The Marauders: Year One | #Wattys2016

Flying Lessons

Lily was very glad for Alice Bell, the second year girl that had shown her to the dormitory the night before. Alice had instantly become Lily's friend, and invited her up to the second years' room to meet the other girls. They were all very nice and had invited Lily to camp on their floor so she didn't have to spend her first night all alone in the castle, explaining that Peeves, the school poltergeist liked to pick on the younger students who had seemed apprehensive. Lily's eyes had widened, "There are ghosts here?"

"Haven't you met Nearly Headless Nick yet?" Alice Bell asked her.

Lily shook her head, "No. Is he terrifying?"

"Nick? Nawh," Alice shook her head, "He's really funny."

The next morning, the girls had all gone down to breakfast together in the Great Hall, pouring over an issue of Teen Witch featuring one of the members of the new wizard band The Charmers on the cover. Lily had never realized there were wizard bands, but Alice nodded enthusiastically, "Oh yes, there are quite a few. There's the Charmers, and the Owls..." she'd rattled off band names for some time.

They'd met up again after Transfiguration in the Great Hall for lunch time, and by then Lily was just thankful to get away from Sirius, Remus, Peter, and, most especially, James, who she kept catching staring over at her from his desk. He'd smiled at her every time she'd caught him. She craned her neck, trying to see over to the Slytherin table past the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs to see if Severus was there. She wanted to talk to him badly but he'd been missing since the feast the night before. Hoping to spot him, she chatted with Alice Bell with one eye on the door, but she never saw him.

When they went out onto the lawn for the flying lessons, though, she got her chance to talk to him for the first time since the sorting. The Gryffindors were having their lessons on the grounds with the Slytherins, who had a free second period on Thursday and had already gone outside to meet the instructor, a witch the timetable had informed her would be named Madam Hooch.

"Oh great," Lily heard Sirius say as they crossed the grass, "We have to learn to fly with Snivelly Snape." She looked up at the moment he was mentioned, her heart leaping with excitement and relief. Severus was on the edge of the cluster of Slytherins and she broke into a run the moment she saw him.

"Sev!" she squealed and she ran, pushing between the boys, literally shoving James out of the way. She collided with him, enveloping him in a bone-crushing hug. It seemed like it had been ages since she'd seen him. He hugged her back, though a bit hesitantly, glancing uneasily to see what the other Slytherins were looking. For the first time ever she noticed that Severus had a funny smell about him, one that reminded her of the bad part of town from which he'd come back home. She pulled back and looked up at his eyes, which were darting between her and his snickering housemates. "Are you okay?" she whispered under her breath, so quiet that only Severus could hear.

"Look at Snivelly with his girlfriend!" Sirius's voice rang out as the boys caught up to Lily.

Severus, already red from the sniggering of the Slytherins, turned even redder. "Shut your mouth, Black!" he growled.

"Ooh," James laughed. "You gonna take that Sirius?"

Sirius grinned, "Sorry, Sev," he said, pointedly using the nickname Lily used for him, "I'll let you get back to snogging with her, then." He turned to walk away, laughing.

Severus pulled away from Lily entirely, running at Sirius's turned back.

"Oh!" Lily cried out, "Severus - don't!"

The desperate tone in Lily's voice made James turn around and he saw Severus coming at Sirius, the look of an angry bull upon his face. "Oi!" Sirius!" James shouted.