Summary: Severus Snape looked into the mirror of Erised and marveled at what he saw.
An: To get back to writing I took on a challenge, The Mirror of Erised Competition to be exact, started by lost in my design. Through some crazy miracle I got the character I wanted my first go. So without further ado here is-
A Moment
"You asked me to come directly to you Professor, if anyone was wandering around at night, and somebody's been in the library- Restricted Section." Filch said with relish, a pleased grin crossed his lips and he flashed browning teeth. He looked very much like a happy dog that had done something he knew to be pleasing to his master. Severus could name that look anywhere, he had seen it on many a worshipful Death Eater during a meeting, on a raid… after a kill. He mentally shook his head and outwardly frowned at Flitch.
"The Restricted Section? Well they can't be far, we'll catch them." With that Severus turned on his heel and stormed down the hallway, black eyes glittering with malice. It must have been Quirrell, he was almost sure of it and his heart rate increased at the thought of finally catching the man doing something out of the ordinary. He had been cautious after the troll attack on Halloween and had been treading as carefully as a Slytherin since.
What had he been looking for that would warrant a risky late night trip to the Restricted Section? It was out of character for the stuttering man. He was startled out of his thoughts by an abrupt scuffling sound, like trainers on the stone just up ahead. His hand went to his wand and he abruptly turned the corner, a spell ready on the tip of his tongue.
But the hallway was empty. Severus didn't relax though, there were many ways to hide one's self if one didn't wish to be found, and Severus was confident he knew almost all of them. He strained his ears, listing for that faint shuffle he had caught before, but his concentration was broken by Filch's wheezing as he pulled up alongside Severus. Mrs. Norris was, as always, at his side curling around one leg contently and gazing around the hallway.
"No sign of them sir." Snape inwardly groaned, he could have found something if Filch didn't bumble about!
"Go on ahead, I will continue searching here." With a sharp nod the man shuffled forward, the cat trotting after him, only pausing briefly to sniff at an half open doorway before charging after her master.
'An open doorway?' His eyes narrowed and silent as a ghost he moved forward, sliding into the room without a whisper of his movements and what he saw in the empty classroom surprised him to no end. It was the Potter boy, standing in front of a giant ornate mirror. He had a silvery cloak wrapped around his skinny shoulders that he didn't seem to notice was slipping off. So this was the intruder in the restricted section, and he had an Invisibility Cloak. Some dark part of Severus' heart roared in rage at the sight of it and of the boy concealed inside it. 'Just like his father, arrogant enough to think he can do anything he wants just because he can-' He was ready to go over and snatch the cloak off of that scrawny body, to take so many points from Gryffindor it would make his head spin, and give him so many detentions he would never even consider wandering about at night again. But then he heard the boy whisper one word, and that one word was enough to stop him in his tracks.
"Mum?" Severus froze, just inches from the boy who- despite looking in a mirror- hadn't seen him yet. 'Lily?' disbelievingly Severus Snape looked into the mirror and marveled at what he saw. Lily, alive and well, her green eyes glowing with happy tears, her hair as sleek and as red as he remembered, her smile as elated as he had ever seen it. She stood in-between himself and Potter and he watched as one of her delicate hands went to her son's shoulder and the other went to him. His fingers twitched as he felt the ghost of something slide over his palm and settle in his hand and just for a moment as he stared into the depths of the mirror, he let himself believe that it was her standing by his side, her fingers laced with his, her palm pressing against his. He squeezed his hand gently and he saw the Potter boy reach up to touch where her hand was in the mirror.
They both stood like that for a minute, allowing the reflection of a dead woman to comfort them- if only for a moment. The moment was broken though when the boy turned, his eyes hazy like he had been drugged, and for the first time he noticed Severus standing there. He flinched as if he had been struck and backed away as quickly as he could, stumbling over his too large cloak and falling flat on his back.
"Professor!" He gasped out as he tried to get to his feet. Severus looked down at the boy as he struggled to stand, still numb from the grief that had reared its ugly head for the first time in a long while, and then he did the worst possible thing he could have done. He looked the boy in the eye.
'He looks so like his mother…' Severus thought, and he saw Lily in those eyes, those too green eyes he had loved as a boy, and his heart broke all over again. Something of that emotion must have shone through because Potter froze like a startled deer.
