IT'S CHANGED! (SNILY)

She'll be There

Severus wasn't on his bed, like he had the entire passed week. McGonagall had allowed him and Lily to stay at the Evans' for almost a week or until he deemed himself fit to come back. She knew he wouldn't take long before he joined them back.

Lily had never left his side for this whole week. She stayed there giving him a comforting hand all the time. She even sat there beside him, a hand playing absentmindedly with his hair and another on his arm, while he slept or stared in space. She just let him know that he wasn't alone. She would always be there for him. Always. He had with every passing day just felt how much more and more he was coming to respect and love her. She was the one who urged him to eat and sleep but let him grieve.

He didn't do anything other than stare in space, thinking about nothing. Feeling numb and empty. Realizing that a part of his heart had died. He had never imagined his life without her mother. But he had not given another thought to his father's death. He simply didn't care. He didn't shed a single tear on the wretch, he was compiled to call a father.

Though, he didn't want to lose her mother. But he understood that, that wouldn't happen, now and he had to move on. That space where she was in his heart would remain silent and cold but her memories would make it warm and loving. There were more people whom he loved and who... loved him back. He never knew he would be able to do that. Not at least in this life time. But he realized it wasn't that difficult.

Tears filled his eyes again, but he wiped them away and looked in the mirror. His image staring back at him. He touched his hair, just like his mother's. His chin, just like hers. The cheek bones, his fingers, his nails, the boney elbows. He had never noticed he looked so much like his mother. She was always there with him. Inside him. In every cell of him. In his magic. He smiled. She never left him, was just out of view.

He had showered today, without Lily begging him to do things for her. He was surprised to realize that she wasn't sick of him being such a laze for the entire week. She kept him together and strong. He smiled and returned to his room where Lily was sleeping, sitting, her head resting on the headboard. She looked beautiful. She had slept like that for an entire week. Didn't she get those stiff neck muscles? What else had she done for him that he hadn't noticed yet?

He gave her a little shake to her shoulder. She stirred and mumbled something incoherently before jerking up and keeping a hand on her side of the bed.

"Severus!" she said in alarm.

"I am here" he spoke.

She looked up, grabbed his hand and started checking for any symptoms of sickness in his eyes or for fever on the forehead. "Are you alright? Feeling sick? Or are you hungry? Anything? What happened?"

Severus smiled and before he could think what he was doing he kissed her cheek. "I am fine"

"Oh?" she flushed under the sweet touch. He had never kissed her before. "Then what is it?"

"What? I am fine and am thinking of making something Indian" he kept smiling. Her face just made him do that even more.

"Severus, are you actually alright?" she asked again.

"No"

"What happened, then?" she asked anxiously.

"My best friend has stopped calling me the way she called before"

Lily smacked his arm. She understood that he was feeling more himself again. "Okay, Sev" she yawned then. "It's five in the morning, Sev"

"So what? Has time ever mattered to us?" he shrugged cheekily.

She laughed. "Never" she took him by his arm and glided to the kitchen.

"Now, we need to be quiet because the others are sleeping" Severus whispered.