All disclaimers are in place. Refer to the Prologue section for details.

PART TWENTY-ONE: PATHS

His body was flung onto a rough but forgiving ground.

Sand.

And Merlin, was it hot! He yanked his hands from it the instant he'd pushed himself to his knees, brushing the heat off furiously. His head rose like a prairie dog's to survey his surroundings and he ignored the screaming pulse of his heart and the churning in his stomach, forcing them to calm. Before him was a vast, blue ocean under a sky of brilliant blue, then as he turned in a slow circle the sky blended from airy calm to a gloomy, turbulent gray, then to sunset orange, then to midnight black sprinkled with diamonds, on to a pink-hued sunrise, and back to the midday blue.

Had he been paying any attention to the ground as he turned, he would have seen her immediately. But on his second turn, he viewed distant, broken structures on land, large, flat stones leading out to sea, and hastily-built wooden planks that led behind a hill and out of sight. Not a sound of creatures interrupted his shallow breathing, which echoed through the light breeze like wind through reeds. The sun, situated where the day phases of sky met above his head, beat something furious on the dark-clad man, giving him no other choice than to remove his robes and coat, revealing the light cotton shirt and trademark black trousers. He let them fall upon the ground without care. And then he saw her.

She could have become part of the sand, had it not been for her hair, and no visitor would have been the wiser. He was about to shout her name, as he had never before in his life been more glad to see anyone, but something in him told him that startling her would not be a good idea. He was in Halo's territory, and on her terms. She didn't appear to have noticed him, and he moved quietly toward her.

But Halo knew he was there. It took every ounce of strength she possessed not to run. I led him here… I brought him here. I can't give up now. She could feel his presence edge against her as he sat down beside her at comfortable distance. What was she kidding, nothing about this was comfortable.

"How long did it take you…" it was a question, but didn't sound like one. Her arms were wrapped loosely about her knees, clothed in the same cream nightdress she had worn the night she disappeared.

Doesn't she know? he wondered, and voiced the question.

Halo shrugged. "Time doesn't exist here."

"Did you create this place?" he voiced wonderment.

"Well you obviously didn't," her voice had an accusational edge to its monotony.

He drew in a deep breath. "I didn't come here to fight."

"I did."

"You won't get one from me," he told her. "I promise."

"You never answered my question."

He gulped. "Four weeks."

Halo nodded.

"What did you mean, 'time doesn't exist here?'"

Halo sighed, weary of explaining even before giving the description. "When you showed up just now, I'd only just sat down here. Now it's my turn… why did it take you so long?"

"Why did you leave the book in such an inconspicuous place?" he thought for a moment while her silence persisted. "You wanted me to have to look for you…"

Halo was silent, but her eyebrows were knitted in such a way that she looked to be holding back tears.

"But then, why did you use the Portkey?"

Speaking without crying when the lump in your throat threatened to dissolve at any moment was one of the more difficult things to do in life. "I took its magic… held it inside my wand and put it into the book."

"And the memories…"

"To make you see what it's like… what it's like to be me. But then, you'll never truly know, will you?"

She really is here to fight, he realized. She must think it's all she has left. He decided to take it slowly.

"What is this place?"

Halo snorted. It was the biggest reaction from her he'd seen yet. "It's what my life feels like. I assume you didn't read the book before you jumped into it…"

"No I didn't, not much anyway," he admitted. "Please, tell me about it."

She sighed deeply. "Everything I wrote in that book exists here. Every thought. Every feeling I put down in words created this place. Even I didn't know what it would look like until I introduced the Portkey's magic into it. But now that I'm here, I know everything's place. I understand the order of things. The sky feels how I feel; so many things change and so quickly that it's hard to feel just one way for very long. The sand… it's how I feel every time I see you; it's as though I'm standing in hot sand, burning to get away from it, but I must endure it because it is my place. It becomes so painful at times that I lash out."

Severus waited a moment when she became quiet before taking his turn. He kept his voice low and unthreatening.

