The Marauders: Year One | #Wattys2016

How the Slytherins Think

Severus was standing outside the door to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom when Lily stepped out after helping Professor Tutman put away the instruments. She paused in the doorway and stared at him a long moment, then sighed and pushed her way by him into the hallway. She was still angry from the way he'd acted the other morning, when she'd walked over to the Slytherin table. He followed after her now, his robes swishing at his ankles, just a little too short for his height because they'd been bought second hand. The sound of the fabric's movement annoyed Lily more than it should have. But then, most anything about Severus Snape would have annoyed her at that moment.

"Lily," he begged, "Wait a minute... c'mon, Lilly... Talking to me is the least you could do."

She stopped at the end of the corridor and turned around to face him quickly, making him stop suddenly in his tracks to keep from running right into her. "Sev, I don't understand why you're acting like you're the one that's been wronged," she said.

"Because you've been ignoring me," he replied, pouty, "For days."

"Because you acted like a prat when I went over to see you!" she cried. "I was worried about you and you told me to go away, acted like we weren't friends, like you were annoyed by me." Lily shook her head. "That's not fair, Sev."

"I'm sorry," he said, and he really was. "Look, it's hard, okay? I don't expect you to understand it. Gryffindor is different than Slytherin is."

"At least you aren't all alone," she said hotly. "I'm all by myself in Gryffindor, other than those stupid boys from the train. I tried to see you, my best friend, and you tell me off!"

"Because they don't understand what we are, Lily," Severus said under his breath. "None of the Slytherins get it."

"Get what? What are we, Severus?" Lily demanded.

He felt his face flush and he hesitated. If she didn't know... if she was asking him... He wondered if he was maybe imagining the entire thing altogether. Was he worrying about what everyone would think of him falling in love with a mudblood for nothing? Did she not feel the same way that he did, as though he had found his entire future? He looked at her with dark grey, nearly black, eyes. "Lily... aren't we... aren't we... you know... best friends?" he asked.

Lily took a deep breath, "Yes, we are. You know that." She'd been afraid that he'd been about to suggest something more - something that she wasn't sure about because it was something that she didn't honestly feel.

"I just can't explain that to the Slytherins," he said.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because," he hesitated, "Lily, look, the whole blood purity thing... I've tried to tell you about it, but... I don't know; I don't think I've explained it really well to you. Wizards are really funny about the blood status of the people around them, Lily. If someone doesn't have pure blood they get real nutty about it. I told you my mum isn't close to her family and it's because she's married a muggle." Severus stared at her, imploring her to understand.

"What's marrying a muggle got to do with it?" Lily asked.

"Well not married, obviously," Severus said, feeling the heat rising in his neck. "Just, they notice things like that, like who others are hanging around with."

"So you're afraid of what people will say about you being friends with me because my parents are muggles?" she demanded. "Do you think I'm any worse off for being the daughter of a couple of muggles? Do you?"