@defiantcharms
“Lily, Lily!” Severus crossed the courtyard at a stumbling trot, his hands held out before him like he was some ancient monk carrying an offering to an altar. They were cupped closed around something that dripped muddy water. While the black sleeves of his robes had been rolled up to expose pallid arms and scrawny elbows they were nonetheless damp, and two muddy prints on the front of his robe showed where his knees had pressed into the dirt when he had knelt next to the Black Lake. Another smear of mud crossed his forehead and his lank black hair was slicked back haphazardly from his face. His dark eyes glittered and his sallow face was split into a rare, bright smile.
The smile, and the exuberant rush of words that spilled from it, faltered when he drew near enough to the red haired Gryffindor girl to see that she was not alone. “Lily, look what I’ve found! It’s--oh. Sorry. I didn’t mean to...interrupt.” He glowered at the other girls sitting around his friend and turned to go, hunching his shoulders and bending low sulkily over his sopping prize.