I hope you enjoy my latest chapter, I would love to get some feedback on my story so far :)

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My feet traipse the familiar path alongside and above the dirty river running quick and dark below me. The grin of the half-moon high up in the sky illuminates my way but I do not need its light. I knew the way immeasurably well. My strides are quicker even than my usual fast pace so the little thicket of trees comes into fruition in only moments. I had not been back here in years and was not sure what the emotions swirling in the pit of my stomach were. I glance up at the canopy of branches, the whisperings and mutterings of the wind making the dark leaves rattle jittery against each other. The screeching of a fox makes angry prickles erupt over my skin in alarm but then something much more tangible diverts my attention.

A wand tip suddenly burns almost overwhelming bright in the gloom and for a split second I think that I've walked into an ambush. Electricity runs along my nerves, my muscles contract and my bones aim my wand threatening aloft but it falls again in quick succession to my thigh when a voice murmurs through the dark.

'Would you really curse me Sev, after all this time?'

Automatically without thought I light my own wand so that the figure not much shorter than my own comes into gloomy view. Lily, a few feet away from me with wand delicately in front of her, held me with a magnetic gaze and enigmatic expression suffused within the bloodlessness of her skin. Grief and strangely something like panic thundered through me with so much force I find it difficult to keep myself upright and the composure I didn't realise I had been upholding for years in place. It had been evidently hard, even some days it felt impossible not seeing her but only after all these years apart did the full enormity of the gaping crater that was her departure came into apparent realisation.

'What – what are you doing here?' I rasped at her with a dry throat.

Lily began to smile but then it trembled on the soft plush of her lips and her face crumpled in supposed anguish.

'I've – I've been such a fool Sev!' She whispered, tears threatening to overspill her lashes. Confusion intermingled with the panic now until I was finding it almost impossible to string any sort of coherent thoughts together. She was here, really here, in front of me. Lily … She was dressed in plain black robes with the hood pulled up to form a lip over the crown of her head; her dark red hair fell to her shoulders as always and looked almost black in the gloom. Everything was just how I remembered it, the cupid's bow of her lips, her collarbone blushing beneath her throat and the slim willowy fingers that trembled on her wand.

'I don't understand –'

The tears escaped and she half turned as if to conceal the shame. Spontaneously my legs began to drop and fall until I was in touching distance of her but I held back even when Lily began speaking, her body in a slight rotation away from mine.

'I'm so sorry for everything that I've done, said … Everything's been a complete disaster. I've been trying to leave for ages but I haven't managed to before now, it's been difficult what with being in the Order. And – and …,' Lily's eyes found mine again and there was something there that I had never before seen, something akin to fear. 'Potter and I are finished. I don't know what I was thinking when we – when, I thought …' She trailed off again swallowing thickly. I didn't breathe; I didn't dare think or believe. Could this possibly mean?

'I still don't understand.' I manage to get out a little louder than a whisper. Beads of sweat begin to roll down my back and both heart and breath speed to uncomfortable heights. Despite this I couldn't disengage my eyes from Lily's which were so close and which I had not been able to look into for so long.

'I wanted to see you.' Her statement was simple but it seems to charge the air between us in a complexity that had never been present before this instant. I tried to stay calm but I felt the universe closing in on the two of us, an unstoppable force against two unmovable objects.

'Lily-,'

'Sev-,' Before I knew what was happening she placed her fingers on the nape of my neck and pulled me to meet her awaiting lips. Shock obliterated everything from my mind until it was nothing more than a great vacuum and for once in my life I could no longer think anymore, only feel. None of the countless imaginings compared to the real thing. Her mouth was not velvet soft but rough, real and acted like a key in a lock to emotions I didn't even realise I could summon.

I brushed my fingers through thick, sweet smelling tresses of her hair and she sighed with parted lips deeply-

I felt the scorching burn of my left forearm as if flames licked the delicate white skin there.

Lily vanished.

I opened my eyes and it was over.

A quiet eruption of misery began in my bones and seeped into the tissues of my body, pressing up against the skin making me feel bloated and immobile. I lay on my back looking up at the blackened ceiling knowing that steadily all the resolution in my life was being blown out.

I could just stay here and lay here forever; I wanted to stay here forever. In my dingy London flat where nobody but I had paced the sticky carpet and breathed in the desolation and despair. But the flash of scorching heat of my left forearm was still tingling from the order to stand to attention. The solider needed to respond and return for duty.

It took more energy than I would have cared to admit to, but I stood, dressed and hurried quiet as shadows out of my flat to the wooded shroud of the park to the back and left of my building. Before I twisted into obscurity I paused to gather myself. I looked up to see a smattering of stars winking out from clouds that skated across the swirling sky. The air was crisp and it cut like a knife in my chest; I tried to catch the white cloud of my breath with my fist but it disappeared before I flexed my fingers upwards. Just like everything else, I was just that bit too late.

I touched a single finger to the Dark shadow on my arm and spun into the relish of oblivion.

My feet barely hit the polished oak floor before I heard the hiss.

'You're late, Severus.'

I glanced my eyes upwards to see Voldemort standing in front of a large sash window looking out onto darkened grounds; the illumination of the full moon gave him an eerie spotlight. His back was turned making his expression ambiguous but his voice radiated anger. Even though he could not see me, I bent my spine into a low bow.

'My deepest apologises, my Lord.'

'We have a crucial engagement that you have delayed us with.' At the Dark Lord's words I turned to find Lucius Malfoy sat in a high-winged back chair. He was in full Death Eater attire so only his cold grey eyes were visible to the outside world.

Without warning, the Dark Lord turned and faced me. His scarlet eyes burned startlingly against the glare of the moon making them more intense, his wand rested gently in his fingers like a serpent ready to strike. The silence stretched on for what felt like an eternity and yet I stood perfectly calm with eyes never leaving his.

'Never be late again.'

'No my Lord, you have my word.'

For want of a better word, a smile curved his lipless mouth.

'Then let us join the celebrations.'