Disclaimer: I am just playing in JK's sandbox, I do not own the characters and locations that you recognise.
Death was not an abstract concept to Severus Snape. In truth, he had thought about it near every day since he had sold his servitude to become a Death Eater. But somehow, when it came he felt unprepared for his next great adventure. As the light dimmed from his eyes and he succumbed to the snake's poison, he fell out of existence and into the void.
His descent was halted by a soft armchair, sitting in front of a broad desk. Confusion flitted across his face, before he pushed it behind his carefully constructed mask. In front of him sat a robed figure with indistinguishable features, seemingly peering at him with interest.
"Where am I? Who are you? I thought I was dead."
A dry chuckle rattled out of the robed figure.
"This is the afterlife. I am a personification of death. And you are dead."
Severus sat back with more confusion. All of his beliefs had been rocked to the core. While part of him had longed for the hope to meet Lily again in the next life, he had also believed that death was the end and nothing was going to be waiting for anyone after their last breath.
"What do you mean 'a' personification of death?" he grasped onto the statement as he tried to cope with this new existence.
"Ah, well there are too many deaths for there to only be one figure addressing each person as they move on. There is the main one, called the Grim Reaper, but the most of us are lowly Reapers handling the easy cases. I am the Time Reaper."
The Time Reaper sat forward, waiting for Severus to notice something. Fighting through the fog of confusion, Severus latched onto his title with interest.
"Is there any particular reason why I am before the Time Reaper?"
"Good, you figured it out quickly. I was told you would be able to understand the enormity of the chance you are going to be handed. You, Severus, were never meant to be a Death Eater. Instead you were meant to take up custody of Harry James Potter and prevent the horrible injustices inflicted on the Longbottoms and Sirius Black."
If he understood it correctly, he was going to have to go back in time and live it all over again. Plus if he was to get custody of Potter, than that meant he would have to live through Lily's death all over again. Holding his head in his hands, he cringed at the thought of what he was being coerced into.
"You will be given a chance to see Lily before you leave. We need to plan exactly how we are going to do this. You need to be placed at the exact right time to change things correctly. This will not be an easy task."
"I get to see Lily?" It seemed almost too good to be true.
"Of course. Without her, how would we be able to fix all of your messy mistakes?"
A guttural laugh emitted from the folds of the Time Reaper's robes. The statement calmed his worries. After all, seeing Lily would be worth it, even if he had to live his life five times over.
The Time Reaper stood and gestured out the door for Severus to follow, as they strode towards Severus' dreams and nightmares combined. It was time to face Lily.
A/N: Please let me know if you like the general direction of this story. I plan on writing a time travel piece with Severus as the main character.