Author's Note: I do not own A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, or the Harry Potter characters, I merely borrowed them for a little holiday fun! Also, there are spoilers for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in this story.

-Foodie

Chapter 4

Snape was awoken the next morning by a hand patting him on the shoulder. He opened his eyes, and gasped in utter shock. Lily Evans stood before him. She was young, looking as she had in their last year of Hogwarts, except that she wore a long white flowing robe that made it look as though she was floating. She never spoke, but gestured for him to get up.

"Lily…" he croaked as he got out of bed. "I…" There was nothing he could say to her. He felt as though somebody had torn his heart out and thrown it on the floor. What cruelty to send her, of all people, for this. "Are you here to show me the future?" he whispered.

Lily nodded her head, and held out her hand. Snape took it, and followed her to the door, and out onto the porch. They pushed off, and flew north. He felt no warmth coming from her hand. He wished he could have felt how warm her hands used to be. Looking over at her, he could almost imagine that he was seventeen again too.

After what felt like far too short a time flying together, they landed at Hogwarts. Once inside the school, they saw Draco, now old and gray, walking up the stairs from the dungeon. He looked sad as he rifled through a few sheets of parchment. A woman met him at the top of the stairs. She smiled sadly and wrapped her arm around his waist as they walked into the Great Hall.

"Did you get all of his affairs in order?" she asked quietly.

"Yes, I worked with the solicitor to figure out his will. He left everything to the grandkids apparently," Draco said.

"That's good. They won't have to worry about anything, then," she replied.

"I know, Annice, I just wish he'd been in their lives more. Some of the grandchildren never even met him, and now it's too late," Draco said sadly. "Money means nothing if you don't share your time with people."

"You'll just have to make sure you tell them about him. He never realized it, but he was a very special person in this world. We're all worse off for having him gone."

"I've been trying to decide what to say at his funeral. I mean, the man saved my life. He was there for me when my father wasn't. He was a better father to me than Lucius ever tried to be."

Snape listened to this, not wanting to be correct in his assumption. Draco was talking about him. But he couldn't be…no, that wasn't right. He wasn't, was he? He turned and looked at Lily with wide eyes. She looked mournful, and nodded her head slowly. His heart pounded and he felt something he had rarely felt in his life: panic.

"No…" he uttered desperately, shaking his head. "No, you're wrong." He turned and hurried out the door, running towards town.

Snape was breathless when he arrived at his apothecary shop. It was boarded up, as though it hadn't been opened in some time. He pounded on the door and windows, and called out for Neville, but nobody answered.

After a few minutes, he stopped and looked at Lily, who had followed him silently. "What do you want from me?" he asked hollowly.

Lily beckoned for him to follow her. Hanging his head in despair, he followed. He had never felt worse in his entire life. He'd spent a lifetime trying to avoid death, and had now come face to face with the inevitable.

They continued on until they'd reached the Leaky Cauldron, where a large group of people were enjoying a Christmas drink. Snape finally found Neville, who was sitting across from Harry Potter. They were talking quietly and drinking ale. He walked over and listened to them as they talked.

"So what are you going to do now, Neville? The shop's closed and he didn't leave you anything," Harry said.

Neville looked crestfallen. "I don't know yet," he replied. "I'll probably look into any openings at the Ministry. I mean, I don't need much for myself, but I do need something for money."

"He should have left the shop to you. You worked for so long there, you deserve it."

Neville shrugged his shoulders. "He just didn't think about it, and then he got so sick he couldn't think of things like that," he replied.

"You're too kind, Nev," Harry said with a shake of his head.

"Somebody needed to be kind to him."

Harry sipped his ale thoughtfully for a minute. "Well, the man is gone, and it is Christmas, and I know how much he did for this world during the war, so I'll drink a toast to him."

At that moment, Ron Weasley joined them. "Toast to who?" he asked with a grin.

"To Snape," Harry replied.

Ron's eyebrows rose at that. "We're drinking a toast to him?" he asked incredulously.

"He did so much for us," Neville said. "I mean, after Ginny and I divorced, he started giving me Saturdays off to spend more time with the children. It also gave me the time to go visit my parents each weekend after I had to have them put in St. Mungo's again. I know they hated having to leave the kids, but I couldn't take care of them on my own after the divorce. They liked having me spend more time with them each week."

"That was generous of him," Ron said. "I would never have thought him capable of such a thing."

Neville shrugged. "Every once in a while he'd surprise you. Not nearly enough, but now and again he'd actually let on that he was human."

"Now that I can't believe," Ron chuckled. "Snape human?"

Harry looked thoughtful. "Well now, I don't know, I mean, look at all he did during the war. He really did sacrifice a lot for us to win. That has to say something about him as a person. Maybe he wasn't as bad as we always thought," he said slowly.

Even Ron had to give this careful consideration. "Maybe you're right," he finally conceded. Snape was shocked that Weasley could ever admit he might indeed be human. It was really an odd feeling hearing all of them speaking so about him. He wasn't used to people being kind or saying nice things about him.

By now, other people had overheard their conversation, and joined in their thoughts. "He was a mean old bugger, but he helped us all," one man said.

"Here, here," a woman concurred while banging her glass on the table. "This world owes a lot to Severus Snape."

Neville raised his glass. "To Snape," he called out.

Everybody else raised their glasses. "To Snape," they replied in unison.

