She turned up at Spinner's End the following morning. She needed time to think, to be sure she was doing the right thing.

She'd run through all the possible scenarios in her head. Had he been forced to the meeting? Was it his first time and he'd been appalled at what he'd heard?

It wasn't possible. It couldn't be possible. She'd done enough wishful thinking. She'd spent enough time imagining. The reality was this: her boyfriend, Severus Snape had joined the death eaters. There was no escaping the facts, however much she longed to live in fantasy land.

And now all that's left was to tell him she was leaving him.

She made the familiar walk from her parents' house to his. How many times had she done this? She'd been walking to Sev's house since the age of nine. Always so excited to see him. So looking forward to being with him.

But she didn't want to be with him anymore. He'd made his choice. She'd made hers.

She knocked on the familiar front door and waited, heart pounding.

Any minute now he would answer it. And she would tell him. She'd tell him she couldn't be with him. She had to. She needed to be strong.

The door opened and there was Sev.

But, for the first time, Lily saw him for who he really was. This was no longer the small boy who'd cried in his bedroom, who'd told her she was magical, to whom Lily was his whole world.

He was a man now. And he was ugly. All his beauty and sensitivity was long gone. He'd never bothered to fight for it, to fight for her. He'd let his hate and intolerance dictate his decisions. She couldn't be part of it anymore.

"I saw you." She told him, not taking her eyes off his. "I saw you last night, in Dean Forest."

He opened his mouth to say something. "Don't argue." Lily said. She looked at him again. She suddenly felt a little sick. Who was this man she'd been so intimate with? "I never want to see you again."

Snape's mouth slackened. "Lily, don't be ridiculous…" he said, recovering quickly.

Lily gave a humourless laugh. "Ridiculous, am I? Do you know what's ridiculous? Thinking your boyfriend loves you, would protect you, would fight for you, and then finding him at a meeting agreeing with people who want me dead."

Snape stared at her.

And it was then, in that moment, that Lily realised he'd never really seen her at all either.

To Sev, Lily had been something unattainable, something pure and something unreachable. He'd worshiped and admired her, but had he loved her? He'd loved the idea of her, perhaps. But he'd never loved her. How could he have done? He'd never really known her. If he had, how could he possibly have done what he did?

"Goodbye, Severus." She said. She had to leave. She wouldn't break down in front of him.

She looked back at him. He looked so lost, so helpless and so confused. But Lily knew that wasn't her problem to fix anymore. "Good luck." She said quietly.

And, heart breaking into a thousand pieces and wanting nothing more than to collapse on the ground and sob for eternity, Lily steeled herself, squared her shoulders, and walked away.

He didn't come after her. And though she was glad of it, something also broke inside her to realise she had been right all along. When it came to fighting for her, he couldn't do it.

She entered her parents' little house, feeling empty, bereaved and totally alone. She had been about to go and throw herself on her bed and cry some more but there was someone there waiting for her.

James Potter.

"Lily." He said, getting to his feet as she came into the front room. He was looking at her concernedly, his hazel eyes full of compassion.

He held out his arms and she fell into them. He stroked her hair and held her tight. "Shh. It's OK." He said as she sobbed her heart out. "It's OK. You're OK."

And, though it took a long while for her heart to mend, she found that, in the end, she really was OK.

She would still tear up if Sev's name was mentioned. She still felt the old pang in her chest, but the more time she spent with James and the others, the more she could see how wrong she'd been about Snape.

"I wanted to help him so much." Lily said, sitting in James' parents front room with him and Sirius one night. "His parents were awful. He needed me. And I always thought love could solve anything."

She wiped her eyes as both boys gave her a pitying sort of look. "I know I'm an idiot."

"You're not an idiot." James said, putting a gentle hand on her knee. "You're a good person. Of course you believe in love. You know its power."

Lily shook her head. "I don't understand how people don't." The very idea broke her heart all over again. How could a world with this much pain be real?

Sirius clapped a hand on her other knee. "We can't help them." He said brusquely. "You'll drive yourself mad if you try."

Lily looked at him and suddenly she realised that she could understand Sirius. He'd undergone the same fight she had. He'd made the choice to leave behind something he surely must have once loved too.

"How did you do it?" She asked him quietly.

And there was that look again.

How could she have been so wrong about Sirius? He wasn't an unfeeling, arrogant show off. Well, maybe he was a bit, but he also had a depth and understanding that she'd never seen in anyone else before.

"Underneath it all Evans, I'm an idiot too." He smiled at her.

And Lily understood. Sirius got it. He'd felt what Lily felt. He'd felt the confusion, the hopelessness and the powerlessness to change those around him who refused to see it. And, like Lily, he'd escaped.

"You can't help them." He told her now. "I told you that before. They won't change."

Lily looked at him. "So what's going to happen to them?" She whispered.

Sirius gave her a twisted sort of smile. "What do you want to happen to them?"

Lily thought of Sev. She thought of the nine-year-old she'd known. The pure, beautiful soul he'd been. But that boy didn't exist anymore. He'd become a death eater. He and those around him were responsible for what was happening to the world right now. They were responsible for the cruel, senseless deaths of muggleborns and their families and those who got in their way.

Lily thought of Sylvie who had lost her life to them. She'd been so young, so beautiful, so full of potential…

A rage such as she'd never known suddenly overwhelmed her. She hated the death eaters. Hated them. She wanted them dead.

"They can go to hell." She said, the ferocity in her voice surprising even to her.

Her eyes met Sirius' and she saw her fire reflected back. He nodded. "I agree." He said.

Lily and James started going out not long after that.

It amazed her how easy it was to be with him. It was nothing like being with Severus had been.

James laughed easily and he wasn't quick to upset. He bounced back from things in a way Snape never had and he never took things personally.

He had so much to give. Love came easily to him, and he would shower her with it.

Over time, she felt herself coming back to life, like the lilies James bought her and that bloomed in every room of the house they now shared.

He asked her to marry him and she said yes.

Her parents were delighted. Petunia and Vernon Dursley less so.

The wedding was magical and not long after that their son, Harry, was born.

Lily didn't live a very long life. She and her husband James were murdered on 31st October 1981. But though she'd died young, her life had been full of meaning, magic and wonder.

She was a Lily in every sense of the word. Without nurture and care she had wilted. She'd spent a long time in the dark. It had felt hopeless. She'd felt trapped. But, as nature has a tendency to do, she'd survived. She had bloomed again, more beautiful and radiant for all she'd lived through.

The death eaters might think they could destroy life, but Lily knew that wasn't true. Nothing could really destroy life. Though she may have died, her sacrifice had allowed her son to live, and he would go on to save hundreds, if not thousands, of others.

Death wasn't really the end. Love would win. Life would win. She could see that now. Life was like a lily, coming in and out of bloom. It was the most beautiful thing imaginable.

The End. (And thank you for reading!)