Chapter 3: Summer After Third Year

A/N: Beta reading kudos to Keladry Lupin and to DeeMichelle; as always, MagicAlly Brit-picked for me. I must also give thanks to sshg316 for alpha reading and superior cheerleading.

Unseen

Chapter 3: Summer After Third Year

James Potter shifted his position on the ground, unintentionally jostling his companion.

'Will you watch what you're doing?' Sirius Black complained testily.

James took his eyes from the neat house across the way and glanced at his best friend. 'Who's rattled your cage?'

Sirius moved restlessly. 'It's bloody hot under this cloak, mate – and I don't think Evans is going to make an appearance today. Let's go home – we can Floo Remus – I'll Keep for you if you want to practice.'

James turned his face stubbornly back to the Evans' home. 'Not yet – just a bit longer.'

'We sat here yesterday, and all we saw was the family going for a Sunday afternoon stroll – and you wouldn't even talk to her,' Sirius complained. 'Tell me again why we're here?'

James refused to look at Sirius. 'Stalking my quarry and preparing for the timely pounce and inevitable victory,' he said in clipped tones.

Sirius snorted. 'Right. Brave Gryffindors, hiding under an Invisibility Cloak like a couple of pathetic Slytherins.'

'Put a sock in it.'

'But not one of yours, please.'

James choked back a laugh.

Sirius sighed noisily and rested his forehead on his raised knees.

'There!' James whispered excitedly. 'Someone's coming from the back garden ...'

Sirius looked up quickly, his keen grey eyes tracking the movement of the three figures as they slipped out the gate onto the pavement. Before he could speak, James cursed with the heated fluency Sirius had always envied. Sirius' parents always said that the Potters were a load of blood-traitors; regardless, Sirius thought this Potter certainly knew how to express himself.

'... that wanker Snivellus!' James spat, completing his tirade.

Sirius whispered, 'So, why is the Slytherin out there with the girl, while we cower under cover?'

'We're biding our time, mate,' James said shortly.

'We're wasting our time, mate,' Sirius retorted.

James simply hissed, 'Shut it!'

'Yeah, if Snivelly could hear with his nose, we'd be done for,' Sirius muttered sourly.

The three across the road stopped at the curb stone as the girl whom James and Sirius did not recognize ran back into the house, soon emerging again with a silken bundle in her arms. Snape said something with a scowl, and the two girls set off at his side, walking with him stride for stride. It was obvious that the three were accustomed to walking together.

James couldn't tear his eyes from Lily, but Sirius was able to note the other two, as well. Snape had grown to be taller than Lily in the last year. At the age of fourteen, he had endured a growth spurt that gave him several inches on both of the girls. However, as had been frequently noted by the boys in the third year Gryffindor dormitory, nothing else about Snivellus had improved. He was, if possible, thinner and weedier, with his beaky nose and sallow, oily skin seeming only to make his shoulder-length black hair more lank and greasy than ever. Whispers regarding Snape's newly-deepened, silkily-snide voice had been heard from the girls in their year, but Sirius could see no factors to mitigate the unprepossessing appearance of the acerbic Slytherin.

The girl with the rolled fabric in her arms was probably Evans' sister. She was about the same height as Lily, with a similarly-shaped face, but there the resemblance ended. The Muggle girl sported a popular layered hair-cut with impossibly bright golden streaks insinuated amongst the mousy-brown locks. In repose, her face was bony, but when she had smiled at Snivellus, Sirius had been able to see the likeness to Lily.

But why in thunder was Evans' sister smiling at Snape?

Giving in to the inevitable, Sirius allowed his gaze to follow that of his best friend – James Potter, the only person in the world he would have chosen for a brother, had he been given the option to choose – and to rest his eyes upon the glowing beauty of Lily Evans. At fourteen, her body had budded into efflorescing womanhood. Her legs were slender and shapely, her bottom was perfectly rounded, her waist looked to be small enough to span with one's hands – and her breasts had disrupted the concentration of boys many years above her. The whole was topped by the unbelievably green eyes, the burnished henna hair, and the lips which could be simultaneously kind and teasing – and oh, so kissable.

And this paragon was the single-minded obsession of Sirius' very best mate, James, who had been drawn to Lily Evans from the time they had encountered her on the Hogwarts Express, en route to their first year. In Sirius' mind, Evans belonged to James – there was no question; Sirius never thought of her as anyone but the girl James wanted.

Truly.

Sirius watched as the trio passed by, then he was jerked from his absorption by a sudden lurch on the part of his companion.

'Be still!' Sirius whispered. 'Do you want them to notice us?'

'We've got to follow them!' James replied desperately. 'Come on!'

Sirius took a firm, quelling hold on his friend's arm. 'Do you really think we can follow them for Merlin-knows-how-long under the Invisibility Cloak?' he asked as reasonably as he could. 'Let's watch them – we'll follow another time, from farther down the lane.'

James hesitated, clearly torn. 'Why would she be with him?' he fretted. 'She wouldn't so much as come into Hogsmeade with me – even after I offered to buy her tea at Madam Puddifoot's!'

