Disclaimer: See disclaimer part II.
OIO
Regret
The sky outside is dark and cloudy, and it's on days like these where she remembers him most.
Lily didn't want Severus to be a hero. She wanted him to be alive.
Wasn't it enough that she felt his absence every moment? Wasn't it enough to have those relentlessly cruel dreams of her greatest mistake? Wasn't it enough that she was constantly reminded of how she threw her best friend to the wolves for a single word spoken in rage and humiliation?
She would always feel that she was responsible for Severus' fate. She knows that if she'd only been a little more forgiving, a little more understanding... then Severus would be alive.
It was her fault that Severus felt the need to be a martyr. Wasn't that what she wanted back in Hogwarts so long ago? She wanted him to give up all he'd ever achieved in Slytherin house for her, to be her white knight in shining armor. How naive she'd been. Severus didn't have a choice. But how could she have known that? She'd gone into the house of valor and righteousness, not in Slytherin where one slip-up could mean fierce retribution.
She realizes now that her efforts in defending Severus from her friends were probably nothing to what Severus had to do to keep her as his.
An infant begins wailing and she is jolted out of her melancholy. Hurrying to the crib, Lily Potter gently scoops up her son as she coos, "Shh Harry, mummy's right here. I'm not leaving anytime soon."
The next day, The Daily Prophet announces the deaths of Alice and Frank Longbottom, christening little Neville as The Boy Who Lived.
OIO
Notes: Well there you have it folks. I'd contemplated doing more, from the Marauders' point of view, Dumbledore's, the other professors... but these last two chapters where actually already completed in a years-old file I found in a forgotten folder on my computer. I just fixed a bunch of grammatical errors so I'll leave it at this. Might update part one at a later date, looking back at it I can't help but cringe at how rough it seems. But then again, this chapter isn't much better I suppose.