*This is a test chapter!*
This fic is still being worked on and these chapters may change. I am testing the reception of different things and will continue to post chapters and finalize various things as I go. I hope you enjoy the story and let me know what you think.

A/N This is a Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings (and a little hint of Narnia) cross-over. Kémi in the Quenya language of Tolkien means "mother earth." In this story, the ring Kémya (earth [Hufflepuff]) symbolises the "fourth" ring that was given to the elves, alongside Narya (fire [Gryffindor]), Vilya (air [Ravelclaw]) and Nenya (water [Slytherin]). This story will delve deeply into the lore of Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings combined.

This story is centred around Severus Snape and Lily Evans and starts during the beginning of their seventh year at Hogwarts. Regarding the Lord of the Rings, I try to make it as movie-fan friendly as possible so that anyone can enjoy this fic. Any side-lore will be explained in Author's Notes at the bottom of each chapter.

Of course, this is fanfiction, meaning that not everything you know from canon will be canon this time around.

This fic is M-rated. It will contain abuse, fight scenes and sexual content.

Summary: They used to be friends. After their fight near the end of their fifth year at Hogwarts, they drifted apart as strangers. He had chosen his path, and she had chosen hers, never to meet again. But sometimes the story of two people isn't over after they go their separate ways. Not when their paths cross once more in the most unlikely of places. At the bottom of a Great Lake.

Thursday the 1st of September 1977

Soot rising from the steam train blackened the sunny summer sky. Platform Nine and Three-Quarters was crowded. Too crowded. With a stifled wave into the direction of his mother Eileen, Severus Snape slithered his way through the crowd in search of an empty compartment. Eventually, he found one near the back. He tossed his old trunk onto the overhead compartment, slammed the door shut, which caused the window in the door to rattle in anger, and whipped out his wand. 'Colloportus,' he hissed. A sound followed by a lock falling into place. 'Muffliato,' he added. The noise that surrounded him faded into nothing. He slumped down on a seat and shifted away from the window and out of the sunlight as far as humanly possible. The train-ride to Hogsmeade was the last moment of peace he was going to have for a very long time, and he was determined to make it last until the wheels stopped turning.

From the inner pocket of his Hogwarts school robes he pulled out a book he had picked from his mother's bookshelf. He hadn't bothered opening it yet, figuring he could probably read it front to back for the duration of the ride. He had been reading a lot, lately, locked inside his room at Spinner's End. Avoiding any sort of contact with the outside world.

A flash of curly red hair was all it took to tick him off these days. He had tried to avoid Lily Evans as much as he could this past summer. And yet, Merlin-knows-how, he had caught glimpses of her more often than the summer before that. Every time his mother had dragged him out of his room and forced him to buy groceries, she somehow wound up at the same market at the exact same time. He had seen her drive by in her family's car on a near-daily basis. He had seen her playing with her neighbour's children at the playground. Their playground. He even tried to go down to Cokeworth's riverbank for some peace and quiet on a particularly hot day, only to discover that she was there, lying spread-eagled on the grass with her nuisance of a sister, and had cowered back into the shadows.

Severus looked down at the book he was holding. The tips of his sleek black hair touching the tips of his fingers as he opened it. It was yet another book on curses and jinxes. His mother had accumulated a lot of those books over the years, trying to figure out a way to get rid of her Muggle husband in the most horrid way possible. It was nothing more than wishful thinking. She never used her magic anymore. She no longer could.

Through the curtain of his hair, Severus caught, once again, a glimpse of the familiar red in the corner of his eye. Lily was looking right at him, mouthing words at him he couldn't hear. The sight of her green eyes flashing at him in anger caused his heart to ache. He knew she wanted to speak to him again. She had tried every single time they encountered one another back in Cokeworth, but he couldn't bring himself utter a single word at her, so he would turn his back – and run away.

