MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
by The Goblet
Chapter 33
James escorted Lily as far as the Great Hall, before continuing on his way back to Gryffindor Tower.
After leaving James with a kiss, Lily made her own way to the Hufflepuff dormitories. She gave the security portrait the password and slipped inside. The Gryffindor climbed three sets of stairs to Severus' new room and knocked.
When she didn't get a response, she knocked once more.
Presuming that Severus was either too depressed to respond, or asleep, and praying to Merlin that Severus was decent (not that she would have minded taking another look at Severus' lovely body) Lily pushed open the door and stepped inside the dormitory.
To her surprise, Severus was not there. She checked every bed, and then the bathroom, to no avail. Having no idea where her friend may have disappeared to, especially since he was pretending to be dead and was lying low, Lily checked under every bed. Severus simply wasn't in the room.
Worried, Lily sat down on the bed Severus had claimed. His small collection of clothes was still by the bed, so she assumed he hadn't gone far and had been intending to return.
She glanced at the bedside table and saw the remains of a turkey sandwich. It looked as though it had been picked to death by a bird.
And then Lily saw it. A letter addressed to herself and Minerva. Fear gripped her heart as she reached for the scroll. She broke the seal and began to read.
Lily ran, crying hysterically, through the castle until she reached the Gryffindor dorms. In her hand, she clutched Severus' letter, along with its attachments.
She burst into the Common Room and found James sitting on one of the couches, while Sirius and Remus were playing a game of wizard's chess, sitting on the floor, in the corner. "James!" she wailed, throwing herself at the young Auror.
James was startled to find Lily barrelling through the portrait hole and into his lap. He wrapped his arms around the hysterical girl.
"Shh, it's ok," he whispered to her, rubbing large circles on her back, trying not to think about the bra strap he could feel under her robes. "It's ok," he repeated over and over again as he held her, desperately trying not to think about the blood rushing to his crotch.
He felt Lily calm down a little and pulled away slightly to look at her. "What's wrong?" he asked softly.
The girl opened her mouth to speak and crumbled yet again, tears flowing out of her eyes as she buried her head in the crook of his neck.
"S-s-Severus," she choked into James' neck.
"What about Severus?" he asked.
Lily thrust the now crumpled scroll at James. Keeping one arm around his girl, he unrolled the parchment and began to read.
James closed his eyes as he finished reading the letter. "We need to find Minerva, or Albus," he said quietly to Lily.
She nodded, and allowed herself to be pulled up from the couch.
"What's Snivellus done this time?" Sirius interrupted with a sneer on his face. "Tried to get into Lily's pants?"
James gave Black a dirty look. "None of your business," he replied, steering Lily away from his two friends. He hadn't yet had an opportunity to tell them that Snape had committed suicide. It wasn't something you could just slip into a conversation. What could he say? "Who's winning? And, by the way, did you know you that Severus has killed himself?"
Lily hadn't realised that the two boys were even in the room. She turned and faced them, her tear-stained face and bloodshot eyes turning in anger. "I hope you are fucking proud of yourselves!" she screamed.
"Why the hell did you have to go and tell everyone he was a whore? Why the hell did you break his heart!" she sobbed.
Sirius and Remus looked at her like deer stunned by a car's headlights. James put his arm around her again. He supposed that this was as good a time as any to slip Snape's fake suicide into the conversation.
"Severus couldn't live with the results of your actions this morning," he told his friends. "Lily just found his body." James held up the scrolls and waved them at his friends. "His last words, his Will and a letter to you," James continued, nodding at Remus as he mentioned the letter.
"We need to go to Minerva," he reminded everyone, turning away from his stunned friends, and leading Lily away.
As he was climbing out of the portrait hole, he heard a strangled sound from Remus, "How?"
James turned back, leaving Lily waiting in the hallway. "He jumped from the Astronomy Tower."
"Are you accusing us of murdering him?" asked Sirius. "Look, I'm sorry that the git is dead, but I didn't accuse him of anything that I didn't have full proof of. If he's dead, then he can't do it again, can he?"
James bristled and closed the portrait behind him, preventing Lily from hearing any more of their conversation. James turned to Remus. "A word," he said, pulling him aside.
Remus scrambled up from the floor and stepped up to James.
"You are a villain," James whispered. "I challenge you to a duel, a true wizards' duel. Name the place and the time, and I will be there. If you refuse, I will tell everyone that you are a coward. You have killed an innocent man, and his death will be forever on your soul.
"I'm taking Lily to find Minerva. I expect a response when I return."
James pushed Remus away from him as he reopened the portrait.
"Forgive me, but I can't be friends with you anymore.
"Oh, and by the way, Sirius, your brother has fled. We have looked everywhere for him. He was obviously ashamed that he had a hand in killing an innocent.
"Goodbye Black. I will see you later, Lupin."
James stepped through the portrait hole and slammed the dor shut.
"He's dead?" Remus murmured turning to look at Sirius. There were tears in his eyes as he stood by the portrait.
Sirius was up like a shot, hugging his friend. "Come on," he whispered. "Let's get some fresh air and go for a walk around the lake.
"We'll try and find that errant brother of mine."
James led Lily through the castle to Albus' office where Minerva and Albus were having tea.
When Minerva saw how upset Lily was, she quickly rushed over to comfort the distraught girl.
"What happened?" Albus asked James as Minerva calmed Lily, making her a cup of tea.
James handed over the scrolls, and the entire room went silent as first Albus read them, and then handed them to Minerva.
"He went to meet the Dark Lord?" Minerva asked, dumbfounded, as she finished reading Severus' letter.
Lily nodded.
"We knew this day would come," Albus said quietly.
"But today! Why today?" Lily wailed. "Everything went wrong today. What if something goes wrong at Wilkes'?"
"Nothing will go wrong, Lily," Minerva told her. "Severus has a good head on his shoulders. He'll have no problems tonight."
Albus smiled and continued reading through the two scrolls. "Has Remus seen this?" he asked, holding up the letter Severus had written to the werewolf.
James shook his head. "No, I hadn't had a chance to tell him that Severus was dead until just now. It didn't feel right just to say it out of the blue: 'Hmmm, lovely weather we're having. Oh, and did anyone tell you Snape killed himself?'
"I told them after Lily arrived in hysterics. I told them that he jumped off the Astronomy Tower, just as we planned."
Albus had, indeed, chosen this method of suicide, so that he could quite reasonably refuse to let anyone see Severus' mangled body.
This just set Lily off again.
"It's ok, Lily. Severus will be ok. All we can do now is sit and wait," Minerva told her.
"And show this letter to Remus," Albus added, placing the scrolls on the table.
The group was interrupted by a knock on Albus' door. "Enter," he called once more.
Ebenezer Scrivenshaft poked his head into the room. He had, unfortunately, been delayed from meeting with the Headmaster.
"There is something that you need to know…"
tbc...
Feedback very welcome!
