Human being

Lily and Sev were chatting in the Princess' Haven in the presence of Jack.

"Is it enough for you?" she asked him. "Shall we consider the subject closed?"

"Okay."

"Then let's go back to the beginning of the conversation, which is what really matters now. Just so you know that I'm very sorry it had to be here and you had to come into my room. Before Remus and Cecile arrived I had a good fight with my parents because I wanted to be there when they told you, not for me, but for you, and they have strictly forbidden me from doing so. I knew that tonight you were going to need me, at least to get on good terms with me and take a worry off your mind, and in the end they forced you to come up here to be with me, which was painful for you."

"You were right," he agreed.

"So you can see that my parents' judgment is not always the most accurate."

"Of course not. Your father didn't think it was appropriate for me to talk to Jack about my mother today and I urgently needed to know certain things."

"Because my parents don't know you as well as we do, they do things according to their own criteria, and not only that, they found out everything on Monday," Lily explained. "If you need advice, it's better to let yourself be guided by those who know you well and have been planning how we wanted to do things for months."

"Of course…"

"Well, let's go back to the beginning of the conversation. How are you?"

"Taking the blow, it's going to be hard for me to accept it," Sev admitted.

"Of course, take all the time you need. Pay attention to your own feelings at all times and let yourself be guided by them, don't betray them, the heart is never wrong."

"That's what I'm doing."

"Do you think you'll be angry with your mother for long?" she asked.

"I think so. I highly doubt I'll come back home, not only because of this, but because of things I've talked to her about this afternoon."

"I understand, but at least you have to forgive her. Forgiveness is very healing, Sev, you already saw it with Sirius and James, what a great joy and what a good friend you have gained, more than a friend, another brother."

"True," he agreed.

"You have always had a very good relationship with your mother, she did things the best she knew how. Can you tell me just one thing, if you know? Would she have been able to separate from your father? When you were, how old?"

"Yes, she could have done it, when I was already eight and a half and my brother was six."

"Ugh... a year before you met me, the time when you were hungry and you ran away from the Muggle school," Lily remembered.

"Yeah."

"And maybe you and I would never have met."

"True."

"Well there you have it, you would have gotten your brother back but in very precarious conditions, your life would have improved but maybe his wouldn't, and you would have lost me forever," she deduced.

"Of course."

"Well, think about those things when you feel resentment towards her. Life is a rehearsal for what could be, if some things happen others can't happen, what you lost for what you had."

"You're right," admitted Sev.

"And that same reasoning leads you to try to waste the least amount of time at this moment in your life. Forgive your mother as soon as possible so that the three of you can be together. You're going to be very busy in the summer, even though you're hardly going to see each other."

"True."

"How did you find her when you got home?" asked Lily.

"Very unwell."

"Starting to get sick."

"Yes, that's the impression I got," he confirmed.

"We must do everything possible so that she doesn't collapse. Tomorrow I'll go visit her with your brother. Are you going to be there, Jack, teaching her Occlumency? What time are you supposed to meet up?"

"At ten in principle, in case she has trouble falling asleep at night," the eldest replied. "In any case, Deborah will be with her and she will call me when she considers it appropriate for me to come."

"Does it matter if I show up even though you are busy?"

"If she has extracted her memories, she will not be able to talk to you."

"Then I think it is more appropriate that you wait for me so that we can have a talk and cheer her up," she suggested.

"Okay, that is what we will do."

"It is more urgent that she recovers than that she learns to occlude."

"Of course," agreed Jack.

"I have an idea," said Sev.

"Say," said Lily.

"Alice brought me some sleeping potion. Can you go back to my house for a moment and take a dose to my mother, Jack? That way she will surely sleep."

"Sure, very good idea," approved his friend.

"If she does not want to take it, convince her, she refused the sleeping pills from the Muggle doctor."

"Well, it has nothing to do with it, sleeping pills are taken every day and they don't have an immediate effect unless they are very strong, the sleeping potion is much more harmless."

"Tell her all that to convince her," suggested Sev.

"Let Deborah tell her, she knows the most about the matter."

