The Hufflepuff Watchtower

Ice cold. Carved from marble. Solid as a rock. Unyielding. Up high in the Gryffindor tower, locked inside the girls' bathroom, was Lily. She was splashing hot water in her face while muttering quiet insults at Severus, who was far, far down below her, crawling around in the bowels of the castle. Stupid bat. Waste of talent. Slippery snake. A new insult had formed with each drop of water that dripped from her hair. But through the stream of insults, she also muttered words of kindness. She couldn't help it. Severus was so much more than that. Hard working. Still waters. Well mannered. Protective.

He hadn't even glanced at her once during the feast. She knew he hadn't, because she couldn't stop glancing at him while he was making conversation with those bloody soon-to-be Death Eater friends of his. Him as well, she thought, her nostrils flaring at the very idea of it. She knew he wouldn't get the Dark Mark until after he had graduated from Hogwarts. There was still time left to save him from himself. Hero-complex, Lily huffed to herself. Mum's right. It's not my job to save people from themselves.

But this is Severus. She scrubbed her body till her skin was raw. Infuriating. Another word to add to the list that pieced Severus together. Thought-provoking. Explosive energy. Gentle. She had wanted him to see her. Look at her. Really look at her. To give her some sort of acknowledgement that he would stick to his end of the deal. Not that she had given him much of a choice in that endeavour. She forced it on him. It was wrong of her to do so. She knew that much, but her desire to reconnect had won the battle with her inner voice of reason.

'Are you doin' alright, love?' Alice was flicking her fingers against the shower curtain to catch her attention. 'You've been scrubbin' yourself for nearly an hour.'

Where Lily possessed kindness, Alice was the embodiment of Kindness. 'I'm not alright, Alice,' she answered. 'Could you hand me a towel?'

Alice stuck a large red towel through a gap of the curtain. 'Just put on yer pyjamas and Mary and I will meet ye in our dorm, alright?'

'I will,' said Lily. The last thing she wanted was to talk about Severus with her friends. He was nothing more than a slimy git to them. They didn't know him the way she did.

She found Alice and Mary sitting cross-legged on her four-poster bed, gossiping. 'Yer face is as red as yer hair,' said Alice as she looked up, and patted with her hand on the mattress. 'Sit down.'

'I don't want to talk about anything,' said Lily as she sat down. Alice had taken the liberty of combing with her fingers through her hair, braiding it. Her touch was comforting. 'Just continue where you left off.'

'I heard rumours that Emma Vanity, Slytherin's Quidditch captain,' Mary explained, 'might be a Muggle-born witch.'

'If she really is,' said Lily, 'it would be better if no-one found out about it. Being Muggle-born is hard enough as it is. Being a Muggle-born in Slytherin is another.'

Alice nodded in agreement. 'Poor girl. Maybe it's a good thing this is also her final year at Hogwarts.'

'Isn't she dating Evan Rosier?' asked Alice. 'His family is listed among the Sacred Twenty-Eight. Would be strange if he were knowingly dating someone of her birth.'

'That would be strange,' Mary agreed. 'She's resilient, though, which is probably what attracts him to her in the first place. Really knows how to lead a team. She's a hard one to knock of her broom, too. Then again, most of the time I can't decide between her or knocking James of his high horse.'

The three young women burst out into a fit of giggles. 'Back on the train,' said Lily, still laughing, 'you should've seen what Sev did to Ja—no, no never mind that.' The laughter had died as soon as it had begun. 'What have the two of you been up to, this summer?' she asked, desperate to turn the conversation.

'Travelling around with mum and dad,' Mary answered with a shrug. 'It's a lot easier to do now that I can Apparate. That's about it, really. Nothing special.'

'Lily, don't do this,' said Alice sternly. She started braiding the other side of Lily's hair. 'I can see what yer trying te do. Just out with it.'

'I hate being seventeen,' said Lily. She could feel the frustration boiling up inside of her and was annoyed by how whiney she sounded. 'It is literally the worst age. You're an adult, but the rest of the world doesn't see it that way. And then there's the fact that I'm Muggle-born. And based on that I must make decisions that I never wanted to make. Like going into hiding after graduating from Hogwarts, which I really don't want to do. And – aaargh!'

'If you're going to scream, at least scream into a pillow,' said Mary as she tossed a red velvet pillow on Lily's lap. 'Don't want to alarm the rest of the House now, do we?'

Lily took a hold of the pillow and continued to scream, leaving nothing but muffled grunts echoing through the dormitory. 'We've all been there love,' said Alice with a reassuring pat on her back. 'Well, being seventeen, I mean. It really does suck.'

…o0o…

Lessons weren't going to start until the following Monday, leaving the castle with a rare three-day weekend to enjoy. Lily figured out soon enough that Severus hadn't bothered leaving the Slytherin common room on Friday and Saturday, but on Sunday she managed to trace him to the library. She found him in a dusty corner, hunched over a book. The tip of his nose nearly touching the paper. His hair forming a curtain around him, secluding him from the outside world.

Lily huffed. She lost count the amount of times she'd told him to bring the book up to his face, rather than his face down to the book. The excessive reading is what had caused the slight arch in his back to grow in a more permanent position. If it got any worse, he might start to reassemble the witches from the Muggle fairy-tales she read as a child. Merlin have mercy on him.

'Have you seen the new schedule yet?' she asked, pretending he must have seen her standing there all along.

Severus looked up with a jolt, gasping for breath. Lily had nearly forgotten. Not only did the outside world no longer exist when he read. He also forgot how to breathe. 'Please, never—'

'—Well? Have you?' said Lily, refusing to turn away from casual conversation. 'Looks like you're going to have an awful time, trying to avoid me. There's Arithmancy, Potions – of course, Herbology and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Four out of seven core subjects we'll be sharing together.'

