Inside

"Severus?"

"Me?"

"You."

"You?"

"You."

"So there is me – and you?"

"Correct."

"There should not be."

"So I realise."

"As do I. Perhaps there is just me after all."

"Or perhaps not, since you would hardly tell yourself that you realised again. Let me see… there is… you. Hot-headed, agile, resentful."

"You are resentful?"

"No, this is you! I am not that. There is you and there is me, and you are resentful, whereas I am… this."

"Teacher."

"I am 'teacher'?"

"Yes, I am a teacher."

"No, but there is me, see, who is 'teacher' – and many other things, if I may say so – and there is you. You are a teacher, but you aren't 'teacher'. I'm not you. I'm me, Minerva."

"So I am…"

"You are Severus. You are Professor Snape, best friend, protector, scholar, loyal follower… You are so many things! I can sense them all! This is the strangest sensation…"

"What?"

"I think I can feel what you feel, Severus."

"And what is that supposed to be?"

"Your… well, there is so much that isn't mine… so much resentfulness, if you'll excuse…"

"Hey! Stop sneaking around!"

"I am not!"

"You are! And I know because this game can be played both ways, if you please. This bond is very much two-sided."

"Oh – oh, that's what it is, a bond?"

"Apparently. It is rather curious."

"I agree. I don't suppose I have ever been this close to anyone."

"Except for the headmaster?"

"No, no. We never got this far. It never came to this… as I realise you just realised."

"I realise."

"Hm."

"Hm."

"Very odd indeed."

"Indeed. You know, I have never quite seen Morgana from this perspective."

"Morgana? What?"

"Morgana. My… your – your daughter."

"How come the first thing you talk about when we are one is Morgana?"

"Is this a joke? You are full of her. She is here, everywhere."

"That must be the magic. She is acting as a stand-in Pensieve with Mr. Toke."

"I don't see Toke anywhere. I see Morgana. Daughter, closeness, warmth, love."

"You… I… I see… oh, I see. Well, that is me, I suppose."

"That's you. And this is me. Feel me? Standing over here."

"Where?"

"Here, oh blasted amateurs. Wait, I'll see if I can give you a little visual help…"

***

Minerva was suddenly no longer surrounded by darkness. There was a faint light coming from a place she identified as the centre of something – the centre of the space around her. The odd sensation of having herself mixed with Severus's self was slowly dying down and gave way to another, more immediate feeling: she felt lonely.

Suddenly, the vastness of the space around her seemed dark and depressing, although she knew for a fact that this had to be some kind of imaginary space Severus had created to make the situation feel more real. He was an Occlumency expert, after all. He was bound to be able to expel people from certain parts of his mind or to make them see something that was not actually there if they successfully invaded his inner sanctum.

Minerva took a few tentative steps forward and realised that she was treading on grass. Around her, looming in the darkness of what was apparently supposed to be a night, were four giant towers, decorated with four gigantic flags, each featuring a massive crest with a black and white animal on it. With a gaze backwards at a slowly forming skyline of very familiar towers and battlements, Minerva realised that Severus had 'led' her to the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch, a place that would be familiar to both of them, due to their annual involvement in the fight for the Hogwarts Quidditch cup, and also the one part of the castle grounds that had not been completely destroyed by the war's last battle – although she was not sure Severus realised this.

In the middle of the Quidditch field, surrounded by nothing but darkness and silence, lingered a fine, silvery shimmer just above the ground, which Minerva did not recognise as anything but a bubble of light initially. Carefully, putting one foot in front of the other, she approached the spot, which then turned out to be a sleek spider-like creature sitting on a boy's hand, who looked up when Minerva entered earshot and pulled his face into an unfathomable smile.

"You."

"And you," replied Minerva simply, sitting down next to Severus on the grass. "What are you doing here?"

"Holding on to a thread," Severus whispered, staring at the spider in his hand.

"What is that?" Minerva asked quietly, unable to take her eyes off the creature. "Is that… a Patronus?"

"It used to be my Patronus when I was this age," whispered the boy, letting the spider crawl across his wrist and over his bare arm. "Now it is just a trace. The… last trace."

"Your magic," whispered Minerva in awe. Severus nodded.

"The accident…" mumbled his former colleague, slowly comprehending, "the Pensieve… did you crash it?" Severus hesitated for a small while, then nodded again.

"Toke seemed to suggest that… well, that Morgana…" Minerva began, but then stopped, not wanting to voice her actual suspicion.

"She is not the one to blame," said Severus quietly. "We were fighting, I wanted to prove a point."

"You look like an eleven-year-old," Minerva replied, not wanting to ask about the origin of the fight. "Why is that?"

Severus shrugged. "Appearance means nothing. It seems, ah, safer to grant no one but children access to this specific part of my mind. Despite the existence of atrocious exceptions like Sirius Black, they are still the most innocent of all human beings."

