1 Title: "Angel"

Artist: Aerosmith

Author: Fertility Hollis

Rating: G

Notes: None



I'm alone yeah I don't know if I can face the night

I'm in tears and the cryin that I do is for you

I want your love let's break the wall between us

Don't make it tough, I'll put away my pride

Enough's enough, I've suffered and I've seen the light

Severus sits at his desk in quiet contemplation. His left hand gently runs through his silky jet hair. His right graces the stem of a glass of red wine. His head is down, but his eyes watch as the fire flickers and dances. A picture rests on the center of his shining mahogany desk. It's a young girl, around the age of twenty. Her hair is blonde hand hangs untouched in subtle flaxen waves around her face. She sits bareback atop a chestnut horse in a field of wildflowers that grow to her horse's shoulders. She wears a crepe dress that falls to just below her knees and is drawn together in the front by a piece of fabric. She is smiling and waving, and occasionally Severus' gaze will flick to the picture as she swats at a fly or pats her horse's neck. He smiles, but not wide enough for anyone to have noticed, should anyone venture down to these cold rooms in the first place.

*~Flashback~* Snape is walking with the girl from the picture, down along a moonlit beach. A bright flash of green light. They look about the same age; approaching their twenties. She smiles to herself as he offers her his cloak. Another flash. A circle of black cloaks form around them, and Voldemort appears in the center, with Severus and the girl. A confrontation ensues. The girl is taken by two of the cloaked figures from the ring. Severus is pushed into the ring and held back as Voldemort advances on the two death eaters holding the girl, who takes shaking breaths. Her eyes dart back and forth, searching for Severus. For anyone. Voldemort runs the tip of his wand down the center of her body, and her clothes slowly melt away, leaving her hiding her face in the robes of her captors, attempting to save any scrap of dignity she could. She is raped while Severus writhes against his restraints. She is discarded. Fade to black.

You're my angel, come and save me tonight

You're my angel, come and make it alright….

Severus sits on the edge of his king sized four poster, slugging down a shot of dreamless sleep potion and sliding his slippers underneath the bed.

He turns down his covers, takes off his dressing robe, and slithers in between the sheets, eager for a long sleep. He blows out the candle and pulls the shade of his four poster, his face slowly fading from the light.

From blackness we see the image of Snape's head lying sideways on his pillow. His left arm curls up so that his hand cups his face from under the pillow, and his right hand grips his left bicep. A strand of hair moves back and forth, fine as a spiders web, with his breath. A pair of lips, their pigment a dark coral contrast to the almost glowing porcelain color of the skin on the nose and chin, appear next to his ear. The picture widens and we can see the profile of the girl from the picture, glowing like an angel, whispering into Severus' ear. He rolls over, swatting at whatever may be causing that tickle in his eardrum. She giggles silently, apparently mute, and straddles him, one arm on either side of his chest. She leans down slowly, blonde ringlets descending on the bare skin of his chest and causing goosebumps, and gives him a passionate kiss.

He opens his eyes, and upon seeing her raises his hands to cup her face, eager to be with her again. But as he moves to touch her face she dissipates before him, whisps of silvery smoke curling into the vastness of his chambers as silent as the dead.

Don't know what I'm gonna do about thins feeling inside

Yes, it's true loneliness took me for a ride

Without your love, I'm nothin but a beggar

Without your love, a dog without a bone

What can I do, I'm sleepin in this bed alone

A shot of Severus, taking a solitary walk around the grounds on a snowy evening, contemplating the moon. A silvery glimmer catches his eyes near the edge of the forbidden forest, and he turns his head slightly, hoping to catch a glimpse of a unicorn. At first, he thinks that that is what he sees, but upon closer inspection, the figure watching him is not a unicorn, but a chestnut mare, glowing silvery the way the woman in his dream had the night before. And atop the horse she sat, waving and smiling at him. He took a few slow steps toward her, unsure of whether she would remain or not. When she didn't disappear he broke into a run towards her. She watched him as he ran towards her, her smile slowly becoming knowing. Her wave became less of a wave hello, and more of a wave goodbye. As he came within range of grasping her outstretched hand, she dispersed again into a whispy white smoke that crept silently back into the fog of the woods, her horse with her. Severus hung his head as he began his solitary march back to the castle.

