Severus sighed. He really shouldn't be here but after the events of the day, he just couldn't resist. The mirror sat in front of him, innocently. He thought of the troll, the blood, and the green-eyed boy smack dab in the middle of it all.

"Your son is a menace," he announced to the empty room," He gets that from you." He thinks about their own adventures, exploring the treacherous castle, creating potions in the abandoned classrooms. All at Lily's prompting. Sometimes he could still hear her stage whispering in his ear, ' Com'on Sev, it'll be fun!' Her mischievous smile, her glimmering eyes, her oversized band T-shirts… And he wondered why he was doing all this. Why didn't he answer her letters? Why didn't he take her help? Why did he kill her?

"I'm sorry, Lily, I'm so sorry," he choked with the cold surface of the mirror against his own hands. The wreckage, the cold, the crying that swept through the house. In his grief, he had left the child there surrounded by death, even blaming the child, still blamed him.

"I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

They had written that together during their own potion class as Slughorn meandered through paragraph after paragraph of textbook read information. Lily had nudged him and with a dramatic expression, her nose high in the air she hissed," You can bottle success-"

"Use fame instead, remember to keep the words small," They giggled.

Lily cleared her throat," Brew glory! Stopper in the mouth of death!" she proclaimed. Severus had shushed her.

"Hey, Snivillous! You must have brewed a pretty strong love potion to make Evans think you're a remotely decent person!" Severus remembered Potter yelling from his spot near the front.

"Shut up, Potter! You would think with two pairs of eyes you would be able to see just how big of an asshole you are!" Lily scowled at Potter. The class 'Ohhhh'ed.

"Now, now class, settle down-" Slughorn continued to monologue.

Severus looked over to see a teenage Lily still scowling down at her notes and nudged her. She looked up, her beautiful green eyes sparkling angrily. Severus scribbled something on a bit of parchment and slid it over.

-Bottle Fame

-Brew Glory

-Stopper Death

But only if you're not a dunderhead like Potter

She had laughed.

And in the mirror, she was laughing too, alone and free without the threat of death, war, and suffering. Without Severus too.