'Well, they're in old Sluggie's club together, aren't they?' Sirius said reasonably, able to speak more loudly now that Evans and her companions had moved farther down the street. 'And you know how sweet Evans is – she'd be nice to the devil himself if he showed up, needing a friend.'

James turned to Sirius. 'Snivellus isn't far from it, is he? She just has a soft spot for the weak.'

Sirius shrugged. 'Right, mate. Look, they've gone beyond the corner. We'll hide down there, next time we come. Let's go now – what do you say?'

James only nodded.

Sirius heaved a sigh of disgust. 'You're being pathetic, you know that, right? There's got to be a better way to spend the hols – why don't we go give those Ravenclaw birds a treat?' He raised a wicked eyebrow. 'They made it very clear that they would enjoy our company – any time, under any circumstances. Why do you want to waste our time on the ONE witch who won't give you the time of day?'

'We'll come back tomorrow,' James said decisively.

Sirius groaned audibly, raking his fingers through his black hair and banging his forehead on his knees.

---

Severus walked the perimeter of the Kingdom as he did on every visit, checking to see if the various trip-wires had been disturbed. At the beginning of the summer, it had been necessary for him to re-set many of the traps; after his long absence, some had been disturbed by animals. At least, he hoped it was animals. There had never been any sign that their refuge had been invaded by adults – or worse, by other kids.

It was a recurring nightmare of his. Ever since they had discovered the Kingdom and begun working to make it their own, he had been plagued with dreams of the space being invaded and defiled by others. The very notion made him twitchy, and he often woke from such dreams in a cold sweat – but as these dreams had supplanted the chronic nightmares about Stephy, he had no real complaints to make.

Having arrived at the farthest reaches of the lake, he seated himself under a tree and stared across the water. Pepper had finished the drawing of their coat of arms by the end of the previous summer, and she had spent term time buying, cutting, and fashioning the silks to transform her drawing into a true flag. She had resisted his every attempt to view either the sketch or the sewing of the banner. She and Lily had been eager to have him rig a flagpole, and he had spent the first week of the summer hols finding a fallen branch longer than he was tall, hammering metal rings into it and stringing these with a sturdy cord. For one entire tense day, he had attempted to seat the makeshift flagpole in the ground. He had never cursed so much in front of the girls before, and Pepper had been appalled. Lily had ended up incorporating some of his more colourful epithets into her own vocabulary.

After a sleepless night, the answer dawned upon him. The girls arrived the next day to find Severus assembling his necessary components, and soon he put them to work. By lunchtime, they successfully erected the flagstaff, filling the post hole with firmly packed sand mixed with pebbles, and setting very heavy rocks about the base.

In jubilation, they trooped to the Evans' house for a celebratory meal. Sprawling about the lounge, the three ate sandwiches and watched Blue Peter on the telly. Elsie Evans glared in at them a time or two, but otherwise left them to their own devices. She had no idea what attraction her otherwise tractable children felt for the sullen, ugly wizard boy, but since he treated them still as if they were boys, as well, she left it alone.

Replete from three sandwiches and copious draughts of lemonade, Severus lazed on the floor, his back against a large ottoman. Pepper stacked their plates and fussily carried them to the kitchen; when she returned, a half-grown grey kitten chased at her heels.

'Hullo, Blue,' Lily crooned, reaching a hand to the little cat. 'This is the kitten I told you about,' she reminded Severus. 'He's named for Blue Peter,' she added with a chuckle.

Severus watched the cat suspiciously. He had never had a pet, and although several people in his House had familiars which treated the Slytherin common room as their home, he was not fond of them.

Blue was watching Severus, as well. The normally playful kitten stopped two feet away from the still boy and sat down, curling his tail about his feet as he studied the new specimen in his territory with round blue eyes. After a moment, the kitten stood again and approached Severus, his tail held straight up in the air.

'What does it want?' he said tersely, sitting motionless.

Pepper looked over at him. 'Don't call him it!' she snapped. 'He's a boy – aren't you, Blue?'

The kitten's ears flicked briefly at the sound of his mistress' caressing voice, but he did not deviate from his mission.

'Hold your hand out to him,' Lily said quietly, watching the cat boy and the human boy confront one another. 'He just wants to sniff you.'

Aware of the girls' eyes upon him, Severus held his hand out warily to Blue. It seemed to him that the little bugger took an inordinately long time to sniff each of his fingers. At last, the slightly damp nose completed its inspection.

'Are you bloody well done?' Severus muttered.

Blue walked directly into his lap, and after making a circle or two upon Severus' denim-clad legs, curled up and began to purr.

'Look at that!' Lily said, marvelling. 'He likes you!'

'He likes me!' Pepper flared. 'He's mine!'

Lily had fretted over Pepper's increasing loneliness, which had only deepened each year since Lily had gone away to Hogwarts; Severus had been the silent recipient of Lily's distressed confidences. The girls with whom Pepper and Lily had associated in primary school now no longer even pretended to be Pepper's friend. They were in the popular group at school, whilst Pepper did not fit in with any of the cliques. She wasn't clever enough to be a swot, or dissolute enough to be a freak, or pretty enough to be of the popular set. She was without a niche and without her sister – and now she even missed Severus during term time! She was simply wretched. To cheer her, the Evanses had procured a kitten to keep her company.

