Halfway through dinner in the Great Hall that Friday evening, Mary's normally bright and cheery aqua-colored eyes narrowed the suggestion that her best friend had given. "You want who to come to study with us on Sunday?" she sighed.

Marlene was not so polite in her rejection of Lily's idea for Severus to join a study session. She swallowed a big bite of the macaroni and cheese that she had been devouring like a wild animal as her Muggle-born friends talked. "Why are you surprised, Mary? I'm honestly shocked that Lily spent a whole night telling us that she was done with the greasy git. Seemed like it was too good to be true."

"Excuse me?" Lily glared at the Gryffindor Chaser with her lips pursed. "I know you had to wake up before dawn today, but that's rude even for you, Marlene. What's wrong with trying to help Mary with her Potions O.W.L.s?"

"Lily, please don't use me as justification for falling back into your old habits." Mary frowned. "Mar has a point. You didn't even try for a full afternoon before speaking to him again."

"Come off it, already!" Lily hissed at her best friend before softening her blazing, emerald scowl at the sight of Mary wincing at her outburst. "It's not as if I had a choice in the matter. Madam Pomfrey asked me to fetch a lunch not just for him, but for the other students as well...Pandora Whittle...that clever third year Ravenclaw who is always inventing her own spells? The poor thing had an accident in Potions Class that's taking a bit longer to recover. Is it so wrong to try to help you so the same thing doesn't happen to you? Or do you intend to get that Apprenticeship with a Dreadful mark on your Potions O.W.L.?

"Listen...Severus and I had a talk. A real, honest to gods talk about what's been happening. I'm not letting my guard down around him. But what I am doing is giving him a chance to prove himself. And if you're so concerned about me turning a blind eye to his bad habits again, then that's all the more reason I need you to be there, Mary."

Mary studied Lily for a few moments before leaning to look into her eyes. "Hm...no signs of the Imperius Curse…"

"Mary!" Lily gasped, gently swatting her on the shoulder to convey her disgust at such a ridiculous accusation.

"I was just making sure, alright? Wouldn't be the first time those Slytherins used an Unforgivable. You were so steadfast that you would try to move on that it was just suspicious that you had a complete change of heart after just a simple talk with him."

"Severus isn't like the other Slytherins. He's his own bloody person, and if you want to be a proper Healer one day, maybe you should learn to separate the student from the House?" Lily insisted, challenging Mary with the nagging thought of their chosen career ambitions. "Let's say you got your wish and apprenticed under Madam Pomfrey one day. Are you going to turn students away simply because of their House sigil and those green and silver colors? What happens when a student comes in as injured as Severus was yesterday, and they're depending on you?"

Her fellow witches lowered their eyes in defeat. Though Marlene didn't share her classmates' goals to become Healers, it was hard to argue with the point Lily had been making.

"He was different today. Actually shaken and crying his eyes out. That's how I know how serious he was."

"Positive they weren't crocodile tears?" Marlene asked, giving Lily one final, sassy protest.

"Severus hates looking weak, Mar." Lily explained. "I venture a guess that one of the reasons he and Potter have such a horrible history is how often James has embarrassed him. It's not just good-natured fun like how he acts to the other Gryffindors. It's sodding bullying. It's been that way ever since the say those two met on the train before we ever got to Hogwarts in the first place."

Lily's eyes strayed towards James at the mention of his name, hoping that he hadn't been eavesdropping. Thankfully, he and the other Marauders had remained focused on a piece of parchment, an uncharacteristic silence being shared between them. It wasn't the first time she'd seen the four of them hovered around it like this, whatever in fact it was.

"He doesn't just fight back though, Lily." Marlene's gaze lingered upon her fellow Chaser's form for a little longer than it should have. "He escalates things. Let's not forget that Snape has put James in the Hospital Wing plenty of times as well. Made him miss four or five practice sessions this year because of it, which is one of the reasons why we're not in contention for the damned Quidditch Cup this year. He gives as good as he gets."

"And that's exactly the point!" Lily snapped back, pressing herself up from the table. "When will this end? How will this end? With one of them mangled so badly that Madam Pomfrey can't fix him? Or perhaps it'll end when one of them is dead and the other is hauled off to Azkaban?!"

"All the more reason you should end it with him!" Marlene answered Lily's fury in kind. "Or have you not noticed the fact that the reason those two fight so much is because of a certain Muggle-born redhead?"

"Then that's Potter's problem, not Severus'! Who I choose to spend my time with is not anyone else's business, and it honestly shouldn't be yours either!" Lily's brow furrowed, her eyes darting back to the other end of the Gryffindor table desperately hoping that James wasn't listening in. But surprisingly, the bespectacled young man had gotten to his feet alongside Sirius, Remus, and Peter. This was never a good sign...the four of them leaving together usually signaled trouble for whichever Prefect was on evening patrols that night. Fortunately, neither Lily nor Lupin himself had actually been assigned the halls tonight.

