"Lily and Snape are sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g..."
The girls' chant drifted over from the other side of the filthy little river, sounding full of delight.
"Ignore them, Sev." Lily laughed carelessly. "Let's continue."
The scene shifted, and a fairy-tale book rested on the boy's knees.
Pomona lowered her wand.
"Continue," said the pale boy in Slytherin robes. Sweat covered his face, and pain was etched between his brows.
"Take a break," Pomona said wearily. "Legilimency is exhausting too."
Only then did he relax, staring blankly at the greenhouse ceiling.
Pomona mixed a calming draught into some pumpkin juice and handed it to him.
"I hate that story," Snape said without taking the pumpkin juice, speaking with an oddly mature air.
"Which story?" Pomona asked.
"The Fountain of Fair Fortune," Snape said.
Pomona shrugged.
"You're not going to ask why?" Snape asked.
"I think it's boring too. It's the same performance every Christmas. Even with different actors, there's nothing new about it."
"That knight is completely useless," Snape sneered.
Pomona knew a little about the feud between "Sev" and James Potter. It seemed James had said on the train that he wanted to join Gryffindor and become some sort of knight.
James also found "Snivellus" utterly unreasonable.
Their conflict was not entirely because of red-haired Lily.
Pomona took another sip of pumpkin juice.
After seeing so many of Snape's gloomy memories, it was not hard for her to understand why he liked Lily.
She was like a flame in his life. Not only had she brought light and warmth, she had also made that foul, smoke-filled place feel fresh. Even the riverside where they often stayed, with its dead tree, seemed purified.
His eyes held only Lily. He had not noticed the rubbish or the stinking little river at