Disclaimer: All of the characters belong to the one and only J.K.Rowlng, i don't own nor do i claim to own anything except the plot.
Hi, I'm Lily Potter and what I'm about to reveal to you is something no one knows; a Rainy Encounter between me and an old friend...
My life was perfect; perfect marriage with my perfect husband, perfect house to raise my perfect child in. But not everything about me has always been this perfect. There was a time when I'd fraternise with the enemy on a daily basis. This person was dark, mysterious and well hated. And I loved him, he was my best friend. Wrong? Probably, but for years it didn't matter, I didn't care. People would warn me away from him, threaten me but I stood my ground and insisted that there was good in him, that I could prove it.
One day, it got too much. The pressure from my Gryffindor family was something I was barely surviving but then he turned on me, he called me an unforgivable name and I crumbled. If I had his support in trying to prove him not a villain I could manage but with the whole world disagreeing with me, and him not being there to fight alongside me I couldn't deal with it anymore, I broke under the strain and ended our friendship.
Years later I was happily married to James Potter and with child. I never brought the topic of my old friend up, I never saw his pale face, I never purposely thought about him and I never uttered his name, even in a whisper… Severus Snape.
I'm thinking of him now, the very thing I try so hard not to do but I'm doing it. I'm thinking of the other day when I was passing the park near my home, when I stopped dead in my tracks as my shock filled eyes zeroed in on a robed man sheltering himself from the rain by standing under a tree.
It was late and I was tired, at least that's what I told myself. I was tired and hallucinating. That man under the tree looked nothing like my old friend, well maybe he looked slightly like him, but that didn't mean it was him.
I pulled my hood further up and carried on walking; it wasn't prudent to stand alone in the rain in the middle of the night and my boys were waiting for me.
I drew closer to the tree and my stomach filled with some strange emotion when I looked at the man who was facing away from me. Suddenly, he turned and looked deeply into my eyes, I heard myself gasp. There was no denying it, I could still recognise those cold black eyes and I suspected I'd always be familiar with them for as long as I lived.
The rain was falling in sheets by then and my vision of the man was growing distorted, I could not make out his features yet I knew he was looking at me, I could feel the power of his eyes, black as coal and just as hard. The water repelling charm on my cloak was wearing down; I felt the chill of the water seep through to my skin and I shivered.
Should I have taken cover under the tree? Or should I have carried on walking the mile to my house? It doesn't matter now, what's done is done.
I'd jogged the last few metres to the tree and shook the water from my hood like a dog would after having had a bath. The noise of the rain falling in huge drops to the canopy of leaves above me was almost frightening and water was still managing to fight its way through the branches of green.
I looked up at the man, the undeniable face of Severus Snape. He was old. That was the first thing that registered in my mind, he'd grown older as everything in the world does, his skin had wrinkled slightly around his eyes, mouth and forehead. His black hair curtained his angular face, extenuating the black of his eyes. His thin pale pink lips held a trace of a sneer. His posture was relaxed, his arms held loosely at his sides.
He noticed my scrutiny and folded his arms, giving me a calculating look, not unkind but still disturbing. He watched as my eyes scanned his face, soaking in his every feature.
I wasn't sure how I felt at the time, after so many years of trying not to remind myself of him his actual presence seemed unreal, like the whole scene was something my mind had fabricated because I missed thinking of him. Though I choose not to remind myself of him I still did not allow myself to forget, it was a very thin line to walk; between not thinking of him and not forgetting either.
My eyes settled for resting on his eyes. I saw no confusion there, no surprise or horror. I tried to smile. Maybe he got the message, probably not.
"Hello Severus." I whispered. He took a few steps closer.
"Lily." Whispered in return. It was strange the way he said it, almost as if I was his mischievous child who'd gotten myself lost and now he'd found me again. It was relief. Pure relief coated the one word.
I couldn't control myself, it was almost as if my mind and eyes had taking leave of my body as I watched myself leap into his arms, bury my face in his chest and sob shamelessly.
He didn't even seem stunned and acted quickly, securing his arms around me, locking me to him in an iron grip that I wouldn't have been able to pull out of even if I wanted to. Which I didn't.
We stayed like that for a while, just holding on to each other, breathing in the sweet smell of reunion. I'd denied myself this for too long, I should have looked for him sooner; he was what I'd been missing in my life that suddenly didn't seem so perfect. He was part of me in a way that neither of us could express nor explain, but it didn't matter, we didn't need to understand it to feel it.
The tree, it seemed, by then was proving useless, the water was so heavy and strong that we might as well have been standing in a river. He pulled away first, moving his hands to cup my face which was soaking in rain water, my hair stuck to it. He pushed the hair out of my eyes with gentleness I didn't know he possessed.
He moved his head so close to my face I thought for a moment he was going to kiss me, but instead he whispered "I've missed you." his cold breathe in my ear sent a shiver down my spine, I closed my eyes and nodded my agreement.
"Never leave." I whispered "Stay with me here forever."
His warm chuckle filled my head and I fisted my hands into his robes to keep myself upright. How had I survived so long without him?
"Do you really mean that?" he asked softly, disbelieving. I swallowed and, without thinking, nodded my head mutely, the rain was hardly bothering me by then.
I lay my head on his chest and thought of my family, the family I'd made, the only life I'd known for the past years, the life I'd build without Severus and I wondered then whether I'd made a huge irreversible mistake. I shook my head, in answer to both his and my own question. Images of my baby boy passed through my vision.
Severus had stepped away from me, I had been scared I'd upset him by changing my mind but he'd been smiling. Comforting, warm and caring, everything I'd known he'd been capable of but everything he'd refused to let show as a young man. When he smiled like that he was my Severus, that one smile was the reason I'd loved him so much, the reason I refused my friends pleads for me to stop associating myself with him. The very thing that broke my heart to see because it reminded me of all the years I'd missed him and all the years to come without him.
He kissed my wet cheek softly before leaving me with my perfect life.