"And the silver lining of Severus being in the Hospital Wing overnight means that they won't bother him while he recovers. Madam Pomfrey would have them all thrown out of Hogwarts for the remainder of term."

"Alright, fine, Lily. If it means that much to you, I'll come. But please...I hope I don't regret it." Mary shuddered nervously.

"Hey, we swore that we'd Apprentice for healing together. Can't well do that if you don't pass your Potion's O.W.L., can we?" Lily asked with a wink. "And will please stop putting everyone from Slytherin in some evil light? Just because so many dark witches and wizards come out of Slytherin, it doesn't mean they're all bad. Look at Professor Slughorn. He's a joy to be around!"

"Sure, if you're at the top of the class…" Marlene groaned, well aware of her horrible marks in Potions before proceeding to stuff her mouth with a fork full of cheese and noodles. Her mahogany-colored ponytail wagged from side to side like the tail of a dog in its happy place. "Only things I'd like mixing together is whatever the House Elves put in our dinner here. I don't know why, but Hogwarts has the best-tasting food ever."

The tension of the dinner conversation finally left Lily with a soft-hearted giggle as her rowdy, tomboyish friend flaunted her otherworldly metabolism by diving into another helping.

After a bit of small talk about their first week of O.W.L.s testing finally being finished, the trio finally made for the Great Staircase.

"Hopefully Alice can get a bit of free time to spend with us at the lake tomorrow. Between her duties as Head Girl and those N.E.W.T.s, I'm amazed she can even find time for sleep. It's going to be sad when she graduates..." Lily sighed, clutching her enchanted school bag over her shoulder.

"I dunno, Lily...I'd wager that you're probably on track for Head Girl yourself with how often you keep taking Lupin's shifts for patrols." Mary regarded her friend with a smile. "Honestly, between you being a Prefect and Mar trying to become the next Quidditch Captain, I feel like I'm the only one with a significant amount of free time."

"Ever thought about hooking back up with Sirius to fix that giant hole in your schedule?" Marlene teased. "Bloody dog keeps asking about you during practice, and he always lets me score a goal on him as if it'll get me to set you two up for a date or something. He's such a lousy Keeper in morning drills, but he almost always comes up big during games."

Mary gave a quick shake of her head with a mad blush before retreating her face to hide behind her chocolate-colored bangs. "Sirius and I are done, Mar...I k-keep telling you that."

"And I'm not so certain that you're happy with that particular outcome, Mary." Lily cooed over her best friend's clearly infatuated state.

As the girls began their ascent up to the second floor, however, an overly loud commotion from a bustling group of students roared from down the hallway.

"It's Potter!" hissed the unpleasantly squeaky voice of one Jacob Avery, part of the den of Slytherins heavily rumored to have ties with the Death Eaters. Of the group, Avery had been the least noteworthy, but there was zero doubt as to his thoughts on the political war brewing in the wizarding world…

"Him and Snape are going at it again near the Gargoyle Statue!" he told several of the younger Slytherin students within earshot of Lily before making a break towards the entrance to the Headmaster's Office.

Lily's heart sank, immediately wading through the group of students beginning to gather around the second floor hallway, ignoring them and the plight of her friends.

"No...they can't be fighting here! Severus is supposed to be in the Hospital Wing!"

As she pushed through the sea of bodies, growing more densely packed as she got closer to the Gargoyle Statue, her eyes scanned for any sign of what spells were being thrown, what reason they could have for literally fighting on Dumbledore's doorstep!

Once she finally made it to the front of the crowd, Lily's blood ran cold at the sight before her. Severus had a trickle of blood leaking out of his hooked nose as if he'd been punched in the face, with James standing over his prone body, wand drawn and pointed at the Slytherin boy. Snape's ebony wand lay near Potter's feet, though if Madam Pomfrey's diagnosis had been accurate, it would hardly have been any better off in his hand.

Just as Lily took a step forward to stop this encounter and chew Remus out for letting this happen again, something disturbing and unexpected happened.

Severus crawled forward, planting his head directly against the tip of James' wand, not making any attempts to struggle out of his vulnerable, embarrassing position to regain any advantage.

"-it…" she heard his voice hoarsely whisper, struggling to make out what Severus was saying

Amidst the noise of the crowd of teenagers.

"What's that, Snivellus?" James sneered, wondering what his rival was playing at.

"Do it…"

Lily finally managed to catch what Severus said with an accompanying gasp of her own voice.

"Sev...what?!"

James seemed equally as confused by Severus' words, the arrogant glare fading ever so slightly, until…

"I said….DO IT!" Severus bellowed at the top of his lungs, silencing the crowd and letting his shallow, ragged breaths tear through the sudden, eerie quiet.

