Part two

'So, tell me.' James leant across the small table towards Lily.

They were in Costa Coffee (James' suggestion) and Lily was attempting to teach James a bit about Muggles.

It wasn't going so well.

James had accidentally asked for Firewhiskey at the counter, then, after Lily had kicked him, changed his order to Butterbeer.

'Tea,' Lily had interjected. 'He means tea. Sorry, he's from- erm- Switzerland.'

'Sorry!' James had hissed as Lily dragged him away. 'I forgot!'

Then he'd almost freaked out at the sight of a woman with headphones in talking on her mobile phone.

'She's a witch, I'm sure of it,' he insisted, as Lily tried to explain to him that headphones had speakers, so the woman could talk into it as if it was a phone.

After that, Lily had asked him how he'd managed to not be locked up for the few months he'd been at university. He'd told her that all the people he'd thought were witches or wizards had been Obliviated, with the help of Remus.

'You can't just keep obliviating people!' Lily protested. 'Why not just stop asking people if they're witches?'

James had got a puzzled expression on his face. 'But... why would I do that?'

'Oh, Merlin,' Lily mumbled. 'What about money? How do you figure out money?'

'Money!' James beamed. 'Well, see, that's simple. I transferred some wizard money into Muggle money at Gringotts, and I use that.'

Lily raised an eyebrow. 'Do you know what everything is worth?'

James blinked. 'It says. Like, at a restaurant, it gives me a bill.'

'But...' Lily shook her head. 'What about tips?'

'Like the tea?' James asked eagerly. 'PG Tips? See, Lily, I know this stuff!'

'Oh my God,' Lily mumbled.

*****

As their date- or whatever it was- progressed, Lily realised just how much James didn't know.

Little things like tips and wrong orders weren't even the worst of it. James didn't know the number to call in an emergency. He didn't even have a phone.

Lily, at least, had one, although she tried to use it as little as possible. Technology disrupted magic, after all, even if it was useful.

Still, her mobile was usually with her.

'999,' Lily explained again. 'That's what you call if you're being mugged.'

'No,' James argued. 'I Stun them and then obliviate them.'

'No,' Lily said. 'That's against our laws, Muggle laws and Wizarding ones. Muggle Protection, remember?'

'But I would do it to anyone who tried to mug me,' James protested. 'Muggle or wizard.'

'That's not the point!' Lily tried to explain. 'There are laws, and rules-'

'I've always been told to break the rules,' James told her. 'And to live my life how I want.'

Lily groaned.

****

At some points, it was like talking to a little kid. But at others, James showed how clever and smart he actually was...

After all, he had to have been smart to get into uni, right? And he'd been Head Boy in Hogwarts, he'd told her.

Sometimes Lily felt like James just acted dumb to get on her nerves.

It was a few weeks into Lily's Muggle educating, and Lily had started to- well, she'd always enjoyed their little study sessions, but now she was looking forwards to them...

Well, not them. She was looking forwards to seeing James.

She couldn't help it. There was something about him, something... she wasn't sure what.

He was funny, and friendly, and handsome, and he smiled a lot and laughed at Lily's bad jokes. He had that ridiculous James Potter grin that always made Lily feel funny inside, and he ... well, he was brilliant.

He was one of those people who always made the room brighter just by walking in, made the conversation funnier and more cheerful by joining it, and made the world a better place just by being in it. He had that way of talking that made her feel like she was the only person in the room.

*****

Lily had decided that enough was enough. James couldn't act like a proper Muggle if he hadn't done the most Muggle thing there was...

Star Wars.

They were halfway through The Empire Strikes Back and James was chewing on some popcorn in Lily's apartment, staring intently at the screen.

Lily grinned and chewed on her own piece of popcorn. 'Having fun?'

'Ssh,' James whispered, eyes never leaving the screen. 'It's happening. Leia and Han are about to-'

'I love you,' Princess Leia said onscreen.

'I know,' Han responded, and James sighed. When Lily glanced across to him again, she laughed. 'Are you... crying?'

'No,' he said stiffly, still not looking away as Han started to sink through the floor. 'My eyes are just sweating.'

'That's a Muggle meme,' Lily said, laughing. 'I'm impressed.'

'I'm a very dedicated student, Miss Evans,' he responded. 'And that very dedicated student wants to find out if Hans is alive or not. No spoilers,' he added quickly, as Lily opened her mouth. 'I'll hex you, I swear.'

