Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin

Chapter 28: Dreamscapes, Memories and Nightmares (pt 3)

The immediate threat over, Snape took the opportunity to heal his leg while he waited for his "savior" to approach. Seconds later, the Advocatus Diaboli emerged from the forest, her red hair flashing like fire itself in the reflected glow of the still-burning tree. And as she drew near, her eyes flashed the green of the Killing Curse. Snape closed his eyes in resignation.

"Wonderful," he thought. "Twenty seconds in, and she's already angry with me."

"It's been quite a long time, Snivellus," said Lily Evans with a cold sneer. "Mind telling me what you've dragged me into now?"

Despite her apparent anger, this manifestation of Lily was not without mercy, as shown when she reached out a hand to help Snape to his feet. He regarded her cautiously. Superficially, she appeared as she did on the day when he'd ruined everything by calling her a Mudblood in front of Potter and his stooges. It was only a few months later, after he'd decided that their friendship was irretrievably broken, that he'd locked his Advocatus away deep in his subconscious. But despite her youth, this Lily's eyes sparkled with an incisive intelligence that was more perceptive and far more calculating than would have been possible for her 16-year-old Gryffindor self. In other words, this was a Lily who could have gone to Slytherin.

"I imagine you know exactly what you've been dragged into. After all, you know everything I know about our situation, albeit filtered through the lens of Lily's personality. Or as best I could recreate her personality within my own mind."

"I doubt I know everything you know, Snape. You forget how much you love to talk and show off how clever you are. I imagine I'll be denied some information here and there just so that you can smugly deliver plot exposition like a detective in a Muggle mystery novel." She smirked at him with a measure of contempt. "I know the basics, of course. Having consistently made bad decisions for the first thirty-four years of your life, you have finally decided to do what's right but only in the most over-complicated, wrongheaded way possible. I mean, we wouldn't be having this conversation in a forest that represents the twisted psyche of a Death Eater with multiple personalities if you'd just had the sense to tell Dumbledore about the Horcruxes, now would we?"

"Perhaps not," he conceded, "but in that case, you would not be here to experience the limited form of existence my Occlumency allows you."

Her eyes narrowed. "Cut the crap, Snape. I'm here because you need me. Having a fully independent secondary personality is the only way you'll have a chance against two independently functioning copies of Bellatrix. And quite frankly, considering our shared history, I was perfectly happy with a state of quiescent nonexistence. It was certainly preferable to being here with you."

"Enough, Lily," he snapped. "You know what's at stake. We must find a way to penetrate Bellatrix's memory palace and find out where she hid the Horcrux that the Dark Lord assigned to her. And we must do so together if we're to have any chance to succeed."

"Evans," she answered coldly. "You can't be on a first name basis with Mudbloods, Snape. Mulciber and Rosier wouldn't approve."

A flash of anguish passed over Snape's face before it returned to its normal emotionless mask. "So be it. Though I am curious as to why you wish to be known as Evans instead of Potter."

She snorted. "Because your brain would explode in anger if you were forced to refer to your Advocatus by that name. But that's all in my future, anyway. You have no idea why I ended up with Potter, so naturally I don't either. Perhaps he finally grew up."

"I somehow doubt that was the reason, Li – ... Evans."

"Whatever, Snape. Let's just get this over with," she said as strode off confidently towards the cave entrance Severus had spotted. "Meanwhile, I'll enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that after all these years, you finally realized I was right about all those Junior Death Eaters whose approval mattered more to you than my friendship."