Always

The two sat huddled close together under the slide platform of the park as the rain poured down around them. The air was humid, sunset nearing, and though the sky was still a faint orange tint, a star was just about visible. He watched her, a small smile on his lips as she poked her head out from under the shelter to peer at the clouds and yelped as a raindrop hit her smack in the middle of her forehead. She ducked back under and he quickly composed his expression as she turned to face him.

"Are you okay?" he asked half concerned, half amused.

"Uh huh," she mumbled embarrassed. "But when I'm a witch, I'm not going to let the rain hit me!"

He smiled again. "How are you going to do that?"

"I'll... I'll make a ginormous umbrella! And I'll let you under it from time to time if you want. But no one else!" Lily nodded to herself, proud of her idea.

"Why are you scared of the rain anyway?"

"Not scared!" she said defensively. "I just... don't like it! It leads to thunder and lightning. Which leads to the dark. Which... leads to monsters."

There was a small pause as she scooted closer and hid her face in his shoulder.

"Are trolls really real?" came her muffled voice.

Severus's face fell. "I shouldn't have told you about them..."

"What do I do if I run into one?"

Sev half raised his arm as if to put it around her, then stopped and awkwardly dropped it. "I'll protect you from it!"

"How?"

"I'll... I'll be your knight in armour! I'll carry a sword around and protect you from anything that will hurt you, my beautiful Lady," he held back a breath; scared he had gone too far.

Lily pulled her face back slightly, and looked up at him, the corners of her mouth tugging upwards. "Will you ride around on a big white horse?"

"With a golden saddle, if you want!"

"I don't like horses..." Lily mumbled, wrinkling her nose.

Severus sighed inwardly. Girls.

Lily saw his face and quickly added, "But thank you, oh Sir Severus! I shall call upon thee in times of trouble!"

They laughed.

"And I shall save you, my lovely Lady Lily, from thy wicked trolls and scary ogres!"

"Ogres are real as well?!"

Uh oh. "Umm... I'll protect you from them too?" he offered.

Lily whimpered.

"Don't worry about it. The Ministry of Magic has them all locked up so they can't hurt anyone. And there aren't even any in Britain anyway."

"Really?" she asked hopefully.

"Really," he lied.

They fell silent, and he watched her again as she peered out at the rain. An orange glow hit her face and they stared at the horizon, as the sun slowly sunk its way below it. As if unaware, she had grasped his small hand within her own, not noticing his flinch of surprise.

"Just think..." she whispered. "This time next week, we'll be at Hogwarts."

"Yeah," he said perking up. "No more parents, lots more magic!"

'What do your parents say about you going to Hogwarts?"

Severus avoided her intense green gaze. "Mum says it's good that I'll be getting out of the house but that I... but Dad hasn't said anything. He's been ignoring me since the letter arrived."

"But what, Sev?" Lily asked, picking up on his unfinished sentence.

He couldn't refuse it when she said his name. "She said... she said that I remind her of herself. When she went to school."

"Isn't that a nice thing?"

"She didn't have a lot of friends..."

"What? She said that? But... I'm your friend!" Lily said indignantly.

His face twisted a little when she said that. "Yeah... "

"Don't be talking like that, Sev! I'll always be your friend and nothing's going to change that. I'm a muggle-born anyway. You're not. I bet when we get to Hogwarts... you'll have a lot more friends than me," she rushed through that last part, and he realised that she had still been worrying about that.

"Stop being such a silly Lily!"

She giggled despite herself, and he smiled again at the relief on her face. She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it when their eyes met. Severus's eyebrows lifted innocently and she gave a small grin and started again.

"Promise me..."

Anything, he thought to himself.

"...Promise me we'll always be friends?"

She didn't even notice his downcast face at the word friends.

"I'll always be there for you. As long as you want me," he said to the ground.

She beamed at him. "I'll always want you around!"

He smiled ruefully, and they fell silent again, lost in their own thoughts.

The sky began to darken around them, and the rain lightened to a drizzle.

"I should go home," Lily said, releasing his hand to pull on the sleeves of her jacket nervously. "Tuney's still not happy with me and I promised I'd take her turn feeding the cat tonight."

He looked up at her as she got to her feet and skipped off. She got a few metres away before turning back as though she remembered something and called out, "Thank you for cheering me up, Severus. And don't forget... you got to be there forever and ever now!"

She giggled as she turned around and skipped off again. Head bowed against the rain, Lily didn't see the young boys face or hear his voice as he whispered quietly:

"Always."

All reviews welcome. Creative criticism, typo's I need to fix, appraisal, flames, everything. Inspires me to write better as well as more [: