FIC: Remembering Lily (Part 2)
Disclaimer: I just like to borrow them and play with them… but now that the owner doesn’t need them any more, do you think I could get away with keeping them?
Title: Remembering Lily (Part 2)
Author: snarkyroxy
Characters: Harry, Snape
Rating: PG
Length: 961 words
Summary: Will Severus agree to Harry's request to learn more about his mother?
Part 1 can be found here.
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Severus stared wordlessly down at Harry for a moment, and then abruptly turned away, folding his arms in front of him.
“Please,” he scorned, “you summoned me to ask about her? Did it not occur to you to call upon Lily herself?”
Harry watched the other man’s back… well, actually he could see through that to the folded arms that were presently attempting to conceal clenched fists.
“I’ve seen her,” he said quietly. “As I walked out to face Voldemort she was walking with me… she, my Dad, Sirius-”
“How touching,” Severus commented wryly, though to Harry it seemed there was an edge to his voice.
“But I don’t want her to tell me about her life,” he went on. “I want to hear about all the silly things she did growing up, the times she got detention at school, and why… what were her favourite classes, teachers, her favourite place to go in Hogsmeade?”
Harry paused and regarded the other man, who had turned back to face him.
“You know all of this, all the little things that made her who she was. You were inseparable. Please… help me know her better?”
He knew Severus must be at least considering his request; though he’d been summoned, he could leave at any time he chose, vanishing back to the spirit world never to return, never to reveal anything about his childhood friend, Harry’s mother.
Yet he remained.
“I’ll tell you what I can,” Severus said at length. “But I cannot tell you much after the end of our fifth year… after… well, you know what a foolish thing I did… said.”
“You never spoke to her after that?” Harry questioned in disbelief. It had been a hateful thing to say, and he knew his mother had rebuffed Severus’ attempts at apology the night after it had happened, but he had no idea it had ended their friendship completely.
He’d never considered before how the memories of Severus’ happy times at school with Lily hadn’t extended past that event. In fact, the next thing Harry knew of Severus’ life was the man begging with Dumbledore to send the Potter family into hiding after Voldemort discovered the prophecy.
“Once,” he admitted. “Perhaps twice. It felt like I was speaking with a stranger, though. That one word changed everything.”
The man’s voice was rough with bitterness and regret as he spoke of it, and Harry realised only now what a truly life-changing event it must have been.
“I already know what happened that day,” he said. “I don’t want to force you to recall things that are painful or unpleasant; I want to know about the happy times… can you tell me about those?”
Severus was silent for a long moment.
“Understand me, Potter… Harry,” he said at length. “It’s not that I don’t want to tell you; I believe you have every right to know as much about your mother as any other son would know. I am just unsure that I am the best person to give you such information. I know you don’t want to hear it from her, but - and as much as it pains me to suggest it - haven’t you considered talking to your father?”
He had, actually. While wrestling with his decision whether or not to seek out the Resurrection Stone, Harry had also spend much time agonising over what his father would think if he summoned Severus for this purpose instead. In the end, logicality won out.
“I did consider it,” he finally said aloud. “But I’ve seen already that he barely knew her before the age of sixteen; you and she may have drifted apart after that time, but you knew her for longer that he did. You knew her when she was growing up, and those are the memories of her I’m missing.”
Severus nodded, a small sigh escaping from him.
“Very well.”
Harry felt his shoulders relax as he exhaled a relieved breath. His decision to come out here tonight, to recover the Resurrection Stone, hadn’t been in vain; finally he might learn enough about his mother to let her go, to cease his constant wondering about a woman he had never been given a chance to know except through the eyes of others.
“So,” Severus said conversationally, gesturing to Harry to walk with him again, “where would you like me to begin?”
“I, uh… wherever you like,” Harry replied. He didn’t want this to turn into a lecture, or even a chronological story of his mother’s life… he just wanted to know more about her, and so anything Severus told him would be welcome.
“Hmmm.” Severus frowned in thought for a moment, casting his mind back through the years and the memories. A faint smile flitted across his pale, ghostly face.
“Perhaps you’d like to hear about her first Potions class? If I recall, it wasn’t quite so… interesting… as yours, but she certainly made an impression on her Professor and some of her classmates at the time.”
Harry nodded eagerly, briefly thinking back to his first class and his first impressions of his Potions teacher. How things had changed from then until now. How different might things have been if their first impressions of one another had been more favourable?
Shoving his icy hands into his pockets, he turned his attention back to Severus as the other man began his tale.
“It was something of a tradition, even back then, to combine the Gryffindor and Slytherin first-years into one class. Luckily for Lily and I, that meant we had every lesson together, and our first lesson upon arriving at Hogwarts happened to be Potions…”
* * * * *
To be continued…again.