Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 6010
Characters: Severus Snape, Lily Evans, Harlow "Harry" Evans (OC), Rose Evans (OC), Petunia Evans

'I heard - that awful boy - telling her about them - years ago,' she said jerkily.
'If you mean my mum and dad, why don't you use their names?' said Harry loudly, but Aunt Petunia ignored him.
-- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter Two.

23 July 1977

Dear Severus,

I know you'll probably say "no", but I thought I'd ask anyway. I was wondering if you'd like to come over for a few days in August and stay with my family in Surrey. And before you say anything about Muggleborns and not being caught dead, just remember that I know that hair curling charm and I'm not afraid to use it. Besides, your Slytherin friends aren't there to hear you. So if you're bored, drop me an owl. It's been a slow summer, and I'd love to see a face from school. Especially a face capable of intelligently discussing the finer points of dragonbone v. mandrake root in restorative potions. No one will ever hear from my lips that you visited a Muggle house. I await your answer with bated breath.

As Always,
Lily Evans

L,

Not doing anything the weekend of the 15th. You want me to bring anything?

- S

Even as he stood on the front step ringing the doorbell, he was not certain why he had come. All right, Lily Evans was pretty enough and she might even be almost as good as he was at Potions. But she was Muggleborn, which for any member of Slytherin house carried with it an almost insurmountable stigma. Still, she had always treated him with kindness and even respect, and despite his own often snarky comments to her, had been persistent in her efforts to befriend him. Little as he would admit it, that meant a lot to him.

And then there was the fact that this was the girl James Potter fancied, and yet she had invited him to visit her over the summer holidays. Him.

What it boiled down to was hope. And hope was something Severus Snape had known precious little of in his life.

He swallowed nervously, his Adam's apple bobbing in his long, skinny throat as he heard footsteps in the hallway on the other side of the door. Would it be her? Had she been watching for him?

But when the door opened, it was not Lily, but a tall, blonde man, just on the younger side of middle-aged, and with eyes as green as his daughter's. The smile was hers too, when he stuck out his hand in greeting.

"Hello! You must be Severus. Lily's told us all about you."

Severus hesitantly shook the proffered hand. "It's -- er -- good to meet you, sir."

"Oh, please! We don't stand on formality in this house," Lily's father replied, opening the door wide to let him in. "Any friend of Lily's can call me 'Harry'."

Any friend of Lily's. She had called him "friend" to her father. He did not quite know why, but he felt something small leap inside him at the thought. He looked around the entryway, unsure how to make small talk with this unknown Muggle.

"Ummm ... nice place you've got." It was, at that. Compared to the working class air and clutter of his own home -- his mother was no great housekeeper, and his own Muggle father had very definite views on whose job it wasn't to keep things clean -- the Evans' house radiated middle class comfort.

"Lily Moira!" Harry Evans was calling up the stairs. "Your friend is here!"

He heard a door slam open somewhere, and quick, light footsteps on the floor above. And then there she was, coming down the stairs, smiling, touching his arm in greeting.

"It's good to see you, Sev."

The small thing leapt inside him again. "Yeah," he said somewhat awkwardly. "You too."

At that moment, a pretty woman with short, red hair stuck her head out of the kitchen. Her eyes were not green, but pale blue, and her face was Lily's. She, too, smiled when she saw him.

"I can't shake your hand," she said matter-of-factly. "I've been cutting raw chicken. Harry thought it would be nice to have a cookout in the back garden this evening, but he hates dealing with raw meat." She rolled her eyes.

"I am forever in your debt, Rosie," Harry said, blowing his wife a kiss. "Lily, why don't you show Severus where the guest room is? Dinner won't be for a couple of hours yet."

"C'mon," said Lily, turning toward the stairs again.

"Keep the door open, Lily!" Rose Evans called after her daughter.

"I know, Mum!"

"What was that about?" Severus asked curiously as they reached the top of the stairs.

Lily blushed. "She thinks we'll -- Well, not thinks exactly. She just doesn't want us to -- to do anything. You know."

"Oh." He tried to keep from thinking about the images this statement brought to his seventeen-year-old mind.

