On - A Severus Snape One-Shot

"Look... at... me..." Severus Snape looked into the green eyes of Lily Evans.

No, it was Harry Not Lily, Harry, Severus had to remind himself. And yet, as he stared into those eyes, the pain that was searing through his body seemed to fade. In fact, everything seemed to be fading...

Severus felt his arm drop as the darkness swallowed him whole. As it did, his mind conjured up one last image to see him to his grave- Lily Evans smiled at him, her long red hair framing her face and her beautiful green eyes sparkling with mischief. Then she was gone, and he was gone, and everything was gone.

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Severus Snape lay facedown, listening to the silence. He was perfectly alone. Nobody was watching. Nobody else was there. He was not perfectly sure that he was there himself.

A long time later, or maybe no time at all, it came to him that he must exist, must be more than disembodied thought, because he was lying, definitely lying, on some surface. Therefore he had a sense of touch, and the thing against which he lay existed too.

Almost as soon as he had reached this conclusion, Severus became conscious that he was naked. Convinced as he was of his total solitude, this did not concern him, but it did intrigue him slightly. He wondered whether, as he could feel, he would be able to see. In opening them, he discovered that he had eyes.

He lay in a bright mist, though it was not like mist he had ever experienced before. His surroundings were not hidden by cloudy vapor; rather the cloudy vapor had not yet formed into surroundings. The floor on which he lay seemed to be white, neither warm nor cold, but simply there, a flat, blank something on which to be.

He sat up. His body appeared unscathed. As he did so, a set of black robes appeared a few feet away. Severus got up awkwardly and slipped into them.

Looking around him again, Severus realised that the mist was starting to solidify and he found himself standing several meters away from a very familiar looking tree. The ground sloped downwards towards a little stream which bubbled into the nothingness which surrounded him. A small boat bobbed on the stream.

Severus' heart contracted- if what he had now could still be called a heart- he knew this place. He knew the tree, the little stream, even the grass which had begun to form beneath his feet. This was the place where he and Lily had spent many summer days talking, laughing and looking forward to going to Hogwarts. This was the place where he first learnt friendship. No sooner had this thought formed in this head, did a familiar voice sound from behind him, making him jump.

"Sev?"

Severus turned. None other than Lily Evans was walking out of the mist towards him.

"L- Lily?" he said in disbelief. What was she doing here? And why was she even talking to him? She hated him now, right?

Maybe Lily could hear his thoughts, because suddenly she frowned.

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to see you for another, oh, say, forty or fifty years," she said.

"Gee, thanks," Severus retorted shortly, turning around and walking towards the tree. Their tree.

"Oh but no- Sev, no! I didn't mean-" Lily sighed, "I just wasn't- I didn't think you die so young," she finally admitted.

Severus turned back. Lily was clser now,  less than a meter away.

"Frankly I'm surprised you're actully talking to me at all," he said darkly. Severus didn't know what was wrong with him. He was talking to Lily Evans, the love of his life, and he had to get all snide and sarcastic. But he couldn't help himself.

"Last time we spoke, I rather got the impression that you never wished to speak with me again,".

Lily sighed again. She really was beautiful, Severus thought.

"Well you did call me a Mudblood," Lily begain, her voice slightly annoyed and painfully familiar, "and your behaviour at the time-" Lily stopped herself,

"Look, that's not the point. The point is, well I've been keeping an.eye on Harry over the years- not every single moment mind, just every now and then- but I couldn't help noticing how you saved his life on many occasions and... I just wanted to... Severus, I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for protecting him," Lily finished.

"Uh, no problem," Severus replied awkwardly, flushing. If only she knew.

"And I've been speaking to Dumbledore too since his regrettable death-" Severus' heart flipped nervously,

"And from what he said, oh Sev, you've been so brave," Lily exclaimed.

"So uh... are you saying that you're letting bygones be bygones?" Severus asked, hope colouring his voice shamelessly.

"Yes," Lily said simply, stepping forward and hugging him tightly before releasing him and saying briskly,

"But I've been sent here for a reason, I have to tell you what you can do with your death,".

"And wh- what is that?" Severus managed to get out. She had hugged him. He was finally forgiven.

"Well if you wish to become a ghost, then the- this place here will dissolve into mist and you'll wake up back in the mortal world- as a ghost," Lily explained

"I don't want to be a ghost," Severus said quickly. He had had enough encounters with the ghosts at Hogwarts to know that becoming a ghost was simply not an option for him.

Lily's smile widened,

"I thought not. Look around you, what do you see?" she asked.

Severus begain to feel a small bit self-conscious. How much had Dumbledore said to her? But he decided to say it anyway.

"The tree we used to play under as children. And the little stream. Only it has a boat,".

Lily nodded, "Well, then, that's it. You can take the boat and that should take you where you need to go,".

"Which is... where? Severus asked, begainning to walk slowly towards the stream with Lily at his side.

"On," she replied softly. They reached the stream and Severus clamoured awkwardly into the little boat. Everything around him seemed to be fading into mist again. Lily turned to leave.

"Wait!" Severus called after her, and she looked at him, "Will I see you again?"

"Perhaps,". Lily smiled one of her special smiles and her eyes twinkled as their childhood respite dissolved into mist, taking her with it.

And so Severus Snape went on.