16

Chapter 16 Yield the Information You Conceal

Lily was itching to get a crack at Black's letter, but she was polite and let Severus try first. After all, it was addressed to him.

They were safely bolted into Severus's bedroom, with Lily's bag of loot sitting atop his sideways school trunk. Considering there was no place else to sit, they were sitting down on the edge of the bed with the letter unfolded between them.

Severus went first, tapping the parchment with his wand. "Reveal yourself."

Lily took a turn. "Show yourself!"

"Isn't that what I said?" he asked with a smirk when nothing happened as a result of Lily's spell.

"Oh ha ha"

Severus stretched his arms out in a show of preparation, audibly let out a breath, and then addressed the reluctant parchment, hitting it with his wand, "Severus Snape, to whom this letter is addressed, commands you to yield the information you conceal!"

Lily leaned down to pointedly inspect the letter closely. It was Lily's turn to smirk at her adversary, as she pinched the corner of the missive and lifted it in the air, while pretending to give it a very thorough examination.

"What are you doing?"

"Well, after that spell," she replied, "I'm sure there's nothing hidden. You did command it, so surely it's clear as glass now." With a big grin, Lily hit it with her wand and transfigured it into a pane of glass.

Severus made an annoyed sound in his throat, grabbed the glass and said, "You shouldn't be so careless."

"I'm not. You've had it for over an hour now, and you are still alive, Sev."

He sighed in reply, transfigured it back to parchment and pulled a deep metal bowl out from under his dresser.

Lily was suspicious. That bowl wasn't there yesterday.

The paper was thrown in, and then Severus cast Incendio.

"I wasn't done with it yet," complained Lily.

Severus didn't respond immediately. Being paper, the letter was quickly consumed and the fire burned itself out. As he pushed the bowl back under, he muttered, "If you need to go, tell me and I'll leave. You can use this and then cast evanesco."

"Uh … thanks," Lily replied in an equally low voice.

Rather than further discussing the solution, Severus changed the topic. "You brought books to work on something specific?"

"We didn't cover those last few chapters in our Charms textbook. There looked like there were some good ones there when I was flipping through it last week."

Lily got the book out, and the two of them occupied themselves for hours without mishap.

For a while, Lily had wanted to check the time. She resisted because it might seem rude or make Sev think she was bored. She wasn't bored, just distracted by hunger. Unable to bear it any longer, Lily cast it and saw it was past one. Her mother served lunch promptly at noon every day.

Although the time was hanging in the air right in front of them, Severus ignored it and flipped to the next spell in the book.

There was no point in Lily trying to outwait Severus Snape when it came to food. For years, it was always Lily who insisted on eating. Severus did not openly show when he needed anything, he just made it look convenient for him to eat when Lily did.

She reached for the book, and he allowed her to close it and take it out of his hands. Lily kept her request simple with, "I'm hungry."

His eyes looked at Lily's bag briefly before he looked at her. "I have a few tins, if you're interested."

Severus got up and opened a bureau drawer. There had been no food in any of the drawers yesterday when Lily searched.

Given the choice between peaches, mixed fruit or pears, Lily tapped the mixed fruit can, and he returned the other two and pulled out a can opener. In no time, it was open and he transfigured the lid into a spoon, and handed both to Lily. He then returned to his seat on the bed.

Lily had not been expecting a banquet, she thought as she enjoyed the mixed fruit. Although Severus probably didn't expect her back the next day, he had gone through the trouble of getting some food and … a chamber pot. If he truly was reluctant to have her here, she doubted he would have bothered making the effort.

It didn't take Lily long to finish the small can. As she spooned the last piece into her mouth, she asked, "Have you ever tried spray cheese?"

"What's that?" he asked.

"Cheese in a can that you squirt on crackers."

"Cheese does not squirt," he replied with a pained expression.

"Sure it does," Lily replied, and pulled a box of cream crackers and a can of cheese out of her bag.

She handed Severus the can while she sat back down and opened the cracker package.

"I don't think this is really cheese."

Lily huffed and said, "Stop reading it." She grabbed the can back because Severus was reading the small print. She hated how he checked out the ingredients because then he'd point out something to her mum, and then it would never show up in the Evans' household again, unless her dad asked for it special.

She gave it a couple shakes, got the top off and then pressed the button to ooze an orange pile onto a cracker. Satisfied with the towering spiral, Lily pushed the cracker at Severus and added the word, "Here," when he didn't take it immediately.

A second cracker was prepared, and Lily took note that Severus was still studying the first one.

"Don't be a chicken. Live a bit," Lily recommended, then popped her cracker into her mouth. After a couple chews, she added, "Mmm Mmm."

