A/N: While working on the epilogue to my story Unintended (yes, I hereby solemnly declare to everyone who's been following it and has asked for an epilogue, that there will be one eventually), this little idea bit me and wouldn't let go, so here it is. Like it or not, please let me know.
Disclaimer: In case it wasn't obvious, I don't own any of the characters.
Death Eaters could not cast the Patronus Charm. That was a fact. The only Death Eater ever known to produce a Patronus was Severus Tobias Snape.
As he pointed his wand and uttered "Expecto patronum," the gentle silver doe flew forward even as Snape's mind crept backward, to that day...
He and Lily had just entered the Great Hall together on their arrival at Hogwarts, and as she stood and looked with an awed expression at the enchanted ceiling and the decorated hall full of excited students in black robes and pointed hats, Snape felt a small, warm hand grasp his and hold it tightly. He dared not move, he dared not breathe, he just felt, and then Lily turned her face towards him, her lovely green eyes shining with barely contained excitement, her lips stretched into a brilliant smile.
"Oh, Severus! It's... It's... magical!"
And he had been the happiest person on earth for those few brief moments when their hands were joined together, her expression warming his very soul with the pure, intense joy written all over the beloved features. It might have been a very ordinary moment for anyone else, anyone who'd never had any reason to think about how happy their life was because they were too busy enjoying it, but for Severus Snape that had forever remained the only memory he could return to without the taint of bitterness, pain and guilt latching itself onto it mercilessly. That was his happiest memory.