Always - Severus Snape (COMPLETE)

Confusion

As Lily had expected, she met her worried mother outside her front door.

"Where were you?" Exclaimed Rose, enveloping her daughter in a hug. "Petunia's been home for ages, and I thought you were together."

"She shouted at me," Lily explained childishly. "I went back to the park to play on the swings." It wasn't a complete lie.

"Alright," her mother nodded. "But your father will certainly give you a lecture and it's your turn to lay the table for tea."

"Okay," replied Lily and ran in through the door past her mother to find her father in the living room, reading the newspaper.

"Hello, Lily," he said, folding up the paper and removing his glasses. He rubbed at his tired eyes. "Where might you have run off to this afternoon?"

"The park," Lily answered quietly. She hated it when her father was disappointed with her. Her mother was rarely angry or disappointed, but her father always made her feel guilty when he came home late from work and had to reprimand her.

"Alone?" Mark Evans always seemed to know when she had lied to her mother.

Lily hesitated. Should she mention Severus? She knew that her mother worried about her safety whenever she passed the poorer side of town. Then she decided to reveal all. If he forbade her to see Severus tomorrow as she was planning to, she would go anyway.

"I met someone," Lily began. Her father raised an eyebrow. "A boy. He comes from the other side of the river." He said nothing. "His name is Severus Snape."

Mr Evans sighed and wiped at the lenses of his glasses, as he often did when he was worried. Lily was confused. "What?" She asked. "What's wrong? There's nothing wrong with him, I swear, Daddy."

He shook his head. "If there was ever one person in this town that you shouldn't befriend, it would be him."

"He's perfectly normal!" Lily exclaimed, now angry.

Mark gave her a sad look. "I very much doubt that," he muttered, so quietly that his daughter didn't hear him. "I understand that your kind nature responds to the needs of every antithesis of yourself," he explained, "but there are some who can't be helped. He will drown, and you shall go under with him."

Lily was too young to understand his troubling, and too old to cry a second time in one day. She took one glance at her pensive father and left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

*****

A.N. Here's another chapter! 

To alleviate any hazy clouds of confusion (a definite pun intended) you might have, Mark Evans knows a lot more about Severus' home life than Lily, and this is why he says what he does. He isn't trying to scare Lily; he is worried for Severus and simply implies that the end result will not be good. Which, ironically of course, is the truth.

Thank you.