Severus hasn't been the same ever since Lily broke off their friendship–he blamed it on himself daily and will never forget that ONE word he said to her. Mudblood. Gods, the slur made him cringe even if he thought about it. He missed Lily, her laugh, her smile, her cheerful attitude that he looked forward to. Everything about her he admired, he was lucky to have her as a friend but now he lost her, all because he let a word slip out of him mouth which he didn't mean to, he was afraid. He was afraid of what James was doing to him, lifting him in the air and then–

"Severus?" Avery called out, his expression showed mild confusion and concern as he noticed how Severus kept blanking out and staring off into space. Severus snapped out of his thoughts and widened his eyes a bit, looking around and seeing how every one of his friends looked at him with either concern or expression, especially you, looking at him with both, like Avery.

He cleared his throat, trying to relieve the awkwardness he felt at being silently judged–or that's what he thought–speaking in his usual cold tone with a hint of shakiness to it, he looked down at his lap, noticing the book he was in the middle of reading.

"I'm fine. Just–trying to ease my mind with the Advanced Potions quiz tomorrow, Slughorn said it'll be harder than usual." Severus never worried about quizzes, especially if they were based off of potions, he just wanted to come up with an excuse. His friends shrugged it off and suddenly spoke about Lily, speaking bad things about her which made Severus' mind flood with anger.

Lily passed by, walking with her friends, she didn't even glance at Severus. Severus' shoulders slumped in disappointment, wanting her to at least acknowledge him in some way but she didn't, and she wasn't going to, Severus knew that.