It is our choices...

Chapter 2- '…death is but the next great adventure'

Panting, Snape sprinted towards the Whomping Willow, hoping that Voldemort wouldn't realise how long it took him to answer his call. As he walked towards the door of the main bedroom, he could hear- feel the presence of the Dark Lord's many Death Eaters, congregating in excitement. The image disgusted Snape so much so that he didn't even realise he was feeling sympathy for the boy.

"Ah, at last Snape- I don't see the boy with you." Voldemort looked livid as he immediately captured Snape's eyes, apparently doing some vicious Legilimency. Snape remained as calm as possible, trying to stop the worry, anxiety and fear from taking over his mind. He needed to remain calm and indifferent. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Voldemort tore his eyes away from Snape's; he seemed satisfied that he was not being lied to.

"Enlighten me with the pathetic reason as to why the boy isn't with you."

"I spent the last half an hour looking for Potter, but with so many fighters, it was impossible to find him, my Lord. Please allow me to go back and-" Snape stopped speaking when he saw the evil grin violently spreading across his master's face.

"No Snape, you shall not leave my sight again for I have learnt that you are incapable of capturing the boy. So, for failing to obey orders, I think we'd," indicating his Death Eaters, "love to see you punished. And of course, as you know, I delight punishing wrongdoers." Although Voldemort was smiling, none of the other Death Eaters mimicked his expression except Bellatrix, who seemed greatly amused by her master's fetish for brutal punishment. Snape, on the other hand, felt his heart racing inside his chest, sweat building up on his palms and wished the Dark Lord would skip the punishment and cut to the chase- death.

"But before I get started, there is one other thing I must take care of." As Voldemort raised his wand, Snape was prepared to be hit with the Cruciatus curse, but was somewhat relieved when Voldemort pressed the point of the wand to his own throat and muttered, "sonorous."

"Harry Potter! I am surprised at your selfishness! You have let many of your fellow fighters die at the hand of my Death Eaters without even showing up for the battle yourself! I am tired of waiting! I give you half an hour to meet me in the dark forest. If you choose not to show up, I will enter the fray myself! You know I have no mercy!" A few screams echoed around Hogwarts grounds, undoubtedly people feared even more for their lives, now that Voldemort may be joining the battle.

Voldemort spun around to face Snape again, his red eyes gleaming in the wand light of his fellow Death Eaters who had lighted their wands upon entering the shack. Snape normally prided himself on his ability to keep an indifferent facial expression but somehow that mechanism was failing him at present. Snape knew he would be severely tortured for not capturing Harry Potter and couldn't believe he had sacrificed his life and sanity for the boy he has loathed for nearly seven years.

"I hope this will remind you that no one fails to obey my orders and gets away with it! CRUCIO!"

Snape began to writhe on the hard wooden floor as if having a seizure. Even though he had been tortured by his master before, it was never this painful. Usually he would be able to keep reasonably composed: grinding his teeth and groaning quietly, but at this moment, such composure was impossible. Snape began to scream and for many of the Death Eaters, they were witnessing a distressing moment. Although, many of the people in the room had watched several of their peers being tortured at the hand of the Dark Lord, none of them had ever seen Snape interact with their master, let alone tortured under the Cruciatus curse. Seeing their spy, Voldemort's upper-hand follower being tortured was an eye-opener, a daunting, somewhat traumatizing sight to witness.

Snape continued to twitch and scream. It felt like his muscles were tearing away from his bones and that if he yelled any longer his throat would tear from the intensity of his pain. Opening his eyes slightly, Snape saw Voldemort bearing over him, laughing his high pitched laugh of no mercy. To the Dark Lord's left was Lucius who seemed abnormally pale and wide eyed as he watched his friend being tortured before him. Snape noticed, for a split second, that Lucius seemed almost on the verge of telling his master to stop, but realised that not even Lucius would be that foolish of a man. Closing his eyes in an effort to block out the pain, Snape resumed screaming, wishing that the pain would stop. He wanted to die.

Harry had just left the contents of the Pensieve when he heard Voldemort's commanding voice echoing around Hogwarts grounds. So Voldemort was becoming impatient was he? Well now that Harry knew everything Dumbledore wanted him to know, he felt it was time to face his destiny.

