Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Summary: Five times Severus Snape called for Lily Evans.

Genre: Angst/Friendship

Rating: K+

Circle

3

She defied definition. She wasn't a witch, a woman or a Muggle-born. She was brilliant red and searing green; jokes and warmth and solidity. Temper and flaws. She took too long to tell stories and never arrived on time. She was the one who held up the good in him and dusted it off, displayed that small piece on the mantel for him to see.

He hadn't spoken to her in a year when he got the Mark. But afterward he called to her all the same, lying in his old bed in Spinner's End. He clenched his fists against the burn and whispered her name. There wasn't any answer, and no smoke wafted on the horizon.