'Well, come get it,' Severus snarled, staring at the creature whose sharp claws were much too close to his crotch. He scowled at it and poked with his finger. Blue retaliated by rolling onto his back and swatting at the finger with his paw, claws carefully sheathed. Intrigued, Severus poked again, and before long, he and Blue were engaged in a mutually satisfying pastime.

Pepper sat on the edge of the sofa, her mouth in a thin line, her fists clenched.

'Leave them,' Lily murmured. 'They're both happy.'

At length the kitten tired of his sport and leapt to the floor, scampering out of the room. Severus then clambered to his feet, overtly brushing cat hair from his legs. 'Let's see the flag, then,' he said.

'When I'm finished,' Pepper stalled. 'I should be done by Monday.'

Severus glared at her. 'After all the bother of putting up that flagpole, you'd better be finished with it then.'

At last, Lily ran up to him. 'Okay, we're ready. And Severus – mind you say something nice to Pepper about it.'

He stood up and arched an eyebrow at her. 'Why?'

'Because she's worked so hard on it – and it will mean so much to her if you like it,' Lily explained, beginning to walk back around the lake.

Pepper actually looked anxious when they approached El Castillo del Viento. The flagstaff stood between it and the Kingdom bridge, and now the white silk of the flag had been attached. The cord was threaded through the strip of heavy canvas sewn on the very end, just like a real flag, with metal eyes spaced along so that the cord could be passed through.

'Stop there,' Pepper said nervously when they were within six feet of her.

Obediently, the other two stopped, and Pepper pulled the cord so that the flag raised, brilliant jewel tones peeking from the folds of white silk as the summer breeze fluttered through it. When the flag was fully raised over their heads, a good draught caught it and it unfurled in all its vivid colour, and the three stood transfixed by the glory of the standard of the Kingdom of Wyrd.

Centred upon the flag's field of pure white was the coat of arms. The top left portion of the emblem was crimson, and a leaping lioness was represented there, the dark gold of the animal's body further embellished with lavish silken embroidery, outlining her green eyes and brown nose. The bottom portion of the emblem was kelly green; emblazoned there was a silvery coiled serpent, the scales embroidered in a dark grey, its staring black eyes reminiscent of the Slytherin whom it represented. The top right portion was royal blue, upon which a running gazelle was depicted, its graceful form and lustrous hazel eyes, tinted with green, emphasized by skilful embroidery. The whole of the heraldic device was limned by a ridge of gilt which appeared to have been painted upon the fabric.

After a moment of proudly watching her handiwork flutter in the wind, Pepper turned her attention to Severus, searching his frequently passive countenance for a reaction to her contribution to the Kingdom. He seemed amazed, his dark eyes wide, his thin lips parted in an 'O' which revealed his crooked teeth. Before long, Lily was watching him as well, her gaze travelling from his face to Pepper's and back again.

At last, Lily was the one to speak. 'What do you think?' she asked softly.

Severus looked straight at Pepper, respect on his face. 'I think it's perfect,' he said. 'There's more to you than one might first think.'

Pepper's long face flushed pink to the roots of her artificially lightened hair, and her horsy teeth showed in a wide smile of pleasure.

---

Sirius Black fidgeted miserably beneath the stifling Invisibility Cloak. They had followed Evans and her sister all the way down to this stone wall, which the girls had climbed, and now they had disappeared into the wood.

'Can we leave now?' Sirius inquired, intensely bored.

'No,' James said. 'We're going after them.'

'And how are we going to explain that? "Oh, hullo, Evans – we were just passing by and saw you ..."?'

James whipped the Invisibility Cloak away and held it wadded beneath his arm. 'I don't think we have to explain anything – we'll just play it by ear.'

James vaulted the wall and Sirius followed suit. 'It would be more fun if Snivellus was with them,' Sirius said. 'I wonder where he is.'

James shrugged as he walked. 'I don't care about that greasy toerag. You chat up the sister so I can talk to Evans.'

Sirius extended an arm in front of James, halting him in his tracks. 'Have you completely lost your mind?' he demanded haughtily. 'Chat up a Muggle with a face like my Uncle Alphard's favourite thoroughbred hunter?'

James rolled his eyes. 'Don't be so bloody particular,' he complained. 'You didn't have any objections to that Ravenclaw bird with a laugh like an African Fwooper.'

Sirius tossed his dark fringe out of his eyes with a move of such unstudied elegance that James was moved to grin.

'Well, as to that,' Sirius said, 'the bird in question is a sixth-year.'

James could not argue with this logic; not many fourteen-year-old wizards could engage the interest of a sixteen-year-old witch. He gave Sirius an ironic salute and jerked his head towards the trees. 'Let's go. We don't know how deep this wood is, mate – we may have a hard time finding Evans.'

Sirius forged ahead grumbling. 'Move as quietly as you can, and we'll listen for them. Girls can never be quiet. We'll hear them chattering.'

