Part 4 (sorry if you're getting sick of this one shot dragging on forever whoops)

Four months later, and Lily was in heaven.

Or, at least, she was pretty sure she was. For once in her life, everything was going perfectly.

Snape had seemingly vanished off the face of the earth (occasionally, Lily would feel bad about not texting him or calling him or anything, but it only lasted for a few hours before she remembered what Alice had told her about him and his 'Death Eaters'), her friends were being lovely and perfect and James...

Well, James was being James.

It almost felt too good to be true.

So, of course, something- or someone- messed it up.

****

Alice called her late one night just as Lily was getting ready for bed.

'Hey, Alice,' Lily said cheerfully, holding the phone in one hand and brushing her hair with the other. 'What's up?'

'Snape,' Alice answered quickly. 'You know how the other day you were talking about how glad you were that he'd just vanished?'

Lily flinched. When Alice said it that way, it sounded so cold.

She'd felt guilty, and had been at Alice's.

'I can't help but feel kind of glad that he's just... stopped talking to me,' Lily had said. 'I know it sounds bad, but I really didn't want to have the whole conversation with him about not wanting to go near him anymore.'

Alice had nodded. 'Yeah, I suppose. But wouldn't it be nice to have some closure? Get it all out of your system? I know you, Lily, and I know in a year you'll regret not talking to Snape about how he lied to you.'

Lily had shrugged. 'Well, right now I don't want to see his lying face. He was going behind my back all those years, calling other Muggle-borns-'

The words had stuck in her throat.

Lily bit her lip and put down her hairbrush. 'Yeah, I do, Alice. Why?'

'Well,' Alice said hesitantly. 'Snape's gone round to James' house, and he's- well, Gideon Prewitt was round there, and he called Marlene, and Marlene called me-'

'Alice.' Lily's heart was pumping wildly in her chest. 'What's happening?'

'Snape and James got into a huge fight,' Alice said. 'James is in hospital.'

****

Lily wished the taxi driver would go faster, not just so she could get there sooner, but so she could stop thinking-

Alice had been so vague on the details. James is in hospital, was all she knew.

What if he was in a coma? What if Snape had hexed him?

What if-

'We're here, miss,' the taxi driver said, listing the charge.

Lily handed him the money and exited the cab, her legs feeling shaky.

'I'm Lily Evans,' Lily told the receptionist. 'I'm here to see James Potter.'

'James Potter?' The receptionist frowned. 'Well, I'm sorry, Lily, but you can't see him. Family members and the boys who brought him in only, I'm afraid.'

Lily opened her mouth, but someone behind her cleared his throat. 'It's alright,' Sirius said, blinking those dark eyes at the receptionist and smiling at her. 'Lily is a close friend of mine.'

Lily was about to interrupt (she and Sirius weren't exactly close- they'd met, sure, and were friends, but to be honest, he kind of scared her) but the receptionist just nodded, grinning at Sirius and-

Oh, God, was that a wink?

'Go right on through,' she smiled. 'Room 27.'

Sirius grabbed her arm and hurried her through the waiting room. Several people sat on pale green chairs, all looking in various states of worry and/ or misery.

One woman sobbed into her handkerchief, whilst an old man was running his finger along an old black and white picture of a woman in his wallet.

The entire room smelt of antiseptic and misery. Lily hated it.

'What happened?' Lily hissed at Sirius.

'Snape just turned up,' Sirius hissed back. They left the waiting room, and he continued at normal volume. 'I think he was drunk. No hexes, thank Merlin, but he got a good few punches in before James could do a thing.'

Lily blinked. 'Is he okay?'

'Sure,' Sirius smiled a little. 'He just hates all the needles, and he wants to see you. No surprises there.'

They'd reached a door labelled '27'. Sirius waited by it, and waved at the sign. 'Here we are. I've spent the past hour with him complaining about the needles. I'm going back to Remus in the waiting room, there's nothing else I can do.'

'Sure.' Lily pushed the door open, bracing herself.

