A/N: Warning – CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM THE NEWLY RELEASED MOVIE, DH PART 2!

This story features Dinah and Severus from "The Serpents' Kiss" in a very different, alternate-universe scenario based upon scenes from the new movie.

Although the acting was magnificent, I could not BEAR watching Severus in agony scene after scene after scene and think that there was no one there to comfort him. It's too much, too terrible, and too unfair, in my opinion, and it's making me very frustrated and a little mixed up right now. Although I know it's probably silly to get this attached to a fictional character I simply cannot help it :( - he deserves SO MUCH BETTER than what he got! Therefore, I wrote this little one-shot to sort of soothe myself and TRY to deal with all these screwball emotions that have hit me after watching that movie. I can only hope it helps me a little, and maybe some others, too.

Poor Severus. You are not alone! T_T

I do not own Harry Potter or Severus. If I did, he would have had a much happier fate! The only thing that belongs to me is my OC, Dinah.

The title of the story and the last two lines spoken by Dinah and Severus are from the song "Ai Oboete Imasu ka" or "Do you Remember Love?" from the long-running Japanese animation movie of the same name from the "Macross" series. I used it because I sort of envision it as Dinah and Severus's song in all universes, as the translation of the lyrics is very appropriate to them and their relationship.

Hope everyone enjoys! :)

Severus Snape stood in the tall window of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry underneath the graying sky which seemed to stand as a testament to the dark world he now lived in. Below him, visible on the gloomy grounds, the Hogwarts students marched in formation, their faces as set and stoic as his own, he was sure. They were careful. Always so careful not to do anything that would incite the wrath of the Carrows. Always living in fear, especially the smaller ones. So many of them anyway. The ones that were brave enough, the ones that stood up to the tyranny, were bruised and wounded and there was only so much he could do to prevent it without revealing his true motives. And he could not do that. He had to wait for the Potter boy.

There was nothing he could do until then besides keep his promise to the late headmaster and protect the students to the best of his ability. Thus far he had kept all of them alive. And that was the most he could offer himself in terms of consolation. The most he could do to assure himself that he was not living his life in vain.

Severus never revealed his emotions to them, never let them think he was anything more than a despotic headmaster sent by the Dark Lord to make their lives a living hell, but inside the pain tightened his chest as it always did. At least as much pain as he let in. He tried to keep most of it out, but it was getting more and more difficult as the year dragged on.

And now that the headmaster had passed and the Malfoys were in their own little world as they fought to redeem themselves in the Dark Lord eyes to protect their family, he had no one left. He was alone. In a way he had always been alone, but at least there had been occasional friends in his life, until he had had to murder them, or betray them, or otherwise lose them. If the wizarding world survived this would he find friends again, would he find redemption? What would he do with his life if the Dark Lord was successfully defeated? Would he – could he – have a second chance? Or should he simply welcome death if it found its way to him?

He could not think. Did not know. All he knew was that right here – right now – he had to protect these students. For Dumbledore. For the infernal, ridiculous Potter boy.

For her.

And yet he remained alone.

"It's all right," a voice on the wind seemed to whisper, as a breeze brushed past him, causing his dark, greasy hair to flutter the barest bit and brush against his face and shoulders, and the tightness in his chest released, just barely.

That voice. Perhaps he had been going mad for years but he always heard it. It was not Lily's voice, but another. Another voice that he heard whenever the pain threatened to consume him, and it always soothed him.

Surely he was mad, but he relied on that voice. It had whispered to him when he had been a child and his father had taken it upon himself to beat himself and his mother into just barely-remaining consciousness. It had whispered to him when he had made the greatest mistake of his life and called his precious Lily 'Mudblood', forever estranging her from him. It had whispered to him during the agonizing moments after Lily's death, when the headmaster tried to pierce through his grief enough to convince him to protect the boy to redeem himself in his old friend's eyes. In fact, the voice had even seemed to age with him. Sometimes the words were clear, as now, and sometimes they were more incoherent, like a feeling that he could not quite place, but they were always soothing, even if it was just barely.

