Chapter 50: The Ultimate Union

A/N: I am so, so sorry it took so long. I have graduated from university and have started a new job. It is taking a lot of getting used to, due to alternating shifts and it being a year since I had to work. I hope to continue writing at a quicker pace. I have no intention of quitting this story before completion. Please enjoy, and I hope the contents are an appropriate way to celebrate this awaited update and the 50th Chapter of Severus' Lily! Please review!

There was no doubt in Severus' mind that Septimus had a stern expression fixated on him due to the likelihood that he knew all about his grandson's more than felonious past in a different universe. And despite the humour in Lily's words, Severus felt cornered. He even glanced backwards towards the office door, keen to drop the Stone and make a run for it-

"Severus Prince, look here at once!"

Septimus' voice boomed in spite of his corporeal form and left quite the impact in Severus' paranoid and nervous soul.

He awkwardly turned back to look into his dead grandfather's eyes. He also noticed Lily's attempts to stifle laughter and Peter's continuing awe at the sight of him. He was also looking at himself with interest. Severus knew he would look upon himself as a spectral being with the keenness of a scientist if he were in Peter's position.

"Severus!"

The young man looked back to his grandfather with full attention.

"So…two lives?"

"Y-yes, Grand- Mr Prince."

Severus was certain that he had lost his right to call Septimus his grandfather when the latter learned the truth of his two lives.

"Mr Prince? Don't be dense, lad! I'll always be your grandad!"

Severus looked up again in surprise.

"I understand that you've made many mistakes in your original life…but you impressed these Higher Ones so much with your loyalty to young Lily, that you earned your current life. And from all I've seen so far, you have certainly not been wasting your second chance! I'm proud of you!"

Severus couldn't keep from blushing. He still wasn't too used to praise, especially about anything concerning his original life. Lily was now spluttering with laughter at the sight of Severus' abashed appearance. Peter, ever the follower, only joined in after Lily gave in.

"Now, I don't want you to feel a failure over what happened to me, Severus," said Septimus firmly.

"Nor me, I did what I was meant to do, Severus," added Peter.

Severus had never seen Peter Pettigrew look so confident and certain of himself before, even during the final moments of his life. As brave as Peter had acted, he was indeed terrified, but he looked past his fears and acted like the brave Gryffindor that the Sorting Hat had twice judged him to be.

"I still…I just wish I could have…"

"Saved us? I admit that I will miss Desdemona and Eileen greatly, but if this encounter proves anything, death isn't really goodbye. I will see you all again in due course. My only regret really is that I didn't have more time to spend with you and Eileen. I will always regret that…but I'm quite content here. And Heaven will be perfect when my family is all there too. I can be patient. And you can surely keep in touch with me with that remarkable object of yours any time."

Septimus was looking at the Resurrection Stone with fascination.

"Yeah…I guess that's true…I wish I could show it to Nanny. Mum might…"

"That would be lovely of you, Severus."

"I'll ask Dumbledore after tonight."

Then Peter spoke up, showing some of his nervousness again.

"S-Severus…did you…?"

"Did I what?"

"Hate me because of what the Peter in your world did…"

"Yes," admitted Severus.

Peter's shoulders slumped dismally.

"So…we were never friends?"

"You earned my respect eventually when you stood up to Malfoy that day," said Severus, "and even more impressive, you struck a nerve with him. Otherwise, I don't think he'd have been so determined to kill you off first."

Peter smiled.

"And I did warm up to you as a friend in the end," assured Severus. "I wouldn't have started hanging out with you more otherwise. But I do admit that the majority of my reason for befriending you was to make sure you didn't make the same mistakes as your predecessor…though look how that worked out."

"I don't care. I'd sooner die young and as a hero than die old and a disgrace to my family, friends and to Gryffindor," replied Peter optimistically, "and like your grandad, I'm happy up in Heaven! My cousin and I have become good friends, Lily has taken me on board to help out with the Horflux hunt-"

"Horcrux," corrected Severus and Lily in dull unison.

"Yeah, that! And Dad's with me too! It's wonderful…my only real regret was not being able to see Remus recover…I saw him as my best friend."

"He might never have recovered if it wasn't for what happened to you, Peter," said Severus truthfully. "It was the shock of knowing his best friend had died that brought him back from the hole he was in."

Peter felt rather pleased that he had not only died to save his friends, but had also influenced his best friend to get better again.

"I wish I had the chance to say goodbye to everyone, but for now, I'm happy to start off with you, Severus."

"Thanks, Peter, much obliged," replied Severus.

