Uptown Girl

Lily Evans was walking around the record shop, looking at the different vinyls and trying to pick one. She liked that little shop in her town; it was cosy and organised, and it was the best place to buy different types of vinyl and cassettes. Plus, there was heating, and she was glad because the cold January air from outside wasn't her favourite weather.

She preferred spring by far. The snow melts and leaves colourful flowers to beautify the landscapes. The weather is warmer, but not as warm as summer and not as cold as winter, so she can wear her favourite demi-season clothes. In April, it rains a lot, and she can read a book and drink tea in one of the window seats in the library while watching the rain. But now she was on winter break, and it was the third day of the year, so she had to wait three months until the lovely spring.

"Do you think he would like this?" asked his father, holding a Sheer Heart Attack album by Queen. "Look! It has a song named Lily Of The Valley."

"No, Dad, Severus doesn't like Queen, and I would never buy him an album with a song with my name, it's...narcissistic," Lily said, looking at an ABBA vinyl that she would buy if they weren't looking for a gift for her best friend, Severus Snape.

"It's not narcissistic, honey," said her mother this time, returning the vinyl that her husband was holding a moment ago. "When he'd hear that song, he would remember you, and that's cute! But if he doesn't like Queen—a thing I don't understand. Then, what music does he listen to?"

Lily wasn't sure. Severus never talked about music, maybe because he couldn't afford to buy vinyls or cassettes he enjoyed. But sometimes he mentioned loud music.

"I think he likes heavy metal," she said.

His father looked like he was thinking. He was a redhead too, but his hair was grey now. He wasn't very old, though. "Mmm... KISS," he eventually said. "You have to buy him a KISS album. Oh, I love this one". He was pointing at a shelf close to them and walking over it.

Lily and her mother followed him, and the album cover he was pointing at had three men at the front and one at the back of a stage with weird make-up and vestments.

"Hmm... Well, it's not his style," Lily thought.

"He always wears dark and odd emo clothes," Petunia surprised Lily appearing from behind the shelf. "Anyways, mom, can you buy me this one?"

Her older sister showed her a yellow album named Jolene by Dolly Parton. After lunch, all of them went shopping for some groceries, and Lily wanted to go to the record store because Severus' birthday was close and she wanted to give him something. Her parents didn't like Severus a lot, but they didn't hate him like Petunia. Severus and Lily's sister have hated each other since the day all of them first met, six years ago.

"Oh, I love the song Jolene!" Lily smiled. It looked like Petunia was going to smile too, but then she put on her serious face again; she was still mad at her for going to Hogwarts and being a 'freak'. Now, every time Lily talked, Petunia ignored her or argued with her. Lily didn't remember the last time they had a good and normal conversation.

"Sweetheart, you know we came here to buy something for your sister's friend for his birthday," her mother explained.

"Why do you never buy me what I want? For Christmas, I only had a pair of ugly shoes and a purse that you knew I wouldn't like, and you bought Lily seven books and new clothes." She cried angrily. "I'm your daughter too! Why do you love her more than me?"

Lily was looking at her with pity. It was true, though, that their parents always bought more things for Lily than for Petunia, and she couldn't understand why. Yes, she was a witch, but her sister didn't deserve that, even if Petunia hated her.

"You know that's not true, Tuney," her father tried to calm her down. "We love you equally."

"Sure," she said, rolling her eyes, "and I'm a witch. I'm tired of all this; I'm going home."

Petunia started walking to the door quickly. "Petunia!" yelled her mother, and Lily followed her sister and took her arm before she opened the door. Some customers were looking at them with confused looks; usually, the store was quiet and almost empty.

"Tuney, please stay."

Petunia got rid of Lily's arm, but she didn't move.

"Don't you dare telling me to stay! I stayed, and you left. I'm with mom and dad the whole year while you are playing with sticks and flying on mops in a school that nobody knows where it is, and they still act like you're some kind of exceptional kid."

"That's not my fault, and you know that. I didn't choose this, Tuney," Lily said calmly, trying to make her sister less angry. It seemed like the only thing they did was fight, and she hated that. She missed when they were kids and were together playing and laughing the whole day, but now they were fifteen and seventeen and didn't feel like sisters anymore.

"How can this not be your fault? You always have to be perfect and better than me at everything. But all you are is a freak! And Severus too, and all of your friends, and that Dumbledore."

"Stop saying that!" Lily sighed. "They are not freaks; they're just different from you, and you have to accept it. We are different, and there's nothing you can do about it."

Her sister was still angry and sad at the same time. Her brown eyes crystallised. Lily didn't like fighting with her sister, but she thought that she was exaggerating too much and needed to hear Lily's words.

"Whatever, in two days you're going back there, and I'll turn eighteen and I'll marry Vernon Dudsley, and I will never see you again," Petunia said, looking anywhere but her sister's eyes.

"What?" muttered Lily. "What do you mean? You don't want to see me again? I'm your sister, Tuney."

"No, you're not." She still didn't look at her, and it was like she was going to cry at any moment. She sniffed, "My sister is not a freak."

Then she opened the door, letting in the cold air, and Lily didn't move. She was looking at the door where her sister had left seconds ago, wondering if she really meant that or if she just said that because she was mad at their parents because of Lily.

A tear fell on her cheek, but she cleaned it with her finger when a customer came by the door her sister let open. Lily turned around and saw her parents approaching her. Her dad had a bag in a square shape, and Lily knew that they bought the KISS album, but she couldn't care less at that exact moment.

"Come on, honey," said her mother, putting a hand on her back and going through the door. "She'll get over it."