"And the higher ground?" he asked her.

"It's where I want to be… but you see the two paths. The grass leads to crumpled buildings. That is what will happen if I go back… everything I know and care about will be destroyed. I have to stay as far away from them as I can."

"And the other path?"

"It… it leads to something… something I can't see… something I am afraid of." She sniffled lightly. "It's what will happen when I die."

He was treading on very unstable ground. "And… the rocks over the water?"

"It's the way out… back to the true world." Her voice trembled.

 "But the sand… why did you stay here?"

There was a long pause, one in which Halo's eyes welled up with tears that rolled, one by one, down her cheeks. Snape didn't dare give into the impulse to brush her tears away.

"I keep hoping…" she sputtered through racking sobs, "… hoping that it… will cool down… so I can enjoy it… before I have to leave…" her last bit of control broke and she fell into her crossed arms, weeping, but at the same time trying to force herself to stop.

You heartless bastard, he chided himself. The girl is baring her soul to you; she's given you every last chance and then more because the one thing she wants is the one thing you've failed to provide. You're her father, for Heaven's sake, and you're a despicable bat who only cares about whether or not she's behaving. He knew it wasn't completely true, but he was allowing himself, for the first time in many years, to tear down the wall he'd spent so long building to filter out what he'd long believed were the weaker emotions, those that would regard him useless in his professional tasks.

The visions he had encountered, her most horrible memories of him, had hit said wall with the force of a wrecking ball. He remembered how it felt to be her age… no one liked him, those who liked him even less went out of their way to make him miserable. And he was doing the same to her, for a different reason: he was afraid she'd turn out just like him.

In the beginning, as he remembered, he had only meant to distance himself from her, even when they were forced to have daily contact. But over time this developed into her resistance toward being touched. He had inadvertently sentenced her to a lifetime of loneliness. It was just like him to blame what went wrong on himself; it was easier that way because he didn't have to feel it. But with his wall in shambles, it was a very difficult thing to blame this upon himself when he felt every bit of remorse he should have felt from the beginning.

No! he told himself. No remorse. She doesn't need the added stress of watching you feel sorry for yourself, and she certainly won't believe an apology. Promises won't help you at this point, but actions might. You will finish what you started.

Ever so slowly, he brought his right arm around her shoulders and his left underneath her legs and lifted her into his arms. The bloodstains were still evident on her clothing, but darkened and dried. She made no move to fight him.

Halo had given up.

Severus Snape could feel it as he carried her curled, limp body over the stepping stones when they vanished from the book realm and reappeared on her bedroom rug at the precise moment that he had entered it. He kicked the book aside, as he had emerged standing on the page with the moving picture.

The little girl in his arms writhed painfully in his arms and gasped uncontrollably. He looked down at her face, her eyes were wide with pain and before his eyes, her skin had begun to shrivel, her body emaciating itself instantly. It was as though the missing weeks without food and sleep had caught up with her in a matter of seconds.

Snape flew into a panic. He placed her as gently as he could onto her bed and flew to the fireplace, screaming for Madam Pomfrey through the Floo, who came through the green flames at as much of a run as she could manage.

"Quickly! What happened?" she demanded, her eyes landing on Halo and moving to help the girl.

The basic premise stumbled from Snape's lips, and in the moment it took for him to explain as coherently as he'd been able, Dumbledore had silently entered the room and pulled Severus to one side. His eyes begged an explanation.

And did he ever get one. Dumbledore had to hide more sorrow from his weathered face than Snape had ever noticed before. They exchanged a look of mutual understanding before Snape recalled the anger that had been forced upon him just hours ago in the Hospital Wing. It was a long moment before they realized that Poppy Pomfrey was attempting to get their attention.

"Her ordeal seems to have sped up the process," she admitted sadly. "I've given her something for hydration and for the pain, but I'm afraid the poor dear doesn't have long."

