A/N Some quotes are slightly altered from Emily Brontë's book - Wuthering Heights

Caught in a Storm on Top of Wuthering Heights

"My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary."

'Be careful with it, Sev,' said Lily, her voice almost dropped to a whisper. But her eyes flashed and her eyebrows arched, betraying her in a moment of mischief. 'It's Tuney's favourite book, and you know how she feels about folds and tears in pages.'

Severus looked down at the book Lily had just handed him. 'Does she even know you have it, though?'

Lily responded with a huff and shrugged it off. 'Like you'd care. C'mon, open it! I can't wait to find out why it excites her so much.'

The river — though polluted by the many factories along its bank — shimmered in the summer sun. The low-hanging willow tree provided much welcomed shade as the two teenagers sat down and leaned up against its trunk, book open and ready at hand.

'Want me to be the narrator?' Severus asked, secretly thinking that if the book contained Petunia's favourite story, it was either overly romantic or simply couldn't be very good.

Lily touched his arm in a reassuring manner and smiled. 'You know I like it when you read, Sev.'

…

Severus was absent-mindedly fumbling through the pages of the cursed book. The spine had been severely cracked and mended with Spello-tape. Folds had been made along the edges of nearly every single page, and the circled stains of both tea and pumpkin juice cups were stamped all over its cover. He remembered that Lily had made sure her sister was given a new copy of the book as soon as the first accidental green stain of grass had appeared. He also remembered that her sister didn't want to touch anything that had been touched by him.

Every single summer, all the way up to the start of their fifth year at Hogwarts, they had read the same book underneath the willow tree, taking turns reading it out loud.

A small fire was cackling inside the hearth, and it was the only thing between the walls of Spinner's End that provided any light. Leaning back in an old, dusty leather chair, Severus traced the spine of the book with a long and slender finger. It had not been cracked by the amount of times it had been read, but because he had flung it against a wall the moment he learnt she had married that blithering nuisance of a Potter. With regret in his heart, he had mended it, but the battle in his mind on whether to read it again or toss it into the fire still flared.

On the top right corner of the first page, written in pencil, it read, "This book belongs to Heathcliff & Cathy." Lily had put it there in the summer before the start of their second year; Cathy being her, and Heathcliff being him. She had found some of the parallels between the book and their lives amusing.

Only, the amusement was now long gone.

She had recently married her Linton. Severus knew and understood his ability to protect and provide for her what she — as a Muggle born — so desperately needed in these times. Time and time again, she had expressed that she would never want to be with a man like Linton. That that was not the kind of girl she was…

But she had, and it broke his heart.

…

It was their last summer together. Lily's hair was spread out in the grass like the rays of the sun, and her pale skin hid in the shadows of the willow tree to avoid being burnt. She hugged the book against her stomach, holding it tightly as if it were a thing of comfort. Severus observed her and would have touched her, had it not been for her anger driving a wall of discomfort between them.

'I don't think I will ever understand, Sev,' she said, her eyes red-rimmed. 'How could you possibly—'

'Terror made me cruel…'

'D'you really believe quoting this book will help me understand?' she snapped, and flung the book against his chest.

'That hurt!' he snapped back. 'Lily, all I want is to protect you. But I'm a half-blood. My position in this uprising war will not be to either of our benefit.'

'But I value our friendship so much more than my own safety, Sev.' Lily's lips trembled, and her body shook as though physically hurt. 'Why can't you see that? Why can't you see that it hurts when you avoid me at school? Why can't you see that what you're getting yourself into is wrong?' Severus's heart sank at the sight of her pain. 'If I don't follow them, it will be the end of me. If I do follow them, I may be able to convince them to leave you alone.'

Lily sat up straight, wiped the tears from her eyes, and shook her head in disbelief. 'I'm afraid you will forget about me.'

With a swift motion of his arm, Severus pulled her into an embrace and held her tightly against his chest. His head rested on top of hers.

'You know that I could as soon forget you as my own existence, Lily.'

He gently kissed the top of her head and felt her relax in the comfort of his arms. With a finger, he moved her hair from her face behind her ear and kissed her on the nape of her neck.

'Sev, what are you doing?' Her voice sounded breathy, but she showed no signs of making him stop.

'I just want you to know that you will always be the only one for me,' he whispered into her ear. 'And I will do what I must to protect you — even if you disagree.'