"Okay."

"I'll just take it to her and that's it, I'll be right back," said Jack.

"Great. You'll need a doser."

"Valerie or I can Summon it without any problem."

"Let her sleep for at least ten or twelve hours, give her the dose without her knowing how many hours she'll sleep," suggested Sev.

"That's how we'll do it."

"Later you tell me what time she's going to wake up, Jack, so we don't go to her house too early," asked Lily.

"Of course, when I get back from her house I'll come back up for a moment and tell you."

"Are you better, Lily?" asked Sev. "Did you feel good talking?"

"Of course, great. And you?"

"Very good too."

"Can I have a hug?" she asked.

"Of course."

They stood up and hugged each other.

"I love you very much, Lily."

"And I love you, Sev."

"Always."

"Always."

Both began to cry, Jack surrounded them both and said, "Come on... don't be sad about it, think about the beautiful relationship you have. You've recovered the friendship, which is the basis of everything else, whether you hook up or not is the least of it."

"True, Jack," he agreed.

"You're absolutely right," she admitted.

"And you still have many years ahead of you and many vicissitudes of life to overcome together," continued their friend. "You will continue to be neighbours here and at Hogwarts no matter what happens, and also colleagues there. You will never really be separated, you will always be close to each other."

"Of course," said Sev.

"How lucky I am," said Lily. "I don't deserve it."

"Yes, you do. Everyone gets what they deserve."

"How much more mature you are than me, Sev, it's incredible. I've been running at forced marches to reach you for almost a year, and at this point I already think that I will never succeed, it is impossible to reach the depth of your soul."

"Don't torment yourself about it, Lily, we all feel that way about him," said Jack. "No one has had to overcome everything that he has overcome, for some reason he is the only alchemist."

"Of course."

"Well, you know. Keep taking his example but without hanging on, you have to mature for yourself, for your own experiences, not for his. And now you have a good opportunity to do it by helping his mother get over the shock. In addition, you kill two birds with one stone, because you also give him back part of everything he has done for you. You take care of her since he can't do it at the moment."

"Of course I'm going to do it," she confirmed.

"Thank you very much, Lily," said Sev.

"No, that's out of the question, I don't allow you to thank me for anything. Never do it again."

"Okay."

"Thank you for existing," she said. "What would have become of me without you?"

"And of me without you?"

"Luckily, we will never know."

"Come on, that's enough," said Jack, stopping surrounding them. "Make both of you an effort to calm down, it doesn't suit Prince to get emotional precisely because of this now, too many emotions at once."

"True, true," said Lily. She pulled away from him, wiping away her tears and struggling to recover, and Sev did too.

"Ah! I'm going to sleep with Hippolyta too," said Sev. "Don't be surprised if she tell you off tomorrow morning if you see each other."

"And with good reason, too," she said. "I'll endure the downpour."

"I'm not thanking you because you've forbidden me to."

"That's it. Come on, come down now, the others must be missing you."

"Yes. I've disappeared since they told me and I haven't been with everyone again, we've come up here secretly," he said.

"And how long has that been?"

"Well over an hour."

"Ugh... what a mess, Sev. They must be worried, go down as soon as possible to calm them down."

"True, we must," said Jack. "Because we still have to talk about something in private, the two of us."

"Well, they won't be that worried either, they know I'm with Jack, I've barely spent ten minutes alone right after Sirius told me the worst, and then I saw them all," said Sev.

"Yes, but they've seen you crying a lot, Prince. If Lily is better, let's go now. It's your turn to spend it alone, Lily, you don't know how sorry I am."

"We will do everything possible so that the Clanship accepts you again as soon as possible, you won't be alone much longer."

"Of course not."

"Thank you very much, guys," she said.

They both left Lily's bedroom, bonded, went down the stairs and sat for a moment at the dining table.

"What did you want to talk to me about in private, Jack?" asked Sev.

