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It was the day before the wedding. Part of Lily was filled with dread. After her last disastrous affair involving a wedding, she loathed the idea of attending another. Lily didn't see Rosaline around the castle since tea in the parlor. Before, the Death Eater wives would stare at Lily. Now, they completely ignored her. Lily avoided leaving the bedroom as much as she could. No doubt, Narcissa told her sister and husband about the disrespectful outburst. Lily also felt a twinge of nervous excitement. Regardless of Rosaline's pessimistic rambling, any representative from the Ministry could be another chance for freedom. This time, Lily would only be spectator, a guest. She wouldn't be the one wearing the overly starched dress and stuffy undergarments. For just one day, all eyes would be off Lily.

"I heard you were making friends." Severus said tonelessly.

"I didn't make any friends." Lily replied sourly, holding a bin full of crumpled parchment. "Where shall I put these?" Neither Lily or Severus wanted anything to do with involving themselves with the bustling, so they remained cooped in their bedroom. Lily proposed they sort through the clutter. Perhaps if they did some boring task together, they wouldn't have to interact with each other more than they had to. If they weren't occupying their time, without a doubt, they would be at each other's throats.

"Toss them in the fire. You didn't tell me you were attending a tea party, let alone harass a pregnant Narcissa." He added.

She tossed the parchment into the hearth next to the other rubbish. "She was harassing me first. That foul bitch should consider herself lucky I don't have a wand."

Severus rolled his eyes. "It doesn't matter who started it. You should consider yourself lucky Bellatrix dislikes tea parties."

"Are you really defending Narcissa?" Lily snapped.

"I am not defending her, you need to be more careful!"

"Oh, shut up. What the bloody hell are these?" Lily opened a drawer and cockroaches crawled out. "More parchment in here? Seriously?"

"Don't touch those!" Severus rushed over and pushed Lily out of the way.

"What the fuck have you got in there? It smells like a dead animal!"

He unwrapped the parchment to reveal a slimy, black vine trimming. "It's a rare hybrid of freshwater dungweed. You have no idea how hard this was to find! It's illegal to sell in apothecaries here."

"I bloody wonder why. Put it in a jar or something before I vomit." Lily groaned sarcastically. She shifted her attention to the dusty bookcase while Severus dealt with the writing desk drawers. The shelves were crammed with books. Some appeared to be ages old with tattered leather. Others looked brand new and never opened with shiny covers and wrapped in ribbons. Lily remembered feeling annoyed that Mrs. Potter kept her bookcases barren of any books. She glimpsed at Severus across the room. At least someone else in the cold and miserable world understood the simple function of a bookcase. "So, I heard someone from the Ministry will be at the wedding tomorrow." Lily carefully started.

"And what about it?"

"Nothing. I was just wondering if you knew."

"I've been aware. Rabastan has personally invited a representative from the Treasury Department as an honored guest." Severus peeled the dungweed off the parchment and flicked it into a vial. "I wasn't assigned to keep the representative entertained."

"What's your assigned duty?" Lily asked.

"You want to know?" Severus stopped what he was doing to face Lily. "My assignment is to ensure you and the representative don't cross paths."

Lily paused, still facing the bookcase. "Odd assignment."

"I wasn't assigned. I volunteered."

"Really?" Lily spun around. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'm not fucking daft, Lily." He raised an eyebrow. "You were already planning on having a chat with the representative, were you not?"

Of course Severus knew. Lily wanted to throw something at him. She resisted the urge. "Why bother to have me present? Why not just lock me in the cellar, or the bedroom?"

He smirked. "If I had you locked in here, are you implying that you wouldn't even try to escape?" Lily didn't say anything. "It would be easier to keep you in sight. Besides, I thought you would enjoy some fresh air. The garden will be open to guests, you know?"

"I don't give a damn about the bloody garden. I don't want to be here, I want to go home!" Lily slumped down in an armchair. She grabbed a poker from the hearth and angrily stabbed at the burning rubbish.

Severus didn't know how to respond or what to say. He couldn't let her be seen with the representative. Breezes of hopeful, coastal lavender crossed his mind. Severus certainly couldn't risk speaking to the representative himself. There was no chance of persuading a fellow Death Eater to do it. If anyone in this castle had a shot of changing things, it was Lily. Severus sat down in the armchair across from her. "Three minutes."

