Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling and I don't own anything.
Of happy endings
"You think of me […] — and it is very natural that you should — as if I were a character in a book; and you make it a kind of poetical justice that I should, by some impossible means or other, come at last to marry the person that I love. But there is a higher justice than the poetical kind, my dear. I don't grieve for the impossible."
(Tom Pinch in the BBC's Martin Chuzzlewit, 1994)
I.
Once again ('but for the last time', she vowed to herself), Lily caved into to the silent pressure of knowing Severus was waiting for her on the other side of the portrait. There was no way, she felt, she could get any sleep until she had dealt with him once and for all, so she might as well do it now. True, he apparently had not got the message the previous times, but that only meant she had not been forceful enough; this time, then, she would have to be ruthless. Well, she could do it! She was sleep-deprived enough to not have any patience or tact or sentimentality left over to get in the way…
When she emerged into the corridor, Severus jumped to his feet (he had been sitting on the floor) and rushed to her side, looking very much like a sad, half-starved puppy. He was very pale, and it was clear that he had been crying. She had to repress the urge to run away from him.
"Lily…"
"No — shut up. Listen to me. I only came out to make things clear: I —…"
"— Lily, please —…"
"Don't interrupt me!" She gave him a glare sharp enough to pin him to the wall, then went on: "Listen: I don't want to be friends with you. Not anymore, not ever again. I. am. not. your. friend. So leave me alone. You're just making it worse by harassing me like this. It's not cute, it's creepy. We're done."
Still, infuriatingly, he kept at it. "Lily, I know I shouldn't have called you… that… but —"
"No you most definitely shouldn't have… but that's not even the point!"
"What is the point, then?"
"That you're the kind of person who uses that word, and who spends all his time with the kind of people who use that word, so it's not just some little slip up — by this point it's just a tiny symptom of everything that's wrong with you! I tried to put up with it for so long, really I did, but I just can't anymore. Forget about that stupid incident — I just don't want to be friends with a Death Eater is all."
Having finished her tirade, she turned back to return to the dormitory.
That is when Severus, his voice reaching a new pitch of desperation, blurted out, "Then I won't be a Death Eater!"
Lily, at those words, froze into place. She felt a smile creep up on her and slowly break out on her face. Working hard to keep her voice neutral, she said, "…You won't?"
"No," he answered solemnly.
She turned back to face him. "You promise?"
"Yes."
"And you won't hang out with those creeps anymore?"
"I won't."
At the sight of her smile, a note of wild hope came into his eyes. Poor thing, thought Lily, he really did look like a puppy.
Finally caving in, she said in the most casual voice she could manage, "Then, if you're not lying, I might reconsider."
He grinned. She grinned back, despite herself. For a moment it was like they were children again, until Lily's face grew stern again, as she decided it wouldn't do to be too sentimental.
"Good night, Sev. Mind you keep to your word."
"I will. Good night, Lily."
Then she disappeared again, and Severus was left standing there alone in the dark, with a foolish grin on his face and his heart too full for words.