Snape was taken aback at this. A toast? To him? Did they really mean it or was it merely lip service paid to the dead? Could they truly feel that way? It was a strange sensation for him at the thought that maybe they were sincere.

The conversation returned to Snape when the toast ended. People seemed sincere enough when the spoke to one another. Neville, Weasley, and Potter were actually reminiscing about their school days and potions classes in the dungeons.

Snape always found it fascinating how people looking back on their lives tended to turn bad memories into good ones. In his time, he'd never managed to do that. Almost all of his memories in life were unpleasant in some way. Although, over the last couple days, he had recalled at least a few happier memories. He couldn't help but wonder if he'd ever have more happy memories to add to those.

After some time, the conversation turned back to Christmas or the normal goings-on of Hogsmeade. It seemed that his fifteen minutes of fame was now over. With a last glance around, he walked out of the Leaky Cauldron, and back out into the snow-covered street.

Snape felt listless, and unsure of what to do next. Lily looked at him curiously as he looked up and down the street. He knew what he needed to do. "Lily…where…" he began before taking a deep breath. "Where am I?" he asked quietly.

Lily bit her lip and looked at the ground.

"Please, Lily, I must know," Snape replied.

She looked at him sadly before nodding and beckoned him to follow her. They walked through the snow, not leaving any footprints behind them, to the edge of town. Once beyond the Hogsmeade village limits, they came upon a small blue house with a sign that read: Fezziwig and Sons Funeral Parlour.

Snape stood before the house for a few minutes, mustering up the courage to walk into it. When he was ready, he and Lily walked up the stairs, and he followed behind her as she walked through the walls to the other side.

Drab chalky-coloured wallpaper covered the walls of the front room, and there were dark gray velvet curtains covering the windows, blocking out any light. They carefully walked through the room and down a long hallway. The door of the last room to the left creaked open slightly as they approached.

Lily moved into the room, leaving Snape alone outside. His heart pounded as he debated whether or not to go inside. He'd come this far, he might as well go all the way. He closed his eyes and counted to five slowly before reopening his eyes and walking into the room.

In the centre of the room was a dark evergreen casket with silver handles. There was little else in the cold, dreary room, except for a mirror on the far end. Snape slowly walked around the casket, running a fingertip along the seam. It would be far too macabre to open up the casket and look at himself. There was no need to; he knew in his heart that he was in there.

As he walked to the side of the room with the mirror on the wall, he felt a chill pass through him. The temperature of the entire house seemed to plummet suddenly, until he could see his breath as he stood before the casket.

Snape rubbed his hands together, and glanced in the mirror. He saw himself standing there, moving not a muscle. His eyes widened, and he stopped his motions, and watched as his reflection walk out of the mirror frame and disappear. As he whirled around, he saw the image of himself walking towards where he was standing.

How could that be? What was happening? He was dead in this time, wasn't he? Before he had a chance to utter a word, the other Snape grabbed him with freezing cold hands.

"Look at what you've done to me!" he cried.

"Wh-what?" Snape croaked while trying to pull away from him.

"I can't move on because of you!" the other Snape growled. "You had every chance, every chance, and you squandered it! And now look at me! I'm trapped here, in this room, with this box, and I can't go anywhere else!"

"Wh-who?" Snape stuttered, growing pale and feeling light-headed.

"Who am I? I'm you! I'm your spirit. I fled your body when you passed, but I am still bound to you. I haven't been able to ascend yet, and it's your fault!" Snape's spirit screamed at him.

Snape gaped at him, unable to speak.

"Don't you feel how hollow you are inside right now? You're freezing, aren't you? That's because I'm here," his spirit said, pointing to himself. "If I were still in you, you'd feel normal, but I can't be there, because you're no longer living in this time. And I can't go back. But you still can! You can still change the past, and when you come to this time again, for real, I'll be able to move on. It's our only chance!"

Snape couldn't understand what was happening. He was dead, but still alive, and speaking with his own disembodied soul. A soul who was apparently quite resentful of the life he'd lived. He turned to look at the casket, and then back again at his spirit, and felt as though somebody had hit him over the head with a brick.

"I can go back still," he murmured. "I can start over again. I can do this, I know I can." He turned and looked at his spirit, which had floated over to Lily. "I understand now," he continued in a louder voice, feeling excitement welling up inside him. "I know now why you did this for me. Give me another chance! I know I can do better. I can be a better person."

Snape's spirit floated over to him. "Can you guarantee that? Can you promise to do better? To care more?" it asked him.

Snape nodded his head. "Yes, I can promise that I will be a better person from this point on in my life. I see now that it is futile to be otherwise. It doesn't buy a man any more time, and only makes what little time he has, miserable," he replied, feeling more confident as he spoke. "I don't want to be miserable anymore."

Lily smiled and bowed her head for a moment upon hearing this. She walked over to Snape, and leaned up to peck him on the cheek. With that, she waved and began to shimmer. She seemed to dissolve before Snape's eyes, but instead of being sad to lose her once more, he was happy, for he knew he'd see her again one day.

With a deep breath, he turned to his soul. "I am ready to go back now," he said. "I won't let you down."

Snape's soul nodded his head, and floated quickly towards him. When he made contact with Snape, the world around him seemed to dissolve as Lily had, and all was peaceful and bright.