Lily poked her head into one of the rooms. "Petty?" she said.

A blonde girl -- or rather, a young woman -- stood over an ironing board, painstakingly pressing the seam of what looked like a half-finished summer dress.

"What?" she said, not looking up.

"Severus is here," Lily said hopefully. "I thought maybe you'd like to meet him. Sev, this is my sister Petunia."

"Pleasure," he mumbled. He was somewhat disappointed to see that the older girl did not greatly resemble Lily.

She glanced up with pale eyes like her mother's and surveyed him critically. "Nice to meet you," she said curtly, looking back down.

Lily gave Severus an apologetic look and shrugged, moving away from the room.

When they were out of earshot she whispered confidentially, "She's just nervous about her date. She's seeing some guy, but she won't bring him home to meet us. I think she must really like him, though; I heard her say she's hoping to finish that dress she's making in time for their date tomorrow night."

"Why don't you, you know, finish it for her?" he asked. "I mean, you're seventeen now, aren't you? You can do magic outside school."

Lily nodded, glancing back toward her sister's room almost regretfully. "I was seventeen in April. But Petty -- she doesn't like magic much. I think it scares her a little." She shrugged again. "She was always good at things like maths and science. Things that can't be quantified and explained bother her. 'The world doesn't work like that,' she keeps telling me. 'It's not natural'."

Severus smirked. "Muggles."

"Hey!" she said, punching him lightly on the arm. "They're not all bad. Dad's positively obsessed. You should have seen his eyes light up when he first found out that magic was real. And Mum's been twisting my arm to get me to help out with housework and stuff all summer. Anyway, this is your room."

He glanced into the small, neat room. It was very homey, and the quilt looked handmade.

"Nice," he said somewhat grudgingly, dropping his bag beside the bed.

"My room's right across the hall. Do you want to see it?"

"Okay." His voice betrayed none of his curiosity at the thought of seeing where Lily lived and slept.

It was bigger than the guest room, and more cluttered than any part of the house he had seen so far. He saw her surreptitiously nudge what might have been a pair of frilly, blue knickers under the bed with her foot before bending over to pick up the spell books strewn across the floor.

"I meant to tidy up a bit before you arrived," she admitted. "But I guess I never got around to it." She straightened up and turned to see him still standing in the doorway. "You don't have to stand out there." She gestured toward the unmade bed.

He could not seem to think of anything to say. All he could do was try not to think about the fact that he was in Lily Evans' bedroom, that he was sitting on her bed. He reached down to pick up a large, familiar-looking book from the floor. Lily's copy of Advanced Potion-Making was newer than his, and better cared for.

He cleared his throat. "I brought some stuff," he said, not looking at her as he flipped through the pages. "If you want to try making something."

"Sure." She sat down beside him. "What did you have in mind?"

Her nearness seemed to be affecting his breathing. She did not want to know what he had in mind, he was sure. "I dunno," he said. "I'm up for anything. As long as it's not some soppy love potion."

"Do you know how to make any?" There was no eagerness in her voice; only curiosity.

"Never have," he mumbled. "But I probably could if I wanted to."

She took the book from his lap, her fingers brushing his thigh as she did so. He gritted his teeth, tilting his head so that his hair swung forward to hide his face.

"Let's try ..." she said, flipping randomly through the heavy tome. "Oh, damn! Veritaserum would be fun, but it takes a month, doesn't it? We need something we can do in a couple days."

"We could try the Draught of Living Death," he suggested.

Lily flipped back to the first few pages of the book and looked the recipe over critically. "You really have all this stuff with you?"

"Yeah."

"I don't know, Sev. It looks like it could be lethal if we get it wrong. Let's try something more fun. Oh, here we go!" She turned the book toward him with apparent delight. "An elixir to induce Euphoria."

"Didn't we do that one with old Sluggie last year?" he asked, frowning at the page.

"Yeah, but mine didn't come out as well as yours did, and I've been wanting a chance to try it again for ages."

He looked up into green eyes glowing with excitement. "Okay," he said. "I'll go get the stuff."