"I wish I could ask you to wish Remus my best."

"He knows, I'm sure," said Septimus.

"He knew how much you cared for him. James and the others will have let him know how often you came to look after him in the Hospital Wing," added Lily.

"Thanks, everyone," said Peter in an emotional tone.

"There's more that you need to know, Sev," said Lily after a long pause.

"What?" asked Severus.

"Malfoy killing Peter was his full initiation into the Death Eaters. He's been praised highly by Voldemort for his efforts in killing a Blood Traitor and a Death Eater to boot. Voldemort is also very impressed that he did it right in front of Dumbledore and saved Bellatrix from capture to boot."

"I should have guessed…any news on the Cup, Locket and the diary yet?"

"No, though Nagini is almost always with Voldemort now," said Lily. "She only leaves his side when he sends her off to kill off the odd Muggle or Wizard."

"Maybe we can tell Severus the next mission she gets sent on, then he and Professor Dumbledore can destroy her!" suggested Peter keenly.

"No," said Severus grimly, "she's the only Horcrux that Voldemort keeps a firm eye on. If we go after her now, he'll catch on to what we're doing. We have to save her for last."

Peter seemed crestfallen but then piped up again.

"I could keep an eye on Voldemort and Nagini so that I could warn you and Dumbledore of certain plans or ambushes whenever we meet here?"

"There's an idea," said Severus, "Dumbledore would certainly approve of that. An impenetrable spy in the camp!"

Lily beamed.

"He's also going to help us keep an eye on the families who came to possess the Horcruxes," she added, "to give Helena, Ariana, James and I a break from time to time."

"That's a lot of responsibility, Peter," said Severus critically, "are you sure?"

"I am! And my cousin Paul said he'd help too!"

"Pleased to know I have a small Order helping me," smirked Severus.

"Or your own Army?" added Lily.

"Is that meant to be a reference to Pot- your boy's insufferably disobedient youth club?" asked Severus, with a hint of resentment.

"Yes, I believe it is," replied Lily innocently and proudly.

Severus rolled his eyes, but then the thought of Dumbledore's Army made him remember.

"Peter…Dumbledore wished to bestow upon you his deepest apologies."

"Why?"

"I think he feels that if he hadn't intervened when he did, you'd have not been killed."

Lily knew Dumbledore was capable of feeling something as silly as that. She recalled watching over his conversation with Harry after Sirius died. She could tell that another reason he felt he was to blame for the man's death was his untimely interruption in the Department of Mysteries. She even heard him say to Minerva McGonagall a day after that:

"Sirius may not have been distracted, but the other Order members were…someone may have been able to protect him."

"If you couldn't have, nobody could, Albus," was McGonagall's curt response.

"Sorry to bother you with this, Minerva. Jawed at by an old man just past his prime."

That was one of the few rare occasions that Lily had heard anything remotely close to a chuckle come from the stiff Deputy Headmistress.

"There's nothing for him to be sorry about," said Peter with a small smile.

"I'll let him know," said Severus quietly.

"Oh, we all have some advice for you before you bugger off back to the living, lad," said Septimus.

There was something in his haunting eyes that made Severus think he didn't like where this was going.

"We all spoke a little before your meeting us tonight," said Lily, "as it was obvious that you'd want to speak with all of us."

"And we agreed that you made one mistake over the holidays," added Peter.

"We want you to correct that mistake and not use our deaths as a flipping excuse to avoid it," said Septimus sternly.

"W-what's that?" asked Severus cautiously.

This sparked more laughter from Lily and Peter. They found the stoic boy's nervousness adorable.

"We want you to get on with asking out the Lily Evans of this world," said the former enthusiastically.

"Huh?"

"We know you avoided it because of the mourning everyone was going through," said Septimus, "but don't you think it might have made your grandmother's heart beat a bit better to know that you had a brighter future ahead of you with the girl we all know you love?"

"It...it wasn't the time," said Severus pathetically, "you had just died…it would have been…cruel to rub love in her face when she had lost yours."

"Oh, don't be such a damn fool, boy! Your grandmother loved me, yes! But she loved you almost as much, from the moment she laid eyes on you! Nothing in this world would make her happier than to see you happy, lad! You need to get on with it!"

"…But…what if…?"

"What if Lily doesn't like you?" asked the redhead in front of him.

Severus nodded sadly.

"You didn't…"

"You know full well now that I did…and if there was an inkling of love for you from a Lily who hated the Dark in his heart, imagine how much love a Lily who doesn't believe there's anything Dark about you at all has for you!"

