⋆˚𝜗—𝓢𝖾𝗏𝖾𝗋𝗎𝗌 𝓢𝗇𝖺𝗉𝖾⁴

In his youth, and even later, Severus Snape was deeply in love with Lily Evans, his only friend. He lost her after calling her a "Mudblood" in his sixth year, and from then on, he seemed resigned to a solitary life.

But then there was you.

You had been by his side through his best and worst moments. You had known him since before he became the cold, bitter man everyone knew. Yet, in adulthood, Severus grew even more distant towards you.

She would leave as soon as you entered a room, avoid you in the hallways, and barely respond when you spoke to her. She seemed to find any excuse to make your life miserable.

And yet, they remained friends.

You were a professor of Arithmancy, a subject you mastered despite never having wanted to teach it. In fact, you'd asked Dumbledore for a job as a librarian, but he ended up putting you in charge of a class full of students. Severus, of course, never missed an opportunity to remind you how much you hated your job.

What you didn't know was that he knew every detail of your life. He knew who you were dating, when you argued with that person, which students bothered you, and even things you had never told him.

While pretending I could barely stand your presence, I found any reason to be near you. You never understood why. You wondered what you had done wrong.

Why did he treat you like a nuisance when, after so many years, you were still friends?

Maybe it was because of Lily.

Perhaps he simply didn't want you around anymore. Or perhaps Severus had spent years trying to convince himself that he felt nothing for you.

Because admitting it would mean accepting something that had been denied for too long: that, after Lily, it was you who stayed by her side.