Full Summary: Severus Snape is dying. What lies beyond, he doesn't know. But, he's in for a surprise. Following on from Snape's demise in "Deathly Hallows", it then goes AU. So, starting towards the end of DH, and switching to pre-series Marauder's Era.

Author's Note: My first attempt at a HP fanfic, so please be gentle! All the usual disclaimers apply, and I own none of the characters, and certainly not the books or movies (JKR and Warner Brothers own all).

Please read and review, thank you.

Chapter One: The End Of The Beginning (Introduction).

There was no time for any lingering animosity; no final insult or parting shot. Not even with Harry Potter leaning over him, and Granger silent and shocked in the background. He didn't think that it would come to this; suffocating on his own blood, poison creeping like ivy through his veins, and choking the last breaths out of him. But Severus had had his final flash of inspiration to fill in the blanks of the story, and give the boy the information he needed to defeat the Dark Lord.

He didn't even know if he had the strength to form the words. "Take it," he managed in a short, declarative sentence.

He expunged his life story in a haze of silver light. Silently, he implored the more intelligent of the two to realise what he was doing. She didn't let him down. He was getting weaker by the second; the threads of memory taking something of his life-force with them as they were siphoned into the magically conjured bottle.

His mind selected the memories with a practised precision. From childhood, to adulthood; the long buried past came pouring from him. Through the shine of the haze, he could see their bewildered expressions. But Potter, he knew full well, was more than acquainted with a Pensieve. Now the secrets of his heart would be an open book for even the most casual of readers to browse. His life story reduced to an increasingly diaphanous haze captured in a crystal vial.

Then, it was done. He was spent, and dying. But he was not done yet. He still had a few precious seconds. "Look at me," he managed in a whisper that barely pierced the atmosphere between them.

Harry looked more confused than ever as he turned his eyes to Severus's. It was as though he was waiting for the final jibe to come. He couldn't possibly know the reason, but soon he would. As soon as those eyes met his, the boy ceased to exist. The faded decay of the Shrieking Shack gave way to an afternoon a long time ago, when he looked into those emerald eyes. Her face filled his mind's eye as he was pulled beneath a deep, dark tide.

The darkness slowly diffused. The light was small, at first – it filtered through his closed eyelids. Just a haze in the distance. He thought that it was the last spark of life, as though his battery was running down but temporarily flaring up again. But the light got brighter. He found the strength to let his eyes flutter open, and still those green eyes were looking down at him. Harry and Hermione should be gone from this place, he thinks to himself. But all the time, he's blinking and looking up into those eyes as though entranced.

"Severus?"

The voice was high; too high for Harry Potter.

"Granger," he croaked in response. She was the only girl in the Shack with them.

The eyes darkened in a deep frown. "Who?" she asked.

Severus tried to sit up, but his head connected with someone else's. They banged off each other, each falling backwards against the grass that wasn't there the last time Severus was aware of anything, and on top of that he caught a glimpse of an open, blue sky. Dazed; he cursed, and the girl he couldn't see properly chided him gently.

"Language, Sev!"

Rubbing the aching spot on his forehead, he sat up again with his eyes scrunched closed tight. "Am I dead yet?" he asked, drily.

"That's not funny!" The girl retorted, a tremble in her voice. "I thought you were; I thought you had stopped breathing." She obviously hadn't met Nagini. He could hear her get to her feet and start fussing with something behind him.

Severus decided to test the waters, and open his eyes again. He was in a park. To his left were rusty swings thrown over the top cross bar – rendering them unusable. To his right was scrub land with thickets of bushes. No Hogwarts, no Shrieking Shack, no war. He froze, still sitting in the long grass. He remembered this place. He recognised it well. The two towers from the coal mine looming over the drab little estate near by. Slowly, he turned to face the green eyed girl. He believed, but at the same time didn't want to let himself believe, that it was her.

"Lily!" he gasped.

She was rummaging through a bag, from which she pulled out a coat. Her own bright pink coat. She stopped upon hearing her name, and turned sharply to face him. It was her. Her auburn hair was alive in the bright sunlight, her eyes glittering like gems. A flood of love rushed through him. But she was young. So young. Now, she looked back at him full of concern. She approached him slowly, as if she was no longer certain of who he was.

"That's it," she stated with a firmness that betrayed her shaken demeanour. "You're coming with me to the Hospital."

She swooped down on him with the coat, wrapping it around his shoulders. He must have looked a right state in a girl's pink coat. He was about to shrug off the offending attire when he noticed his hands. Gone were the scars; the multitude of burns from the cauldrons of inept students that he had collected over the years. The skin was soft, unblemished. His heart beat raced as he tried to stand.

Lily was watching him; looking more and more worried. "Severus," she said, her voice still tremulous. "Sev, what happened? You passed out, and now you're being weird."

He stood up, and must have measured all of five foot nothing in height. His mind whirled like a child's top. He looked across the small space that divided and Lily: "How old am I?" he asked her, fearing the answer.

Lily smiled, half-laughed as though she knew it was a joke but didn't quite get the punchline. "Er..." she replied as her forced smile hardened into a frown. "Er … you're eleven."

Eleven. The word reverberated around his head, and knocked the breath out of his lungs. He turned on the spot, taking in the whole of his surroundings. The park, the bushes, the towers looming over the streets and casting the people in their long, ominous shadow. It all looked so real, but this couldn't be real. He couldn't possibly be him, because he had been none of the child he was for a very long time. That couldn't be Lily, and he couldn't possibly be him; they were both dead. But it was there in technicolour, and corporeal form.

"This isn't happening to me," he muttered, noticing for the first time how high, and unbroken his voice was. "None of this is real..."

Lily was making a noise in the background, but he couldn't make out a word she was saying. He could barely see her as he looked all about him in confusion. On the periphery of his vision he could just make out a ginger blur of her hair as she lunged forwards to try and catch his fall. But she was too late. He was back among the grass where he'd regained consciousness, and being pulled back down beneath that tide.

~TBC~