Severus stood, staring between the glowing monument and the Dark Lord. Waves of warmth reverberated through the earth and reached up to his knees. It didn't get colder, as a dementor's surroundings would. It got warmer and warmer. The Dark Lord's amusement and confidence seem to disappear from his features.

Severus tried to get closer, tried to get to Harry, but his feet refused to move, his body refused to move. It seemed that it was the same for those that stood. Although they tried to get closer at one point their bodies just remained rooted in place.

It got warmer. If it kept going like this they would soon start burning.

His heart raced and echoed loudly against his ears. He didn't know what he was hoping for but somehow he found his voice.

"Harry!"

The rippling heat stopped and everything turned very still.

The earth then shook and the marble temple started cracking. The pool seemed to explode with power and a blinding light came from it. The deep growl and hiss similar to that of a dementor rang in the clearing.

The light seemed to dim down into the robes like that of a dementor, but of golden light. The clearing around them looked like it did in the daytime. The moon above and indigo sky where the only indication that time had not moved that fast.

This thing seemed the size of a large dementor, and hovered at the centre of the destroyed temple. There was nothing of Harry left in it. The boy… was just not there.

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Harry felt warm. It was so comfortable. So soothing. He felt like he was lying down and at the same time he felt like he was on air. He could see the temple. It was destroyed. Everything looked so bright. And then he heard them. The voices. He could feel them, their shape, their vessels. He knew what they were. He sensed the Horcruxes as if he were one with them.

He called for them. One by one they appeared before him. A ring. A locket. A diamem. A cup.

"We must unite, united we're stronger. Eat us, you're hungry… feed from us…"

Yes. He was hungry… he reached a long bony hand of light toward them. Only the pieces would fill his hunger. Only the pieces will suffice… only the soul will suffice. Eat… eat it…

The moment his hand even got closer, the four floating items caught fire, like a sun reaching to anything in its surroundings. Pain coursed through him and he heard the scream of the voices. But the flames, turned blue, surpassing the heat of even a fiendfyre. The pieces disintegrated into nothing. His hunger was unquenched.

Pieces were not a full soul. They faded faster than he could consume them. He turned to the small lives he sensed and moved toward them.

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The moment the random pieces caught flame the Dark Lord cried in rage and began to move. Severus tried to reach for his wand but he was still frozen.

The thing then turned toward them. It was hard to look at it straight with how bright it was. Out of his periphery he could see Albus raising his wand with relative ease.

"Expecto Patronum." A phoenix of light flew at the dementor of light and managed to knock it back. A hiss was heard from it. Severus felt his body become less tied down and managed to reach for his own wand.

"Expecto Patronum." A silvery doe shot forward. More and more of the order members sent their patronus charms forward, surrounding the creature.

"No! You will follow my command!" The Dark Lord was heard saying. He glanced at Voldemort. He seemed to try and activate Potter's dark mark. Couldn't he tell? This thing wasn't Potter. It couldn't be.

The beast screeched, but not in pain, it was enraged.

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Why was he being shoved around? He didn't understand it. Every time he tried to get to his food he was knocked back into the stone. He didn't like this. He was getting angry.

Then he felt a burning in his arm and a piercing shrill left him, echoing all around. He turned to its source. The other piece… the final piece.

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The creature, roared and flew toward the Dark Lord. Its hands outstretched. As he got closer it got hotter and even Severus had trouble breathing, even though the Dark Lord was far away from him.

There was no escape. The Dark Lord caught on fire before the creature even touched him. When it did, the most powerful Dark Wizard of the time turned to ashes in the dementor's hands.

The dementor screeched and Albus once more led the attack of Patronus charms. The phoenix, brightest of all, managed to swoop around it, giant wings expanding and wrapping around the dementor like a cage. It squeezed and squeezed until the creature became light and then nothing.

oOoOoOo oOoOoOo oOoOoOo

Everything turned dark. He was once more lying down. It was getting colder. Where was he? Oh… right… he had fallen into the potion.

He took in a breath, and his lungs filled with the potion. He panicked and moved his arms and legs wildly. His hands were still tied. He took another breath. He was drowning. Every time his foot met the bottom it slipped.

