Chapter 3
The Marauders
James, Sirius, and Remus sat at the kitchen table of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, glasses of Firewhiskey in front of them. Though Sirius had poured them half an hour ago, they remained untouched, and the three wizards had not spoken a word since they sat down. "The Rat will be hard to find, Prongs," Remus said, breaking the silence. "By know, he knows that we know he broke the Fidelius." "And will be hiding under his master's robes out of cowardice," Sirius growled. "You should have let me go after him!" "And let you lose your life as well?" "What are you saying, Moony?" "I'm saying that if we did let you go after the Rat the first chance we had, you would have been blinded by rage and the need for vengeance, and likely killed yourself."
At that moment, James picked up his glass and downed the contents, slamming it onto the table. "So we lure him out. He's a rat, and rats are caught with traps. All we need is the cheese…"
Lily
Lily sat patiently in the armchair, James's Invisibility Cloak wrapped round her. Snape had been clever, but not clever enough. Hiding by living among Muggles was sensible, but what was more sensible was not living where you might be expected to be, especially when the person looking for you knew where your house was and how to take down its security protections. Snape might hole up in Malfoy Manor with the rest of the Death Eaters during the day, but he returned to Spinner's End every night, to tend his personal potion lab.
It was a quarter past nine when Snape appeared in the living room with a soft pop of Apparition. Lily rose from the chair, the Invisibility Cloak falling from her as she did so. His back to her, Snape did not notice her presence – until she clamped her left hand over his mouth and slashed a thick and sharp butcher's knife across his throat, splattering the wall with his blood. He reflexively tried to cast a spell, but could not, for he had dropped his wand in surprise. Lily slammed him to the floor, and raised the knife again. He could see the fury and hate in her eyes. "Hello, Snape." she spat. "You killed Harry, my sweet, precious baby boy. Not your master. You. It was you that gave him a reason. And when I saw my baby dead, my heart tore. And now yours is going to." Lily plunged the knife into Snape's heart, twisting it as she did so. He tried to turn his head away, but she held him in place. She wanted to see the life leave his eyes, he realised, as the agony wracked his body one last time.
Lily stood up, panting. It took a minute or two for her breathing and heartbeat to return to normal, drawing her wand when they did. "Gladius Evanescus." The knife vanished from the now cooling corpse of Severus Snape, leaving only the wounds. "Scourgify". The spilled blood disappeared from the walls and floor. It took her a further fifteen minutes to find everything magical in the house and pack it into the small Undetectably Expanded handbag she'd brought with her, but once the house and its contents were Muggle alone, she picked up the Cloak and Disapparated. One killer dealt with, she thought to herself. Not for a moment did she consider herself a killer, after all. This wasn't murder. This was justice.