'What is it that you're trying to achieve here?' said Severus, annoyed. His eyes shifted uncomfortably around her, noticing Rosier, Avery and Mulciber staring back at him.

Lily tilted her head. 'Care to join me on the Quidditch pitch? Gryffindor's team is practising and Mary's going to try to knock James off his broom. We've been watching her do that since she joined the team in our third year. It was fun.'

'Promise me you won't talk too much?' Severus brought his voice down to a whisper. 'I can't be seen leaving with you. I'll meet you down there later, okay?'

'Bring your book,' said Lily, satisfied with his answer.

'We're not supposed to take books out on the school gr—'

But Lily had already turned around on the balls of her feet and made her way to the exit. Something light was warming her up on the inside. He said he'd come. That was enough.

She climbed her way up the many staircases of the Hufflepuff watchtower. The wind danced with her hair once she had reached the top. The cool breeze a welcoming distraction from the summer sun. She looked at the tops of the deciduous trees in the Forbidden Forest. The green slowly painting itself to various shades of red and gold. Autumn was right around the corner. It felt peaceful.

Quiet. Another word. Severus had arrived, unnoticeably. Overdressed al always. Lily knew it was because of the marks his father had left on him over the years. As if his father had carved his own name onto his son's skin with the lashes of a whip. Like property. Branded like cattle, like the Dark Lord marked his followers. The only kind of life he knew. She wondered, in the darker part of her being, if he found a strange comfort in being used and abused. To know your place. She didn't know her own place in this world. At least he did.

'Has any blood been spilled yet?' Severus asked as he sat down beside her. He didn't look at her. Instead, he traced Potter on the field like an annoying fly, who wasn't hard to find, as he had the fastest and most expensive broom in the entire castle.

'No broken noses as of yet,' Lily answered. 'James's is too fast for Mary to chase. She's going after Sirius now.'

'Maybe she could make them collide. Have them bash each other's faces in.'

'Mind if I take a look at your book?'

Severus handed it to her. 'I can feel madam Pince breathing down my neck.'

'That's just the wind, Severus,' said Lily dryly. 'Winogrand's Wondrous Water Plants by Selina Sapworthy. Do we need this for Potions or Herbology?'

'Preferably both.'

'Preferably?'

'Most of the ingredients we use for our Potions are of European origin. This is all about African water plants that were collected by Sir Winogrand.'

Lily smiled. 'It's got a water lily on the cover.'

'Those are native to the African continent, yes.'

'I got my name because of Claude Monet's water lily paintings, did you know?'

'I didn't,' said Severus, genuinely surprised.

'Can you tell me its magical properties?'

'I don't know yet,' Severus answered. 'I do know that the petals of the flower contain the properties. Not the pads. Those are only good for slimy creatures to live on – and hide under. I think McDonald just grabbed Black by the twigs.'

Mary had indeed taken a hold of the tail of Sirius's broomstick. She was spinning him around like a whirlwind, causing him to bark in anger and the rest of the team to howl with laughter. 'This is more entertaining than I anticipated.' Severus's lips had curled into a smile. He didn't force them down this time.

'It is.' Lily handed Severus the book back. 'Thank you for coming out here.'

'You were right,' said Severus, 'back in the library. You're impossible to avoid.'

Lily beamed with pride. 'I try my darn hardest to make it so.'

From across the field, a flash of red flew straight at them with the speed of sound. With an obnoxious summersault, Potter came to a halt. 'Came to see me play again, miss Evans?' His wild dark hair was standing up straight, as though struck by lightning. His hazel eyes focussed entirely on her, ignoring Severus's very existence.

'I'm here for Mary,' Lily responded with an air of boredom. 'She never fails to entertain me, unlike the rest of you.'

James ran his hands through his hair, making the impossible mess even messier. 'One of these days you'll go out with me, Evans.'

'Let me see,' said Lily, looking up into nothing. 'So far I've had a date with the Giant Squid. A centaur. Several cruppies. A family of bowtruckles and even a flubberworm. All who were more gentlemanlike and better company to me than you probably ever will.' She rested her hand on top of Severus's, whom she knew was clutching his wand that was hidden up his sleeve.

A grin etched itself on Potter's face. 'So you're saying there's a chance? At one point you can't go any lower than a flubberworm.'

'Happy to hear you're willing to be the dirt underneath my shoes, James,' said Lily. 'But there are also urchins. And plankton. And plants after that. Then there's still a whole list of inanimate objects who could probably excite me more me than a day with you will ever do.'

'I bet,' said Potter, who had, by the look on his face, probably interpreted her last sentence as a double entendre. 'I'll try my luck again next time.' With a graceful backflip, he dived down and pulled up just in time before smashing into the ground.

'Show-off,' Severus huffed. 'Why does he keep insisting on asking you out anyway?'

'He thinks it's a game. He asks me out, and I reject him in the most creative way possible. I think he likes it.'

'He shouldn't treat you like a prize to be won.'

Lily looked at Severus. 'That's the nicest thing you've said to me in a very long time.'

'And I mean it.' He didn't look back at her. 'I better get going. I'll see you during Potion's tomorrow.' He made his way over to the staircase.

'We'll brew something together?'

'Yes,' Severus answered with a sigh. 'we'll brew something together.'

A/N Severus Snape's etymology: "(…) It was also an accurate description of the desperately lonely and unhappy childhood he had with a harsh father who didn't hold back when it came to the whip." – J.K. Rowling, Pottermore.

A/N The movies made it a tad confusing, but canonically James Potter was one of Gryffindor's Chasers. Not the Seeker. And to be fair, the thrill of the chase sounds a lot more exciting than circling around the field aimlessly in the hopes of catching a snitch.