Lily nodded. "Did you buy the Jolene album?" she asked, feeling the winter freeze on her pale skin again when they were out of the record shop.

"No," answered her father, "she doesn't need it."

"I didn't need the new clothes either." She looked at him, but he didn't answer.

The way back home was quiet and a bit uncomfortable. Lily felt bad and wished she could disappear. Every step felt like that feeling would never cease. She hoped that her sister was not at home when they arrived; the worst part of a fight was when it ended and they had to pretend like everything was alright when it wasn't. Lily wanted to have a talk with her, an adult one, they would talk about their feelings and how to be better, and they would be sisters again. Even if Petunia was going to be eighteen in a few months, she would never have a talk like that, Lily thought. She was too immature, childish, and egocentric.

"Lily? Are you still with us?" Returning from her thoughts, Lily turned to face her worried mother. She furrowed her brows.

The redhead girl blinked. She had no idea what they were talking about, and she wanted the silence back because it seemed like she might start crying if she spoke. She didn't cry, though.

"I'm sorry-what?" She was confused.

"Your mother asked you if you needed anything from Diagon Alley," her father explained.

"Oh, no, I don't." He nodded. "But, umm... I was thinking if I could hang out with Severus later."

"Sure, no problem," said her mother with a smile.

And silence again. When they got back home, Lily wrapped up the album quickly, put it in her suitcase, and left. Petunia's door was locked, but she didn't know if she was there, and she didn't check because another fight would make her cry.

It was still afternoon; the sun was heading to the horizon, but it was still shining. Lily was going to the tree where she and Severus first met; it was a place she knew she could find him, and she was right; Severus Snape was sitting at the roots of the tangled tree.

"Hey, Lily," he said when he saw her. He was wearing an old coat that matched the colour of his long, dark hair. He was letting it grow, and that made the marauders humiliate him, saying that he was trying to look like Sirius Black, who was trying to grow it too.

Ugh, the marauders... Lily thought. She hated them (excluding Remus), they were always strutting and fighting with Severus and other Slytherin guys. Well, they just fought with the bad Slytherins, the ones who bullied muggle-borns or people with less money than them, but Lily always thought that fighting was not the solution. And they could just stop strutting like they owned everything, especially James Potter. She hated James the most, mainly because since their First year he always tried to ask Lily out, and she was so sure it was to make fun of her. Anyway, she didn't want to think about him now, she already had a lot of things in her head to think about Potter.

Lily sat by Severus' side and smiled at him, but the grin didn't reach her eyes. She hugged her legs and looked at the grass. At least it wasn't snowing, it would be even more sad.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"It's just my sister," she said after a while. Lily knew Severus didn't like Petunia, she wasn't nice to him either, but sometimes Lily wondered if it was because of something else, if he hated her for another reason.

"You fought again?" She nodded. "She's just jealous, you know that."

"Yes, but she said that I wasn't her sister and she didn't want to see me again, like ever."

Severus kept quiet for a moment, probably thinking about what to say, usually, he would say something bad about her, but he knew Lily would be mad at her for that.

"I'm sure she didn't mean that. You're awesome, Lily, if I were her, I'd want to be with you every time."

"Well, she doesn't."

She kept thinking about her sister, but she didn't want to, in two days they would be back to school, and she didn't want to end her holidays angry at someone who was not worth it, his best mate didn't deserve to listen to Lily talk about her meaningless arguments with her sister.

"How are you going with your O.W.L.s studies?" she asked in a calm tone of voice.

The O.W.Ls exams were in July, and Lily had studied since the beginning of the year; she wanted an Extraordinary in every single subject.

"Yeah, I'm good, especially with Dark Arts" Severus answered proudly.

Since they were kids, Severus has been obsessed with the Dark Arts. Lily wasn't sure why, she found them evil, and Severus was definitely not evil.

"You mean Defence Against The Dark Arts, right?"

"Sure, sure. But the Dark Arts are more interesting than the defence."

"Interesting?" Lily gasped. "Why would you find interesting such an awful thing as the Dark Arts, Sev? They're meant to hurt people."

Severus' other friends, Mulciber and Avery, liked the Dark Arts too, but Severus wasn't like them, or at least that was what Lily thought. Mulciber and Avery were going to be Death Eaters when they left school, not like Severus, who was good. He would never be on the other side because her best friend was a muggle-born, and they would not accept it, so Severus would never be with them, right?

"The Dark Arts themselves aren't meant to hurt people; the people that use them want to hurt them, not the arts. Anyway, good or bad, they are still smart and incredible magic, don't you see? They're... beautiful"

Lily couldn't believe what she was hearing, but she didn't need another fight, and not with her best mate, so she didn't say anything, even if she thought that his way of describing the Dark Arts was insane.

"I'm doing pretty well at History of Magic too," Severus said after a few minutes had passed, trying to change the uncomfortable talk.

"Oh, that's kind of difficult for me, I'm so much better at Charms or Transfiguration," she said.

"I can help you with History of magic if you'd like."

"Sure," she smiled.

She didn't know when, though. Lately, in Hogwarts, Snape was all the time with his Slytherin friends. Before that, they always studied together at the library, but now she studied with Remus Lupin. At the beginning of their Fifth year, they both became prefects, so they spent a lot of time together, and eventually, they were the best of friends.

Lupin wasn't like James Potter and Sirius Black; he was smart, calm—unless you made him angry, then you would wish you never met him—logical, and less loud than them. And he was braver and funnier than Peter Pettigrew, she couldn't understand why he was friends with such travel-makers. But when they were together, Remus looked like he was with his family; they were his brothers and would never do anything that would hurt him. They protected and loved each other, like Lily and Severus.