Changed (Drarry)

Chapter 19

"You all go ahead, there's something I want to do before I leave." Lily said slightly darkly, stopping so she fell behind the group.

"I'll come back with Lily, where will you be?" James said, standing between Lily and the rest of the group.

"We'll be at the manor, I think it best. We'll wait for you and for Harry to wake up before discussing... Everything." Lucius said pointedly.

"We shouldn't take too long." Lily said with a strained smile, walking with James in the same direction Dumbledore, who was practically hissing and spitting, had been taken after the trial.

"Um..." Ginny said, making Draco, who was carrying Harry, and Hermione turn around to see her looking down and tugging on the hem of her top. "Hermione, can I talk to you?"

"It's fine, I'll catch up at the fires." Hermione said, seeing Ginny didn't have her wand on her, although Hermione decided to not be subtle about the fact that she had her own wand held, ready to use it if she needed to.

"I just wanted to say that I know most of the time we spent together wasn't real, and that a lot of the time we actually did I was under the love potion and you were telling me off, and for the rest it was because of what Dumbledore, mum, Ron, Percy and... Well all of us but Fred and George, but I really did like spending time with you." Ginny said, looking embarrassed and nervous as she spoke, only occasionally glancing at Hermione's eyes before immediately looking away again.

Hermione sighed, holding her forehead as she looked through her eyebrows at Ginny, who stood there waiting for Hermione's answer, biting her lip.

"If you want the two of us to be friends it's a long road for you, while you helped in the trial, you still didn't do anything to help me through all of that, but you were also struggling with something." Hermione said, crossing her arms, her weight almost entirely on her right leg as she looked at Ginny, her chin slightly upturned. "And it's going to take a long time for me to meet you one on one, even longer for it to be when you have your wand or I don't."

"I understand, and I'm fine with that. You can bring whoever you want, but would it be okay for Fred or George to be there too? They also had their memories altered and wanted to help you and Potter, but they didn't want us finding out they knew, so they couldn't do much." Ginny said, it was difficult enough to convince them to let Ginny go talk to Hermione on her own after they found out about her being manipulated into taking the love potion, not that she was completely sure they believed her.

"It won't be only them and us, but I don't mind too much if they're there." Hermione said with a small nod, turning around and taking a step to the fires she was going to meet the rest of the group at. "Take care of yourself Ginny."

"Yes, you too." Ginny said with a bright smile, not that Hermione could see it as she was speed walking to the fires. Ginny didn't stand where she was for long, having to hurry back to the medical area and Fred and George.

-----

"Hello Severus." Lily sneered, looking down at the ill looking, greasy haired man whose eyes were lifeless as he had chains around his wrists attached to the back wall of the cell.

"Lily?" Snape asked, sounding shocked, lunging towards her, trying to grab onto her robes or something, but the chains didn't stretch far enough for him to do so, but Lily still twitched her robes back just in case.

"Yes, I'm alive. No thanks to you." Lily said with a bitter, almost malicious smile. "You're the one who told Voldie about the prophecy, and then told Dumbledore that you told him."

"I just wanted you to be safe!" Snape pleaded, his eyes wide with desperation as he kneeled on the filthy, salty ground, like a sinner before a god. "I had no idea your child could be a part of the prophecy!"

"Don't lie to me Severus, do you think I'm an idiot? Of course I knew you were staking me, we all knew, I just hoped you were willing to change. You knew I was pregnant, and you knew when I was due, you're bad at subtlety." Lily said with a cold glare, Severus had never left her alone, so she had never been alone. "You're the reason my baby was taken from me, and you got to live comfy for your crimes."

"No, Lily, I thought you were dead! How could I-" Snape tried to argue.

"My death on your head doesn't mean you didn't have a cushy life. Both sides thought you were with them, you weren't going to be harmed by anyone." Lily said with a sneer.

"I was a teacher, I was paying back for all the harm I did with things I hate, isn't this enough for you to forgive me? I just wanted you safe." Snape pleaded, tears coming out of his eyes, but they couldn't move Lily's heart. Not any more.

"Children aren't things, and I know how you treated those poor children. You made up for nothing, you made yourself a worse person." Lily spat at him, crouching down so she was able to make better eye contact with him, lest he misunderstood her intentions or feelings towards him as the twisted love he held for her. "And if you wanted me safe you would have thought about my husband and child too."

Lily got to her feet, standing at her full height as she towered over the cowering man, if he could even be called a person. There was a time when she had looked up to him, the first person she could rely on to tell her about the magical world, the person who taught her spells she couldn't learn from the teachers, someone who, at least in front of her, was just a poor innocent victim. 

But she had seen the truth.

She had seen it long before he had turned his back on her and called her a mudblood, she had seen what he called the other students like her, she had seen how he treated those weaker or younger than him, she had seen the aftermath of the 6th year Hufflepuff who had tried to protect the muggle born first years Snape had been torturing. His insult towards her was a straw on an already broken back of the camel, it was just the only thing he would accept as the reason for their friendship ending, she had tried countless times before then too.

No doubt he had it twisted in his mind in order to justify himself, but she didn't care anymore.

"And I wasn't yours to keep safe." Lily's final statement rang through the cell as she swept away, the dementors that had been held at bay by her Patronus that paired so well with James' gliding back almost gleefully, Snape having to watch her retreating back that would never come back to him, and this time he couldn't do anything to force her to still be in his life.

-----

"You okay?" James asked when Lily got back to him, looking tired, and immediately wrapping her arms around him, head on his chest.

"This needed to be done." Lily said, her voice heavy and muffled by the fact she was talking into his robes.

"I know, but you should know nothing would have been different if you had handed him over. He was important to you, it's not weak for you to have wanted him to change." James reassured, wrapping his arms and cloak around Lily, the boat they took to Azkaban sailing itself back to shore.

"Thank you." Lily said looking up, not quite able to smile properly yet, James returning the hurt smile with a sad one of his own. "I love you."

"I love you too." James said, leaning their foreheads together for the rest of the journey.