The Marauders: Year Three | #Wattys2016

Marauders for Life

Marauders for Life

Severus searched the Hogwarts Express until he found Lily Evans. She was sitting with her friends and he pushed open the door and they all turned to look at time. Emmaline Vance and Marlene McKinnon stood up the moment they saw him, both stepped in between Severus and Lily. "We know what you've done, Snape," Marlene said, glowering at him, "And you aren't allowed to see Lily."

Severus blinked in surprise at the hostility. "Lily," he called, "What is this idiocy?"

Lily stood up and pressed her way around Marlene's shoulder, "It's alright, you lot." Ali Prewitt glared up at him from her seat, though, and her eyes were so wide and penetrating that Severus actually felt more intimidated by that little pixie of a girl than he did of the other two combined. He turned to focus solely on Lily. "Sev, I don't want to talk to you right now."

He'd been waiting since the End of Term party to speak with Lily. Nobody ever let him close. Twice he'd been headed off on his way to the Gryffindor table - once by Sirius Black and another time by Frank Longbottom. He'd decided he loathed Longbottom as much as he loathed the other four Gryffindor gits and he scowled now, not liking these girls Lily was friends with much either. "Well you have to talk to me at some point," he said.

"I really don't," she answered. "You have no idea how much what you did to me hurts, Sev. You've done me wrong, so very wrong."

"Well I can't really make it right without you giving me a second chance," he argued.

"I've given you countless chances in the last few years Severus," Lily replied.

Annalee McKinnon snapped, "All she's ever given you is chance after chance."

Severus looked at her helplessly, like a fish that had suddenly been taken out of it's bowl of water and his mouth opened and shut a couple times and his eyes filled with tears, "Lily."

"I'll write you when I've had a chance to calm down a little bit, Sev," she said as levelly as she could. She hated to see him so close to crying because, despite everything that he'd done, he was still her Severus. When Lily looked at him, she could still see the lonely little boy in his eyes, the one she'd felt so bad for at the playground, who'd approached her so timidly, who had opened her eyes to the wonder of real magic and told her fairy-tales about dragons and wizard schools. Deep down, he was still the same boy, and she couldn't truly ever hate that boy. "I just need some space right now, okay? Please try to understand."

Severus swept his hand over his eyes, destroying the tears building in them, and he turned on his heel and left the compartment. Lily watched him go, but, even though she felt terrible, she didn't stop him. It was a first and she sank back onto the compartment bench, feeling quite different - as though she'd turned a point in her life, like a switch that had been waiting to be flipped. An era had ended. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and felt the train lurch away from the station.

Severus stormed off until he found an empty compartment, far away at the back of the train, and he let himself in and used a spell to lock the door, sitting on the floor so his back pressed against it instead of on the bench, not wanting to see anybody or to be seen, and he closed his eyes and banged his head slowly against the door. "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid," he murmured under his breath at himself. "I'm so bloody stupid." The tears flowed across his face freely.

Suddenly there was a crack! and before him stood Kreacher, the Black family house elf. The old thing quaked, his body all gnarly and shriveled, and he looked about until he met Severus's stare. "Kreacher's Master Orion has ordered Kreacher to go to the Hogwarts Express and collect Severus Snape," Kreacher croaked. "He's to be taking Severus Snape to the Dark Lord."