The silence coming from the other side of the blanket stretched on for an agonizingly long time, all through when Severus capped his water bottle once more and set it aside. When Lily said the poem was lovely, he finally exhaled, though he still couldn't quite bring himself to open his eyes. Perhaps it was lovely, and he had no reason to believe Lily was being less than truthful with that compliment, but he still couldn't bring himself to open his eyes.
Not until he heard her move closer and felt her fingers wrap around his, that was.
"Fifth year," he practically croaked, sounding very much as if he had the proverbial frog in his throat. He swallowed and cleared it a second later, before adding, "I'd planned to give it to you on your birthday, but I never worked up the nerve." Because in a way that poem could have been seen as proposing, even if he said outright that he didn't feel worthy in its verses. He'd been afraid she would have laughed. But she certainly wasn't laughing now.