And did he dare imagine that sometimes he felt a presence with him? When he had cradled his beloved in his arms after her death, unable to stop the tears as he hoped against all hope that she would move against him, return to life, call him 'Sev' and tell him she forgave him, had he felt something else, some energy enveloping him, embracing him from behind, and keeping him from losing it entirely? It had not been her, but again, it had kept him sane, kept him able to continue when every fiber of his being wanted to bury himself in a hole somewhere and disappear, escape from the world, run from the agony that seemed to follow him all his life. It had given him strength. And he knew he did not want to give up, disappear, die, or hide. He had to fight. Had to endure. Had to keep going, and he did. He always did, because of that presence with him.

Dare he imagine that he, somehow, wasn't alone?

It had been long since he had last felt incapable of hiding his emotions, but the Potter boy staring him down and laying before the entire school the accusation of him having murdered the headmaster was tearing into him and threatening to break down all of his normal resolve. But he had to endure. To complete his mission, to protect Lily's son, and to prove to himself and to that inexplicable presence that was always with him that he could keep fighting.

And so he kept fighting, even when Minerva, his long-time colleague, began dueling with him, her fury nearly matched to Potter's. He had to stop before he killed anyone and so he did, flying from the window and escaping the school to a host of cheers.

Would they ever know, those cheering students, when all this was over, how hard he had tried to protect them? Would he ever find redemption in their eyes? In Lily's eyes? In the eyes of the wizarding world? Or would any person even care?

He had to keep fighting though, to wait for the opportunity to tell Potter the truth. Would the boy even believe him? How could he look him in the eyes and explain everything to him that he had avoided explaining his entire life? And would any of it be enough to save this world and those students who hated and despised him almost as much as he hated and despised himself?

After all, if it had not been for him and his Death Eater ambitions from youth, would any of this have come to pass? Would he have lost Lily's friendship, betrayed her to the Dark Lord via the prophecy, and set in motion the string of events that led him to where he was now?

He hoped that somehow other factors were involved; that it was not only his fault and that even had he done everything right it would not have changed things. Though thoughts like that did little to ease his all-encompassing guilt, especially as he did wish things could have been different. But he also wanted to imagine that he himself was not entirely responsible. And yet he often feared that it truly had been his entire fault.

Was the path he had been taking for seventeen long years enough to lead him to redemption? And maybe even forgiveness from the woman he had long loved with all his heart?

The woman he had all but killed by his own hand.

Severus's eyes had closed and his body had gone limp as he felt all his remaining strength disappear. He knew the Potter boy had left with his friends and with the vial containing the precious contents, but that was all he knew. He did not know whether he was dead or alive or what time it was or whether the boy was doing what he needed to do to save the wizarding world.

He had to hope that what he did had been enough. While that snake had slammed into him over and over and over again, biting and killing and he felt blood rushing from his throat where the Dark Lord had slit it and from the many more wounds Nagini had opened in her attack, through the pain and agony he could only think that this was not how it was supposed to be, that he could not die without completing his mission after everything he had dedicated to it.

Why had he not realized where the Dark Lord was going with his tangent soon enough to save himself? Was his mission truly meant to end like this?

All Severus knew then – and, really, now as well – was that he did not want to die. He was frightened and lonely and hated himself for fighting for so long and then ending up only being a weakling in the end, murdered by the Dark Lord before he could even do what he had to do.

And then the Potter boy had arrived, and for a moment, when he took Severus's face gently into his hand, Severus had felt that redemption and love he so longed for in his life. It had almost been like Lily had been cradling him, and he had smiled, for a moment, when he looked into those green eyes. Yet that little instance of relief had been brief, as he knew that somehow he had to get the message to the boy.

Tears. Tears had been the method of delivery. The fear and the pain and the loneliness had already broken through his mask of indifference when the Dark Lord's snake had attacked him, and he had been unable to prevent the single tear from falling. But tears given purely had the power to deliver memories, and if the boy took those memories and put them in the pensieve then he could learn everything he needed to learn to save the wizarding world, though unfortunately not himself.

Would Lily understand that necessity? That had always been one of his last lingering fears. The fact that in order to save the wizarding world, her son had to die? Severus's mission had been, he thought, to protect the boy, and yet that was impossible. But somewhere along the line Severus's mission had taken on more than just protecting Harry Potter for Lily's sake. He had wanted to protect the entire world, all of the Hogwarts students. Dare he imagine that that also redeemed himself in that way? That even through sacrificing her son Lily would still forgive him somehow because he had finally turned into the good person she had wished he could be when he was a child?