Severus took a sample bite as Lily filled another cracker for herself. To think, Severus would drink a potion containing eyeballs, but was weirded out by … Lily looked at the label as she squeezed out more cheese onto yet another cracker … sodium triphosphate.

When Lily tried to push another cracker on him, Severus replied, "No thank you."

"Suit yourself," Lily murmured and ate it. She returned those items to her bag, and pulled out a package of dried figs. Severus didn't object to Lily sharing those so they finished the package between them. They were a bit sweet, so Lily also opened the juice with Severus transfiguring some cups.

She dawdled a bit with the tidying up, and had her Defense textbook out now. Lily's mouth had gone dry, despite just finishing a second cup of juice. What seemed like such a simple idea this morning now unnerved her with Severus sitting behind her … locked in the same room … his bedroom. It was rather moronic trying to come up with convoluted explanations. He was in Slytherin, not her. And she was in Gryffindor, and waffling over what to do. And Mr. Difficult wasn't helping with these long silences that she knew were intentionally used to keep her off balance.

Picking up her Defense book by the spine, she turned and as she expected, Severus was patiently sitting, waiting for Lily. Weakly she said, "I brought my Defense book too. We could review it, or maybe there's a book that you want to show me …?"

He shrugged, "Whatever you want to do … maybe I'll see something in our new coursework that relates to something I have."

Lily leaned back against the trunk and tried to sound nonchalant as she mentioned, "I noticed you have a red toothbrush."

He replied, "Yessss."

"You don't like red."

"I don't?"

"Uh … you don't, do you?" Lily asked, wondering if he really liked red.

"It doesn't matter."

"That's good because I brought you a blue one," Lily explained as she pulled the package out, hoping she was not about to feel really stupid.

"You brought me a toothbrush?"

"Well, if you'd prefer the pink one," Lily suggested as she pulled out the second brush, "I guess I can use the blue."

Severus just sat in confused silence.

"I would prefer the pink, because Tunie's had that color for like forever, and never gives me a turn."

As if talking to someone on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Severus agreed slowly and calmly, "You can have the pink one."

"Great. I didn't know if I'd like powder, so I brought a tube of toothpaste." Lily's courage faltered so she busied herself with opening the pink toothbrush package, seemingly giving it her full attention. "And if you like, you could use that too so if we got around to kissing … we uh, wouldn't get distracted by … well, that's what I heard."

"Kissing?" was repeated in a strained voice.

Lily looked away from her toothbrush at Severus. He looked tense and his shoulders were hunched. After making a noise of discomfort, he asked, "You don't mean that giant squid kissing, do you?"

"Giant squid?"

"You know, mouths open and sucking on each other, and arms and legs flailing around like tentacles with a whole lot of noise. They do it in the halls, and all over the furniture in the common room."

"Uh … no … I mean we'd have to be … dating ... a long time before that, Sev."

Severus scrunched his face up in disgust, and said, "I don't think so. They go right from fighting and yelling at each other, to toppling together onto a divan and writhing all over."

Slytherin mating rituals, who would have guessed? Lily held up the pink toothbrush and declared brightly, "Brushing our teeth sounds much more civilized."

After a few Aguamenti and a couple Evanesco at the washstand, their dental hygiene was completed. Lily straightened the toothpaste between the pink and blue toothbrushes on the counter, then stood stiffly with her mouth frozen in a toothy smile. There really wasn't room for two people to brush their teeth together at this washstand.

Severus reestablished some space between them by taking a step back. "Did you want to do the kissing or Defense first?"

Lily blinked. In her dreams, she never imagined her first real kiss would be preceded by such a question. Come to think of it, Lily hadn't even dreamed of Severus and her kissing. She had no clue who she would kiss other than him though. She tilted her chin up, meeting his eyes, and suggested, "The kissing."

"Should we do it standing or sitting?"

Mentally, Lily agreed that sitting on his bed was not a good idea, however she didn't want to play Twenty Questions first. She stepped forward and growled, "Stop questioning me, Sev."

Lily grabbed Severus's shoulders and pulled at him while attempting to bring her lips up to meet his. At the same time, Severus stepped back from Lily's sudden nearness. The back of his knees hit the bed in less than a step, and Lily had tightened her grasp as he tried to escape, pushing against him in her quest to join their lips together. Severus fell backward, with Lily atop him when she refused to release her grip. Having her prey completely at her mercy now, Lily consummated the kiss by pressing her lips softly against his. It was so perfect, her knee bent, flipping her foot into the air above them with her painted toes peeking out of her sandal and pointing towards the ceiling.

