Amazing story! You portrayed Lily's feelings wonderfully, and it does seem like it could have been canon. Well, it is my headcanon now. :) And you made such a beautiful and heartbreaking comparison between James and Severus - while she may have truly loved Severus, she needed James. Being with Severus probably would have been difficult on many levels, and being with James was safe and easy, and it's very telling how Lily feels that it has been inevitable, just like she feels her relationship with Severus was doomed from the start.
In a word, wonderful, please write more stories like this. :)

awww the ending awwwww

and i really really loved how you kept coming back to the emotions, that was beautiful :)

I really liked your view on Lily's relation with Severus. It seems only natural that she wouldn't be able to forget him easily, not after everything they had been through as friends. I like how she kept the Muggle photograph of Severus and reminisced on times past. I was a bit shocked to see her burn it in the end, but I guess that's part of letting go.

Oh, I definitely liked this story! The ending was really powerful, honestly. I didn't expect her to do so, but as I read it, it felt perfectly right.

I also liked that line about James' laughter, and how it was what Lily had fallen for - it was beautiful.

Wonderful!

I always pictured Severus' love as one-sided, but that may be because I love Jily so much :p I think they were very good friends though.
I loved your use of the old photograph in there, it was really great and I love when an OS use a small object to write something that is much more. Lily's thoughts in this seemed in character to me, but I can't see her choosing James because he's easier to be with. I always thought Lily would fight for what she wanted.
Nevertheless, it was a very interesting read, and a good job :)

Aww I really like this, I'm a bit of a sucker for the James/Lily/Snape love triangle and you played it really well here. I loved Lily's explanation of the difference between the wizarding and normal photo and how Muggle photos capture the exact moment, while wizarding photos capture a range of moments and don't really show everything that they may have shown in a muggle photo. That was beautiful and I really liked that. I loved how even though Lily is marrying James, she still sticks up for Sev, because dispite what happened between them, I dont' think their friendship ever truly died. This was brill!

Keep up the amazing work and DFTBA
Nayla xx

This is interesting for Lily/James, but I don't have a strong aversion to Lily/Severus so I don't mind this - in fact, I quite liked it. She loves James, just not in the same way she love/d Severus, which is understandable if he was her first love. It's so sad how things have changed so much for her and Severus that they can't even speak, and the sadness of that photo and it being all withered and worn was very poignant in my opinion. This all goes to show how much things change as we grow up, and I really liked that.

I've always thought the Lily/Severus, Lily/James relationship was very complicated, and you captured that brilliantly here. After OotP, I was hoping we would see a little of how Lily and James got together by the end of the series, but Jo left that open-ended, and I can totally seeing Lily having these conflicted emotions. Favorite lines: "Instead, she felt destined (or was it doomed?) to marry James, destined to walk around not quite loving him more than anyone in the world, but knowing that marrying him was the right thing to do" and "The love she had for Severus Snape seemed to be stored in the same place in her heart as guilt; that love was a heavy burden to carry."

Great character study :)

When I saw this was Snape/Lily and romance I thought *dies* for a second. Then I started reading it, and Lilys doubts about whether or not marrying James was right or not made me want to face palm (remember I'm one kf the worlds biggest Jily shippers :P)

Then she goes on about his laugh, and how the way she loved snape was more of a burden and immediatly I was happy again.

The ending, where she burned the photograph, and said/thought "Yes, loving James Potter was simple and easy, and that was what she wanted and almost certainly what she needed" had me awwing and cheering and jumping for joy all at the same time. *heart* :)

Heartbreaking. I like this because it made me not dislike Lily since she still feels something for Severus, but I'm afraid it's really not my cup of tea since Lily isn't a character I like at all...

I really enjoyed this, because you captured the Severus/Lily/James triangle so well. I like the contrast when Lily was thinking about how difficult it was to be with Severus, and how she could never even get him to smile, and then it was so easy and carefree being with James. I can definitely imagine that being the case. I like that Lily prefers Muggle photographs as well; it makes sense, too, since she would have grown up with them. Spelling and grammar were good, and I didn't spot anything there - this was very well-written. I think you wrote all three of the main characters well, and that they were all in-character. Great job!

This was beautiful and heartwrenching, Lily went on for so long about how much she liked muggle pictures more than the Wizard pictures and she just burns the picture of Severus! It's like she's trying to forget about him; this was beautiful because I could actually feel what Lily was feeling about her uncertainity. Great work.

Oh, I was so sad when she burned the picture at the end! After all this lead-up about how the Muggle pictures capture a single moment (beautifully done, by the way) and how special it is and she just...burns it up! *cry* Really, this was beautiful. Heartbreaking, but beautiful. I can imagine that 3rd-year Severus did have a bit of life in his eyes, after all.

I liked how you described her love with James and Sev as different things. Both important and grand but only one is really good for her. I also like how you didn't bash Sev either. Thanks for that! The part with Snape and her encounters was very heart breaking as they are one of many OTPs I have... The beginning was very attention catching and I enjoyed every word of the story! Though I am sad she burned the picture. I just don't think that's right but to her it was.

"that love was a heavy burden to carry"
I loved that as well

In the beginning, as Lily was looking at the photograph of Severus, I felt like I could see every little detail of that picture; I love how vividly you described everything, and it really was sad when she burned the picture, like she was burning his memory. I loved this story, and I will definitely be reading more of your works.