Taking Down the Sunrise

“Hey, are you ready?” Lily asked mischievously as Severus slid out from behind the wall that led to the Slytherin common room.

He nodded, looking mildly impressed that she had come this far in the dungeons alone, and said, “Where are we going?”

She smiled brightly and took his hand without a reply. The two of them headed up and out of the dungeons, heading in the general directions of the Hufflepuff common room before Lily missed the turn. She walked up to a still-life of a bowl of fruit and lightly grazed her fingers across the pear.

A joyful giggle released through the air and the wall moved aside. The pleasant smell of a bubbling broth filled the room as Lily led Severus inside. The wall closed behind them and the room went oddly silent.

“Where are the House Elves?”

“They agreed to clear out for the night so that I could cook for you myself,” She said brightly. She brought him over to the pot cooking on the stove and opened up the lid to let the smell wash over him. It was most definitely not what he had smelled walking in, but he smiled anyways. “It’s an old recipe my mom used to make all the time but... hers wasn’t quite this colour...”

“Don’t worry about it,” He replied, kissing her gently, “I’m sure it’ll be delicious.” And if it’s not, I’ll pretend it is.

Lily nodded and turned from the stove to sit down at a small table that had been laid out near the kitchen. Severus sat with her, delicately placing his hands over hers on the table and said, “I haven’t seen you all day. What’ve you been doing?”

“This,” She said, “Peter, Remus, Sirius and James all helped out although Sirius spent half the time complaining that we could have got the hundreds of House Elves that work here to clean for us. But I wanted to do it myself, to make it special,”

“So you made my four worst enemies clean up for our date?” Severus considered that for a second and then smiled, “I like it. Must have pissed off James,”

She rolled her eyes, “You know, he’s really not that bad, Sev. He just-”

“Likes to curse everything that moves? Is an arrogant son of a bitch? Won’t stop hitting on you even when you’re dating someone else?” He leaned back in his chair while giving her a measured stare, “Pick any one you like. They’re all true.”

“Sev, I don’t want to fight,”

He could think of a hundred witty comebacks to that but instead decided to keep his mouth shut. The lid on top of the soup rattled in the silence and Severus pulled his hands back so she should go check on it. There was a note of uncertainty in her voice when she said, “I think it’s done.”

“Do you want me to get bowls?”

Lily shook her head as two bowls landed on the table in front of him along with utensils and two glasses of milk. The soup pot came next, much slower than the rest and Severus did his best to help keep it afloat without her noticing. It slid out of the side and into his bowl and then into hers.

Severus looks down at the soup with thinly veiled disgust but picked up his spoon all the same. He let the grey-green sludge slide along the polished metal of his spoon as Lily sat down across from him. “Well?” She prompted.

He placed the spoon in his mouth and forced himself to swallow. To be fair, it wasn’t half as bad as he thought it was going to be but that didn’t make it any easier to force the grimace off his face. He smiled at Lily, “It’s great.”

Beaming, she took a sip of the soup and then gave him a look like he had just grown a second head. “Are you kidding me?”

“No, Lil, it’s delicious,”

“Either you’re making a really awful joke or you’re lying to me,” She said coldly. Her green eyes shone with malice as she looked right into his soul, “Which on is it?”

“Neither. Lil, I love it.”

She snorted doubtfully and dipped her spoon into his bowl. Sucking it down with a look of disgust on her face, she said, “Have you lost all your taste buds? This is worse than a mud smoothie.”

Severus began to protest but she had already taken both bowls and dumped their contents into the sink. Her hands gripped the edge of the sink. Her shoulders were heaving up and down and her breath echoed around the room. Severus jumped back as she sent the glasses of milk flying across the room to shatter in the sink in front of her. Next came the spoons, reacting so violently to her magic that the table flipped over as they took their spot amongst the broken glass.

Lily breathed out hard and sunk to the floor. Severus was next to her in an instant, his arms wrapped around her tightly. He brushed the hair away from her ear and whispered softly in it to calm her down. Her breathing slowed considerably as a single tear dripped down her cheek.

Kissing her neck gently, he whispered, “Nothing’s wrong, Lil. Don’t cry.”

“I ruined the entire evening,”

“No, no you didn’t,” he soothed her, his lips moving across her shoulder, “It was wonderful. You put so much effort into this and it paid off. It was amazing.”

“It really wasn’t,”

“Lil, just being with you is amazing,” he said, lifting his head to look into her eyes. He caressed her cheek gently with his fingertips, “I would have been happy just sitting in the middle of the hallway talking to you.”

“Kiss me,”

He nodded gently and leaned in to brush his lips against hers. But she reached up to hold the back of his head and pulled him into her. Lowering her gently to the ground, Severus moved so that he was on top of her and there was less than an inch of air between their bodies.

She ran her hands down through his hair and across his chest. Reaching up under his vest, she slowly began to unbutton his shirt. His breath caught as her cool fingertips touched his skin and he pulled away ever so slightly.

“What?” She whispered.

“It’s just that we’re in the middle of the kitchens and there’s going to be hundreds of House Elves here tomorrow and-”

“Shut up,” Lily said softly as she kissed him again, “Just shut up.”