No Smoke Without Fire

"Which part of 'Yes' did you misunderstand, Evans?"

His hair was the very opposite of James Potter's, and he had all the charm of a Blast Ended Skrewt, but Lily just couldn't leave well enough alone.

"I asked whether you minded me joining you. I didn't say I actually cared one way or another." Severus stared at her belligerently, and Lily found herself thinking once again that he really should eat something once in a while. He seemed to be all knees and elbows, somehow.

"Sod off. I was here first."

"No," she said firmly, lighting her own cigarette with the Muggle lighter that she knew he hated, and hiding a smile. There was an icy pause whilst smoke snaked quietly through the air, and Lily looked calmly up at the fat white moon overhead, for all the world as if she didn't know he was shaking beside her. "You could at least say thank you," she added without looking at him.

"You - I - the day I start needing help from Mudbloods I shall turn myself into a frog and have done with it," he hissed, every inch the affronted Slytherin. But they both knew perfectly well that he had needed any kind of help he could get.

"Yes," she said unkindly. "I heard how well you managed on your own after I'd gone." He couldn't conceal the indrawn hiss of breath. Lily was sorry as soon as the words left her mouth, because she knew that he was mortified and she couldn't blame him. Potter was a prat. Dishy, but a prat.

"Go back to Gryffindor," he said, furiously. In hindsight, she did slightly regret the crack about his pitiful underwear - and it had twisted in her gut to see him humiliated so badly, irritating as he could be - but he was such a stubborn, ungrateful, stiff-necked idiot that he always managed to make her forget to be kind.

She heard a little cardboard sigh and looked down to see his knuckles whitening around the crumpled box of Nero's Wizarding Cigarettes. Fauxbacco seeped sadly out through one split seam, and she felt the tiniest twinge of guilt, because she knew he couldn't afford any more this week. Lily cast him a sidelong glance. Severus Snape was as angry as she'd ever seen him. She met his eyes and stuck her chin out pugnaciously.

"Make me," she said, her voice pitched a little lower. She took a casual drag on her Marlboro and flicked the lighter on and off, on and off, knowing that it irritated him.

"You - I should - you shouldn't even be in this school in the first place," he said, the words tumbling over themselves. "You're practically a Muggle - Gryffindor will take any kind of muck these days." She smiled sweetly, reacting not at all to the insult, and her thumb flicked over the lighter again. On. Off. On. Off. Playing with fire, the way a nice girl really shouldn't. The tongue of flame wobbled in the breeze each time, casting shadows over his face. She stepped a little closer.

"You liked me well enough last week," she pointed out. "Didn't mind borrowing my Arithmancy book even though it'd had my dirty Mudblood hands all over it." He looked away first, and Lily wondered for a fleeting moment whether this were any kinder than what James and Sirius had done. But it was a different thing altogether, this. Not torment. Not really. Not when the only thing holding him back was his desperate, pitiful pride, his stupid pureblood prejudices. As if it mattered what his parents thought. She knew that he liked her; she'd watched his pale cheeks reddening too many times, watched his pupils dilate and an unwilling smile twitch the corners of his mouth despite all his best efforts. The insults they traded didn't sting. If he'd wanted to avoid her he'd have changed the spot where he sneaked out for an illicit cigarette long weeks ago, and avoided her occasional company. They weren't friends, as such, but there was something friendly between them. And Lily liked it.

"Evans, why won't you just go away?" There was an angry, broken edge to his voice that Lily enjoyed.

"I don't want to. Are these any good, then?" He jumped slightly when she plucked the pale green cigarette from his lips, and she watched his eyes widen when she took an experimental drag from it. She pulled a face. "Evidently not. You should try the real thing."

"Muggle rubbish," he said automatically, but his voice shook. She smiled.

"Don't knock it till you've tried it. You still haven't tried to make me leave."

"What, and give your boyfriend and his cronies an excuse? They're just going to appear out of thin air, the way they always do." His scowl deepened. "What's the point of pretending to be friends? I don't need a Mudblood girl for a friend."

"He's not my boyfriend," Lily said firmly. "And he isn't here. And I never said I wanted to be your friend." She passed him back his cigarette, and his fingers trembled when she brushed against them. "You're shaking."

"I hate you," he said after a moment. "You do know that?"

"No. You really don't, Severus. You just want to."

He wasn't expecting her mouth, or the fingers of her free hand tangling in his hair, angling his face and dragging him closer, and she loved the startled noise he made as he dropped his cigarette into the damp grass and forgot about Houses and family honour.