Lily couldn't make out the words being said. Dumbledore and Regulus sounded muffled, like they were trying to speak to him from under water. He could still feel Mildred's dark eyes on him, never looking away from Lily's returning stare. Lily thought she might be able to read his mind if he kept on staring at her, or he might could read hers. He hugged the broken finger close to his chest. All along the dusty walls he could see the ghosts of Sev's ancestors from before. There was the Minoan, and the Cybele priest. Over there was a 14th century scholar, and a Byzantine noble. Lily blinked in surprise when one of the ghosts knelt in front of him. Louis le Prince braced his scabbard against the flagstone, the metal links of his chainmail glinting in the candlelight. He knew from Mildred's memories that the Prince's hair had been brown once, but now it was the same silvery, translucent white that colored the rest of him.

"What are you all still doing here?" Lily demanded.

Louis le Prince pointed to the glyphs behind Lily. "Do you remember what Severus told you about the runes carved onto the floor?"

Some of these runes are also seen in old marriage contracts, but these right here? Those are used when binding ghosts.

"They were placed to ensure Rosalind could never move on to the afterlife, but since our summoning we've also become trapped here. No ghost would ever dare enter this chamber, if he could help it."

Lily nodded slowly. His brain felt sluggish since he had been ripped from Mildred's memories. He asked, "What am I supposed to do now?"

Louis le Prince looked over his shoulder at the half-broken wall. "The seal has been damaged. Give her enough time, and Rosalind will probably be able to break out on her own. By then it won't matter what glyphs have been traced here; this whole castle will come tumbling down."

Louis le Prince looked up at the enchanted ceiling, at the ruined castle that supposedly was what Muggles saw if they happened to stumble upon Hogwarts. Lily followed his gaze. Lily thought maybe it was backwards; maybe the castle ruins was what Hogwarts really looked like, and that the Hogwarts he had lived in these past six years had all been an illusion. Maybe they were all ghosts, trapped here, and like poor Professor Binns they wandered through the halls still believing themselves to be students.

"Or," Louis le Prince continued. "Severus can finish what you started. Blood calls to blood. He can tap into Rosalind's power and tear down the charms holding Hogwarts together. But he'll need protection, a knight to watch after him while he works."

Lily swallowed down shame and embarrassment rising up from her stomach. "I'm not much of a knight. I'm not any good at dueling. I can't help him." God, she felt like fraud. A stupid little girl playing pretend. She couldn't even protect Sev from James– not just during the duel, but throughout their time here at Hogwarts. No wonder Sev didn't want to marry her. What kind of man, what kind of husband, would allow their beloved to be stalked and harassed.

She wondered if she had said that last part out loud, or if Louis le Prince could see into her thoughts, like Mildred, because the knight said, "I am not the great warrior prince you imagine me to be. I once promised to bring my wife Godric Gryffindor's head as a token of my love and my promise to always protect her. Gryffindor escaped and I returned to her empty-handed. I had failed in my quest, and yet she, in all her magnanimity, still agreed to marry me."

"It's not the same," Lily insisted.

"No, perhaps not, but that doesn't mean you can't protect your betrothed now. You just need a little experience." He lifted a ghostly hand. "I can merge my mind with yours. I would need to share your body with you for a time, but it will give you access to all my knowledge."

Lily looked over the man in front of her. This tall man with his broad shoulders and hands made rough with callouses. Bearded, strong, masculine. "You would want to share my body?" The bitter words were spat out.

Louis le Prince raked his eyes over Lily, noting every detail of that body. "Oh yes, it will suit me well," he said and brought his ice-cold fingers to herto his face.


"Will you stop? I'm trying to help you!"

"I will transfigure your eyebrows into caterpillars!" Severus threatened, still struggling in Potter's grip. The students that surrounded them either laughed at their antics, or else hurried on to their classes, already bored by another Marauder prank. Severus wondered what would happen if he started screaming for help. They would all probably laugh harder.