"About what happened in there. You've already realized that you can't stay alone, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, you know, her parents were right about that," said her friend. "And even with people, you have to be with her as little as possible, now that you've clarified it and you're calm. For you, but especially for her. You've already seen what she told you, she's built her whole life around you, you're the only reason for her existence, while you have many more. Even her initial idea of being a Potions teacher came from wanting to live in the castle with you when you aspired to be a Defense teacher. Charms, not Potions, would have been her thing."

"True."

"So you see, Lily has a long way to go to find herself, until she does, she won't be a valid partner for you or anyone else, because that same relationship she had with you she will reproduce with any other boy, becoming dependent on him. It's the same thing that happened to me with Lauren, we're at the same point, Lily and I are very similar. So I would give her the same advice that I'm going to apply to myself, take it very slowly before starting a serious relationship with anyone, build ourselves as individuals first and nourish ourselves from friendship in the meantime."

"Of course. You can go through the process together, that will bring you together a lot, you'll create a very solid relationship," suggested Sev. "You're a very valid person, and in the aspect that you already know, you can learn with other girls in the meantime."

"That's the least of it, Prince. I'm not very skilled but very dedicated, for some reason Lauren fell in love with me."

"Yes, she told me and told me to remind you and enhance that quality of yours."

"What I was telling you, that's the least of it, the difficult thing is to be at your level as a person. What I always tell you, you are made of very stern stuff, you see the ordeal you just went through and the last thing you think about is yourself. You worry about your brother, Lily, your mother, even me before yourself. What she said, impossible to achieve. I think that the women you stay with will definitely be faithful to you because any other man will seem like a small thing to them."

"Oh…"

"I have thought a lot about the subject from the part that has touched me," added Jack.

"Well I hope not, at least not for Lauren."

"Ugh… Lauren of all people, in love with you since she was eleven. Are you already trying to find her a new partner?"

"Yes," admitted Sev.

Jack laughed. "You can't help yourself, huh? Your penchant for being a matchmaker gets the better of you. Can I know who it is?"

"Sirius."

Jack laughed again. "Ugh… poor Sirius, she's going to eat him up. Well, on Saturday you'll see how your efforts are going. It's going to be funny, all six of us. Lauren has been with me, she's with you and she intends to be with Sirius. Valerie has been with you and with Sirius. The only one who's spared is Hippolyta, who only loves you."

"I think that with time she could also end up falling in love with Sirius, she loves him very much."

Jack laughed again. "What I'm telling you, a monumental mess, let's see if we don't all end up fighting."

Sev laughed too. "Ugh… not on my part, of course."

"No, not on my part, but girls… they get like cats in heat… They can be much more malefic than us in that aspect. If Lauren tries to pay too much attention to Sirius, which on the other hand I don't think she will with you present, Valerie is going to get angry, she hopes to have him all summer to herself."

"Oh…"

"Better if you let Valerie know," warned Jack.

"Ugh…"

They laughed again.

"And when do I do it?" asked Sev. "I wasn't expecting to see her before Saturday."

"She did want to see you, and so did Deborah. They were expecting to see you tomorrow, while I'm with your mother and they're free. Valerie does better in the morning, because in the afternoon she wants to be with her family, her father gets off work earlier, she's barely seen him."

"And doesn't she have to do any paperwork for the market stall?"

"She's already sorted everything out this morning because she got up very early," explained the older one. "She's gone for the papers, filled them out, handed them in, they gave her the payment order, she went to the bank to pay while waiting in line and went back to the town hall to hand them in. Now she just has to wait for them to process it, they told her it will take a week, and for them to assign her a stall. They will call her by phone and an official will accompany her to show her where exactly she belongs."

"Great."

"In case there is an illegal occupying her place and they have to kick them out."

"Of course, she didn't think of asking for permission in principle," Sev reminded.

"Yes, she already told me, you did well to convince her."

"Was it very expensive for her?"

"No, no, it is paid monthly, she has only paid for one month, from the day she installed it until next August," answered Jack.

"Great."

"And so she also has a few days off. So I'll take advantage of this to tell her where you're going to be tomorrow morning. Are you going to be here?"

"In principle yes," answered Sev.

"Great. Then she'll arrive, don't expect her too early, I already told you that yesterday she went to bed late because she was with her parents when she got home and today she got up very early."

