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

Chapter Twenty-Three

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Lily was in shock. Her mother, Rose Delilah Evans, couldn't be dead. She just couldn't be. Neither her nor Petunia had been married yet, neither of them had had children of their own yet, neither of them had even moved out of the house! Her mother could not be dead. But the letter from Tuney clearly said that she had died - some punk had mugged her for her purse and ended up stabbing her death. Lily's sister had said that she was going home early from her university to take care of their father and oversee the funeral. But the thing that surprised her was that Tuney requested that Lily bring Severus along with her when she left Hogwarts as well. Lily was more than happy to, and she would have done so even if Petunia had said nothing of it.

She was too far into shock to even produce a single tear, but it was obvious that Alice was not. She was sobbing on to Lily's shoulder and she had only met her mother twice. Lily thought that it was just a mixture of guilt for opening the letter, surprise of Rose's death, and overwhelming sympathy for her best friend. Lily knew that she might be in the exact same condition as Alice if their situations were reversed, but perhaps a little less teary.

"I-I've got to go," Lily said, standing up suddenly, she stood there for a second with the letter clutched in her hand then ran from her room. She dodged everyone in the Gryffindor Common Room and their attempts of consoling her; she only wanted one person to do that. She nearly knocked over a couple First years as she sped through the portrait hole, and she didn't even stop to apologise as she normally would have. She was turning numb as her mother's death started to settle in. Lily was now running through the halls of Hogwarts crying hysterically, drawing several strange glances from the students in the hallways, she even heard whispers that she and Sev had broken up. That wasn't the case at all, but she didn't bother trying to stop and correct them, she was trying to find Severus.

It wasn't long before a professor stopped her mad running through the halls, and that professor happened to be Septima Vector, the Arithmancy teacher. "Miss Evans, what has gotten you so shaken up?" the professor asked, placing a steady hand on Lily's shoulder.

"M-my mum-" Lily started sobbing again, her shoulders shaking violently. When she stopped, she drew in a shaky breath and continued, "d-died."

Professor Vector instantly became sympathetic, "Oh, my dear child, when did this happen? Never mind, come into my office and have some tea."

Lily nodded and let the professor steer her towards her office which she had just come out of. She sat Lily down on in a large, comfy wingback chair and set about making her some tea. Lily simply stared straight ahead and wished that Severus was there with her. A sharp hiss from behind her drew Lily out of her stupor and she asked, "Are you alright?"

"Yes, thank you," came the professor's strained reply. "Clumsy me, I burned myself on the tea..."

Lily nodded even though the professor couldn't see her and she went back to staring at the wall, and would have happily continued to do so if it weren't for the hood that fell over her eyes and obstructed her view. She fought against her captor whom she assumed to be the professor but fell limp when her captor shouted a spell she had never heard of before which made her pass out.

!MUAHAH I AM EVIL!

Severus's Mark burned savagely and he knew that the Dark Lord was not in a good mood at all. He set down his quill, stretched, and then casually looked down at his new watch and suddenly stood and walked up to the professor's desk, looking a little worried, and said, "I'm late for Alchemy lessons with the headmaster." Filius Flitwick nodded, quickly understanding what was really happening. The last time the headmaster had gathered the Heads and Severus all for a meeting he decided that his spy should have a phrase to say to his teachers to let him quickly leave whichever class he was in without creating much suspicion among those who didn't know about Severus's situation. He had alerted all of the teachers of it, and said that they needed to let Severus leave their classroom directly.