Lily clearly wasn't taking no for an answer. She continued to bang soundlessly against the door, her hair dancing around her in fury. 'Let me in Severus Snape!' He didn't need to hear her to know what she was saying. The venomous emphasis on his name lingered in the air and left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Severus was experienced enough to know that if you ignored something long enough, it doesn't just go away. His father had made certain he knew the meaning of that lesson. Still, that didn't stop him from wishing that Lily would simply disappear from his life. Everything would've been easier if they had never met. Pretending she didn't exist was the only way to cope. If only she had never been his first and only friend.

He closed his eyes, delving deep into his soul as he searched for a tiny fleck of courage. Something that would still deem him worthy enough of looking her in the eye without falling to his knees in shame. 'Don't,' he muttered under his breath. Not that she was able to hear what he was saying. 'I need you to hate me. Just –'

Potter. James Potter had caught sight of her fury and was trying to pull her away from the window, telling her he wasn't worth the trouble while shooting angry glances at him as he tried to drag her off.

Any hands but his.

With the reflexes of a cat, Severus tossed the book aside, unlocked the door with a swift flick of his wand and jammed a fist into Potter's stomach, catching him entirely off-guard. Before Potter was able to reach for his own wand, Lily jumped at the opportunity to slide her way into Severus's compartment while pushing him back in with her. With an elegant flick of her wrist she closed the door behind her, which slid back into its lock. She cast a Darkening Charm on the windows, making it appear as if night-time had suddenly fallen around them while blocking Potter from view.

Though standing taller than her, Severus felt awfully small in her presence. The sudden silence was so overwhelming he could hear his own heartbeat pounding in his chest. 'What?' he said timidly as he sat back down again, not daring to look her in the eye.

'It's been over a year,' she said as she sat down across from him, her voice shaking with anger. 'A year, since you've uttered but a single word to me, Severus. Do you have any idea what it feels like to have my parents asking about you, every single day, not knowing how to answer them? Even Tuney, who hates your guts, has expressed her concerns about your absence. Even professor bloody Slughorn has sent me an owl, expressing how worried he is about you, asking for answers and –'

Of all the things he had expected Lily to do, bursting out into tears wasn't one of them. He knew her as the confident one. The one who didn't shy away when life got rough. The one capable of carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders without breaking – as if she were Atlas and he was but a mere mortal finding comfort in the shadow of her world. She buried her face in her hands, tears leaking through the cracks of her fingers. 'You've been horrible to me,' she whimpered, 'and I have been horrible to you, too. You shouldn't have said what you did and I shouldn't have laughed, and I know, I know that I will never be okay with the path that you have chosen for yourself, nor the friends you've made –'

'They're not my friends,' said Severus, desperate for her to stop her rambling. 'Lily, I…' Her name felt like a razor touching the tip of his tongue.

Lily looked up from her tear-stained hands. Her eyes had turned to grey in the dimmed light of the compartment. Even in her moment of weakness, Severus thought she was mesmerizing. 'I just want to be nine years old again,' she whispered to him. 'All I want is for you to lay down on that grass by the riverbank with me, telling me stories about Hogwarts. Surround ourselves with innocent magic. Have you make the seeds of the maple trees fly like little birds. Please, Severus…'

Severus was fumbling with his hair. After their falling out by the end of their fifth year, he had taught himself the art of Occlumency. The pain of Lily leaving his side had left a gaping black hole where his heart used to be. The stench of sorrow and self-pity was too much to carry around. He was done feeling. Feeling anything, really. And yet, Lily's tongue was a hammer, smashing her words through the many walls he had built up from within.

He felt a tremor travelling down from his spine to the tips of his fingers. The sickening feeling of heartbreak started to rise from the pit of his stomach, forcing him to clench his jaws. Preventing him from wanting to scream that he would trade his magic if it meant that he could spend one more day with her – lying on that grass by the riverbank, without a care in the world. He, too, wished to be nine years old again. Talking to her about Hogwarts. Making the seeds of the maple trees fly, leaving her in awe.

