Rune stone path

Old friends

Harry walked towards' Lily's room trying to decide exactly how he felt about waking her up to go talk to Snape. On the one hand, supposedly they were friends when they were kids. On the other hand…she'd seemed pretty ready to go beat the snot out of him when the man's name came up by chance yesterday. That and the fire in her eyes at the time had been what convinced him to let Snape in the house – he really wanted to watch her tear into his most hated professor. Maybe Daphne and Tracey were rubbing off on him…

Harry knocked softly and pushed her door open only to frown in confusion. It looked like the bed hadn't even been touched. "If she didn't sleep here then where did she sleep?"

"Master Harry, Sir?" Dobby said popping in behind him. "Your mother is being in James Potter's old room."

Harry blinked and turned to look at the elf. "Thanks, Dobby. You didn't have to get up. It's still super early."

Dobby rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "It's Dobby's job to get up to help Master. Dobby would've opened the door and told Greasy to leave but Master Harry didn't let Dobby make him wait long enough."

Harry suppressed a chuckle. "Great minds think alike, Dobby. I've got it from here, mate. You can go back to sleep."

Dobby huffed and turned to walk down the hall muttering. "Dobby just has coffee and Master says to go to sleep. Dobby get pictures of Greasy beating first then sleep."

Harry rubbed his eyes at his friend's antics and moved to the other wing to find his mother. He shouldn't have been surprised that she slept there. He just hoped that she hadn't had too many problems last night being here. If things were weird for him…he could barely even imagine how overwhelming everything was being for her. Coming up on the door, he set his shoulders and schooled his features before softly knocking again and entering. Once the door was open though he could only blink in surprise as he looked at the bed.

Lily and Shiva were both on top of the mattress covers fully clothed. Shiva was sprawled out on the far side while Lily was curled up with a small stuffed bear clutched to her chest and one leg hanging off the bed. "Damn. Guess that answers whether she had a good night," Harry sighed. It was great that Lily and Shiva were apparently getting along but that things had apparently been bad enough that both fell asleep before even pulling back the covers wasn't exactly comforting.

He walked closer and gently laid a hand on Lily's shoulder. "Lily," he said softly. "Lily, someone's here to see you."

Blearily Lily reached an arm up and swatted in front of her. "Five minutes," she mumbled.

"Lily, wake up. You need to at least be conscious enough to tell me whether to send him packing or not."

Shiva groaned and turned her head into the pillow. "Tell them to go 'way," she said not quite awake. "Sleeping here."

"It's, Snape," Harry said.

Lily went to bat his hand away again but her movement froze mid-gesture. Her eyes fluttered open and after a moment focused on Harry. "What? Harry? What were you saying?"

He shrugged and moved back a bit to give her room to sit up. "Snape just showed up demanding to see you. I left him in the entrance hall. Do you want me to tell him to take a hike or do you want to talk to him?"

Her eyes narrowed and she growled. "Severus is here? That miserable git…give me a second to wake up and – " she cut off as a glass of tea appeared on the table next to her. "You seriously have the best friends, son. That elf of yours is amazing." She took a quick gulp of the tea and shifted to kick her legs over the side and stretch. Shiva just clutched her pillow tighter. "Let's let Shiva sleep. We had a bit of a long night."