A/N Hello everyone, thank you so much for your reviews! Huge love to everyone who has kept reading until this point! :)

Also, as this story is AU, Snape never loved Lily and Harry has never cast a Patronus before: I sort of play around with the idea of Patronuses in this chapter; you'll see what I mean.

Harry woke to find his arm aching from the cold. Confused he turned his head to look at his arm to find out what was wrong, when he remembered that he had fallen asleep holding hands with Snape. For once, Harry was awake before his mentor and he smiled as he studied the sleeping figure of Severus; whose hand was still firmly locked with his own. Reluctantly, Harry twisted his aching hand out of the embrace and winced as pins and needles tingled their way down the entire length of his arm. Snape stirred and sighed before he too woke up. Harry sat up on the bed, secretly feeling quite smug to be awake before Snape for once and waited patiently for the Potions Master to get up and realise.

Snape blinked his eyes groggily and stretched out his back. He noticed that his arm felt slightly numb as if he had been sleeping on it funny. Once he had finally wiped the remaining sleep from his eyes he stared in shock at the Harry, hugely surprised that he was already awake and seemingly quite alert. "Good morning, Harry," said Snape,

"Morning Severus" replied Harry cheerily. Harry's tone caught Snape off guard. Sure, they had been getting on better recently, but even so, it surprised him that Harry didn't have his usual surly tone in his voice. What had happened to make the boy so...Happy? Thought Snape, perhaps it's because we are nearly there but-

Oh...That.

Realisation of the previous night's events dawned on Snape, an instant surge of shame washed over him. It was so unfair to Potter. He shouldn't do this to him. It was cruel to raise the young boy's hope, only to have them come crashing down again; it could never work between them.

Ever.

End of.

Snape sighed sadly; he knew what he had to do, but desperately didn't want to do it. He felt something for the boy; there was no denying that, but he knew that the right thing to do would be to ignore these emotions; he had managed to do that for the past 30 years of his life, so why not now?

He placed his head in his hands, before resolving to go to Feldmann's Realm and return as quickly as possible.

"Come on, Potter. Let's go." He said, shortly, before stepping out of the tent in one fluid movement.

Harry felt taken aback by Snape's brusqueness; had he done something to upset his mentor? Confused, he got to his feet and humbly followed Snape out of the tent. Disappointment crept through his body, leaving him feeling numb and empty; he thought he was getting on well with Snape, now he was back to being known simply as Potter again.

Harry thought over what had happened in the past few days; they had been close. They laughed together, worked together even...even held hands. "It was all a mistake" Harry thought "of course Snape doesn't feel that way about me; what was I thinking? He was probably asleep and I just held his hand. That must be why he woke up after me, he was just pretending so that I could let go of his hand...Oh God." Embarrassment plagued Harry's mind as he trudged after Snape. Harry hated himself for misreading Snape's emotions. Now he had blown it; he and Snape just weren't meant to be friends or...anything else.

A surge of self pity washed over Harry and a single tear rolled down his nose, which he wiped away furiously, determined not to show weakness in front of Snape. The tear, however, was quickly replaced by two more, then two again, until Harry's body was shaking with uncontrollable crying as he crumpled to the floor, burying his head in his hands.

Great; now he had made the boy cry. You bastard, Snape told himself. You should never have held his hand!

"Come on Harry, there's only about 30 minutes of walking left," tried Snape. The only effect this seemed to have had was to make the boy cry even harder. Snape was shocked and horrified, he never wanted to hurt Harry; he felt so selfish, allowing his feelings to come before the well being of the boy. But seeing Harry there, crying on the floor, only made Snape want to go up to him and comfort the boy; to hold him in his arms. Snape took a tentative step closer and placed his hand awkwardly on Harry's shoulder.

The boy flinched at the touch and pulled away slightly. He lifted his baleful eyes to look into Snape's.

"I...I thought," He croaked, his voice cracking as he broke into another fresh waves of tears.

"Harry. I was wrong to lead you on. You know it can't ever work between us, I didn't want to hurt you, and it's just-"

"Bit late for that, isn't it?" Harry spat.

Harry's harsh words were like a knife in Snape's heart; it pained him greatly to know that Harry probably detested him once more. Snape's heart ached to reach out to the boy; to hold him close and comfort him. His brain, however, told him that a teacher-pupil relationship would never work; it could end up with Snape sacked, perhaps even sent to Azkaban. Snape was in utter turmoil, he didn't know what to do;

-Do what he and Harry wanted at the risk of everything Snape had worked for?

-Or carry on: forever living with the wonder of "what if"?

After what seemed like an age of hesitation, Snape gave in to his heart; he sat down on the grass next to Harry and wrapped his arms around the boy's frail shoulders.

"Oh, Harry," Snape murmured, "we shouldn't be doing this." He pressed his face into Harry's soft, silky hair.