---

Pepper fetched their flag from El Castillo del Viento and raised it, with Lily standing respectfully before it. They watched the standard flutter in the breeze for a moment before they walked onto the bridge, seating themselves on opposite sides of the waist-high stone sides. Pepper pulled a transistor radio from her pocket and set it on the rock at her side, turning it on and fiddling with the dial, searching for a radio signal.

'I told you it wouldn't work out here,' Lily said.

Pepper made a face at her and restored the radio to her pocket. 'Where is Severus?' she said testily. 'He's supposed to be here.'

Lily gazed over her sister's shoulder, watching the stream burble over the rocks. 'Pepper, do you like Severus?'

Pepper's hazel eyes darted to her sister's face. 'Did he tell you to ask me?' she asked, as if it was a throwaway question of no particular importance.

'Of course not!' Lily laughed, bringing her eyes back to Pepper's face.

Pepper tried to look disinterested, but she knew she had flushed; she could feel the burning in her cheeks. 'Don't you like any boys at your school?' she asked, desperately trying to deflect attention from herself. The very last thing she wanted was Lily's pity – or for Severus to know how she, Pepper, felt, if he didn't feel the same way.

Lily wrinkled her nose. 'There are some older boys I sort of liked last year,' she admitted. 'But that was a bit silly of me – they would never notice me.'

Pepper shot a sharp look at her. 'Don't be thick,' she said gruffly. 'You're beautiful, Salty.'

Lily surged from her seat to sit by her twin, enveloping Pepper in a sudden hug which had Pepper twisting away from her. 'Stop that!' Pepper said, torn between gratification at the show of affection and distaste at being touched. 'Try to act your age, Lily Anne.'

Lily simply grinned at her unrepentantly.

Pepper was still glaring at her sister when the boys pushed through the undergrowth and emerged onto the bank. She had been expecting Severus, and in her confusion, she first thought one of the black-haired boys in Muggle clothing must be him.

The taller one was carelessly handsome, his grace of movement seemingly as much a part of him as his patrician features. Even so, it was the second boy who caught Pepper's attention. His hair was disordered, his face was rather long, with a mouth just now quirked at the corners in a very friendly way; he wore glasses, and carried a silvery bunch of fabric under one arm.

Pepper found herself instinctively smiling back at the two attractive boys, who were approaching the bridge with matching self-assured swaggers. Lily, on the other hand, was a different story.

'You!' Lily cried, leaping to her feet and pulling her wand from the cunningly concealed pocket worked into her jeans. 'What are you doing here?'

The two boys halted, each of them raising their hands in placating gestures. 'Easy, Evans,' the tall one said. 'Take it easy.'

Pepper looked at Lily, confused. 'Who are they?'

Lily did not answer, but crossed the bridge, stalking the boys menacingly. 'How did you find me?' she demanded, stopping a few feet away, where she could keep her wand trained on them both.

The taller boy began to move to one side, speaking soothingly as he did. 'We were just flying by,' he said, trying to move past Lily on her right side. 'We thought we'd stop by and see how you're enjoying the hols.'

Lily's wand tracked the movements of the tall boy. 'Freeze, Black – or I'll do it for you.'

'Come on, Evans,' the bespectacled boy said, drawing Lily's attention back to himself. 'You know you'll just get in trouble if you hex Sirius. Stand down – we're only here for a friendly visit.'

The one called Sirius – what an odd name! – slipped past Lily and sauntered onto the bridge, the full force of his charming smile turned upon Pepper. Helplessly, Pepper stared up at him, her eyes wide, her mouth slightly agape.

'You must be Lily's sister,' he said smoothly, holding out his hand. 'I'm Sirius Black – a school mate of your sister's.'

Gobsmacked, Pepper accepted the boy's hand, a tentative smile on her lips. She saw that Sirius' eyes were grey; she felt her heart begin to beat more quickly when he looked into her eyes as if she was the only human being on earth.

'No!'

Pepper dropped Sirius' hand and turned anxiously to the sound of Lily's distress. The messy-haired boy was moving closer to Lily, a teasing expression on his face – but Lily did not appear to be amused.

'Potter, if you take one more step I will lay you out – try me and see if I won't!'

'Don't mind them,' an enticing voice murmured in her ear.

Pepper turned her face away from Lily to find that Sirius had sat down across from her and was leaning forward, his elbows on his knees.

'They're just joking,' he drawled. 'They're great friends – they carry on like that all the time at school.'

Pepper found it difficult to look away from the handsome boy's engaging half-smile, but Lily's voice kept distracting her.

'I'd rather go out with –'

'– with the Giant Squid,' the one called Potter supplied, his good humour unimpaired. 'Yes, so you've said before.' As Pepper watched, the messy-haired boy stopped smiling. 'Or maybe you'd just rather go out with Snivellus?'

Lily, disregarding her wand, pulled back her empty hand and slapped Potter's face.

It seemed to Pepper that the next several minutes passed in a blur. Sirius jumped up, a wand having appeared as if from nowhere in his hand, and he was running off the bridge. Lily had sheathed her wand and had her hands covering her cheeks, as if amazed at her own actions. Potter had staggered back a bit from the blow, and was wiping away the tickle of blood from his lower lip, but he was still talking.