They had barely managed to set up Lily's smallest cauldron in the guest room and inventory the necessary ingredients when they were called down to dinner.

"I bet you could do this in about two seconds flat with magic," Harry joked as he loaded up their plates from the grill.

"Maybe so, Dad," Lily replied, smiling as she took the plate her father passed her. "But it wouldn't be nearly as good."

As they seated themselves around the picnic table in the back garden, Harry turned to Severus, and said conversationally over the chicken, "So tell us, Severus, what are your intentions toward my daughter?"

Severus stared at him, openmouthed, but a blushing Lily said, "Dad!"

"What? You bring a boy home for the first time, and I'm not allowed to ask that?"

Lily gave her father an exasperated look. "We're just friends, Dad. I told you."

"See why I don't bring Vernon home?" Petunia muttered.

Rose gave Severus a sympathetic smile. "You'll have to excuse my husband," she said. "He's a dreadful joker. Just don't show him you're afraid; it only makes him ten times worse."

"My daughter invites one of her wizard friends over, and I'm not even allowed to ask questions!" Harry threw up his hands theatrically. "I ask you, is that fair?"

"I didn't say you couldn't ask questions, Dad," Lily admonished. "Just not about -- that."

"All right then." Harry gave him a wide grin. "Tell me, Severus. What do you do in the Wizarding world when a young witch brings a wizard to meet her parents for the first time?"

Lily hit him on the side of the head with a roll.

Severus was explaining the benefits of adding a sprig of fresh peppermint to the Euphoria elixir when Rose came up and told them it was time for Lily to go to her own room.

"Mum! The potion's almost done. Can't I?"

"Will it keep until tomorrow?" She gave her daughter a stern look that Severus recognised as the one Lily often used on James Potter and his friends.

"I'll finish it up," he mumbled to Lily. "Once it's done it should keep well enough."

Lily looked rebellious for a moment, then said, "All right. Good night, Sev. Good night, Mum."

Severus tried very hard not to stare at her retreating bottom as she disappeared across the hallway.

He was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling in darkness, and trying to sort out his head when a soft tap came at the door. At first he was not even sure he had heard it, but then the knob turned slowly, and the pale form of Lily Evans slipped into the room. She quietly shut the door behind her, flicking on the lights, and came to sit down at the foot of the bed.

"I couldn't sleep," she whispered, grinning. "I had to know how the potion came out."

She was wearing light summer pyjamas, and he was very aware of the fact that he only wore a nightshirt as he leant over the side of the bed to retrieve the cauldron of sunshine-yellow potion.

He handed it over to her, and she peered at it, sniffing delicately. "It looks right. And you can definitely smell the mint."

"You want to try it?" he asked.

She nodded. As he filled two small beakers with the shining substance, she went around the room, tapping the corners with her wand.

"Silencing charm," she explained. "It said in the book that one of the possible side-effects is fits of giggling."

Sitting down on the bed again, she took the beaker he offered her. He watched as she tilted back her head to taste the first sip of the potion. She licked her lips, looking thoughtful for a moment, then took a second, longer swallow.

Her eyes were closed as she lowered the beaker the second time. Then, slowly, a wide smile unfurled itself across her face. Severus only just plucked the beaker away from her in time before she threw herself backward across his bony shins, laughing out loud.

"Oh, Sev! It's wonderful," she breathed. "You have to try it. It just feels, so -- mmmm ...."

His eyes were riveted on her as she arched her back, stretching catlike across the foot of the bed. The short top of her pyjamas rode up to expose the smooth, fair skin of her belly. He raised his own beaker to his lips and drained it.

Warmth flooded through him like the first sunny day of spring. Everything became absolutely clear. The world was a wondrous place, and there was nowhere he would rather be than here with Lily Evans. He laughed with joy, amazed that he had ever wasted time feeling bitterness or anger or hatred toward anyone. It did not matter any longer what other people did or said. They were not important enough to worry about. All that mattered was this glorious new sense of joy and wonder, and the beautiful possibilities alive in the world around him.

