CHAPTER ONE

Fifth year was nearly out with the end of exams drawing near and Lily Evans couldn't be happier. Her OWLs had been brutal so far, even for someone as bright as her, and she was glad they were almost over, even if it meant the anticipation of what the letter would bring that summer.

She turned down a corridor, arms piled with books, to find her two friends waiting for her. Jenna McIsaac and Alicia Klein were both taller than her, with the good looks she envied. But neither had her brains, and for that the trio had teamed up in second year after a particularly frustrating Potions assignment and much begging from Jenna, quiet pleading from Alicia.

Jenna, with her shoulder-length black hair and grey eyes, smiled. "Hey, Lily!" she exclaimed as she shifted her books in her arms, one hip jutting out from her robes. Jenna was the shallowest of the group, but fiercely loyal and keen on reading people.

"How did it go?" Lily asked kindly. Defense Against the Dark Arts was not Jenna's strong point, for a few reasons: one was because she had no real talent for it, and another was because Professor Sewil was her mother's aunt. Both put pressure on her to succeed in order to become a Curse-Breaker, her family's career choice for her. Left to Jenna, she would likely be a journalist working for international magical organizations.

Jenna was still grinning. "Good! I'm sure I got an 'A' at least on either the written or hands-on." Lily couldn't help beaming with pride.

Lily then looked at brown-haired, blue-eyed Alicia. "And you?"

Alicia looked a little flustered, but she smiled too. "I think I got an 'A'," she said in her mousy voice. Although she had the incredible looks that ran in her family Alicia didn't have the arrogance that also ran in her blood. In fact, she was the opposite: sensitive, quiet, and tentative.

"Well, then I think it's passes all around," Lily said in a relieved voice. "I just finished, so let's go upstairs, shall we?"

"And into the mayhem of the party Potter and his minions planned?" Jenna scoffed. "I think I'll wait until he's finished."

Lily scowled at the name Potter. He and his friends were celebrating the end of exams with a party, as they called it, which was really only an excuse for their female admirers to hang all over them as they performed stupid stunts in a celebratory fashion. It made Lily sick and tired, both of which making her cranky. And she hadn't even seen him yet.

"Then let's head down to the grounds," Lily suggested, hoisting her books farther up her arm. "They can't get us there."

"What an excellent idea," Jenna agreed, and the three of them headed outside to the fresh, nearly-summer air. It wasn't yet the dry heat of July and August; instead it was a warm sunshine, thawing tense muscles and evoking a false sense of relaxation.

Lily, Jenna, and Alicia settled on the grass near the lake, where the sun was glancing off the surface. Lily and Alicia pulled out books for their final exam, Transfiguration, while Jenna studied her nails, magicking them with some kind of tonic. Students filed out of the castle in chattering crowds, lounging on the grass or settling closer to the lake. Lily was going over the spell for transforming paper into rose petals when Jenna nudged her in the ribs. "Looks like Potter doesn't feel like partying," she said lowly, jerking her chin.

James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew were all spread under the beech tree a little ways away, with a golden glimmer flitting in front of them and frequently disappearing into Potter's fist as he caught it and released it. Lily rolled her eyes at his arrogance: stealing a Snitch from the school wasn't beyond Potter.

She kept looking, though not at them, but around. Fellow Hufflepuff Transfiguration students were nearby, giving each other pointers on changing rope into snakes. Two seventh-years, hours away from graduation and adulthood, were secluded behind a swaying willow, confessing deep emotions and snogging. And hidden in the shade of some bushes nearby was Severus Snape, reading a piece of paper earnestly. She'd seen him during the DADA exam, and he'd definitely passed, perhaps gotten an 'O'. Why was he worrying over Transfiguration, another of his best subjects?

Then he stood up, stuffed the paper into his bag and started back to the castle. But, before Lily could assess the shiver of dread creeping down her spine, Potter and Black also stood, and Lily could hear Potter yell "All right, Snivellus?"

How Lily detested that name, and how she detested Potter. She glared at the scene, watched Snape draw his wand, and watched Potter blast it out of his hand.

"You're a prefect, Lily," Alicia pointed out.

Lily shrugged as Black then bowled Snape over as he dived for his wand. "So is Remus."

"Like he's going to do anything," Jenna scoffed. "He never does, even though everyone knows Dumbledore meant him to."

"Well, what do you want me to do?" Lily demanded as students started drifting over, watching the regular bullying of Snape at the hands of Potter and Black, school heroes. Potter drew closer to a panting and belly-down Snape, asking him how his exam had gone.

"Maybe go and suggest he quit?" Jenna bluntly. "Or throw him off and tell him you'll go out with him?"

"Over my dead body," she snapped. Now Snape was blustering at something Black had said, and the crowd of students was laughing. Pettigrew gazed at his two friends like they were gods.

"Lily," Alicia said pointedly. Lily gave a frustrated sigh and threw her book on the ground.

