Emma Moore, professor in Healing at Hogwarts, has to suppress her feelings for her old best friend and now colleague Severus Snape, who she hasn't seen in ten years, while figuring out who killed her aunt.
...
"Go away, Emma," Lily snapped as they walked from Potions class up to the Gryffindor tower.
"Oh, come on, Lil, it's not me you're angry with."
"No, but you're still defending him, and it's really starting to piss me off, okay?" She glared over her shoulder, sending a chill through Emma's spine. This girl was frightening when she was angry.
"Lily, wait!" Emma sprinted to catch up, then grabbed her arm and forced her to stand still. "Please. You're both my best friends, my only friends, and I miss all of us being together. I hate being caught in the middle, but I hate it more that you two are fighting. Just... Please, give him a chance to show you that he's sorry. He really is sorry."
Lily hesitated, her face still stuck in an angry frown. Eventually, she sighed. She walked over to the nearest alcove in the wall and sat down on the ridge. "I don't understand how you can just forgive him like that," she said as Emma joined her. "He called me a Mudblood – the worst insult to a muggle-born he could think of. You're a muggle-born, too. How are you not furious with him?"
Emma shrugged. "Because I know he didn't mean it. He does this shit all the time, but –"
"Exactly!" Lily exclaimed. "He does this shit all the time. At some point he doesn't deserve to be forgiven anymore, Em. I gave him plenty of chances, but all he keeps proving, over and over again, is that he's a arsehole."
Emma averted her gaze, her heart hurting at the awful things she was saying about her best friend. "He really tries, you know."
"Well, maybe that's not good enough." She put her hand on Emma's shoulder. "He's not a good person, Em. I know you love him, but you know that as well as I do. You should follow my example. Cut him out of your life. We've done enough for him, you especially."
Her blood ran cold. "Don't say that, Lil. You can't just give up on him, he's your friend."
"Not anymore." Lily stood up. "I'm sorry, Em, I really am, but I'm done. I can't do this anymore. I think you shouldn't either, but that's for you to decide."
She walked away, leaving Emma in the alcove with tears in her eyes.
I'll never give up on him.
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"You fucking idiot."
Emma grinned, raising an eyebrow. "I didn't agree to Ladies' Night," she said, raising her glass of elf-made wine to emphasise the words, "just so you could spend all night calling me an idiot."
Charity rolled her eyes. "Well, then you shouldn't have told me that you turned down the love of your life. Twice. You dolt."
"Dolt?" Emma chuckled as Charity shook her head.
"You, Emma Moore, are a tragedy."
"Are you done?"
Charity swigged down the rest of her drink and poured herself another. "Not even close, my dear. Not even close."
