Chapter Text
Lily Evans had known James Potter since they'd ended up in the same compartment on the Hogwarts Express back in '71. It hadn't been what you'd call a lucky meeting – more like the start of a right old rivalry between her best friend at the time and the speccy boy with the cheeky grin. James had taken the mickey out of Severus for fancying Slytherin, and Severus had let on that he reckoned James's old man hadn't got a brain in his head, so James probably didn't have many neurons firing upstairs either.
Lily did everything she could to smooth over what Severus would call (after checking no other Gryffindor was listening) a proper torment from Potter and his gang. She'd had screaming rows with James and Sirius more than fifteen times over five years. She'd dobbed them in to Professor McGonagall so many times that every time the old dear saw Lily coming down a corridor with her fists clenched and rage written all over her red face, she'd already start wondering what fresh disaster those rebels without a cause had cooked up. At least it helped the professor know which Gryffindor lass to give the prefect badge to when the time came. Lily had also tried to convince Severus to just apologise for the punch-up on the train, thinking that maybe after trampling his pride one last time they'd leave him alone, but the Slytherin refused, arguing – rightly, in his book – that Potter should be the one saying sorry, not him.
As the years went by, the cruelty of Potter and his mates' pranks got properly mental. Like that time in fourth year when they somehow got into the Slytherin common room and filled Severus's scruffy old trainers with Bubotuber pus. Severus had been dead to the world that morning, same as any other, and didn't notice the gooey mess in his shoes until a sharp pain in his feet woke him up sharpish. With help from one of his housemates, he managed to get to the hospital wing, nearly passing out from the boils on the soles of his feet. They never could prove it was Potter or any of the other three, but Lily knew full well Speccy and Grey-Eyes were responsible, and she knew for a fact they'd done it because Severus had pointed out to Professor Binns that they'd both bunked off his dead boring History of Magic lesson.
That same year, Severus and two other Slytherins ended up tied to the Quidditch hoops after Potter had spotted them bullying some first-years from the brave house. None of the victims could explain how they'd got to the top of the posts, but every single one of them could point the finger at the dark-haired lad and his mates. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter got a whole month's detention, though Remus had two weeks knocked off for owning up to what happened in less than an hour.
And that's how they got to fifth year. Lily had watched James say goodbye to his mum – a woman with the same brown eyes but ever so kind – and for the first time she really clocked how fit he was. He'd shot up tall and strong, his skin darker than ever, and he had a dead sexy smile that Lily hadn't noticed the year before. She found herself staring until she realised he was staring right back. Catching his eye reminded her of Severus and her stomach did a flip, which made her hop on the train and travel with her Gryffindor girl mates.
But the problem was, James had seen her too. And bloody hell, had he ever seen her. Lily had grown up into a right beautiful young lady with refined features but softer than her sister's, and she still had those slightly chubby cheeks and her dark red hair perfectly plaited down her back. When he met her green eyes he held his breath, and wondered if this was what being in love felt like.
"Who's that then?" asked his mum Euphemia, who never missed a trick where her son was concerned.
"One day I'll introduce you, Mum," James murmured.
Fifth year was probably the worst year for her. On the one hand, there were those tricky O.W.L. exams at the end of June. On the other, two of her troublemaking mates had come back to Hogwarts more creative with their pranks than ever – most of the school thought it was a right laugh while she tried single-handedly to stop them. But the worst bit was Severus.
The first thing she noticed once they were halfway there was that Severus hadn't come to say hello once. She only managed to find him in the prefects' carriage, and Severus seemed more interested in Lupin's scars than anything she'd done over the summer. In fact, Severus spent the whole year dead set on Lupin, spying on him every chance he got, and a bit less on the other three. To Lily's relief, for one week in November Severus didn't mention Lupin at all – but that relief didn't last long, because soon enough Severus had a new theory for Lily to explain Remus's monthly disappearances, his scars and his peaky look:
"He's a werewolf, Lily," the greasy-haired lad said as he walked her from the dungeons to the common room. Lily stopped dead and narrowed her eyes.
"I thought you'd packed in that rot about Remus. I've told you, he's ill – some chronic thing, probably…"
"Don't be stupid, Lily," Snape spat. "It's bleeding obvious that…"
"Enough, Severus," the redhead sighed. "Why don't you put your energy into your O.W.L.s instead of what Potter and his mates are up to?"
She already knew about Remus's condition – she wasn't stupid. But she didn't judge him for it, and if Remus had decided to keep it quiet, she wasn't about to go spreading it around. And she certainly wasn't going to give Severus the confirmation he needed to use it as payback.
Their friendship got worse than she'd ever expected. Severus had started getting on like a house on fire with those Slytherins who'd whisper insults in the redhead's ear every chance they got.
"So…" Mary questioned one night, as she finished checking a Potions parchment, "ye defend him against James, but he doesnae defend ye against Mulciber and that lot?"
Lily couldn't answer. She'd run out of excuses for Severus. And the grief for being Muggle-born was getting right exhausting. And it really hurt to see Severus let his mates insult her and then try to stick plasters on it behind their backs.
"Honestly, Lily, I dunno how ye've put up with that disgusting git for so long. I'd have told him to get lost ages ago," Marlene said, tucking herself into her cosy bedding.
But the worst thing Severus ever did to her happened in June that year. They'd just come out of their Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. Lily and a load of other fifth-year girls were feeling hot and bothered, so they went down to the lake to cool off. A few brave ones sat on the edge and dipped their robes in. Others, like Lily, just took off their shoes and stuck their feet in the water.
"How's Frank, Alice?" she asked a sixth-year mate. The chat about Frank Longbottom soon spread among the girls, with plenty of gossiping and giggling.
"Potter won't stop looking at you, Lily," Alice smiled, watching the lad staring at the redhead from a distance.
"Not interested. He's got it into his head that him and me should go out, but I'd rather go out with a troll."
And in less than five minutes, Lily had another reason to be furious with Potter. The lads had cornered Severus not far from her. They had him hanging upside down, his worn and grimy undies on show for everyone. Lily stood up.
"Leave it, Lily. Snivellus probably did something to deserve it," said a blonde Ravenclaw girl, but Lily ignored her.
It was under that same sun, with their whole year watching, that Severus said the words that would hammer the last nail into the coffin of their friendship:
"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!"
Lily's heart didn't break. The friendship had been on its last legs for ages. But to be honest, she'd never have dreamed her best mate could say something like that about her. Or maybe she had dreamed it, but she'd rather have denied it. In the end, she left him to Potter's mercy, and never heard him make excuses again or even speak first to her. She ended up in her dorm, crying in Mary's arms while Marlene ranted about Severus and all those pure-blood supremacist gits.
The next year, once she'd broken away from Snape and got closer to Remus through their prefect duties, she started having a much better time of it. She spent all her time with her girl mates, and even started finding Potter more bearable than before – probably because she no longer had Severus poisoning her ear every ten minutes. She found out Sirius was living with the Potters, and that he and James had been the ones to defend Mary when Mulciber tried to use an illegal spell that caused heavy bleeding from the nose, mouth, ears and eyes.
She also started to understand why so many people fancied those lads. When they behaved decently, they were good fun, and nearly all their victims had some reason for getting hit with nasty pranks. In spring 1977, Sirius Black even stood up for her against Avery after he called her a Mudblood in Charms, making Avery's tongue stick painfully to the roof of his mouth.
Even those lads she'd said she hated had matured a fair bit – so much so that McGonagall actually congratulated them on going a whole month without any detentions.
By their final year, the only thing that hadn't changed was the way James acted around Lily. He still kept asking her out to Hogsmeade on the regular, but she always knocked him back.
"Why don't ye just say yes? What's the worst that could happen?" Mary asked her one autumn afternoon.
Lily really wanted to go on a date with James. But at the same time, the fear of being let down held her back every time she seemed about to accept. Lily was afraid that James hadn't changed one bit, and that he was still the same old idiot underneath a mask of kindness and maturity. Even though he'd won the Annual Prize alongside her, after what happened with Severus she knew people could either change or pretend.
"Did you see the next Hogsmeade trip is just a few days before the Christmas hols, Lily?" James asked her one morning, as they made their cauldrons levitate over the fire.
"Yes, James. What are you doing over the holidays?" Lily asked, trying to change the subject before James asked what she knew he was going to ask.
"I'm going with Sirius to visit my parents. Mum had a turn last week and I've been ever so worried. She's getting on, you know? Sixty-one."
"And how is she now?" Lily asked, genuinely interested.
"Better. She says it was a sugar low. But Dad told me it happened after she found out the Death Eaters had attacked two miles from our house."
"That's awful, James. Give her my love when you get the chance," Lily said.
"Course I will. But getting back to Hogsmeade…"
James couldn't get any further with his invitation because Slughorn had reached the table they shared with their mates and plonked the Felix Felicis recipe they'd seen last year on top of their cauldrons.
"Professor," Sirius called out. "If, hypothetically, someone drank Felix Felicis and then jumped off a cliff… what would happen?"
"You can't actually be asking that," Remus muttered under his breath.
"Well, Mr Black… more than likely they'd come out without a scratch. Though I do hope that's a hypothetical question, as there aren't any studies or experiments to prove it," said Professor Slughorn, with a nervous little giggle at the end.
From then on, James didn't get another chance to ask her out. Slughorn and his cauldron kept him busy for the rest of the lesson, and by the time it finished, Lily had already scarpered. He swore under his breath as he packed away his ingredients.
"Don't worry, Prongs. You'll see her in ten minutes for Transfiguration," Peter said, trying to cheer him up.
"Mr Black!" Slughorn called out to Sirius. "Did you just pocket a bottle of Felix Felicis?"
"Of course not, sir!" Sirius protested, and pulled an empty phial from his pocket. That convinced Slughorn, who turned his attention to some questions Severus had.
Just as Peter had said, Lily was already sitting in the front row of McGonagall's classroom. James chucked his things onto a chair and walked over to where Lily was chatting with Mary.