He looked over to see Lily, eyes now open, grinning back at him, still lying stretched out on his bed. He pounced on her. They were both fizzing with laughter as their lips met, first awkwardly and then more surely. He could taste the golden potion on her tongue, feel the wonderful silken warmth of her hair spilling over his hands, smell the fresh, creamy scent of her skin. She was intoxicating. He could not remember ever wanting anything more.

One hand moved down her torso, cupping a breast through the sheer fabric of her pyjamas. When she did not protest or push him away, he bent his head to taste her throat and slid his hand lower to find the hem of her top. Her flesh under his hand was as smooth and warm and supple as he had ever imagined, and when the warmth and fullness of her bare breast filled his hand, he knew what heaven must be like.

"Mmmm ... Sev!" she murmured, giggling.

He took her top by the hem, pulling it over her head with a single motion, and buried his face between her breasts. His fingers laced with hers and she gasped with delight as he tasted a rosy pink nipple.

Severus realised dimly that he should have been a little surprised, but it seemed only natural when she moved his hand, fingers joined with hers, between her legs.

"Touch me here, Sev," she whispered. "It would feel so good. Ah!"

His long fingers caressed her through the thin cotton of her pyjama bottoms. He could feel heat and damp even through the fabric.

"Take them off," he said, tugging her nipple gently with his teeth.

Her hands hurried to obey, and in seconds she lay in naked splendor on the bed before him. Her skin was milky white all over, and the hair between her legs was a brighter red than the hair on her head. The scent of her made his mouth water, but as he reached for her again, she playfully pushed his hand away.

"Fair's fair!" she laughed, tugging at the fabric of his nightshirt.

He pulled it over his head, wanting only to feel her bare skin against his.

Lily giggled. "No pants? Naughty Sev!" She surveyed him eagerly. "Mmmm ... you look fun."

He moaned, closing his eyes as her fingers wrapped around him. Nothing in the world had ever felt as good as her touching him like that.

"Will you touch me, too, Sev?" she whispered.

Her other hand guided his back to the warm, damp place between her legs. Severus's eyes flew open in surprise when his fingers touched her. She was as slippery as gillyweed down there, and she parted her thighs further to allow him freer access.

Her hand stilled around his shaft, but he did not care much. He was too busy trying to figure out which touches elicited gasps and which brought on delighted moans. Severus moved between her legs to see better. She was pink and slick and completely open to him. He traced around her entrance with a finger, and emboldened by a twitch of her hips, slipped it easily inside.

She gasped, her body clinging tight and warm and wet around his finger. "More, Sev!" she moaned.

Wide-eyed, he slid another finger into her. She reached down to grasp his wrist, and began moving his fingers in and out of her, moaning luxuriantly.

He bent closer, watching in awed delight as his fingers, slick with her juices, moved in and out of her body. His nose was filled with the scent of her, and without even thinking, he bowed his head for a taste.

With a sharp little cry, she thrust her hips up against his mouth. "Oh, Sev! Do that again! I need more!"

Severus drew his hand back, and then pushed a third long finger deep inside her, pressing his tongue to her pink flesh to lap up her flowing juices. Suddenly she was shaking and bucking and he could feel muscles deep inside her squeezing tightly and rhythmically around his fingers.

She pushed his hand away and out of her, and lay gasping on the bed. "Wow," she breathed at last.

"I didn't know girls could do that," he admitted. "Come, I mean. Like men do."

"Yeah," she grinned, chest still rapidly rising and falling. "But it's not usually so -- Wow."

She sat up, a mischievous glint in her eye. "Your turn."

Lily slid her body up along his and straddled his waist, kissing him long and thoroughly. He could feel the tip of his painfully swollen cock pressed against her arse, and hoped to God she intended to do something about it soon.

Raising herself up on her knees, she reached back between her legs until her hand wrapped around his shaft once more. He groaned, pressing into her palm, eyes falling closed. He felt her shift her position slightly, and then there was beautiful, wet heat pressed against his swollen tip.

