Disclaimer: Oh maaaaannnnnnnn. I sooo wish I owned it…..
Dusk
Waiting somewhat calmly for his vision to return, Draco heard a familiar, resonating drawl that fairly sliced through the whiteness, enlightening the blond to his most recent guide's presence.
"Master Malfoy."
"Godfather?" Draco squinted as a small, bare park came into view.
Indeed, it was his Godfather and former Professor. The tall man, with his conservative black wizard's robes, contrasted violently with the colourful plastic play equipment as he stood in the centre of the ghostly park. It almost would have been funny, but for the obvious importance the location held in Severus Snape's heart.
The older man gazed fondly over the grassy, deserted area, before gliding in his usual manner to where Draco waited, patient and respectful. Occasionally, one of his spindly hands would be raised to brush over a piece of the equipment, a twitch of his lips in remembrance of happy memories.
"Change comes to all beings eventually, Draco." Snape breathed, coming to a halt in front of the blond Slytherin, his black cloak curling around his legs with the cessation of movement.
Without pause for Draco to comment, the hook-nosed fellow let his eyes glance to the swing set as the air around them began to distort. The trees, whose branches only moments before had borne no leaves, began to grow healthy green foliage, transforming the desolate park into a haven.
The sun poked gently out from behind an angry looking black cloud, causing the puddles on the ground to glint, rippling when water droplets fell from the overhanging branches.
Snape remained silent, staring toward the rusty gate as if waiting for something to happen. He wasn't disappointed. In only a few moments, the sound of girlish laughter could be heard in the distance, gradually increasing in strength as the strangers approached the park.
Two girls, young, the taller perhaps only twelve or thirteen, wandered through the old, metal gate and headed straight for the swings. The older girl had dark hair, pulled back into a severe pony tail from her angular face, and wore a matching, salmon-pink and white checked skirt and shirt combination with teal trimming.
Bouncing beside her was a flame haired child; the angular face she shared with her sister only enhanced her pretty character, giving an entirely polar effect to the stern expression it gave her sister.
"Lily!" The older girl exclaimed as the red haired child – Lily - ran past her, laughing, in order to claim the swing that did not have a large puddle of water below it despite the recent rainfall.
It was only then that Draco noticed another child in the park. One glance at the innocuous, hook-nosed, pale boy who sat beneath the cubby-house, his coal black eyes focussed intently on the red head, and Draco realised he was seeing a very young Severus Snape.
The girls were clearly muggle, judging by their clothes, and Draco wondered briefly of the purpose of his seeing this memory. Curious, he turned to his Godfather.
Snape's face held an expression of uninhibited grief and love, almost frightening in its sincerity.
The two girls were continuing to speak, unaware of their watchful company, until very suddenly Lily jumped from the swing.
"'Tunie, look." She pointed directly at the young-Snape, having finally seen him sitting beneath the play equipment where it was dry. "There's a boy under the cubby house."
"I'm going to ask if he wants to play hide and seek." Lily was already halfway to the young Severus, who was looking decidedly pink in the cheeks as he pretended he hadn't been staring at the girl, when 'Tunie' grabbed her arm, preventing her from doing so.
"No, Lily. You don't know who he is, and besides he looks weird." The older girl said, frowning as she took in Severus' peculiar choice of clothes that included a striped wizard's cloak several sizes too big and a pair of bright orange shoes.
Lily pouted.
"You're so rude and awful Petunia Evans!" The younger girl roused, wrenching her arm out of her sister's grip. And suddenly, a rather large pile of mud rose up and splattered itself against the salmon coloured outfit.
Petunia screamed in disgust, glaring at Lily before turning on her heel and running out of the park towards their home.
Lily's face was flushed due to her annoyance and anger, but she composed herself quickly and smiled at the young Severus, who looked amazed, his shyness abandoned for the time being.
"You're a witch!" He exclaimed, to receive a troubled look from the freckled girl.
The scene blurred and the sounds faded, changing to show the two children; Severus, this time, was lying in the grass, under the generous shade created by the large trees. Lily had a radiant smile gracing her features, and Severus was clearly besotted as he watched her kick out her legs to gain height on the rickety swing set, blushing faintly when she grinned at him, and returning a shy smile of his own.
Then, the scene blurred once again and Lily was older, maybe fifteen, but no longer smiling, no longer defying gravity on the old swings.
Young Severus was nowhere to be seen, and Draco watched as his Professor reached out a hand as if to touch her face, pulling back at the last second when she let out a hiccough, barely restraining the tears threatening to fall. She jumped off the swing, letting it rattle heavily as she ran from the park, red hair streaming behind her, untamed.
A movement from the bushes alerted Draco to the young Severus' presence. He was hidden in shadow, and carried a pained expression as he watched the fleeing girl. The blond turned to his Godfather as the park returned to its deserted state; empty of memories but for the ones in Draco's mind.
"That was Lily Evans." He said, stunned. He hadn't realised the connection between his Godfather and rival's mother.
"It was." Snape replied, not looking at the boy. "She was twenty-one when she died, Draco. And it was, indirectly, my fault." He wandered to where the swing sat, suspended in the air and rocking as breeze that Draco could not feel travelled past them.
"It was her death that caused my life to change so drastically." Snape continued silkily, despite the ill-disguised pain that seeped into his voice. "Sixteen years, I lived with the knowledge that it was I who caused the Dark Lord to crave their deaths…the death of their son.
"Sixteen years I asked her forgiveness…but I could never receive it. She resided in a place that could not give it to me." Snape looked distant in his memories of Lily, deep set pain underlying his vampiric features.
"Lily's eyes were the last thing I saw in Life." Snape added this final phrase almost wistfully.
Draco opened his mouth to argue that point – after all, Lily had been dead for nearing two decades when Snape had died – but no words came out as he suddenly registered his Godfather's meaning, and how much he had suffered during their years at Hogwarts.
Harry Potter - the Boy-Who-Lived. It was the one thing which everyone noted: he was the spitting image of his father, apart from his eyes. He had his mother's eyes.
Every single day, for almost seven Years, Professor Snape had been forced to watch his childhood rival's doppelganger wander the very halls he had as a young and naïve wizard, and then, in those rare instances that their eyes would meet, in anger and disgust…he would be reminded that the boy before him was not James Potter. Because Lily's emerald green eyes would stare back at him, defiant and flaming as if Lily herself was the one seeing through them, seeing straight through him.
Draco's discovery was quelled by Snape's deep voice, as it broke through the eerie silence.
"You were lucky, Draco." Severus was standing close to him now, and as he spoke he placed a pale hand on his Godson's shoulder, squeezing ever so lightly. "Luckier than many."
The white light illuminated the park, and the weight of Severus' hand on his shoulder faded away when Draco closed his eyes.
'Kay. So that one was surprisingly harder than I thought it was going to be. Probably because there were a couple of days between writing these thingamadooeys. I was on a huge roll before and then I was like, um, what now? =D
Anway! That was chapter four. R+R chums.