"Fine!"

As she began walking toward the group a few things happened at once. Potter spoke "Scourgify!" and Snape's mouth filled with pink bubbles, choking him, providing entertainment for the group of on-looking students. Another thing was that something inside Lily exploded: Severus Snape was unpopular and cruel, even to her, one of his few friends, but he was still the one who had helped her back home. The third thing that happened was a scream erupted from her throat.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

Black and Potter turned and the latter's hand instantly flew to his head, mussing his hair again, as if everyone in the school didn't know he was a Seeker and that he liked his hair looking wind-tousled. He looked a little sheepish, but surprised. "All right, Evans?"

"Leave him alone," she snapped, looking at the struggling Snape. "What's he done to you?"

Potter looked frank. "Well, it's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean..."

The students laughed, and Lily was irritated to see Remus didn't, still stuck in his book. She made a note to get back at him for not maintaining control over his idiotic friends.

"You think you're funny," she said in her most disgusted voice. "But you're just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone."

"I will if you go out with me Evans," he said hastily, jumping at his chance. "Go on...go out with me and I'll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again."

Black's Impediment Jinx was wearing off on Snape, and as he crawled toward his wand he spat soapsuds, quite a spectacle.

But Lily wouldn't date James Potter even for Severus Snape. Perhaps especially for Severus Snape.

"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid," she said icily. Black sneered at her for a moment and then said to his friend "Bad luck, Prongs." Then he noticed Snape was near his fallen wand. "OI!"

But Snape had grasped his wand and whirled at Potter, and there was a flash and a cut appeared on Potter's face, blood falling to the grass. Then Potter spoke again and with another flash of light Snape was upside down, his robes fallen away to reveal a nearly-stripped bottom half of the skinny, pallid, hated boy.

For a moment Lily was having a kind of revenge. Against Snape, of course: there he was, being ultimately humiliated, and if she didn't stop it she would exact all of it. But she was a prefect, and so under her fury she hid the coming smile. "Let him down!"

Potter obliged quite roughly, letting Snape fall with a thump to the grass and get up, tangled in his robes. But Black would have none of it and jinxed him again, letting Snape fall again to the ground, stiff and unable to move.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Lily cried again, fishing out her own wand and pointing it at Potter and Black.

"Ah, Evans, don't make me hex you," Potter said quickly, eyeing the wand warily, knowing fully well she was good with it.

"Take the curse off him, then!" she snapped. Potter sighed remorsefully and spoke the counter-curse, his cheek still gashed and bleeding.

"There you go," he muttered to Snape as the boy got to his feet. "You're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus–"

"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!"

Lily felt like he'd punched her in the heart with an icy fist, sending chills and disappointment through her like a wave of freezing water. They'd been drifting apart, but Severus had always assured her that her heritage meant nothing to him. Despite knowing how he felt about Muggle-borns, she'd chosen to believe him. She looked at Snape but revealed none of her emotions.

"Fine," she said in a tone to match her emotion. "I won't bother in the future. And I'd wash you pants if I were you, Snivellus."

It irked her to use Potter's nickname for Snape, but right then she didn't care. He was a jerk, a fraud, someone she had thought was sincere despite his outside appearance. It went to show how a good judge of character she was.

But then Potter started in. "Apologize to Evans!" he yelled at Snape.

A little explosion made its way to her voice box. "I don't want you to make him apologize," she shouted at him. "You're as bad as he is."

Potter looked abashed. "What? I would NEVER call you a – a you-know-what."

But Lily cut him off and let out all her frustrations. "Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you've just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can–I'm surprised your broomstick can get you off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK."

Finished, she wheeled around and started back to her friends, shoving students aside. She heard Potter yell after her, but didn't look back. She heard someone mutter "conceited" as she stalked away, and then heard him ask if anyone wanted to see Snape without pants. Lily didn't even glance to see if he really did: he burning hatred for Snape made him another enemy on her list, and it was getting rather long.

Jenna and Alicia looked at her in shock as she gathered up her books. "What has gotten into you?" Jenna demanded, scrambling to her feet to chase her friend. The crowd of students surrounding Snape made it hard to see what was happening.

"Potter is a rude, inconsiderate, arrogant, haughty, stupid, bullying moron and I never want to speak to him again!" she exploded. Jenna and Alicia were now beside her as they entered the castle, away from the commotion outside.

"That's the most insults I've heard in a long time from you," Jenna said thoughtfully. "But why are you cursing Potter? I though you'd be swearing about Snape."

"He's just an annoying fake," Lily said angrily. "Potter is ten times worse."

Jenna sighed as the made their way to the dormitory and gave the password, mazematch. "Does that mean I can write to him this summer? Or is the ban still in effect?"

"I don't care," Lily announced as she marched into the common room, scaring a few second- and third-years in her rage. "Just don't mention me!" And with that finality she stomped up the stairs and the slam of her door echoed through the room.