Snape looked out at the woman standing before him and was so taken aback by her looking exactly like Lily, he honestly would have believe it was HER. Her face was a bit narrower but the colour of her eyes, the exact shade of green. Her red hair was longer than how Lily used to have hers but still it was red and had the exact texture like Lily. He took a deep breath and tried to steady himself. He could feel a rush of some sort coming up from within his chest. It felt like a wave of dread and yet fright as he grabbed unto the door handle with one hand and gazed out at the lady.
'Good evening', she said and her voice was low and mature, not exactly like Lily though, whose voice was firm, very soft.
'G-good evening', Snape replied and he knew his face had changed from its usual paleness to a dull flush of colour.
Who was this woman before him looking almost like Lily Evans Potter? He thought and felt his hands grow cold. He grabbed two ends of his coat and wrapped it tighter around his body, his hands tucked within.
'Are you Severus Snape?' she asked studying him.
'Yes. Who wants to know?' he asked softly, staring into her green eyes and feeling a slight lump forming in his throat.
'Oh. I'm sorry', she said smiling a bit, 'my name's Kate Ann Kudroy. Remember me?' and she held out a hand in anticipation of him shaking it warmly but Snape reached out and took her hand lightly almost holding unto her fingers alone and he shook it slightly.
'Are we supposed to be acquainted in any way?' he asked looking bashful.
He could feel his heart fluttering about in his chest, and hoped that his fingers weren't as cold as they felt to Kate's touch.
'Why yes. You...' Kate looked a bit confused at him and then bit her lips then asked, 'you don't know who I am?'
'Am I supposed to know who you are? Miss Kudroy', and he noticed a bit of movement at the far corner of his eye, just a few feet away from his office door.
There was Harry climbing up the stairs.
Snape's eyes lingered a bit on the boy then Harry turned around and looked right at him and Snape felt his heart quicken as the green eyes found his in the shadowy hall and then Harry turned away quickly. The boy was up to something, he thought. What was Harry doing down in the dungeons at a time like this?
'...advertisement', Kate was saying and immediately his attention snapped back to her.
'I'm sorry? I didn't get that'.
Kate sighed and looked to her left then stepped back, 'you know what, maybe this wasn't such a good idea', she said softly.
'No wait', Snape said hurriedly looking at her, 'come in. We can talk in here.'
Kate looked around her, towards the stairs that Harry was on a few seconds before then looked at Snape. 'Alright', she said, 'I suppose that would be okay.'
As he stepped aside to allow her to pass into his office, he suddenly got a flashback of Lily and himself back at Spinner's End.
'Lily', he said looking at her as she stood outside on the porch. She was wearing a pink cotton strap dress and pink jelly sandals. Her hair was hanging around her shoulders like red curtains, slightly wavering in the gently afternoon breeze.
'Sev, can I come in or is this not a good time? Is your parents...? I mean...' and she peered over his shoulder to see if she could see into the room.
Snape had known that she was looking to see if she could see his father Tobias or his mother Eileen, the later to which Lily had grown to like because of her showering affection on Lily whenever she came over. Tobias however, was always either drunk or angered at something and would be throwing tantrums.
'No please', he said moving aside, 'come in'. And she had...
She walked into his office, her high heels clicking, and Snape looked down to observe her feet. His attention was forced upon her legs which were concealed beneath her black pants and her feet almost the size of Lily's. His eyes began to roam unintentionally upwards, taking in her slender figure with her full hips and bosom as well as her narrow shoulders and stiff posture. She stood so erect, her back was as stiff as a poker and for a moment, Snape realised that he almost always stood that way.
'Creepy office you have here', she said hugging herself and looking around, 'so many jars with creatures inside.'
'It might appear creepy...I suppose', he said gazing around at the shelves, making an attempt to see them through a stranger's eyes. They did appear, what was the word...creepy.
'Do you know all the names of those...potions, creatures, aw concoctions rather?' she asked turning to look at him and then her eyes found a shelf just to his right. 'Lacewing fly, gillyweed, broomslang skin, aparagot's peel, and oh!' she moved a little closer to peer up at the jars above, 'are those rabbit tails?'
Snape's eyes widened with interest and he found himself smiling a bit. He always labelled his jars on the lids and from where Kate was standing, she couldn't see the lids so it meant that she was familiar with the ingredients before her.
'Yes they are', he said still smiling, 'tell me, how is it that you are familiar with those ingredients?'
She diverted her eyes from the jars to his then laughed softly, 'well, I guess being a genius at Potions really paid off like my mother told me it would. I mean...'
'You...you're genius at potion making?' Snape asked looking amused yet amazed.
'Why yes, well, I didn't make it a practice but...I used to do quite well in classes. Even Professor Slughorn believed I would have become a potions maker but...'
'Professor Slughorn taught you?' Snape asked shockingly and Kate smiled.
'Yes. I used to come here! In fact, how many years ago was it?' and she stared up at the ceiling for a bit then said, 'twenty one, twenty two, or less. I wrote my O. about twenty two years ago.'
And he had to admit that he was a bit taken aback by her actually being a past student at Hogwarts. Not that he couldn't believe it but the fact that she fancied potion making and was around his age...He tried to search her face for any familiarity but then he felt his heart flutter again.
Only one person in his time at Hogwarts did he know that knew details about Potion making so well. But this was definitely not her standing before him. He figured that he would have known if it was Lily, besides, she was dead. He didn't want her to be but she was.
'Do you remember a student by the name of Lily Evans?' he asked and suddenly realised that he shouldn't have even mentioned her name. It pained him to even say her name just like that and now he had exposed a vulnerable detail about him to Kate.
'Lily?' she asked turning to look at him. She was still looking at the shelves with deep interest.
'Yes. Lily Evans Potter.'
'Lily Evans. Why of course I know her!' she exclaimed looking at him and smiling brightly, 'she was my cousin, Severus Snape!'
And even when Kate found it amusing and laughed lightly, Snape stared at her with shocked eyes and he felt his hands grow cold with fright and before he knew it, he had sunk down unto the chair Kate was supposed to sit in because his knees felt as if they had gone out on him.