'I'm sorry, Evans – I didn't mean to insult you – I know you'd never go out with old Snivelly.'

'Oh, shut it, Potter,' Lily cried, pulling her handkerchief from her pocket. 'Whom I go out with is not now, nor will it ever be, your business.' She approached him and dabbed at his lip with the handkerchief. 'But I ought not to have hit you,' she added in a small voice.

With quick reflexes, Potter raised his hand and gently clasped Lily's wrist, holding her hand to his face. 'I don't mind,' he said huskily, looking down into her face. 'It's the most attention you've ever paid me.'

Pepper stood beside Sirius, three feet away from Lily and Potter, her eyes glued to them. Lily made a disgusted sound at the Potter boy's words, but Pepper was entranced. Oh – what she would give to have such an attractive boy say something so soft and sweet to her ...

In the sudden quiet, Pepper felt as if they were being watched, and she looked back over her shoulder. Standing before the overgrown hedge, just beyond the bridge, was Severus. He stood as if immobilised by an unseen force, his eyes narrowed, his lips pressed in a firm line. For three beats, Pepper watched him as he stared at Lily and Potter, then he whirled on the spot and was gone, moving silently back the way he had come.

---

Pepper did not tell Lily about seeing Severus until later that afternoon, after Lily made Sirius and Potter walk with her to where they had stashed their brooms.

'I don't want you see you here again,' Lily said, her hand hovering threateningly over her wand pocket.

Sirius Black sighed with exaggerated patience. 'Evans, why would we come back here? We have plenty of girls to visit who actually want to see us.'

Lily's face expressed her incredulity. 'Then I suggest you get busy visiting them, Black – I suppose there is no accounting for taste.'

She turned a cold shoulder to him, and Pepper exchanged a sympathetic look with the handsome Sirius Black as Lily began to speak to the other boy.

'I mean it, Potter.'

The boy touched his split lip. 'I believe you, Evans.' He looked at Lily for a long moment before he murmured, 'I won't come back if you don't want me to.'

Lily's hand shot out and closed over the handle of Potter's broom. 'Good. Then you won't mind leaving your Nimbus with me.'

Potter's mouth dropped open. 'Not my broom – be reasonable, Evans –'

'Reasonable?' she cried. 'Reasonable would be the ability to go about my business without being stalked. Reasonable would be having a nice day with my sister without being intruded upon by you and your friends. Reasonable would be you having a CLUE that I'm not interested in you, as I have told you time and time again. Now – you be reasonable and hand it over!'

Wordlessly, James Potter released the broom handle.

Lily smiled angelically. 'Don't fret – I'll take good care of it for you,' she said, stepping away from him again.

Potter seemed to notice the expression of disbelief on Sirius' face. 'This means you have to go to Hogsmeade with me next term, Evans,' he said with an assumption of audacity.

Lily raised her eyebrows in an expression Pepper recognised as being directly copied from Severus. 'I won't mind being in Hogsmeade with you, Potter,' Lily said solemnly.

'See you the first of September, then,' Potter said and mounted behind Sirius, who kicked off and flew them quickly out of sight.

'I'd go out with him,' Pepper said, her eyes still on the spot where the broom had disappeared.

'You wouldn't, Pep – not if you saw the way he acts at school. I've never known anyone more conceited than James Potter.' Lily began walking home, the broom propped on her shoulder. 'Besides, I didn't say I'd go with him – I said I wouldn't mind him being there at the same time as me.'

Pepper was scandalised at this flagrant waste of a perfectly handsome boy. 'He's much better-looking than Severus – you can't even compare them,' she fussed. 'You should have seen Severus' face when he saw Sirius and James!'

Lily stopped. 'What? What do you mean?'

'Severus came up after you slapped James, Salty, and your hand was on James' face –'

'Oh no!' Lily cried, distressed. 'Pepper, why didn't you tell me?'

Pepper sniffed. 'Oh, he was just in one of his snits – you know how he gets. He ran off before I had a chance to even speak to him.'

'You don't understand,' Lily said. 'They make his life hell, Pep – he fights them and their gang all the time – they never leave him alone.'

Pepper's brow furrowed. 'Would Severus be jealous because James touched your face?'

Lily thought about it, beginning to walk again and grabbing Pepper's hand. 'Probably not jealous in the way you mean. Severus doesn't like me that way – but he does consider me to be his friend – not theirs.'

Pepper pulled her hand away from her sister's and walked beside her, completely puzzled over the intricacies of Lily's life at that so-called school.

---

Mrs Potter placed bottles of Butterbeer on the table before the two boys and gently ran her hand through her son's untidy black mop.

'Don't stay up too late,' she cautioned.

'We won't, Mum,' James said.

'Thanks, Mrs Potter,' Sirius added, toasting her with his bottle.

When they were alone in the kitchen, Sirius took a long pull from his drink and studied his best mate with narrowed grey eyes.

'She doesn't like you,' he began, his voice musing. 'She hit you. She took your broom.'

James turned mooncalf eyes upon him. 'Isn't she amazing?'