"Lily!" he gasped, eyes popping wide to see himself poised at that lovely, tight entrance. Hope bloomed within him that he was about to feel her hot, slick flesh pulsing around the length of his cock as she had around his fingers. "Please!" he begged through gritted teeth. "I need --"

"You're not going in Sev," she murmured. "I just want to feel you against me for a minute."

Despite her admonition, he pressed up against her, moaning, but she held him firm, teasing around her slick, pink places, and just once allowing the head of his cock to press halfway into her.

"Please!" he groaned, rigid thigh muscles twitching. "Please, Lily! Just for a minute --"

But then her heat was gone from him. He watched, bewildered, as she shimmied her way down his body to kneel between his thighs. And then her mouth was on him.

She was by no means expert, but she was an enthusiastic amateur, and he was so close already that in mere seconds he was twitching and jerking and spurting into her eager mouth.

After, she snuggled up beside him, her cheek pillowed against his shoulder. "That was fun," she sighed.

He said nothing. He could feel the effects of the potion draining away with his orgasm.

When she reached for his hand, placing it on her damp curls and asking, "Touch me again?" he pulled away.

"Will you let me do it this time, if I do?" he asked bluntly.

"What?" she sat up, looking at him.

"I'll do it again, but I want to be inside you this time."

Her brow wrinkled. "Sev, I don't want --"

"You don't have to worry," he pressed. "I know a potion. It's really easy to brew. You wouldn't have to worry about -- anything."

She sighed. "It's not that, Sev. I'm just waiting for --"

"What?" The bitterness of his tone lashed out at her. "James Potter?"

She pulled away from him at that, tugging a blanket off the bed to cover herself. "How can you say that?" she demanded. "After all the things he's done to you? After all the times I've told him to go to hell?"

"So just not me, then."

"Sev, don't --"

He snorted. "Don't what? You'll screw around with me, but you won't fuck me? What is this? Some kind of stupid virginity thing? You're not even pure-blood, for Merlin's sake!"

Her slap stung his face, making his eyes water. "You think that just because I'm Muggleborn, I'm some kind of slut?" she bristled. "What is this? Some stupid horny guy thing? I get you off and then you get pissed at me because I won't let you put your thing in me? Why don't you just go fuck yourself, Snivellus?!"

Bitterness consumed him and he looked away, blood burning in his cheeks. He had been stupid to think even for a moment that he could have someone like her -- that she could want him like he wanted her. He ground his teeth in frustration.

But when it seemed as if the silence between them had stretched on into forever, she reached across it to touch his arm lightly.

"Sev -- it's not you --"

"Sure."

"It's not," she repeated firmly. "What we just did -- I've never done anything like that before. I'm not ready, all right? When I -- when I m-make love for the first time, I want it to be that. To be love. Not this."

"Then it's never going to be me, is it?" he replied harshly. "Slughorn's favourite -- Dumbledore's golden girl -- The girl of James Potter's dreams -- she's never going to love this." He gestured roughly down his skinny, angular body.

The look in her eyes was pleading. "I don't know, Sev," she told him earnestly. Then a smile lit the corners of her mouth. "I don't believe you're nearly as bad as you want people to think. There's good in you, I know it. You shouldn't be afraid of it. Kindness isn't weakness. Show a little of that to the world, and who knows what might happen?"

He rubbed his eyes. The aftereffect of the potion was making him feel unutterably weary.

"Go to bed, Evans," he said abruptly. "Let's just forget about this."

But as she quickly and silently pulled her pyjamas back on and left him in the darkness, he knew that this was one night he would never, ever forget.

So it's love she wants, is it? he thought, staring moodily at her over their breakfast fry-up the next morning. She was assiduously not looking at him. No problem. I can brew that in about a second.

He knew it was not true. Real love was a mystery and a power beyond the scope and range of magic. If it was real love he wanted Lily to feel for him, then he would have to break into the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic where they studied such things, and steal a bucket of it.

But if he could not manage the real thing then perhaps a shadowy substitute would do. When he remembered how she had felt under his hands the previous night, and when he thought about the possibility of never touching her again, he could not bear not to try. And perhaps after the first time she gave herself to him --

Amortentia was the most powerful so-called love potion that he knew of, and he had the recipe in his copy of Advanced Potion-Making, but the problem would be brewing it without her knowing what it was. Slughorn had showed them the finished potion the previous year, and hiding its distinctive sheen and spiraling smoke would be a challenge even for him. He thought he could manage it, though, with a little clever manipulation of the ingredients.