He gave her a meaningful look, which Minerva decided to ignore.

"Do you not want to leave?" she probed instead.

Severus appeared reluctant. "This needs protection," he eventually said, indicating the spider, which had now reached his shoulder and attempted to crawl under the cloth of his school robes. "I have no wish of spending the rest of my life as a Muggle, so I shall stay as long as it takes."

Minerva remained silent for a while.

"I shall stay with you then," she said eventually. "As long as it takes."

They sat in silence for a while, watching the spider crawl up and down Severus's body and across the dark turf around them.

"I wish Mr. Toke was here," said Minerva after a while. "He might know a way to strengthen your magic without you having to spend your time unconscious."

"I have no doubt that he is devising a cunning rescue plan as we speak," Severus replied dryly, not taking his eyes off the spider. "I don't suppose you told them what exactly they signed up for?"

"They are grown-up human beings," said Minerva quietly. "The severity of the situation will be clear to them."

"For as long as it takes?" Severus said mockingly, making the spider bop up and down a little, just for the hell of it.

"For as long as it takes," Minerva nodded, convinced that this was true.

"Your daughter will be pleased," Severus remarked. Minerva noticed that his mouth was dry and that his eyes hardly ever met hers. Whatever Severus had constructed here, this boy was not his own invention. Never would he have chosen to present himself like this in front of her. Then again, it did seem rather unlikely that Severus's Snape's true self was, in fact, a teenage boy.

"Why is that?" she replied after a minute's or so irritation about his speaking of Morgana again.

"Why, it always seems as though this kind of closeness is something she values," Severus said vaguely. "Don't you think?"

"I daresay she'd prefer a different partner," Minerva replied stiffly.

Severus raised an eyebrow in what Minerva thought to be mock surprise. "You think?"

"I am sure of it," she replied sourly. "I am convinced that there is someone very specific she would prefer to Mr. Toke at this very moment."

"Well then," Severus mumbled, "I cannot argue with your convictions, of course."

And they fell silent again. Minerva watched the boy's movements and admired the spider, which, despite the occasional blur, did not shift or change as your average Patronus did. It remained very solid, very one size, and very faint. A sad sight, really.

"I am surprised to hear that your Patronus wasn't always the same," she said, deciding to force some conversation on him. "What shape does it take these days?"

"A very personal question," said Severus sleekly. "Would you answer it in my place?"

"Why," said Minerva slightly amused, "I tend to assume most people who have attended my class will have no difficulty guessing."

Severus looked puzzled, then the corners of his mouth curled into a miniscule smile. "Of course."

"Including you."

"Of course."

"I have never seen yours, though. Never, in so many years of co-working, have I seen you send a message or fend off a Dementor, Severus."

"For good reason."

"Are you embarrassed?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Why would anyone be embarrassed about a Patronus?"

"I have met quite a few people who thought their Patronus was not on a par with their usual standard."

"Indeed?"

"Indeed," Minerva whispered, recognising with a surge of happiness that his increasing engagement in the conversation had a miniscule but visible effect on the size of his Patronus. The spider was growing. Severus had seen it, too, though he did not seem to understand what was happening.

"How did you find me?" he asked after a small while, seemingly unsure what else to say. Minerva frowned.

"I was under the impression that you constructed all this, Severus."

"Don't be ridiculous," he said earnestly. "I could not work mind magic with this pathetic little amount of magic left in me." He indicated the spider again, which hopped up and down for a little while and then settled down a few feet away from them, sulking.

"Maybe," said the deputy headmistress crisply, "but we are in your subconscious, so it would not have been very difficult to find you."

"You are in my thoughts," replied Severus in a matter-of-fact voice. "Which in itself constitutes a severe intrusion into my privacy, if I may add. But my subconscious – well, let's just say that there is a place you won't get to 'visit', if I have a say in it."

"You can trust me," said Minerva automatically, and then, when Severus returned nothing but a thoughtful look, "I do not wish to snoop around, of course."

The spider had swollen to the size of a rugby ball now and was hopping up and down the turf, rather like a limping dog in want of a playmate. Severus watched it with a doubtful look on his pale face. Was he embarrassed? If there was a blush on his gaunt face, Minerva knew she would not have been able to make it out. Colours were indiscernible in what little light was left on the Quidditch Pitch, most of which was radiating from the spider Patronus. The silvery animal had crept up on Minerva now and was trying to put its fist-size head on her lap. She got up quickly, thinking that some things were just not worth it.

"Did you see anything uncomfortable?" Severus asked now, ignoring his Patronus for a change. "Any memories you will want erased as soon as we're out of here?"

"No," Minerva replied and Severus relaxed visibly. "Except…"

His shoulders tensed again.