You're my angel, come and save me tonight

You're my angel, come and make it alright….

Severus lies awake in his bed that evening, candle left aglow and curtain left open, watching intently the happenings on the canopy above him. The light flickered, creating countless shadows and figures playing and dancing across the green silk fabric above him. Yet, none of them matched the face of her. Perhaps she had simply been a dream. A projection of his unconscious thoughts. He turned over and blew out the flame, pulling the curtain and positioning himself in his familiar position. A wise man had, after all, once told him that it did not do to dwell on dreams.

You're the reason I live

You're the reason I die

You're the reason I give when I break down and cry

Don't need no reason why

Baby, baby, baby

Severus' eyes snapped open when he recognized the familiar glow before their lids. He allowed his eyes to adjust to the light before searching for her face. There it was, just above him, hair falling from a loose bun atop her head and lips curled up in innocent amusement. He reached up to kiss her but she laid her finger against his lips before he could gain her. She shook her head no and then made a gesture of blowing some of the smoke from the surface of her palm. It slowly blew outward but quickly returned to her. He nodded, in awe of her.

She sat up and stepped off of the bed, and beckoned him to follow her with her index finger. He crawled from between the sheets and hastily threw his cloak around himself. He followed her as she walked hastily through the corridors in the dungeon, giving off an almost eerie glow against the dark cobbled walls. She glanced back to glimpse him from time to time, always smiling and then hurrying on ahead of him once again.

He followed her at a run across the lawns to where he had seen her that night at the edge of the forbidden forest. There stood her mare, lazily nosing the grass but unable to eat it. She looked up and let out a silent nicker at the sight of her mistress. She took the horse's neck in an affectionate hug and then turned to see Severus advancing on her. She leaned back against her horse's shoulder, giving him a coy smile. He smiled back at her. His age showed next to her eternal youth. He held out a hand to her, and she offered hers with a sorrowful look in her eye. He winced as he realized that she was the same intangible entity as the school ghosts. His hand felt like ice as it passed through hers, parting her smoky arm temporarily as he did.

"Are you..ok," he asked her, his voice husky and deep.

She smiled and nodded, looking earnestly into his eyes.

"Was there…any pain," he questioned, gaining strength in his voice.

She looked down at the ground, her smile fading, as she dug one glowing toe into the dirt. She looked like a little girl being asked to tattle. She looked as though she wanted to seem brave. His breath caught in his throat as the first sob broke.

She looked up, concern in her eyes. She brushed an icy hand against his cheek. He looked up at her, one tear coursing snail like down his cheek. She put a finger to it as if to wipe it away, but instead it froze. The pair met eyes, each surprised at the reaction. He reached up and plucked the crystal tear from his cheek. It could have been a gem.

She smiled as she met his gaze once again.

"Are you happy," he asked her tentatively.

She smiled wide and nodded, obviously wanting him to feel better about her passing.

"Are you always out here, in these woods?" She nodded again, a sly smile playing on her face.

"Why haven't you contacted me before this, then," Snape questioned indignantly. The girl smiled and rolled her eyes. This was hard to explain without being able to speak. She pointed a slender finger at herself, and then two at her eyes. Then she pointed at him, a questioning look in her eye.

"You've been watching me," he asked, amazed.

She smiled and nodded.

"Will you continue to watch," he asked in a low whisper.

She nodded again, a transparent tear falling from her cheek. He leaned in to kiss her but before he could she had mounted the horse and rode off. He watched the two meander into the forest, the girl turned back and waving as she grew harder and harder to tell apart from the fog.