Snape stared at the floor, his tears swallowed down deep for the moment. "If…" his voice cracked, "… if I did it… would she be all right?"

Madam Pomfrey stared at him incredulously, unwilling to believe what the Potions Master had just suggested. "It may work… but it may also take a miracle."

Dumbledore turned to leave and motioned for Madam Pomfrey to follow. He turned back before closing the door behind them. "It's not too late."

Severus shot him a stone-faced stare. "I will asked you for the last time, Headmaster. Don't make this any more difficult than it already is."

"The difficulty of your feelings should tell you something, Severus." And then the ancient wizard was gone.

Snape shoved his anger toward the old man deep down, and for the child's sake, allowed his features to soften as he took his place at her side. His knees dug painfully into the stone floor where he knelt, the rug having come away from the bedside in his rush to lay his daughter on the bed.

Panic rose in Halo's throat as she realized this was the last chance she would have to leave an impression upon the world, or at least on her father… and she decided it had better be a good one. Her hands reached out weakly to him, and he wrapped his fingers in hers.

"I'm here, little one."

Halo's voice was raspy, as though she had swallowed sand from the beach in her book. "I'm sorry, Father… I wish I could have been more useful to you…" her eyes went out of focus.

"No, Halo…" Snape stumbled over his words, the lump in his throat threatening to dissolve into… could it be tears? He swallowed it down as he groped for some consolation to offer the little girl suffering beside him.

Halo's body began to tremble violently. Snape's heart leapt into his throat as it dawned on him that this might be the last few moments he would spend with his daughter before she succumbed to the inevitable. He realized with horror that his heart was doing the impossible: it was breaking.

He jumped a meter when a soft mass came to rest on his shoulder. "Luna?" his eyes shot to the window, which had been flung wide open. The bird rubbed her head against his cheek once and then hopped gingerly onto the bed to sit on Halo's chest.

"Move, Luna. She's…"

Luna turned to face him, her owl eyes flashed him a warning. Snape didn't move. The shiny, cerulean bird turned back toward Halo, closed her eyes and began to fluff her feathers. And when Halo inhaled raggedly, Luna vanished in a flurry of silver vapor, which the little girl under her breathed in.

The owl's essence penetrated deep into her being. Halo's eyes went wide as her body filled with all the things it had been lacking; her skin smoothed, her frail body filled out from its emaciated form and her breathing became regular again. But the life in her eyes, Snape could see, was barely there.

There's your miracle, Severus. Now all you have to do is wait around for her to face death again before you need to worry about your part in saving her… or not… No! It has to be now. No more running, no more waiting. You must choose now, and you must choose quickly. You owe her that much.

"Father…" Halo whispered.

"Yes?" he looked into her red-rimmed eyes. He had missed the fact that she was silently crying.

"It… it hurts…"

"What does?"

"Dying…"

Snape hauled in a breath as he felt a spasm coming on, one which he knew would wring the air from his lungs. He closed his eyes and searched frantically for a voice… the one other people had that guided them, pointed them in the right direction, encouraged them to make the right decisions. With his fingers wrapped tightly around Halo's trembling hand, he strained for the barest whisper. The one that would show him the way.

And then, the voice finally spoke to him. Rather, it screamed to him: Don't give into fear.

His velvet black eyes shot open. He stared down into the face of the little girl who was so tightly holding onto her connection with him that it was squeezing the life from her body.

He sucked in a shuddering breath, and with all the feeling he could muster, he whispered, " I… love you."

He untangled one of his hands from his daughter's fingers and placed it firmly on her chest over her heart, which was beating its last. He took one long, deep breath.

"Suscipio."

Seconds went by, and nothing happened.

A blazing blue light pierced through his hand, and undoubtedly through her heart. It split, multiplied, and spread through them at every impossible angle. It forcibly rammed through Snape's body, slicing through his own heart. He felt a white-hot stab through his chest.

Then it was gone.

And Halo surrendered to the deepest sleep.

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This isn't the end of the story, so please don't freak out yet.