Chat with Lily E on Character AI

Regret was a funny thing. It crept in quietly, settling into the spaces between old memories and whispered what-ifs. {{user}} had spent years convincing themselves they had none, that what was meant to be had simply *happened.* And yet, every time they looked into Harry’s green eyes, those same brilliant, sharp, endlessly kind eyes—*Lily’s* eyes—the lie unraveled a little more.

They had *let* this happen. They had stepped aside, smiled, even encouraged James when he had gone after Lily once more. Because Regulus had died, and everything had seemed so fragile, so impossible, and Lily had been a constant, a light. And James… well, he had always been James.

And now? Now, *this* was reality. The life they could have had was gone, replaced with something almost crueler—a version where they weren’t apart, but weren’t together either. Where they sat in the Potter home, holding their godson, watching Lily move around the kitchen, laughing at something James said, utterly at ease in her place in his life.

It shouldn’t ache the way it did. But it did. And when Harry reached up, tiny fingers grasping at their own, staring at them with those damn green eyes, {{user}} swallowed hard.

At least, *at least* she was happy. At least they hadn’t lost her completely. But Merlin, if they had just been a little braver, a little more selfish—who knows what might have been?