"Get back, Tom!" Severus Snape shouted, leaping from his bed.
Tom Riddle stood in his place, silently but still angrily.
"Get back, I said!"
"I have not moved," Tom whispered.
Snape was now standing, leaning against the edge of his bed, his gray robes damp with sweat. He head was still spinning and he was nowhere near his wand. He felt ill from the potion and feared he would be sick.
"I heard you sscreaming."
Snape stared, breathing quickly and feeling very faint.
Tom's voice was not as angry as his face was. It was rather calm. "Severus, I came in because I heard you screaming. You were screaming about me, ssaying that you hate me, that you wissshed I was dead."
Snape realized that the anger he saw and feared was actually resentment and pain. It had looked so foreign on such a serpentine face.
Tom pressed, reaching carefully to lay his hand on Snape's shoulder. He spoke with an air of reluctant reasoning. His words were rational and carefully chosen, so unlike the overachieving miscreant that he was. "I know that I did sssomething years ago. Something you haven't forgiven me for. I am here to discover what that is, Severuss."
As Snape stared into Tom's strange and handsome face, he recalled so vividly the dreams that he'd had before he woke. It was such curious time in his life, to have met such a strange friend whom he soon would come to care for very dearly in a way he was certain he didn't understand. He had been so thoughtful, so inquisitive, and so willing to share his secret. During their time together, both Tom and the power that he promised had seduced Snape into a very unique relationship. There were even times, before his final year at Hogwarts, that he was happy despite the terrors going on around him. It was all thanks to Tom.
Snape's face contorted with uncertainty, his heart torn between that of love and that of hate for the dark wizard.
Tom took pity on the ill wizard and decided, rather, to wrap his arms around him. Snape did not resist, too tired to consider proper reason. He fell against Tom, who lifted him back on to the bed.
"Sssix years since I've seen you, Severusss," Tom whispered, removing Snape's wet robes. "Surely long enough to forgive whatever sin I committed."
Snape merely groaned, his chest and arms now exposed. He began to shiver, his complexion as pale and white as ever, with a slight tinge of green. He looked awful.
Tom continued to work, saying, "I think that we ought to put it behind usss. I have made such great advancess on our quessst; the one we planned to fulfill together." Tom had further removed the bottom half of Snape's nightclothes, leaving only a modest pair of black boxers. He removed his own clothing and used them to wipe the condensation off of Snape's lean, muscular frame. He flexed beneath Tom's touch, now seeming half delirious, the warm glow radiating into the room making the display seem rather heavenly.
"I musst have hurt you. You never returned my owlsss. You never tried to contact me. You should know that you hurt me too. Everything that I have ever done sssince the day I met you has only been for your best interessst. While we were apart, I never forgot about you and what I promisssed I could give you: the power of the legendary wand." Tom had tossed his clothes onto the floor and was now, like Snape, clad in boxers. He climbed into the bed and wrapped his body around the shivering wizard, the sunlight warming them all the more. Snape was half asleep, if not completely mesmerized by Tom's discourse.
"Let me tell you a story. A true ssstory." Tom ran his fingers through Snape's hair, their legs entwined, their breathing now relaxed and in sync. "There was once was a wizard who desssired power so that he could improve the wizarding world as he saw fit. But he couldn't do it alone. One day, on his quessst, he met a very curious and promisssing young man that he knew he could trussst, so the two became friends. Best friendsss.
"For two years, while the young wizard finished school, the other stayed in hiding. But they were clossse and they made plansss together. They made plans to use their power to create a super race of witches and wizards. They made plans to conquer landsss and maximize full magical potential within themselvesss, all for the purposes of becoming the greatest wizards to ever live. It was exciting; intoxicating.
Tom gazed at Snape, still half-conscious but no longer shivering. "Severusss, I think you knew how I felt about you. I had been alone a long time before you caught me dashing across the grounds at Hogwarts. While I know you were ssscared, you never looked away when I held your gaze, and you did not flinch when I touched your hand." Tom reached for Snape's hand and he snapped into consciousness, though remained unmoving.
"I loved you, Severusss. And you broke me the night you shunned me from your life. When I approached you, in the shrieking shack, I wanted to do something outrageous but you ssspoke first. You told me to leave. You told me I was desspicable. You told me you never wanted to ssee me again. Oh, Severuss..." Tom's head was pressed against Snape's shoulder. Snape was well aware of what was going on and what it meant. It was making him furious. Nothing Tom's wicked eyes closed in reverie, he reached out towards his night table and fumbled for his wand. He tucked it close to him as Tom finished.
"... All I wanted to do was kiss you."
Snape went instantly cold with rage.
"Homo repellus!" he shouted, causing Tom to fall backwards off the bed and crashing to the floor. Snape wrapped himself in the white bed sheet and stood on the opposite side of the bed, wand at the ready.
Tom reached for his own wand, which he'd left in his robes, and acted faster than Snape, yelling, "Crucio!"