Although Voldemort's orders occupied his mind momentarily, Harry was soon absorbed with the Pensieve and what he had seen- Snape's memories. But Harry was not concerned with the conversations the man had with Dumbledore, but his relationship with Lily. Harry was shocked that his original assumptions surrounding his potions master were so false; he had always thought of Snape as an angry, bitter man as they were the only emotions he ever saw him express. If someone told him, prior to seeing the memories, that Snape had loved someone, he would have denied it whole heartedly, perhaps even laughed. But it wasn't that Snape loved Lily, it was that he loved her so much that he, a Slytherin, would do anything for her. As far as Harry could see, that was love at its highest level and although Dumbledore always asserted Harry's great capacity to love, he wondered if Severus Snape would be able to match him, possibly beat him. However, what disturbed Harry the most was after all this time, neither Dumbledore nor Snape ever mentioned that Lily and Snape were friends let alone best friends and potential lovers. Although Snape made Dumbledore promise not to divulge his past to anyone, it strangely offended Harry that Snape did not trust him with such information; he really would have liked to have known- as strange as it would have been, at least he would have had some reassurance that Snape was in fact on the Order's side.

Harry never thought he would feel sorry for Snape, but as he left the headmaster's office, he truly hoped, for the first time in his life, that he would see Snape again; to tell him that he saw the memories and was sorry that he too, was a part of the plan for the 'greater good'. But most of all, he really wanted to talk about his mother, though he could hardly imagine Snape speaking to him about something so personal, he really wanted to know more about Lily.

Looking at his watch, Harry's heart leapt realizing he only had ten minutes until half an hour was up and he still needed to tell someone about killing Nagini. Running past many dead bodies, Harry tried to block the terrifying images from his mind as he jumped down the many flights of stairs, pushed open the large, oak doors and onto the lawn. Ahead he saw Neville who had just stunned a Death Eater and looked very pleased with himself.

"Hey, Harry! Are you okay? You look pale." Neville asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine Neville. But I need you to do me a favour."

"Sure Harry, anything."

"Do you know Nagini? Voldemort's pet snake?"

"Yeah, I know he has one."

"Okay, well if you get the chance you must kill the snake. Hermione and Ron already know this, but incase they are occupied with something else and you get the chance, promise me you'll try to kill her."

"Absolutely Harry, I promise, but why?"

Ignoring the question, Harry replied: "Thanks, Neville." Giving his friend a warm smile, Harry continued to walk towards the forest, remembering that death is but the next great adventure. He really hoped Dumbledore was right…

"Because I am such a generous, merciful master, I'll give you a break, Snape; we wouldn't want you to go insane like the Longbottoms would we?"

With that, Bellatrix let out a squeal of laughter, rubbing her hands together as if relishing the memory of what she did to Alice and Frank Longbottom and the pain she had caused them.

Snape was relieved that the Dark Lord had finally stopped, if only for a moment. He needed to catch his breath. Although he couldn't exactly prevent himself from screaming, he never realised until then, how exhausting it was. Every bone in his body ached and he felt sure that another round of Crucio would surely finish him off. He hoped it would.

"My Lord! Harry Potter is running into the forest!" asserted Yaxley, as he continued to watch Harry from the window.

"Has it been half an hour already? Well, Snape, to be honest I am surprised you have survived this long." Snape didn't answer, but silently agreed with his master, he couldn't believe it either.

"Well what are you all waiting for? Get out of here! We must meet the boy before he escapes again!" All of the Death Eaters scrambled to get out of the room and down the passage way, hoping to get to the clearing first and a better view of what was about to occur: one of the greatest wizarding battles of all time. When all except Voldemort, Nagini and Snape had left, the Dark Lord kicked Snape on his side, coaxing him to get up and follow the rest. Snape groaned saying, "my Lord, I'll be there in a minute, I just need-"

"Do you think you have the permission to take a break? To rest a little, perhaps? No, Snape! If you fail to obey me for a second time, then I have no other choice." Snape closed his eyes, praying that the Dark Lord was about to kill him.

"I do regret this, Snape; you truly have been a valuable asset, but I only accept the best, the most loyal and tonight you have failed to impress me," Voldemort whispered menacingly.

Snape opened his eyes when he heard the hissing noises that followed and looked up at Nagini who was been released from her magical sphere. Although Snape had no idea what Voldemort ordered the snake to accomplish he had no doubt that Nagini's objective was to kill. Snape could feel the cold blooded creature sliding towards him along the wooden floor. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Dark Lord whisk out of the room, his black cloak traveling behind him, laughing as he left. Turning to his other side, Snape saw Nagini slithering towards him. Too weak to move, Snape felt helpless as he lay on the ground waiting for the inevitable. Although he had the blood replenishing potions and anti-venom in his pockets, he knew they would not be of any use if Nagini was ordered to eat him for dinner.

