Afterglow

You should see the way the light dances off your head

🎕🎕🎕

When the glittering words disappeared from the sky, Lily was left staring, slack-jawed, at James, who was grinning impishly.

"How-how did you do that?" Lily asked, breathless.

"I know a great many things," replied James with an air of extravagance.

"If you fell from how high your ego is, you'd never survive." The boy named Peter rolled his eyes. James shoved him and the two friends laughed. Lily would remember them like that for a long, long time. She would remember them smiling and laughing like this, golden and young and not knowing everything to come.

James flung himself into a seat, and Peter sat beside him. The two boys' energies could not be more different, though they both feigned the same easy confidence. James was very alive, in an electric way--like a storm. Peter was like a storm, too, only his storm seemed more...turbulent.

"What do you like to do, Evans?" James asked her, kicking his feet up on his luggage.

"Well," said Lily, "I like reading. School. I like chess."

"Reading? Chess? Good grief," James said, laughing.

"I like chess," Peter murmured.

"Nuff said," retorted James, and Lily stifled a laugh. Perhaps these two boys could be her new friends. Maybe her friend group at Hogwarts could be James, peter, Severus, and herself. That wouldn't be too bad, she thought. The idea was surely growing on her as the seconds ticked on.

"What do you like to do? Look in the mirror and compliment yourself?" Lily bit back a smirk.

James said, "Though complimenting myself is a fun pastime, I prefer Quidditch."

Lily raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Bless you."

"No, Quidditch. You know, like the players flying 'round on brooms. You've got to know Quidditch!" James sat up tall, lookigenuinelynly affronted by Lily's lack of understanding.

"It's a wizard thing, James, she's obviously got muggles for parents," said Peter mildly.

"Well, you'll learn Quidditch soon enough. Everyone loves it, and you will, too, Evans," said James. He winked. "Promise."

Suddenly, the door to the train compartment flung open.

Standing there was none other than Severus Snape.

Lily's best friend in the entire world.

"Sev!" cried Lily, springing toward him and throwing her arms around him in a fierce hug. She squeezed him so tight, she was sure he would protest, but he just wrapped his arms around her, equally tight. "I thought you weren't coming," she whispered against his chest. She was embarrassed to feel hot tears poking at the corners of her eyes.

"Hi, Lily," Sev whispered into her hair.

She knew exactly how he was smiling, even though her head was buried into his torso. It was that soft, quiet sort of smile, a smile he only wore for Lily. It was so unlike any smiles Lily had ever seen. It was a secret smile.

Then, Sev stiffened underneath the hug. "Who are they?" he asked.

"Who...? Oh, you must mean James and Peter," said Lily, breaking away from the hug. "They're going to Hogwarts, too. James likes Quidditch, whatever that is."

"Oh," said Sev. "How nice."

Severus Snape looked like a picture drawn in charcoal; he was all blacks and whites. Skin as pale as candle wax, long dark hair and eyes, and a crooked, long nose all gave him tappearancence of a ghost, as if he were never fully there. Lily sometimes felt like he was somewhere she couldn't reach him, as if he truly were a ghost out to haunt. But they had been neighborhood friends for as long as she could remember. There had never been a time in her life when she didn't love Severus Snape, and there never would come a time where she didn't.

"Why didn't you meet me on the platform?" Lily asked, to clear the tension that had sprung up like weeds.

"I forgot my robes," said Sev, snapping out of his staring contest with James to look at Lily. "Let's go, Lily."

"What? Why?" Lily asked, confused.

Sev leaned down (a long way, for Lily was very short and Severus was very tall) and whispered, "These boys are trouble, I can tell."

"We can hear you, you know," said James dryly. "I'm not very troublesome, am I, Pete?"

Peter rolled his eyes in response.

"I know trouble when I see it," Sev said cooly, in a way that was very unlike him. He grabbed Lily's wrist then, his long, pale fingers wrapping around her freckled wrist in a way that made Lily very uncomfortable. "Now, come on, Lily. I know some...better...kids in the other compartments."

"Better?" James sounded amused. His devil-may-care grin was still plastered across his face, but his voice had taken on a sharper tone.

"Better," affirmed Snape.

"Severus..." Lily began.

"Severus, is it?" James asked. A wicked gleam had entered his eyes. "Sounds more like Snivellus to me. 'Oh, Lily, let's go! Let's go, Lily, this is trouble, right here!' Go whine to your mummy, Snivellus!"

Then, James did the second piece of real magic that Lily had ever seen:

and the first hex.