Chapter 14: Severus
What Lily had hoped for happened: Severus was there.
"Father!" Lily ran up to him, enveloping him in a hug; she hadn't seen him since before the day Dumbledore died.
"Lily!" Severus said, half angry, half relieved. "Where have you been? I've been worried sick! Why didn't you come here after you got off the train?"
"I did, but you weren't here. They said you killed Dumbledore! You couldn't have, could you?" She still did not let him go.
"Lily, you cannot return to Hogwarts this year."
She broke away, she could almost look into his eyes without having to look up. "Why not?"
"Because, it will be too dangerous!"
"You-you did kill Dumbledore!"
"Lily, I didn't-"
"I knew it! I knew it was a Death Eater under a PolyJuice Potion!"
"Lily, you cannot return to Hogwarts, do you hear me?"
"I am going back, who else do I have?"
"You have your grandmother!"
"She doesn't even care about what will happen to me!"
"Lily-"
She started crying. He hadn't seen her cry this much since she was very little.
"Lily, please stop crying!" It was like that day, she was only a toddler and he started yelling at her when she was crying and that only made her cry more. "Lily," he used his finger to push up her chin so she would look into his eyes instead of where her tears were falling. "I just want you to be safe and Hogwarts, it just isn't that safe anymore, my flower, this is for your own protection.
"What about my friends? Also, if Hogwarts isn't safe, nowhere is!"
Severus thought about it. She was right. He would just have to keep a constant watch on her. "You are Head Girl if Hermione Granger doesn't return."