29 – The Flashrose

Snape had meant to rest only a few minutes, but he awoke some twelve hours later, sunlight pouring into his Slytherin room, and the sound of Voldemort's owl flying into his window. The owl bounced off, flew backwards a few yards, and charged the window again. "Brilliant. Just brilliant," said Snape.

He let it in and quickly opened the letter attached to its leg. The message was rather direct:

DID YOU FAIL? WILL DUMBLEDORE NOT MAKE ME PROFESSOR OF THE DARK ARTS?

Snape grabbed a piece of charcoal and added his own terse response:

NO AND NO.

Snape could truthfully tell Voldemort that the Dark Tourist was now with Dumbledore. What he wanted to conveniently omit from this report was his little slipup. Actually, it was an enormous slipup. He had hinted— rather told—Dumbledore about the magical properties of the Tom Riddle Christmas Challenge poster. It was a poor improvisation in explaining why he needed to speak to Dumbledore alone, but it was the only thing he could think of.

The owl waited for a treat before leaving, but Snape had none of it. He attached the letter and practically threw it out of his window. He had to get to Lily and couldn't bear the thought of her spending more time than was necessary with James alone. Alone.

His pace quickened to a near-run by the time he reached the infirmary entrance, panting like a wild beast. Behind the door, he could see Lily in a bed to the right, James to the left, and Sirius in a chair still further to the left; their focus was on a vase on Lily's nightstand, full of the most perfect, dancing lilies Snape had ever seen. The green stems reached nearly three feet in height connecting to lush, white petals that twirled gracefully like ballerinas in Swan Lake, alternating between a pirouette and arabesque, a turnout and plier.

Above their beds, the Christmas Challenge poster looked out over the room. Snape wondered if Voldemort was watching the scene unfold through the poster, or if Dumbledore had already figured it out due to his comment, and put everything to a stop.

"James wanted to get these for you himself, Lily, but I wouldn't let him," boasted Sirius. "I told him to allow me the danger, just this once, of retrieving the flowers from the Black Lake. He practically fought me on this, said he would risk reinjuring his legs, his arms, anything, to get these for you. But I reminded him that the flowers, not the action of him getting them, would carry a more symbolic meaning. A symbol of the only thing that really matters—what's in here." As Sirius pointed to the spot on his chest above his heart, Snape rolled his eyes.

He pushed open the infirmary doors, wanting to stifle any additional romantic overtures from the dynamic duo. "Lily."

"Sev! Where have you been?"

"Asleep. Er—I mean, after I got you back to Dumbledore, I meant to rest just for a moment—"

"You know, Sev, some of us can go both long and hard," interrupted Sirius.

"Stop it right now!" said Lily. "Let him speak. He was very heroic yesterday."

"I wasn't heroic. I just—"

"Yes, you were. You saved my life. Come here."

Snape obeyed and sat on the side of Lily's bed. She reached up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. As she kissed him, she whispered in his ear, "We can talk about everything later."

"Isn't that just great." Sirius nudged James, who remained quiet, staring at his feet as if they held great interest. "Whispering sweet nothings already. Except didn't Snivellus get you into danger in the first place?"

"Sirius and James, thank you for the flowers. But could you give us a moment alone?" asked Lily.

Sirius sighed, but stood abruptly. "Yes, anything for you, Lil. I'll check up on you later James. We're going to crush Hufflepuff in the scrimmage today." They slapped hands, and Sirius was on his way.

"Lily, I'm sorry but I have to stay." James smiled a little and pointed to his legs, which were apparently mending from the one hundred foot drop.

"Oh, of course. I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to be rude. Sometimes, Sirius can be—"

"I know. I promise I'll plug my ears and try to give you as much privacy as you need." He put his fingers to his ears and laughed.

Lily giggled a little. "That's not going to work, is it?"

"Yeah, probably not."

"Why do you care? It's never stopped you before, James." Snape felt his hand instinctively reach for his wand as he stared down James, but forced himself to stop. The poster was staring at him. He could practically feel Voldemort analyzing his every move, dissecting just how much this girl meant to him.

Lily started to say something, but a Slytherin first-year appeared at the infirmary door. "Severus Snape? Professor Slughorn sent me. Some owl continues to crash into your window. He reckons its message is urgent."

"Already!" Snape coughed a few times. "I mean, of course I should go see what it is."

"Who is it, Sev?" asked Lily.

"Perhaps James ordered you balloons too, and the owl got the room mixed up." The words came out through clenched teeth. Snape didn't bother waiting for a response, and he returned to his room in no time where the owl was indeed crashing into his window.

"You are the most BRILLIANT owl I have ever seen." Snape threw open his window, and the owl landed on his desk, dropping a tiny vase which, upon impact, grew a single rose. Still miffed from not receiving a treat, the owl pecked at his hand as he detached the message.

SS,

Excellent work. I saw that James was one step ahead of you, but his menial dancing lilies will be forgotten once you give her his. Tell her it was a special delivery that was supposed to arrive last night, and that was the real reason you were late to be at her side.

V

Snape looked at the rose. From what he could tell, it was just that—a simple, red rose. Moments later when he gave it to Lily, however, she shrieked with delight. "You got me a flashrose! How did you find this? This is the rarest rose in the world!"

He tried to look uninterested, as if he'd planned for this all along.

"Come here and hold my hand. You have to look at it with the person who gave it to you. It will show us our happiest flashbacks."

Snape held her hand, while James tried to turn in the other direction, except even he was interested to see what was going to happen next. At first, the rose remained perfectly still until the petals started to twitch, then slowly started to unfurl, eventually blooming completely. In the center of the red rose, a black-and-white oval picture showed Snape and Lily listening to records in his room and discussing music. The picture morphed into another, this one showing Lily saving Snape a seat at the lunch table. "Awww! I remember that!" said Lily. The oval showed another memory, then another, and with each passing memory Lily cooed and awed, and when James turned away, Snape couldn't help but smile. Voldemort had really done well with this one.

"This is the most wonderful gift anyone has given me. How long will it last?"

"Well, I, um—"

"What's happening to it?" asked Lily.

The oval picture was showing their first kiss, except it was becoming blurry. Not only that, the rose itself was turning to a darker crimson, slowly fading to black.

Lily tossed the flashrose on her bed. "Make it stop, Snape!"

"I don't know why it's doing this!" He glanced quickly to the Tom Riddle poster above the bed, his eyes pleading for Voldemort to make it stop.

The rose petals, now completely black, were shriveling and falling off the stem. Its thorns were growing, sharpening into pointy, brown teeth. It was all happening so fast, but the worst part came last when the oval cleared for one final image where, instead of showing anything from the life of Snape and Lily, it showed a skull with a snake coming out of its mouth. The snake twisted and turned, forming something that looked like the number eight, with one final extension of its head drooping below, mouth open, fangs ready to strike.

"Romantic, Snape. But I think I prefer my dancing lilies," said James.

Lily gave James a look that said, "Keep quiet," but Snape didn't even notice. He was too busy staring into the eyes of the Tom Riddle poster. He silently mouthed the words, "We. Need. To. Talk."