pillow violently, I want to yell, I want to hurt someone the way she has hurt me.
I turn to a sleeping Mulciber and shake him awake.
"What the fuck, Snape?" He grumbles sleepily.
"Remember last year, when you used dark magic on McDonald?"
Mulciber nods, "Is there a point to this?"
"I want to do that again, and I want to be in on it. Except we need someone younger, someone too scared to go tattle on us like McDonald did," I say, a plan already forming.
"Yeah, sure I'm in," he replies, "Got anyone in mind?"
"The Slut's sister," I say simply.
"Rose McKinnion?" He asks.
I nod.