She breathed deeply through her nose, feeling the side of her nose pressing against his, in addition to the continued exciting contact between their lips, and wondered when had she closed her eyes? Lily opened them because she wanted to see Severus. In less than a moment, she decided this was completely unsatisfactory. She could see his eyes were open, but her face was so close to his, that she couldn't properly look into them. Her foot drifted back down.

Continuing her tight hold on his shoulders, Lily drew her elbows in and propped herself up on Sev's chest with them, breaking the connection between their mouths. The radiance burning in his eyes controverted their complete blackness.

Lily was divided on what action she craved to do next. She did not want to take her eyes off Severus's, but she dearly desired to kiss him even more. Indecisively she remained gazing into his eyes, afraid that fire would go out if she looked away. They were blazing for her alone.

Severus lay completely still, trying to ignore Lily's elbows digging into each side of his sternum, and the grip of her talons perforating his shoulders. Having experienced plenty of pain in the past, he only rated the current sensation somewhere around bothersome. Since Lily was clearly elated, he delayed pointing out that she misled him by suggesting this could be civilized.

Observing Lily's enjoyment of this, Severus filed this activity into Lily's list of matrimonial prerequisites. It would be a great help if she would just write down all the requirements for him. How was he supposed to anticipate what she wanted, if she just thought he should know without her saying anything? She never mentioned him needing to go to Hogsmeade before … wait, did that become a condition because she thought he wouldn't be able to easily accomplish it? No. No, Lily wouldn't do that to him. Why would she go through all the trouble with toothbrushes and kissing the next day unless she wanted to marry him?

Lily had the most beautiful eyes. This shade of green was perfect in every way. It was more special because nothing else in his life was this exact shade. Slytherin green was darker and lacked the inner glow. Yes, it was almost like the magic within her was secretly exposed by the light in her eyes. Severus cleared his mind of other thoughts as he concentrated on Lily's eyes, in the past he sometimes got an inkling of what she felt.

Emptiness and Lily's green eyes were interrupted by something so strong that Severus was sure at first that it was from within him, rather than just getting a glimpse from Lily. This foreign feeling took a moment for Severus to analyze. The mental identification of this being Lily's concupiscence coincided with his body responding physically.

Considering how inappropriate this was, he immediately reacted by turning on his side and shifting his back against the wall, so Lily wouldn't be the one trapped on the inside. Severus also returned her kiss with the fervent hope that she would allow the remainder of their bodies to remain separated.

Lily was pleasantly surprised when Severus decided to kiss her back and gently rolled her onto her side. This time Lily concentrated on keeping her eyes open, however she allowed her upper leg's knee to bend and flexed her foot behind her in midair. It was a lucky thing that Sev hadn't rolled her toward the wall.

He broke the kiss and that gave Lily a chance to scoot fully onto her side. Their initial fall had started them off diagonally, but since the bed was narrow, they adjusted without discussion so they were now laying on their sides, facing each other, as they frequently did when they got tired of walking around and just felt like resting and talking … or just enjoying the silence as they gazed into the other's eyes.

Not one, but two kisses! Lily's mind felt like it running in circles because she wasn't really thinking about new things, just one kiss and then the second kiss, and back to the first kiss when she kissed Sev and then the second kiss when Sev kissed her and so on … until she finally took a break and thought something else, what were they going to do now? A third kiss … well, that would be surely brilliant, but Lily didn't want to rush things or give Sev the idea that all she wanted to do was kiss him now. It wouldn't be all bad to spend some more time kissing, but they couldn't start giving into that temptation because any day now they would get their OWL results and then their schoolwork. Lily didn't want to become one of those couples who did nothing but snog everywhere. Wait a tick, Sev and her were definitely not a couple. What was the word for best friends that … that … that only kissed twice. There, that didn't sound like all that big a deal. That's why they couldn't kiss a third time today because … they were best friends.

Be that as it may, Lily didn't want to practice stuff from her 5th year Defense text. She wanted to do something else … anything other than kissing with Sev. Her toes were still twitchy after the kissing. That was odd. She never heard of anyone talking about kissing a bloke and having toes that couldn't stay still. Lily let each foot flex and dropped her sandals onto the floor. So far, so good … Mr. Paranoid did not whip out his wand at the two shoes hitting the floor, Sev was just laying there, and being mature about all this. If he did that sly smirk of his, Lily would just … slap him silly. Slowly she slid her foot forward, and felt something hard? Lily pulled her foot back, and gave the object a bit of a kick.

Severus broke off eye contact to look towards the foot of the bed.

Feeling featherbrained for kicking Sev's shoe, Lily muttered, "Could you please take them off?"

