Lily came walking down the stairs of her and her husband's newly-bought home with several large boxes piled up in her hands. For the past few hours she had been trying to finish unpacking, laughing at old photographs and memories she had found.
"James, could you give me a hand?" Lily wheezed through her teeth, the weight of the heavy boxes about to crush her. James immediately raced to her side, grabbed the boxes and ran back to the kitchen, dropping them with a thud on the counter.
"Lily, I told you, let me unpack; you really need your rest."
Lily looked down at her heavily pregnant swelled stomach. She gave a small smile, patting it lightly then sitting down at the table next to her husband.
"If I knew getting pregnant would take away my freedom, I might've given it second thoughts," Lily laughed jokingly, taking the smallest box off the counter and handing it to James.
"What's this?"
"Just some old photos I found of you and the guys."
James opened the box slowly, blowing off dust as he did so. He then pulled out several pictures of himself and his best friends: Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, all displaying scenes of their younger selves at Hogwarts. "Blimey, I haven't seen these in ages!"
James shuffled through the photos, Lily looking over his shoulder.
"Hey, here's one from when the Gryffindors won the House Cup back in my third year!" The photograph showed the Gryffindor Quidditch team with large smiles on their faces, waving a golden trophy pridefully in the air. "Oh, Slytherin was just so outraged. Snivellus there had lost them the final goal." James pointed at a boy in the background of the photo with shoulder-length, greasy black hair—undoubtedly Severus Snape—getting beat up by the members of the Slytherin Quidditch team.
"He played Keeper, didn't he?" Lily asked, trying to dig deep in her brain for the answer.
"Yes. He was such a stupid git. I still don't know how the hell he managed to even make the Quidditch team in the first place!"
"Now, James…"
"They probably felt sorry for him…. Then again, I don't think Slytherins even have emotions, do they? So that couldn't have been the answer…Slytherins don't feel pity…"
"James, come now, don't say—" Lily was starting to relive her memories of Snape basically pouring out his soul to her in their fifth year after he insulted her. She still felt guilty about not forgiving Snape and never becoming friends again after that incident, and now was not the time to begin thinking about it again.
"I guess I pity him now, eh? No friends, no wife, no children, no family. Actually, I really don't feel sorry for him at all. Serves any man right to be alone when he's so hard to look at—"
"SHUT UP!" Lily screamed, getting to her feet, her face bright red with rage, and her eyes beginning to tear up. "How would you feel if—if—you had no one to talk to! What if you grew up without a family or friends, with no one to say how much they loved you! And what if you only had one safe place in the world to escape to, your school, but yet there were a bunch of bastards there to beat on him every effing day FOR JUST BEING ALIVE!"
Lily wiped her red, tear engulfed eyes on her sleeve, then began taking a few steps back, feeling she had said too much. After all those years of holding in regret, anger, and pure emotion, she felt like a nuclear bomb that had just been dropped.
"Lily…" James said comfortingly, moving toward her with his arms outstretched.
"Later, okay?" Lily said harshly, refusing James's hug and retreating back upstairs. "I've got more unpacking to do, anyway."
Lily heard the muffled sound of her name being called from back downstairs, but ignored it and began tending to the other boxes, looking for one item inparticular—a recent letter from Dumbledore.
"Ah, here it is." Lily smoothed out the folded parchment and began reading it to herself aloud.
Dear Lily,
Congratulations on the baby! I along with the other staff of Hogwarts are so happy for you and James, and we know your child will be a brilliant witch or wizard, just like his parents.
So, you want to know what's been going on around here, eh? Well, Severus Snape has just joined our staffing this year. You remember him, I'm sure? He's our newest Potions master, and he sure does live up to the name! Severus is simply marvelous at Potions.
This school year has been running smoothly so far. Aside from Argus Filch's cat choking on an apple core the other day, not much action has been taking place. We've got a good batch of students this year, and Quidditch is looking good for Gryffindor! (Although they should probably watch out for the Ravenclaws this season—their keeper is fantastic!)
Wishing you the best, hope to hear from you soon,
Albus Dumbledore
"So, Severus is teaching at Hogwarts now." Lily was glad to confirm what she thought she remembered; Lily had last read that lever over half a year ago and was beginning to forget some of the details.
And without hesitation, Lily flew down the stairs, rapidly pulling her coat over her shoulders, grabbing a quill and a piece of parchment from a living room coffee table, and opening the front door.
"Whoa, whoa!" James ran in front of his wife and closed the door. "Where are you heading off to?"
"James, I'll be back tonight, but I need to go to Hogwarts now," Lily said with urgency, trying to push past James and out the door.
"Hogwarts? What for? Look, Lily, I apologize about what I said before, I didn't think it would get you that upset…"
Lily felt awkward admitting that the reason she was leaving so unexpectedly was to tie up loose-ends with her "ex-friend", (even if those loose-ends were eating away at her heart), and decided to lie instead. "I'm just going to see Dumbledore. I think he may…have some old pictures of us, and I wanted to see if he wouldn't mind giving them away for our home."
James looked at Lily skeptically, knowing that she was obviously lying. But James knew from the look on her face that what his wife had to do really was important, so he stepped aside, clearing the path to the door.
But before Lily walked out of the house, James held her shoulders and kissed her forehead. "Just…please be careful. I hate for you to leave the house nowadays."
Lily kissed him back, gave a reassuring wave, then walked out the door and apparated right outside of the Hogwarts grounds. From there she wrote a message to Dumbledore using the piece of parchment and quill she had snatched before leaving, saying that she was right outside the front gates and needed to get in. Lily then flagged down a passing owl and sent him on his way to Dumbledore's office to deliver the message. Within a matter of minutes, Dumbledore emerged from the castle, opened the gate, and embraced Lily upon seeing her.
"Ms. Evans, it has been too long! And, dear God, how much longer until you have that baby again?"
Lily blushed and mustered a small chuckle. "About a month, probably less."
"Well, do come in, I'd love to talk in my office," Dumbledore said, leading Lily into the castle, up the spiral staircase, and in his office where he offered her tea.
"Thank you," Lily said, taking a cup and sipping it politely.
"So, tell me, why are you here?" Dumbledore asked happily.
"Well, sir, actually…I was wondering…could I talk to Severus?"
Dumbledore placed his cup of tea back on a dish, staring at it with a vacant expression. "I had a feeling you were visiting for that purpose."
"You did?" Lily asked, utterly bewildered. "But—how—?"
"I knew about you and Severus's little squabble years ago, that's why I included him in my letter. Well, besides the fact of answering your question of 'What's new?' of course. I assumed that that's been hitting on your heart for a while now, and knowing you, you probably wanted to fix any walls between you two, even if you and Severus haven't talked in years." Dumbledore continued sipping his tea, amused by Lily's surprised expression.
"Oh. Well, um, where is he?" Lily finally asked.
"Severus should be in his classroom right now. It's where the old Potions room was, you remember, right?"
Lily nodded her head.
"Great. Well, you won't be interrupting any classes. The students just started dinner, and Severus tends to skip that meal to be alone."
"Alright. Thank you, sir, I really appreciate it," Lily said, gathering up her coat and heading out the door toward the Potions room.
"Any time, Lily. Any time."