So here is the last part of this chapter...Am thinking I may have a Remus POV next, or Sirius, or Peter...Yeah as you can see I have yet to decide

This got reworked quite a bit after I realised (and was confirmed) that the ending was way too rushed and just didn't fit...Hope you like this better

Part 4

"I'm sorry," Lily spoke just as James reached the portrait hole, causing him to stop abruptly, still breathing hard. He continued to face the portrait hole, deciding whether to accept her apology or not, he was still seething, but he knew, as always, there was no way he could walk away from her now.

James turned around to face her, "Is that really how you see me? What you think of me?"

Lily shook her head, and looked, as James noticed with satisfaction, extremely guilty and sorry. Her eyes were watering slightly and quietly pleading him to come back over; and he did, the gaze of her green eyes compelling him to give in to her every want and need. And he realised how much simpler life would be without Lily, a whole lot emptier, but definitely simpler.

When he reached the lounge he sat quietly beside her, waiting for her to make a move. He could hear her steadying her breath, gaining her control.

"I didn't mean what I said to you James, I just wanted to hurt you, wanted to be cruel," Lily spoke, her voice low and sad. "It's just, I know what this all means. Why do you think it hurts so much, angers me so much? I know this is more than just an argument between friends, that tomorrow everything isn't going to be back to the way it was. I know this means Severus and I have been split onto two different sides of a war; that maybe one day we will have to fight each other, to," at this Lily's voice faltered, and James realised maybe Lily had more idea of what all this meant than he gave her credit for. When she spoke again, her voice was slightly stronger, and she turned her gaze straight on him, "Because I am going to fight for what I believe in James."

All James could do was nod, what else was there to do, to say?

"I have just lost someone who I thought was a friend to something so unbelievably evil and wrong. Why do you think I am so angry? I thought I knew him, I thought he was different to what you saw for all these years! But maybe you are right, he is as you say, and I was just too blind to see it!"

"Lily," James ventured. Under any other circumstances James would have told Lily something to console her, to tell her that she couldn't have been wrong for all those years, but it was Snape, and James knew that she had definitely been blinded by him, and he also knew that Lily didn't need to hear that.

"But you're wrong about Olivia. You, it's just different with her ok? I don't expect you to believe that, and I am sure she will do all in her
power to look as if she is proving me wrong after me saying it, but she knows what she is doing James. And I trust her, so you need to trust me on that as well."

James nodded, silently. He wasn't convinced that Olivia was innocent in all this and that she wouldn't follow Snape. She was a Slytherin after all, and they look after their own.

"So what are you going to do about Snape?" James asked. Personally he
hoped Snape made an unfortunate encounter with something hidden in the Forbidden Forrest, and wouldn't come out alive, but he had a feeling Lily may see things differently.

"Nothing," Lily answered coldly, "there is nothing to be done. He has made his decision, and no one can stop him but himself."

"Dumbledore," James started.

Lily looked up at James, "Dumbledore, can't do anything either, and he
wouldn't anyway. Severus has to follow his own path, if this is what he
wants than there is nothing left between the two of us; there is nothing more that can be said or done."

James couldn't help but sense Dumbledore's wisdom and opinion in what Lily had said, and realised that she may have already gone to see Dumbledore about what she could do. But he also wondered if he were in this situation whether he would give up on his friends so easily. But he couldn't imagine being in that situation. He could never see any of his three friends doing what Snape was in the process of doing, the three of them all fought for the right things, all saw things the way they should be seen, not through some cloud of hate and power and lust.

Lily and James sat quietly, James watching the fire, and listening to the sound of Lily breathing.

"You know part of the reason that we stayed friends for so long was probably due to you James," Lily ventured, causing James to watch her as she gazed at the embers in the fire. "I am sure Snape hoped that you would find out because he knew he had something that you didn't have, something you wanted but didn't have, and he knew what that could do to you. And I think a part of me knew how much it would anger you if you ever found out how close Snape and I were."

James looked at Lily sharply, "What so you were friends with him just to spite me is that it? Wow Lily, maybe you aren't the only one that has been blinded by someone for all these years."

She turned her gaze on him, and looked at him levelly, "My friendship with Snape was not born nor maintained out of spite James. And the part of me that ever felt that way, stirred only when you did something that angered or hurt me."

"When have I ever hurt you?" He asked accusingly.

"When you didn't think James," she answered, and then sighed, rubbing her eyes tiredly. "But this was all before, it's not like that now."

"Before what?" James asked. He didn't understand all this. He knew he could be a jerk at times, but he never did anything with the intention of hurting Lily, and he was felling extremely unsettled that she thought that.

"Before you changed," Lily started, and rushed on so that James couldn't interrupt her. "Before I changed, before we grew up, before we became friends, just before," Lily finished waving her hand between them in an exacerbated manner.

James slumped back into the chair, immersed with his own thoughts. He was still coming to terms with the concept that he had changed. He didn't see it like that, he saw himself exactly the same way as he always has been, just a bit older and more mature, maybe, but still the same. Ah, I think that's what she means when she tells you you have changed, his annoying inner voice spoke up. Right, he thought,right.

"I'm sorry," she whispered after a while, her eyes pleading with him again. And he realised as much as he would like to right now, he couldn't stay mad at her, because that would be a tad unjust; he figured both of them had done things they weren't proud of, and maybe now that they realised this they could move forward a bit more. That's it, a step closer to getting into her knickers, his inner devil taunted. That's not what I meant, James thought back, although the thought of Lily's knickers is a lovely prospect.

"So am I," James replied, reaching out his hand unconsciously and running his thumb over her cheek slowly, he couldn't help but admire, even now, how beautiful she was. Her hair was slightly frazzled, as if her anger had caused the air to explode with static and play hectic with her hair. The dying flames of the fire illuminated her slightly flushed face, spots of red still glowing on her cheeks from the anger that had exploded inside her only moments before, and her green eyes glistened behind a mixture of sadness and bitterness. And it was all he could do to restrain himself from pouncing on her, and even more to come back to reality and realise he was actually touching her.

He took his hand off her face quickly, a blush rising in his face, but before he could turn away Lily leaned up and gave him a slight kiss on the cheek, causing James' face to burn.

"Thankyou," she said softly, her face blushing slightly.

James could only nod in return. Oh for Merlin's sake Potter, his brain tutted.

Before he could fully process that Lily had kissed him, even if only on the cheek, he heard someone calling out his name, and realised the pocket that held his mirror had grown hot.

Lily looked at him curiously as he pulled out the mirror, James wondering what it was that Sirius wanted now. But as he looked into the mirror, it wasn't Sirius' face looking at him, it was Peter's.

"Peter, what?" he started asking.

"Ah, sorry to interrupt, um, whatever it is you two are doing," Peter spoke up quickly.

"You're not interrupting anything Peter," Lily answered.

"Right, if you say so," Peter smirked, "but I think you two need to come down here." He finished seriously.

"Down to where?" James asked confusedly, "what's going on?"

"To the dungeons," Peter answered, "it seems our friends have gotten into a bit of a mess."

James looked at Peter and then at Lily, "Come on then," James said to Lily, who looked just as perplexed as he felt. "We are on our way," he spoke to Peter, before shoving his mirror back in his pocket.

p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p

So what do you think?