All in the Family

Chapter 196: The Prince's Tale

The meadow was a little clearing she could walk to blindfolded by the time she was nine. Sev had found it, he'd slid down the embankment walking alone one rainy day to her house and stayed under the patch of trees for shelter instead, the noise had been so soothing, the wet smell of grass and sounds of wildlife entrancing. He'd thrown rocks at her window for an hour before she woke up, and they'd come back before the drizzling sky had run its course, sitting on the dark, damp earth as they felt it, watched the world change around them all because of a little water.

It was the first time Lily had believed the weird Snape kid from a few streets over had been telling the truth about magic, as he dazzled her eyes with a torch and the puddles flashed rainbows of color. It was where they did their first 'potion' mixing leaves and sticks into the mud and convinced themselves some magical elf would come along to try it and grant them immortality.

It was where she'd first realized she could never have both Sev and Tuney in her life, that day she caught them talking about dementors.

It was in this very spot she knelt now only last summer she'd raged about having to go back to school because Potter would be as big an arse as ever and follow her relentlessly around, she'd be isolated from her best friend in Gryffindor tower, and he'd nodded and agreed with her how unfair it was and they could just keep sneaking around being friends, the two of them.

The place looked small, with the eight of them all sprawled out in the clearing. Sun dappled down on them from a bright afternoon, leaves were tangled up in her hair. It was just a patch of trees with no real magic, a place she'd isolated herself away from the rest of the Muggle kids because Severus had always tried to keep just the two of them here whispering about their school. It was the basis of every lie, he'd only ever wanted to keep her to himself. She'd hated Mulciber and Avery that very first week of school when Sev kept trying to have them all hang out.

Now he was a Death Eater and she casually took James's hand to get to her feet and gaze sadly around at what she'd be leaving behind when she went back.

"You think he regrets it?" She asked, eyes resting on the golden book propped against the base of a tree. His death had been a meaningless ploy to service his master, just like he'd always wanted apparently.

"I know everybody regrets something," he was watching his friends with a forlorn smile before looking back at her. "Take all the time you need Lily."

"How's your leg?" Remus offered his boyfriend a hand while at least trying to suppress his anxious expression, covertly inspecting said appendage to make sure no new gushing blood would spontaneously come pouring out from the grass stains.

"Perfectly normal, don't fuss," Sirius scoffed as he took it and stood without a single wobble.

"You might have died you ass, I've a right to fuss for at least the next twenty-four hours," Remus scoffed right back.

"Considering we can't actually measure time, I refuse to allow that, you could be fussing for the next twenty years or twenty minutes," Sirius snarked as he squeezed his hand.

"We could always measure it in the span of how long it takes to get to your next death defying stunt," Remus rolled his eyes and leaned in closer.

"Oh, that's right clever," Sirius snorted, the soft gust of wind coming from the wrong direction than just seconds before.

"Do you actually know the meaning of that word?" Remus mock asked. "You could have at least pretended to deny-"

"Like your one to talk Mr. -"

There was a soft throat clearing, and both looked over to see Peter with no clue how long he'd been standing there.

Remus blushed and leaned back, but Sirius gave him a friendly smile and blabbed, "hey, glad you're not dead by the way. Don't do a stunt like that again, where was your exit strategy mister?"