FIC: Nobody, too - for winterwaltz
Title: Nobody, too
Author/Artist: tarteaucitron
Recipient: winterwaltz
Prompt: Snape/Lily friendship
Warnings or notes: c.700 words. G. thank you to buckle_berry for suggestions and to secrethappiness for the read-through.
Nobody, too
There are ants crawling out of the concrete patio in Lily’s back garden. Mum and Dad put down some powder and told her and Petunia not to go around without any shoes on. With a glance back at the kitchen window, Lily slides off her flipflops and feels the soles of her feet scorch on the stone. She can only stand it a moment or two before she has to walk down the steps to the little bit of cool grass that stretches as far as the back fence.
Petunia is lying on the orange recliner in her flowered bikini and a big straw hat. Lily hates the recliner and the way the plastic sticks and pulls at your legs, but Petunia can lie on it for hours on end. She’s got a boyfriend this summer - she’s started to spread creams and things on her body in the bathroom in the mornings, and her legs have turned a sleek nutty brown that Lily’s couldn’t get close to. He’s called Vernon something, but Petunia’s never brought him home during the holidays, and she never tells Lily about him; she just walks around with that strange smile on her face and lies on the recliner with one leg up and her stomach sucked in.
Lily wanders over to the fence; from here she can see across three gardens with their wooden trucks and bricks and dented footballs. He should come out soon. He’ll wave and tuck his hair behind his ear and try not to grin.
She smiles herself and taps her fingers on the fence. Her toes clench and unclench around cold blades of grass.
~
“Did you read that book?”
“I started it.”
They’re sitting in the field at the end of the estate with their backs up against the cricket pavilion. A gaggle of little girls are running up and down the blue chalk pitch with a skipping rope, pretending to be horses. Lily concentrates on them, but there’s no flutter of childish magic, only panting and shouting: “No, Susan! You’re back there! We’re trotting now!”
Severus frowns and turns to look. “Muggles,” he says dismissively, turning back.
“I used to do that. Me and my sister and the Grinhams from down the hill.”
“Yes, but that was before.” Severus is annoyed, but Lily finds it hard to look away from the girls.
“Sometimes I forget that there even was a before.”
It could be a terribly sad thought, but she’s tied to this now and she doesn’t want anything different. The girls canter away, their voices growing fainter. Lily turns finally and smiles at Severus; he made it all happen, she’s sure of it.
He’s pulled a handful of grass out of the ground and he’s looking at her, not full in the face, but curiously focused. A breeze flaps at the edge of her skirt and Lily feels the sweat on the back of her neck.
“Did you get a letter from Potter?”
“No,” she lies. She is dreading the day that Potter learns to use a telephone. It was a stupid letter, full of Quidditch, and boasting about how he and Sirius Black weren’t revising, but were going to come top in the OWLs anyway. She’d stuffed it in the back of a drawer and promised herself not to think about it. Hogwarts is somewhere else, wrapped in stony gloom, full of Potters and Mulcibers and Malfoys and Blacks waiting for September. Here is better. Now.
Severus is squinting at her in the sun, one hand curved around his brow and temple. After a moment he looks down again, smiling a little. His skin is white and pink from the heat, and a heavy string of hair slides from his shoulder, swinging down, hiding his face.
“Potions first,” he says, pulling a book out of his straw bag and moving around to face her, cross-legged. Lily leans back against the wall, turns her face towards the sun. It’s too hot for Potions; today is a day for Transfiguration, or Charms - things lighter than air, a book that becomes a letter that becomes a puff of dandelion and floats into nothing.
Author/Artist: tarteaucitron
Recipient: winterwaltz
Prompt: Snape/Lily friendship
Warnings or notes: c.700 words. G. thank you to buckle_berry for suggestions and to secrethappiness for the read-through.
Nobody, too
There are ants crawling out of the concrete patio in Lily’s back garden. Mum and Dad put down some powder and told her and Petunia not to go around without any shoes on. With a glance back at the kitchen window, Lily slides off her flipflops and feels the soles of her feet scorch on the stone. She can only stand it a moment or two before she has to walk down the steps to the little bit of cool grass that stretches as far as the back fence.
Petunia is lying on the orange recliner in her flowered bikini and a big straw hat. Lily hates the recliner and the way the plastic sticks and pulls at your legs, but Petunia can lie on it for hours on end. She’s got a boyfriend this summer - she’s started to spread creams and things on her body in the bathroom in the mornings, and her legs have turned a sleek nutty brown that Lily’s couldn’t get close to. He’s called Vernon something, but Petunia’s never brought him home during the holidays, and she never tells Lily about him; she just walks around with that strange smile on her face and lies on the recliner with one leg up and her stomach sucked in.
Lily wanders over to the fence; from here she can see across three gardens with their wooden trucks and bricks and dented footballs. He should come out soon. He’ll wave and tuck his hair behind his ear and try not to grin.
She smiles herself and taps her fingers on the fence. Her toes clench and unclench around cold blades of grass.
~
“Did you read that book?”
“I started it.”
They’re sitting in the field at the end of the estate with their backs up against the cricket pavilion. A gaggle of little girls are running up and down the blue chalk pitch with a skipping rope, pretending to be horses. Lily concentrates on them, but there’s no flutter of childish magic, only panting and shouting: “No, Susan! You’re back there! We’re trotting now!”
Severus frowns and turns to look. “Muggles,” he says dismissively, turning back.
“I used to do that. Me and my sister and the Grinhams from down the hill.”
“Yes, but that was before.” Severus is annoyed, but Lily finds it hard to look away from the girls.
“Sometimes I forget that there even was a before.”
It could be a terribly sad thought, but she’s tied to this now and she doesn’t want anything different. The girls canter away, their voices growing fainter. Lily turns finally and smiles at Severus; he made it all happen, she’s sure of it.
He’s pulled a handful of grass out of the ground and he’s looking at her, not full in the face, but curiously focused. A breeze flaps at the edge of her skirt and Lily feels the sweat on the back of her neck.
“Did you get a letter from Potter?”
“No,” she lies. She is dreading the day that Potter learns to use a telephone. It was a stupid letter, full of Quidditch, and boasting about how he and Sirius Black weren’t revising, but were going to come top in the OWLs anyway. She’d stuffed it in the back of a drawer and promised herself not to think about it. Hogwarts is somewhere else, wrapped in stony gloom, full of Potters and Mulcibers and Malfoys and Blacks waiting for September. Here is better. Now.
Severus is squinting at her in the sun, one hand curved around his brow and temple. After a moment he looks down again, smiling a little. His skin is white and pink from the heat, and a heavy string of hair slides from his shoulder, swinging down, hiding his face.
“Potions first,” he says, pulling a book out of his straw bag and moving around to face her, cross-legged. Lily leans back against the wall, turns her face towards the sun. It’s too hot for Potions; today is a day for Transfiguration, or Charms - things lighter than air, a book that becomes a letter that becomes a puff of dandelion and floats into nothing.