If a Great Wave Shall Fall (Severus Snape & Lily Evans)

Chapter Six

Disclaimer: Last I checked, I was living in the States, not Britain

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"W-what?" Lily spluttered, "I thought she had a month!"

"She did..." Albus said as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Lily asked as she looked up at the older wizard

Dumbledore merely sighed and shook his head, "She took her own life," his voice was barely louder than a whisper.

Lily gasped as she covered her mouth with her hand, "How?"

Again Dumbledore shook his head, refusing to answer; he turned Lily around and gently pushed her towards her house, "I think a cup of tea will do for you."

Lily didn't know how, but now she was sitting in her sitting room with a cup of tea in her hands, which she had yet to even taste. All she could think about was how Sev was an orphan; how he had lost both of his parents in less than a span of a year.

She had just begun to get to know Eileen, and she knew that hardly anyone had cared much for his father, Severus included. But without him saying anything, Lily knew that he cared a great deal for his mother - why else would he join the Death Eater ranks to save her?

She was so lost in thought that she hadn't even realized that her mother had entered the room and was asking her a question, "Lily, why aren't you drinking your tea?"

Lily merely shrugged her shoulders and went back to her mulling's, distantly she heard Dumbledore saying, "I'm afraid that she took the death of Mrs. Snape rather hard."

Lily lifted her head slightly and said softly, "It's not that, I'm just worried about Sev - I mean it's one thing to lose your dad in an accident, but another for your mum to take her own life."

Albus sighed, "Miss Evans, I assure you that Severus will be fine, he knew that his mother might not make it from this."

"But still-" Lily tried to protest, but was cut off when Albus silenced her.

"But nothing, Severus will be fine - he is preoccupied at the moment with other things," he watched Mrs. Evans leave the sitting room, distantly he heard her calling over her shoulder that she and the rest of the family would be gone for a while. Once she was gone, he leaned forward in his chair, "There is no need to tell him how his mother died, now is there?"

Lily's only response was to open and close her mouth several times as she tried to think of something to say, finding nothing she decided to just sit there. Albus's eyes were twinkling madly as he watched this, "If you'll excuse me, there is somebody I must speak with," he stood up and made to leave before he remembered something. "Is your house connected to the Floo network by any chance?"

Lily just stared dumbly at him, "No. Even though I'm of age, I have to restrict the amount of magic I use, and I doubt that my family would ever get over people coming and going via fireplace."

"Ah, yes that does make sense, but no matter..." and he walked towards the fireplace and pulled a pouch out of his pocket. He took what looked like Floo powder out of the pouch. He looked back over at Lily and smiled as he threw the powder into the flames, causing the flames to turn green, "Being headmaster has its benefits," he explained at Lily's confused look, and then promptly put his head into the flames.

He remerged moments later, only to be replaced with another head and as he stood up he said, "Thank you Kingsley, as the years go by my knees tend to agree less and less with hard floors."

The head in the fire chuckled and said, "It's quite alright headmaster, what is it that you wanted to tell me?"

At that moment, Albus seemed to remember that Lily was still in the room because he turned around and looked at her, "Miss Evans, if you would excuse us for a moment," when she left the room, he conjured an armchair and sat down in front of the Order member in the fire, "I trust that you remember Severus Snape," Kingsley nodded. "His mother was hit with Tenebris Fatum - extremely dark magic - and I went to check on her this morning and found her dead. She had sent an Avada Kedavra at herself, or so I think, I found her lying on her bed with her wand in her hand and I couldn't find anything wrong with her, aside from the highly obvious traces of dark magic in the air."