bittersweet » lily evans

0.3

"Have you ever thought..." Severus trailed off awkwardly, his hands screwing up the fabric of his robes.

"Go on," Lily urged. She often had to encourage him to speak his mind, he didn't like putting his ideas out there in fear of being rejected or teased.

"No," he shook his head, turning away from her to look out over the lake, "It's stupid."

Lily held back a sigh, she hated when he put himself down; so many people did it for him, he didn't need to become his own bully on top of that.

"Nothing you say can be stupid," she said gently, "especially if it makes you nervous like that," she pointed to his hands, still scrunched up in his robes, he immediately untangled them and unclenched his fists.

"I-" He was cut off by a loud voice.

"Sev! Get over here!"

Lily and Severus both turned around to see Evan Rosier, Regulus Black and Marcus Avery.

Severus glanced at Lily then back to the group of Slytherins. She could see the conflict on his face; he didn't want to leave her, but he would prefer to be with his own housemates.

"It's fine," she smiled, ignoring the bitter taste in her mouth.

"I'll see you later?" He checked as he gathered his books and shoved them into his bag.

"Yeah," she assured.

She watched his departing figure, sighed, then picked up her own books and put them away.

"You okay, Evans?" A voice asked.

Lily turned to see Julia standing a few feet away.

"I'm fine," she brushed off, "Why are you here?"

"Am I not allowed to walk across the grounds?" Julia raised an eyebrow and Lily blushed, realising how stupid her question sounded.

"Of course you are," she amended, "you just caught me off guard."

"Snape ditch you?" The girl asked, shifting on the spot to stand more comfortably.

"He didn't ditch me," Lily argued, "He went to spend time with his other friends, he's allowed to do that."

Julia hummed in a way that infuriated Lily, "Didn't look that way to me," she said simply.

Lily rolled her eyes, "Why are you here?" She demanded.

"I thought we'd already been over this Evans."

Lily made an annoyed sound at the back of her throat, "I mean why are here, talking to me."

Julia shrugged nonchalantly, "You looked sad."

Lily blanched. She couldn't believe her emotions had been so plainly displayed on her face that someone as disconnected as Julia Thorne had been able to read them.

"I'm not sad," she denied.

"Okay," the brunette said. Lily was caught off guard again, she had been expecting Julia to put up more of a fight. The brunette always seemed to be looking for an argument.

"You can leave now," Lily said pointedly.

Julia crossed her arms over her chest, "What if I don't want to leave?"

Lily groaned under her breath. Why did she insist on being so infuriating?

"Fine," she said shortly, "I was just leaving anyway," she hung her bag over shoulder and started walking in the opposite direction of Severus and his friends.

She was beginning to calm down - being with Julia had made her tense - when she heard footsteps directly behind her. She saw a flash of pale pink fron the corner of her eye and turned to see Julia keeping pace beside her.

She resisted the urge to groan again. Instead, she ignored her dormmate and sped up a little.

But Julia refused to be shaken off; she agusted her satchel (the blob of pink that had caught Lily's eye) and quickened her own steps, walking no further than a foot away from her.

"Where are you going?" Julia asked lightly.

"Why do you care?" Lily snapped.

"I don't," Julia said, though she sounded unsure, something Lily had never seen on the girl before.

"I'm just being friendly."

Julia had never been friendly before.

"Why?" Lily questioned, bemused.

Julia made a sound, kind of like the one she had made a few minutes ago: a mixture of annoyance and confusion.

"Why are you questioning everything I do, Evans?" She asked, starting to lose her patience.

"Because you've never cared about anyone other than yourself and now, all of a sudden, you seem to care about everything."

Julia remained silent for a few minutes as they walked in the general direction of the Gryffindor common room.

Lily thought she wasn't going to answer at all, until she said, "I don't care about everything," very quietly. So quietly that Lily almost didn't hear.

She didn't know how to reply to that, so she didn't.

J U L I A

Julia's crush on Lily hadn't gone away like she'd hoped. In fact, it seemed to get worse everyday. She had tried to keep her distance from the redhead, but that only made her pine. Julia was cool, she wasn't going to mope after some girl who didn't like her - only divs like James Potter did things like that.

So she decided she was going to get closer to Lily. This way, one of two things could happen. Either she would go off Lily, because her personality wasn't as nice as the rest of her. Or, she could find out that Lily likes girls, win her over and the two of them could live happily ever after. One of those options was more likely than the other.

Lily wasn't making it easy though. She questioned every move Julia made, which Julia should have seen coming.

Also, the redhead's fiery personality only made her more attractive in Julia's eyes, so getting over her wouldn't be as simple as it sounded.

She would move on though, there was no way she would spend the last couple of years at Hogwarts pining over a straight girl.