A/N: I originally wrote this in August/September for my friend Dianna who graciously allowed me to post it here.
In memory of Alan Rickman.
Song of Solomon 2:10-13 ESV
10 My beloved speaks and says to me:
"Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away,
11 for behold, the winter is past;
the rain is over and gone.
12 The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree ripens its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away."
~~~
For the first time in what felt like forever, he felt the warmth of the sun in his sleep. Cautiously, even half asleep, he stretched out until he lay sprawled out luxuriously, feeling the warm ground beneath him. Yet, he could not sleep forever - his eyes finally fluttered open.
At first he thought he was in the Forest of Dean. And he thought drowsy thoughts.
Then he heard the squeaking and sat bolt upright. Heart now pounding, he hid behind a clump of bushes. He could not see clearly, but he could hear. Squeak. Squeak. Squeak. And laughter as she jumped through the air and landed lightly.
"Severus Snape, come out of those bushes at once!"
No one else could have phrased it that way and gotten a (positive) response, but he found himself crawling through the hedge just as if he were nine or ten, getting covered with leaves and looking utterly foolish on his hands and knees. But he would have crawled through thorns, thistles, and Thestrals just to look at her feet. Breathing hard, he forced himself to look up at her black robes, soft smile, red hair. And, of course, her green eyes.
They were even lovelier than Snape remembered and he almost didn't hear her when she spoke to him. "Severus." She smiled. "Do you trust me?" She asked as she held out her hand.
"Always," he whispered as he took her hand and tried to kiss it - but her hands and the swing were gone.
His surroundings now looked like the hideously cold, gray place the Death Eaters had convened. "Follow the path, Severus." From a not too distant place, her voice echoed and a narrow, twisting white path appeared. Dusting himself off, Snape rose and began following the white path in the middle of nowhere, no one he could see, going he knew not where. But he didn't care - somehow, he knew that she was waiting for him and that was enough.
He almost fled when the Dementors showed up. "Cast your Patronus, Severus." With the fresh memory of the warm day and her sunny smile, it was child's play to have the doe walking beside him. He thought he heard a small gasp - but he could have been mistaken.
One by one, the Dementors stopped their swooping and stood along the path. Snape was not afraid of them - he had always thought of her and knowing she was actually here somewhere gave him extra boldness. Which meant he didn't notice when the black robes changed ever so subtly. And when this figure landed, it threw back its hood. Snape stopped dead in his tracks, but not because he beheld the face of a Dementor.
It was Charity Burbage.
She bowed to Snape, somewhat mockingly, he thought. Then she pulled out her wand, and lit the end of it. While Snape watched her with widening eyes, two more figures in black robes landed on opposite sides of the path. By the light of Charity's wand, Snape could see quite plainly they were not Dementors. The silver doe disappeared and he hesitated.
"Come further, Severus."
Unwilling but for the love he bore her, Snape walked past the bows and wand lightings of Fred Weasley and Alistair Moody. Then Alice and Frank Longbottom. He almost knew the next four before they took off their hoods. Lupin and Tonks, Wormtail and Sirius. He found himself wondering where the other one was. None of them smiled, but they weren't casting the Crucio curse at him either.
Snape stopped again when the next figure didn't bother with a hood. "Hello, Severus."
Snape bowed first this time. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore and he had fought, argued, and schemed together. But Dumbledore had been there when she had been torn away from him, and for that alone, he would always show him respect. Dumbledore looked pleased and returned the bow. But there was one more hoodless shadowy figure in a shroud waiting to talk to him just before the path went up a seemingly endless flight of stairs.
"Severus." The cold tone sent chills down his spine still. "We are both beyond lies, now. Tell me the truth now, Severus. You are a Slytherin through and through. You know your place is with me."
If the offer had ever been even slightly tantalizing to Snape, the power was completely broken when a soft laugh came from the top of the stairs. Smiling, Snape produced his Patronus. "Moldy Shorts, my place has never been with you." And Snape ran up the stairs, leaving behind the Dementors, the lit wand, the grand Dumbledore smile, and the furious scowl of Voldemort.
When he had run out of breath, he found he has reached the top of the stairs where two chairs stood. He vaguely recognized James Potter standing by one of the chairs.
But only vaguely.
For there was his Lily, his Gryffindor princess, the most magical and most memorable witch he had ever known. Her red hair flowed down, her green eyes sparkled - and was that an emerald and silver dress?
"In your honor, Severus," she smiled when he glanced at her. Not caring what Potter, Voldemort, or anybody else thought, he knelt at her feet.
"Lily." He choked on her name. "I - I am sorry," he whispered, suddenly fearful that all he had done was still not worthy of her.
"Severus, no one here will say you have not been brave. I am sorry you had to walk past the Dementors, the dead, and Voldemort. But now, the time for sorrows and sorries is past." She produced in her hand a small, intricate silver snake. Snape could see the Portkey vibrations coming off it. "It is time. Let us go on, Severus."
Severus reached out and, taking her hand in his, touched the snake. Faintly, in the distance, a train whistle blew, and Severus was gone.