She was about to question his perplexed glance, when he sat up and reached to obey her request. Lily silently waited thinking about what bothered him. Bare feet too intimate? Or were they all dirty and gross? She'd seen some pretty disgusting specimens on some lads in the Gryffindor common room. Oh gosh, why'd she have to think of that? It would be pretty tactless to sit up and examine Sev's feet now, wouldn't it? Not that she'd really fault him with the lack of … amenities at Spinner's End. He probably had more important hygiene issues on his mind than his feet, which he normally had covered.

Without giving her a clue, Severus returned to laying on his side with a small sigh and resumed his examination of Lily's eyes.

In return, Lily narrowed her eyes in thought. He would say something if they were a real fright before she touched his foot with hers, wouldn't he? Rather than plunging straight in, Lily reached for Sev's hand. It felt like a long time passed with them holding hands before Lily finally allowed her foot to tentatively quest forward. Contact was made. It was not unpleasant. That's about all Lily could determine as she lightly moved her foot along his, and then brought it to rest on top of his.

Time passed in silent companionship, with them joined by their eyes, hands and feet. Severus closed his eyes for longer than a blink a few times before Lily noticed that he was looking a bit drowsy. Interested in what would happen, Lily remained still.

Finally, his eyes did not complete their blink, and remained closed, breaking the spell between them. Lily studied Sev's face wondering if he was faking. It was pretty realistic looking when his lips parted slightly during a deep breath. They slowly opened a little more during the next couple breaths, and then his next inhalation turned into a low snore. The volume of the ones that followed varied from slight liquid sounds to deeper rumbles that lasted up to five seconds. Convinced, Lily gently removed her hand and foot, and backed off the bed.

She decided on the trunk first. Lily found it unlocked and just swung the top open, like a door, since it was resting on it narrow end. The lid scraped on an uneven spot of floor. Looking over her shoulder, she watched Sev for three snores before deciding to get back to work.

The contents were already sorted for being accessed on its side. Lily felt the uniforms carefully so they didn't unfold, but didn't feel anything. Sev's cauldron had his potions kit in it. She opened it, and didn't see anything unusual – she did see it every class as his partner so knew it well. Tucked against the side of the trunk were a couple sheathed daggers, and one blade was long enough to be almost a short sword. The scabbards did not make any of them to appear expensive-looking, but Lily slid each blade out for a quick look anyway. Hmm, how did one tell if these were special? None of them were glowing, but that might just be in stories. She could cast some charms on them to try to detect why Sev would even have them. Knowing him, it would be something odd like the sword is rubbed with garlic oil to decapitate vampires, or one of these was a silver blade to ward off a werewolf attack. His constant distrust and worries were really too much. There were laws in place to protect them, so the chance was next to nil that any of them would ever get in a fight with the worst dark creatures. Even then, they were only considered more dangerous because they were intelligent. Intelligent creatures did not pick fights with wizards. Prof. Binns taught much more about the historical danger of goblins, giants and muggles.

Lily put the blades back. She looked over the books. She pulled them out and put the textbooks aside. Some of the others were not written in English so she flipped through but didn't find any gruesome diagrams to give her a clue as to what kind of Dark Arts they contained. She only found one that was clearly a problem, and put it aside when she returned the rest of the books to the trunk, fanning the pages of his school texts to find loose notes. After looking over the rest of the loose parchments, Lily was … disappointed? relieved? Where was the Death Eater stuff all the Slytherins were supposed to have? She studied the trunk for a hidden panel since there was no lining. Doublechecked the inside of the lid. Then went back to his dresser to see what had changed since yesterday, and was frustrated to only find the addition of a few tins of fruit and a can opener.

Lily let out a slow breath, as she turned around and looked at Severus. He was still laying with his back to the wall, sleeping and snoring. She knelt down and lifted the thin, hard, lumpy mattress from her side to see if there was anything peeking out. Not completely satisfied, she shoved her hand under, and reached in up to her shoulder. Shuffling on her knees to the foot of the bed, Lily found nothing.

Her face scrunched in hard thought. Lily was missing something. She just knew it.

Distraction set in, Severus's bare feet were directly in front of her. Like the rest of him, they were bony with the skin appearing stretched to fit, reflecting an unhealthy shade of yellow, except down here Lily could see the bluish outline of veins that bulged over the bones. In all honesty, they were ugly. However, they were merely ugly. They were not covered in filth, and his toe nails were clean and trimmed.

Not revolted yet, Lily leaned closer to them. Uninjured … not smelly … and there were a few black hairs visible on each toe, even on the little piggy toes. There were a few sparse hairs at the base of his ankles. She reached her hand to them and pushed the trouser leg up to see more.

