Where previously there was a dull pain, ever-present in the back of his head, this time when Severus awoke to the blinding light of the sun shining in the Hospital Wing, the pain stabbed violently through his entire body. Everything hurt, and quite severely at that. His hooked nose, already permanently damaged and warped by his father's abusive behavior years prior, had been misshapen even further by that wretched Snitch of James Potter's.

Or at least it had been, as when he reached up towards his face and felt the nose to be exactly the shape he remembered. Madam Pomfrey had seemingly reset it with an Episkey spell.

"Oh, good. I didn't interrupt a pleasant dream." A voice broke the silence and startled him into action before a seething pain kept him from reaching for his wand.

"It's alright, Severus, it's just me." the voice cooed, disarming his aggression once he recognized the familiar, singsongy tone. "I felt it was probably time for you to wake up, so it might do you some good to see a smile."

Once his vision had cleared and adjusted to the sudden transition from dark unconsciousness to a bright morning, Severus saw the grinning face of the girl he'd met last night, Pandora Whittle. Though finally, her pale cheeks were free from those ghastly boils and burns. Clearly Madam Pomfrey had run out of the pastes necessary to heal the girl's wounds in a timely manner and needed to brew some herself.

No surprise considering how lazy Professor Slughorn had been at assisting the Hospital Wing's supplies. He was always more concerned with smuggling valuable things out of Hogwarts than actually keeping it stocked.

"That's...rather generous of you, Pandora." Severus sighed, memories from the previous night starting to return. The seemingly endless chasm of despair and hopelessness that had nearly swallowed him.

"I'm happy you heeded my advice. I know it must have been humiliating for you, but if you hadn't crawled towards your attacker, I fear you'd have been too close to the gargoyle to survive the explosion…"

Explosion?!

All of Severus' earlier annoyance and pretense at the girl's peculiar behavior apparated out of his mind with a loud crack. "You...you knew what would happen?"

"I told you. I see things." Pandora repeated the same words as last night, her silver eyes shining brilliantly in the morning sun.

"Are you...a Seer?" Severus asked in genuine amazement, not having been aware of attending Hogwarts or teaching a single student with the ability in all his years at the school. It was little wonder that the talent was so exceedingly rare. The only one he knew was his coworker, Sybill Trelawney, the one who had uttered the prophecy that sealed Lily's fate forever.

"I dunno." she shrugged, continuing to ramble. "I just see lots of things. I do have working eyes after all. Just like you. Yours are quite pretty, by the way. Does that make you a Seer too?"

Severus scoffed while shaking his head, fighting back against the pain that moving even a single muscle gave him. One second this girl seemed incredibly sharp and perceptive, while the next she devolved into a lunatic. Perhaps that had been the origin of her daughter's name.

"You're clearly all healed from your accident. Why are you still here, Pandora?" he asked, partly hoping the girl would go away before she could say something else to jar him from his perceptions of her again.

"Well, the Headmaster arrived just after dawn to check on you, but Madam Pomfrey was still trying to remove some of the stone shards in your chest. Once he left...he told me that he fixed the Gargoyle. He also said that he has a taste for Chocolate Frogs...but...I prefer pudding. Mmm..." The girl closed her eyes, clearly daydreaming about it.

"Chocolate Frogs then...of course the one wretched sweet I forget about is the one he assigned his password."

"That doesn't answer your question though." Pandora continued. "I suppose I just wanted to see you wake up. Such a beautiful aura shouldn't die so young...nor should it want to die." she added, finally letting that faraway grin of hers fade into a more thoughtful look of concern.

"You keep saying my 'aura'. What exactly do you mean by that?" he groaned, shakily adjusting to a sitting position so that he could give Pandora a bit more of his attention. Her vocabulary hadn't been something that he'd ever heard a witch or wizard speak of before. Though this could have been more insane rambling, the young Ravenclaw's change in demeanor suggested otherwise.

"The color surrounding your body. It's not just the color, though. It's the feeling that comes with it." she explained. "Like I said, when I saw you several weeks ago, your aura was gray...unremarkable...boring."

