Book Dragon:

"Okay, if you haven't finished Deathly Hallows, don't look here. Back out the door, carefully, and come back when you do because there be spoilers here.

"May I ask if anyone has read the Dark Tower here? (Looks around hopefully) Well, if not, it doesn't matter. There's just a little shout out for Stephen King's greatest work, also seven books (strange isn't it?) and I'd thought to include I have no ownership of it as well as Harry Potter (that's why this story is here). It's just that his line in book five, The Wolves of Calla, 'We'll kick the Slytherin out of you!' cracks me up."

There Are Other Worlds than These

Is this what it was like to be dead?

Aching, bruised, his neck throbbing madly with pain, Severus Snape thought it left a lot to be desired. A. Lot.

But still, what could one expect?

He found himself able to sit up, though his back did complain. Must have been when he hit the floor. It was surprising, considering that hurt more than the throbbing in his neck where the snake's fangs had pierced him. If anything the throb felt more like simple whiplash as he reached up and rubbed there, expecting to find blood and ripped skin.

He didn't.

The skin was fine, just tender and a little bumpy. Two distinct bumps. His fingers traced over these, eyebrows furrowing with confusion until a voice made his eyes pop open.

"Hey! You okay there?"

For a moment his brain stopped functioning, refusing to take in the weird crowd of people that were milling around him, beneath the street lights. The voice was too busy mussing everything up to take anything into account because it was ringing like bells; so loud it was going to make his head explode. Surely it would. Maybe this is what it felt like to go mad-

"Hey! Sir! You alright? Looks like you took a nasty spill…"

His head was turning slowly, very slowly, part of him terrified by what he might find while another knew full well what he was going to find, standing behind him.

A pair of bright green eyes met his look. They hypnotized him for a moment, as lovely as he remembered them, before a movement below caused him to glance down at her up turned lips and then back up. All over. She'd smiled, it was a nervous one, but the concern that had lingered there evaporated a little from her features. Other than that, it was her. There was no denying the fact; it was her. Her! Just as he remembered-

"Um-hey-why don't we just get up before somebody trips over you, Hm?" She asked.

Her voice was the same as it had been in his dreams. Still the same. So was her touch when she gently took his shoulder and helped him to his feet. At first his legs refused, weak, and threatened to drop him, but she steadied him with her arms, which oddly strong and solid. He stood there, gawking at her, as her hands started to brush from of the dirt of his shoulders with something like a fussy look.

Snape stood there, dazed, confused, but oddly exhilarated at her touches. He opened his mouth to say something, or tried to, but no noise would come out. For once, he was utterly speechless, gawking at the red-haired woman as she continued to straighten out the cloak on his shoulders and brushed off a few more dust marks.

"There! Right as rain. How's you're head?"

"F-fine." Snape muttered.

His lips felt numb, as his eyes continued tracing over her features. Still trying to figure out if this was real. Really real. He could remember so many dreams; that seemed like reality until he woke up in his chamber, in his bed, alone and the crushing disappointment, acute agony, that always followed afterward.

"Well, that's good," she replied, not looking at him, not noticing his spaced out look, still adjusting bits and pieces of his clothes. The smile was smoothing out into something less anxious. The slight pressure on his shoulder blades, where her hands were resting, felt hotter than they should of, and when she finally looked back up to his face, smiling, less than a foot away, he stopped breathing.

"I knew a concussion was a little far fetched, but I wasn't sure. That bloke was twice your size. I won't be surprised if he was cosplaying Hagrid, though that guy could've been full giant, never mind half, and probably just as stupid. Ha!"

He started at her, mystified as she chuckled lightly, green eyes shinning brightly as they looked at his face, fell to his chest, and back at his eyes again. This simply couldn't be happening, a logical voice buzzed in his left ear, it was simply impossible. She was dead and there was nothing he could do.

Snape barely paid attention; too busy marking every part of her with his eyes. Her bright red hair flowing around her face, the blue muggle baseball cap on her head with a snitch etched into it, her red shirt, the skin of her smooth arms, and jean pants hiding a pair of nice legs, all the way down to her sneakers again, and then back up. Caught her expression as her gaze dropped again: curiosity, as her fingers brushed over the marks left on his neck.

"Wow! You even added the bite marks! Or is that a scar? It looks so real. Well, which ever it makes your costume a hell of a lot more believable! You could pass for the original. Where did you get it? You are cosplaying Professor Snape, aren't you? I love that character! I was so sad that they killed him off at the end-cried for nearly two hours-but he was meant to be the tragic hero, eh?"

She laughed when he just continued to gawk at her.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I just get so excited. The stupid Git, I am… Um-My name's Lily and no-it's not Lily Potter or Lily Evans. Everybody always asks me that at these silly things. I just got lucky, or so my Mum tells me. I'm Lily Rigby, pleased to meet you, Severus."

Snape looked down at the soft brush of skin on his hand, suddenly on fire, as her hand closed around it and shook, quickly, and let go again. He couldn't stop blinking, his face heating, threatening to blush. He couldn't stop staring at her either, despite how much he tried to get a sense of his surroundings.

Kids running with plastic broom sticks and stuff animal owls in fake cages passed by. Adults swapped big showy stands harboring another load of fake potions and wizard robes. There was a couple with big sorting hats perched on their heads eating a bag of chocolate covered frogs watching a little blonde girl waving a stick trying to pronounce 'Expecto Patronum'. They laughed when the girl's mother, looking like Minerva McGonagall's double, tried to get her to pronounce it correctly. Pa-tro-num, not Patnumb.