Snape was met with a onslaught of sheer agony. It was low blow, however elementary. He stood, frozen in pain, a steady stream of green light pouring from Tom's wand.
"I wondered," Tom said, walking slowly around the bed towards Snape, "if you would in fact be as ssstubborn as I thought you to be all those yearsss you didn't contact me. All you had to do was tell me but you've only ever kept it bottled inssside! I knew something wasss wrong! You were less and lessss emphatic about our quessst with each passing day! Something was keeping you from reaching your goal, and it disgustsss me!"
Snape's eyes were wide with pain, small squeaks and groans resounding in his throat as he fought through the agony.
Tom was close enough now to touch the paralyzed Snape. He reached out and grabbed him forcefully around the neck, his nails biting his flesh. "You weak, weak wizard." Snape looked positively tortured. "You are weak. You are pathetic. You are an embarrassment to Slytherins everywhere!"
At this, Snape pried himself free of the grasp, outraged by the accusation, of having been taken advantage of. Deep down, he knew he was right. He did not love Tom Riddle. He scrambled towards his wand but was too slow once again.
"Petrificus totallus!"
Snape froze. Silence ensued.
"You will now addressss me as Lord Voldemort, Severusss Snape." Tom's body began to deform, his body looking more snakelike than ever. "The truth is, I always planned to continue my quest without you anyways. I could never forgive you for what you said to me. The wand will be mine and you will bow down before me, your Lord.
"And now, Severusssss, I will find out exactly what it was that raped your nerve and sent it recoiling into the shadows with the likes of a measley Gryffindor! VERITASERUS IMAGIO!"
Tom had conjured from Snape's mind a mirage of one of his final days at Hogwarts, prior to the completion of his seventh year.
Snape sat by the river in Hogsmeade, alone as usual. After a few minutes, Lily arrived, and for once she was without Potter and his friends. She wandered over to him, looking troubled.
"Why are you alone here, Severus?"
"What does it matter? You should go and be with your real friends."
"I'm sorry, Sev, about not being around you, but I cannot bear it. You've changed. And not for the good, I'm afraid. I think we're just too different."
Snape looked hurt. "I haven't changed." A pause. "What do you expect me to do? You ditched me, Lily. For those toads, James and Sirius."
Sadness appeared in her eyes. "I'm afraid that that is a grave you dug yourself. All this talk about power, about ruling the world... I fear it is crippling your mind, Severus. Power can encapsulate a man inside himself so that he sees nothing beyond it. I wish the best for you, and I hate to see you alone, but..."
"Oi, Lily! What yeh doing talking to that rat?" James Potter's voice was loud and clear. A crowd of followers filed in behind him as he approached them.
"Come on, James," Lily protested.
"I really don't know what you see in him," Sirius Black said.
Snape's face twisted with discomfort. Suddenly, he was hoisted into the air and tossed around. As his vision spun he could see James flicking his wand back and forth, round and around. He felt sick.
"Stop it, James!" Lily shouted.
"Stay away from us, you rotten mudblooded Slytherin!" James yelled.
Suddenly, James and his lot were thrown to the ground by and invisible force. Lily remained standing. Tom Riddle across a threshold of trees, holding his wand.
"What right do you have to pick on this young man?" Tom shouted.
"Who the 'ell are you?" Sirius demanded.
"A friend of Severus'."
Despite his obvious disadvantaged, James sneered. "Snapey's got a girlfriend."
Tom glared. "And what if he does!"
Snape's eyes bulged with fury. He leapt to his feet but it was too late. The spell had been cast and the entire lot was launched into the river. Lily coughed and spluttered, as did the others. Snape was mortified.
"We'll get you yet!" Tom yelled.
"Dumbledore's coming!" James yellow, struggling to stay afloat.
"Come on, Severus! Let's go!" Tom hustled into the forest.
Snape, however, stood where he was. The Gryffindors managed to pull themselves out of the river just as Dumbledore had arrived. The culprit seemed rather easy to distinguish from the rest of them.
"Severus," Dumbledore said solemnly. "I want you to be waiting at my office door as soon as you get back to Hogwarts. Magic like this is unforgivable at my school." He turned and walked away.
Lily was soaked and shivering. She approached Snape and stared at him coldly. "I knew you'd gone mad, but I never thought you'd go this far. I... I just can't look at you, Severus. Good-bye!"
The wet Gryffindors shuffled off down the road leaving Snape to himself. He began to cry uncontrollably, his body shaking without restraint.
"I hate you, Tom Riddle," he whispered, as if swearing it to the world. "I hate what you've made me become. I hate what you've made be believe. I hate what you've done to her... Oh, Lily..."
And that was enough.
"You loved her," Tom said, as if making some great discovery. Then he shrieked it. "YOU LOVED HER!"
He used his wand to thrash Snape up against the wall of his bedroom, knocking him clean unconscious. Blood trickled from his forehead when Tom finally put him down.
"I know now what I must do."