"Save me… Snape…"

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It took several seconds for the light to fade entirely, and then it took a while for their eyes to adjust.

It took him a while to notice the approaching Bellatrix. When he noticed her, her wand was already raised.

"Avada Ke-"

"Stupify!" Bellatrix froze and dropped to the ground, revealing Lucius Malfoy as the spellcaster. Severus gave a sigh of relief and nodded to Lucius who dropped his wand and raised his hand when Tonks came toward him. The other three were quickly overpowered and arrested.

Severus turned to the temple going slowly toward it. Albus followed close behind him. Suddenly he did feel cold. He did feel empty. He did feel like he would never again feel happy. He hadn't even noticed he'd started feeling happy again.

"The boy… is gone?" Severus asked softly as he stepped onto the cracked marble.

"I don't know Severus. I don't know the end result of such a ritual." Albus said. Severus looked around for a trace, any trace at all of the boy.

Nothing but a ruin of the lunar temple remained. He looked into the pool. The edges of the potion had climbed up the wall, bubbles marred the now still, glittering surface and his heart almost stopped for what seemed like the tenth time that night.

He jumped inside. The pool was only filled up to his knees but it was enough to drown in. He felt something on the side of his leg and he reached in. With a strength he didn't know he had he pulled the boy out and threw him over the side.

He came to the side and felt the strength leave him once more. Potter lay still, the glittering potion dripping from his lips.

"Save him… Sev…" He wasn't sure if he hallucinated that. But his body seemed to take over. He placed his hands on the boy's chest and started giving him rapid and steady compressions. The boy's skin glittered in the moonlight. Severus' vision started to become blurry.

No. Not again. Lily… please don't take him. Please don't take him.

"Don't take him… please… please…" He whispered and gave the boy two breaths before continuing the compressions.

"Severus…" Albus spoke, a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't touch me! Don't make me lose count! Twenty nine, thirty." He gave the boy another two breaths. His arms burned as he kept going.

"Severus… Severus he's gone… it's been too long." Albus whispered

"No… no… he's not…" Severus couldn't remember the last time he heard his voice crack like this.

"Severus… it's been almost an hour… he's not coming back…" Albus said gently, trying to pull him away from the boy.

His hands did stop moving but they stayed where they were. The boy's chest had been getting colder. He hadn't noticed when his skin had cooled down. One shaky hand turned to the boy's gentle face. His lips were tinted blue and his pale skin radiated no warmth at all.

"No… No… Albus… do something. I'll do anything." He whispered.

"I'm sorry Severus… that is beyond even my capabilities."

Severus felt like the whole world had crashed around him. Potter had not been the only one to get attached. He dropped his head gently onto the boy's chest. His body quaked with grief and only then did he realised he was crying.

No… please… take me instead… take me… bring him back Lily. Please bring him back.

His hands held fist full of the boy's robes as if gripping harder would stop his soul from leaving. But his soul had already left. He was lifeless.

The sky became lighter without him noticing. The people grieving behind him went unnoticed. Their looks of confusion and, to be honest, offense at the hateful Snape's grief went unnoticed.

The sun rising slowly on the horizon went unnoticed. The boy's hand reaching to hold his own went unnoticed. And then Snape shot up, looking at the boy's pale hand holding his own.

"Potter! Harry! You're alive… you…" The boy's eyes fluttered opened and the same green eyes that he remembered stared back at him.

The boy coughed and Severus instantly turned him onto his side, patting his back firmly, encouraging the remaining potion to come out.

"Oh Harry!"

"But how?"

"Thank Merlin."

"Thank goodness…" The Order members cried out.

Severus thanked whatever was out there a million times. The boy coughed out potion desperately for a couple of seconds, griping onto Severus' arm the whole time. He passed out, but at least his chest was now rising and falling as it should. Warmth returned to his body. The stupid boy had been dead and somehow came back from it.

It was as Albus took him away and the Order members dispersed, some with the deatheaters, some with Albus, that it dawned on Severus just how much the boy had crawled into his heart. As he held onto his lifeless body Severus' own life no longer seemed worth living.

He stood and wiped his face, it still felt humid. He turned to walk away from the ruin and apparated to St. Mungo's Hospital. He went inside to find Albus and the boy.