A Well-Intentioned Lie
Lily noticed Snape's aversion to Gringotts and considerately asked him to wait outside while she went in alone.
The Goblin guarding the door glanced up and spotted Lily. His manner instantly became exceedingly respectful, and he bowed at once, welcoming her warmly. On her eleventh birthday, she had formally opened her own private vault at Gringotts and deposited a full ten thousand Galleons in one go. She was a major customer, and the Goblins had long since committed the lavish Miss Evans to memory.
Without needing to be asked, a Goblin led Lily straight to private vault 594. The heavy vault door slowly swung open, revealing piles of gleaming Galleons and neatly arranged Silver Sickles that filled the space with glittering light. Lily looked around, casually picked up a sturdy money bag, and filled it to the brim with Galleons. Then she quietly asked the Goblin to take her back.
The trip took some time, and Snape grew increasingly uneasy as he waited outside. The longer he waited, the more anxious he became. He could not help wondering whether the Goblins were giving Lily trouble because she was a Muggle-born wizard. Tense with worry, he was almost unable to resist pushing the door open and going in to look for her.
Just as his anxiety became unbearable, a clear voice suddenly rang out. "Come on, Severus. Let's buy clothes first."
Snape looked up at Lily's gentle smile and was instantly dumbfounded.
He had assumed the first essential they bought would be a wand of her own. He had never heard of anyone buying wizard's robes first. What stirred him even more was Lily's use of "we."
That intimate, equal plural pronoun instantly pleased Snape, who had always lacked affection and was used to being alone.
Yet amid his delight, he was full of confusion. He could not be sure what she meant by "we," and his feelings were a jumble of warmth and bewilderment.
The two walked side by side to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions and pushed the door open. Madam Malkin, who knew Lily well, had just begun to smile and was about to greet her warmly when she caught Lily's discreet wink and immediately understood. She glanced at the stiff, gloomy Snape in his old clothes and grasped the whole situation at once.
Madam Malkin said nothing more. Smiling gently, she ushered the two children onto separate stools to be measured. A nimble magical tape measure fluttered about on its own, moving up and down as it carefully measured their shoulder widths, heights, and waists, down to the smallest detail.
Only then did Snape belatedly realize that when Lily said "we'll buy clothes," she had not meant buying them for herself alone. She had included him too.
He instinctively stiffened and declined in a dry voice. "Lily, I already have robes. There's no need to buy more."
No sooner had he spoken than Madam Malkin mercilessly exposed his attempt to put on a brave face. "Young sir, those robes of yours weren't made to order at my shop, were they? I always remember my customers, but I can't recall you at all. Perhaps I'm getting old and my memory isn't what it was."
Her words struck right at Snape's embarrassment over wearing old, secondhand robes. His cheeks instantly burned, and he stood rigidly in place without a word, able only to let the magical tape measure move back and forth over him as waves of humiliation and bitterness rose in his heart.
Lily saw his embarrassment and quickly curved her eyes into a smile, putting on a playfully pleading expression as she coaxed him gently. "Come on, Severus. Think of it as thanks for taking the trouble to bring me all the way to Diagon Alley. Please be kind and accept it, all right? Otherwise, I'll feel bad."
The girl's clear, gentle gaze and playfully soft expression instantly soothed all the embarrassment and awkwardness in Snape's heart. His tense lips relaxed slightly, their corners rising by an almost imperceptible two pixels.
After a moment's silence, he nodded gently and relented in a low voice. "All right, then."
Once the measurements were done, Lily promptly pulled out a handful of Galleons and set them on the table. She also left a note clearly stating that she needed a full set of black wizard's robes for the first through seventh years. Madam Malkin looked at the weighty gold coins on the table, the corner of her eye twitching slightly. Torn between laughter and exasperation, she nevertheless accepted the money and the order and promised to have all the clothes ready on time.
After leaving the robe shop, Snape had every intention of taking Lily straight to Ollivander's Wand Shop to complete the most important preparation for school. But before he could take a step, Lily's gaze was caught by the dazzling array of books at Flourish and Blotts next door. She turned and pulled him straight inside.
Lily browsed the bookshop to her heart's content, not limiting herself to the basic first-year textbooks. Whenever an advanced book on Potions, charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, or ancient runes interested her, she picked it up, building a thick stack.
The pile of books was so heavy that there was no way they could carry it by hand. Left with no choice, Snape raised his hand and used a Levitation Charm to make the entire stack hover steadily beside them.
Looking at the floating books, Lily suddenly had an idea. She turned to him with a bright smile and asked, "Severus, do you have an owl? We could have it take the books home in batches, so we wouldn't have to keep carrying them around."
Snape fell silent at once.
He did not answer for a long time. He simply had no Galleons to spare for an owl. To avoid buying poor-quality secondhand equipment, he had spent all his savings on a brand-new wand and cauldron. Apart from those, almost all his supplies were secondhand or even thirdhand.
After a long while, he finally said quietly, "No."
Lily thought to herself that Severus was as sparing with words as ever. Then she smiled and suggested, "I already have an owl at home, so I can't get another one. How about I buy one for you, and you look after it for me? These books are so heavy that we can't possibly take them all home ourselves."
Snape knew perfectly well that he could simply refuse or come up with an excuse. But when he met Lily's eyes, every refusal stuck in his throat, and he could not get a single word out. He was cold and distant with others and never gave an inch, but when it came to Lily, he could never bring himself to turn her down.
In the end, he could only give in. "All right."
And so Snape reluctantly gave in and let Lily pull him into Eeylops Owl Emporium.
"I'd like a large black eagle owl," Lily said decisively.
The shop assistant immediately brought out an elegant iron cage and introduced its occupant with an eager smile. "How about this jet-black eagle owl? Excellent in every respect, gentle and responsive to people, and only twenty-two Galleons and twelve Sickles."
The moment Snape heard the price, the corner of his eye twitched violently.
So expensive.
This one owl actually cost more than his brand-new wand and cauldron combined. He instinctively wanted to talk her out of it, but seeing Lily decide to buy it without hesitation, he swallowed every word.
"I'll take it, along with a supply of its special feed." Lily promptly paid.
Snape looked silently at the eagle owl in the cage, its posture upright and its feathers glossy black. After thinking for a moment, Lily named it Whisper, a gentle, airy name that suited its appearance especially well.
After Whisper had carried the heavy books back to the town in batches, Lily enthusiastically pulled the now-numb Snape into Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. Snape could not be bothered to look into it. He gave up thinking altogether and stopped puzzling over why Lily still had not gone to buy a wand.
The two sat facing each other, each slowly eating a generous ice cream boat.
Their full day in Diagon Alley quietly came to an end, and the two returned to their respective homes. Only when he was alone did Snape belatedly realize something crucial: Lily had not gone to Ollivander's Wand Shop at any point.
He frowned slightly and thought it over. No matter how he considered it, there was only one answer: Lily must have taken the opportunity to buy her wand early, in the year Petunia started school.
So her claim that she had not bought her supplies and needed him to show her the way had merely been an excuse to accompany him.