Sirius banged his head twice upon the wall for good measure, and Benny the house-elf came running to scold and to shoo them off to bed.

---

Severus began haunting the villages within easy broom flight of Prince Glen. He hid his battered old broom and walked the streets of nameless places as if he could out-walk his thoughts. He felt unmoored, like a helium balloon which has been released into the ether. He remembered feeling nearly this badly after Stephy was gone, but he had still had their little house at Spinner's End. It had been worse after his mum moved him to Grandfather's house; he had completely lost his centre then, and had been forced to work very hard to find it again.

His first year at Hogwarts had been torture. Mum had allowed Grandfather to escort Severus to King's Cross Station, but seeing the other students engaged in fond farewells with loving parents had simply made him sad. His humiliation upon being discovered crying in a train corridor by two laughing, teasing boys had caused him to burn with shame. Telling them, in answer to their seemingly friendly question, that his name was 'S-severus' had resulted in general hilarity for his interrogators.

'S-severus?' Sirius Black had laughed.

'S-snivellus is more like it,' James Potter had replied, earning forever Severus' enmity.

The Gryffindor boys had soon taught their scorn for Severus Snape to their dormitory-mates, and Peter Pettigrew learnt to call him 'Snivellus' as well – to be fair, Remus Lupin had never called him by that name, but he had never defended Severus, either. The loud and frequent ridicule from Potter and Company had earned for Severus the contempt of even his own House-mates, in the beginning – but the judicious use of some of Grandfather's hexes in the formal duelling room in Slytherin House had won for him the respect his magical ability deserved.

It had also attained for him the label of 'Dark.'

To be truthful, he had not known those hexes were Dark. Grandfather had certainly used them indiscriminately on an unarmed Severus. When Severus had returned to Prince Glen after his first year at Hogwarts, the first time the old man had attacked him, he had defended himself with all the pent-up hatred his soul contained, and for one short, glorious skirmish, Severus had given as good as he got. That clash had resulted in the sitting and dining rooms being warded in such a way that Grandfather's wand was the only one permitted to pass those portals – and if Severus had not been thinking very quickly, it might have resulted in the loss of his wand, as well. As it was, he had managed to escape and to flee the house; he had stayed away until hunger and worry for his mother had driven him back. Grandfather had blackened his eye for him, but he had not been asked to surrender his wand – and that had been the black eye he had sported the first time he had gone to Harrogate and found Lily.

Lily. In the end, she had not been his friend. In the end, she had been nothing but a weak, stupid girl. In the end, she had stolen his sanctuary and given it to his enemy.

---

Each day, Pepper and Lily returned to the Kingdom, but Severus did not. The girls raised the flag and dangled their feet in the lake and ate a picnic lunch at the very bottom of the crumbling in-ground swimming pool and whiled away afternoons lying upon their backs and talking desultorily in the cool of El Castillo del Viento – but they did it alone.

One night, in the still darkness of their bedroom, Lily said aloud, 'It was his safe place, Pepper.'

'I know,' Pepper replied regretfully, staring into the rays of moonlight filtering through the curtains. Those other boys had been infinitely better looking – but had they been honest? Had they meant the things they said? At least with Severus, you always knew where you stood. 'He won't be back to see us again,' she added, hoping her sister would disagree.

Silence was the only answer she received.

---

Finally, Severus knew what he must do. He was no longer upset; he was calm and cool. It was a straightforward case of treason, really. He and they had worked together to create the Kingdom, but they had betrayed it, and for that, they must pay.

No, he wasn't angry. He was simply the judge, jury, and executioner.

Late one afternoon, he flew to the Kingdom. His careful surveillance told him the girls were absent. With a cold, self-righteous rage, born of bitter betrayal and decimated dreams, he stormed through their domain, wreaking havoc in every conceivable way. Systematically, he walked the perimeter, disarming and destroying his traps, leaving the nullified bits of twine lying in plain sight. Working with nothing but his own hands, he found and carried large rocks from all around the area to the bridge and piled them from end to end, obstructing passage. It wouldn't keep them out, but they would be forced to cross the stream to reach the Kingdom, now – and Pepper, for one, wouldn't like that. The thought brought a grim smile to his face. Good.

Further deviltry sent him splashing across the stream, heedless of the drenching of his shoes and robes. He scrambled up the bank and pushed through the foliage until he stood in the clearing with the birdbath. Here it was: the Evans sisters' symbol of childhood imagination. With all his strength, he pushed at it, wishing nothing more fervently in that moment than to see it fall from its pedestal and shatter at his feet.

But the marble was well seated in the earth, and he could not budge it from its moorings. He brought the heaviest rock he could lift over his head and tried to smash the statuary, but the birdbath remained unspoilt. As a final gesture, he gathered fists full of dirt, leaves and grass and piled them into the basin of the birdbath.