Lily sat up. She almost dropped the poker. "Really?" Her emerald eyes were brimming with hope.

Severus forced himself to look into the burning hearth. "Three minutes, not a second more or else it will draw unwanted attention. Only state your name and mention the Ministry has you reported as missing. Any more information and they could start repeating things to Rabastan or anyone else."

"When would be the best time to approach the representative?" Lily asked quietly. "You've been to these Death Eater weddings before, right?"

"If this one will be anything like Lucius and Narcissa's wedding, expect it to go on for hours. A few hours into the reception would be our best chance. Everyone will be drunk and tired." Severus had a cigarette in his fingers, but didn't light it. "We only have one chance at this. There cannot be any mistakes. It won't just be your life on the line if we get caught."

Lily nodded solemnly, still staring into the fire. She understood Severus was risking everything for her to have those precious three minutes. "What does she look like?"

Severus blinked. "Who?"

"Rabastan's bride, Astrid, or something. You saw her arrive, right? What's she like?" Lily stood up to look for something to fuss over to busy herself.

"She's one of Yaxley's nieces. He's very protective of her."

"Yes, but did you get a look at her when she arrived? She was supposed to be at tea the other day, but I heard she locked herself in her room in a fit." Lily picked up a large, heavy jar coated with dust off the floor. "I also heard she has a club foot."

Severus was about to light his cigarette. "Where the hell did you hear that?"

"Never mind that, is it true?"

Severus rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't know. But if she did, it would explain those impractically long robes she wears. And her funny walk."

"I bloody knew it!" Lily almost dropped the jar.

"Careful!" Severus leaped from the armchair and plucked the jar from her hands. "This is a perfectly preserved Horntail!"

Lily peered into the dusty jar full of dingy yellow fluids. "Dragons are hatched from eggs, I recall." The pallid creature inside was so small, wrinkled, and skeletal. It was difficult to distinguish any features that proved it was a Horntail, let alone prove it was a dragon at all.

"They are. Dragons often know when an offspring is weak before it hatches. Most dragon breeds will abandon the bad egg, but Horntails are much more vicious. Once the eggs hatch, the mothers will let the stronger offspring devour the weakest." Severus carefully wiped the dust off the jar with a dirty sock.

"Lovely." Lily said sarcastically and wrinkled her nose. "But practical. It guarantees only the strongest offspring live, and the mother can nourish them without surrendering her own food."

"Exactly; given that the mother lays multiple eggs. This particular specimen was the only egg." Severus gently placed the jar on the shelf above the fireplace. "The egg was taken away from the mother before she could eat it herself."

"Really?" Lily stared at the jar. "The mother was going to eat her own offspring? What was wrong with it?"

"Take a closer look." Severus turned the jar, revealing a second head, deformed and twisted, and a single wing sprouting from its spine. "It never had a chance. In many species, magical and non-magical, mothers often devour their young."

Lily couldn't stop looking at the dragon fetus. It was morbid to look at, but so incredibly fascinating. "Do you know what caused the deformity?"

"Not with absolute certainty." Severus stood next to her. "What's your theory?"

She peered into the jar, as if this was simple school exercise. "Given that wild Horntails are rarely sought out; my guess is the mother was in illegal captivity. She might have been impregnated in the wild right before capture … or forcibly during." Lily stated. "Illegal captivity is often tied with depraved conditions. The stress of cramped spaces, poor diet, and frequent prodding could cause a malnourished and deformed offspring, possibly a stillborn. Without a doubt, retrieving the egg in one piece with the two-headed fetus is incredibly rare." Lily stopped talking. It was almost too nostalgic. It was as if her and Severus were back at school; scribbling notes and sharing thoughts and theories. Back when exams were the most dreaded event. A long ago memory that neither could bare to sully.

"Animals have a lot to teach us." Severus mumbled. He also felt it. "Alive, or dead."

Lily nodded solemnly in quiet agreement, warily eying the silver dress she was supposed to wear to the wedding tomorrow. Briefly, she envied the malformed pickled dragon fetus.