Gemini Volkov was not one to understand emotions.

She was not one to understand anything that wasn't anger, hatred, or hunger, if anyone else considered that an emotion rather than a state of being. She understood when she felt adventurous and when she had a certain thirst for knowledge that would itch at the back of her head. She also always felt a certain spot in her chest warm up any time she did something good for somebody else, but that was one of the few emotions she felt and couldn't understand.

Currently, she felt none of those things.

What was within her was so strong that no matter how hard she thought, she couldn't quite put a label on how she felt.

She pressed her cold lips together, glaring into the fireplace of the Gryffindor common room, almost hoping that it would burn the place down with her in it. That way, she wouldn't have to explain her feelings, and she wouldn't have to explain the facts that were hard to face.

And facts? There were only 3 of those:

Fact #1: Gemini Volkov had willingly kissed Severus Snape.

Fact #2: Severus Snape thought he had kissed Lily Evans.

And last, but not least:

Fact #3: Gemini Volkov was not Lily Evans.

Sure, there was a lot more to the story, such as facts she had twisted over and over in order to get them to match her story:

Fact (or maybe not) #1: Gemini Volkov thought she was kissing Sirius Black.

Fact (or maybe not) #2: Gemini Volkov did not want Severus Snape or Sirius Black to find out that Gemini Volkov had kissed Severus Snape.

And yet another:

Fact (or maybe not) #3: Gemini Volkov had never wanted to kiss Severus Snape.

The facts and the maybe-facts made sense to her, but not at all. Fact number 1 did not match up with maybe-facts number 1 and 3. When she looked at it that way, fact number 1 seemed to cancel out both maybe-facts number 1 and 3.

Maybe-fact number 2 was only there because she was unsure and she needed to remind herself of her situation.

And what situation was that, exactly?

She didn't know.

She couldn't explain it if she tried.

And she HAD tried. She swore she did!

But it wasn't that easy.

The only thing she could think about was the fact that she'd kissed Severus Snape only because of his charming advice, although she thought said advice came from Sirius. Then again, she knew Sirius Black would never come up with that kind of advice. She knew Sirius Black was a lot more straight-forward and would not beat around the bush when it came to winning the heart of a girl. She KNEW these things, yet she tried to trick herself into thinking she didn't.

She wanted to pretend she didn't know so she could protect Severus.

If she told Severus that she had been the one to kiss him and not Lily, Severus' story would be over. He would feel that all his work didn't pay off, and he would continue to pursue Lily, but this time, she was almost sure it would be without her help.

Who was she kidding? Trying to help Severus win Lily's heart? She didn't know Lily, she didn't like Lily, and the worst part was that she didn't want Severus to be with Lily anymore.

A knot formed in her throat at her realization. She took deep breaths and tried to keep herself from missing her best friend's company before Lily even started dating him. If they started dating, at least.

Lily wouldn't want to date Severus if he asked her about the kiss at the party.

She would think he was crazy!

Which he was, but that was also Gemini's fault for giving him so much confidence when things weren't going to fall into place as he would like them to.

Nothing ever happened that way, and although it hurt to think about it, Gemini knew it was true.

And so, she ended up betraying both Sirius and Gideon, which she didn't want to see, she ended up giving Severus Snape false hopes, and she ended up stealing his first kiss from him.

An unforgivable, stupid, plain first kiss.

Gemini was used to kissing Sirius, and when she kissed him, he would usually respond. He would lead her through the kiss, almost as if she was a kid and he was holding her hand to cross the street. Because she had kissed Severus, it wasn't like that.

All she remembered kissing him herself, and then suddenly feeling his large nose poking her cheek so hard it hurt. That's what gave him away to her.

The moment she backed away, she stared in horror as she noticed his dark eyes, and a strand of hair that was threatening to stick out of the hairstyle he had created, which she couldn't see. She was glad she didn't see it, either. Otherwise, he would have seen her.

Although that sounded like a terrible kissing story, she couldn't say it was all that bad either.

Sure, Severus was useless when it came to kissing, mostly because he hadn't kissed anyone before. But it wasn't disgusting. She regretted it, but it was not as bad as she made it seem in her head.

She did remember that brief moment when he actually said something meaningful. She felt as if a lot of weight had been lifted off her shoulders. And she felt the need to reward "Sirius."

She was freezing while she sat next to him, but when she leaned in just a bit closer, there was so much heat coming from his body that she couldn't deny the fact that it felt nice when she was almost frozen.

And when their lips had actually touched, her whole face had felt warm as well.

And when his huge nose was against her cheek, his breathing was warm.

That was all she wanted to remember it like now: warmth.

That's why she had liked the kiss. That's why she had so many emotions after her stupid mistake. It was all because of the warmth.