Next, he set about dismantling the flagpole. He had already used the anchoring stones about the base to block the bridge; now he pushed, pulled, and heaved to bring the proud flagstaff to the ground. The memories of how they had worked together to design the flag – to build and raise the flagpole – of their pride when the flag had first flown – only served to reinforce the justice of his verdict. As he ripped the cord from the metal eyes of the flagpole, evil inspiration took him. He ran beneath the branches of El Castillo del Viento and removed the jeans and tee-shirt he had kept there. Ripping foliage from every available tree, bush, and hedge, he fashioned a crude effigy by stuffing the clothing with the leafage, tying the armholes and legs of the clothing closed with twine, to retain the shape. When he was finished, he threw the cord over a low-hanging branch and hung the figure wearing his clothing in plain sight.

Imagining the girls' horrified reaction to his effigy pleased the savage desire to make them suffer for what they had done – the perfidy they had perpetrated against him. But it wasn't enough – the clamouring in his mind was calling, over and again, for blood.

With an ugly, frightening look upon his face, Severus went back into El Castillo del Viento and took up the flag from whence it had fallen when he had grabbed up his Muggle clothes. Uncaring of the mud and filth upon his hands, he tightened his grip upon the pristine white silk, the muscles in his forearms bunching, preparing to rip the flag end-to-end, rending forever the eighteen months of meticulous work Pepper had put into the ensign of the Kingdom of Wyrd.

---

The next day, standing in the midst of the carnage, Pepper was rigid with anger, the muddied but intact flag in her hands. Lily just sat down beside the broken flagpole and cried real tears.

'Who would do such a thing?' Pepper cried. 'Was it those boys? You should never have taken that broom, Salty!'

Lily looked up at Pepper with an expression akin to pity. Drying her face with her handkerchief, Lily stood and dusted off her bum before walking to the bridge and splashing through the stream to the other bank.

Pepper followed, swelling with indignation. 'Why did you look at me like that?' she demanded.

Lily stood across the stream from her sister. 'Don't you see, Pepper?' she asked. 'Severus did it.'

Pepper didn't see. It made no sense to her – but she wasn't sure which was worse: her lack of understanding or the way Lily sadly shrugged before pushing through hedge and leaving her alone.

---

When Pepper arrived home, clutching her ruined flag, she found Lily in the old laundry, where their Mum's washer stood next to the age-old stone basin in which previous generations had laundered their clothing. On a metal stand by the window was a large birdcage, in which a common barn owl lived. The Evanses had determined on their first trip to Diagon Alley that they needed to have a post owl to ensure the ability to communicate with Lily when she was away at school.

Lily was tying a rolled parchment to the owl's leg and speaking as if it could understand her words. Pepper had seen Lily do that before with the filthy bird, but it had always made her feel uncomfortable. Everyone knew that animals couldn't understand human speech.

'Professor Horace Slughorn, Athena. At Hogwarts. And I'll need a mail order catalogue from Dervish and Banges, okay?'

The brown owl clicked her beak and took off through the open window.

Pepper stood in the doorway, her lips pressed tight in a disapproving line. 'You should have closed the door – what if Blue had come in here? That horrid bird might have hurt him!'

Lily shook her head. 'Pepper, I've told you – Athena won't attack your cat. She's a magical owl – she knows the difference between pets and prey.' She approached Pepper and lifted the heavily soiled flag. 'Can it be cleaned?'

Pepper snatched the fabric from Lily and walked to the basin. 'I don't know,' she admitted, 'but I'm going to try.'

Lily came and stood behind her sister, one comforting hand on Pepper's shoulder. 'I'll help, if you'll let me.'

Pepper did not answer, but placed the muddied silk on the counter between them and reached to the shelf above, lifting down cleaning products.

---

One week later, Pepper stood with Lily in the back garden in the chill of early morning. In her hand, Lily held James Potter's Nimbus 1000, a very fine broomstick.

'I wish you would take me with you,' Pepper said fretfully.

'I can't, Pep – I don't fly well enough for that,' Lily explained for the umpteenth time.

'Do you – do you think that Potter boy will care if you use his broom?' Pepper asked, stumbling a bit over her question. It bothered her that she got so flustered about boys, but she did adore handsome ones.

'I don't bloody well care,' Lily said flatly, patting the right front pocket of her jeans, making sure she had her pocket money secure. 'What are you going to tell Mum when she asks you where I am?'

'You left before I woke up,' Pepper recited. 'I'm not positive, but I think you might have gone to visit Karen Smith for the day,' she added, naming one of Lily's former friends.

'Good girl, Pep,' Lily said. 'I'll be back as soon as I can.' She kicked off.

'Bring Severus back with you!' Pepper hissed, but Lily was already gone.

---

On days when he did not fly to a nearby village to wander the streets and try to regulate his thoughts, Severus hid out in the old owlery at Prince Glen. In medieval times, the owlery had been a bell tower, but when a wizard had taken possession of the property, the bell tower had been converted to the much more practical owl refuge. Grandfather only kept two owls, now, and when Severus wasn't lying upon the mildewed mattress in the old caretaker's flat on the ground floor, shooting flies with his wand, he was in the bell tower of the owlery, staring out over the surrounding countryside and making impossible plans.

