In Lily Evans' opinion, the world was made up of forevers.

Or fake forevers.

After all, nothing lasts forever. Not promises, not people, not relationships, not even the world was going to last forever.

Lily had known James was going to die. Everyone was.

But she'd thought he would die peacefully, in his sleep, maybe, lying in bed with her at ninety years old.

Maybe he would fall down the stairs.

Deep down, she'd even thought that maybe he would have died in the war. But she'd thought he would die brilliantly, like a collapsing star, bright and heroic. He would have died saving someone.

Never in her wildest dreams had she thought that he would have died as a pawn in someone else's game, as a pawn in Voldermort's game.

He'd just been a message, that was all. A message from Voldermort to Dumbledore.

Lily curled further into herself on her and James' bed- just hers, now, actually, and cried herself to sleep, breathing in his scent.

****

Two days had passed since Lily had arrived back, covered in blood, bruises on her cheekbones, half asleep with exhaustion. Half mad with grief.

She'd managed to cough out the words 'James is dead,' and then she was gone, unconscious.

She couldn't even remember who she'd spoken to when she'd come back home. All she knew was that someone was there, and someone had changed her clothes and run her a bath, and that someone had tucked her into bed, and as she was falling asleep again she'd felt a tiny tear fall from their eyes and land on her cheek.

She wasn't ready to wake up. She wasn't ready to do anything.

All she wanted was to turn back time, but she couldn't. There was nothing she could do.

*****

On the fourth day, Dumbledore himself walked into her bedroom, cool and calm and collected.

Lily sat up as he walked in.

'Lily,' he said calmly. 'How are you feeling?'

That was what broke her. She wasn't sad, or grief stricken, or miserable, or even devastated. Suddenly she was angry.

'How am I feeling?' She asked, furious. 'My boyfriend- James- he just died! I saw it happen, Dumbledore, I saw it happen and I could do nothing to stop it! He was just a pawn in the game that Voldermort's playing, wasn't he? He was just a message! He didn't even die for any real reason; how do you think I feel?'

Dumbledore didn't even flinch. 'I'm incredibly sorry for your loss, Lily.'

A sudden idea seized Lily, and she leant forwards, her heart beating ten times faster. 'But you don't have to be sorry, do you? You could do something, talk to someone. There are Time Turners, I know there are! We could go back, we could change time, make it so that James never died. Nobody would ever know!'

'No, Lily,' Dumbledore said quietly. 'I'm afraid not.'

'Why not?'

'You're grieving, Lily. If you were thinking clearly, you would know that Time Turners are never the answer. Awful things happen to wizards who meddle with time.' Dumbledore still didn't move, just sat there, calmly and quietly, still speaking in that slow, careful voice.

'I don't care! I don't care, Dumbledore. Awful things happen to wizards who meddle with time- that's fine! I would mess with time, not James. The bad things would happen to me!' Lily stood up and started to pace, feeling the sudden need to break something. Maybe she'd break Dumbledore's nose, see if he reacted to that.

'Would James want that?' Dumbledore asked.

'He'd do it for me!' Lily turned around to face him, her blood boiling, hands actually shaking with ice hot rage. 'Wouldn't he? And you'd probably let him do it, so why won't you let me do it?'

'This conversation is over.' Dumbledore rose from the bed and turned away from Lily. 'James' friends are coming to see you now, as is Molly Weasley. She's cared for you for the past few days.'

'You have to do something!' Lily cried, but it was too late. He was already gone, and Remus, Peter and Sirius were coming up the stairs.

They spilled into the room, each looking worse than the last.

Peter's hair was sticking up straight like he'd just been electrocuted. His eyes had huge dark circles under them, and his hands were clenched into tight fists, but as he saw Lily his face relaxed a little into a look of deep sympathy. Lily supposed that meant that she looked a hell of a lot worse than he did.

Remus came next, his clothes tattered and wrinkled. Like Peter, he had dark circles under his eyes, and his glasses were askew on his face. As he reached up to adjust them, Lily saw that his nails were bitten down to the quick.

Sirius came last. He seemed to have shrunk. His shoulders were slumped, making him look so much smaller, and his eyes... they were sad and defeated, but that wasn't what Lily saw first. It was the fact his eyes were tinged with pink, like he'd been crying.

Sirius never cried.

'Can you tell us what happened?' Remus asked, clearly trying to sound gentle.

So Lily recounted it all. For anyone else, she would have flat out refused. The memories were still too sharp, too painful, too fresh, but these were James' best friends.

They deserved to know everything.

Lily cried a few times. Sirius, to her surprise, was the one who cried the most... silent tears trickled down his face, and he physically leant against Remus for support before Lily had even gotten halfway through her story.

'He-' Lily blinked, hard, and then knotted her hands together. 'I don't know what to say.'

'Me neither,' Sirius whispered.

So they sat in silence, together, their grief too raw and huge for words.

Word count- 981

Almost there, people! Sorry for not uploading the part 2 of the superhero AU. I've kinda got writer's block.

Also, if you have any more prompts for me, let me know! I need them.

(This was asked for. That's why I did it. Don't shoot me, please.)