a spiteful reunion
Characters: Lily Potter, Severus Snape
Summary: There was no friendship left.
Genre: Drama
Written for The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition
Team: Pride of Portree
Prompts used: Undercover Martyn – Two Door Cinema Club, Leaving, "Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia." – John Green, Looking for Alaska.
Author's Note: First time writing for them.
To the basement people, to the basement, many surprises await you.
The old radio that had been forgotten by people who had long moved away played its last line as a ray of red light hit it.
The man in black withdrew his wand and turned around, his lips curved into a mirthless smile. He was not attractive but he did radiate a certain dark charm, something that might captivate minds if not hearts. His eyes held an unreadable expression as he nodded at the woman on the other side of the room who, too, held a wand. Her stance was less defensive and her face contained a broad array of emotions that reached from sadness over confusion to anger and her hand did not tremble as she pointed her want at him. Green eyes full of life and fire heavily contrasted his own eyes that seemed empty and dead.
"Lily…" he muttered, looking down for a moment.
"Snape," she nodded as she sighed. "We should have known that he would send you."
"We?" he inquired as he lifted his wand. "So let me guess … the headmaster sent you and Potter."
The venom and the disgust in his voice were impossible to ignore and she flinched slightly before her eyes narrowed. "Of course," she said after a moment. "But not only us … we are many more than you tonight."
"Longbottoms?" he snarled. "Of course … aurors to chase death eaters…"
She shrugged as she moved her wand. "Talking of death eaters…" she muttered. "Here we go."
He was silent for a moment as he wondered what had happened that it had come to this. He did remember days when the idea that he might face Lily – then Evans, now Potter – in a dusty, stinking cellar where he heard the rats everywhere would have been nothing but ridiculous. Those days, however, were long over and so was their friendship.
She had chosen the enemy. She was the enemy now as well.
This was the way life went and he could do nothing to change the truth – even though his speciality was lying and bending the truth until he could stand it. He still did not want to hurt her because once upon a time, a betrayal ago, she was the first one who had ever held out a hand in friendship – and he had taken it gladly, so happy that someone accepted him the way he was.
She seemed to have had the same thought because her wand was suddenly up and Stupify had been casted. "Good reflexes," she complimented as she sent another set of curses into his direction. "But then again, you had the training, didn't you?"
He looked at her unimpressed. "This is hardly the best you can do," he stated as their duel begun.
Lily was, while not as proficient at dark curses as him, a formidable opponent. Then again, it was complicated to hang out with someone who talked about dark curses the entire time for years without picking up a thing or two. And so they circled around each other, both ready to strike and both missing whenever they tried.
Sweat appeared on his forehead and for once, he was glad about his hairstyle because it would stay hidden underneath his hair. "You know that even if you and your guys win today, we will get back whatever you came for," he told her with a shrug. "So why are you risking your life here?"
"Because you are not the only one who is loyal to an idea," she replied. "So what, Severus? Worried what Voldemort will say if you cannot even win against a mudblood?" she spat.
The taunt backfired as his next curse hit her and sent her staggering backwards but before he could sent another spell at her, a shield charm was spoken and Remus Lupin – the only person he hated nearly as much as James Potter – pulled her away.
As she looked back at him, he was sixteen again and looked lost but then, she was pushed out of the room as a fire spell narrowly missed Remus' shoulder.
"Get going," the werewolf said. "Sirius got what we came for. We have no reason to stay."
"But…" she started as she stopped running to look at Severus who was coming after them. "Severus – just tell me … why?"
He looked at her with those cold, dark eyes before he replied. "Because the blood of the community of wizards has to be cleansed from people like you and … him," he replied and watched how the familiar mixture of pain and anger crossed her face.
'Be my enemy', he thought. 'Be my enemy and hate me. It will make things so much easier for me.'
"Aguamenti," she snarled, extinguishing the flames behind him before she glared at him. "No matter what you do to deny it, you are a half-blood. You and your friends, you call the Weasleys traitors to the so-called nobility of pure-blooded wizards … but in the end, they are noble in spirit while – and I guess that Padfoot agrees with me there – the Blacks are rotten to the core."
"Well said," he admitted as he pointed his wand at her.
For a moment, green eyes met black ones and her lower lip quivered before she turned her head and walked away from him again and she did not bother to look over her shoulder because no matter what, he had still more honour left than to curse someone while his opponent was turning his or her back to him. She knew that it was wrong, leaving him there like this. She should have finished their duel at least - to make it easier for him - but she could not bring herself to turn around once more and go through with it because it was over. He had chosen his side and she had chosen hers. There was no room left to discuss anything because whatever they could have said, it would come years too late.
"Very well," he said as he turned and walked down the hallway.
For a moment, she looked after his disappearing form and shook her head. "It is sad," she stated as she turned her head. "It is really, really sad that this is what he has become."
Remus shrugged. "It is always sad when people leave the right path," he stated. "But … he made his decisions and you made yours. It's the way things go. We have to accept things we cannot change and we need the courage to change what we can."
She sighed as she followed him. "You are right, Remus," she said slowly. "And yet … I will remember the times when we were friends as a … it will be the future but it sure feels nostalgic," she added wistfully.
"Remembering broken friendships when face to face with an enemy is indeed bittersweet."
'And imagining the future is nostalgia in any case,' she thought. 'Because nothing lasts forever.'
