Taking Down the Sunrise

“Severus, we have a problem,” Lily said matter-of-factly as he approached the wall that would slide aside to give him entrance to his common room. He looked up at her distractedly and then mentally checked the time. There was still an hour and half until dinner.

“How long have you been waiting?”

“Since class let out,” She responded shortly, “But we do have a problem.”

He nodded, not sure he was following her thought process. “Basilisk,” Severus said to the wall. When it opened, he motioned for Lily to follow him and he slumped down into one of the green velvet chairs before the fireplace.

Lily wrinkled her nose up at the somewhat grotesque decorations that filled the room but she forced herself to say, “It’s... nice,” and sat down across from her friend.

The green light made the entire room gloomy but when she looked at Severus she felt safe despite the fact that the other Slytherins were glaring at her. A moment passed in an awkward silence, and then Severus asked, “So what’s this problem we have?”

“Can’t we talk like... alone?”

He looked around and shrugged, “We’re fine. No one can hear us.”

“How do you know?”

Rolling his eyes, Severus slipped his wand from his pocket and whispered, “Muffliato.” Nothing happened. Severus swore, “Alright, we’ll go upstairs then.”

“Upstairs?”

Severus nodded slowly, “What’s gotten into you, Lily? You’ve been in here maybe a thousand times, you’re always in the dorm with me, yet you’re acting like I just asked you to make friends with a blast-ended skrewt.”

She shrugged uncomfortably, “Can we please just... not?”

He acquiesced, “Fine, where do you want to go?”

Lily stood and walked over to the wall. Pushing it beside and heading out, she glanced backwards to see if Severus was following her. He was, with a goofy smirk on his face. She couldn’t help but smile back as she led the way out of the dungeons, up seven flights of stairs and down several hallways.

Taking a deep breath, she started pacing in front of a wall, thinking hard. Severus watched her, studying how her hair moved and smiling at the look of concentration on her face. Suddenly, a door appeared on the wall before her and Severus gasped.

“Come on, then,” She said, laughing at his expression.

She pushed the door open to reveal a small room with white tiled floors, grey walls and big glass mirror. A metal table sat at the centre of it with one tall, straight-backed wooden chair on either side of it.

“A torture chamber?” Severus guessed, “Is it hidden so that James can’t use it to torment first years?”

Lily shook her head disapprovingly, but Severus saw the small smile that had momentarily sat upon her lips. She sat down and gestured for him to sit down on the other side. Once he had, she said, “It’s the Room of Requirement. It’ll give a person whatever they need, whenever they need it. Except for food because that’s against the-”

“Laws of Transfiguration,” they finished together.

Lily blushed slightly and Severus turned away so he would not embarrass her further.

“So you needed to torture me?” He asked, breaking the ice.

She smiled, “No. It’s called an Interrogation Room. It’s what Muggle police use to question criminals.”

Severus nodded, trying not to show his confusion at her answer. He shifted uncomfortably in the chair, wondering if the reason they used chairs like this was so that the criminals would be happy to sit on the floor of a jail cell. While he was pondering this thought, Lily repeated her earlier statement.

“We have a problem,”

“Would you care to tell me what it is?” He asked, only sort of teasing her.

Although Lily wasn’t big on trying to cover up the truth of a situation, she did often object to just spitting out what was bothering her. She too shifted in her seat, more out of the situation than from the rock hard wood.

“Well, it’s something that... James actually brought my attention to,” Lily began, holding up a hand when Severus began to interrupt, “We’re both doing something that can’t be good for our health or our friendship. It’s making things weird between us.”

Severus raised his eyebrows curiously.

“We’ve... We’ve always been very good friends, Sev, and I don’t want to ruin that. But if we don’t try to solve this now then I don’t think we’re going to stay friends. It’s one of those common dilemmas where either way something bad is going to happen. But this way maybe something good could happen before the bad... You don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, do you?”

He bit his lip and shook his head slightly. Lily swore quite colourfully, startling him.

“I guess I was mistaken then,” She said, quietly, “I-I have to go. My friends are waiting for me in the library and-”

As Lily scrambled to get up, something clicked inside Severus’ mind. Certain words she had said, the tones she had used... it all came together for him. Quickly, he shot out his arm and grabbed her by the wrist. She paused.

Severus stood, blowing his greasy black hair out of his face. As he looked at her, he couldn’t help but wonder if he was wrong. How could such a beautiful, intelligent girl want to be with someone who looked like him? He turned her around slowly and her breath caught in her throat.

“Lily,” He whispered, the sound echoing in the near empty room, “If this isn’t what you meant, stop me.”

Slowly, every inch of his body shaking uncontrollably, he leaned closer to her. Her soft, fiery red hair brushed against his cheek as he slid his hands onto her waist. She didn’t move, she didn’t breathe as she watched him come closer to her. She was afraid if she did her heart would explode or, worse, she wouldn’t be able to stop laughing.

His nose touched to hers gently and then his lips brushed hers. Tentatively, almost as if he was afraid to break her, he applied pressure and kissed her. In reality, the kiss lasted about a minute, but to her she felt as if he had backed away after just a second.

Lily couldn’t force herself to smile when she really felt like crying her eyes out. Quickly, she turned away from him and ran from the room leaving him to star after her, wondering what he had done wrong.