Work Text:
The sudden insecurity that flared up inside of him was not particularly unusual, what was unusual was the flush to the cheeks that followed it. Severus jumped, looking up into Lily’s green eyes, staring at him as if he had suddenly gone quite mad.
“What?”
“We’re done?” She gestured at the rest of the class and Severus realized that in point of fact everyone was beginning to clean up.
“Sorry,” he muttered, wondering what was going on with him. But he quickly reached for the cauldron to clean it as Lily took the potions supplies she’d gathered up over to the cabinet. He watched her go, his hands resting on the edge of the cauldron. He’d never really noticed the way there were small hairs at the back of her neck between her two pigtails, and he wanted to touch them, and that was an odd sensation as well. Lily turned around and he quickly moved to put the cauldron away, sending it swirling in his haste, and it slid off the edge of the counter, bouncing on the floor and catching the attention of Potter and Black.
“Watch it Snivellus!” Black exclaimed. “Probably can’t afford to replace that cauldron can you? Not that it’s going to look any different, it’s already so dented.” Potter laughed, and Pettigrew joined in nervously. Only Lupin seemed oblivious, carefully putting away each of the ingredients in front of him.
“Go to hell,” Severus snarled at Black.
Lily stepped back towards them, her brows furrowed at her housemates. She picked up the cauldron and placed in on the counter and turned her back on Potter and Black. “Ignore them, Sev,” she said quietly, but with determination. Her back was to them and Potter and Black were laughing and mocking loudly. Lily placed her text in her book bag and turned, giving the Gryffindor boys a withering glance as she moved towards the door.
Severus reached for his own text, trying to decide if it were worth trying to get Potter & Black back for their amused commentary, but he realized he’d rather see Lily, and so ignoring them – for the time being, he’d have an opportunity later – he headed for the door, stuffing his text into his bag as he ran after Lily, the laughter of the four following him.
“Lily!”
She turned frowning, but when she saw it was Severus, her face relaxed into a smile. “Thank god, I thought maybe one of those prats were going to pester me for potions notes again.”
Severus shook his head. “I just wondered if you wanted to go to the library and study for transfiguration,” he suggested. Why was he so nervous about that question? It was not as if they had never studied together before, but he was suddenly unreasonably afraid that she would say no.
But the smile he got as she responded was enough to wipe any fear of rejection from his entire being. “I think that would be great,” she nodded. “I really need to see if I can do some history on animagi as well.”
He fell into step beside her, a grin on his face that no doubt made him look ridiculous, but the world was a beautiful place.