Finally, Severus reached Borgin and Burkes.

 

The doorbell rang, indicating to Mr. Borgin that someone had entered.

 

Looking up, Mr. Borgin smiled, showing yellowed, unkempt teeth as he brushed his greasy hair out of his wrinkled face.

 

Severus frowned; he disliked Mr. Borgin for many reasons, but his shop had all sorts of interesting things, which was tempting, and if he happened to get a worthwhile sword, then coming here would not have been a waste.

 

Mr. Borgin was a careless man, even if he was always trying to look his best among the rich thoroughbreds.

 

'It seems that before as Snape, me and this old man were not so different' Severus chuckled sarcastically to himself.

 

"Oh, young Snape, I see you're not coming with young Malfoy today, it's a pleasure to have you..."

 

"Cut the crap and Lucius isn't coming, so you can save your speech, I don't have time for your flowery words," Severus said with no emotion on his face, causing Mr. Borgin to nod calmly.

 

Borgin wrung his hands: "My apologies, so..., what is it you seek today?"

 

"I come to collect what you owe me for the potion you requested" Severus hissed glaring at him.

 

"Oh yes, I remember... how could I forget" he replied laughing nervously.

 

'Yeah, right... he probably wouldn't even bother to pay me if it wasn't for the fact that I have the "support" of the Malfoy's'  Severus thought.

 

He had made a rather obscure and complex potion at Borgin's request, apparently, a dark wizard was willing to pay him a large sum of money for this potion, so Severus agreed to make it for him.

 

Only Borgin is too stingy to give the money he earned, so they agreed on another form of payment.

 

"As agreed, I will take something from your shop worth the sale of the potion," said Severus.

 

"Very well, tell me... something in particular that you are looking for?"

 

"Actually, yes, a magical sword, do you have any interesting ones?" asked Severus not bothering to waste time looking, he knew he wouldn't try to con him as long as the Malfoy's were involved.

 

Being friends with Lucius had its advantages.

 

Mr. Borgin nodded vigorously and bowed.

 

Then he stood up, clutching a large black box full of ancient swords.

 

"Now, I don't think I need to make this clear, but remember that the Ministry does not allow the sale of these kinds of weapons. Having these around will cause you a lot of trouble," Borgin informed Severus.

 

Severus waved his hand.

 

"Don't worry," Severus replied as he looked at all the swords.

 

Some were acceptable, they had runes and incantations with properties that could be useful, but nothing very interesting.

 

There were even a large number of cursed swords, which had sheaths with a clear 'DO NOT UNSHEATH' specification.

 

"This is all you have?..." asked Severus with clear disappointment on his face.

 

"Hmmm, there might be a sword or two more, follow me this way," replied Borgin.

 

As the two of them walked further into the shop, Severus saw a withered hand on a purple velvet cushion, an opal necklace that was cursed, and a large black cabinet that had runes carved into it.

 

Finally, the two came to an old box, Brogin's arm reached out to open it, to show what was inside.

 

An old green sheath with a sword just as old.

 

Severus quickly unsheathed the sword and was very impressed.

 

It was a completely black sword and its design was unlike any sword he had ever seen before.

 

But as soon as he saw it, Severus knew that this was the sword he was looking for, it didn't compare to a lightsaber, but it fulfilled all his needs.

 

"The Gaun family sword, it was made hundreds of years ago by the elves, the most skilled metalworkers in the magical world, and is therefore enchanted. The sword is constructed from various metals and arcane mediums, performing an alchemical transmutation of base metals to alloy them with dark magic, it is said to be a cursed sword but there is no proof that it is" commented Mr. Borgin.

 

"Good. This will do!" nodded Severus.

 

"You know, I assumed you would say that..., but this sword, however, cursed it is considered to be, is still a highly valued antique, its price is many times that of the sale of the potion," said Borgin with a nasty grin.

 

He clearly wanted something else in return.

 

"You know I have no money and you wouldn't have shown it to me for no reason, so say it, what do you want?" hissed Severus in annoyance.

 

"As straightforward as ever, well, that makes things easier..., the buyer himself wants seven more potions, if you accept... the sword is yours" Borgin grinned through his ugly, crooked yellow teeth.

 

"Deal, but I'll take the sword now!" agreed Severus without a second thought.

 

The potion Borgin wanted was complicated and dangerous and forbidden to be made, but for Severus, the sword was worth the price.

 

After discussing the final details of the potions' delivery time and other unimportant things, Severus finally left Borgin and Burkes.

 

He couldn't wait to try the sword, he was eager to train, though not so eager to meditate... he knew that connecting with the Force would not be easy and that his meditation would be greatly affected by his two souls.

 

Still, he was not discouraged, he even thought that if he was lucky he might come across some dark wizard or some idiot who wanted to attack him in Knockturn Alley, so he could test his sword.

 

Unfortunately, he got out of Knockturn Alley without any trouble and was now back on the cobbled streets of Diagon Alley.

 

Upon entering Diagon Alley, Severus ran into some unexpected people, these people were a few feet away from where he was standing and were slowly approaching him.

 

"Hello, Evans," Potter said in that voice, that voice he used whenever he spoke to Lily.

 

Potter was walking through the shops along with his group of friends and now Lily.

