THE SOUL'S EXCHANGE

House of Black and White

Severus Snape stood frozen in disbelief, the weight of his situation pressing down on him with the force of a thousand crushed dreams. He had always known that life had a cruel sense of humor, but this? This was beyond even his darkest expectations. He had become tangled in a political mess so deep that civil war was now a very real possibility, all because of some foolish alliance with Tara Bratt—whom he loathed, but could hardly escape from.

But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was Lily. Once again, Lily. The woman he had loved, the woman who had haunted him for decades, was now standing before him. But it wasn’t the woman he remembered—the grown, wise, loving Lily he had lost. No, this was the 9-year-old version of her, just as they had first met. He could still remember the day, her bright eyes and laugh, that innocent kindness.

But this time, it was different. The horror wasn’t that she was young again—no, it was the situation. Lily had somehow been betrothed to james. Again. Severus didn’t know whether to feel sympathy or revulsion. Not that he had any desire to rekindle their connection. She was just a child now, after all, and he was no fool. He could see the pattern—she was hopelessly, helplessly in love with the man he loathed more than anything. James Potter, once his rival, now the son of Tara Brat—the very woman who had ensnared him in this mess.

Life, it seemed, was nothing but one cruel joke. But Severus had long since learned to take whatever fate handed him with a bitter, resigned sneer. Right now, his focus was elsewhere. The world was spiraling around him, but there was one thing that needed his full attention: Daemon Targaryen. Her sleeping maniac, as he had taken to calling him in his more sardonic moments, was in need of his expertise. No matter how much trouble the girl—Alicent—brought into his life, he couldn’t let her face heartbreak. Not again.

He had helped Lily rework the concoction for Daemon—three days of grueling effort, mixing potions, calculating ingredients, battling with his past regret over Lily’s unrelenting presence—and it had worked. Daemon was healing. Fast.

But that wasn’t what kept Severus awake at night. No, his thoughts constantly returned to Alicent. That impetuous, reckless girl. He could feel a migraine forming just thinking about it. She had made a decision—a decision—to make an impromptu trip to Braavos of all places. To the House of Black and White. The last place anyone with an ounce of sense would dare visit.

Severus had to pray. He wasn’t one for prayers, certainly not in the conventional sense, but right now he wasn’t concerned with his usual cynicism. He just wanted the people of the House of Black and White to survive whatever Alicent had planned for them. Because wherever she went, chaos followed. And she didn’t just stir it up; no, she destroyed everything around her. She was the last standing person in an apocalyptic scenario, the only one left to witness the carnage she had wrought.

Gods help them, he thought, though it was more a prayer to Mother Magic than anything else. They would need to be clever. They needed to answer her questions, give her what she wanted, and not dare to provoke her in her current mood.

Severus sneered. He could already picture the scene in his mind. Alicent, surrounded by the temple’s cold, calculating priests, demanding answers, her patience wearing thin as their ignorance prolonged their suffering. It was a disaster waiting to happen. And, as usual, Severus had no choice but to watch, powerless, knowing that this was the mess he would be cleaning up when it was all said and done.

In typical Snape fashion, he muttered under his breath, his words dripping with sarcasm and bitterness. "Oh yes, pray that they don’t completely destroy themselves. For if there's one thing I've learned about her, it's that she's always the last one standing in the wreckage." He rolled his eyes, though deep down, he couldn’t help but feel a spark of something. Perhaps, just perhaps, Alicent would pull this off. The House of Black and White wasn’t known for being soft, after all.