When Lily woke up the next morning, she was surprised to see Severus already in the kitchen, conversing quietly with her mother. As she neared them, Rose stopped talking abruptly and gestured for Severus to turn.
"Lily!" Severus' warmth was genuine. He embraced her and she was grateful to hug him back.
"What were you two muttering about?" She murmured into his blouse. She'd forgotten how hideous his home clothes were.
Severus sighed. "Discussing my appalling fashion sense," he replied, looking her straight in the eye. Rose nodded.
"He really needs better quality clothes. I thought, perhaps I could drop you in Cokeworth?" She glanced at Lily.
This excited Lily, who adored clothes shopping.
"Don't worry, Severus, I'll find the perfect thing for you!" She exclaimed, dragging Severus towards the door.
Severus rolled his eyes at her exhilaration and made to grab a few croissants on the way out. How Lily could be too excited to eat breakfast, Severus would never know.
*
Severus hated lying to Lily. As if he had been talking to Mrs Evans about his appalling fashion sense. In reality, they had been discussing what had happened that morning, prior to Lily's tousle-haired appearance in the kitchen.
"Severus!" Rose greeted, surprised, when she opened the front door. Severus staggered in and the woman's forehead wrinkled with worry. "What's wrong?" She led him into the kitchen and sat him down on one of the chairs.
"Blood," Severus murmured. "Hair." His fingers probed at the top of his head. Rose investigated there and found a large wound. Severus hissed as her nails scraped the gash.
"I'll get some peas," Rose said, and hurried to the freezer.
When Mrs Evans returned, she gently pressed the packet of frozen peas to Severus' head.
"What happened?" She asked lowly. She couldn't risk Petunia being woken by the noise and coming to see what was going on, or God forbid, Lily. Her youngest daughter was only twelve, and even Petunia was still scarcely thirteen.
"My father," Severus replied, wincing.
Her hand tensed on the packet.
"If I could, I'd have a word with that_ despicable man!" She exclaimed.
"I wouldn't," advised Severus. "He's not in a good mood currently."
"And he has to take that out on you?" The woman bristled. "If I was angry, I wouldn't take it out on anyone except myself."
"Of course you wouldn't," Severus muttered. "You aren't psychotic." He rolled his eyes.
"I know," answered Mrs Evans. "I just... feel responsible... for all of you."
"You have taken the burden of my parents' responsibility, then," quipped Severus. Rose gave a short laugh.
"Well. At some point, they'll have to shoulder some. But, until then, I'll do my best to keep all three of you safe and sound."
Severus smiled.
"Sounds good."
*
Severus' shopping trip with Lily was shockingly okay. Lily did force him to try on many vibrant new colours, such as lilac (it gave him too many bad memories of a certain Gilderoy), and blue, and eventually surrendered to his choice of grey.
"But, Severus," Lily complained, "the point of clothes is to express yourself."
"And my point about clothes is that sometimes you don't want to be expressing yourself," argued Severus. "You just want to blend in, follow the crowd."
"The crowd does not tend to wear grey," Lily pouted.
"Some do," Severus responded, thinking of the inmates in Azkaban, and several Death Eaters he'd once known.
"Well, those who are lunatics do," Lily laughed.
"Too right," murmured Severus, eyeing the surrounding shoppers with apprehension. "Are we nearly done with Cokeworth?"
"No!" Lily's outburst scared him. How many more shops could they find in the glum little city? "We have to visit Boots, WHSmith, Rymans..."
"Shame."
"How dare you call it a shame?"
"How dare you not call it a shame? We've been wandering these streets for the past hour!"
"An hour is nothing in the timeline of a shopaholic!"
"I'm glad I'm not one of those then. I prefer being a mnemophobic to a shopaholic."
"What's that?"
"Oh, never mind."
*****
A.N. Does anybody know if Mischievous Wiki is a genuine site? Only, it seems to suggest that Mr and Mrs Evans are actually called Gregory and Carol, and as I obviously made up Rose and Mark, this worries me. Somebody help!!!
Boots, WHSmith and Rymans were all around at this time - I checked - so no debates!!!!!!!
Thank you for reading and PLEASE COMMENT!!!!!!!!!!!
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Severus... Reformed / SNILY (COMPLETE)
Fanfiction(Best Ranking: #1 in SNILY, #3 in VOLDEMORT, #6 in ALBUSDUMBLEDORE and #30 in SEVERUS) 2nd place in the Magical Book Awards Severus Snape thought he had run out of chances. He thought the only thing he had left to await him was an early death. And...