 

Severus wanted to curse himself for his bad luck, but now he was pretty sure he could control his emotions, and he didn't worry so much.

 

'What's the worst that could happen..., a Potter and his group with no arms to use wands' Severus chuckled.

 

'Well... for the use they're put to it wouldn't do anyone any harm if that happened' he muttered to himself.

 

'Besides, I could test my sword...' thought Severus, but moments later he sighed and shook his head.

 

"Yes Potter?" replied Lily.

 

"So..., what do you say we have another dinner?" Potter was speaking again, Severus watched as Potter's hands came out of his pockets and one pair of fingers tapped his thigh while the other ran through his hair.

 

"Come on Evans, you said you had a good time, you can say it again then" joked Sirius who was standing next to James.

 

"Keep your promise first," said Lily and shrugged, as she continued walking.

 

"Besides, I'm looking forward to going home now, rest and clear my head for a while" she added.

 

"Yeah..., Yes... I guess so... I get it" Potter nodded a little frustrated.

 

"Relax, we're men of our word Evans, but don't forget to reconsider the date, otherwise Jamesy will be sad" Sirius joked, causing Potter to punch him for embarrassing him.

 

"Sirius!, Potter and I are just friends," replied Lily.

 

"We've always been sort of mates before, and now we're just good friends and I'm still really mad at you guys for various things, but for now I really appreciate the support you've given me all year, I realise you can be a lot of jokes but you're still good people, and that's why I love you as friends" clarified Lily.

 

Potter nodded despite being a little crestfallen; he had been nodding as soon as the first words slipped between Lily's lips.

 

It seemed painful how vigorously he nodded.

 

"Yes," Potter said.

 

"Padfoot, I told you we're just friends, stop embarrassing me, please," Potter added gently smacking Sirius again.

 

Lily shook her head in amusement and kept walking.

 

"Oh, sorry," Sirius said mockingly.

 

"I thought it was a date, my mistake," he added amused.

 

"Yeah, your mistake," Potter said quickly.

 

"Evans, you know you can count on us to relax or whatever you need, we all care about you, we understand what you're going through," Potter commented.

 

"Yes Lily, it's going to be hard, but it's always better to have company to get through some things" nodded Lupin giving her friend a tender look.

 

"That, what they said Evans!, and besides it's not worth being depressed over people who aren't worth it, and Snivellus, he's not worth it" commented Sirius.

 

While Peter just nodded at his comments from the side.

 

Then there was a moment of silence.

 

"Sirius..., you guys don't know him like I used to," Lily took another deep breath and spoke.

 

"Or maybe I never knew him the right way, the way I thought I did. I know I didn't," Lily added a little frustrated and downcast.

 

Lily laughed barely sarcastically and continued speaking but with a bit of coldness and sadness in her voice:  "Merlin, I should have seen it coming from the way he used to talk or name others just because they weren't 'like us' or because they were 'muggleborns... I should have seen it coming, only maybe I didn't want to, he was so different with me."

 

Severus decided to stop listening to their conversation.

 

He didn't want to listen anymore as Lily blamed him for all his old mistakes, he didn't want to see her let Potter and his lot into his life, taking his place as if James bloody Potter had never done anything wrong before.

 

He wasn't perfect, but Potter and his friends were no better than he was.

 

He had been wrong a lot, but he had also apologised, he had begged, he had tried to make it up to her, and for what, so that she could effectively cut him out of her life so that she could be friends with James bloody Potter and his group of bullies?

 

Of course, it had only been a matter of time before Lily got Severus out of her life, she wasn't wrong about Severus' bad behaviour towards others.

 

But it was still annoying to Severus that they made him out to be the only bad guy in the story and Potter out to be Saint Potter.

 

Ever since the beginning of his fifth year at Hogwarts when he had promised Dumbledore not to tell what had happened that day with Remus, James and his group had let everyone know that Potter had saved his life, and Severus hadn't been able to contradict anything.

 

Severus was angry about it, it was worse when he tried to warn Lily to stay away from Remus Lupin.

 

He knew the two of them got on very well, but he was dangerous, Severus had experienced it first hand, he had to warn Lily despite swearing to Dumbledore that he wouldn't say anything, he couldn't explain things to her, but he could warn her.

 

But that only made it worse, Lily began to believe that Severus was just trying to discredit his friend Lupin and she also told him that he was ungrateful for not thanking Saint Potter for saving her life, it was frustrating.

 

Remembering that made Severus want to punch Potter and his whole bloody lot.

 

Now Severus understood that Lupin was dangerous, but he knew that he was not a bad person, of Potter's group, he was the only one who controlled himself and it wasn't his fault what happened to him, Lupin was just suffering from his condition.

 

But at that moment Severus was terrified and wanted to warn Lily, but it all went so wrong that it almost made Severus laugh now.

 

"So clever, so creative and so talented, but I dealt so badly with my life situations that it makes me laugh," Severus said to himself with a grimace.

 

Severus felt the bitterness as it worked its way through his veins, boiling his blood, making his heart race so fast that it would surely burst out of his chest and leave him for dead.

 

But he stopped it, he wasn't so weak that he couldn't control his emotions.

 

He had to learn from his mistakes.