"Sir?" The boy whispered "Are- are you alright?" Severus didn't answer and Harry warily glanced back at the mirror, pressing his lips together tightly as if trying to refrain from saying anything else. But the boy was a Gryffindor for a reason, and so he asked-
"Can you see her too?" Severus' face betrayed nothing as he stared down, emotionless now, at the boy.
"Yes Mr. Potter, I can see her." His voice came out gentler then he had intended, like it had when Lily was around when they were children, and that gentleness must have emboldened Potter to continue interrogating him.
"She is my mother isn't she?" He blurted out in quiet desperation "I'm not wrong right?"
'He doesn't know what she looks like?' He wondered at that for a moment before realizing that Potter was expecting an answer. The look in his eyes was one of pure hunger, a silent longing for information on the mother he never knew.
"She is. But she is dead and gone Mr. Potter, this mirror cannot bring her back, nothing can." He was talking to himself as much as the boy, using every ounce of willpower he had not to look back at the smooth cool glass as the darkness of the mirror caressed the edges of his mental shields.
"I know sir." The dead tone of his voice made Severus look over at him and he saw something in the boy he never expected to see-himself, and that scared him more than anything else had in a very long time. 'What was he doing in the Restricted Section?' The thought panicked him, because he knew what he had done at Potter's age, he was looking up spells, dark spells.
'Oh Lily have I failed you already?' Keep the boy safe; that had been his promise, his silent vow, his unfulfilled debt. The boy turning dark would completely shatter it. With a roughness that made the boy cry out in pain, he grabbed him by the shoulders and desperately looked into those fear laced eyes, diving into his mind before he could struggle. He saw what the boy saw he knew what the boy knew and he saw no darkness in him only a name- Nicolas Flamel.
'He knows,' Severus thought in shock 'He knows about the stone.' Not to mention the boy thought he was the one who wanted it for the Dark Lord. He sighed and pulled out to look at the boy who was shaking badly after Severus intrusion.
"What did you do to me?" He asked half angry, half dazed as Severus raised his wand (Which he only just noticed was still in his hand) causing the boy to blink in alarm at it before trying to back away.
"Obliviate." The boy's eyes crossed and went unfocused.
"You will not remember seeing me here, as far as you know you got away without notice." Potter nodded. Severus was tempted to take the memory of the mirror away from him as well but then he remembered the desperate whisper begging him to tell him if the woman in the mirror was really his mother. He deserved to at least see her once, he decided; there would be no harm in that. Severus would alert the headmaster about the boy's nighttime wanderings in the morning so it wouldn't happen again.
The boy's eyes started to regain focus as the spell started to wear off and Severus quickly left the room. He walked down the hallway as quickly as could, trying to put as much distance between himself and the boy and the mirror as possible, wanting nothing more than to go back to his quarters and collapse after the surges of raw emotion he had thought long buried.
It was not meant to be.
Filch came around the corner wheezing and sputtering like an old Muggle car. His back was bowed with exhaustion and he only straightened up when he saw Severus.
"No sign of them professor," His pale eyes were dull in disappointment, put gleamed suddenly as if he had only just realized something "I didn't check the sixth floor though!" The mad grin was firmly back on the man's face.
"There will be no need for that, just continue to patrol around the third floor for the rest of the night." The old squib looked up at him curiously.
"You normally patrol there professor," Snape's lip curled and Filch flinched back, his shoulders slumping slightly "But I don't see the harm in looking after it for you…." Severus nodded sharply and pushed past Filch, causing Mrs. Norris to hiss irritably at him as he stalked away.
"Now, now my sweet," the squib purred at the feline "Professor Snape gave us an important job. No need to be upset." Severus didn't hear anything more as he rounded the corner and continued toward the staircases. His eyes were sharp as he headed toward his private rooms; mercy on anyone who would get in his way, even his favored Slytherins would find no quarter in their favorite teacher should any of them be unlucky enough to be caught.
There was no further incident on his way to his rooms, much to the man's relief, and he instantly went to his potions cabinet after relieving himself of his heavy black cloak. His slender fingers searched through each of his vials before finding the one he was looking for, Dreamless Sleep.
Normally his occlumency would have done the job for him, but tonight he did not trust himself to block out the images of her. He downed the bitter brew in a single gulp, used to the foul taste of potions, and carefully moved over to his bed, collapsing down amongst the sterile white sheets. He welcomed the darkness as it came, and although he would never admit it to anyone, he could have sworn that, for a moment, he caught a flicker of red hair and green eyes as he fell into a dreamless sleep.