"I didn't say I was wrong, nor was I worse off – only that," Lily looked at the pizza, scowling. "There were things I could have noticed, had I looked hard enough, had I not let myself stay that angry for that long that not looking was easy." In hindsight, Lily had learned just now unfortunate it was to be full of vitriol and convinced that there was no other way to look at a thing than the way one already was.

"I never expected us to have a conversation different than this one, not if I'm being honest but it ought to have come sooner. I hate them for what they did to you, and my falling in with them was like I was consenting to it and that is the wrong thing." Oh, the unfathomable compassion of Lily Evans. Even when she was right, even when someone else was wrong, there was a way to handle it that it didn't have to be any more barbed with pain than it needed to be. His compliance had also been consent, as was the horrible word he'd used against her in the heat of the moment. In their own ways, they had both betrayed one another to varying degrees.

She sighed, her eyes darting up to watch him, taking in his face and trying to read the seemingly countless little micro-expressions that served as clues to what lay beneath his exterior. "It's your world," Lily repeated the words, nodding in resignation. "I wouldn't try to change that." She closed her hand, guiding the pizza onto the box and setting it aside before she rose, arms crossing over her middle, her jaw tight. "I want to figure out how to talk to you again, if you want to do the same, tea seemed like a good beginning."