Later that day, Lily woke up in a quiet, empty house. She'd fallen asleep shortly after Severus had gone to bed – she had felt absurdly tired for someone who had just slept for an entire day – and he had already left by the time she got up. She found a note on the kitchen table and instantly recognized Severus's impeccable handwriting.
Lily, it said, I've gone to the Ministry. Wait for me here. Everything under this roof is yours to take. There's plenty of food in the kitchen, and you'll find fresh towels and linens in the cupboard under the stairs. I laid out some clothes for you. Don't go outside. Signed, Severus.
Lily folded the note and flicked it back on the table. Finally, some clean clothes. She had been wearing the same outfit since she had arrived, and her dress smelled like dirt and sweat. She could not bring herself to even think about the state of her underwear. Now that the initial shock of finding herself in the future had worn off, she became painfully aware of just how much she had been neglecting personal hygiene in the past few days.
She spent the first hour of her day soaking in a hot bath washing her greasy hair, but the warm water did nothing to the pain in her neck. It was impossible for her to relax, knowing how much had to be done before all would be well again. She sank deeper into her bath and dozed off for a moment, dreaming that she was alone in the open sea, and that an underwater voyd was trying to suck her into the black depths.
Next, Lily went through the clothes Severus had mentioned in his note. She discovered a lovely collection of black, black, and black dresses laid out on the sofa, all of which had evidently once belonged to Severus's mother, Eileen Snape. The dresses were quite plain compared to the things pureblood witches usually wore, but Lily could still remember how the late Mrs. Snape had stood out in their predominantly Muggle, working class neighbourhood in her distinctly witchy outfits. She could only assume that Severus was getting the same kind of attention now, walking around in his black robes and cloaks.
The clothes barely fit her, as they had clearly been tailored for Eileen, who had been much taller and skinnier than Lily. Eventually, she did find a slinky dress she could wear without having to quit oxygen. The dress might have looked decent – perhaps even elegant – when worn by the mysterious heroine of a Gothic horror story, or by Lady Macbeth, or by Severus himself – the mental image had her laughing out loud for the first time in days – but it looked absolutely ridiculous on her. Still, when nudity was her only other option, this dress had to do.
Hours passed with no sign of Severus. Lily kept her nervous mind busy by wandering around in Eileen Snape's old dress like she was the restless spirit of the former mistress of the house, taking a closer look at the interior of the house she knew so well from the outside, but which she had seldom visited. Growing up, Severus had never been comfortable with showing her how he lived, and Lily knew exactly why: his parents' marriage was in ruins, and their home had turned into an emotional battlefield. Neither his parents knew how heavy the hatred the air of the house was thick of would feel on the heart of their only son.
He had learned to reject everything that reminded him of his unhappy family. That was probably the main reason why Severus had always wanted to go away – away from this house, away from his parents, away from his roots, away from himself. Away, higher, further, deeper. That was where his road was always leading. What he was doing in this same old house twenty years later, Lily could not understand.
Nevertheless, the house looked quite comfortable from the inside, certainly much nicer than it had used to look. She reckoned that Severus had revamped the place to suit his tastes, though it wasn't what most people would describe as cozy. It still had a certain bleakness to it, but somehow Lily liked it – she liked the dusty old books in the living room, the peeling paint, the antique potion kit he had on display in the study, the creaky floor, the little magical herb garden he had set up in the corner of his kitchen, and even the cracks on the ceiling. The house had character, secrets. She concluded that Severus was not the type of person to surround himself with beautiful things. He surrounded himself with things that fascinated him – which, at least in Lily's eyes, had beauty of their own special kind.
In the evening – when Lily had gotten so engaged with the little details of the house that she had completely forgotten that she had been anxiously waiting for him – Severus finally returned. She could hear him coming in and she rushed downstairs, meeting him on the platform halfway down the stairs. He looked extremely relieved to see her, as though he had expected to find her dead or gone when he returned. His smile melted away when he noticed what she was wearing.
"Well?" asked Lily impatiently, tossing her hands on her hips.
"It looks nice on you," he replied.
Lily frowned. "I mean what happened at the Ministry."
"Right," he said, and she could have sworn that he turned a little bit paler. "Well, as I said, the Ministry is a mess. They've captured or killed most of the original staff, and they've put the rest under the Imperius curse. The whole place is run by a handful of Death Eaters, and not even by the clever ones. I was allowed to survey the Department of Mysteries freely because of my high rank. I told them that I needed to take a look at the latest experiments with dark magic to include them in the new curriculum. Death Eaters are used to taking orders from authority figures without asking any questions."
"Great," said Lily, although it still bothered her to think of Severus as a high-ranking Death Eater, even if he was faking it. "Tell me, what did you find out about the archway?"
"Only this," Severus began. "It's what remains of an ancient Druid temple that was once hidden deep within a sacred grove. It's an architectural oddity – built in the Roman style, yet infused with Druid magic. That makes it at least two thousand years old, but not much else is known about it. The Druids were wiped out by the Vikings more than a thousand years ago, which was also probably when the temple was burnt down. The ruins were rediscovered in the 15th century by local wizards, but the secrets of the temple were already long lost by then, and the archway was all that remained. It was soon discovered that instant death fell upon anyone who passed through it. Most historians think that the Druids may have cursed the temple in revenge. However, some wizards claim that they can hear the voices of the dead calling out from the other side of the archway, and they believe that it's in fact a window to the afterlife. That's why it was eventually claimed by the Ministry of Magic and placed in what is known as the Death Chamber in the Department of Mysteries. Unspeakables who study Necromancy and the afterlife have been using it as a tool in their research. "
"But I walked through it, and I didn't die," said Lily. "Is that the secret, then? Walking through the archway doesn't kill you – it just takes you into the future!"
Severus shook his head.
"I don't think so. It does kill. It should kill. I don't know why you survived."
"How do you know?" Lily insisted. "Maybe all those people who have passed through it are just lost in the wrong era, just like I am."
"No. I know of a recent victim, and he definitely died", replied Severus. "Sirius Black's life ended the moment he fell through that archway."
He gave her a brief summary of the set of events that had led to Sirius's death, and her heart was instantly filled with gloom. She already knew that Sirius had fallen in battle – he had been among the first people she had asked Severus about on the night before – but hearing the detailed description of how it had happened sounded simply harrowing. One little spell and one fatal fall had ended the life of a wonderful friend in seconds.
It doesn't matter, she told herself, I will rescue you, Sirius. I will rescue all of you. Just give me time, and I'll think of something.
"Then what is this all about?" she asked anxiously. "Why did the archway take Sirius's life, and not mine? I didn't do or say or even think of anything special. I just walked through it. How come I ended up here?"
Severus shrugged.
"I don't know. It could have been something you did, or something didn't do. How you did it. When you did it. Who you were. It could have been the colour of your socks. We know so little about that thing that it could have been literally anything, even something so insignificant that you did even notice it."
"Insignificant or not, there clearly is a line that separates death from an opportunity like this. I stepped over it. That means that I can find it again," she said assertively. "Sev, I need every single book that has ever been written about those Druids. Doable?"
He nodded. "I do have an unlimited access to the Hogwarts library, and I'm going back there in a few days. I can bring you anything you need once I return."
"Excellent!" replied Lily. "I could kiss you, Severus!"
But she didn't. Instead, she just grinned at him, and then she went back to the bedroom to write down notes of the plan she had begun to hatch, completely unaware of just how long Severus stood where she had left him until he finally gave up on the hope of actually getting that kiss.