And You, Lily

Lily Evans awoke exceptionally early on the morning of January 28th. She hadn't meant to, but around 4:30 that morning she began to stir. Upon realizing that she wasn't about to go back to sleep, she arose and dressed, all the while anticipating what the day held in store for her because, see, it was her sixteenth birthday.

No one else in the castle was awake this early, it being a Sunday and all. She tried to placate herself by sitting in the squishiest of chairs in the common room by a warm fire and reading a book, but her mind kept wondering. Did her friends have something special planned for her today??? She'd hinted several times in the last week that her birthday was today. Were they going to throw her a party?? Would they find some way to make her birthday special??

Unable to concentrate on the book at hand, she decided to take walk about the castle grounds, though it was cold, her giddy anticipation kept her warm enough. She thought she'd die with excitement if her friends didn't awake soon.

A few short hours later, people started to awake and wonder down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Lily was one of the first ones there. In her enthusiasm to get the day started, she unwittingly piled enough food on her plate to feed three people. Her eyes glistening with utmost happiness, she watched each and every person who entered the Great Hall, expecting her friends to be along any minute now.

Minutes passed which turned into hours. For two hours, she'd sat at the Gryffindor table waiting on her friends. She witnessed the Great Hall fill up with students and then watch them leave. Disappointed, but concerned for her friends, she scurried back to her dorm room where she found her four best friends still lazily asleep.

"Come on, guys, get up!" Lily heard some movement from a couple of beds, then heard a voice belonging to her friend Jane, mumble almost incoherently, "Go back to sleep, Evans. It's just a Sunday, not like there's anything special going on today." Jane rolled over and went back to snoring.

Immediately, Lily's face fell and wordlessly, her shoulders sagging in disappointment, she left the room.

Well, maybe they're planning a surprise party for later in the day! she thought hopefully to herself.

The next few hours passed so torturously slow. No one had remembered that it was her birthday. With every person she passed in the hall, she expected them to turn to her with birthday greetings. But no such greetings came.

In the late afternoon, James Potter and his gang had started following Lily around wherever she went--to the library, the common room, outside--just to be pests. James made some stupid jokes that the rest of his gang thought was funny. Getting angry, she brandished her wand to cruse him to make him leave her alone, but James was quicker and in a second's time, she found herself atop a gigantic tree that grew beside Hagrid's hut. What made it worse was that Hagrid came outside and yelled at her, telling her that it was against the rules to climb trees.

She got herself down, then furiously ran back to the castle, tears staining her reddened face. All the way to Gryffindor tower she ran, up the stairs and into the common room where she encountered a couple of girls who asked her what was the matter.

Not even answering their question, she asked where her friends were and they told her that Jane had left with some Hufflepuff boy and that a couple of the other girls were joining in a game of Quidditch against some Ravenclaw friends.

So, they hadn't planned a party after all, she thought as more tears streamed furiously down her face. This was turning out to be the worst birthday ever.

On her way out of the castle she passed laughing people, friends playing games, boyfriends and girlfriends kissing and saying sweet nothings to each other. She didn't much feel like joining in on any games or talking to anybody.

As she walked through the grounds on her way to the lake, a young man with black hair looked up from his homework to watch the sad lass pass forlornly by.

On a big rock, just touching the edge of the shore, she sat down and let the chilly breeze play with her long red locks. She'd been so angry and hurt back at the castle that she had forgotten to bring a coat with her. As cold as it was, she didn't want to go back to the castle to get it. So, she sat huddled, her feet to her chest, on the boulder by the lake.

Only a few minutes passed when she felt as though she was being watched. Swiftly turning her head, she happened to see a tall, black haired boy staring at her.

"Go away," she told him with much sadness in her voice. Turning back around, she heard footsteps but they weren't going away from her, they were getting closer.

"Here," he said almost brusquely. Lily turned to see that the boy was now standing beside her. His arm was extended to her, offering what looked to be a thick cloak. Violently shivering, she took it and wrapped it around herself. Almost instantly she was warmed. He must've put a warming charm on it.

"Thank you," she said gratefully.

He didn't reply, but stood there looking awkward, shuffling his feet, his head cast downward almost like he was too embarrassed to meet her eyes.

Finally he spoke, "I didn't know what to get you, but I, um, know that your parents are Muggles, so I thought you might, um, appreciate this." His other arm came out from behind his back. In his hand was a plain, white envelope. Scrawled on the front in messy handwriting was simply, "Lily".

She just stared at him, the envelope now in her grasp. As though her inquisitive eyes were burning him, he turned and almost ran back to the castle.

With fingers clumsy due to the biting cold, she opened the envelope, and immediately the letter contained inside leaped out of it's holding to lay in her lap. On it, written in the same messy handwriting, was a poem. With her heart beating rapidly against her chest, she read it:

It's a Muggle poem. I thought you might like it.

And you, Lily, what should I give you?
So many things I would give you
Had I an infinite great store
Offered me and I stood before
To choose. I would give you youth,
All kinds of loveliness and truth,
A clear eye as good as mine,
Lands, waters, flowers, wine,
As many children as your heart
Might wish for, a far better art
Than mine can be, all you have lost
Upon the traveling waters tossed,
Or given to me. If I could choose
Freely in that great treasure-house
Anything from any shelf,
I would give you back yourself,
And power to discriminate
What you want and want it not too late,
Many fair days free from care
And heart to enjoy both foul and fair,
And myself, too, if I could find
Where it lay hidden and it proved kind.

--Severus Snape

Lily laughed and cried--again. But this time they were tears of joy! Clutching the letter in one hand and trying to keep the cloak clasped with the other, she ran back to the castle and spent the next three hours looking for Severus. But she didn't find him. No one had seen him.

Before she went to bed that night, Lily read the poem again then set it on the nightstand beside her desk, smiling as she drifted off to sleep. She resolved to find him tomorrow and show him just how special he was in her eyes.