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Run Ins


Sirius Black was not the only student at Hogwarts who didn’t fancy the idea of the end of term. Severus Snape was also dreading it. It was months away yet, but the gears were shifting in the atmosphere at Hogwarts, the teachers getting more serious in their lessons, dropping hints of which bits of information would be most important on their end of year exams. Many of the students who were excited for the summer began talking about the plans they were making for when they got home, and even Lily couldn’t be stopped reminding Severus that there wasn’t much time before they would be going home.

“We’ll get to see each other more,” she said happily, “I can’t wait. I’ve missed you so much, and it’s such a pain having to spend all our time together in odd places.” They were huddled that day close against the far side of the greenhouses, sitting on an overturned wheelbarrow, watching rain fall, protected by the overhanging roof.

Severus hesitated, “Well… I’m not so sure how much I’ll be at home, to be honest,” he said, carefully not looking Lily in the eyes.

“Not home? Where are going going?” Lily asked.

Severus hesitated.

He would be with the Dark Lord for the legilimency lessons and he feared seeing too much of Lily Evans might keep her on his mind and ruin his plans of protecting his thoughts of her from Voldemort. It would be hard enough already to keep the image of those green eyes from showing up in his thoughts.... He looked at her now to see them, as the strangest feeling that he only had so long to look at them came over him. Don’t be silly, he told himself, but the feeling stirred about in him as he stared at her. They seemed even greener than usual against the dismal rain.

“My mum’s made some friends we may be visiting,” he said, “And Lucius has asked me ‘round…” he shrugged.

Lily made a face. “Lucius Malfoy is a bully. I don’t know why you would want to be around him. After what he did to Bilius Weasley --”

“Bilius is a thief,” replied Severus quickly.

“Bilius isn’t a thief,” Lily said with conviction.

Severus’s trance at the beauty of her eyes was disturbed by the strength of the words. “He is, though,” he said, “I told you, Malfoy’s things were stolen just before the fight. He’s a thief. He’s no good, just like all of the other Weasleys.”

“Bilius didn’t have anything to do with Malfoy’s things being stolen,” said Lily hotly.

Severus said, “How do you know? You don’t know anything about it.”

Lily wanted so much to tell Severus why she knew it wasn’t Bilius. She imagined how shocked his face would be if she told him it was her that stole the blast mirror from Lucius’s room. He’d probably keel right over in front of her from the surprise of it. But she’d promised Sirius not to tell. Lily searched Severus’s eyes for a moment, but he turned away and looked out at the lake. “He was at dinner. In the Great Hall,” she said, “He was sitting with me and Alice and Derek. He didn’t have time to go down to the dungeons and steal anything from Lucius.”

She felt awful, lying to Severus like that, but she didn’t have a choice. There’d been a time she would have trusted him to keep the secret, too, when she would’ve told him everything that happened in the dungeons that night and he would have never told anyone else… but there was something holding her back.

Severus felt a twinge of sickness in his stomach. Lily was right, now she said it, he did remember seeing Bilius over at the Gryffindor table, and he had indeed been sitting with Derek and Alice Bell. But - and this was the part that made him the sickest - he’d been looking for Lily when he saw them and she, Lily, had not been at the table herself. Neither, he realized, had any of the other Gryffindor first years.

He struggled to keep his face from displaying the argument raging within. Had Lily stolen the mirror? Why? What did she know about it? Well the Gryffindor boys knew about it, didn’t they? Had they told Lily about the mirror? But since when was Lily friends with that lot? Hadn’t she always agreed with him that they were awful, bullying prats? Had she changed her mind? Were they turning her to them… against him? He realized he had thought just the other day how he’d seen Lilly less and less recently. In fact, this was only the second time they’d seen each other since the morning after the incident between Lucius and Bilius.

Severus felt quite cold all of a sudden, and restless, too, and he stood up off the wheelbarrow.

“Sev?” Lily asked, leaning forward, “Are you alright?”

Severus nodded. “Jolly.” Turning toward Hogwarts, he shoved his hands into his pockets. “Anyway... I had better go,” he said, “I have charms next, I’ve got to get my book.”

Lily frowned, “Oh… okay.”

“See you,” he said, and he charged away without looking back. He couldn’t handle the thought of looking in her eyes and seeing an apology there. If she had stolen the mirror, he didn’t want to know about it. Especially if it was with the other Gryffindor first years. He hated the idea of Lily Evans being with that lot, of them getting to enjoy her company while he was separated from her.

He was so distraught over it, he didn’t pay close enough attention where he was going and as he rushed through the entrance hall, and down into the dungeons. He was rushing along the corridor when he slammed head first into another boy and they both went sprawling to the floor, the other boy’s books flying every which way with almighty thumps as they hit the flagstone floor. The rain that had covered Severus on his way across the grounds pooled around him on the floor from his soaked robes, mixing with something else… butterbeer.

