Dark Side of the Moon, Chapter Fourteen; small Lily/Severus story update

Jean Farwig (givemethechild) has been building up Dark Side of the Moon for thirteen chapters - well, she's still building up, technically - and I've been following since chapter four.  I've been impatient, but grudgingly appreciative of the work she was putting into the relationship, building both of the characters and fleshing them out completely. 

The effect proved itself absolutely successful, at least with me, in this chapter, when we had Significant Physical Contact.

I almost died squeeing.

One:

“Enjoying your prefect duties?” She was half-repentant for her earlier behaviour, and put as much sympathy into her tone as she thought he could take – but he responded with a snarl.

“What’s it to you?”

Lily frowned. “I’m sorry, I was just asking. Would you be a gentlemen and intrude on whoever is occupying that compartment so I can get past?”

“What gives you the idea that I would do that for you?” he said scathingly.

Lily shrugged. She knew what she was going to do, and even though she’d gotten relatively close to Snape over the summer, her next movement required a certain degree of guts to execute. “Suit yourself,” she said, feigning casualness, and advanced to meet him.

Slipping her hands up to his shoulders, she turned sideways at the same time he did. With a little engineering of torsos and arms and legs, she had squeezed past him in one breathless moment. Now they stood facing each other, and she regarded his abashed expression with a faintly flushed look of triumph.

And two, which takes place after a rather awful argument and she slaps him and says mean things and he looks like he's about to curse her:

Lily turned abruptly, facing her back to him. “Go ahead,” she said softly. “Curse me. Do it while my back’s turned. Convince me that you’re just like them. Believe me, Snape, it’d make my next decision so much easier to make.”

She realized with a surge of horror that her eyes were wet, and that she was crying. She knew that it would be more embarrassing to turn and face him now than it would to be found by some random passer-by, face down on the floor, victim of Petrificus Totalus or some other debilitating hex; so she simply stood there and waited for him to make up his mind.

But he did the unexpected: he paced around to stand in front of her, and when she looked up at him, she was astonished at the emotion she found waiting in his eyes. It wasn’t regret, and it wasn’t shame, and it certainly wasn’t concern… but maybe a tentative mix of the three? He’d put his wand away, she saw through tear-blurred eyes; he was now fingering the cuffs of his sleeves, wrists crossed in a subconsciously defensive position, and he seemed to be chewing on his lips.

“Well?” Lily muttered, turning her head to draw her sleeve across her eyes. “What are you waiting for?”

His hand found her arm and drew it away from her averted face. The touch of one cool finger beneath her chin brought her head up, and she met her gaze with his – his hands dropped, and he hastily withdrew again, but this time he spoke, and his voice was just a little hoarse.

“I’ve been….”

She waited. His eyes flickered.

“…inflexible,” he finally said.

She still waited.

“And I… would like to….”

Lily licked her lips. They tasted like salt. Go on, she silently prodded.

“…express my – remorse, for my actions.”

She found herself feeling less satisfied than she thought she’d be.

“That is not to say,” he added quickly, “that you have been entirely without fault.”

She opened her mouth to protest hotly – (I know, I’ve been trying to tell you – !) – but he shook his head almost imperceptibly and said, “You haven’t,” he insisted. “And I know you’ve admitted to it. Which is… more than I’ve done.” He scowled. “And I’m sorry.”

Irrationally, Lily felt her eyes tear up again. “It’s fine,” she muttered, her voice sounding phlegmy. She cleared her throat, and said again, “It’s fine. Just – I hate fighting with you.” She hugged herself and wiped her damp cheek on her shoulder. “Um. I’m going to… go now.”

“Will you come to the third-floor classroom tonight?”

Lily sighed. “Can we start next week?”

A muscle worked in Snape’s jaw, but he nodded. “Of course.”

“Thank you,” she said, and then fled.

*dies again*

Wow.  I'm afraid this might influence, in a hindering way, my writing my own Lily/Severus story.  Which is, by the way, on its third page at thirteen hundred words.  No definite title as of yet.