The next day, Gemini avoided everything and everyone. It felt like the more she avoided them, the more she saw them. She left the common room early in the morning to keep herself from being questioned. She went to the library and picked out a book to pass the time during breakfast, but found that Gideon had forgotten to do his homework and was frantically reading that morning.

She then waited for class to start and went into the girl's lavatory to wait until the very last minute she had before class started. When she entered, all the seats were taken and she was forced to sit in the back at one of the tables with weird drawings carved into the wood and a leg that was shorter than the other three legs.

This worked for about two classes until Sirius caught on and followed her out of class.

"Where are you going? Class is this way." Sirius asked. He was already holding on to Gemini's wrist, showing that he had caught on. While Sirius continued to look back at Gemini during class, Severus only stared at Lily and looked conflicted on what to do.

"The girl's lavatory."

"You went twice already." Sirius frowned. "Just because you picked me doesn't mean you have to be so awkward about it. I won't tell Gideon, I promise."

"What?" Gemini gaped at him. He was definitely not the person she kissed. She knew it. She saw it!

"You kissed me last night, remember? When we were dancing." He smiled, pulling her along as he walked to their next class. "I said I won't tell Gideon. You have my word."

"You…I kissed you?" That's when she got visibly angry.

She hadn't kissed Sirius, someone else had. That much, she knew. She wasn't exactly angry because someone else had kissed him; she was angry because he hadn't realized it wasn't her.

He nodded carelessly, dodging the students that were walking in the opposite direction.

"You're right. I kissed you."

Gemini gave him a smile, pulled her arm away and continued to guide herself to class. Because she was smaller, she managed to get past the students much faster than he did. He tried his hardest to catch up to her again, but by the time he did, she was already sitting next to Severus.

That was something she hadn't thought through.

"I almost felt like you had been avoiding me, but found that I had other problems to take care of." Severus said casually, his lips pursed as his eyes flickered from Lily to Gemini.

"Good morning to you too." Gemini scoffed, looking back at him, but not being able to hold her gaze as high as he was.

She was definitely lacking the confidence she usually carried with her, and she was sure that whether he mentioned it or not, Severus had noticed. She felt smaller than she ever had under his eyes, and that was not a good sign. She wasn't expecting to feel the change so quickly.

"Yeah, yeah," his lips quirked into a half-smile as he gazed at Lily once more, "I've got something to tell you after class."

Ah, there it was.

"Why can't you tell me here?" Gemini asked.

He hesitated, but answered anyway.

"It's a secret."

"You can tell me the secret right now," she leaned a little closer, hoping he would just get his story over with already. She definitely didn't want to hear what he had to say if he had extra time to add comments.

"Mr. Snape and Ms. Volkov, will you please hold your flirting until the end of class?" Professor McGonagall turned back to look at them, which, in turn, caused everyone else to look at them as well.

Severus froze for a moment because he hated the attention, but Gemini was growing redder by the second. She still wasn't ready for the teasing, and any comment made about them, whether it was a joke or not, would make her feel the need to tell someone about her situation.

While she soon managed to disregard the comment, she glanced at Sirius who looked more confused than angry. He was probably still thinking about why she ran away from him all of the sudden, which she wouldn't tell him about.

Their eyes met for moment before she turned away from him, just to show him she was certainly not pleased. Not that he would get it, anyway. He was about as smart as a pile of cheese in her opinion.

As she thought this, she felt something tickling her hand and found that it was a note from Severus. He probably was much too excited to wait until lunch.

The note said:

A girl kissed me last night…a girl whom I thought was Lily, but I am starting to doubt it. Anyway, she said my name and ran away after she kissed me. Is that a bad sign?

Gemini felt a smile forming on her lips. Even Severus knew when he wasn't kissing the girl he loved. She wondered if Sirius would have ever gotten that, or if he would ever understand why she was mad without telling him. It was stupid to think about, considering she was sure that he had absolutely no idea.

Gemini replied to Severus' note, jabbing him in the ribcage with her elbow a little too hard, causing him to groan in pain.

Everyone turned to look at them again, but Gemini pretended she hadn't had anything to do with Severus' pain. Instead, she turned red from all the laughter she was holding back as she watched him read her note.

She was probably just confused. Your kiss couldn't have been so bad that you scared her off. By the way, your making it rather obvious that you're staring at her.

And as if he had been commanded to do so, Severus turned his attention to Lily again, watching as she tucked her red hair behind her ear and frantically took notes.

His face matched her hair.

Gemini's face also matched Lily's hair.

Author's Note: Hello, I sure hope you've enjoyed this chapter. c: This is where, you could say, the plot thickens. It'll be slowly drifting into the actual main plot of the story, which is great because I can't wait to get to it. Let me know what you think, and thanks for reading! (also, sorry for taking so long! I had this chapter done for a while, but I hadn't had time to proofread it)