What If, The Purgatory Of Lily
Missing Moments 3 (Chapter 6)
Different
So different, yet still in love all the same...
Author's Note: In order to understand this short story, it is preferable to have read the sixth chapter of my fic 'What if, the Purgatory of Lily'. However, to those who haven't, here is a quick summary of the time-line from that chapter: Instead of ending their friendship outside the portrait of the fat lady, Lily cut a deal with Severus wherein he gave up Mulciber, Avery and the rest of the Death Eaters for the sake of her friendship. In order to repay him for her mistake in getting rid of ALL of his friends, Lily helped him make friends with Mary Macdonald...who decided to steal him for her own...
Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, nor do I own the Harry Potter Series.
"Oh come on, Sev! I'm not having you sticking your wand up my husband's nose to deal with his snoring! It may be annoying, but I can live with it... Besides, it can't be half as bad as what Mary must suffer through; I've HEARD you when you stayed the night, FROM MY ROOM!"
Glaring icily, Severus then replied coldly, "I'll have you know that Mary thinks that my snoring has character...and from what you've been saying, James' little 'Wehehe-hoo!' sound is annoying whatever the volume is. As such, I think I'm well within my rights to suggest that James allow a professional to take care of it... However, if you're going to be ungrateful about it..."
Lily looked at him with gimlet eyes, then said with a suspicious tone of voice, "And how likely is it that you would be willing to do this out of the goodness of your heart, Mr. Severus Snape? The last time that I listened to your advice concerning James, you had me thinking that he was having an affair with his AUNT! We spied on him for a WEEK for that; hell, he thought that I was the one having the AFFAIR, with YOU!"
Severus looked away, slightly red-faced, then said stiffly, "She looked much younger than she actually was, as I'm sure that you recall, and I was only doing it out of my worry for you. However, if you would prefer that I keep my suspicions to myself the next time, then I'll be happy to do so..." With that, he started taking longer strides, threatening to leave Lily in the dust behind him.
Rolling her eyes at Severus' usual obstinacy, Lily broke into a jog to keep up with him as she said snappishly, "You know I didn't mean it like that, Severus. It's just...urgh! Listen, we were having a good time together as friends, can we get back to that and not let James' snoring ruin our night together?"
Severus didn't respond at first, but he slowed back down to a more normal speed. After nearly a minute, he said quietly, in an apologetic voice that couldn't help but warm Lily's heart slightly, "I'm sorry, Lily, I didn't mean to do ruin our evening out on the town. However, I still cannot say I care much for your husband, as I'm sure you well know. I know that you...care for him...but that doesn't mean that I enjoy talking about him all that much..."
Lily nodded, then put her hand on Severus' tall shoulder and replied in an equally sorrowful tone of voice, "I'm sorry too; I knew that you wouldn't enjoy that topic much, but it just seemed so exasperating that I NEEEDED to tell someone, you know?"
Severus sighed as he carefully removed Lily's hand from his shoulder, then said in a voice that had a trace of sympathy in it, "Well, I suppose that although I cannot understand why your husband's 'nocturnal respiration issues' are so important, I do understand the feeling. I have the same feeling sometimes when it comes to Mary's complete inability to understand Potions, although she is truly brilliant when it comes to spellwork."
Sensing that now would probably be a good time to change topics as they passed by a trio of teenagers chattering about their new cars, Lily started to speak, purposefully using a lighter tone of voice and giving Severus a inquisitive look as she did so, "Speaking of spellwork, has anything new come out lately from the infamous Snapes? It's been nearly two months since the two of you had your last incident of half-mad genius, and..." Lily lowered her voice teasingly, "...people are starting to talk, saying that you are both going senile..."
Severus looked around warily, and Lily repressed the urge to roll her eyes by reminding herself that the last time that he had spoken about a new spell in public, it had been his Levicorpus spell. Finally, he said in a conspiratorial whisper, lips nearly adjacent to her ear as he spoke in a tone that was more seductive than most come-ons Lily had seen, "Well, you know that Blood-Charm that you told us about, the one that you plan to use in a last-ditch attempt to save your son? Well, Mary's been trying to improve it to be used more...offensively..."
