Let the mind games begin! A bit of a short update this time but we got a big reveal comin' up...

The first memory ebbed to awareness, worn and blurred with time.

"Mama, why is daddy always angry?"

A boy with dark, unkempt hair and misfitting clothes looks up sadly. A larger form comes into view, refocusing into a thin, frail face framed with loose hair and tired eyes. They were always tired. The voice from it is reprimanding,

"Shush, now, do not let him hear you say that." The boy frowns.

"But he says that you and me are different, that we're freaks."

"No, we are special, Severus. He is only afraid."

At the last word, the scene warps and shifts, like watercolors on a drenched canvas. Severus vaguely felt himself reaching out, desperately clinging to the next memory before the tide once again pressed in and overwhelmed his consciousness.

"You're a freak!" The voice rings shrilly through the air, from the mouth of a child. There are two girls down in the meadow, one yelling as the other stands quietly under the assault.

"You're a freak, Lily!" The girl called Lily runs away from the word, towards the tree from which the same dark-haired boy emerges. The other girl yells out again,

"Come here!" Then she sees him, fear flashing through her eyes before she turns and flees.

Lily regards the boy with uncertainty, frozen between following after her sister or staying. He carefully picks a sprout from the ground, letting it drift gently into her hands. Lily smiles.

"She's jealous. She's ordinary and you're special." Severus says this as a matter-of-factly, the two of them now laying at the side of a bank and looking upwards. Above them, a great willow tree sways in the breeze against a sky painted blue and white.

"That's mean, Severus," Lily rebukes, but her voice is gentle. Severus turns his head to look at her, gazing deep into those equally soft eyes, so filled with light.

Her image begins to fade as Snoke continues on, his presence like fingers riffling languidly through the pages of a book. With effort, Severus complied, leaving the warmth behind and bracing for the next memory.

"Severus Snape. Slytherin!" As the hat lifted from Severus' head, a cheer follows from the table to his left. The boy goes and sits at it, smiling at an older boy with white hair before casting a glance across the room at Lily, who is at a different table. A different house. Longing and a flash of anger churn within his heart as she doesn't even notice, talking to another boy.

James Potter.

His eyes shift over to meet Severus', a smirk growing across his lips as the scene around them twists and warps once again.

"Snivellus Greasy!" James laughs the name out. He is now a few years older, but still bearing the same scornful. conceited smile. Severus looks up quickly at the approaching horde of boys, James at their lead, snapping his book closed.

"Whatcha reading, Snivelly? Come on, drop your book and let's play." Just as his fingers closed around his wand in the folds of his cloak, the other boy yells out with a flourish,

"Expelliarmus!" Severus' wand flies to the side at James' incantation. The other boys around them let out a hoot. "Nice one, James."

Not allowing Severus the time to retaliate, he continued with an "Impedimenta!" As if by an invisible hand, the boy is lifted up by his feet into the air in a flailing mess of limbs and robes.

"Let me go!" He cried, but the others just laughed and did nothing.

They always did nothing.

"Right. Who wants to see me take off Snivelly's trousers?" James' smirk widened cruelly as the crowd began to chant, "Snivellus Greasy, Snivellus Greasy, Snivellus-"

"Stop it, Potter, I said stop!" All eyes turned around at the source of the voice, the crowd growing hushed as Lily came rushing into view. "James Potter, you put him down now!" Severus was immediately dropped unceremoniously to the ground, letting out a grunt as he collapsed in a dark pile of cloth.

"Come on Evans, we were just having a bit of fun-"

"Oh shut up, can't you see he's hurt?" Lily ran to Severus' side, lowering herself down beside him.

"Aw, it was all-"

"I'm fine." The other boy's voice cut in shakily, but coldly. Severus' face was streaked with tears, but he angrily swiped them away.

"I don't need a filthy Mudblood to protect me."

A shocked silence filled the scene. Lily's hand was frozen just above Severus' shoulder, but then she suddenly drew it back, as if burned. Her mouth opened, but no words came out now; only tears. They welled up from her eyes, but before spilling out she had gone, running and sobbing, back the way she came.

"Oh you'll pay for that now, Snivellus." The mob's voice returned, louder and more angry, pressing in from all sides, and Severus felt himself lifted up back into the air again...

The memory slipped and fell apart as everything tilted disorientingly, sounds blurring out. Severus urged his mind to push on towards the next memory, the one he needed to show.

"Lily!" Severus ran up to the girl, books cradled tightly in his arms. He let out a nervous breath, holding onto them as if they were his lifeline.

"I-I never meant to call you Mudblood, it just —" The girl turned around, but her eyes were dead now. Cold. Removed.

"Slipped out? It's too late. I've made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious little Death Eater friends…" Severus' mouth fell open in shock. He knew what was coming next, and his entire body braced to meet it.

"You've chosen your way, I've chosen mine."

As she walked away, everything faded into darkness around him until she was only a single, glowing speck in it all. Her light grew smaller and smaller, until she was gone, swallowed into the shadows.

Snape did not need to force the flow of memories now. He lets them take their course, as he'd always done whenever the Dark Lord peered into his mind, feeding his anger and despair into them until they are both bathed in it. He felt Snoke's mind shift about them in silent approval, and let him drink his fill:

Of him turning to the Dark Arts and being taken in under Voldemort, as a Death Eater. Bearing the Mark before his visage in the sky. Being the cause of Lily's doom and of all the others he'd had to kill, to prove his loyalty. All the twisted ways he'd used his gift of potions and curses. All the times he had found himself so deep in the Dark Arts that insanity had touched his mind.

And, finally, betrayal by the one he had pledged his life, his soul to: the Dark Lord himself, striking Severus down.

All this he showed the Supreme Leader. But as he fell back into the dark folds of unconsciousness, he found Snoke's own mind lingering at the edges, open and unprotected.

Snoke wouldn't know, not while his awareness was occupied looking through his memories.

So Snape, carefully, gently, let himself slip into the Supreme Leader's mind.

And the things he saw: the burning rage, darkness, hidden hopes and fears. The arrogance and caution and long-forgotten memories of ancient knowledge. But in the center of all his schemes and plans, he found Kylo Ren—and what Snoke planned to do with him. He saw the entire galaxy burning, worlds crumbling, and great starships plowing through the chaos. Darkness followed it all like a ravenous beast, its maw opening to swallow whole the light—

It took everything in Snape to leave the memories behind as quietly as he could; and just as he did so, he felt Snoke's grip on his mind release. Snape let out a small gasp, taking a step away and blinking his vision back into focus.

He saw Snoke still sitting before him, but now his face was one set with surprise and shock. For a moment, he wondered if the Supreme Leader had noticed that he had breached his mind, or if he had made a mistake and shown him something that had given everything away. Either way, he was a dead man. In that sudden moment of panic, he heard Snoke utter,

"You. You're—"

Snape stood frozen, watching the other struggle to speak.

"You're Kylo Ren's force twin."