Lily went to her room after breakfast, with the excuse that she needed to look over her summer homework from McGonagall, Flitwick and Slughorn, but Severus was sure she had finished all of it over a month ago. She was just like that. Still, it suited him fine since it gave him the opportunity to work on the potion in peace, holed up in the guest room.

It was well past noon by the time a tentative knock came on the door.

"What?"

"Can I come in?" asked Lily's muffled voice through the wood of the door.

"Yeah." He nudged the Potions book out of sight under the bed.

"What are you working on?"

"Potion."

"I can see that. What kind?"

"Just an experiment."

He had managed to disguise the mother-of-pearl sheen with a delicate pink colour, and had added a very small amount of chopped gillyweed to keep the potion from smoking at all. She would have no way of guessing what it was.

She leaned close and sniffed, nostrils flaring. "It smells familiar," she said slowly.

He stiffened. He had forgotten to disguise the smell, and he had not noticed it since, to him, it smelled the same as the whole room -- like the thing he desired most -- like her. Would she remember the smell from that last brief encounter with Amortentia, several months ago?

"What does it smell like?" he asked cautiously.

"Leather -- no, wait. Like some kind of big animal. Maybe a horse or a centaur or something. And a little like --" she sniffed again. "You know how it smells out on the Quidditch pitch on sunny days? Like grass and warm earth? Kind of like that."

He groaned internally. If this potion smelled of Quidditch to her then there was no way she was meant for him. He was hopelessly awkward on a broomstick.

"What's it supposed to do?" she asked curiously.

"I don't know yet," he said shortly. "It's not finished."

She got the message and left again.

He was going to need something to strengthen it. It might work without, but like many other potions, it could be far more effective if something of the potion's subject was added to it. Ideally, to create an illusion of love between himself and Lily, he would need something of each of them to add to it. Getting something of himself was no problem, but getting something of Lily might be harder.

He had checked the bedclothes, and could unfortunately find no stray hair left by her the previous night. Searching her room was risky and problematic, and he was not sure if he could bear to go in there now and spend time making small talk with her as a pretense.

In any case, he had some time to think. The potion needed to simmer for a few hours before it would be ready for those final ingredients. In the meantime, he pulled out a book he had borrowed from the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts library -- Moste Potente Potions -- and hoped that inspiration would strike him.

Nothing had come to him by nightfall. After another even more awkward meal with her family -- minus Petunia this time, as she was out with her bloke -- Severus retreated back upstairs and decided to take a shower. He was not sure if the potion would work as well as he had hoped without the all-important ingredient, and he thought that being clean might at least not hurt his chances with Lily any.

As he stepped, dripping, out of the bath and reached for a towel, his eye fell upon the clothes hamper. Thoughtfully, he lifted the lid. Inside was a jumble of women's clothing, tossed in haphazardly by the sundry Evans women. There might be something in there that would do.

He tucked the towel around his hips and tiptoed back to the guest room to retrieve the cauldron, his wand, a knife and the correct stirring paddle. Setting the cauldron up on the bathroom floor, he quickly lit a non-scorch fire charm under it, and set to work. One by one, he pulled each garment from the laundry hamper, examined it critically to see if he could ever remember Lily wearing it, checked it for loose red hairs, sniffed for her distinctive scent, and cast it aside if it would not do for his purposes.

At last, he had a small pile of clothing he was sure were hers. He picked up a pair of frilly blue knickers -- the same ones she had kicked under the bed yesterday, he was almost certain -- and dropped them into the cauldron. Now to add his own contribution. He removed the towel and knelt over the potion.

And it was at that moment that Petunia, having just arrived home from her date, pushed open the bathroom door, saw Severus kneeling naked in the middle of the room, cock in hand, with a cauldron in front of him, the intimate garments of the Evans women strewn about him, and her little sister's best knickers floating on top of the pink potion.

