Story Summary: When your last attempt fails, when you've had your final glimpse, what else is there to do but dream of her green eyes? JamesLily, onesided SeverusLily, Severus point of view. Angst.

Warnings: Unbeta'd

Dedicated To and Requested By: TheCreativReader, for the two hundredth review (repost). Enjoy!

Sometimes Love Just Isn't Enough

When it's time to live and let die
And you can't get another try
Something inside this heart has died
You're in ruins

Greenday - 21 Guns

"So you're going out with Potter now?"

Lily flinched at hate in his voice. It reminded her of how he had used to speak to James. In fact, it was almost exactly the same tone.

"He isn't as bad as I thought he was," Lily said carefully. Snape laughed.

"No, he isn't as bad at all. He's a bully and a troublemaker and an arrogant prat, but what does that matter?"

"At least he isn't into Dark Magic," Lily snapped back. She had agreed to talk to Severus because she thought he could be civil. It appeared she was wrong.

"But using his magic to embarrass and humiliate others is alright, is it?" Snape said.

"You weren't exactly innocent yourself."

"He and Black would attack me unprovoked! What about that day by the lake?"

"Oh, you mean the day you called me a mudblood?" Lily's voice was cold, and Snape knew had said the wrong thing.

"I didn't mean it."

"You didn't mean to say it. But that's what I am to you, aren't I?"

"Lily…you…never-"

"James might be an arrogant prat, Severus, but that's a million times better than what you are!"

Severus reeled back. How could Lily say that?

"But Potter…Black…the lot of them-"

"You don't get to pass judgement on them," Lily said, a finality in her tone that said the matter was closed.

But Snape was not finished. "Lupin's a werewolf. I saw him. He-"

"I know about Remus," Lily said, her voice cold. "And the fact that you would judge him, hate him, because of what he is, just proves my point."

"Lily-" Snape reached out his hand to touch her arm, but she pulled it back as though burnt.

"No, Severus. I agreed to talk to you because I thought we could discuss this maturely, but it appears we can't. I'm sorry, but I don't want to talk to you again."

She went to turn away, but his words stopped her.

"Please Lily. I love you."

She turned back to him, and her face softened slightly. "I love you too, Severus. But you've chosen a path I can't go down."

"No, Lily, I'm in love with you."

Her expression was sad, and Severus knew what she was going to say before she said it. The hope that had blossomed in his chest when she had turned back to him died.

"I'm sorry," she said. "Sometimes love just isn't enough."

And with that, she turned on her heel and strode back towards Gryffindor Tower.

Snape slumped back against the wall, and crumpled to the floor. He no longer cared if someone saw. Unchecked tears spilled down his cheeks.

He could try and talk to her again, but what was the point? Each time he did, he seemed to push Lily further and further away. She probably wouldn't even want to hear what he said now.

He hadn't meant to say all those things at the start. He hadn't meant to fight with her. He only wanted to tell her that he loved her.

He had thought that, when he told her, she would see sense. She would tell him that she liked him more than Potter, and everything would go back to normal.

"Sometimes love just isn't enough."

Lily couldn't believe it. Their last day at Hogwarts. Ever.

It just felt like yesterday that she was climbing out of the rocking wooden boats. She could still remember stumbling through those scary wooden doors that would become as familiar to her as the rest of Hogwarts - as the rest of her home. It felt as though it had been mere moments since the hat had yelled out "Gryffindor!"

They weren't all happy memories though. When the hat had put her in her house, she still remembered the pang of regret that she wouldn't be with Severus. Well, she still held on to that spark of hope, right up until he was seated at the Slytherin table.

As they stepped from the train onto the station (she could still remember when she had to jump that gap!) she looked to her left, and caught a glance of Severus, already on the platform waiting with his hook-nosed mother. He was looking directly at her, a sad look on his face.

She offered him a small smile in return. This would probably be the last time she saw him, and she didn't want to end things on too sour a note, despite everything they had been through.

Well, because of everything they had been through, really. Even with their arguments, and the end to their friendship, they had still been friends. Under different circumstances, the ending for the two of them might have been happier.

"Alright, Lily?" James asked, bowing mockingly and handing her the cage for Saffron, her owl, like he was a gentleman from a 1930's film. "May I escort you to our mode of transport?"

He held out his arm, and Lily let out a delighted laugh, thought's of her former-best-friend forgotten. "You may, kind sir," she giggled back. "But I shall require a chaperone. Who knows what a ghastly devil like you will do to an innocent lady such as myself."

"Indeed," James could be heard saying as they made their way off the platform. "Remus! You're the most lady-like of all of us. Please escort my dearest Lily to our winged horse."

"Oh, no, James, you didn't, did you?"

Fourteen years later, an adult Snape watched the nervous first years stumble up to be sorted. He didn't need the call from Professor McGonagall or the awed whispers of the rest of the hall to tell him which one was her son; as the boy glanced quickly up to the teacher's table, Snape quite plainly saw Lily's green eyes look up at him from James Potter's face.

If he ignored the rest of the boy's features, it was almost as though he was back there on the platform, taking one last look at her laughing face.