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"PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE, I'M sorry to bother but—"

lily suddenly stopped as she saw her papa overseeing professor dumbledore's hand, which had turned quite flakey and dark since the last time she's seen it.

it was almost as if he was cursed, and it was spreading through his hand.

"ah, ms. lily. you're never a bother. what is it that you need?", dumbledore asked.

"u-umm...", lily stuttered as she glanced over at her papa, who just raised a brow.

"ah, severus, why don't you go get me my medicine. ms. lily and I will wait for your return", dumbledore smiled.

snape hesitantly nodded as he left, lingering slightly by the doorway before completely disappearing.

"so ms. lily, what is it that you would like to discuss with me?", dumbledore kindly asked, though the old wizard seemed to have already gotten a vague idea about what this upcoming discussion would be about.

"w-well...I was just wondering if you knew—"

lily stopped.

she didn't want to exactly rat her father out, because what if dumbledore didn't know and she accidentally tells him and then it's all over for snape?

lily knew her papa was quite the skilled wizard, but not as brilliant as dumbledore himself.

sensing the girl's internal unease, dumbledore then spoke.

"is it your father that you're concerned about?", dumbledore spoke up.

lily immediately nodded, still not wanting to speak in case something crucial slips from her mouth.

"come take a look at this", dumbledore said as he motioned towards the fountain-like object in the middle of his office.

"I use the pensieve. one simply siphons the excess thoughts from one's mind, pours them into the basin, and examines them at one's leisure. it becomes easier to spot patters and links, you understand, when they are in this form", dumbledore explained.

lily admired the shallow metal basin that resembled that of a mirror. runes and strange carvings were engraved around the edge whilst the object itself released a silvery substance, similar to a murky mist.

dumbledore took his wand and pointed it to his temple. as if he was pulling out a memory from his brain, a white silvery tadpole of a string followed his wand and entered the pensieve.

lily observed as an image started forming, showing her particularly dumbledore having a stern conversation with snape.

"the prophecy wasn't speaking of a woman. it was about a boy that's born at the end of july", dumbledore said.

"yes but she thinks it's her son. he intends to hunt them down now and kill them!", snape sorrowfully said.

"hide them. hide them all", snape pleaded. "I beg you".

"what will you give me in exchange, severus?"

"anything", the man breathlessly whispered.

lily watched as the scene suddenly switched to dumbledore and snape on the astronomy tower, with her father seeming on the verge of breaking down even more.

"you said that you would keep her safe".

"lily and james...put their faith in the wrong person, severus", dumbledore responded.

"however, the boy survived".

"he doesn't need protection", snape grieved.

"the dark lord will return. and when does, the boy will be in terrible danger", dumbledore said.

"he has her eyes".

"if you truly loved her..."

"no one can know", snape sharply exhaled.

"I shall never reveal the best of you, severus".

lily weakly gasped as she mentally thanked merlin that her papa was innocent. she wouldn't know what she would've done if he was truly serving the dark lord.

yet the memories were still not done playing.

"we both know lord voldemort has ordered that malfoy boy to murder me", dumbledore said in his office while snape had just stood up.

lily realized that this was just before she had interrupted them.

"but should he fail, I shall presume, the dark lord will turn to you".

what dumbledore had said next, made little lily's blood run cold.

"you must be the one to kill me, severus".

snape's parched lips were slightly agape.

"and only then, will the dark lord trust you completely".

there was more to the memory itself, but dumbledore deemed the girl was not ready for the information yet.

hence, he turned to little lily, who was more so stunned and trying her best to wrap her mind around everything.

"your father did all this for lily potter. he used to live for the sole purpose of protecting harry, the only living thing that reminds him of her.

but now you're here. quite unexpectedly I'd say", dumbledore chuckled.

"p-professor...you're going to die? by my papa?", lily squeaked out, suddenly catching up on all the information that she was presented.

"ms. lily, my destiny was already set in stone as soon as I had put on gaunt marvolo's rin—"

dumbledore stopped himself as he had nearly told lily what the horcrux was.

"ring? but can't papa just heal you with potions? he specializes in that", lily reasoned.

"it's...a cursed ring. I have no more than a year left", dumbledore said.

"and draco...he's..."

"a death eater. he's just a boy that made all the wrong choices. you can help him lily", dumbledore confirmed.

"I can help him? but how?"

"you need to promise to never tell anyone what you just saw. not even severus, not even harry", dumbledore whispered.

lily nodded her head as she intently listened to dumbledore's next instructions.

"when you meet the dark lord, you must not think about any of this. keep your mind free from all the truth and show no hesitance".

"dark lord? what do you—"

before lily could even make out her question, snape had returned with the potion, glancing at his daughter with no knowledge of what she had just learned.

dumbledore drank the concoction as he kept eye contact with lily, who just sighed as she discreetly nodded, agreeing to dumbledore's conditions.

though nothing could have prepared the girl for what was to happen.

//❁//

"lily what are you—"

"cover her eyes draco", snape commanded as he raised his wand at dumbledore, who was already disarmed.

the astronomy tower couldn't be more windy and dark that afternoon. lily clutched onto draco's black suit as he tightly held onto her, worried that if the wind blew any harder, she would perhaps fly away.

lily caught the disbelief in harry's eyes as she glanced at where he was hiding. his rage shot through the roof as soon as her papa said the two unforgivable words.

"avada kedavra", snape breathlessly casted.

dumbledore's body was pelted off the tower as lily's eyes were shielded by draco's cold, shaking hand.

"go...now!", snape ushered, to which all the death eaters hastily ran down the multiple flights of stairs as they headed towards the forbidden forest.

"HE TRUSTED YOU!", harry shouted, making bellatrix immediately shoot a spell at harry for excitement.

"leave bella. let the dark lord handle him", snape said composedly. "take her with you draco".

lily's eyes watered as she bit her bottom lip, watching how harry's hatred towards her papa was seeping through his blue-green eyes.

she had wanted so badly to explain why snape had did that, but no amount of convincing would help, as harry was blinded by fury.

not only that, but lily made a promise, and she intended to keep it.

"draco...w-where are we going?", lily meekly muttered.

"malfoy manor", draco whispered, making lily tense up even more.

the little girl had already felt extremely uncomfortable being around so many unknown men that worked for voldemort.

hence going to draco's house for the very first time without her papa made her quite uneasy.

"it's going to be okay lily. I'm right here", draco mumbled into the girl's hair, making her feel slightly better.

"okay. I trust you dray".

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