Status: Complete 10/16/17
The Second of May
one
The sky was a bright, clear blue as a twenty-six year old Severus Snape walked along a nearly forgotten path to the top of a hill in the meadow separating his home in the seedy, industrial Spinner's Alley from the rest of Cokeworth, England. Every year for the past five on the second of May, he'd been coming here to this place, rain or shine.
He walked along the path until stopping just short of a short, fat elm tree that stood watch over the top of the hill, a sad smile on his face as he approached it. The tree was the only thing in the meadow that was lifeless, its long, bare limbs stretching out for several feet around its gnarly trunk. It's beautiful leaves had stopped blooming the spring of '82, and it had stood barren ever since. With his fingertips, he traced his fingertips along an old carving near the base of the tree and swallowed back the emotions that threatened to boil over the surface now that he was here again on the second of May.
Severus closed his eyes as he sat beneath the carving, his mind trailing back to the very first day he'd come here. There had been an unusually cold start to the beginning of May of 1969 when he'd come here to escape the even colder walls of his dilapidated home in Spinner's End. It had been then that he'd seen two little girls playing in the meadow. The older girl, with her thin frame and long limbs was nothing spectacular. She was just a muggle. But her sister...She was something else. She was special.
Had he known then that in in twenty years' time, that little girl would still be both his heart's only love as well as his biggest regret, he might never have hidden himself there underneath the tree that day, waiting for her to come along so that he could strike up a conversation that would change her world forever. Maybe it would have saved her, maybe it wouldn't have. But life would have been drastically different for Severus Snape if he had never met Lily Evans.
Memories flashed through his mind as he sat there - the beautiful, innocent days of his childhood that he'd spent here in the meadow with her, making birds appear from nowhere and flowers float in the air; the harder years at Hogwarts, where they'd met James Potter and the rest of his band of misfits. His heart felt heavy as he remembered those days and all the torment, fear, and heartache that he'd felt. Lily had no longer been a little girl then and he'd seen the changes in her before anyone else. It was then, he supposed, that he had fallen in love with the bright, bubbly Gryffindor girl, with her long mane of red hair and those brilliant green eyes.
The wind picked up and Severus looked up in time to see a few flowers being tossed through the breeze. He couldn't stop the tears from falling this time, and an agonizing wail fell from his lips as he reached for the flower. It was a sign, it had to be. Someone with as much love and fierceness in her as Lily Potter couldn't be truly gone from the world - gone from his world. The flower fell into his hand and he swallowed hard as he clung to it.
He wished now that he had never come to the top of this hill that second day of May so many years ago. Maybe she wouldn't have died young; maybe her little boy would still have his parents. He would even wish James back to life because for all his torment and bullying of Severus, he had truly come to love the girl with flaming hair just as much as he had. He had made Lily happy, and that was all Severus had ever wanted for her.
The blue sky started turning to a dark grey, and he knew the rain would follow soon. With shaking knees, Severus moved to his feet and looked back at the old carving once again. He couldn't bring himself to smile as he placed an enchantment on the little flower to keep it alive before he left the tree and began to make his way back to Spinner's End. He couldn't change the way things had turned out, and he couldn't bring Lily back to life. He supposed that was why he still came here, after all these years. It was the only sacred place left to him, the only place that made him feel somewhat okay in his bleak existence. He lived on only for this day; this second day of May, when he could come back to the tree and see her again, if only in little reminders of the light that she had been in his world.
He walked along the path until stopping just short of a short, fat elm tree that stood watch over the top of the hill, a sad smile on his face as he approached it. The tree was the only thing in the meadow that was lifeless, its long, bare limbs stretching out for several feet around its gnarly trunk. It's beautiful leaves had stopped blooming the spring of '82, and it had stood barren ever since. With his fingertips, he traced his fingertips along an old carving near the base of the tree and swallowed back the emotions that threatened to boil over the surface now that he was here again on the second of May.
Severus closed his eyes as he sat beneath the carving, his mind trailing back to the very first day he'd come here. There had been an unusually cold start to the beginning of May of 1969 when he'd come here to escape the even colder walls of his dilapidated home in Spinner's End. It had been then that he'd seen two little girls playing in the meadow. The older girl, with her thin frame and long limbs was nothing spectacular. She was just a muggle. But her sister...She was something else. She was special.
Had he known then that in in twenty years' time, that little girl would still be both his heart's only love as well as his biggest regret, he might never have hidden himself there underneath the tree that day, waiting for her to come along so that he could strike up a conversation that would change her world forever. Maybe it would have saved her, maybe it wouldn't have. But life would have been drastically different for Severus Snape if he had never met Lily Evans.
Memories flashed through his mind as he sat there - the beautiful, innocent days of his childhood that he'd spent here in the meadow with her, making birds appear from nowhere and flowers float in the air; the harder years at Hogwarts, where they'd met James Potter and the rest of his band of misfits. His heart felt heavy as he remembered those days and all the torment, fear, and heartache that he'd felt. Lily had no longer been a little girl then and he'd seen the changes in her before anyone else. It was then, he supposed, that he had fallen in love with the bright, bubbly Gryffindor girl, with her long mane of red hair and those brilliant green eyes.
The wind picked up and Severus looked up in time to see a few flowers being tossed through the breeze. He couldn't stop the tears from falling this time, and an agonizing wail fell from his lips as he reached for the flower. It was a sign, it had to be. Someone with as much love and fierceness in her as Lily Potter couldn't be truly gone from the world - gone from his world. The flower fell into his hand and he swallowed hard as he clung to it.
He wished now that he had never come to the top of this hill that second day of May so many years ago. Maybe she wouldn't have died young; maybe her little boy would still have his parents. He would even wish James back to life because for all his torment and bullying of Severus, he had truly come to love the girl with flaming hair just as much as he had. He had made Lily happy, and that was all Severus had ever wanted for her.
The blue sky started turning to a dark grey, and he knew the rain would follow soon. With shaking knees, Severus moved to his feet and looked back at the old carving once again. He couldn't bring himself to smile as he placed an enchantment on the little flower to keep it alive before he left the tree and began to make his way back to Spinner's End. He couldn't change the way things had turned out, and he couldn't bring Lily back to life. He supposed that was why he still came here, after all these years. It was the only sacred place left to him, the only place that made him feel somewhat okay in his bleak existence. He lived on only for this day; this second day of May, when he could come back to the tree and see her again, if only in little reminders of the light that she had been in his world.