Chapter 6

Pain of a Prince

Lily was surprised at how little the difference of not having Petunia around all the time made. She had expected that she would miss seeing her sister at break times and walking home after school, but it wasn't like that at all. Lily felt much older now that it was just the three of them walking home as a group, rather than being overshadowed by all her sisters friends. And getting home from school half an hour before Petunia meant that Lily had all that time with just her and her mum in the house. Only weeks into the school term this all felt normal.

With all the new things going on Lily had thought that she would have less time to spend with Severus, but with Petunia older in her parents eyes, Lily found that she was given more responsibility and freedom. This she used to spend more time with her friends, including Severus.

Although she often invited her school friends to her house or vice versa, Sev had never invited her into his. She had often met him outside it or at the top of his road, and so she had never felt inclined to invite him to her house. At first this had been because she wondered if he had some kind of aversion to inviting or being invited to people's houses. Perhaps he had never really had any friends to invite in. It eventually became so normal to spend time with Sev outdoors that she never thought to invite him over anyway. Lily discovered the reason for his quirk in early November…

The Friday after bonfire night, Lily cycled down to Sev's house as she had not seen him for the past two weeks. She had expected him to come up to her and then walk down the other side of the hill to explore the adjacent valley, as they had discussed. Lily's schedule was generally more fixed than his and so it was normally Sev who decided when they could next meet up. But this had been a longer gap than usual.

It was particularly windy, Lily had to peddle though it was downhill most of the way because the air was almost pushing her back up the hill. Finally, when she got to his house Lily could see no sign of Sev and so chose to knock at the door, something that she had done only twice before. It was not Severus who answered the door, as it had been previously, but a thin, hollow looking woman. She stood there looking both confused and cross at Lily. The woman had long, dark unkempt hair which was mostly kept away by the plait that ran down her back. She tilted her head forwards making her face appear longer than it was and it appeared as though the world weighed heavily on her shoulders as she was inclined to slouch. Her eyes were dark with deep circles around them making them appear to be sunken into her skull. She wore a long dress that looked like it had once been deep green but had been over worn several years ago and in coming down to her ankles looked like it had been first made in a previous century.

'Hi,' Lily mumbled in the woman's general direction, 'I was just wondering if Severus was in. I'm Lily. We sometimes meet up and …' her voice trailed off.

'Oh,' said the woman, whom Lily guessed to be Sev's mother, 'I'll get him for you.'

She turned, letting the door close in Lily's face, leaving the suddenly nervous girl standing on the door step unsure of what she was supposed to do.

Lily stayed there, slightly swaying on the doorstep for only a moment, before Sev appeared. He looked positively sallow, a sickly tinge that contrasted his usual pale complexion. His hair was clumped together in thick clogs and there were two long purple bruises across his face along his cheekbones. Severus' eyes revealed the wounded, vulnerable boy he tried to hide from her for those past two weeks. Realizing his mistake he straightened himself up, he didn't want her pity. That was the last thing he needed: Lily pretending to be his friend because she felt sorry for him.

'What do you want Lily?' he asked curling his lip a frustrated sneer.

'Well, I was coming down to see if you wanted to come out today… I-I haven't seen you in weeks.' Lily's bright green eyes held a wounded expression before they squinted in anger. 'But clearly, you don't want to!' Her temper jumped up at his unexpected reply and she turned as an angry flush rushed to her cheeks. Lily stomped down his garden path to where she'd left her bike.

Watching her leave, Severus panicked.
'Lily, stop!' Sev called out, Lily turned, an auburn eyebrow raised.

'I … I'm … I didn't mean to say it like that.' He said

Lily sighed. ' I know,' she comforted him, 'I guess I just wasn't expecting to see your mum!' she giggled.

'Why? What's wrong with my mum?!' Sev accused jumping round at Lily.

'Sev! What is the matter with you? I was only laughing because I don't know why I wouldn't have expected your mum to answer her own door.' Lily said while looking at him her eyebrows knitted together with her confusion at his reaction. 'Come on,' she carried on after a pause, 'aren't we going to explore my valley?'

Severus turned up the corner of his mouth, yet the confusion and aggression remained in his eyes as he went to grab his bike from the back garden. Lily didn't mind the wait for him this time. She pondered being abruptly left on the doorstep by his mother. Why she didn't invite Lily in seemed a bit strange. Wasn't that what most people did? Lily shrugged to herself and climbed onto her bike, which filled the time for Sev to come back with his.