"There was a girl," Minerva said, suddenly remembering the faint memory of one of Severus's few childhood friends standing somewhere close to the edge of the forest, for no particular reason. "Lily Evans, if I am not mistaken. Though, to be fair, we should be calling her Lily Potter these days, albeit your personal problems with her husb- what? What is it?"

Severus's gaze had darkened so much that it seemed as though he was going to jump up and strangle her any moment.

"Is there anything wrong, Severus?"

"You know," managed the boy, swelling with anger, "it is one thing for you to see memories that are none of your concern, but you might refrain from putting your finger in open…"

He stopped. Minerva stopped, too, staring at the spider, which had been swelling at an unparalleled speed all of a sudden, but come to a halt when Severus's anger went up in smoke over his surprise at it. The Patronus was now the size of a small cow. Severus gazed at Minerva and back at it.

"I do believe your magic has every intention of coming back," the deputy headmistress remarked.

"It hasn't changed a bit until you arrived," Severus replied in astonishment. "And now it's developing at stop speed. Your presence does seem to have quite an effect."

…on you, Minerva added in her thoughts, not sure why this was important. Aloud, she said, "Severus, I think we ought to try and return to real life. Your Patronus – your magic seems to be doing fine, no matter whether you are here to protect it or not. And the longer I stay, I feel, the greater the danger of me invading your privacy quite unintentionally."

Severus gave her an unfathomable look. And suddenly, his face was gone.

Several beams of a glistening, white light shot down on them, taking Minerva's breath away and making Severus, the Quidditch Pitch, and the Patronus fade from view. Minerva outstretched her arms and felt around for Severus, who seemed to have stumbled backwards against something white and soft. Minerva identified it as a blindingly white Death Eater robe when the light gave way to a softer glow after a few seconds. Whatever had just happened, it had made the Quidditch Pitch disappear and provoked a complete change of scenery. Both, Minerva and Severus were surrounded by Death Eaters in white robes and masks, who were holding their arms outstretched threateningly, closing in on them. Severus looked almost as though he was about to panic. A voice from somewhere within the light whispered names Minerva was unfamiliar with and made noises she had never heard before. Then, abruptly, the show came to an end.

Severus was sitting in the middle of a muddy place, graveyard-like, surrounded by five Death Eaters in their usual attire, facing the person whom Minerva had always called 'He Who Must Not Be Named', initially because people reacted less panicky to the expression, and after a while because, in the end, the man's true name stood synonymously for his atrocious crimes.

Severus was looking up and into the Dark Lord's face with a strangely distorted expression now. His own face was strangely hollow.

"Potter," the whisper suddenly voiced and Minerva realised that it came from the Dark Lord's mouth, "Potter then…"

"Minerva," croaked Severus, "perhaps it is time…"

When Minerva grabbed Severus by his wrist and pulled him away from the group, he squirmed a little, but managed to get onto his two feet and allowed himself to be pulled out of harm's way. The Death Eaters moved in slow-motion, the air around them felt thick and stale. Minerva dragged the boy across the graveyard-like ground and a patch of grass, watching something silvery-white appear almost exactly where Severus's Patronus had previously been. Occasional glances back told the middle-aged witch that her running was not futile. The surroundings seemed about to collapse and swallow everything in sight. Wherever Severus's magic had fled to, it had left only a trace of mist – or perhaps the shape that was forming now had not sprung from Severus's own magic at all? Minerva stopped, turned, and stood as though rooted to the ground.

A bunch of silvery-white strands shot out from the centre of the white mist, creating a net of silver and white within the total darkness. The spider, Minerva thought, was doing its job, but it was not alone. The threads, which were now shooting in this direction or in that, took varying shapes, sometimes tentacle-like, sometimes as though carried by birds, unseen, somewhere in the darkness.

And suddenly Minerva knew that her plan had worked. Suddenly, it was entirely clear what she had to do. Getting Severus out of here had been a very good idea after all, because everything else was suddenly no longer her own sole responsibility. Severus's magic and strength lay in the hands of Morgana and Toke now, who had joined forces and come to her and Severus's aid.

It was all quite exciting.

Upon realising that her strength was returning, though Severus's was not, Minerva made another decision and pulled the boy into her arms to gain some more ground between them and the fight of black and silver behind. With a howling stretch, like a ghost emerging from its grave, part of the silvery-white mass broke lose and followed them, obviously as a means of protection. Whether this was Severus's magic or her own or, indeed, Morgana's or Toke's Minerva could not say. Within seconds, an agile, silvery cat was lighting their way, running beside Minerva until they reached the entrance to Hogwarts and what Minerva hoped was the bridge to reality. Its head inclined and its tail very erect, the cat observed the two escapees as the light of the dawning day absorbed them: a tiny speck of silver in otherwise complete darkness. It was the last Minerva saw of Severus's subconscious. After that, everything went dark once more.

Minutes later, the two motionless shapes of Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape, who were lying on top of each other in the first floor living room of McGillivray Manor, stirred again.