Intrigued, Lily asked curiously, simultaneously suppressing a mild case of the shudders by reminding herself that Severus was not attempting to seduce her, "Really, how so? I mean, how do you turn a spell based on a sacrifice of one's life in order to protect a blood relative into an offensive weapon? I mean, this is Mary we're speaking of, but even she shouldn't be able to turn such a spell into a practical attack...right?"
"Well..." Severus said with a frown, stopping and looking off into the distance for a moment, before continuing, "...it depends upon what the spell is based on. Intent is the most important part of any spell after all; Mary had an idea to tweak it from it's original emotion and purpose, although I doubt it is something you'd be able to use all that easily..."
Lily bit her lip as Severus trailed off, then asked carefully, a touch of worry thrumming through her veins, "What sort of changes is she trying to make to it? And what emotion is she using instead?"
Severus said simply, although Lily couldn't miss the apprehension in his posture as he spoke, clearly worried about her reaction,
"Instead of using a family member's love and wish to protect as the basis of the spell, Mary intends to use absolute hatred as its basis. The idea is that sufficiently strong hatred is equally as strong as such a love, and leads the user to be willing to sacrifice just as much in their desire to destroy their enemy. Although it won't have the ability to protect Sophia if it comes down to it, it isn't limited to having to be used with her nearby. Hopefully, the sacrifice of one's life will be sufficient to destroy anyone and anything nearby..."
Lily was glad that Severus never tried to use his Leglimency on her, as she doubted that he would care much for her feelings about his wife, as they were quite uncharitable indeed. Although she knew that Mary adored and loved him with all her heart, Lily sometimes wondered if her heart was black in color, as sometimes Mary seemed determined to find every bit of Light magic she could and pervert it into something Dark and twisted.
Intellectually, Lily knew that it was because Mary found the darker emotions so much easier to utilize than their Light counterparts, but still...Lily couldn't keep from feeling disturbed at the idea of a spell based around her love of her child turned into some kind of Kamikaze strike... It was perhaps one of the main reasons that she and Mary had drifted apart so swiftly, although their mutual rivalry for Severus at the time had surely played a key role as well. Lily and Mary were nearly polar opposites in so many ways. It was amazing that they had both fallen for the same person...
Lily's musings were suddenly broken off by the appearence of one of Mary's now-infamous Fiendfyre angels, which was now floating in the air in front of Severus. The fact that Mary used it in place of a Patronus, not being able to summon one, was emphasized as it said in a tone that was almost light-hearted in spite of the crackling of flame, "Sorry to cut off your Lily-time, honey, but I've got a bit of a situation and I could use the assist. You two can spend time catching up next week, OK?"
Lily backed away a few paces, giving the two some privacy as Severus replied, taking advantage of the mental link-up between the hellish angel and Mary's mind, "OK, I'll be there in a moment. Where are you?"
"Eh, outside of Flourish and Blotts in Diagon Alley I think. Our...friends are being a bit disruptive, and they seem to have forgotten me already..." Lily found it hard to believe, but the fiendish angel actually pouted, before continuing, "...I mean, it's only been a few months since I've been on-duty for the pregnancy, you know?"
Although Severus rolled his eyes, his eyes sparked with an excitement that remined Lily an awful lot of how he would get when he got the chance to get the drop on James during their school years, an almost-evil happiness. He then said, "Very well, just let me zip off a Patronus to the Ministry, then I'll be there with you."
Without even a word, Severus conjured up his Patronus, which had changed once again from a doe to a bat. Having it pass right by the angel's cheek as it flapped off into the darkening sky, almost seeming to brush against it tenderly, Severus then disapparated, leaving Lily behind... 'Once again...'
Lily just couldn't understand it sometimes; how could Severus have such a passion for a woman who was so much her opposite? It just didn't make sense... Why couldn't she have gotten that kind of reaction from him...?
Meanwhile, as Severus arrived in the warzone of Diagon Alley, Mary shook her head at the already-fading look of peace on Severus' face. She couldn't understand how Lily was able to get that kind of reaction from him... It just didn't make sense... Mary certainly couldn't get that emotion from him herself...
