Author's Note: Thank you for the lovely reviews! I will post a chapter at least once per week, life permitting. More often if the mood takes me, like it did this week!

Chapter Two: Reconnect

When the wards had alerted him that someone was there, the last person Severus had expected to see was the redhead he had grown up with. Certainly not wearing a wedding dress. He stared at her for a few moments, his brain spinning its wheels as he tried to comprehend the fact that she really was standing there in front of him.

How long had it been since he had seen her? Since they left Hogwarts, so just over a year. But she had not spoken to him since their fifth year when, in a fit of anger and shame, he had called her something that he never should have. He had not meant it, had not intended to ever use that word against her, but it had happened and he could not take it back. He had been so sure she would forgive him in the end but with all her fellow Gryffindors whispering in her ear she never had.

"Lily... what are you doing here?" It sounded stupid even to him, but he didn't know what else to say to her.

And as she stood there, tears in her eyes and a look of determination on her face, he found he didn't care why she was there. All that mattered was that she was there.

"I couldn't do it, Sev. I couldn't marry him." She watched as his eyes widened in surprise but she saw something else, a little glimmer of hope. If he cared enough to hope then maybe she had something of a chance, no matter what had happened in the past.

"He didn't deserve you anyway," he replied with a sneer. There was no love lost between him and James Potter and the fact that Lily had run to his enemy had broken him more than if she had simply ended their friendship. The person who had tormented him constantly, made his life hell, did not deserve the person that he had loved since he was old enough to even begin to know what love was.

A little snort of laughter left her entirely without her meaning it. "It's not that he did something wrong, he just wasn't.." She trailed off, wondering how best to finish that sentence. Did she dare lay her heart on the line?

"Wasn't what?" he asked cautiously, his heart pounding in his chest. Why was he so nervous? It felt like he was fourteen all over again, falling more in love with his best friend with every moment that went by and finding his heart racing each time she so much as looked at him. Things had happened since then, things he was not proud of. Would she still want to know him if she knew?

"You, Severus. He wasn't you."

For the first time in a long time he smiled, the kind that reached his eyes. It had only ever really been Lily had that been able to get him to smile like that. He had never felt safe around other people, not enough to let a little of his inner self show. There were perhaps three other people in the entirety of the world who knew him, truly knew him. And even then they did not get as close as Lily.

"Do you truly mean that?" he asked, daring to really hope for the first time in years. She smiled and nodded, sending his heart into backflips. "What now?" he asked slowly.

"Now... I hope you'll forgive me for cutting you off. I always did tend to go rather scorched earth..." She blushed, feeling ashamed of the way her temper had always managed to get the best of her. "The longer it went on the harder it felt to go back.. and then the thing with Mulciber and Mary... and I just... I'm sorry, Sev." A lot had happened during that time, things that had stopped her from fixing the biggest mistake that the two of them had ever made.

"I will if you forgive me for what I called you." Merlin, he had hated himself ever since that day. What did he care about blood supremacy anyway? It made no difference. The brightest witch of their generation was Muggleborn and he himself was a Halfblood.

Lily reached out, her fingertips tracing over his cheek as she looked up at him. "You didn't mean it and I know that now." A word said in anger was not worth all of what it had cost them. It was half her fault and half his.

His hand settled over hers as he closed his eyes and leaned into her touch. This was real, she was real. And Merlin it felt wonderful to have something he had thought might never be his. He had never been able to conjure a patronus before, not a corporeal one anyway, but now? Now he felt like he had the perfect memory to use.

When he opened his eyes again he realised they were standing on the doorstep as if this was something the world needed to see. "Maybe we should go inside," he said with a wry smile, making her laugh at the realisation that this had all taken place right there. She let him lead her inside and paused when she caught a look at herself in a mirror on the wall.

Severus followed her gaze and found himself commenting, "You don't look like you." He cursed inwardly at his comment, not wanting to offend her when he had only just got her in his life.

But she nodded in agreement, a little sigh leaving her lips. "No, it's true. I think I forgot myself for a while there." She pulled out her wand and waved it over herself, leaving her face free of make up and turning her wedding dress into simple emerald green robes. She felt as if a weight had left her shoulders.

"What about... Potter?" Not that Severus wanted to talk about him but he needed to know how things were going to be and how she had left things. She grimaced at his question, knowing she had been a coward to just turn and run as she had. She owed him a conversation and the truth. That arrogant and bullying teenager had grown into a good man who deserved better than this.

"I might have left him standing waiting for me.." She caught the look of amusement in his eyes and smacked his arm. "It's not funny! I'm a terrible person."

He shook his head. "You aren't, you did what you thought was best. Even if he wont like it."

"I hope Remus got him to at least begin to understand..." Though she did not think that she particularly deserved that understanding. She caught the look on Severus' face at the mention of Remus. She knew about the incident where Sirius had all but lead him to his death, the absolute moron. "Don't pull that face, Sev. Remus was the one who told me I knew where I needed to be."

He considered this for a moment. "Perhaps the wolf deserves some consideration then," he decided flatly but she knew him better than that, he was thankful.

"I need to talk to James myself and explain..."

"Tomorrow," he said, cutting her off. He was not about to let her walk out there door until he had been able to truly accept and comprehend the fact that she was here and that she was his. He was still sort of convinced that he was dreaming.

Lily looked at him, searching his expression. The vulnerability that she found had her reaching for his hand and agreeing. "Tomorrow."

Tomorrow would be hell. But the rest of the day? That would be theirs.