"Of course, of course."

"In fact, it's best if we give your mother the sleeping potion right away so that Valerie can go home, so that the two of them can rest as soon as possible," suggested his friend.

"Yes, that would be best."

"Any other questions or concerns?"

"No," answered Sev.

"I'll also tell Deborah to call you here tomorrow morning so you can meet up, she wants to see you tomorrow too."

"Okay."

"Let's go with everyone, come on," suggested Jack. "Do you feel ready?"

"I do."

"I'll explain the plans to everyone before I leave. You sit with your girl and let yourself be loved."

"Okay."

They unbonded, got up and went to the living room.

Alice saw them enter, "Ugh guys… Violet went to look for you in the kitchen and you weren't there…"

Sev walked around the couch and sat between Sirius and Hippolyta, who hugged him.

"We were just sorting out a private matter," Jack replied.

"Are you better, Sev?" Violet asked him.

"Yes, much better," he replied. "I've talked to my brother."

"Yes, we've already heard the phone. Very well."

"I'll explain the plans," said Jack, who had not sat down.

While Jack was explaining the plans until the next morning, Sev bonded with Hippolyta and asked her, "Have you gone home yet, my love?"

"Yes, as soon as you left with Jack, Cecile, Violet and I went."

"And did you bring your flute?"

"Everything, everything," she replied.

"Any problems with your parents?"

"None, Prince, and don't start with your questions, today is not your turn to worry about me. What was that private matter that Jack said?"

"We went up to see Lily, who is alone in her room."

"You shouldn't have done it."

"Yes, I should have, because we've made up and I've taken a worry off my mind," he disagreed.

"But now you're going to love her again."

"Honey, I'm always going to love Lily. I've loved her for seven years and she loves me, she is and always will be a very important person in my life. Don't worry, for the moment and for a long time, we're just going to be friends and we're not going to spend much time together, not even with people, and even less so alone."

"Okay, if that's the case, that's fine with me. What else can you tell me? Is Ariel coming to sleep over?" the girl asked.

"Yes, he will, but later. We'll call him in a while, when we're more comfortable. There are too many people here now."

"Great. What did he think about the three of us sleeping together?"

"It was very funny, because he told me never to tell Shelley so she wouldn't get jealous of you," explained Sev.

Hippolyta laughed. "What nonsense, if she knows perfectly well that I love you, I've told her many times since we've been together."

"Of course, but he shouldn't know, you know, girls' secrets, she doesn't tell him your secrets."

"Well, tonight I'll make it very clear to him, so he doesn't get his hopes up about me."

They both laughed.

"Prince," Jack called him.

Sev unbonded from Hippolyta. "What, Jack?"

"Alice is the bomb. She also counted on your mother, she brought two bottles of sleeping potion and two dispensers."

"Well, Alice… thank you very much, it wasn't necessary…"

"Yeah, Jack already told me," said Alice. "But anyway, I've saved you some work, and now you both have it on hand wherever you are, not only for today, but also for the next few days. It can even be taken for a week straight without any risk of side effects."

"Well… great…"

"And now you both have the container with the dosage table."

"Very well, but Jack, as we agreed, tonight you give her the dose without her knowing how many hours she's taking it for," asked Sev.

"Sure, Prince, as we agreed, we're going to give her the dose for twelve hours, so that tomorrow she'll be as good as new," replied his friend.

"Great, because on Saturday she has to work and she won't be able to sleep that much."

"Sure, sure…"

"Severus," Peter intervened. "You shouldn't be worrying about your mother right now."

"I'm sorry I don't agree with you, Peter, but I do have to," Sev disagreed. "She's my mother, and she, in her own way, has always cared about me. Your daughters would also do the same for you if they knew you were going through hard times, even if they were suffering too."

"Of course, Dad, he's right," said Petunia. "I would also worry about you all the time."

"Of course, I met her this afternoon knowing everything already and I'm not angry with her, at all," Hippolyta intervened. "I understand that Prince is angry, but I know that it will pass quickly, he forgives very easily."