"I can see that you must be the life of the Eagles' Nest in Ravenclaw Tower.." Severus' lips curled upwards just slightly at the girl's bluntness. He found it quite similar to something the adult Professor Snape might say.

Pandora tilted her head, confused for a moment by what he was suggesting. "Oh? No...I don't have many friends. Certainly none in my own house. I'm a bit…"

"Different." Severus finished her sentence for her, nodding in understanding. Clearly, his sarcasm had gone over the innocent girl's head, leaving just a twinge of guilt. There was hardly any reason to continue insulting the girl when she either didn't notice, or it just didn't bother her.

"So...what color is it now?" Severus asked curiously. If the girl could indeed sense the change that had occurred in him from the revival here in the past, then humoring her wouldn't be the worst idea.

"Purple. A dazzling amethyst gleaming like the stars that dot the night sky. The only lights in a sea of black…" Pandora answered without hesitation. "It's beautiful...but also very tragic to watch."

"Tragic?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Why is purple tragic?"

"Because it's a color of mourning. Normally, people's auras are gray and only flare briefly with certain colors that reflect their emotion. The fact that yours has burned this brightly ever since I first saw you yesterday shows that there is some truly unspeakable pain in your life."

The raven-haired young man lowered his gaze from Pandora's eyes, suddenly quivering at how apt the girl's description was. Surely she couldn't know the specific details, but she had been startlingly close nonetheless..

Pandora's dainty fingers reached down to gently grip Severus' own hand, which flinched and briefly tried to escape from the unfamiliar, tingly sensation of skin contact.

"Forgive me. Force of habit. My dad always told me that I have a problem with boundaries…" the girl apologized.

"Just not used to it…" Severus shook his head, trying to relax with a deep breath in. It wasn't an entirely unpleasant feeling...just something he hadn't felt since the days that his mother was a more positive and loving part of his life. How he'd fall asleep in her arms whenever they went to the park in Cokeworth to play. The same park that he met Lily, several years after Eileen Snape had lost her protectiveness.

Seeing the tension in his muscles fade ever so slightly, Pandora proceeded to repeat her earlier action, gripping Severus' hand with her own in a show of support. This time, however, Severus did not try to retreat from it, instead looking down at their joined hands in awkward confusion as to what he was supposed to say or do next. Holding hands was something he'd take points from students for in violation of PDA. But clearly the girl was simply trying to help him feel better.

Even if she hadn't been there during his outburst, information and gossip was like a virus at Hogwarts. Seemingly nothing could be kept a secret, so naturally Pandora must have heard a version of what happened.

"I'm sorry about whatever it is that's causing you to feel this way. As beautiful as it is to watch...I do hope to see some more positive colors in your aura very soon, Severus." her smile returned. "And perhaps when you are more comfortable, it might help to unburden yourself of some of that pain by talking about it. It helped me after dad was kidnapped by fairies and left Mum to take care of me alone."

"I'm...not particularly good for conversation. And I doubt I can explain things in a way that makes any sense, Pandora. Apologies." he politely declined the girl's offer, finding no purpose in bearing her any further ill-will. Clearly she meant well, despite her odd behavior. And without needing to go through the ordeal of teaching her in Potions Class, he doubted that she'd give him any particular reason to draw his ire.

"Silly Severus…" Pandora giggled softly, giving the back of his hand a soft, little rub with her thumb. "We live in a world of magic and miracles. Things that Muggles could never understand are commonplace for us. And I can see things that others can't. Just because you're uncomfortable and won't explain something to me, doesn't mean you can't explain it. But I won't pry. I promise."

Finally, the girl withdrew her soft hand from Severus', causing the Slytherin boy to raise his black eyes to look into those wispy, Patronus-like eyes of hers.

"Going somewhere?" he asked curiously.

"To Hagrid's hut, actually. He's my only real friend at Hogwarts, and I'm helping him take care of a sickly Jobberknoll. Quite unpleasant to watch one die, as they recite every sound they've ever heard in their lives backwards. And I don't like seeing Hagrid cry. Besides...I have a feeling you're about to have some company, and I'd probably only get in the way of that."

"Company?" Severus asked, watching the girl walk away and finally head towards the chamber door of the Hospital Wing that had confined her for almost two days.

