Chapter 7: Epiphanies for Lily

Sirius had never fully lowered his wand from Severus, even if James had to appease Lily. As soon as the curse was fired at his best friend, Sirius threw aside all dueling etiquette that he still had and shot a stunner to deflect the spell flying at James. This stunner was quickly followed by another, which hit the greasy Slytherin's second before he knew what had happened. By this time James had his wand back in position and had a shield up in front of him as he stared at his enemy, hardly believing his daring, or his complete disregard for the command of the greatest girl in the world, who up until now had seen something worthy in the greasy haired, violent boy who seemed to not really care for her at all.

He fumed silently for a moment, staring at his worst enemy, though he had no intention of cursing him unless he absolutely needed to. Sirius could handle his own if Snivellus aimed at him, so as long as Lily was okay, James was fine with just talking and trying to get his opponent to back down that way. He used his shield to deflect a nasty looking dark spell before beginning his attempt to reason with the hated Severus. "I know you hate me, and you hate my mate Padfoot, but I would think you would at least respect Lily, considering that she sees enough in you to call you her boyfriend and she asked you to make this duel not happen. Put down your wand, Snivellus, and prove to everyone here that you're worthy of her. You know that's the only way that this situation can end with everyone being happy."

This talk did not work however, and at the mention of his hated nickname, Severus started firing darker curses at his number one enemy, while using a shield to deflect the curses that Black was sending at him now. He would deal with him later, Potter's words had made him look bad, and he would not allow anyone to do that. He had enough secret problems at home, and no one was going to give him problems here at school and get away with it. He was going to kill Potter and Black, he was going to enjoy it, and no one would ever be able to punish him for it. He would make it his life's work to see that both of them suffered, before finally dying slowly at his hand.

While this was going on, and a good ways into the duel between Sirius and Severus, Lily just watched in horror, with Peter crouching behind her, showing how much of a coward he was, especially considering that he was in no danger at all as far away as he was from the actual dueling. Lily was lost in her thoughts though, and did not hear the whimpering made in the small male's throat. James isn't fighting Severus at all, even though he hates him so much. He is respecting my wishes and only defending himself, while trying to talk Severus out of the duel. Black is fighting for all he is worth, but I wouldn't expect anything different from him. Severus, well I guess James was right about him all along, he's not worth the time of day, and all he does is cause trouble.

Her train of thought ended, and he decided it was time to end this duel for the night so that she could really go to bed. It was late, and it seemed that she had a lot to think about before she could actually get any sleep. She pulled her wand from her pocket quickly, and disarmed Severus, who had been far too distracted to see what she was doing. She did the same to Sirius, as he looked like he was about to take advantage of his opponent's unarmed situation to cause some serious damage. Lily did not want anyone to get hurt because of the stupid grudges held between these boys tonight, and she had something to say to all of them, or to Severus and James at least, before she could take her leave.

Holding both wands tightly in her hand so that their owners could not hope to get them back, she moved to stand between the two sides of the duel. "Tonight has really opened my eyes to a few things that I should have seen long ago," she began, casting a glare in the direction of Severus and a much warmer look at James. "Despite being warned about this all along, I guess I had to see it for myself before I would believe it, before I would believe that there is no good at all in some people." At this point she turned to fully face Severus, looking straight at him with fire burning in her bright green eyes. Her look was one of disillusionment and bitter loathing, and he knew immediately that whatever they had had between them was over now and nothing could ever bring it back.

"Severus, we are officially over. Nothing you can say will ever change that, not after what you did tonight. That was disgraceful and shameful, and if Sirius wasn't equally dishonest in his hate towards you, James would probably have gotten seriously hurt, by an unfair attack. I honestly don't know how you sleep at night, after you do things like that. Just because it might amuse Sirius and James, do you have anything to say in defense of yourself?" Sirius laughed openly at this, James cracked a smile, but managed to stop himself from laughing for now, as he attempted to keep up a respectable front for the girl that he loved.

Severus, meanwhile, had kept his head up the entire time, looking directly at Lily with an emotionless face, not showing that what was going on affected him at all. "Defense of myself?" he sneered. "I have done nothing that would require justification of any kind to anyone here tonight. My opponent was foolish enough to let his guard down in the middle of a duel; I decided to punish him for it. If his second had not of violated the rules of dueling, that lesson would have been properly received and Potter might have shut his arrogant mouth for the first time ever." With that Severus fell silent at the death glares he was receiving from both Lily and Sirius, knowing that continuing on in this manner would only cause him trouble.

Once he fell silent, Lily turned to face James, her scowl disappearing instantly as he looked on him with a newfound affection. "Thank you James, for showing that you are a mature man and being the only one to lower your wand fully when I asked you too. Things like that mean a lot to me." She smiled at him warmly to show this, carefully hiding her disgust for the boy to his right, who was clearly trying to think of a way to free his wand from Lily's grasp so that he could try again to curse Severus. "I'm sorry for taking so long to realize you were right about Severus," she continued with a deep breath. "When you return to the common room I will be waiting in a chair by the fire, I would like to have a private conversation with you."

With that she revived the stunned Slytherin and tossed Severus and Sirius their wands back. "Do not use these tonight, and do not let me hear of you using them on each other again," she said sternly, then turned to leave. James watched her wistfully for a minute before turning to find Sirius glaring at the two Slytherins and Peter cowering in fear still. "Wormtail, Padfoot mate, let's get out of here, shall we?" With that he led them out of the room and away from the silently and stoically angered Severus and his silently confused partner, back towards Gryffindor Tower and the end of their busy and unusual night.