He realized with a start that the boy laying opposite him in the mess was Remus Lupin.

“Watch where you’re going, you greasy prat!” James Potter said, scowling and rushing forward to help Remus up from the floor. Peter Pettigrew stood a couple feet away, looking around at the broken bottles around him, aghast.

Severus scowled, “He could’ve done, too.”

Sirius was scrambling to pick up the bottles that hadn’t shattered. “You’re the one that’s come barrelling along like you’re the only one in all the world,” he said, rolling his eyes as he scooped up a couple of dropped tarts as well.

Severus glowered, “What are you lot doing down here anyway?” He demanded, suddenly suspicious.

Peter’s ears went quite pink and he shoved the bag of sandwiches and food behind his back. But Severus’s eyes were quick and he spotted the food and scowled, “Been stealing from the kitchens, have you?” He sneered, “Quite the little thieves, aren’t you?”

“Are you suggesting something in particular?” Asked Sirius, eyebrows raised challengingly.

“Only that you’re in a place you ought not to be, with food you ought not to have,” replied Severus lowly as he dusted himself off.

“And are you where you ought to be?” James glared at him, wand raised and pointing directly at him.

Severus looked at James’s wand and, keeping his face quite straight, he pushed the tip away from his chest with his index finger, staring right into his face. “Seeing as my common room is down this way… I’d say so,” he replied lowly. “Move your wand before you do something you’ll regret.”

“Go on,” James said thickly, “Give me a reason to do it.” Peter was looking quite wide eyed, his eyes flickering between Severus and James as they faced each other in the dim light of the hall.

Severus thought briefly of drawing his own wand, but it just didn’t seem entirely worth the effort. Instead he shoved his way past them, pulling his robes tight around him as he turned the corner and swept away from them.

James dusted the back of Remus’s robes. “Are you alright then?” He tucked away the wand in his robes pocket.

“I’m just fine,” Remus replied, turning and taking the bottles from Sirius. “Doesn’t look as though all our drinks are though, ey?” He shook his head, “The house elves would be most disappointed.” He kicked aside a bit of the broken glass at his feet. “Reparo,” he muttered. The glass flew back together, but was woefully empty of it’s contents, which was still sinking into the cracks on the flagstone floor.

Sirius stared back over his shoulder in the direction Severus had gone, then turned and followed the other two up the stairs.

They were on their way out onto the grounds, the rain fogging James’s glasses when they had yet another run in - this time with a rain-soaked Lily Evans, who nearly collided with James. He caught her about her shoulders. “Whoa, there, Evans,” he said jovially. “Nearly knocked you down,” he smiled at her, then saw that the wetness on her cheeks was not merely from the rain, it was also from tears that reddened her eyes. “Hang on, what’s the matter?”

“I’m fine,” Lily replied, tugging out of his grasp.

Remus asked, “Are you sure? Only we’ve just seen Snape and he was rather upset, too…”

“You didn’t tell him, did you?” Sirius asked, remembering Severus’s vehement tone when he had called them thieves.

“Of course not. Not on purpose anyway. We were just talking and I mentioned summer and he said he was going to be hanging around Lucius and we had it out over whether Bilius deserved the attack or not and I told him it wasn’t Bilius, told him a lie and said I’d been eating dinner with him when it happened, and he got all… odd… and suddenly had to leave.” Lily sighed, “I didn’t say anything about you lot at all!” Lily looked near to tears, “I’m sorry!”

Sirius shook his head, thinking at least the job of clearing Bilius’s name was done, “It’s no matter, Evans.” She looked so woeful, though, he felt like he had to prove to her he wasn’t mad. He held up one of the bottles of butterbeer and a bag full of tarts. “You want to come with us and have a snack?”

James looked ‘round at Sirius with wide eyes.

Lily sniffled, “What?”

“We’ve got tons of tarts and pasties,” Remus expanded, catching on where Sirius was going with his offer.

“We’re going to have a little picnic,” Sirius added.

“It’s pouring outside,” Lily said, “Absolutely miserable. I’ve just come from ‘round the greenhouses.”

James smirked, “Are you going to melt in the rain, Evans?”

“No, of course not, but I --”

“Well then,” James said, pulling Peter Pettigrew along with him toward the door, “Are you coming?” Peter stumbled over the steps as James walked out into the rain a big grin on his face.

Lily watched after them as Sirius scurried to follow James and Peter. She turned to Remus, “Are we really going to go have a picnic in the rain?”

Remus smiled, “Actually,” he said, “We are.”