"And not only that, you can see that I feel perfectly fine right now, I even laughed, and it was precisely thanks to the talk I had with Jack, in which he did tell me part of my mother's story and he solved many doubts that would have been tormenting me for hours if he hadn't clarified them already," continued Sev. "I'm sorry to tell you this, Violet and Peter, but you still don't know me well. I'm a person who can't help but worry constantly about the people I care about, I put everyone else before myself and I suffer for every person who may be suffering around me. Let any of my friends who know me better than you confirm it for you."

"Absolutely true," confirmed Remus.

"That's right, without a doubt," agreed Cecile.

"There's a reason I brought the two bottles of potion," explained Alice.

"Of course it is," said Sirius.

"He's always with me with his questions," said Hippolyta.

"I don't need to say anything," said Jack.

"And I'll take this opportunity to tell you something else and settle it as well," Sev continued. "It's about that private matter that Jack told you about, it's about Lily. We both went up to see her in her bedroom because I was very worried about her, since yesterday, you know that, Violet. We've made up, we've become friends and it's been very good for me too. I want you all to know that I'm going to love Lily forever, what she did isn't that serious, she was simply confused for a few hours and the misunderstanding continued because of me, for not bonding with her again. We both still love each other very much, and perhaps in the future, when we've both had time to reflect on what happened, we'll be together again. For the moment we're going to take it very calmly and avoid contact as much as possible, but not for the reasons that the others have decided, so that it doesn't hurt me, but because I think that she needs to distance herself from me in order to mature on her own."

"Very well said, Prince," Alice approved.

"So I ask the others, from now on, that if your resentment towards her is due to her supposed disloyalty towards me, forgive her right now, because I have already done so. In fact, I think there was nothing to forgive, you are condemning her to loneliness without deserving it. She was the first to realize it, the one who devised the whole plan with Jack and she did it very well, she has been mulling it over for six months. Violet and Peter, you should have allowed her to be with everyone tonight as she wanted and she has fought to do so this very afternoon. She knows me much better than you, better than any of you, and also my mother. She was the most suitable person to give me the news."

Everyone remained silent for a few long seconds.

Finally, Peter let out a deep sigh and spoke, "You always amaze me, boy. I thought that in some way we were on the same level, because both of us, each in our own way, suffered a lot in our childhood and were able to overcome it. But with what you just said, both about your mother and about my daughter, I realize that I myself, at over forty years old, am not even close to you and probably never will be. At sixteen, you are a great connoisseur of the human soul, much better than many, than the vast majority of adults. And not only that, in less than two hours, you have channeled what we all assumed would be an unbearable ordeal for you and you have transformed it into relief for the two people who have been most important in your life until very recently. You do not fail when you are needed, even those who have failed you, and that is one of the essential qualities to deserve to be called a human being. You are the quintessential human being. So, far from trying to continue imposing our criteria on you, we are going to let ourselves be guided by you, by what you consider appropriate at any given moment, and if at any time you are confused or not clear, we will resort to consulting our daughter or the friends who know you best. Who do you think we can trust without fear of them mistaking their judgment?"

"From what I have seen tonight, Lily, Jack, Alice and my own brother," answered Sev.

"Okay, then it will be with them first of all to advise us if you falter. Do you want Lily to come down?"

"Not especially, there are already too many of us. So many people overwhelm me, that has perhaps been the only mistake in the plan."

"Do you want us to leave, Sev?" asked Cecile.

"No, I don't want any of you to leave since you have taken the trouble to come here, and now I feel capable of being with all of you. I'd like to spend some time with you all and keep you all calm about my mood, and maybe I'll need you again in a little while. I'd rather you stay until it's a suitable time for us to go to sleep."

"Shall I go to your house now then, Prince?" asked Jack.

"Yes, Jack, go without fear and take the time you need to make sure my mother is okay. Better if you see her get into bed and take the potion. You know, twelve hours."

"All right. See you in a little while." Jack took a handful of Floo powder, got into the fireplace, said the address of Spinner's End and threw it disappearing into the green flames.