A/N: As Lily is struck by the killing curse, she remembers the young boy who introduced her to this magical world in the first place. Snilly. This has been an old plot bunny that's been waiting to be written. I do not own Harry Potter.

Submission for:

War of Angels Competition: Round One - Write a drabble of between 500 and 800 words using a pairing of your choice, set in the first Wizarding War. - Severus/Lily. Prompt: teardrop.

Amateur Divination Game Challenge: Round 9: What is your favorite Harry Potter book? - HBP.

She brushed a soothing hand across her sleeping infant's brow, the motion contrasting with the quickened beating of her heart within her chest. There had been an explosion, the smell of fire and a sense of dread that had startled her and her husband out of bed. They were supposed to be hidden and untraceable, they were supposed to be safe, so it could only mean one thing - he had found them.

There was frightening thump from somewhere beyond the closed nursery door which caused her heart to still. She spun and held a hand to her mouth, not wanting to accept what that sound could mean. If he had come, if he was in the house, then the thump-

She turned back to the sleeping infant and began to murmur under her breath comforting words to keep him still, to protect him from the evil that was drawing ever closer, to hold herself together else she break when he needed her most.

Then the door flew open, splintering as it was blasted off its hinges and a thin dark figure entered the room, his billowing robes swallowing his body within. She moved herself before her son, who began to cry upon the disturbance.

"Step aside," he hissed, more snake than man as he gestured her aside. She was defenseless, her wand left on the night table as she stood before the monster in her thin nightgown, but she held firm. She would stay with her son until her last breath, offering what little comfort her mere presence could.

She hadn't even seen when his hand raised, hadn't even heard the words pass his lips, but she did see the green light which flooded her vision as it came towards her. It was bright like the sun, just like...

She is lying on her back, staring through the leaves above as she watches the clouds float by. The wind feels lovely against her skin and the sun is warm on her face.

"What is magic like?" she asks the boy laying beside her, his dark hair fanning around him on the grass.

"Magic can do wonderful things and make your wildest dreams come true. It can make things move on their own and make flowers grow, just like that," he says, a wistful smile on his face.

She nods and says, "If it can do all that, it can do bad things as well."

He frowns and sits up. "I won't let anything happen to you, Lily."

She sits up as well and offers him her pinkie. "Promise?"

He extends his own hand, a custom she taught him only recently, and says, "I promise I'll protect you from all bad magic. You're my friend."

"Always?" she asks.

A slight blush creeps up his cheek but at that age, she thinks nothing of it.

"Always."

He had promised he would protect her from all evil, he would be her friend forever. He had been her first friend from this world of magic. He had shown her such amazing things however, after that fateful day in their Fifth Year, she had broken their friendship and for what? A bad name which she had never cared for? A name called out in embarrassment and anger?

He had stayed with her through their years at school, even though she knew his friends didn't approve her or what she was, but that didn't matter to him. He was there. He loved her, and it had taken her so long to realize that but now it was definitely too late for that. It was too late for many things.

A lone teardrop escapes her cheek as she falls to the floor at the man's feet, shed not for her baby who she was unable to protect, not her husband who has given his everything for his family, but for him, for the young boy who introduced her to this great new world and she had never given a real chance.