Time
because we all live by it. Because we should all use it to the best of our ability
Lily is sitting under a tree … their tree, and Potter is lying beside her, their bodies entangled in a passionate embrace. He feels sick, he feels like his heart is exploding, bursting with the pressure and the pain. Time is a fickle thing, Severus thinks. Once, he had all the time in the world to devote to Lily, to love her and hold her and kiss her and tell her that he would be hers for all eternity. He had all the time in the world to make her reciprocate his feelings.
Now, she is with him, and time has run out, the clock has stopped ticking for him, leaving him empty, heartbroken, in despair. Every sacred moment, every hallmark of her life now longer belongs to Severus, but to him, to her boyfriend.
(The word is painful, as harsh and shocking and downright perilous as a lightning bolt)
Time has run out for Severus, but the clock will tick forever for Lily and him.
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Because it's the 26th anniversary of Lily and James' death today, and I had to write something with James in it.