Part 2
Lily couldn't sleep. She'd been worried about James ever since he started spying – he hadn't wanted to tell her, but she'd worked it out: a Dark Mark was a difficult thing to hide from your wife, after all. And today, she'd switched on the 'Tell-me-what's-going-on-James.-I-am-your-wife-after-all,-and-anyway-if-you-don't-tell-me-I-shall-scream.-You-have-a-moral-obligation-to-tell-me-and-besides-I've-got-a-pretty-good-idea-as-it-is.-If-you-don't-tell-me,-Dumbledore-will,-so-get-on-with-it,-all-right-James?-James...' effect. And the result was that she saw the Dark Mark, heard his story, and understood the danger. And then there had been the news on the WWN about the attack on Diagon Alley, which of course the Muggle radio didn't mention, and Lily had known something must have gone wrong when James didn't come home, and didn't find some way to contact her, and-
Albus' head appeared in the fire and Lily jumped.
"What's happened to James?"
But Albus didn't answer her question; he just told her to get Harry and the Invisibility Cloak, and get to Hogwarts now. Some other time, Lily might have argued, might have tried to find out what had happened to her husband first, but the look in Albus' eyes, and the fact that Harry might be in danger, meant she went. She didn't even think about it.
---
When Lily stumbled out of the the Hogwarts fireplace, with her baby in one arm and her bag on the other, the last person she expected to see there was Severus Snape. From the blank shock on his face, the feeling was mutual.
"Ah, Lily." Albus interrupted the silent exchange between them.
What are you doing here?
What are you doing here?
"Lily, Severus has some important information for us."
"He's a Death Eater, isn't he?" Lily refused to address Severus, refused to look at him, knowing the pain and hurt in his eyes would be too much for her. "Can I trust him?"
Albus looked straight into her eyes, and while his look may not have been open, it was certainly honest. "Yes."
And Severus spoke, quietly, slowly, painfully. "James Potter is dead."
Lily didn't remember much of what happened after that. She had been numb at first: she couldn't believe what she had heard. She just clutched Harry and waited for James to walk in the door, to prove he was alive after all. She knew Professor Dumbledore and Sev were talking to her, but she didn't seem able to reply or even understand. Something about a moor... or bones... or something...
And later, she remembered thinking that Harry didn't have a father, and what was she going to do? A single mother, muggle-born in the middle of the war, wanted by Lord Voldemort for what her husband had done – and it was all James' fault for agreeing to become a spy, or maybe it was Dumbledore's for asking him, and sending him into a situation he obviously wasn't prepared for – and why had Albus needed a spy, if he already had Severus? Or had Severus switched sides? And could she trust him at all? If Albus had made a mistake that killed her husband, how could he know whether it was safe to trust her childhood friend? Or was it all her fault for letting James go out that day?
And at one point, she remembered shouting at Sev, and Sev just standing there, taking it, as she screamed at him for causing James' death, because after all he'd never liked James, and it had just been his childish revenge for whatever had happened between them in their sixth year, and if he'd just tried to do something he could have saved James, and he just wanted her family dead, and why couldn't he be there when he was needed? And did he just help her when it suited him? "Don't touch me!" As if telling her that the love-of-her-life was dead could be considered 'help'. And where had he hidden James' body anyway? Why did everything he did have to hurt her? "Don't touch me!" He'd always hated James, and he hated her too, and he was just trying to cause their family as much pain as possible. "Don't touch me! Don't touch me!"
And a long time later – hours? Days? Or just minutes? – she ran out of breath and energy, and Severus helped her to the hospital wing – "Don't touch me!" – but didn't say anything, or if he did Lily didn't hear him, and she was still clutching Harry, and Harry was still sleeping, somehow, and he didn't know his dad was dead. And she didn't know how she was going to tell him...
And there was the hospital wing, and Madam Pomfrey was gently taking her son from her - "NO! Leave my baby alone! Let me have Harry. Tonight. Please." – and she was lying down, hugging her son tightly as if hoping that would bring James back, and then- she slept.