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When a flower is born, it is like a newborn. It has the need to be cradled, to be smoothered with never ending love and most importantly, to be given the correct tools so it can continue to bloom into what will one day be part of a beautiful bouquet. And then the cycl;e continues with the flower giving part of her into what will become another flower.
Everyone finds their flower withing their life no matter at what point. Whether it be at the beginning, within the middle, or on the last legs of life.
Severus Tobias Snape had been one of the lucky ones who had found his flower at the beginning of his life. Her name was Lillian, Lily for short. Funnily ironic as he thought of her place in his life. He began to show her things that no one else could and he knew that. At this point, she was his entire purpose for still being alive. Well, her and his mother. If he couldn't protect his mother then there wasn't anybody else to fill the position for him. Especially not his father since he was the one Severus was protecting her from.
It took a long time for Severus to tell Lillian why he really had the countless bruises across his body. He didn't want pity. Noone's, especially not from her. But you can only tell a person so many times that you tripped or bumped into something or fell before they stop believing the words coming from your mouth.
But when he told her...all she did was cry silent tears. Her body wasn't racking with sobs and she wasn't screaming at him for holding it in so long and not doing anything about it. She was just sitting there-staring straight ahead-and holding his hand in silence. Her eyes might've been closed, but Lillian's feelings were wide out in the open air. After a while of not moving, she turned to him with watery eyes and said something he'd never forget.
"I'm sorry I never noticed."
She pushed their foreheads together and caged his jaw with her delicate hands and ran her thin fingertips across his cheeks while Severus looked into her eyes with everything he could. It had been one of those rare sunny days for Britian and yet now-in the moment-the air around them had changed as had the weather. It had begun to start drizzling upon them and soon it would be pouring.
But as those shining emeralds got lost in the deep obsidian darkness, the space between the flower and the thorn began to close. Tears became lost in rain falling down on them as they became a chaotic mess of hurt. care, and for only one of them-at the time-love. It was the first and last time those lips touched and yet neither one forgot the feeling.
Severus didn't know but Lillian, his flower, had begun the process of planting a seed for a new flower. A flower that was his. She had turned away from him and wouldn't talk to him, but felt guitly every time she looked in the mirror. It had only been a few weeks after their talk that had led to her bundle of joy and then everything moved so fast. Words were said and actions set in place that couldn't be taken back. Lily had felt awful but had sought comfort in others she never thought she would. James was completely different from Severus. While Severus had sought meaning and literature, James sought adventure and couldn't care less about books. Severus made Lily feel like she was special and even though she knew that her parents preferred her over her sister, there was a diffeerence between being someone's favorite and being special to someone. He had taught to her to find the beauty within the world and see things from a diffrent angle. James had given her a rush of excitement like the rides at the fun parks and had shown her to not take things too seriously and not care about anyone else's opinion but your gut feeling.
And ultimately, when she picked to continue feeling the rush of the ride, not just her gut knew it was the wrong choice. She was no longer Severus's flower. Now she was James's flower but her life seemed to always remind of a book Severus had showed her when they were young. It was about a young girl named Alice and about her seemingly endless adventures; one of them being painting the Queen's garden. Lily often felt as if she was was the only white rose within the countless red roses all around her. She hid behind a mask during the sun's hours but the only one who thruly knew her...was the moon.
It had seen her tears. Her silent screams into the open air. Her attempts for the end. And yet every time she looked at the moon and its endless amount of children in the sky, Lily knew that her thorn was going through the same thing each night. She knew she had made the wrong decision all those years ago, but she wasn't Severus's anymore. She was somebody else's. She wasn't Lillian anymore, she had become Lily. Just Lily. Even if Lily was a flower, she wouldn't be his flower. No matter what he said or did. But he'd always be her thorn. No matter what he said or did.
When her little flower bud had arrived, she had been overjoyed and so had everyone else. Especially James...since he thought that this flower bud was his. The time that they had with Harry was cherished, especially those last moments.
Lily had come to like James, but she wasn't in love with him. She had realized that that space was meant for someone else. That the space by her side should've been filled by her thorn. It had taken a while to come to terms with it but when she did, she felt clean. She felt like another rose had been painted white. And most of all...she felt like Lillian again.
But there had come a day that had just not seemed right. They could feel something was off within the air. Lillian had been anxious and nervous during the sun's hours And Severus...Severus had been feeling the same all day but for very different reasons. Something was to happen and he wasn't sure if it would go his way. Then again, things rarely did these days. And he was right to think that way.
Because it didn't go his way. It never did.
He knew in the end that it was his fault. It had been his fault from the moment he had said those digusting words to her. It had been his fault when he had fallen down the rabbit hole and the only two people to greet him were the Cheshire Cat and the Red King and his army of cards.
As the thorn coddled the flower with tears falling like rain, he knew there was no saving the petals that dropped to the ground in death.