Together they spent most of the day running down the paths through the wooded valley. They had left their bikes at the top of woods, where the road ended. The valley was too steep to cycle up and most of the paths too narrow, bumpy and overgrown. Brambles appeared to be the main plant in the undergrowth leaving both children with plenty of scratches on their hands, arms and legs.

Eventually they sat down at the edge of the river in the middle of the valley to skim stones ineffectively into the water. Sitting on the pebbly beach Severus began to compare their injuries, declaring that he had the largest scratch, it ran from his outer elbow to midway down his forearm and Lily knew she didn't have one to compare in length though did point out that it was only a red line and barely a scratch at all.

'But what happened to your face?' she asked, only really comprehending now that the bruises on his cheeks must have been from some fall or another kind of hard knock.

'What's happened to my face?' he replied confused.

'I mean the bruises,' Lily corrected herself drawing a line on her own face, indicating where she meant.

'I just fell over.' He said bluntly, his cheeks turning red under the purple.

Suddenly he stood up, looking down at Lily he almost shouted at her, 'You know it's rude to just ask people what's wrong with their face!'

'I … I'm sorry,' Lily replied, but too late as Severus had already run off into the woods, up the steep slope towards where they had left the bikes.

'Sev! Severus!' Lily jumped up and tried to run after him but yelling at the top of her voice and running simultaneously was difficult and she had no idea where he could have gone. 'Sev I said I'm sorry! I didn't mean it!' but it was no use, he could have been hiding somewhere close by or have already reached the top of the hill. She had no idea.

With hot tears boiling down her cheeks, she sat down when she finally reached the bikes to discover his gone. Why had she said that? They had been having such a nice day before then.

Wiping the tears away she scrambled back onto her bike and peddled home by herself hoping that her parents would mistake the red cheeks and bloodshot eyes for effects of the cold rather than crying.

Over the next few days Lily couldn't get out of her head the main theme of their conversation while they had been in the woods together. Sev had brought it up. She hadn't yet told her parents that she was a witch. It seemed like a strange thing to do, telling you parents something about you that they didn't already know. But Lily knew that it was something that she needed to do.

'Mum, can I talk to you about something?'

'What's the matter, Sweat pea?' Mrs. Evans replied, her younger daughter's large green eyes gazing up intently at her.

'I… well… em…' Lily stuttered, she had no idea how to break this to her parents.

What were you supposed to say? Severus had been no help. He didn't seem to mind much about people who weren't magical, 'muggles' as he called them. He thought of them as second class citizens, unimportant humans.

'Is everything alright at school?' Mrs. Evans asked.

'Yes, that's not what this is about' Lily tried to explain. 'Actually, Mum, I think it's fine; don't worry, it'll sought itself out,' she coped out.

This conversation had taken place several times over the past few weeks. It was now December and Lily was worried. Her parents were in the process of enrolling her into Cokeworth Grammar School for Girls, but Lily knew that she was going to go to Hogwarts. Severus was sure that she was a witch, but he didn't know when a teacher would come to her house and explain it all to her parents; and Lily didn't want her parents working hard to enroll her when she wasn't going to go there.

It was to her father that Lily finally managed to break the news to. He reacted just how she expected. It was after dinner while her mother was watching the television when Mr. Evans came upstairs to talk to Lily.

'Lily, what is the matter?' He asked, quietly sitting down on the bed next to his daughter. Lily looked up at him confused. 'Lily, we know when something isn't right. Is school troubling you—your friends perhaps? I want to help you and your mother is getting concerned.'

'I know you do, Dad,' mumbled Lily, leaning her head against his shoulder, 'It's just… really difficult to explain.' They sat in silence, her father waiting patiently for Lily to go on. She bit her lip, trying to work out what to say, where to start, her fingers twisting and squirming around in her lap.

'You know that sometimes strange things happen around me.' She started 'Remember the water that didn't get me wet last year?' Lily added and her father nodded. 'Well things like that happen around me a lot when I get worried. Recently I've been able to control them—but they happen because, well… It's because I'm…' her fingers were starting to grow red from the incessant pulling and twisting of the skin of her hands as they writhed together. '…because I'm a witch.'

Lily looked up at her father to gage his reaction. He seemed surprised at first, this was obviously not the explanation he had expected. His eyebrows knitted together and his forehead crumpled down, concern written in his features.

'Who told you that you were a witch, Lily?' He asked carefully.

Lily hesitated; it was all going to have to come out now.

'Severus Snape, he's a Wizard to.' She added hopefully

'And how do you know Severus Snape?' Lily's father asked.