Lily rolled her eyes, but turned back to the TV. 'You're turning into a Star Wars nerd.'

****

Twenty minutes later, James was yelling at the screen angrily. 'Show some emotion!' He cried at Luke. 'Merlin. His acting is pathetic.'

'Just wait,' Lily smirked. 'The worst is yet to come.'

'What-' James began, but he was interrupted by a knock at the door. 'Expecting guests?' He asked, raising his eyebrows.

'My next door neighbour likes to get drunk,' Lily explained, rolling her eyes and getting to her feet. 'With friends. And those friends normally come back to hers, except half the time they're so drunk they get the wrong door. I won't be two secs.'

However, when Lily opened the door, it wasn't a drunk partygoer like she expected, but....

'Severus?' Lily asked, blinking. There he was, dressed in- well, his normal black jeans and black tshirt. He almost looked like a goth, just minus the black eyeliner. 'Erm, what are you doing here?'

It wasn't that she wasn't glad to see him, except... well, she wasn't glad to see him. Their fight had been around six months ago, and she'd forgiven him about a month and a half ago, but things hadn't been the same between them since then.

Secretly, Lily didn't really want things to go back to how they were before. Secretly, she wished she hadn't forgiven Snape. After all, the things that he'd said had been unforgivable.

She'd only forgiven him because he was Severus. He'd introduced her to the world of magic, helped her through her time at Hogwarts, encouraged her, revised with her, talked to her, cared about her...

He was familiar, like an old, comfy coat that you couldn't get rid of. She loved him, or at least thought she did, even if sometimes Lily worried that Severus loved her in a slight different, less platonic way than the way she loved him.

Maybe the coat was getting too small, though.

Maybe Lily needed a new coat.

Lily sighed and abandoned all metaphorical thoughts about coats before she could start thinking about James. (Any line of thought she had these days seemed to lead to James. She couldn't help it.)

'I-' Severus paused, as if only now realising that Lily might have been busy. 'Well, I- things haven't been the same between us recently. I wanted to talk, you know, to try and figure things out.'

Oh, crap. Lily got the feeling that now was going to be Severus' moment, that he was going to confess his love for her or something.

Normally, Lily wouldn't have had a problem with that. It was just that Lily didn't return Severus' feelings in any way whatsoever, and was actually not even sure if she had any friendly feelings towards him anymore.

Besides, James was in the other room.

'Erm,' Lily started to say, and then she heard footsteps behind her.

Fuck. Something told her Severus and James wouldn't get along at all.

'Lily-' James began, and then stopped. 'Ah. Not a drunk person heading for next door, I assume?'

Lily cringed. 'Erm. Severus, this is James. James, this is Severus.'

Severus sneered, and Lily considered slamming the door in his face. 'We've met. James and his friends were... unpleasant in Hogwarts.'

Lily dared a look back, and saw that James was pale, his hands in tight fists. 'Unpleasant? Are you joking? You were the one who went around calling every Muggle-born under the sun a-'

He broke off, and glanced at Lily. 'Never mind.'

Lily flinched. At Hogwarts, she'd heard about Severus and some other Slytherins saying things about Muggle-borns, using words like 'Mudblood,' but she'd never believed them. Never let herself believe them.

Severus growled, but his face had turned just as pale as James'.

'Severus?' Lily blinked at him. 'What does he mean?'

She felt like she was breaking up a fight between two three year olds- ridiculous, seeing as Severus was a year older than her and James two.

'Nothing,' Severus snarled. 'He's a filthy liar.'

'No, he's not,' Lily snapped. She didn't know what made her do it. She only knew that in the short time she'd known James, she'd already grown to trust him. James wasn't a guy who told a lot of lies, and it felt more and more like Severus was a guy who  was. 'Tell me the truth, Severus.'

He flinched. 'Nothing happened. Look, you're busy with James-' he spat out the word like it was a curse- 'so I'll go.'

She shivered. 'Fine. Bye, then, Severus.'

As she said it, she saw in his eyes that he'd wanted her to say that he could stay, to kick James out for him.

But she couldn't. She'd pick a guy who she trusted over one she didn't any day, and at the moment, she didn't trust Severus one bit.

She closed the door in his face.

Word count- 1659

Lily is a savage wow. I'm really enjoying writing these college ones, especially because Snape hasn't really been featured in many of these! I hope you enjoyed, see you guys tomorrow! 💞