A few times he thought he saw Dumbledore pass, but closer looks proved them to be false-fake beards, hats, and powdered faces. A man who looked exceedingly like Arthur Weasley was babbling on about rubber ducks while a crowd of giggling girls dressed in Ravenclaw robes watched. He got a chill when a fake and young Voldemort walked past, complaining about how Sarah Fanshaw dumped him last week while Lucius's doppelganger, a woman, nodded sympathetically. There were muggles, all of them, standing around usually snapping photos, laughing, squealing for autographs, or talking excitedly.

Like Lily was doing now.

Not that he cared much. He was too busy soaking everything-her-in. If everything had been normal, he would've been disgusted, but it was hard to give a damn about anything at the moment with her voice clearly caressing his name like that.

"Severus, have you ever read the Dark Tower books? The ones by Stephen King?"

Snape looked at her blankly, and 'Lily'-it was her yet not her-laughed again. It was a bright wonderful noise that he almost couldn't handle, making his stomach flop. Also like the way she was leaving one hand to rest on his shoulder as she talked, and even tugged him a bit to keep a fifteen year old with a fake scar on his forehead from slamming into him as three of his friends gave chase with shopping bags.

"I'll take that as a 'no'. Hardly anybody does. Anyway, there's this kid called Jake Chambers that gets killed-twice-once in New York, and then again by the Gunslinger. There is something he says that always makes me cheer up about poor Snape. He says, 'Go then, there are other worlds than these,' right before he buys it."

Lily smiled nervously and removed her hand, much to Snape's disappointment.

"Yeah, I know it sounds a little nuts, but it comes back to me when I think about how poor old Snape dies and makes me feel better. Makes me feel like maybe he moved onto another world, maybe a parallel world or something, where there might not have been a James, where maybe he could've had Lily to himself for a change and live happily ever after."

She smiled, a grin that was both anxious and if not a little embarrassed.

"I know it sounds silly, but still, a girl can dream, right? I could…um…lend them to you, if you like…If you're curious…?"

Severus Snape started at her for a minute, still dazed, still utterly confused, but there was no pain. His neck didn't hurt anymore and it almost seemed like the attack had never happened. That none of it had. That the last sixteen years of his life hadn't been hell and he wasn't dead. That-that it was something his brain had-had mixed up with-

Her eyes were bright-vibrant with hope. Endless green.

He felt a little dizzy as his lips twitched and pulled up.

"…Sure. I'd like that a lot."

The explosion of a grin on her face was almost more than he could bear. It was a simple smile, but it caused something to flutter inside his chest. Suspiciously, he wondered if it was his heart as she looked down to the ground and blinked, full of surprise.

"Look, you dropped your name tag."

He did, watching her bend and her fingers pick up a small plastic badge that she dusted off as thoroughly as she had done his clothing. Costume-something whispered at the back of his head. Ignored it as she peered at it, and read the name off,

"Sherman Severn? Is that you?"

"Yes." His mouth jumped before he could consider it.

Of…of course it was. He still felt a little lightheaded, as well as a little foolish as his mind adjusted to the idea. Straightened out and became a little less foggy. For a minute there he had actually believed he'd been the Severus Snape. With that thought something heavy seemed to roll off his shoulders and he felt lighter. Newer. Different. He rubbed his neck nervously, over those old-bite mark-chicken pox scars as she stepped closer, making the distance between them less than a foot, and pinned it back on.

"Won't want to forget that, though I guess it's a little late. The convention's over."

Lily sounded morose at this. He smiled at her and was dully assailed by a voice-some voice-asking him after all this time? Always. You know you must be dreaming, don't you? He really had no idea what that voice was talking about. He was Sherman Severn. He'd been born in good old Rhode Island and had started reading Harry Potter when he was twelve.

Right?

That felt wrong in the back of his head, but it felt faded. A few more times of telling himself that and it would most definitely feel right. He could-pretend-remember it correctly if he said it a few more times. It must have been the smack on the head-

"Penny for your thoughts?" Lily was looking at him intently.

"Hm?" Sherman-Severus-no Sherman-asked before smiling again, aware that it still felt a little funny on his face-like he hadn't smiled in years, as if he'd been in hell- but no, that was impossible because he was here, standing next to Lily, and hoping his acting skills weren't trying to get the best of him. Severus Snape had loved Lily Evans to death. That he was most sure of.

"Ah-it's nothing. I'm still a little dizzy." He confessed.

"Really? Maybe you should sit down. I know a good coffee place, not far, a block away, that's still open. I could buy you a cup while you collect yourself. Would that be okay?"

That would be heaven.

"That would be great. Lead the way, Ms. Rigby. Or is it Mrs.…?"

"Oh God no. It's Miss, and just Lily is fine, if you don't mind." She said, maybe a little shyly, as she took his arm softly and started to lead him down the block, with the dispersing crowd around them. He didn't really care at all about them, or even where he was going, or even why he felt a little befuddled. Like he'd been-hexed-hit a little too hard.

"No, I don't mind at all…Lily."

Lily Rigby smiled, and when he asked her, she began to tell him about the books she was reading.

Book Dragon: "Good? Bad? I'm always looking for Criticism so flame me to your heart's content."