Chapter 45: I'm Free

From then on, Severus was more anxious for any and every excuse to get away and be with her. He and Lily now had sex during almost every single one of his visits. Severus was at least careful to use a contraceptive charm before he mounted her; the last thing either of them needed was for her to fall pregnant with his baby. He and the woman who had now become his secret lover snogged and shagged more often than they talked. They greeted each other with a kiss on the mouth now. Lily was always eager to get frisky and copulate with Severus any time the urge struck her.

Even if she, rather amusingly, did not seem to understand the gravity of what she was doing. The sex she and Severus now engaged in held none of the solemnity with which a Lillian in her right mind would have surely approached the dirty deed. Sure, rutting between the sheets was meant to be fun, but Lily still seemed to view sexual intercourse as a kind of game, and not the serious act it was meant to be. The first time she had asked, rather abruptly, for him to show her his penis, she had delightedly said, "Ooooh, a lolly!" before she had sealed her lips around him. Awed by her, getting to have her, Severus gave up trying to explain to her that what they were doing held a lot of risk, and just let her have her fun, and her way with him.

More recently, Lily had been enjoying being on top, as she was on this particular night. Straddling him audaciously, she was softly laughing to herself as she rode him.

"Bouncy! Bouncy, wouncy, wouncy, wouncy!" Her splayed thighs made a delicious slapping sound against his as she rolled her hips into his pelvis.

Severus fought past a groan to shush her. Lily simply beamed, giggling a little, and copied the motion back to him. Though she did grow quiet as they continued to make love. She finally came all around him with a soft whimper, and languidly swung her creamy legs off of him as she dismounted him, collapsing onto the shared hospital body to snuggle against him, pressing her naked body and breasts against his chest. He felt her lips buzz his cheek.

"That was fun! Good night, love," she chirped sleepily.

A dazed and giddy Severus listened until he heard her even breathing. Shifting gently against her, he reached down and fished into the satchel he had brought with him, finally pulling out a piece of blue fabric. It was old and frayed by now, but he had kept it on him for years, after finding it in the ruins of what must have been Harry's nursery in Godric's Hollow. The boy's baby blanket. Every now and again, he had made a point of smuggling her pictures or other things that might remind her of her son. In the intervening years, the glacial improvements to her mind had yielded such progress that Lily did seem aware that she had a son. She knew his name, and adored all the reminders of him Severus brought her. He would have given this blanket to her the moment he arrived tonight, but she had seemed quite intent to get on with 'it.' Not that he had minded.

Now tucking the blanket against Lily's stomach, so that the corner brushed her hardened nipples, Severus grinned and pressed one kiss to her forehead, then another to her lips. He spent a few moments just gazing at her, telling himself he would sneak out from under her and leave in a minute….

Severus woke up to a terrible scream.

Jerking awake, he was startled to see Lily now clutching Harry's blue baby blanket and sobbing uncontrollably, even as she now was scrambling off the cot, still completely naked, and gazing at Severus with revolted horror.

"Lillian…" He said, starting to lift himself out of the bed they'd been sharing.

"Stay where you are!" Lily barked sharply, green eyes wild with fright. "Don't come any closer, Severus; I mean it!" She pointed with a finger, and then paused to look down at it, as if she had been expecting to see something else. "Where's… where's my wand?" she half-whispered.

Severus eyed her, leery and yet a small part of him hardly daring to breathe. He could hear just in her voice that this was a different Lily than the one he had been visiting for years upon years and the Lily he had been fucking these many weeks.

"I don't know," he answered truthfully.

"Where's my wand, Severus?!" Her voice rose dangerously.

"I don't have it!" he protested, and he didn't. If anything, he suspected that Lily's wand had been confiscated the night she was brought here, as wands would be for any St. Mungo's patient, for at that point, any magical tool would be a danger to themselves and others. His gaze shifted to Lily's other hand, which was now fisting Harry's baby blanket. Lily's own gaze followed his; gasping, she now stretched out the square bit of fabric in a desperate attempt to cover her nakedness. It was almost funny how the blanket only barely managed to cover her breasts. Lily's green eyes were wide, mortified and very, very confused.

"Where's James? Where's Harry?" At this, Severus's blood ran cold, and he knew: Lily was back. After all this time, she was back. She had actually made a full mental recovery, seemingly over this last night. The most he could wonder in this haze was exactly what had done it. His suspicion lay with the blanket; it had to have jogged, unlocked something in her.

He gulped. Lily's beautiful green eyes flashed.

"Merlindamn it, Severus Snape, where is my husband?! Where is my son?!"

In answer, Severus fished in the bedside drawer until he found the most recent picture of Harry, and held it out to her. She took it gingerly, gawping at it in disbelief. Her orbs, wide as small planets, lifted to his.

"Where is James, Severus?"

Severus's irises actually filled with tears. "James is…. gone."

He heard Lily suck in a breath. "No," she mouthed.

He nodded heavily. "He's been dead for over fifteen years."

"Wh….what?!" she gasped. "Severus, it's not…. 1981?"

He ogled her. "Lillian…. It's Spring 1997."

He wouldn't have blamed her if she thought she was in a nightmare. In a kind of daze, Lily turned to stare at herself in the wall-length mirror by her bed, and she was obviously shocked to see how much she had aged, though she was still as beautiful as ever.

She rounded back to the man she had woken up in bed with. She was still staring at Severus as though she had never seen him before. It seemed to dawn on her anew that he was as naked as she was, implying what they had done.

"GET OUT!" she shrieked. "DON'T LOOK AT ME! GET OUT, OUT!

Her screams now rose and rose in volume and pitch until orderlies came running.

"Here, now, what's this?!" a nurse took one look at the display inside this partitioned cot and flew into a rage; Severus had to dodge the matronly Healer throwing her fists out at him. Lily was unintelligible, dissolving into sobs and cries of distress.

"Out with you, you…. you perv!" the Healer screeched. "If I ever catch you in here with this poor girl again, I'll… I'll call the Aurors, swear to Merlin, I will!"

Severus could do nothing but flee from St. Mungo's damn near naked, the clothes from which Lily had undressed him just the night before bundled in his arms.