"I don't care," said Harry eventually; by now he had stopped crying and simply leaned into Snape's chest.

Snape allowed himself to relax into their embrace. No-one need know he told himself. The sun was now high in the sky so, reluctantly, Snape suggested that they continue walking on the Feldmann's Realm.

Harry knew the moment wouldn't last, and that they would soon be walking onwards again. He didn't want this journey to end; he would have liked to have stayed in the forest of DreamAcre for ever more. He let a small smile creep onto his face; Snape did like him after all, moreover: He was awake when they held hands last night.

The two of them walked side by side, hand in hand as they made their way to Feldmann's Realm. "Severus, Why did Nuru call you DeerWalker?" asked Harry; truth was, this question had been playing on his mind for quite some time, but the opportunity never arose to query it, until now.

"Well, Harry; it's quite simple really. Nuru called me DeerWalker because my Patronus charm is in the form of a doe,"

"A patronus charm?"

"I would have thought you would have learnt about Patronuses by now, Harry. None the less; a Patronus is a charm used to drive away Dementors or Lethifolds; a fully formed Patronus can drive them away completely. However, it is the form that the Patronus takes that is interesting; it is said to reflect ones personality, my Patronus is a doe," explained Snape.

Harry nodded, taking the information in before asking, "How do you cast one? I don't know what animal mine is; I think it would be interesting to find out."

"Okay. Here's what you do; think of a memory, a happy one. Allow yourself to fully relive it, lose yourself in it then, when you feel you are ready; say the words: "Expecto Patronum"

Harry centred himself, he thought back to earlier that day, when he was wrapped in Snape's arms; he felt the softness of his cloak, recalled the scent of him and the feel of being completely protected... "Expecto Patronum!" Harry released the positive energy within him and felt a surge of elation as a streak of blue shot from his wand, landing in a small clearing before him.

Harry squinted his eyes so that he could see the form that the Patronus took...It was a stag.

The two men watched as the stag flickered slightly, before vanishing into the air.

"That's...interesting." Breathed Snape.

"How so?" Asked Harry

"Well, Harry. Remember how I said the animals reflect the personality of its caster? Well they say that two of the same animals, say for instance a doe and a stag, indicate a deep connection between the two casters...A soulmate." Snape scuffed his feet and looked sheepishly at the floor, a hint of pink highlighting his strong cheek-bones.

"So that means we're meant to be together," whispered Harry.

"Yeah," said Snape "it does."

A comfortable silence fell between them. Harry smiled;

"That means you're the girl then," He said, cheekily, before dissolving into a snort of laughter.

"Humph," grunted Snape, "come on, we are meant to be there by now, hurry up," he strode off quickly letting his cloak billow behind him. Harry didn't care though; he could hear the playfulness in Snape's voice and eagerly jogged along the catch up with his soulmate.

There's no denying now, thought Snape, I can't stop myself for feeling this way about him, but now...now I think I will accept whatever consequences, if any, there might be. They is no denying the bond of a soulmate.

As the two of them reach the brow of the hill, the sun seared down, making them shield their eyes with their hands. When they had eventually adjusted to the brightness, they saw before them a small, unassuming arch; Standing alone in a small glade. Snape smiled; they had made it.

"Severus, is that it?" asked Harry, sounding somewhat unimpressed, "I would have expected something more...grand"

"Great things come in small packages, Harry," retorted Snape, "Besides; you got a Dragon didn't you?"

"So, now what?" Harry asked, a note of nervousness highlighting his voice.

"Well...we have to wait for Feldmann; he is the wizard who created this passage to the Realm. When he arrives, which shouldn't be too long now, we simply enter the Arch and leave our bodies. Don't worry though; as the ArchKeeper and founder, it is his duty to guard our bodies from harm whilst our minds are elsewhere."

As soon as Snape has spoken these words, a small pop was heard and a tall man with elfin features appeared through the silvery sheen of the mirror.

"Hello again, Severus," he said; his voice was deep and powerful. "And welcome Harry, I am Feldmann. I guard this passageway to another realm. Once you enter, it will feel almost like this world with a few surprises that no doubt you will discover."

Harry blinked, struggling to take in the barrage of information. Since words escaped him, he simply just nodded.

"Are you both ready?" He asked.

In reply, the two men nodded.

"Very well," said Feldmann "when you wake up, you will have reached my kingdom, good luck."

Harry felt a sensation bubble through it chest; it rose to fill his whole body and he was sure that he would explode at any moment. Black spots began to dance in Harry's eyes and he blinked furiously to try to clear them...

"Don't fight it" A wispy voice entered his mind and Harry let go. All was black and he was falling into a sea of black.

Sorry for being a bit late with the update.

I hope you enjoyed it! :)

Also, just to clear things up, Feldmann can enter the Realm in his body form because he designed the place, so he essentially is a VIP and has a backstage pass etc. etc. Also, it just fits better :P

Thank you for reading!

Love Tally x