Disclaimer: Do not own the characters of Severus Snape and Lily Evans. Those belong to JKR.

The Paths We Choose

"Why didn't you tell me you were inviting Severus?" she hissed at her mother as they cleared away the dinner table.

"I thought it was about time we asked him again." Her mother glanced at her from across the table, giving her a concerned look as she collected the silverware from the table. "It's been ages since he's been here."

"You never figured there was a reason for that?" she snapped as she grabbed the last plate from the table and hurried to the sink with it.

Her mother frowned at her and released a heavy sigh as she joined her at the sink. "Lily, he's obviously sorry for what he's done – whatever that is. The looks he gave you at the table were so heartbreaking. Couldn't you at least try and talk to him? You've been friends for too long to just stop."

"You don't know what he's done. If you did, you wouldn't have asked him to come."

"Then tell me. Why shouldn't you tell your own mother?"

Lily winced at her mother's pleas. She couldn't tell her mother; she didn't want her to worry about the insurgents of pureblood purists who wished to eradicate people like them. No, she couldn't worry her mother like that, especially with both her parents' health not being the best.

"I can't get into that now," she muttered under her breath as she looked out the window to see Severus talking with her father in the yard, and she drew in a sharp breath. "He needs to go."

"Then you tell him. Your father and I won't be part of it."

~*~

She walked out of the house, giving her father a small smile as he passed her to return into the house. When her eyes focused on Snape, it disappeared altogether.

"Why are you here?"

He looked at her with a pained expression. "You mother asked me to come."

"Why are you here?" she repeated again. She did not need to hear how he came to be invited; she wanted to know his reasons for coming when he knew he was never invited by her.

He went quiet, and Lily looked at him with a hard glare, giving him a very good impression that he wasn't welcomed.

"I just wanted to tell you that I never meant to hurt you."

She still refused to accept that apology. It was worthless to her. Words were worthless when his actions proved otherwise, "You told me this before, Severus. It's nothing I haven't heard before."

"But it's the truth. Why can't you see that?"

"What exactly am I supposed to see?" she snapped the question at him just before he could open his mouth again to speak. "I hear about what you do. The things you do to people -"

"What, did Potter tell you this?"

A word was on her tongue to scream "no," but she stopped herself. She had already told him too much, and he could now rightly assume that she was part of the Order – if he didn't know already. It then dawned on her that she wasn't speaking to just a former friend, but an enemy that she had been fighting since leaving school two months ago.

"You should go," she spoke softly now, and removed her eyes from him because she couldn't stand to look at him – it hurt too much.

"Lily," he pleaded with her again.

"Go, Severus. We're not friends anymore, and we can't be unless you stop being one of them."

"Lily." He reached out for her, placing his hand upon her arm, but she shrugged it away.

She needed to get away; she had to run or else she would be easily persuaded into his friendship again, just like every time before.

She knew she had to say this. She had to make it clear to him what they were now. "Do you realize that you fight behind a mask, and that when I fight against your friends, I never know if I'm fighting you or them?" she whispered to him, keeping her voice low in the chance that someone was listening to them. "I just want you to know that I have never hesitated once in attacking them back. Not once."

He didn't answer her, nor did he attempt to try as he bowed his head and avoided her eyes. She knew he was hurt by those words, but it had to be said so that he understood the repercussions of his actions.

"I wish things were different, but you have to realize that this was your choice – not mine." And she turned on him, walking back to the house and shutting the door on him for the last time in her life.

AN: Prompt from Severely Lupine - Severus goes to Lily's house for dinner (or something), or vice versa. Thanks to Kittylefish for the helping me with my grammar on this! Poor girl had a job to do. XD