A loud hiss from the snake told him she was about to strike and sure enough, the sharp pincers dug into his shoulder as if his skin and bones were nothing but sand. Snape screamed as the snake venom began to coarse through his body; he could feel his muscles tensing up and his warm blood oozing out of the bite.

Hoping that the snake would take another bite to finish the job, Snape was disappointed when she disappeared.

At first, Snape didn't understand what had happened, but soon realised that if Harry was putting up any sort of fight, Voldemort would want his snake beside him, to keep her safe. No doubt, Voldemort expected Nagini to have completed her job and, like Dumbledore had guessed, Tom would never have considered that someone as useless and disobedient as Severus could ever find a way to survive an attack by Lord Voldemort.

Realising that he had a chance of survival, Snape spent a few seconds contemplating if he wanted to survive. He knew that the injury to his shoulder was serious, but unfortunately not serious enough to cause death in a matter of minutes; it may take an hour for him to die and Snape wasn't sure he wanted to suffer for so long. Concluding that he wanted to live, at least for now (if Voldemort found out he was still alive, then he'd probably regret his choice), Snape tore a section off his robes and held it to his wound to prevent any more blood loss. However, the effort it took to hold the material in place was using up most of the man's energy. Taking deep breaths, Snape used his legs and body to maneuver himself into a sitting position. One by one, Snape reached into his pocket to retrieve his blood replenishing potions and anti-venom. Using his wand, which was surprisingly still intact after all of his writhing and thrashing, Snape uncorked all of the bottles and downed each of them, not caring about the disgusting taste that filled his insides whenever he swallowed. Continuing to breathe deeply, Snape waited in silence for the potions to have some effect on him. Eventually, the man felt he had enough energy to crawl pathetically across the ground towards the door.

It took only five minutes for Snape to reach the entrance to the Whomping Willow, but to the man it felt like an eternity as it was a very slow process. Finally touching the cool grass, Snape rested, still holding the now damp piece of cotton on his wound. Now that he was out in the open, he feared that Voldemort may find him and possibly subject him to even more torture before killing him in what would hopefully be a painless death. But disobeying the Dark Lord by not dying as he ordered would likely prompt Voldemort to ask Greyback to do his dirty work for him. Snape shuddered at the thought.

Slowly, Snape slid further and further away from the Whomping Willow, although he did not know exactly who he could turn to. If the Death Eaters found out he was alive, he would undoubtedly be dead within moments, because while Voldemort's followers were loyal to him they were hardly loyal to each other. There was no way he could return to the Hogwart's staff or the Order of the Phoenix after he 'murdered' Dumbledore the previous year. He especially didn't like the look on Minerva McGonagall's face when he asked to see Harry back in the castle, it was clear that she was not about to forgive him any time soon. Unfortunately, the only person Snape could potentially turn to was Potter, but the likelihood of him surviving his trip into the forest, Snape knew, was slim.

As if on cue, an escalation of cheers was heard from the forest, and knowing that Harry would not have brought a cheer squad to his death, he assumed that Voldemort had won. Although he hoped the boy would be victorious over the Dark wizard, he never really believed it possible. The prophecy is one thing, but a mediocre wizard beating one of the best of all time was another. Although Snape was beginning to admit that Harry deserved more credit for his achievements, he was not willing to accept Harry's defeat over Voldemort, as much as he would like for it to happen, he knew it was foolish, wishful thinking, something that Albus Dumbledore was reknowned for.

Suddenly a large man was seen walking solemnly out of the forest. Snape tried to focus his eyes, but it was difficult due to the tears of pain that were blurring his vision. He wished he hadn't spent so much time thinking about the boy; it seemed to have drained most of his energy. Concentrating on the man once again, he noticed the stature belonged to Hagrid and that a limp body was lying in his arms.

Potter.

This realization caused Snape's thoughts to drift, no to death or to Voldemort but to Harry and whether the boy had the opportunity to look at his memories. If so, he hoped Harry died knowing that he, Severus Snape, was only trying to help.

Realising that all hope was lost, Snape passed out.

A/N: I realise that I did not mention the Elder Wand in this chapter. So just to clarify, the Elder Wand still exists (as in DH) and if Snape did bring Harry back to Voldemort, Voldemort would have killed Harry and then killed Snape because of the Elder Wand. However, because Snape didn't bring Harry back, Voldemort decided to kill Snape for disobedience and didn't bother mentioning the Elder Wand.

Also, the memories Harry sees in the Pensieve and what happens in the forest, including the Kings cross chapter, also happen in my story, but I didn't see the point in me reiterating what JK Rowling wrote. I just thought I should tell you that these things occurred because they will be important for later.

The next chapter has already been written: '… with your head held high.' I'll put it up shortly.

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