She let out a choked shriek as Severus scrambled to his feet, wand pointed at her.

"Do you mind?" he hissed.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, horrified.

"None of your bloody business! Get out!" He slashed his wand at her and a cut opened suddenly on her arm.

With a gasp, she turned and fled.

He hastily stuffed the laundry back into the hamper and stabbed the blue knickers below the surface of the potion with the stirring paddle. Gathering up the cauldron, he banished the fire with a flick of his wand and hurried back to the guest room to finish the potion in private.

Severus could tell the following morning that Petunia had not mentioned the incident to her sister. Lily was once again making friendly, conciliatory overtures to him, which suited his plans just fine.

He had spent half the previous day racking his brains for a way to get her to drink enough of the potion without suspecting anything. Amortentia was usually best administered as a filling for fancy chocolates, since its sweet flavour and creamy texture in that context was in no way suspicious, and the smell of fine chocolate generally disguised the telltale scent of the potion.

There was no help for it; he was going to have to lie. If the fool girl was stupid enough to trust him, then she would get exactly what she deserved.

"What is it?" she asked curiously when he came into her room and presented a small flask of the pink liquid to her sometime after breakfast. She sniffed at it. "This is what you were working on yesterday, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he replied. "It's just something I made up. I was reading about -- about Dementors for that Defence Against the Dark Arts essay, and I thought it would be cool if there was some kind of potion that could ward them off."

She looked dubious. "How does it work?"

"Well," he said, crossing his fingers behind his back, "it acts as a sort of mental stimulant, making it easier to remember happy thoughts and memories vividly so you can cast the Patronus charm more easily. It has some ingredients in common with the Euphoria elixir -- but not as strong," he added hastily when she gave him a suspicious look.

"And you think that will be enough to ward off a bunch of mad, soul-sucking fiends, do you?" she asked skeptically, but raised the flask to her lips all the same.

"I wouldn't drink that if I were you," an acid voice spoke from the doorway.

Severus and Lily both turned in surprise to find Petunia standing there, disgust written all over her face.

"Why not, Petty?" Lily asked, suddenly wary.

"I saw what he put in it."

"Oh? And what was that?"

Severus broke out in a cold sweat. If Petunia told her, Lily would never speak to him again, and next time James hexed him, she would probably help.

But Petunia only pursed her lips. "I'd rather not say. What did he tell you it is?"

Lily's brow furrowed. She peered into the pearly pink liquid, and then raised her eyes to meet her sister's. The natural instinct of a younger sister to trust an elder shone in her green eyes. Severus knew he had lost.

"He said it would help ward off Dementors. They're these happiness-sucking things that guard Azkaban prison."

"Yeah, well I doubt that's what it does," Petunia sneered. "I'm your sister, Lily. Trust me this once. You don't want to drink that. And if you know what's good for you, you'll get as far away from this one --" she gestured at Severus "-- as possible. I've always thought you'd be better off without any of this magic nonsense, and if what I saw him doing is how magic works, then I was right. It's disgusting and I want nothing to do with it. And if you persist in mixing yourself up with it, then you're disgusting too, and I don't ever want to have anything to do with you or your kind again."

She spun on her heel and flounced down the stairs, and a moment later, Severus heard the front door slam. He looked at Lily warily.

"Who are you going to believe?" he said. "Her or me? She doesn't know a damn thing about magic or potion ingredients. So what if some of them are unappetising on their own?"

But Lily was looking into the potion again. "What is in it, Sev?"

"Fine!" he said, getting to his feet and looking down his nose at her coldly. "Don't trust me. See if I care."

"Sev --"

"No." He turned away. "I know when I'm not wanted. I'm bloody used to it. I thought you were different, Evans. I get it now, though. I'm going."

He did not even look back to see if she had gotten up, but ran to the guest room, packed with a wave of his wand, and Apparated home.

Lily, standing in the doorway of the suddenly-empty guest room, sniffed and wiped her eyes. "Goodbye, Sev," she whispered. "I'm sorry."

That Awful Boy © 2007 Skjaere