"You're clutching at straws, boy," said Septimus with a smirk, "you're too decent by half in this timeline. You need to begin your new path, the path you sacrificed so much to earn! Your grandmother will not hate you for it, and nor I daresay will Miss Lily!"

Lily Potter looked like she could blush at the thought of another version of her approving of Severus romantically, but her current form forbad any sort of complexion alteration.

"I've been waiting for a very long time to see you show true happiness, Sev," she said, "and I've seen you become happy many times before, but we both know what would make you feel true, pure happiness and that's…the other me. A Lily Evans who is your soulmate…like you have wanted for over forty years by now…"

"Is there such a thing as soulmate?" asked Severus with a hint of bitterness. "You love Potter, Lily Evans Might love me…if soulmates existed, wouldn't they have been with the same person in every aspect of Creation? In every form of life? In every universe?"

"For your sake, let's hope your logic there is wrong," said Lily, "for if that is so, then Lily might fall for this world's James. After all, he and I did marry and become soulmates…you have yet to fulfil that, so if I was destined in every version to be with James, then what was the point? Of all this? You need to believe that this Lily loves you, Sev…you can't let your eternal doubts ruin this for you…you already made that mistake before and it cost you everything. Please don't do it again. I know you still hate James and resent Harry…and even now, I don't think you will ever be able to let go of your old life, but right now, you need to move forward, and this is the first step."

Severus looked down in shame. He had to admit to himself that he did indeed still dislike James and Harry Potter. He had decided long ago that he would never forgive James. Not only did the man win Lily's heart instead of him but he had scarred, jeered at, insulted and humiliated Severus for years, not to mention lied to Lily about it. James had ruined what was supposed to be the most wonderful home and years of Severus' life. He had gone to Hogwarts hoping for a better life away from his tyrannical father, but thanks to James and his Marauders, it had simply become a case of 'out of the frying pan and into the fire.' He couldn't bring himself to let that go, especially as it was James' taunts that had provoked Severus into making the mistake that condemned his original life. If not for James Potter, he could have had a great life in the first place…to his mind, anyway.

Harry's existence had broken his heart even more thusly; he was the living symbol of everything he had lost and he was forced by Dumbledore to give everything he had left for that symbol…to live in the shadow of the outcome of Lily's love for another man for years and not get an ounce of gratitude or closure in return.

As far as Severus was concerned, forgiving and forgetting with James and Harry was simply impossible and ludicrous.

"I'm sorry," he murmured to Lily.

"I never expected you to let it go, Sev," she said with a sad smile, "that's just not your nature. But maybe you can tolerate them once you have Lily Evans…once you and her find love, have babies, get married…be happy together."

"I don't know…I don't want to lose you again…"

"Why would you?"

"I can tolerate and respect the right you have to love those two…those…- but I cant face it. All it would ever do is remind me that I had to live twice to have anything I wanted…it might be flattering to you that my love for you earned me the rare second chance at life. But to me…it just reminds me that I had a miserable first life. I was wasted on the original world. I was nothing to anybody. Why did that have to happen to me? Why did I need a second chance at all? And you…you were willing to let me be altered and forced to become somebody else…against my will."

Lily was crying now. Septimus and Peter looked sombre.

"I…I didn't think there was any other option, Sev," she whispered, "we all thought that you had no future in Heaven because I chose James. Reincarnation was the only other option known to us."

"But you were willing to let me go…to let Severus Snape not just die but be no more…"

"Forgive me…"

"I forgave you long ago…but I don't let go…I can't forget as well as forgive without becoming somebody else…I hate your family…I always will…"

"Then start a new family…and if you need to lose me, then that's what must happen."

Severus sobbed too now. He didn't want to lose his best friend but she was attached to all that made his unhappy. The Lily who could give him happiness was his escape…but it seemed to entail letting his best friend go, maybe forever.

"Stay with me…"

"Always…now go to her. We'll figure this out another time."

Lily sounded hopeful with that last sentence.

And with what little hope he could muster, as hopelessness was all he knew since her death, Severus looked to his grandfather who nodded with aimable encouragement and to Peter, who looked at him nervously. And with a final nod of sincerity at doing what he was about to do, Severus let go of the Stone, letting it fall to the desk and departed from the office.

As Lily disappeared and reappeared alone in her room, whilst James was asleep upstairs, she shed some more tears. She was afraid…Severus still wouldn't forgive James for ruining his years at Hogwarts, for marrying her in his place, for being her soulmate. Her best friend was also adamant that it was much too late for him to forgive James, even though her husband had long forgiven him for his role in their deaths and never being able to help Harry through his life…watch him grow up…help him fly his first real broomstick…all of it…despite James' role in Severus' second chance, he couldn't let his hatred for the loss of his original life go.