Pandora stopped for a moment before turning back to him with a big smile. "The things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, Severus…get well soon." With that, the girl left the Hospital Wing with a carefree little skip.

"What an odd girl…Like mother, like daughter." Severus thought once again, just a bit of his edge softening as he looked down to where their hands had been joined. There was something admirable about someone who beat to their own drum without a thought or care what anyone else's opinion was.

A quality he wished he would have had in his younger days. Perhaps ignoring James Potter from the very start would have been the more healthy approach to his childhood. Sure, he'd receive ridicule, much like Pandora no-doubt had. But at least he wouldn't have embarrassed himself enough to lose Lily's friendship if he hadn't obsessed so much about the spoiled Quidditch player getting his comeuppance.

More importantly, maybe he wouldn't have been driven to believe that the life of a Death Eater, with all the wealth and influence that came with those in the inner circle, could ever be worth the costs.

Finally alone and able to focus on his own thoughts, Severus noticed that his tattered, ill-fitting Hogwarts robes had been removed and changed into a thin, gray hospital shirt. Pandora had said that Madam Pomfrey was extracting stone fragments from the gargoyle, which apparently had been the epicenter of the explosion. Had James Potter actually been so bold as to use the Blasting Curse? And had he been so terrible at it that he had missed?

"Naturally, Potter is such a poorly skilled wizard that he can't even aim a lethal spell at point-blank range to hit his target. Clearly his talent for precision started and ended at being the ruddy Star Chaser of Gryffindor."

The always obnoxious creaking of the Hospital Wing's chamber door opening or closing always seemed to have a habit of pulling Severus out of his thoughts, but this time it didn't pull him out soon enough. Within seconds, he was startled by the rapid clattering of footsteps on the ward's floor, and his senses assaulted by a sudden sea of red hair and bouncing curls filling his vision. Taking a sudden breath in astonishment, he was overwhelmed by the familiar scent of cherry blossom shampoo.

The pain did come...but with the unexpected and unfamiliar feeling of being nearly smothered by a hug from Lily, it was dulled and distant.

"Lily...I…what are you doing..?" Severus asked, totally lost as his arms remained limp on his lap. He knew that it was customary to return a hug, but...she'd never given him a hug since they were nine years old, the last hug he'd ever received in fact.

"What I should have done from the very first time that idiot bullied you…I'm so glad you're okay, Sev…" her voice shuddered with weakness and exhaustion, but her emotion so very raw. Clearly the girl hadn't gotten much, if any sleep last night.

Slowly, Lily pulled away from the hug and he could see the redness in her eyes. Her quivering lips. Had she been crying all morning to look this emotionally spent?

"Sev...I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I ever let it get to a point where you wanted to hurt yourself. I'm sorry that I didn't support you more than I did. I'm sorry you felt so alone that it seemed like yo-"

The young Slytherin put a finger on his lips to silence Lily's tearful babbling. Even though it was Lily...he only had so much tolerance for the ravings of a teenage girl, and Pandora had already exhausted his patience. Besides…

"Lily...you have nothing to be sorry for. The reason for my breakdown last night had everything to do with me...and for reasons that you could never understand." he explained, being as honest as he possibly could with his childhood friend without divulging the circumstances of his rebirth. "For once, I'm glad that Potter could knock me out before I could embarrass myself even further."

"...Sev?" Lily asked, shaking her head with her eyes wide at his total naivete of where the spell had come from. "N-no...Potter's not the one who cast Confringo..." Lily stammered. "That's why I'm here...if I'd ever known it got so bad that you wanted to...to...end your own life…I'm so sorry. I've been a horrible friend to you these past few years." she repeated with her nervous sobbing.

He raised an eyebrow at Lily's accusation. Recalling the image of the Potion Cauldron imploding in his mind's eye...the scene where he snapped and wanted nothing more than to die in that very moment…

"I...caused that?"

Lily nodded sadly. "You didn't know?"

"I haven't been able to cast even the most rudimentary of spells since the incident at the lake, Lily."

"Then it sounds like accidental magic...like the more primal spells we'd cast as children whenever our emotions got the better of us." she suggested.

