"Severus, Severus come to me."

He heard her voice as clear as if she had been standing beside him. But that would be impossible for she was dead…yet again he heard her voice "Severus come to me, I'm so cold, and it's so very dark here." Her voice was now tinged with fear, he could not bear it and he made his way through the dungeons following her cries for him, this must be a dream, he thought silently. His feet moved on their own accord, his cape billowing behind him as he traveled into the deepest part of the dungeons, in which there was no light. He heard her soft sweet voice call out to him once more

"Lumos" he whispered and to his astonishment there she stood before him in a long white gown and flowing auburn hair. Her bright green eyes met his tortured dark ones. She smiled tenderly, "Sev you haven't forgotten me."

He stared at her in shock, "This cannot be..." he murmured. She peered at him coyly from beneath thick red lashes. "But it is, I have returned for you."

Snape continued to gape at her. He had been numb for so long, dead to the world himself and though this could not be real, his lead heart began to pound so profoundly inside his chest that he wondered if she could hear it. And despite his better judgment hope began to stir deep within his soul.

When he found his voice once more he spoke with hesitation, "How have you come back?" Lily laughed gently. "Oh Sev, sweet Sev there is magic even you do not know of." He still appeared bewildered. She sighed smiling up at him.

"I cannot explain it myself, for I have been lost in the dark for too long, feeling nothing, seeing no one, hearing only silence…and then I heard your voice, somehow you called out my name as if I was dreaming and I began to feel myself becoming conscious once more. My senses slowly returned to me and I found myself here with you." As she spoke Lily leaned in closer to him, he breathed in her scent, that scent of wild flowers and he was reminded of the green flowery meadow they used to play in as children. Lily spoke again, this time she whispered, "I believe it has something to do with love and soul mates, it seems when two people are destine to be together nothing can keep them apart, not even death, for neither can truly die while the other remains." Snape hadn't moved, he remained ridged. She smiled radiantly; then added, amusedly "Well if you don't believe I am real, touch me."

Snape gazed at her, his desire for her burned within his black eyes, his heart ached yearning to be near her, he had loved her, always. With a trembling hand he reached out and touched her face. Such a strong man such a gentle caress. Snape swallowed hard, unable to hold back his sudden tears. He hadn't felt anything in what seemed like a lifetime…he had been as lost as she. For he had died along with her.

"Lily, how I've missed you." And he embraced her, he pulled her to him and held her. Her icy body made him shiver but never again would she turn cold, not in his arms here she would be safe.

Lily opened her eyes and looked at him as tears spilled down her once rosy cheeks. Severus reached out and wiped them away with a tenderness only known to her. He pressed his lips to hers and whispered with raw emotion against her mouth, "I have waited so long to tell you that I love you Lily." She moaned softly, "I always knew." He kissed her then as if she was his very reason for living, as if she were his sacrament, the blood rushing through his veins, the breath caught in his lungs, the missing part to his broken soul.

She tasted just as he had imagined. He tangled his hands in her radiant curls. She tossed her head back, "Severus, make me yours for all of eternity; bind me to you so we may never part." He placed tender kisses along her neck and murmured, "What must I do?" She pressed her body against his. "What would you do?" He continued to kiss every inch of her exposed skin. "Anything."

She sighed deeply, "You must make love to me…and then you must die." He pulled away abruptly, still holding her but at a distance so that he could look her in the eyes. "What do you mean?" Lily reached up and touched his lips with her fingertips. "That is the only way my love." He stared into her emerald eyes searching, "And we will be together, in death?" "In eternity." She corrected softly and his hesitation vanished.

"I would die for you Lily Evans, I will die for you." She nodded and caressed her hands over his chest. "I know you shall, Severusss." Her voice became a hiss.

Snape explored her body hungrily; drinking her up as a starving vampire feeds upon his willing prey. He cherished every part of her, kissed every freckle on her body, as they wove in and out of dreams together. "It has always been you Sev, and now it will be us forever, there is just one last thing to do." He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips, he turned it over and placed a kiss in the palm of her hand. His dark gaze met her bright one and there was no fear within him, nothing but the desire to be with her, his childhood sweetheart, his deepest passion, and his destiny. "How shall I join you?" "There is a curse, I believe you know it." She whispered. Ah yes, the unforgivable curse to use upon himself. He would pick up his wand and cast his final spell, "Avada Kadavra"

"There is nothing to fear Sev, it doesn't hurt, I would know. And we can finally be together without end."

Severus Snape withdrew his wand from his discarded robes and pointed it to his ever quickening heart, which trembled not from fear but from being overwhelmed by his undying love for Lily, his Lily.

"Avada Kadavra." It was only a whisper but Lily screamed, in the last moment Snape had turned his wand on her.

The image of the red-haired girl before him became distorted; she seemed to crack like glass…cold as ice…cold as death.

Severus flung his wand to the ground and smashed the already cracking mirror with his hands. His blood smeared across the glass as it fell in pieces to the ground and shattered.

"Men have wasted away before it, not knowing if what they have seen is real, or even possible." Dumbledore's voice echoed in Severus' mind. Why had he come down here, his morbid curiosity had forced him to look into the mirror of Erised just to see once what it would have been like to have lily in his arms, but he had been a fool. He had completely lost himself in a ridiculous fairytale and driven himself to madness. He had finally come to his senses in the split moment the dark magic within the mirror betrayed its self with a hiss, it had been bewitched and he knew he had to destroy the cold cruel glass which mocked him so earnestly, that had torn him apart and ripped his heart into nothingness.

So Snape picked up his wand and turned on his heel, leaving the mirror in ruins behind him. And this time he didn't look back, did not stop to ponder what could have been, what might have been. He did not mourn for his foolishness or the final death of his heart which had shattered like the mirror then turned to dust inside his chest. He had deluded himself and was disgusted with himself, but it was all over now. And Severus Snape walked out of the deepest part of the dungeons, shutting the door behind him with a snap!