On top of that, Lily was scared that by moving on with Lily Evans, she would be forgotten by her best friend. As happy as she was at the idea of Severus moving on with his true love at last, she felt equally painful despair at the thought of him not wanting anything to do with her anymore…despite his many protests to the contrary. She had promised him they would always be friends, and look how that turned out…he could break his promise too…

"Oh, Sev…please forgive us…and don't forget me…"

Without doubt or hesitation entering his mind, refusing to let it happen, Severus hastened up to the Gryffindor tower. He went stiffly and with his fists clenched, determined to fulfil the task set to him by his two friends and his grandfather. He refused to let any repercussions of failure enter his mind.

"It Has to work!"

"Severus?"

James and Sirius suddenly appeared out of nowhere, sporting the Invisibility Cloak originally.

"What are you two doing here?" asked Severus in a flustered way. "I'd have thought you were with Remus!"

"He still feels weak, he went to bed about half an hour after the feast. He wants us to have a proper reunion tomorrow," explained Sirius.

"With the Union? Good idea," replied Severus.

"So, what were you doing?" interjected James, full of curiosity.

"I asked first," said Severus defensively.

"Trying out this," said James, producing something very familiar from out of his pocket.

"That Map you were trying to make?" asked Severus with an innocent air.

"Yep, and we think we've done it!" said Sirius with glee.

"Have a look," said James.

Severus did so. The Map hadn't been concealed in the surprise of Severus' appearance and he could see the dots of individuals moving about in offices and stirring slightly in the common rooms and bedrooms.

And then he looked directly at the Gryffindor common room section, looking for Lily. And there she was, in the common room and not her dormitory, seemingly having a conversation with Mary in front of the fire.

"I came here to see Lily actually, and I can see she's still awake. If you two are heading back inside, can you tell her to come out and see me, please?"

"…At night? Is this what we've been waiting for?" asked Sirius with a keen tone.

"Are you going to bring her out to me or not?" asked Severus coldly.

"Alright, keep your hair on!"

Sirius and James whispered their password and began to climb through the portrait hole.

"And tell her to come alone," called Severus fiercely.

"Definitely the moment we've been awaiting!" sneered James as the portrait closed in on them.

Time seemed to slow to the speed of a snail for Severus. He was beginning to feel the pains of a panic attack and tried everything in his power to control his emotions, but his inability to perfect Occlumency at this juncture proved his efforts difficult and almost completely fruitless.

After what seemed like an hour in a minute, the Fat Lady moved outward to reveal a puzzled looking Lily…and Severus paled. She was wearing the same dressing gown that she wore when she terminated their friendship with the finality that decided Severus' unhappiness for a lifetime…asking her out in the same spot…was he doomed for failure, again?

"Sev? What's wrong?" asked Lily.

Severus tried hard to suppress the heartbreak, the old Lily, the pain of his old life and the fresh torments of his new life. All of it had come down to this…back to where he started when all of his true pain and loss began…he had to be, dare he say it, as brave as the Gryffindor that Lily has always been…

"I…I…need to tell you something…"

Lily's face flushed. She had an inkling that she knew where this was going and didn't interrupt. She desperately wanted her assumption to be correct.

"I…I have known you…for so long…longer than you even know…and I have always….always…"

"Severus," Lily took his hand, "…it's alright. Just be calm."

She barely felt calm herself but kept up appearances to see if Severus was about to ask what she wanted him to ask for a long time now, or what seemed like forever.

Severus felt only slightly reassured, but reassured, nonetheless.

"I…I have known this almost the moment I met you…and I have never found the courage until now…after my grandad…I decided I couldn't take any more chances or do any more procrastinating…Lily, I…"

"You…what?" Lily was panting at the adoration in Severus' voice.

They were both shaking with anticipation.

"I…love you!"

The response was instantaneous, natural and exhilarating; Lily pounced into Severus' chest, rose her head up and kissed him fully on the lips, melting into him almost before contact.

Severus had jammed. He had wanted this for two lifetimes. He craved Lily. He craved her lips, her affection…her love, for so long. And now, here, where in another world, their friendship ended, they were entering something new, something they had both wanted: a relationship.

Severus Prince and Lily Evans were officially declaring their love and were proud of it.

Chapter 51 coming much sooner, I hope! Again, please review!