A sea of guilt washed over him as his dark eyes locked into hers. He knew that his walls would crumble down the moment he faced her. Fighting hard against the tears that were prickling in the corners of his eyes, he swallowed. 'The path I've chosen is not a bridge, Lily. I cannot walk back halfway now that I have made my choice.'

'Please, tell me if there's something I can do.' It was clear she was no longer shedding tears. She was thinking ahead. Her mind set on the future, like she always did. 'I'll help you transfer to another school abroad, if I must. If that's what it takes.'

Her words were heartfelt – and genuine. There were so many things that he wanted to say to her. How desperately he wanted her back in his life. To take her by the hand and find comfort in her strength. Tell her that he was merely following the Dark Lord's cause so he could protect her from the other side, even if it meant that she would hate him forever. But he couldn't. He wouldn't dare to tell her that he loved her. Love was a word pinned down by a prickly thorn in his throat. It had never surpassed his lips, even to his own mother.

'Just leave me alone.' His voice was soft as he spoke.

'Why?' Lily snapped. 'Why can't you see that I want to make amends? Treat each other respectively like the adults that we are now. For you to sit beside me at mum and dad's dinner table. Laughing about stupid things. I haven't seen you smile in years, Severus.'

He hated how perfectly imperfect she was. Lily was anything but a saint. Kind and cheerful as she may be, she was also ill-tempered and naïve. And pushy. Knowingly capable of shaking salt in hidden wounds, just to spark a reaction. She had often done it to pull him out of his spiralling misery. He would be furious – and she would smile, because she achieved to make him do the one thing he didn't want to do. To feel. She had seen him angered till his knuckles stained the walls red. She had seen him elated. Picking her up and spinning her around as she made him laugh till his ribs cracked. She had seen him sob and cry in agony until he fainted from the pain. She had seen the best and the worst of him, all because of who she is. He hated it.

'Leave me alone,' he repeated.

Why?' said Lily, more harshly this time. 'I don't want this to be the end of it. I don't want –'

'—Because it's hurts, Lily!' said Severus, his voice cracking with emotion. 'Can't you see that it hurts when you ask me to be your friend again? I can't do it, pretending that nothing happened when every choice I've made along the way has led me to who, and what I am today. I can't bow down now. I can't run off to some other school and start all over. I can't do it. I can't...'

Lily leaned forward. She raised up her arm and placed a freckled hand on his cheek, wiping away a stray tear with her thumb that was travelling down to the tip of his hooked nose. 'I'll go,' she said, 'on one condition.'

'Don't,' said Severus, but his voice grew weak under her touch.

Lily wiped off his stray tears on her robes. 'Sit with me during Slughorn's lessons,' she said. 'Brew potions with me again. We don't need to speak, but I could really use your help to pass my N.E.W.T.s.'

The warm pressure of her hand still lingered on his face. 'You don't need my help.' He felt the corners of his lips curl into a smile. He forced them down again. 'You're as capable as I am.'

Lily shook her head. 'That's not the point, and you know it. Just be with me, okay? That's all I ask.'

'Perhaps.'

'I'll leave you alone.' She stood up from the couch and briefly squeezed his hand in reassurance. Without looking back, she unlocked the door. The Darkening Charm was lifted, the sunlight stinging in his eyes.

Potter had been waiting for her on the other side with his wand out, ready to strike in case their private conversation had turned ugly. The last thing Severus heard was Lily snapping at him and stomping off as he trudged behind her like a kicked puppy. Both defeated by her Charm.

A/N It's the start of Severus and Lily's 7th and last year at Hogwarts. His birthday is on the 9th of January and hers on the 30th of January, meaning they are both 17 and can already do magic in and out of school.

A/N Rowling Bloomsbury interview (30th of July 2007)
- Did Lily ever have feelings back for Snape?
"Yes. She might even have grown to love him romantically (she certainly loved him as a friend) if he had not loved Dark Magic so much and had been drawn to such loathsome people and acts."