Harry Potter When There Was Me and You

It was lunchtime at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and a boy of seventeen with greasy black hair was walking down a seventh floor corridor towards a painting of a wizard trying to teach trolls ballet. He wasn't paying much attention to where he was going, thinking about the girl he was meeting, repeating in his mind what he was going to tell her when they met. Just as he completely figured out what he was going to say he passed a tapestry behind which he heard a voice.

"James, we shouldn't be here. What if Filch comes along?"

_I know that voice_, Severus Snape thought to himself, stopping in his tracks.

"Who cares?" came another, less welcome voice to Severus.

Now Snape moved closer to the tapestry, eavesdropping, though he knew it was wrong.

"James, we shouldn –" Lily began, but was cut off by something.

At the sound of the silence, Snape tore open the tapestry to find James Potter and Lily Evans locked in a kiss.

"_Lily!_" Severus burst out, unable to control himself.

At the sound of Snape's shout James and Lily broke apart.

"Hiya, Snivellus," James said, with an oddly twisted smile on his face.

"Severus!" Lily whispered, a look of shock and despair on her beautiful features.

"James, could you give us a minute?" Lily asked.

"Yeah. Right." James walked away, still wearing a smirk.

"HOW COULD YOU?!" Snape screamed. "WITH HIM?!"

"I'm sorry, Sev. I know you don't like him, but it's not like we were dating or anything. I'm not yours to control!" Lily said, tears streaming down her face.

"I DIDN"T THINK YOU LIKED HIM EITHER!"

"I didn't. Years ago. He's not as arrogant anymore. And he's really cute. Where are you going?" Lily asked, as Snape walked away from her. He could not bear to hear her say these things about his archenemy.

"Where am I going? _Where am I going?_ I'm going to the Room of Requirement where we were supposed to meet tonight," Snape said, stopping to face his friend.

Lily wore an expression of having been clubbed on the head when Snape responded.

"Were you even planning to show up, Lily?"

"Y-yes, I was," Lily stammered.

"You don't sound too convincing," Snape said, walking still closer to his original destination.

"NO! Wait! I really was going to come!" Lily said, running to overtake Snape.

"After you made out with the man who plagued my existence at school?" Snape asked angrily.

"I wasn't going to make out with him," Lily said quietly, new tears streaking her cheeks.

"Were you going to tell me that you are going out with him?"

"Yes, I was. Tonight."

"Yeah. Well, you just told me," Snape said, turning his back on Lily and walking to the door that had appeared in the wall in front of which they were standing. "Don't bother to follow me. Your boyfriend might think you're cheating on him." Snape walked through the door and slammed it in Lily's face, but not before he heard a sob and running footsteps.

"Sev, please, can we talk?" Lily pleaded with her friend a week later. They were walking along a corridor, Snape ignoring with difficulty the pleadings of the girl he loved.

"Please tell me why you're so angry with me."

"You need to ask?!" Snape said, turning around and facing Lily for the first time in a week. His eyes were flashing daggers.

"Is this about James?"

"No, not at all," Snape said sarcastically, walking toward the wall where the Room of Requirement was hidden.

"Severus Snape, don't you walk away from me! We need to talk about this!" Lily demanded, walking straight into the Room of Requirement after Snape.

"You want to talk? Fine. Let's talk." Snape said. "What are doing with him?"

"I like him," Lily said, her eyes flashing daggers this time.

"I thought you couldn't stand him?"

"He used to be arrogant and pig-headed. His head deflated. And I never _really_ hated him."

"Do you not remember everything that he's done to me?" Snape's eyes were throwing fire again.

"Of course I do. But he'll stop. He was just doing it to get my attention."

"Clearly it worked," Snape spat.

"That's not fair, Severus," Lily said, tears forming in her eyes now.

"Here," Snape said, handing Lily a folded piece of paper.

"What's this?"

"Something I wrote last week. When I decided that we could no longer be friends."

"You want to throw away our friendship because I'm dating James Potter? You're a real friend, Severus Snape." Lily said the latter part sarcastically, tears streaming down her face. "I don't see why we can't be friends if I go out with James."

"I can't be friends with someone who would go out with an arrogant toe-rag like that. Please leave, Lily. And have a nice life with James Potter." Snape turned his back on Lily as she walked out of the Room of Requirement and his life.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Three years later, after she married James Potter and sat in the nursery watching their son, Harry, sleep quietly, Lily pondered all the years ago when she once had a friend named Severus Snape. She knew that since leaving Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry he had joined the Death Eaters and Lord Voldemort from whom the Potters were hiding. As she sat remembering all the good times, and the bad, that she had had with Snape, she remembered something else: a folded piece of paper that he had given her on the night when he told her that they could no longer be friends. Quietly she got up from her chair and walked over to her nightstand. She opened the drawer and found a little book in which she had put the paper. She opened the book and took out what Snape had given her. It was odd that she had never read it. She assumed it was because she didn't want to believe that their friendship was really over. Lily walked back to the chair in which she had been sitting and slowly unfolded the piece of paper. The unfolded parchment was wrinkled from being folded for so long, but Lily was still able to discern the small, cramped writing of Severus Snape. Tears streamed down Lily's face as she read the poem that Snape had written after he had found her kissing James Potter:

It's funny when you find yourself looking from the outside.

I'm standing here but all I want is to be over there.

Why did I let myself believe miracles could happen?

'Cause now I have to pretend that I don't really care.

I thought you were my fairytale, a dream when I'm not sleeping.

A wish upon a star that's coming true.

But everybody else could tell that I confused my feelings with the truth.

When there was me and you.

I swore I knew the melody that I heard you singing.

And when you smiled you made me feel like I could sing along.

But then you went and changed the words.

Now my heart is empty.

I'm only left with used-to-bes and once upon a song.

Now I know you're not a fairytale and dreams were meant for sleeping.

And wishes on a star just don't come true

Cause now even I can tell that I confused my feelings with the truth.

Because I liked the view, when there was me and you.

I can't believe that I could be so blind.

It's like you were floating while I was falling and I didn't mind.

Because I liked the view.

I thought you felt it too.

When there was me and you.


End file.

Harry Potter, Hurt-Comfort, Romance