He sat upon the narrow stone ledge surrounding the belfry, where the owls liked to roost, and made a game of tossing treats to Grandfather's younger bird, an expensive eagle owl called Jupiter. Jupiter started and fluttered to the other side of the tower just as Severus noticed movement on the periphery of his vision. Turning, Severus saw a figure on broomstick angling rather inexpertly for the front lawn.

Merlin's beard – it was Lily!

Without a thought, he barrelled down the stairs to the ground floor, flinging the door open and running out to flag her down.

She spotted him and changed her course, making a very bad landing on the grass at his feet.

'Are you all right?' Severus demanded.

'Severus!' she cried, letting the broom drop to the grass and advancing on him.

He stepped back from her, remembering in a rush that she had betrayed him and everything he held dear. 'What are you doing here? Showing off your new toy?' He flung his hand to indicate the broom she had dropped.

Lily stopped, seeming to be a bit put-off by his manner. 'I'm looking for you – and the broom is just on loan.'

He scowled at her, trying to ignore the mixed up emotions roiling in his stomach. 'You've found me. What do you want?'

She took another step in his direction. 'I was worried about you,' she said softly.

Worried? His brain attempted to process the idea. No one worried about him – not even his own parents. That was obviously a lie. He snorted and did not respond.

Lily spread her hands before her. 'Don't you have anything to say to me? Where have you been?'

He stepped toward her now, aggressively. 'If I had anything to say to you, I would have found you and said it, wouldn't I?' He took another step and was pleased when she fell back from him. 'Why would I tell you where I've been? Do you think I want Potter and Black showing up?'

Lily swallowed visibly. 'You don't understand,' she said, pleading.

He sneered. 'I understand! I understand that you betrayed us – betrayed the Kingdom – by bringing strangers – and worse, that lot! – into our special place – the place we found – we built! – it was ours – no one else's. How could you?'

When he completed his tirade, he was fairly spitting in her face, so enraged had he become, and so close to her he had drawn. Undaunted, Lily raised a hand to his arm.

'They followed me – they waited at my house, and they followed me.'

Severus jerked his arm away from her. 'How stupid and careless can you be?' he shouted.

'I didn't mean for it to happen!' she shouted back.

'Well, it did, didn't it?'

Lily took a deep breath. 'I want you to come back.'

Using his superior height, he crowded her. 'I have no interest in forming part of your court, Evans.'

'I don't have a court, Severus!' Lily retorted, exasperated. 'They're not coming back! I don't want them!'

'It didn't look that way to me,' he snarled. 'You were petting Potter's face when I saw you.'

'I slapped him and his lip was bleeding. I was wiping the blood off!'

Severus stopped and stared at her flushed face. 'You did?'

'Yes!' she snapped. 'You can ask Pepper if you don't believe me!'

He crossed his arms across his chest and scowled at her. 'They'll be back.'

'No, they won't!' she retorted hotly.

'How do you know?' He was plainly disbelieving.

She stared him down. 'I told Potter I would hex his bits off if he came back.'

Severus gave her a very serious look. 'If I was there, and he came back, I would kill him.'

Lily became very still. 'Well, I think he would rather do without his life than his bits,' she said.

He couldn't help but grin at that. 'Good point, Evans,' he said.

For an awkward moment, they only looked at one another.

'So, now what?' Severus said at last.

Lily reached into her pocket and withdrew a small square box. 'I bought something for you,' she said, looking into his eyes, her heart in her own. 'For us.' She opened the box to reveal a heavy brass medallion, the disc unevenly split, the jagged edges fitting together perfectly. 'See?'

Severus looked at the box, curious. 'What is it?'

Lily took the medallion in her palm, pulling until two fine sixteen-inch chains dangled from her fingers. 'Half for you, half for me,' she said, taking half of the medallion in one hand to show him that there were two separate pieces. 'The medallions are enchanted,' she explained. 'First of all, they're invisible when they're around your neck. Second of all, they each bear a Protean Charm. If you want to see me, you touch the medallion and think the time and place of our meeting. We seal the enchantment when we put them on – they are keyed to us – we don't even have to use our wands.'

Severus stared at the necklaces, then looked at Lily. 'Do you think this is a good idea?' he asked hesitantly, stalling for time, trying to fathom what she meant by it.

'Yes,' she averred, her almond-shaped green eyes fixed upon his face.

'To what purpose?' he asked suspiciously. 'A bribe?'

'No!' Lily said. 'It's a – a security item. We can come to one another's aid to protect the Kingdom. If Potter and Black come back – or anyone else! – I can call for you, and if you need me, you can call for me.'

Severus pondered the necklaces in light of these new suggestions. 'All right,' he said at last. 'I suppose that makes sense.'

Before he could say another word, Lily reached up to place the medallion about his neck, and then she dumbfounded him by throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly.

'Don't go away again,' she whispered into his chest.

He thought she might have lost her mind, given the irrational progression of her behaviour, but once he felt her body pressed to his, he could not truly object. Severus did not return the embrace, nor did he answer.

---

A/N: From the Harry Potter Lexicon: Fwooper - Africa: African bird with brightly-coloured feathers. A Fwooper's song will drive the listener insane, so each bird must be sold with a Silencing Charm on it (FB).