The beautiful face of Lily Evans was in front of him.

Before Snape had time to do or say anything, a short burst of liquid squirted from one of the nozzles, the acid landing on Lily's shoulder and seconds later, another squirt of acid sprayed on her lower back. She screamed out, her eyes wide and her mouth gaping open, as the acid ate away at her body, her flawless skin burning and blistering where the acid had hit her.

Snape stared, his whole body numb with shock and non responsive.

The next one landed on her chest. Snape's ears were ringing with the sound of her blood curdling screams as she struggled against the chain she hung by, dark red blood flowing from her multiple burn wounds and forming a small pool under her. She slipped on her own blood and would have toppled if not for the shackles holding her arms firmly in place.

Snape's lower lip was trembling. He had no idea what he should do. He wasn't sure he could take any more of watching Lily Evens being burned alive, he didn't even want to contemplate the alternative. He heard a distant clatter, and looked around in surprise to see where the noise had came from, trying without success to ignore the continuous screaming. There was no one else in the room.

He looked down in surprise to see that his wand was on the floor. His shaking hand had dropped it. He stared at the wand as though he had just seen it. It would just take two words.

"Please…"

Snape looked up with fear in his heart. Lily was sobbing. She stared directly at him through her bright green eyes.

"…please make it stop…"

Snape shook his head. He can't. He just couldn't bring himself to end the life of the woman he loved.

Your next test is one of Acceptance.

The next jet of acid hit Lily's face.

"No!" this time it was Snape who shouted out, his hands outstretched in a gesture of denial as Lily screamed worse than ever as her beautiful features were burned away by the Hydrochloric acid. She threw her head back and screamed out in pure agony, the muscles in her neck taut.

She was unrecognizable. Her face was a raw, bloody mask and her body resembled a large chunk of raw meat. Most of her skin was gone, burned away by the acid. Her pretty red hair fell away as he watched. But the jets of acid did not stop, but continued to eat away at her flesh.

"PLEASE!" she screamed, her mouth a hideous grin, for her lips had been burned away. Her eyes, with their lids burned off, were perfectly round in her bony sockets, "PLEASE MAKE IT STOP! I CAN'T-"

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Her screams were cut off abruptly, and her mask of a head fell sideways onto her bloody shoulders and her eyes rolled up. She was dead.

Snape fell to his knees, his body shaking with uncontrollable grief. The wand he had picked up mere seconds ago rolled to the floor from his numb fingers. He shook with suppressed sobs as wave after wave of grief hit him. Even as the tears flowed, he wondered why he was crying. He felt sure it wasn't for the dead, broken woman who hung by her hands before him. No matter how much he tried to fool himself, he knew that this wasn't Lily Evans. Sure she looked like Lily. Even her eyes. But she had lacked something that Lily Evans had always had. Spirit.

So why was he crying?

In the end it dawned on Snape, as he clambered unsteadily to his feet, that he was crying for the plassing on of the real Lily Evans. The one who had been murdered because of him. His tears were a part of accepting that she was gone, and he was the one responsible, and that he had to do everything in his power to make sure she didn't die in vain.

A door in the other end of the room opened.

Snape scrambled to get the wand, scooped it up and pointed it towards the door that now stood ajar. No one seemed to be anywhere near the door, so after a moment's hesitation, Snape walked towards it. Stopping only for a second, he cautiously walked through the doorway.

What the?! Snape stared at his surroundings, dumbfounded. He seemed have walked into a kind of workshop. Dozens of tables stood all around him, strange metallic devices and life sized plastic dummies lying on them. The floor was cement and the walls looked like they had not been painted for years.

Snape walked in between the tables, his eyes roaming around the room wearily. His wand twitched in his hand as he held it aloft, ready if anyone were to pounce unexpectedly on him. After the unexpected revelation in the previous room, he was convinced that he was dealing with a wizard.

Suddenly, his eyes fell on a table in the other end of the workshop. There were two reasons his attention had fallen on this particular table. The first reason was that unlike the other tables, it was completely bare. And the second was because a man stood behind the table with his back to Snape. This man was medium height and had short, white hair. He wore a black trench coat with it's hood down. He seemed not to have noticed Snape, for he was poring over something Snape couldn't see.

Careful not to make any noise, Snape walked closer to the table, his wand pointing directly at the man's back. He was about two steps from the table when the man straightened up. Snape stiffened, gripping his wand hard.

"Hello Severus." His voice was chilling. The man turned around to face him. His face was pale, so much so that he might have been a vampire. He had sharp features. His thin lips had a slight smile stretched across them. His nose was somewhat like Dumbledore's though not nearly as crooked or as long. But it was his eyes that made a shiver go down Snape's spine. The man had blue eyes, but they were not warm or twinkling like Dumbledore's. In fact, they resembled two chips of ice.

Without knowing how he knew it, Snape realized that he was finally face to face with the man who had kidnapped him.

The man seemed to have guessed what was going through his mind. He smiled, his cold blue eyes regarding Snape with amusement.

"I don't believe we've been introduced," the man said, coolly disregarding the wand Snape was still pointing at him, "my name is John Kramer. And make no mistake," he added as an afterthought, " I am the one who is responsible for you being here."

At that moment Snape noticed what the man had been poring over before. Another involuntary chill ran down his spine; it was the puppet. The eerie puppet who had dictated the terms of his tests. Now it sat lifelessly on the table behind Kramer. Snape looked back at him. Kramer was still studying him with mind curiousity.

"Why?" Snape asked, his wand still on Kramer.

"Because it's what I do Severus. I don't imagine a wizard would know of my work, though. But I assure you that regular people, or muggles, as you call them, are quite familiar with what I do, although I have to admit that they have the mistaken impression that I actually kill people." He seemed disgusted by the mere thought of it. He shrugged, sighing, "but come now, we're running out of time. Or at least, you are." He shot Snape another amused gaze. "please do have a seat, and be ready to face your final test."

"There will be no final test." Snape hissed. He gestured at the wand he held "as you see, the situation is out of your hands, John."

John chuckled, pulling up a chair.

"See that's where you're wrong, Severus." He sat down, "make no mistake that I am the one who holds your life in my hands. Now sit down."

Snape didn't know how to explain it, but somehow, John Kramer seemed more intimidating of the two of them. Nevertheless, he remained standing.

"Very well then, if you prefer to keep standing." John gave him another chilling smile.

"What d'you want?" Snape asked.

"What do I want?" John smiled again, looking as if he had expected the question. "I want to play a game. Your final test…" He reached into his trench coat. Snape tensed, but John merely pulled out a syringe full of some clear liquid. Snape eyed it wearily as John placed it on the table.

"…is one of trust." John completed the sentence. He looked right at Snape before continuing. "There's a slow acting poison coursing through your system. It was injected by me approximately one hour and forty-five minutes ago. This particular type of poison is magical in nature. It will result in a most painful death precisely two hours after it is injected. All you have to do to stop this from happening is to inject the antidote into your system before your time is up. The syringe that lies on the table before you contains that antidote. You have my assurance that I am your ally, and I give the antidote to you as a gift for passing my tests. My question to you, Severus, is whether you are willing to trust the person who during the last two hours, has made your life a living hell? Are you ready to trust your new allies, and stake your life on their word?"

John Kramer tilted his head slightly as though waiting for his reaction.

"Make Your Choice."