A/N: Your Favourite Couple- The worst disagreement they will ever have. Don't worry Missy, the best is yet to come.
Lily had been fingering the same scroll of parchment for the last half-hour, but she still hadn't gotten up the nerve to open it.
She'd recognized upon first sight the screech owl that Severus had often used to deliver letters to her, and she'd carefully untied him from his burden when he arrived. She then gave him some owl treats and water, before watching him hastily leave out the window until he was nothing more than a black speck in the blue sky. Which meant that Severus had assumed she would be in the exact position that she was facing- sitting at her desk, not moving aside from caressing the paper, yet planning not to open it either.
It had been two weeks since Miss Lily Evans had become Mrs Lily Potter, and of course Severus hadn't come to the wedding. Yes, she'd invited him (without James's knowledge) but she hadn't really thought he would come, which was proven right. And why would he when they'd left their friendship in the state that they had; raw and flayed with hate and anger; but mostly just the sadness that they both felt at losing one another. Lily could say now that she'd never meant to be so cruel, but the fact that she had been couldn't be changed, and they'd be virtually in the same predicament.
She used to know Severus so well that she could tell whether he'd failed a Charms exam or a Transfiguration one. Now she couldn't even guess what he had written.
And in all honesty, he had the right to say whatever he wanted, and she should have to listen. If he wanted to blame her then she could take it, because it was ultimately Lily herself who had done the unraveling. And all she could feel for it was guilt.
"Lily," she told herself. "You're going to stop being such a duffer and you're going to open the letter. It's Severus, you know Severus. It's not going to be terrible, or Dark Magic, he wouldn't do that to you. So quit your bellyaching and just be done with it."
But for some reason she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She was starting to feel even more glum that she couldn't open a single letter from an old friend, when James came in. He been working on hand-building a bookcase for her, and was going in and out at all times with her books to make measurements. Glancing down at the scroll between her hands, he said, "You can't see him."
"What?" Lily asked, slightly aghast.
"I heard you say something about Severus?" James questioned, looking quite perplexed and setting down the stack of books he'd been holding. "You can't see him."
Lily shook her head momentarily, to see if she could shake out the feeling that she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Finally she'd collected herself enough to say, "I wasn't under the impression that you owned me."
"I don't," James responded, huffing out a winded sigh. "But you can't see Severus. I won't allow it."
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Lily was proud that he wasn't saying Snivellus. But that's because she probably wouldn't have taken him seriously then, and James knew that as well. Looking at his face now, etched in determination (the same determination that had gotten her to go out with him), she could tell that he was being completely serious. He was actually attempting to assert himself and prevent her from seeing an old best friend.
"He's my friend."
"Some friend," James scoffed in anger. "That man hasn't been a friend, he's been a hypocrite and a back-stabber. Real nice choice, Lily. Go ahead and protect him."
"Like you helped!" Lily yelled, her hand itching for its wand. "Tormenting him all those years. You can't make me do anything, and you're damned if you try!"
"We're not debating about this, my word is final. He's changed Lily, can't you see that? Can't you even stop thinking he's such a great man and get on to the fact that he the same bad that we're fighting?"
"I'm sorry, something crazy must've gotten in my ear. Because the James Potter I married wasn't a controlling, manipulative twat!" Lily spat, standing up from the desk and rounding on him, choosing not to hear the last part.
"Oh yeah, I'm crazy alright. Crazy for not letting the girl I love go see a murdering psychopath that has caused you nothing but pain these last few years!"
"He has not-"
"Who are you kidding, Lils? I've seen the way you look when you think about him, and trust me. It's not that way you look around me, that's for sure. Now I'm saying, you can't see him." James picked up another tower of books and began to make his way to the door. In her haste, Lily picked up the closest thing near her, which happened to be a pencil holder, and chucked it at his retreating back.
"Just shut it, alright! Life is not some fairytale where the boy and the girl fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after. This is the fairytale where the boy and girl fall in love, get married in the middle of damn war, and are allowed to do what they want to make amends, because it means that they might not live through it." Lily held her breath, trying to will away the tears that had sprung up in her eyes. She watched James, frozen in the doorway, feeling the pooling anger in her stomach start to dissipate.
She barely heard James, but he uttered a low, "I didn't grow up with your fairytales," before striding out of the room.
"James! James wait-" she called, beginning to follow after him, but the she heard the door slam and knew there was no use. Returning to the desk, she laid her head down and began to cry. Sobs that shook their way through her body and that pained her throat with the intensity. The scroll found its way into her hand, her grip near a squeezing the words out of it. But she knew James was right, in a weird sort of way, and she didn't want to listen to him.
Things had changed between Severus and her. They were too different now.