"Evans!" he called out, leaning one of his elbows on the redhead's desk and bending down to be face to face with her.
"James… you should find a desk…"
"I'll sort that out. But I want you to listen to me. I'd like to invite you to Hogsmeade, to go for a drink…" He stared at her, though the tips of his ears were turning red.
"Well, Mary and I were thinking of going with some other girls to the Three Broomsticks for a drink. Come if you like, but to be honest, it'll be just us girls, so I don't know how comfortable you'd be." Lily knew James was after something more intimate, but she preferred to play dumb about it.
"That's all well and good, but that's not what I meant. I want you and me to go alone, like a date…"
"James… what did I say last time you asked me that?"
"No."
"And the time before?"
"No as well."
"And what do you think I'm going to say now?"
"… No?"
"Exactly, James. I'm not going out with you. Why don't you give up for good? We're already really good mates."
"What if I give you five good reasons why you should say yes?"
"Potter…"
"One: I'm dead fit and well fancied round here, isn't that right, Mary?"
"Ehh…" the dark-haired girl hesitated. "… I suppose?"
"Two: I'm dead funny. There's a reason everyone laughs when they're with me."
"Are you sure they're not laughing at you?" Marlene challenged from the desk behind. James narrowed his eyes at her.
"Don't make me kick you off the team, McKinnon."
"And don't make me give you a detention, Mr Potter." McGonagall's voice sounded behind him. James jumped and spun round, giving the professor an apologetic smile before sitting down with Sirius at his desk. Lily covered her mouth to stop herself laughing.
After successfully turning a parrot into a waist-high vase, James felt even more confident. He went to the Gryffindor table for lunch with a Chocolate Frog in his hand – a gift for the girl whose face appeared every time he closed his eyes.
But neither Lily nor the other two girls came to lunch, so he gave the frog to Peter and choked down his food feeling a bit gutted.
Meanwhile, in the girls' dorm, the three of them were talking in low voices, eating sweets for lunch.
"Oh, just say yes and go out with him. James is really great," Marlene was saying, who was close to James and Sirius thanks to Quidditch.
"You know full well why I don't want to say yes." Lily looked away at the floor.
"Whit's the warst that could happen, Lily? James has changed loads… Dumbledore gave him the Annual Prize, an' he's had the Quidditch captaincy since last year!" Mary reminded her.
"Yeah, we have duties together because of that, I remember. But I'd just rather we stay mates and that's it."
When Lily looked at her mates, she realised neither of them had bought what she'd said.
"Lily, if I got a Galleon for every time I've seen you looking at James's lips while he's talking to you, I could buy myself a new Cleansweep," Marlene joked, tucking her wild curls behind her shoulders.
"An' every time James gets really, really close tae ye, ye go all red," Mary pointed out. Lily's cheeks flushed.
"Fine! Yes, I fancy him. I think he's fit and charming, and he smells really nice. I don't think his hair's stupid any more and I'm starting to enjoy watching him play Quidditch. What more do you want me to admit?"
Mary and Marlene went quiet. They looked at each other and started laughing.
"We knew ye fancied him, but we didnae ken how much!" Mary exclaimed, while Marlene tried not to cry with laughter. Lily crossed her arms and chucked a handful of sweets at them.
"I hate you both so much!" she lied through her teeth. Her mates kept laughing until they got to History of Magic.
There weren't many students inside. To be honest, from Gryffindor only James, Remus, Mary and Lily had decided to carry on with the subject. Lily found it really interesting, Remus and Mary actually enjoyed it, and James… James had signed up because he knew Lily would too.
Lily was the only one in that classroom who took proper notes and put her hand up to ask questions. Professor Binns was quite fond of her, since she seemed to be the only one who wanted to go further. Lily, deep down, wanted to be some sort of historian, but she always lied and said she wanted to work at St Mungo's. Her parents wouldn't understand if they found out she wanted to study something that seemed so unmagical compared to everything else.
While she was noting down the charges against the wizard Grindelwald, a paper crane flew towards her and landed next to her candle. Lily knew who the sender was, so she unfolded it and smiled.
"Hogsmeade together?"
She bit her bottom lip and scribbled a quick reply.
"Do you never give up, Potter?"
The crane folded itself and flew back to its owner. Very soon it returned to the redhead.
"I'm quite persistent. How do you think I got my Quidditch captaincy? Had to chase McGonagall for half a year."
The paper crane kept going back and forth between them.
"Right, and there was me thinking you were good at Quidditch."
"I'm not good at Quidditch. I'm spectacular at Quidditch."
"Anyway, I don't think I'm going to Hogsmeade."
"Just one trip. Doesn't have to be romantic, you know?"
"Mr Potter… would you do me the favour of stopping bothering Miss Evans?" Professor Binns had interrupted his lecture just to tell him off. James's cheeks went pink, and a smile stretched across his lips.
"Sorry, sir."
Professor Binns nodded his ghostly head and went back to his slides.
"I'll bet ye six Sickles they'll have their date this Saturday," Mary whispered to Remus. He laughed quietly.
"I'll no be takin' that bet, Mary. It's too obvious,"