A/N: Hellooo, I'm back! It's only been like.. 10 years since I've actively written and updated stories. LOL. I 've had writer's block for so long that I've forgotten half my logins, which means a lot of my drafts are kinda floating somewhere. I'm reviving this an old oneshot, I plan to expand it into a multi-chapter fic. The grammar was all over the place.. so if you spot any spelling mistakes, please feel free to point them out :)

Onto the background info for this work... Eladora is my OC. You will learn more about this elite, powerful witch as the story goes on. This fic is set in the Marauders-era, the war will become a big part of the story later on. For now, I would like to focus on her relationship and history with Severus Snape. And as always, please read & review!

Eladora stood alone on the beach, gazing over the sea with her sorrowful eyes. Her silver streaked hair danced lightly in the ocean breeze, tickling against one cheek as she tried to deny the stirrings in her heart.

Resting her cheek against one hand as she traced a finger along her thin chain necklace. She wore a ruby-red shirt with sleeves that ran down to her wrists and a pair of obsidian slacks. A noticeable sigil provided proof of her descent.

Her thoughts wandered to her days in Severus's company. It must have been fate that brought them together. She knew from the moment she laid eyes on him that they were meant to be. From then on, Eladora was sometimes needy and close, but then suddenly cold and fearful. Severus also behaved strangely, one moment adoring, scathing the next. That was how it was to this very day.

"Eladora," Severus said simply with no trace of emotion. She turned towards him, his dark eyes complimented his raven hair, belying his pained heart. He was dressed in his usual everyday clothes. His skin was lily-white and his form was slight. As Eladora drew nearer, she caught a note of his familiar scent, sandalwood and vanilla, that brought yellowed pages to mind. Her eyes softened as it reminded her of the time they shared.

"Severus. I feared you might not come," Eladora whispered.

"I don't know why I bothered," he murmured.

Her eyes dropped, down and away back toward the sea. "Then maybe you should go."

A pause. "No." He brushed his hand against hers, almost as if by accident. "Come."

Neither of them spoke for some time. It wasn't uncommon for them - they'd exchange poker-faced glances and walk in silence for hours, until finally, they somehow touched, and overwhelmed by pain and loneliness they would turn to each other. It was no different this time. They had tracked halfway down the shore, down to where a cliff rose to block their progress, before Eladora turned to Severus and whispered, "I waited a long time for today. I... I missed you a lot." He didn't say anything. "It's like I told you before, Sev. You're all I have..."

She sought out one of Severus's hands with hers, but he drew away. "Enough." With a haunted glance, Eladora let her hand drop. "You cannot resist turning into an insufferable whining child every single time. Enough with this behavior."

Stricken, Eladora turned away and began to weep.

Each sob was a blow against his will and heart. At last he took a deep breath and dictated, "Stop... Please. You... you have no idea what effect you have on me."

"Why are you like this to me?" Eladora whispered. "I... I don't understand. I need you, Severus. I need you like I need air. I'd do anything for you, but you still treat me this way..." She folded her arms across her chest and took a shuddering breath. "Do you hate me, Severus?"

"What if I did?" he mused.

"I would fall apart," she whispered. "I would have no reason to be." She waited for some kind of reassurance that it wasn't true, that it would never be, but it didn't come. She bowed her head. She should've known better than to expect such a display from Severus.

Instead, he took a few steps toward the cliff and arced his head to gaze up its height. "If I could be as open as you," he pondered, "I would consider myself lucky."

"Please let me in," Eladora wept. "Please. Together we might be able to bear this cruel world."

She was a freak. He was also a freak. Maybe she had a point, he thought. Severus approached her and brushed a finger below her charcoal depths. "Perhaps... that might be..." he mused before stepping away again. Eladora blinked, and wet her cheeks again with tears as Severus walked away - and then hurriedly followed, for she had nothing else in the world.

After a few moments, they found themselves walking down the beach again. Eladora thoughts took a dark turn, these thoughts are what brought her to the lake in the first place. She couldn't stop thinking about her parents' death. It plagued her endlessly - while she was far from him and while she was near. It threatened to consume her. When she had let the faintest hints slip in the moments before, it had already taken so much of her will.

Severus' dark orbs passed over her once impassively before at last he seemed to steel himself and intone, "Eladora. You've been worrying."

"Severus... it's..."

And at that moment everything came together, all of the magic and the hurt that had been building that day, and he locked his orbs with hers and whispered, "You can tell me."

It was like a floodgate burst, or some barrier of fear had been struck down. Eladora shook her head and everything came out at once. "It's... it's my parents. My mother, my father... sometimes I can't believe they're gone. It's not just that they're dead, but when it happened, it... changed so much. Sometimes I wonder about what it'd be like if it all went back... I don't even know how I would feel about that. It just... it hurts, Severus, thinking about it. It just hurts."

Severus listened silently. At last, when all the words had left her and she was at a loss for words, he reached out to her and took a deep breath to whisper back, "Eladora... that's awful. I wish that weren't how it is. I wish I could say more..." Eladora's eyes began to burn, and she abruptly pulled him into a fierce embrace. His eyes widened at first, but then he too felt overwhelmed by emotion and succumbed to the warmth of her touch.

"You," Eladora whispered, her breath hot on his ear. "As long as you're here, I... I can make it." They held each other as tears trickled down cheeks and dripped onto the shifting sands to be carried away into the sea. With time and soothing embraces, their pain dissipated into a mist swept out by the ocean breeze and into the setting sun. They basked in each other's quiet companionship for a few moments.

After a moment of silence, he asked, "How long will we last?"

"Please... let it be forever," she murmured in response.

"Hmm," he said only. But when Eladora looked at him, she saw a glimmer of hope in his dark depths.

Eladora sighed with contentment and brought him closer. She gazed at the beautiful sunny rays of the falling sun, thinking about everything that had transpired on this day and all that would pass between them.

"I love you, Sev."

"I love you too, Dora."

Their lips met, and charcoal strands met inky ones, aflame in the dying light. The sand was their witness and the rumbling ocean their approving audience, and Severus, her eternally faithful lover. Eladora thought to herself that nothing had ever been so perfect for her as this.

A/N: And that wraps up the intro.. It's really late and I need to catch some z's. but I will work on publishing the first chapter

Any guesses on what happened to Eladora's parents? Who the heck is this Eladora character? And when did Severus Snape become so snarky?! just kidding.. same old Snape we all know and love.

Let me know what you thought of this so far :)