He didn't know. He was so confused.

And yet now, he thought as tears again stung the backs of his eyes, he was going to die and he did not know if he would see Lily, hear her whisper her forgiveness to him, or thank him, or apologize to him, or say that she was still his friend, or he didn't know what. Would he see her? Would he get that forgiveness and redemption that he so craved? And even if he did, she would never love him as she loved James Potter. He would never be her choice.

No one would ever love him like that. And yet, he did not want to die.

"Severus," a gentle, feminine voice spoke his name in a strange echo, and yet again it was not Lily's voice.

But it was familiar. And he felt a wave of warmth and comfort like none he had ever felt before.

He opened his eyes and looked up into the eyes of what he could only assume was some kind of angel. Had he lost his mind again? Did he even have a mind? From what he could see of his surroundings he was still in the glass boathouse, but no one was there but him and the angel and again he could not tell whether he had died yet or not, nor how much time had passed.

The grey eyes of the beautiful woman with the long, dark golden, tied-back hair were gentle, adoring, and shimmering with tears as they met his dark ones, and she reached slender fingers out to cradle his face as Potter had done, but the soothing feeling he felt now was different from the one that Potter's presence had given him. This was the soothing feeling he had felt during the worst times in his life, the soothing feeling from that presence that had always been hovering around him.

The presence that he now knew had been this angel.

He next felt and saw gentle fingers brushing way the remnants of the tear that had delivered his memories to Potter, as soft lips kissed his forehead. "Don't cry. It's all right. You're not alone. You've never, never been alone."

"Dinah," he did not know how he knew the name of this angel, this miracle that had come to him just when he was certain he couldn't handle the pain anymore, but he knew it as sure as he knew that she was the presence that had been with him all along. He knew that was her name.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," she whispered, her shimmering eyes growing even shinier as more tears welled in them, her hands still gently cradling his face. The tears were for him. "You deserve so much more than this, Severus."

"Dinah," he repeated, his voice weak and pleading and choked with emotion as he felt tears return to his own eyes. He had never felt like he deserved anything at all, but now, with her speaking the words to him, he did feel it. He felt the injustice of his fate and the desperate desire to live a life of happiness like everyone else seemed to be gifted with. Lily would never have chosen him, but maybe this woman… this Dinah… "I don't want to die," he found himself whispering to her, never wanting her to disappear or to let go of him. She was all he had. Even if he was mad, even if he was imagining things, he didn't want this angel to go away.

"I know," she murmured, her eyes still full of tears for him, "But it's all right. It's not over. That's why I'm here. That's why I'm always here, Severus. I love you."

She loved him. Someone loved him. "Lily is… the forgiveness I…" he couldn't seem to form a sentence, desperately hoped that this angel would understand him, would help him.

"She's forgiven you, Severus," Dinah whispered, her voice gentle. "She's in the Forbidden Forest now, helping her son. She spoke the word 'Always' for him. Close your eyes and listen and you'll hear her. You'll hear her forgiveness."

Severus listened, and indeed, he could see Lily's face in his mind's eye – again, if he still had a mind at all – and she was lovingly facing her son, who was asking her to stay near him as he trudged towards death. The word she chose to use was 'Always' – the word he had spoken to Dumbledore about his devotion to her. She had chosen to use the same word. And he saw her and for a moment they were connected, friends again as they had been as children, and he felt her forgiveness and her love. And, really, he had already known that when her son had first come to his side after Nagini's attack. When in an instant Potter had seemed to forget the wrath he felt towards his most hated Professor and Dumbledore's murderer, and had been kind to Severus. He had felt Lily's love and forgiveness at that moment too, through the gentle kindness and forgiveness of her son.

