Lilys Need Sunlight

 Chapter one: Back to the Future

Lilly felt terrible, like the time her and Sev had nicked a bottle of Fire Whiskey from the teachers private stores in the kitchen for their Christmas celebration last year, they had a great time but the morning after they had both sworn to never have Fire Whiskey again. She felt dreadful; as if she had downed an entire bottle herself. She felt extremely disorientated and confused; she had been walking back from the library with Sev when she stopped to check what had snuck into her shoe as was getting quite painful with each step, when upon leaning against the wall for support her head spun, causing her to fall very painfully on her arse. What had been really strange was instead of laughing at her for her clumsiness Sev had completely disappeared.

Dislodging a pebble that had come from god knows where from her shoe, she got to her feet, looking around just in case Sev was waiting in one of the surrounding alcoves to scare her, she wouldn't put it past him. Satisfied that he must of not realised she had stopped walking, Lily continued down the corridors that led to the Slytherin common room in order to catch up with her friend.

Racing through the corridors she passed Potter, no doubt he and his friends were going to get up to something after curfew, though for some reason he wasn't with Black and Lupin…. Oh, and that little weasel that ran along behind the trio; instead he was with some red head boy and a bushy haired girl. As she passed he flashed her that famous Potter smile, deceiving friendly, surprisingly he had a genuinely hurt expression on his face when she shot back a nasty look; oh well, she didn't have time to wonder why Potter looked so offended all of a sudden at her rejections, he should be used to them by now.

She hurried after Severus. When she reached the Slytherin common room, finding the portrait of Salazar Slytherin sneering at her like usual, though there was no Severus in sight. ​Oh well, she thought, I'll talk to him tomorrow. She turned around to go back to her own common room, figuring that Sev must have been tired from their long study session, and been too exhausted to wait for her. It was almost curfew anyway so she started off towards the seventh floor leaving behind an aggravated Salazar for being in the proximity of a 'mudblood' for so long, wondering why the other houses got random portraits as their guardians such as the 'Fat Lady', where Slytherin got their name-sake. It probably makes them feel more superior, she sniggered to herself, like that was possible.

Lily knew that now she was definitely out of bed pass curfew and so was sneaking her was along the corridors to Gryffindor as quickly as she could, while jumping into empty alcoves when she heard the faintest of noises. Almost at her common room she relaxed a little, proud at herself for not getting caught; they didn't get into trouble much, but when they did Sev was the one to always get them out of it, as she was definitely not the sneaky type. Sev always said that it was a good thing that he hadn't corrupted her, then who would put on the innocent face that would always get the teachers to believe his sly words and let their offense slide. She made a mental note to tell Sev tomorrow that she could be just as sneaky as he could be.

Her smugness with herself was short lived however, as just as she rounded the second last corner to her dormitory she collided with something very solid, causing her to land painfully on her already sore arse for the second time that night. Once again having to regain her bearings she did not stand at once. When she did finally get to her feet she almost fell to the floor again in shock, instead taking a few steps backwards. Looking up she saw a professor that she had never seen before; she assumed he was a professor as he wore teacher's robes.

The man was reasonably tall, being at least six feet. He wore plain black teacher's robes with the cuffs and collar of a bleach white shirt underneath just showing. He wore his jet black lank hair like Sev did, hanging limp to his shoulders, coming forward in curtains to frame his pale face in a way that lessened the dominant nose that ruled his face but added to his deep charcoal eyes. On the whole the strange wizard looked very much like Sev, though the major difference was were as Severus' thin lips always curled gracefully into a cheerful smile upon seeing her, this man's thin lips curled into a snarl.

The unknown professor looked like he was about to start yelling at her for being out after curfew when suddenly he went more pale then he already was, any colour in his face draining in an instant, and his mouth losing its mean sneer, hung open as if in shock and continued to hang there. Unable to think of what to say to the peculiar man Lily just nervously said, "Professor?" As if her speaking had broken a binding spell, the wizard quickly marched forward, closing the distance between them in two strides. Reaching his hand up as if to touch her, the man asked, "Lily?" Lily stood there returning the man's look of apprehension as his hand hovered below her chin. "Yeah….." She replied just before she heard the loud thump of the strange new teacher hitting the floor as he fainted. "Professor?" she said loudly as she lent down to him, wondering how he had known her name as she was quite sure that if she had met the now unconscious but still intimidating man before she would definitely have remembered it.