His foot kicked out, Lily's arm was hit and she fell back on the floor before it reached her face. Severus was propped up on his left elbow, with his wand in his right hand. His eyes met Lily's briefly before continuing to scan for a threat. Letting out a breath, he asked searchingly, "What...?"

"Me," Lily huffed, shifting to a more comfortable position before giving him a harsh glare.

Severus sat up, slipped his wand back in his jumper, and offered a hand to help Lily up.

Accepting the hand, she pulled hard enough to try to pull him off the bed, however Sev had already outmaneuvered her and had his other hand wrapped around the back of the bed to prevent Lily's predictable move.

Not surprised that Sev had prepared for that, Lily allowed herself to be pulled up and waved the Dark Arts book. "It's no shock that you are so jumpy, reading stuff like this."

He laughed, then said, "That? I keep that around as a perfect example of dunderheaded waste."

"Oh really?" Lily prodded, knowing she saw horrible things in this book. This one was in Olde Englishe and illustrated.

"Oh come on," Sev said taking the book and flipping it open to the beginning. "You have this first berk that is so full of his self-importance that he widely publishes a treatise on a spell he created to pull a person inside out through their mouth. He tried it out on a lot of muggles to write at length about the effects of the spell, and advises it is best used against enemies because with their innards exposed, they are more susceptible to disease and will slowly die in a painful manner. Since this was invented when those Plagues were going on, disease was pretty much everywhere.

"Well, as you can suspect, even wizards that don't like muggles all that much found this to be a bit much. There's more efficient ways to do people in without going through all this trouble, so none of his contemporaries recognized his genius.

"Then along comes this second bloke about eighty years later who solves what's wrong with the first spell. What you need to do is turn a person inside out through their arse. That was what was missing, so he goes ahead and publishes too," Severus chuckled, and added, "Oh yeah, if someone was going to turn me inside out, I'd be mortified if they did it out my bum instead because the physical pain alone wouldn't give me the notion that I was in trouble."

Lily frowned as Severus turned to the third section. "And then, well, I think this one is a Gryffindor adaptation." Lily took offense because Gryffindors did not turn anyone inside out.

"He thinks it's hilarious to pull the guts out through the nostrils instead so they are half out the left, and half out the right."

Lily's look of disgust increased.

"I don't know about this next one. This wizard was being sort of philosophical about the whole thing. He recommended that the victim be turned inside out through his naval. He goes on with some hokey Arithmancy to support his 'unbirth' variation."

Since Severus took Arithmancy and Lily didn't, she supposed he would be in a better position to question someone's equations.

"It wasn't until the final mastermind came up with the last variation that other uses were suggested," Severus said as he shut the book. "If a person is turned inside out, foreign objects put on them, and then turned right side back again, the objects are then inside their body. For more entertainment value, I suppose, shrunk objects are better, like our school trunks, and then resized once they are inside, and if it's big enough or an interesting shape, the victim could sort of explode."

Severus laid the book down. "Rather peculiar that wizards for centuries kept trying to improve on a dead end spell like that. And with each version, tried to present a rational argument on why it was the greatest spell ever."

Lily picked up the book to confirm it was only about turning people inside out. Sev was too good a liar to just take what he said at face value.

Since no one ever believed him about anything, Severus gave Lily all the time she wanted to look through the book. He didn't even bother trying to shield her from the final variation for use on Unfaitheful Womans, Witchs and Harlots which suggested yet another orifice since it was that unloved fellow that suggested putting objects into the victims to further their suffering.

While Severus was in a truthful mood, Lily decided to go for broke and asked, "What about your Death Eater things?"

"What things?"

"You're in Slytherin, Sev."

"Yes. And in case you forgot, my father is a muggle. He's not acting, he really is."

"Well, what do they do when they have their meetings?"

"What meetings? You think Y'know Who floos into the Slytherin common room and says, 'you lot get out, I'm having a secret meeting with my faithful followers' and then names everyone that can stay?"

"No. They act suspicious."

"Suspicious? It's Slytherin. If you don't act suspicious, then they suspect."

"You don't have to be so difficult, Sev."

"Lily, Y'Know Who does not share his plans with me."

"If you do find out something will you let me know?"

He shrugged, then said, "Depends."

"Hmmm. Well, I guess I should get going," Lily muttered. Not sure if she should be angry at Sev or not.

"Tomorrow's Saturday. There's a Manchester match so my father will be down the pub."

"I might be doing family things tomorrow. Tunie was nice to me for a few hours this week, and I think I should strike while I have the advantage."