It was Lily's hand that had travelled up his shirt and touched the warmth of his slender body. 'You're killing me, Sev,' she mumbled as she looked him straight in the eye. 'Because you're so close, and yet it's so hard to reach out to you.'

'I'm here now,' he responded. 'Does that mean nothing to you?'

'What is it that you want, Sev?'

'All of you.'

'It's yours to have.'

…

A solar flare danced around the corner and quickly lost its radiance as it flew into the distance. Severus would've recognised her hair anywhere.

'Lily. Pssst, Lily!' From the shadows of Knockturn Alley, Severus called out to her. 'Lily, please talk to me.'

Lily froze in the middle of the street. Her fingers clenched into fists, and she craned her neck so far it gave her the appearance of an owl.

'Severus,' she said with a voice like venom. 'Never thought I'd see you again.'

Severus waved at her, indicating that she should come and step into the shadows with him. 'Lily, there are some things I haven't said that need to be said. Could you please come here where we won't be seen?'

Her fingers were still clenched into fists and her eyes turned to slits, but her body betrayed that she wasn't frightened of him as she made her way over. 'James is around somewhere,' she said all too casually, 'so you'd better make it quick.'

From his long black cloak, Severus pulled out the weathered book and handed it to her. 'It causes me too much sorrow to have it in my possession,' he said as his heart started to pound in his throat. 'I want you to have it. I hope you haven't forgotten.'

Lily's face softened as she looked at the cover. 'I haven't forgotten, Sev,' she said, suddenly sounding timid. 'I'm just not sure if my sorrow will be any less than yours. Why did you come here? This place is as dangerous to you as it is to me.'

'Because I need to make sure that you understand that I am sorry,' he said. 'I am sorry for the pain that I have caused you, and I am sorry for the things that I have done. I am well aware that I could never be with you, but at least grant me your forgiveness, I —'

'Hush,' said Lily, and with her thumb, she wiped a tear from his face. 'Sev, I am with child.'

Ice formed inside the core of his body and engulfed him in a Dementor's cloak. 'It's his, I presume?' he asked bitterly. Lily did not answer, but merely nodded as tears started to flow down her face. 'I wish I were a girl again,' she said in between shallow breaths, half-savage and hardy, and free. 'Why am I so changed?'

'Lily, where are you?' Potter shouted from a distance. 'I'm getting worried over here! Lily —'

Severus ran his fingers through her hair and kissed her on the side of her lips. 'He can't see you with me here,' he whispered. 'Promise me you'll stay safe?'

Lily turned on the balls of her feet, walked into the sunlight, and looked back at Severus, her eyes shimmering. 'Whatever our souls are made of, yours and mine are the same. Our Patronuses taught us that.'

It was with these final words that she disappeared into a blaze of light.

…

'That day! That day when we met on top of Wuthering Heights, you promised me you would keep them safe!' A silver instrument shattered into the flesh of Severus's hand as he yelled at Dumbledore.

'We've had this conversation before, Severus,' said Dumbledore in his famed calm demure. 'She burned too bright for this world.'

'I am glad to see you are familiar with Muggle literature,' Severus spat, the sarcasm dripping from his lips. 'Existence, after losing her, is hell! I don't want to exist anymore.'

Dumbledore calmly but firmly forced Severus to sit down in a chair in front of his desk, then he pulled out the book from his purple cloak. 'I believe this belongs to you.'

'I don't want it,' he said, slapping the book away with his bleeding hand. 'It's a curse, and nothing more.'

'And I believe,' said Dumbledore as he picked the book up from the floor, 'that Lily wanted you to have it. Do you need me to mend that hand for you?'

'I need you to leave me alone,' said Severus weakly.

'As you wish,' said Dumbledore, and he placed the book on the desk in front of Severus. 'Whenever you're ready.' With a clear whistle, he signalled for Fawkes to join him. The pair left the office, and Dumbledore closed the door behind them.

With his mind on Lily, Severus summoned his Patronus with a wave of his wand. The white doe jumped around the office before she landed right beside him and pushed her head against his shoulder as a sign of comfort. 'Need me to read to you?' he asked the doe. 'I know you like it when I read.'

Severus picked up the book with shaking hands. Drops of blood marked the edges of the yellowing pages, but he didn't care. As he turned to the first chapter, a small piece of parchment whirled away from the book and onto the desk. With a quick snatch, he turned the note over, then he looked straight at the doe beside him as tears of pain and comfort washed over him.

"It's always been you."

- Lily