Chapter 19: Slipped Away
"I don't need filthy little Mudbloods like her!"
That one word. That one disgusting word had caused it. Severus felt like throwing something at the wall; like shattering it into a million pieces.
"I thought… you were going … to keep her … safe…"
He refused to believe it. He refused to believe that she was gone; he would never see her curtain of dark red hair gently falling over her face or her bright green eyes sparkling with emotion…
"Does it make a difference, being Muggle-born?"
"No. It doesn't make any difference."
He could almost see her, sitting by the river right next to him, with him…
"…you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any be any different?"
"…If you loved Lily Evans, if you truly loved her, then your way forward is clear."
Why did this have to happen to him?
"You're … you're a witch."
"That's not a very nice thing to say to somebody!"
"Sev, we'll still be best friends, right? I mean, we're not in the same house and everything-"
"Of course we will!"
But they hadn't. And they had both ignored it – they had both ignored their differences, and their friendship slowly…delicately crumbling into nothingness right in front of their eyes.
"You remember the shape and color of Lily Evans's eyes, I am sure?"
"DON'T! Gone … Dead…"
With the last bit of strength Severus had left, he said, "Expecto Patronum!"
A dazzling, silver doe burst from the tip of his wand, but lasted only for a second, and then slipped away in thin air.
She was gone; she had slipped away just like the silver doe.
"We'll always be friends, right?"
"Always."