章 1031: The Clock Strikes Midnight

The students had scurried away from Hogsmeade by midday as the storm arrived with wailing winds and a fierce downpour. By 1 o'clock the last of the straggler had been gathered and returned to Hogwarts. The only ones who looked like drowned rats were the Prefects, who were the last to depart, (and one James Potter, who stayed behind with Rowan). The rest of the afternoon had been a mix of students enjoying their sweets and others being given detentions for being idiots, (such as detonating dung bombs and other contraband from Zonko's).

By the end of the day, even the most energic student happily retired for a full night's rest (except for the Prefect's on patrol). The storm had blown itself out by 11 o'clock. The wind had mostly died down to a cool freeze. The air smells of fresh mud and wet moss. The ice on the black lake has broken apart with a good portion having been melted down. The next sunny day would melt the last of the ice away.

Unable to sleep with the thundering storm overhead, James had tossed and turned in bed and finally gave up. He snuck out of the dorms down into the common room to read. He read in silence accompanied only by the sound of the crackling fire and the softening thunder. The storm finally blew itself out and still feeling too restless to sleep, he'd downed on his invisible cloak and scurried to the top of the astronomy tower.

Sitting in the astronomy tower, James shivered at the coo nightly breeze and cast a warming charm on himself. The moon's rays began to break through the dispersing cloud cover to lighten the night. The lake is cast in a soft light as the moonbeams descend to dance on top of the waves.

Uncertain of what he was feeling, James sighed. He would be sixteen years old in only a lapse of minutes. Yet he didn't feel that age, no, he'd be 22 years old. Though sometimes, he felt older than his years. The war had taken care of stripping him of his foolhardy youth.

A self-deprecating sound escapes from James's mouth. He'd been so arrogant, naive, and above self-righteous. It hadn't been long after his 16th Birthday when he committed an unforgiveable trespass against Severus Snape. He closed his hazel eyes in old guilt and shame.

t seemed all so innocent and harmless without any true repercussions. They had only been putting the slimy, great greasy git in their place. Snivellus was a Death Eater in the making and they were noble Gryffindors putting the villain in their place.

It seemed so easy to levitate Snivellus in place and reveal his drawers to all. Yes, so very easy to humiliate him. And oh, how proud he had been in that moment. Oh yes, he had felt that much more vindicated against Snivellus especially when Snivellus had revealed his true colors and called Lily, a mudblood.

James had even felt gratified when Severus had begged forgiveness at the door of the Gryffindor common room only to be turned away by Lily. Their friendship never resumed, and James strived to earn Lily's affection. Oh, it hadn't been easy, but eventually, he'd won over Lily.

Then the war began and everything that James knew had been turned on its head. The people he had once called friends began to die off one by one. Then one day, he learned of Mary MacDonald's suicide. She'd been a quiet girl in Gryffindor, a good friend of Lily's.

Everyone had known that Mulciber had attacked Mary MacDonald at Hogwarts. No one talked about it, yet everyone knew. Mary had only become even further withdrawn afterward. After Hogwarts, Mary seemingly dropped off the planet returning to reside among the muggles.

Time and memory slipped away and James once again sits in the cheery brick kitchen of the Potter cottage in Godric's Hollow. Lily was large and pregnant with Harry, their little quidditch seeker, who enjoyed moving about at the most random of times. Lily's emerald eyes had filled with tears as she read the letter, before noisily sobbing.

"What's wrong, Lily?" James urgently asked bending down to pick up the tear-stained letter.

"Mary, she's dead," Lily gasped.

"Was it Death Eaters?" James grimly asked.

Lily pressed her lips together and shook her head. "Mary hung herself in her parent's home."

James didn't know what to say except pour a cup of tea for Lily. "Shh, it'll be okay, Lily. I promise," he bent down and pressed a kiss to the top of her crimson.

"But she's gone," Lily wept into his shoulder. "I should have been there, James. And I didn't, I just forgot about her with everything else going on."

"Lily, we couldn't have done anything to help Mary," James regretfully consoled his wife. "We are under the Fidelius charm, what else could we have possibly done?"

Lily let out a shuddering gasp and James carefully rubbed her back. "Calm down, love, our quidditch seeker is going to wake up."

A loud oof escapes from Lily, who painfully winces. "Too late," she responded with a watery sniff. Pulling herself away, she flushes in embarrassment at the state she left James' sweater.

Wordlessly James offers Lily a handkerchief to clean herself up. He casts a quick cleaning charm on himself, before pouring himself a cup of tea. Lily dries her tears and takes a tentative sip of the Chamaemelum nobilis tea, which she had become rather fond of during her pregnancy.

"I've been a bad friend," Lily regretfully shook her head. "I abandoned Mary," she paused to add, "and Severus."

"Snape?" James blurted out almost scalding his tongue.

"Yes, Severus," Lily firmly answered. "We lived in the same town, James. We grew up together. He was my best friend ever since even when we went off to Hogwarts together." Her voice trailed off sadly. "And even now I still miss him."

James opened and closed his eyes. "Lily," he hesitated, "Snape is a Death Eater."

"Maybe," Lily sadly sighed, "but if he hadn't been left alone, he would have had a fighting chance!"

"A fighting chance?" James protested. "He was dark since day one!"

"James, how could Severus be dark from day one?!" Lily furrowed her brow. "I just said he lived in the same village as me. His father was a muggle for cripes sake!"

"Snape's a half-blood?" James blurted out in disbelief.

"Of course, he is!" Lily snapped. "That's how we met."

"I swear I didn't know, Lily!" James honestly exclaimed. "But what about how he knew all those curses and spells!"

"That's because, Sev, was always studious and brilliant," Lily answered with a proud little smile. "He always wanted to make his mum proud and tried his best. That's probably, why he ended up in Slytherin instead of Ravenclaw since Slytherin was his mum's house."

"Still Slytherin is all dark," James grumbled in a rehash of an old argument.

"Of course not," Lily snapped. "Severus and I were close up until the four of you ganged up on him!"

"He always gave as good as he got!"

"Of course, he did. It was four against one! Where is the supposed Gryffindor honor in that?!"

James is unable to find a proper retort and falls silent. Lily sighs and rubs her stomach to quiet her little quidditch seeker. "James, I know that Severus can be sarcastic and downright mean, but he was a poor half-blood in Slytherin. How do you think the other Slytherins treated him? And more so with the open recruitment for You-Know-Who and the obvious blood purity bias?! He didn't have anyone else and even I turned him away."

"But he called you a mudblood!" James vehemently protested.

"Yes, he did," Lily gloomily admitted. "But he also apologized afterward, and I choose not to forgive him." She sighed tiredly. "James I wasn't the better person. Sev was willing to beg my forgiveness, but I never apologized for calling him, Snivellus. How is that even fair?" She regretfully shook her head. "It hurts to admit it out loud and even now it fills me with shame. However, I can now see I was not a good friend either, James. I was just as terrible and even more so than Severus."

James opens and closes his mouth uncertain of what to say. Lily reaches over to gently comfort him on his still slightly damp shoulder. "When this is all over, James, promise me that we'll put things right with Severus."

Feeling a slight stirring of old jealousy and an unknown emotion, James had agreed after seeing the pleading look on his wife's face. Their little quidditch seeker kicked Lily again in the ribs and Lily needed help to visit the lavatory again. Trips to the lavatory regularly increased as Lily's pregnancy steadily progressed, but James would not have had it any other way as he gently helped his wife to his feet.