'I … I see him sometimes in the park, when I'm out.'

'So Matt and Alex know him too?'

'They know of him…?' Lily said wincing as she looked up at her father. She was about to mention that Petunia had met him, but then Lily remembered how her sister had reacted to Severus. Maybe it would be better if her father wasn't told all of Tuney's prejudices against Sev before her father met him.

'Hmm' her father said after a pause, 'I think I would like to meet this Severus Snape.'

'Why?' asked Lily then realizing her rudeness added, 'Why would you want to meet him? He's just someone I sometimes see and talk to; you haven't met everyone I know at school.'

'I know Lily, but I think your mum would like to meet him to, and it would be nice for you to ask him around for tea sometime. Meeting your children's friends is just something that grownups think they have to do.' He told her.

Lily rolled her eyes in response, 'Fine, I'll ask Severus if he wants to come to dinner.'

'Thank you Lily,' her father said smiling at her. 'Have you finished all your homework and done all your jobs?'

'Yes Dad,' Lily smiled back

'Right then, goodnight Lily-Pad,' he said kissing her as he stood up

'Night-night.' Lily replied as he left the room.

That Saturday, Lily met Severus down by the river and she explained what her father had said.

'But what if I don't want to come to your house?' Severus responded vehemently. His change in demeanor was so sudden, it caught Lily of guard.

'Why? Why wouldn't you?' asked Lily as her forehead creased. Suddenly worried that he wouldn't want to come because he didn't think of them as friends. Lily was muggle born after all and although Severus persisted that it made no difference, she was sure that it would.

'You can't just invite people around to your house without asking them!'

'But that's what I'm doing now. I'm asking you.' Lily paused, composing herself, 'Severus, would you like to come around to my house for tea?'

'But why would I want to come to your house for tea?' he asked, this time much calmer.

'Because we're friends, aren't we, or is it cause my parents are muggles…?' Lily pondered sadly.

'No! no that doesn't matter!' Sev jumped up his eyes wild at the thought. 'Its just that, why would I come and have dinner at your house? I-I don't understand.'

Lily giggled, she couldn't help herself, 'You've never been to someone else's house for dinner, have you?'

But Severus's mood had returned, and he could not and would not listen to Lily's laughter any more. He grabbed his long coat from where he had left it and shrugged it on. His dark eyes grew stormy. Lily sat up, perplexed by her friends actions. Her mouth was closed and no longer smiling, but the laughter remained in her eyes. Severus turned abruptly and left her, his baggy clothes billowing out behind him.

'Sev? Severus? Come back!' Lily called jumping to her feet and rushing after him, but Severus merely broke into a run, desperate to leave her behind.

'Severus please ask… Please ask if you can come to my house… Severus please what's wrong?' Lily called anxiously trying to catch up with him, but Severus was quick and left her wounded and confused.

The two had arranged to meet on Wednesday afternoon, either in the trees or at the mill. But though Lily went to all of their usual hideouts in attempts to find Severus.

He was nowhere to be found.

Sighing, Lily realized he was probably still angry about being invited to her house, the reason still eluded her. She didn't understand why he wouldn't want to come

. Frustrated she furrowed her brows, if he didn't want to be found then that was his problem, she thought as she peddled back up the hill.

The next Saturday Severus was still nowhere to be found, but Lily had a plan. After checking everywhere she thought that he could be hiding, the little witch went to his house with a folded piece of paper in her hand. Leaving her bike propped up on the garden wall; she half-ran up the pathway and slipped the paper through the letterbox. Heart racing, Lily grabbed her bike and cycled home.

'That wasn't very long.' Her mother called as Lily stepped inside the house.

'I couldn't find Sev.' Lily answered disappointedly.

'I thought you knew where he lived? Didn't you say he lived on Spinner's End, Lily?' her mother asked confused.

'But he doesn't like being at home,' Lily countered, 'I think that's why he was so angry when I asked him if he wanted to come here.' Lily pouted and plopped down on kitchen chair.

'Don't worry Lils,' said her father coming in from the garden, 'I'm sure he'll come round', you just said something he wasn't expecting. Don't worry.'

'But why wasn't he expecting me to ask him round for tea?' Lily moaned.

'Because, the way people live down on the Oak Apple estate is different to the way we live.' Lily's mother explained. 'They have different expectations on how to talk to people and how to treat they're friends. Maybe being asked to tea isn't something he's used to, or it means something different to him. Maybe you'll need to go a bit differently with Sev to your other friends.'

This chapter owes at least part of its existence to:

Harry Potter by J K Rowling