It was surprisingly good. James just had a few bruises on his face, and was sitting up in bed with his eyes closed.

'James?' Lily whispered.

'Lily!' His eyes flew open. 'Oh, thank God. It's awful here. Can't you break me out or something?'

'Break you out?' Lily grinned. 'You've been watching too much Sherlock, James. You can't just break people out of hospital.'

'You and Sirius could find a way.' He grinned at her, and she moved closer, sitting down on the bed next to him. 'Anyway, I'm not too bad. They were just worried that there might be some later problems. I fell backwards and hit my head, you see,' he explained, after her look of confusion.

'Thank God you're okay, then,' Lily sighed, and then hesitated. 'But... what happened?'

'What happened?' He moved to the side and shrugged. 'Snape just turned up, drunk. I opened the door, and straight away he started throwing punches, yelling at me.'

'Yelling?' Lily blinked. 'Yelling what?'

'Ah, just- stuff.' He shrugged, and Lily glared.

'I think he- just stuff. You're not worthy of her, she's gonna drop you when you show your true colours, everything was going perfectly until you showed up, etcetera.' He blinked at her, and Lily felt a sudden surge of-

Well, she wasn't sure exactly what.

Pride, protectiveness... love.

Without even thinking about it, she leant down and kissed him, hard.

He froze for a second, obviously not expecting it, and then kissed her back, his mouth warm and soft beneath hers.

'God, you're brilliant,' Lily murmured against his lips.

'Why?' He breathed in between kisses. 'I took a beating from a guy, and that makes me brilliant? That almost makes me feel more dignified.'

'You just are,' Lily said softly. 'You're amazing.'

****

Later that night, when James left the hospital and went back to his house, Lily dialled Snape's number.

He picked up almost instantly.

'Lily,' he said.

'Snape.' Her voice was cold.

He didn't say anything, and Lily felt herself quake with fury. 'Do you not have anything to say for yourself, Snape? You just beat up my boyfriend and put him in hospital, yet you still claim to care about me. Let me tell you something, Severus- that's not caring. That's possessiveness, pure and simple. If you truly cared about me, you would see that I was happy and you wouldn't try and get in the way!'

'Get in the way?' Snape laughed through the phone. 'Like I did on your movie night? I heard you, you know, through the door, talking about me. Does he make you happy? What rubbish!'

'Oh, so it wasn't enough to just turn up at my house, you had to listen through the door, too?' Lily demanded. 'And what about all the lies you told me, Severus? Alice told me everything, about you and your 'Death Eater' friends, following that nutter Tom Riddle.'

The line was quiet.

'Got no answer for that, do you, Severus?' Lily hissed. 'Well, I'll speak for both of us. I don't want to talk to you ever again. Hell, I don't want to see you ever again. James was right. You don't make me happy, and he does. I deserve to be happy, don't I?'

She pressed end call before he could say anything. She didn't want to hear any more lies from his mouth.

Lily placed her head in her hands. He'd been listening at her door? What the hell was wrong with him?

******

Lily didn't hear from Snape again. A few years later, Alice told her that he was now working at the Ministry in London.

Lily and James lived together in a big house in Birmingham. Alice and Frank lived relatively near, as did Sirius and Remus. Marlene and Peter, against all odds, had ended up together too.

'Who would have thought?' James mumbled.

Him and Lily were lying in bed, and James was twirling Lily's hair around his finger, looking at her in that way that always made her feel like she was going to explode.

'It's like a fairytale,' Lily whispered. 'Everyone being happy like this.'

'It could have ended a lot differently,' James said, his eyes locked on hers.

Lily grinned at him, and leant forwards to kiss him. 'It's not over yet,' she told him, smiling against his mouth. 'Lots of things could happen yet.'

****

Wow I should have left this for the last one, it's got that final one shot ring to it.

Word count- 1518

If you're wondering about the bad quality of this, it's cos I thought it was already written and... it wasn't.

Whoops.