Taking Down the Sunrise

“Just out of curiosity, what are you going to do to her?”

Mulciber and Avery exchanged a look and then glanced back at Severus. A mischievous smile overtook Mulciber’s face as he said, “Why? You worried?”

Severus shifted uncomfortably, “Of course not,” he lied smoothly as he darted his eyes towards the entrance of the Gryffindor common room, “The bitch deserves it.”

Avery grinned wildly, “Damn right she does!”

At that moment, the portrait hole opened and the three boys moved into the hallway perpendicular to the one they were in. Avery poked his head out, turned back to them and whispered, “It’s James. We could do it to him first if you want?”

Glancing over Avery’s shoulder at the surprisingly small figure of James, Severus shook his head, “He’s not worth it.

“You mean it’s simply not mean enough to do to him?”

“I don’t even know what it is!”

“You will soon,” Mulciber chimed with a dark sense of satisfaction, “I see a mop of red hair coming this way and damn... she looks mad. Avery, release the slugs.”

“Slugs?”

Avery pushed past him and slipped a small wooden box out from under his robes. “Engorgio,” he whispered.

The box burst at the seams as gooey, green slugs grew before their eyes. Their slime stuck to the walls of the box and slowly stretched as they tried to move away.

Avery picked one up with his bare hands and threw it around the corner. It landed with a satisfying splat and a curse from Avery, “Missed her.”

“Let me try,” Mulciber murmured. He pried a slug from the floor and tossed it across the hallway, “Shit, she ducked.”

With a growing sense of power, Severus picked up one of the slugs. He moved so that Lily was just in his line of sight. He pulled back his arm to throw but found himself held back by someone else’s hand.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” A voice hissed.

Severus turned, completely prepared to look into the eyes of McGonagall or another unfriendly teacher. His surprise quickly turned to disgust as he recognized James and struggled out of the other boy’s grasp.

“What is it to you?”

“You’re throwing slugs at your girlfriend,”

“Shows what you know,” Severus snapped, “She doesn’t want to be with me anymore. Apparently I’m a constant reminder of the pain she suffered or some other bullshit like that. If she doesn’t want me, fine, she’s about to see why the Sorting Hat put me in Slytherin.”

“She loves you,” James said sternly, “Don’t ruin that by being an asshole.”

“Why the hell do you care?”

“Because she doesn’t love me and she deserves to be happy!”

Severus held the other boy’s stone cold glare for a long moment. Behind him, Avery and Mulciber kept cursing as each and every one of their throws was deflected. Severus shrugged as a particularly colourful curse came from Avery and said, “She clearly doesn’t love me enough.”

“She loves you too much. She’s scared,”

“And you know this because, what? She just loves you so much and blabs everything to you?”

James licked his lips slowly, “Because I’ve slept with her and she was fine then.”

Before James could even react, Severus had swung and the result was a bone-shattering crack. James stumbled backwards but amazingly did not fall as blood streamed from his nose. He wiped his hand across his face, seeming oddly fascinated by the sticky substance that covered his fingers and said, “You really have to stop resorting to the Muggle way of fighting.”

“Lily’s clearly a bad influence,” Mulciber hissed. He was suddenly by Severus’ side, leaving Avery alone to carry out the prank, “You want to mess with Sev? You deal with me first.”

James plastered a smile on his face and innocently held up his hands, “I was only giving him a bit of advice.” His lie was only given away by the red stain that was spreading across his face, “So let’s save the full out battle for when we both have backup, alright? Good day.”

With a turn of his heel, James had disappeared down the corridor. Severus shook his head as Avery called back, “Hey, I’ve finally figured out how to hit her!”

Mulciber rushed back to join him as Severus swore. With a quick backward glance at his friends, he went around to end up right beside the Gryffindor portrait hole. Lily was standing in the middle of the hallway, glaring menacingly at anything that moved with her wand in front of her. He could just see Avery preparing for his next attack.

In under a second, the two Slytherins took aim and Severus dashed out into the hallway. He jumped into the air and slid into Lily’s legs with the force of a bulldozer. She fell with a groan on top of him as the slugs whizzed overhead.

“Protego,” Severus yelled, pointing his wand towards the hallway where the two boys hid. He heard a light swear, but endeavored to deal with the later as he turned to Lily.

She had managed to right herself and was straightening her robes. Severus dared a kind smile towards her as he got to his feet and said, “Are you alright?”

“Fine,” she replied without looking at him, “I could have dealt with it myself.”

Severus nodded as he picked up the books she had dropped. Handing them to her, he said, “I know, I just thought I might step in... You’re still my best friend.”

“Well, I don’t want it that way,”

He shrugged, “Neither do I, but you refuse to be my girlfriend anymore or even talk to me, so it’s up to me to protect you from afar. Think of me as a sort of guardian angel.”
“When will you get over yourself?”

The words stung a bit as they hit him, but Severus forced himself to look nonchalant. He had a reply on the tip of his tongue when the bell rang for dinner. Holding out an arm, he said, “Shall we?”

Lily glared at him, but there was something caring in the expression, “Can’t you take a hint? I don’t want this anymore.”

“Whatever you say,”

She moved away from him and down the hallway. Severus stood looking after her as Mulciber and Avery came up behind him.

“What happened to ‘the bitch deserves it’?” Avery questioned.

“Shut up,” Mulciber replied playfully, “He’s in love.”

“Oh, both of you just shove off,”

“Later,” Avery replied cheerily. He patted Severus on the back lightly and said, “Right now we should really get to dinner.”