The haunting look in Severus' eyes absolutely petrified Lily as she watched the scene before her. Her thoughts were screaming to step into action, but her body would not obey, too scared by the expression on her best friend's face. Not scared of him...scared for him. Those black eyes, usually so deep, expressive, and full of emotion, looked absolutely dead inside. Defeated...as if he'd lost the will to even breathe if his body would let him.

Lily watched as Potter's face went white as a sheet by not only Snape's words, but the seriousness of how he'd said them. If she'd had a mirror, she'd have seen that she had paled even more. Hearing her best friend almost begging his hated enemy for death was not a sight she could have ever expected to stumble upon.

It was more than she could take as she finally found feeling in her legs again and took a step forward, determined to put a stop to this and give her best friend a hug that she doubted she'd ever let go from.

But before she could reach him, Severus gripped the tip of James' wand with his shaky hand, a single tear escaping his agony-filled gaze before it dropped onto the hard floor beneath their feet. "DO IT, POTTER!" he screamed before suddenly, the stone gargoyle which guarded the Headmaster's Office exploded right near Snape and the Marauders, blowing all five boys away with the force of a fully-powered blasting curse, though the lone Slytherin had been closest to its epicenter...

"Sev!" Lily shouted, rushing forward to cradle his unconscious body, to keep his already concussed head from being hurt any further. What could possibly have happened to Severus to cause such a shift from his relatively pleasant mood earlier that day?

All four Marauders groaned from the explosion before Lily roared at the crowd of onlookers. "To your dorms! All of you! I'll take every last point you've ever earned for your houses this year if you don't get out of here!"

The threat of the furious Prefect was enough to cause the crowd of shocked students to disperse in a hurry, leaving only Lily, the Marauders, Mary and Marlene, who had finally caught up…

And the unconscious body of Severus Snape...

As the Marauders got to their feet, realization finally dawning as to what just happened, Lily's seething glare was locked onto them, her lips quivering in rage. "Mary, Marlene! Go get Madam Pomfrey right now!" she shouted back to her friends. Mary quickly nodded and rushed to do as Lily bid. Marlene lingered for just a moment, glancing down at Lily and Severus with a conflicted gaze before sprinting down the hall to follow Mary.

"Remus, tell me what the hell happened!" she asked the only one of the Gryffindor boys that she could stand to speak to following such a scene.

Author's Note: I feel obligated to mention this after reading quite a few of my reviews so far (which again, I appreciate your feedback so much!). There seems to be a contingent of people that overlook the nasty side of Severus, which was clearly on show not only in his memories, but also his adult self, while at the same time throwing Lily under the bus for not being sensitive to his situation and making her out to be some kind of shallow, horrible bitch and it leaves me to wonder whether some of you have actually been around teenagers before.

There is no way that a miracle like her Sacrificial Protection could have been placed upon her son if she was not a good and true person. Is she a hormonal teenager? Yes. Does Sev put her on a pedestal and glorify her to an almost obsessive and saint-like degree? Yes. Does she succumb to the peer pressure of her friends and cast him out when he desperately needed her to keep from falling completely to the side of the Death Eaters? Yes. All of these things are going to be explored and Sev/Lily will learn a great deal about one another in the chapters to come, and I only hope those of you that are reading will give her the same fairness that you give to Severus. Assuming what just happened in the story didn't kill him, that is...

I want to make this point exceedingly clear. This is not a fanfiction that whitewashes the horrible personality traits that Severus Snape has. It's not a fic that focuses solely on his good aspects while ignoring his negativity. As I mentioned (and Lily herself noticed) in Tempus Vita, he still has the emotional maturity of a teenager. I say this with all the love in the world for the character, and especially the late Alan Rickman's portrayal of him. He's my favorite character in the series; I wouldn't be writing this story if he weren't. I ship him with Lily. I don't like James Potter.

But I am doing my best to be as fair as possible to every character involved. Severus Snape is a dark hero. Both words (dark and hero) being key to his character, even more so in the books than in the movies. He's not good. He's not evil. But he does the right thing despite his horrible personality flaws for a very pure and heartfelt reason when he doesn't have to. It's simply the punishment that he has chosen for himself.

This isn't a story that's going to raise anyone on a pedestal or go on a spree of character bashing. However you choose to feel about my portrayals, that's perfectly fine, but my only hope is that I can be as true to the canon as possible while still telling an original and magical story for all of you. And who knows? Maybe in this story, Severus might finally come to grips with that emotional instability and learn to value himself enough to be a more complete, functioning adult?

Apologies for my note being so long, kind of reminds me of the old days when I'd write huge dissertations at the end of seemingly every chapter, a bad habit that I've been trying to break.