But it was not the kind of love she had for the man that was with her in the Forbidden Forest and Severus could also see; for James Potter. And somehow Severus had always known that. But from the moment the angel had appeared to him he had realized that his longtime devotion to Lily had been more a devotion to trying to redeem himself for the mistakes he had made than it had been to have her love. He had not consciously realized it, but the one he had loved had been that presence that was always with him, keeping him safe. She was the person who saw him for who he was, and a person who would never have left him as Lily had. Dinah would have forgiven him and remained his friend. She would have understood why he behaved the way he did as a child, and tried to help. Lily had been more selfish, more of a Gryffindor, and though he wholeheartedly forgave his red-haired friend he realized that they never would have been right for each other. They lived in different worlds. Lily would 'always' be his friend, but the one he truly needed and loved was this angel. Was Dinah.

"Will the boy survive?" he asked Dinah.

"They will be fine in this world," she assured him, "You can leave them. There is a better world for us. Much the same happens in the beginning but ultimately we are able to find each other and we can be happy. We're meant to live a perfect life in a different world. Severus…" tears fell from those beautiful eyes and rolled down her cheeks, "I want to have that world with you. I want you to be happy. I want us to not be alone anymore. I want us to be together."

Try as Severus might to hold back the tears, he could not, and yet she cradled his head in her arms and cried with him, for the life that they were meant to have and for the sad fates that had befallen them in this world. She murmured the assurances he had so desperately needed throughout his life and that he had been even more desperate for only moments ago while he lay alone in the boathouse waiting for death, which he still wasn't sure had come or not. He was okay, it was all right, he was not alone and she loved him. For the first time in his life he was truly loved.

"You'll find me again?" he murmured, when once again they were gazing into each other's eyes.

"Yes," her grey eyes closed again and when they reopened they were filled with a warm certainty, "Severus… we both exist so that we can find each other. We will always find each other."

"Yes," he knew she spoke the truth, and he knew that he would always find her as well. He had always kept fighting in this world because of her presence, because he knew it was right, that they could see each other as they were seeing each other now if he kept fighting. He did not regret anything anymore. He only wanted to be near her and to rest assured in the knowledge that no matter what happened they would have that perfect life that they were meant to have.

Someday. Somehow. It would happen.

"I love you," Severus had never spoken those words aloud to Lily but they fell from his lips easily as he looked into Dinah's eyes. Her eyes that warmed at his words as she leaned her head towards him and her lips gently brushed his. His eyes closed and he reveled in the sensation he had never felt before and in the love that had always surrounded him.

The only reason he could see her now was because he was dying. Whatever she was in this world – an angel, some sort of floating consciousness or energy, or something he could not explain, she was still her. She was Dinah. And he was supposed to be with her in all worlds.

"I love you," she whispered back when their lips parted.

The fear and agony and loneliness he had felt only moments – or was it hours or days? – ago melted away in an instant and he allowed himself to smile, to feel comfortable. A feeling he had never welcomed before, but he did now, in her presence. She met his smile with one of her own, and he knew that they were matched.

Their arms easily wound their way around each other and he allowed himself to feel comfort as his fate of death approached, if he wasn't dead already. But there was no more fear and no more sadness as she held him in her arms, his head rested against her shoulder and her cheek softly against his hair, and he knew that they were both smiling. Her fingers found their way into his hair and his into hers, and they held each other close, secure in a love that was overwhelming and yet more perfect than anything else Severus had ever experienced before in his life.

He could accept death like this. Enveloped in her arms and in her love, an easy smile on his lips as an odd sort of calm, grey peacefulness descended upon him. His eyes closed and it was still just grey, the boathouse long gone, back in the world that he had no choice but to leave. But he was not afraid. Because he would find her.

He would always find her.

Severus could no longer see Dinah, but he felt her with him, their arms still secure around each other, and he found his lips forming words, speaking them at the same time as her, with the comfortable knowledge that they were speaking nothing more or less than the complete truth:

"I am not alone anymore. Because you're here with me."

A/N: I hope everyone liked it. I kind of wrote it on the spot because I felt so crappy today about Severus's "canon" fate. I don't envision this as necessarily before or after or during "The Serpents' Kiss", as in an alternate universe time is not something so easily measured or compared. I just try to imagine that no matter where Severus and Dinah are, or how the "universe(s)" work(s), they can somehow find each other. I guess I'm just a hopeless romantic, but ideally this will make me feel a little bit better about things. LOL.

Thank you for reading.