The Marauders: Year Two | #Wattys2016

To The Stands

To the Stands

Lily Evans stood waiting by the doorway to the dungeons, waiting and biting her fingernails. She'd been out to the Bell Towers already that morning to conjure a ring of flowers for each of them. The sunlight was brilliant and bright, glowing over the grounds with barely a cloud to break apart the blue sky, but Lily still felt heavy and sad.

When the Slytherins began to emerge from the dungeons for breakfast, she hung to one side, her eyes searching until she'd spotted Severus. Hurrying after him, Lily pushed her way among the other Slytherins and grabbed hold on his sleeve. Severus stopped short, turning quickly and withdrawing his wand as he faced Lily, then relaxing the moment he laid eyes upon her. "It's you," he said, surprised to see her.

Lily looked teary. "Can we take a walk together?" she asked.

Severus glanced about to see Narcissa already disappearing into the Great Hall with Yaxley and Mulciber and nodded, ducking quickly to follow Lily to the front doors and out the heavy doors to the grounds.

They walked side-by-side along the path toward the lake. Severus knew, of course, that Lily must be upset about Derek Bell. He'd known she would be from the moment that he'd heard what had happened. It was Narcissa who had heard first what had happened. An owl had come in the night for her from her sister, Bellatrix, who had told her of the trouble that had befallen her fiance in the woods. Bellatrix had mentioned in her note that she'd killed a member of the Resistance... and it was from Narcissa that the rumors had begun, spreading through the castle like wildfire. Severus had known within a matter of minutes that Derek Bell was dead.

Lily stopped when they'd reached the edge of the lake and crossed her arms. Severus stood beside her a moment, glancing over at her, waiting for her to speak. She rubbed her arms as though cold and Severus thought for a moment of pulling off his cloak and putting it 'round her shoulders, but he felt funny just thinking of it, and kept the cloak on. "I thought you would want to talk to me or something," he said.

"I don't know what to say, really," Lily said, "I just... I missed you. You're my best friend, Severus."

"What about the Lupin boy?" Severus asked coldly.

"He's my friend, too, but I really needed you," Lily said. She turned to face him and reached out her hands for his, holding them in her palms and looking down at his dirty fingernails. She turned his hands over so she was looking at his palms. "You still count me as your friend, don't you?" she asked, looking up at him.

Severus stared into her eyes, and he nodded, breathless at the color of them. "Yes, of course," he said lowly. "Always."

Lily stared up into his eyes. "It's just with all of the awful things happening lately, it's so very obvious how short all of our lives could be, isn't it?" she bit her lips, "I just can't stop thinking of the fact that just two days ago, Derek Bell had his entire life ahead of him and the most terrifying thing he could think of was flunking the N.E.W.T.s, and today... he's gone."

"Yes," Severus said slowly, unsure where exactly this was going. "Mortality and all that. It's rather off-putting thinking of it."

"I just don't think we ought to waste anymore of our time fighting," Lily said.

"I agree," murmured Severus.

She smiled and wrapped her arms around him, hugging Severus's stunned form to herself so that her face pressed into his neck. He stood very still in her arms. He could hardly believe that she was wrapped around him this way. She stepped back and tucked a loose bit of hair behind her ear and took a deep breath.