Chapter One: The Last to Know
He paced.
He had become quite proficient at pacing, as it had recently become one of his frequent pastimes. He paced at night, between classes, in alleys at Hogsmeade. He paced while he waited for her.
She ran.
She was easily becoming a very skilled sprinter, as lately she was called on to run often. She ran at night, between classes, down alleyways in Hogsmeade. She ran so she could get to him.
“Severus!”
She flew into his arms, almost backing him into the stone wall behind him. He buried his face in her darkly flaming hair, breathing in the smell of cinnamon. Reluctantly, he let her out of the restricting embrace, and she looked him in the eyes.
“It’s been too long, Sev,” she said, frowning, a deep crease forming in her forehead. “It’s been much, much too long. I was under the distinct impression that you were avoiding me.”
“After that stunt you pulled? It was only necessary that we not be seen together. If you run around defending me, everyone’s sure to find out…I can’t risk that.” He tried hard not to meet her gaze. He knew the all-too-familiar round of questions was approaching.
“Remind me why we have to hide. What’s so wrong about us? We’re just kids! Is it James you’re afraid of? Because if it is, you should know by now, I feel absolutely nothing for that conceited little -,”
“Please. Severus Endymion Snape, afraid of pitiful Potter? You know better than that. But you know as well as I that NO ONE would be happy to find out about us. It’s just how people are. We already tried it once, with your friend -- what was her name? Alice. It really didn’t go over well. It was a superb memory charm though…..”
Lily simply sank down the opposite wall to stare up at him. After a few seconds of his piercing gaze, she turned her head away, and a silence washed over them Severus turned away, staring down the corridor, when he heard her give a small cough. She spoke in a voice that was trying hard to be both a whisper and a scream. “You didn’t have to call me that, you know.”
A brief look of confusion washed over his pallid face. Staring down his crooked nose, a badge of his father’s heathen rages, he turned to face her, only to find the back of her head.
“Call you wh --?”
She whipped her head around, and her feeling were written all over her face. Her eyes told him everything he needed to know.
“You can’t…..You know….. I didn’t mean it. I had to say something, it was the first thing that came. Blame it on the filth I bunk with every night, and the way they go on.” Her face was unchanged, and he continued to flounder under her gaze. “Please….Lily!…..You know I would never honestly call you that. How can I talk about blood, when my father, may he rot in hell, was as much a Muggle as your parents are?”
“It doesn’t change the fact that you said it. I swear sometimes I think you’re as bad as the others….” She raised an eyebrow, determined to look intimidating, but a wide grin gave her away. Her emerald eyes twinkled in the dark corridor, and a smirk crossed Severus’s lips.
“Well, I could be worse.”
“And how’s that, exactly?”
“I could be Potter.”
The two laughed, a blend of her light, tinkling twitter and his strange, barking laugh. Severus slid down the wall near her, and as she laughed, she took his face into her hands.
“Kiss me, before I die laughing.”
Peals of laughter could be heard through the large wooden door. James Potter backed slowly away, shocked. He rumpled his hair, trying to make sense of what he had jut heard. Realization washing over him, he broke into a run. He attracted many stares as he raced quickly towards Gryffindor Tower, alternately muttering “Snivellus and Lily?” and “Kiss me?”
He panted the password to the Fat Lady, who was looking very disapproving as he held his knees, coughing until the portrait swung open. He quickly climbed up through the hole and spotted his friends, seated in the spots closest to the fireplace, which sat unused on this warm day. He managed to slide to a stop, and frantically waved his arms in front of their faces.
“Padfoot….Moony…Snivellus…..with Lily….laughing and….kissing…..how?” He had caught his breath by now, but he couldn’t seem to put together a full sentence in his bewilderment. Remus Lupin tilted his tawny eyes upward and simply shook his head.
“Tell me, Prongs. How’s it feel to be the last to know?”
Chapter 2: James, the Conspiracy Theorist
James Potter, who currently looked strangely like a goldfish, was lost for words. He simply gaped as Sirius and Remus laughed, slapping their knees and wiping tears away. Even Peter was tittering from his spot across the room. James opened his mouth to test out words as the laughter died down, but a final snort from Remus set Sirius off again. It could go on forever.
His lips formed the only words they could find. “Shove over!” Moony, who was a lot calmer than Sirius at the moment (or rather, any moment), shifted to the left, creating a space for James to sit. He flopped into the space between his friends. Sirius gave a final contented sigh and turned to face him.
“I was wondering how long it would take you, man,” he said, nudging James in the shoulder with an abnormally sharp elbow.
“Oh, you be quiet,” Moony commented, wiping his still streaming eyes and peeking around James. “I had to tell you, at least he found out on his own.” Sirius attempted to look hurt, but was apparently too jovial, or else too lazy, to care.
James looked first at one friend, then the other. He breathed a few times to allow his mind to gather, and finally figured out how to make his mouth go again.
“YOU KNEW!!!!!!!!!!”
A loud clunking noise was heard shortly after this outburst. No one really cared, but if they had bothered to look around, they would have noticed one Peter Pettigrew, lying on the floor, apparently passed out.
Sirius laid a large hand on James’s shoulder, grinning broadly. “A better question would be, who didn’t know?”
At this, James glanced to Remus, who at least had to common decency to look a bit guilty. “Sorry…should we have told you, then?”
James’s brown eyes widened until they seemed about to pop. If looks could kill, Remus’s dead body would be on the ground, although keeping itself a safe distance away from Peter’s body, which was not dead at all, only cowardly.
The hot air blasting from James’s nose was beginning to disturb Moony. He scooted a little further to the left, and tried to look innocent. He knew that he should say something, but what was there to say? He twisted his face into what he hoped was an apologetic look.
“Sorry, Prongs. We thought you’d be unhappy….which you apparently are…..and it’s not really that important, is it?”
“What do you mean, not important? I’ve been trying to get Evans to go out with me for….” he paused and attempted to count on his fingers, giving up after putting down the first three. “Oh, who cares how long it’s been! She’s with Snivellus? And how, exactly, does everyone know except the person who wants to know the most?” At least now he felt a bit better. He drew a deep breath, preparing to start ranting again, but Sirius spoke up.
“Y’know Evans’s friend, the quiet one…..Alice? Well, you see, she -”
“Are you trying to set me up with Alice to take my mind off Lily? Are you crazy? What does Alice have to do with ANYTHING?! What I’d like to know is how you two oafs knew about the…..the thing that’s been going on right under my nose!”
Remus sighed from his other side, rubbing the bridge of his nose in an attempt to stop the headache the James always seemed to cause. “James, he’s not trying to set you up with a Hufflepuff. Alice came around one day, said she couldn’t remember anything. I recognized right away that it was a memory charm. I figured that a student did it, and I knew I could reverse it….and when I did she just started vomiting up a story about Lily and the grease spot. We would have told you, if we hadn’t known you would…well, do this.”
“How long ago was this? And who else knows? Does the whole school know except me, is that it? Or have you kept it to yourselves so I’d be less likely to find out?” James ignored Padfoot’s open mouth and started up again. “Are you sure she’s telling the truth? What if this is one of Evans’s attempts to get me away from her….she thinks that I’ll just leave her alone if she’s taken….and you two are apart of it! Quit plotting!” It took James a full two seconds before he realized how stupid that theory was. In that two seconds, a few things happened. First, Peter managed to get up and wander over to the couch, where he was ignored. Secondly, and more importantly, Lily Evans walked through the portrait hole.
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