A Thin Line

Autumn in Hogsmeade

The village of Hogsmeade was beautiful in mid/late-September. Autumn had begun, and the crisp leaves were being brought to life by brilliant shades of gold, orange, red and brown. A cool wind blew loose leaves off and away they flew; piles of leaves were so dense and large that it wasn't surprising, how many students were diving into them and throwing them at each other.

"Hey, Snape."

Severus and Lily spun around just as they were about to walk through the brilliant oak doors to outside Hogwarts.

"Avery," Severus gave him a curt nod. Lily's eyes bore into the Death Eater.

"Still with the Mudblood?"

"Don't," Severus said quickly. "Not right now ... or right here," he glanced for a split second at Lily.

"What is this, Sev?" Lily crossed her arms.

"Come on, Snape, come with me and the gang," Avery said. "You don't wanna stay with the Mudblood, do you?"

"I said not right here or now!" Severus yelled. "I'll ... I'll come with you, just gimme a second." He turned to Lily. "Look, Lil', I'm sorry, I've gotta -"

"What is wrong with you, Sev?"

The tone of voice struck him hard. In all honesty, he would have preferred her to yell than to use this voice, the voice which dug so deep. It was her hurt voice, she was pleading. It was quiet, but so painful ...

"I'm sorry, Lil', I -"

"I don't believe this," Lily shook her head. "Run along with your Death Eater pals, Severus, you're just asking for an end to our friendship."

"I -"

"No, Sev," Lily said. "Give me your excuses later. I'm gonna go with my friends, the real ones, not like you. Maybe you can make it up to me later, but right now I just want you to leave me alone!"

She ran off, scanning the grounds for any signs of familiar sixth grade Gryffindor girls.

Severus stood there with his mouth hanging open for what felt like forever. Then he heard Rosier call for him, and he went back in, blinking back tears.

***

Honeydukes was, as always, amazing. On top of her usual vanilla, cassia and allspice scent, Lily found herself smelling a lot like honey, waffles, chocolate and some kind of sugar-coated fruit.

Carrying more food than their hands were meant to handle, Lily walked back with Marlene and Willow (Alice was on a date with Frank, as was Darcy with Harry and Jazmin with Luke).

They collapsed in the common room, sweets falling everywhere.

"Let us eat to being single with pride!" Marlene announced slightly derangedly.

"Hooray to being single!" Lily realised she sounded no better.

"Yay!" Willow, Marlene and Lily began eating.

"You wanna keep single, I guess, Evans, hey?" The familiar smell of bitter dark chocolate and faint spearmint wafted towards her and she didn't even have to turn around to know who it was, although she did anyway, the sensation natural to her now.

"What are you doing here, Potter?" Lily sighed as she popped the new experimental sweet into her mouth; she squealed as it exploded, coating her mouth with a sweet, sugary flavour that tasted better than chocolate by a million.

James smirked, running his fingers through her red hair. He took out a single dry orange leaf which must have gotten stuck.

Lost in his eyes again ... a blur of blue, yellow, green, brown ... yes, mostly brown, chocolate brown, but so much more to it than just that, like an artist had painted the mix and spent years to perfect it, but had got there in the end. Lily didn't know how much time had passed when she was brought back to earth, but seeing the other two had gone through half the pile of sweets, she assumed it had been a long while.

"You still won't go out with me, hey, Evans?"

"Not in a million years," Lily whispered, and they both leant in for the slightest moment before they pulled away together, the two of them red in the face.

"For goodness sake Lily, make up your mind!" Marlene complained through a mouthful of candy. "Eat with the rest of us single ladies, or hurry up and snog him!"

Of course, this only caused Lily to grow a brighter shade of red; James had quite recovered, though, and was back with his mischievous ways.

"Right, I'm gonna infest the Slytherin common room with creatures," James said. "Cornish Pixies or cute baby Puffskeins, what do you think?"

"Try both," Lily smiled. "Although to be honest, I think they would hate the Puffskeins more."

"True," James nodded. "Thanks Evans." He winked at her as he set off, causing her to turn ten times more red before slowly eating the few remaining sweets in the pile which had turned into a load of candy wrappers.

"How'd it go, Prongs?" Sirius asked once James exited the room.

"She suggests Puffskeins," James said.

"No, you idiot, I mean how'd it go with her, y'know?" Sirius said.

"Oh, right," James nodded. "Um ... we were staring at each other's eyes for a bit, I guess that's something ... also we leant in and I think we were about an inch away from snogging, then we got all red-faced."

"Wow, that's not like Lily," Remus said.

"How would you know?" James shot him a glare.

"Well, Lily and I are actual friends, dunno if you've noticed who she talks to," Remus said. "We chat in the library sometimes, while that nasty librarian isn't looking."

"Where are we going now?" Peter asked.

"We're going to - where are we going to?" Sirius asked.

James put his arms around Sirius and Remus. "We, my friends, are going to go swimming in the leaves."

"Sounds like fun!" Peter grinned.

"But first," James said, "we infiltrate the Slytherin common room and get those Puffskeins in there!"