He thought back to their childhood, so many years ago...recalling the time that he had accidentally made a branch fall on Petunia. Or the time that Lily had almost literally flown off of the swing at the park in Cokeworth. For a man so practiced and in control of his spellcasting for so many years, the idea that he could accidentally cast anything was preposterous.

Or it would have been...if he hadn't awoken to his worst memory just a few days ago.

Lily shook her head. "None of that matters right now. I just wanted to come by and apologize to you. The second that Madam Pomfrey told me that you were going to be alright, I came as fast as I could from Gryffindor Tower."

And then she hugged him again, more softly this time as he heard those soft whimpers from the girl he'd devoted his entire life to the memory of…

"Sev...You asked me yesterday if I could forgive you. I do...I w-want to be friends again. Best friends. I can only hope that someday you can forgive me for always acting like I never took your side. I don't want you to feel alone anymore...I'm so sorry."

Shakily, Severus' hands rose from their limp position at his sides and slowly wrapped around Lily, returning her hug as awkwardly as could be expected for a man of 38 who hadn't felt the joys of friendly contact in nearly 30 years...But he returned it nonetheless, feeling the warmth of her body heat against his nearly-exposed chest. Glad that his scars and marks that his abusive father had given him were not within Lily's sight. He didn't want to listen to more of her heartbreaking cries and thoughts that his despair had been her fault.

"I'm not alone, Lily...I've never been alone. You've always been with me...Always."

He wanted to confess everything to her...Merlin, did he wish to. But for now, this was all he could do to convey just how much the girl had meant to him; how she had been his sole guiding light across a black sea of misery.

And for the first time, hidden by the mess of greasy black and fragrant red hair intertwining...Severus Snape began to smile. That weight that had been suffocating him for so many years of spying and planning, the pressure threatening to destroy him and his very soul...the dread of sending Lily's son, the reason she had died, off to die himself...the knowledge that his magic was not gone, and the hope that he could perhaps make things right this time after all…

The crushing weight lifted, hearing Lily's forgiveness echo in his heart. It wasn't gone completely, and he doubted it ever would be until such a time that he could be totally honest with Lily about everything...and whether or not she forgave him then was a totally separate matter. But for now...this was enough.

Author's Note: I'm aware of some complaints I'd been receiving for how useless Severus has seemed so far, how it seems like Lily is having to fight his battles for him, and all sorts of other criticisms about his emotionally fragile state.

To that, all I can say is this. You have been living the life of a hated spy for over a year. You've been forced to kill the only person you can possibly be honest with and have worn the mask of a monster 24/7. You've spent almost your entire adult life wishing you were dead, and only stayed alive as a result of trying to honor the sacrifice of the one person you loved, the only source of light in your otherwise miserable life. And in your final moments, you have given that reason for living the knowledge that he must die, thereby destroying Lily's sacrifice.

Severus doesn't know that Harry survived. And when given the chance to make it so Lily doesn't die, what would be the only thing to give him an edge? His extraordinary talents and years of experience as a wizard. Yet that's gone away, and for a man who has no love for himself, only sees his life as an expendable tool in service to Lily's memory, that is soul-crushing.

My decision to take Sev's magic away all the way back in Tempus Vita was in an attempt to start him back from zero. To balance his power so that he doesn't start off as some overpowered, Mary Sue-tier superhero who runs circles around the rest of Hogwarts. While it's very clear that Dumbledore and Voldemort are the two most powerful wizards of their time, and by a very wide margin, Severus at the time of his death cannot be lower than top five, some might even theorize that he's only beaten by said top two wizards (depends on how you'd rate McGonagall, Flitwick, and potentially Kingsley Shacklebolt).

For the sake of drama, that was an issue that I wanted to solve, but I want it to be clear that the magic isn't gone. It's just that, for reasons yet unrevealed here, his methods of casting it have changed completely, so he must be built back up. He's not going to be fighting Death Eaters on day one or embarrassing the Marauders like it was nothing, because I truly believe that in order to completely grow as a person, Severus first needed to be brought down to his lowest point. This is going to be a long ride, and while I promise that later on, Severus will fly high, instant gratification is not the name of the game here. Please be patient.