His core was hurting again. Lily was right. He shouldn't have performed that spell, but he couldn't bring himself to regret it. Even if it hadn't given him the answers he wanted, he had still learned something about himself. Severus finally managed to grab his wand; even if he couldn't access his magic, maybe he could still bluff his way out of this. Potter was a coward. He never tried to go up against Severus without his little gang to back him up.

His core was really hurting. It felt different from when Lily had drained him. There had been pain, but it had been muddled underneath the exhaustion and the fuzziness in his head. This was sharp, as if someone was picking pieces out of him, slicing it away like a ham dinner.

And then suddenly–

Severus felt a snapping sensation deep within his body, like a rubberband pulled taut and then released, flying through the air. He felt something within him expand, stretching outward, a star collapsing until it exploded into a rain of dust, transformed into a new galaxy.

"I said let go!" Severus screamed and it didn't matter that Potter now had access to his magic through his bond. He could never drain Severus; there was too much of him, he'd swallow Potter whole if he tried.

There was the tinkling of glass as the arched windows along the corridor shattered. Potter's grip loosened as he ducked away from the spray of broken glass and Severus seized the opportunity to make a run for it. The castle was groaning, like the old house in Cokeworth, and as he careened through crowds of screaming students he saw one of the frozen staircases collapse. It tumbled through the air, no longer suspended by magic, and it crashed into another staircase below it, breaking in half.

He ran without really knowing why, he just knew that he had to reach the Dueling Ground. Something was calling him there, a bond deeper than the echo he shared with Potter. The door to the chamber was already open and he could see Dumbledore and Regulus standing near the back. Dumbledore had his hands outstretched, and was talking in low, soft tones, while Regulus had his wand out, his eyes wild, and Lily–

Severus gasped, drawing the attention of Regulus and the Headmaster. Regulus was standing in front of Lily, who was kneeling on the ground, clutching something to his chest. He was facing a partially destroyed wall and his lips were moving, like he was talking, but no sounds came from his mouth. Severus didn't know if he had fallen into some sort of trance or if he had just gone crazy, but either way he stepped forward only to be stopped by Dumbledore.

"Get out. Go to the infirmary. Now. I will not tell you again." The Headmaster did not raise his voice, but his tone left no room for argument. It was a warning, clear as day, and one that Severus promptly ignored as he tried to side-step the old man.

Dumbledore was quicker and he grabbed Severus by his upper arm. "Wait! I have to help Lily–!"

"I am trying to save you, you idiot boy! You and everyone else in this damned country!" The Headmaster snapped and yanked Severus away from Lily's kneeling form. He saw him slump forward a little, and then straighten, one hand braced against his knee.

"James! I told you to take him to the infirmary!"

Severus turned his head around to see Potter at the entrance, a little out of breath as he stumbled inside. "Headmaster! The Grand Staircase has collapsed! I ran into Remus and he told me part of the roof on Ravenclaw Tower has broken off!"

Dumbledore reeled back as if slapped, but before he could say anything, Lily's voice broke through the panic, loud and clear and sure. "James Potter, I challenge you for the right to marry Severus Snape."

Severus looked at him, at his red hair, at his wide stance, the confident, haughty expression on his face. His wand was down by his side, ready to fling a spell.

Potter stood there, flabbergasted. "Lily, did you not just hear what I said? Hogwarts is falling down around our ears!"

"Then you forfeit, and Sev is mine," he said, which, from the red, puckered expression on Potter's face was not something he was going to easily accept.

He turned to the Headmaster and said, his voice desperate, "I can't lose him. Not now. Can you… will be my second?"

"I'll serve as Evans's second," Regulus offered and went to stand behind the redhead.

Dumbledore looked at Potter, his expression grave, before flicking his eyes to Lily and Regulus and finally landing on Severus himself. He almost looked sorry; bastard, he's never been sorry, Severus thought. "Alright," the old man said, with a note of finality. "Take your places children."

The Headmaster allowed Severus to squeeze by him this time and he ran up to Lily. "Lils–"

He grabbed Severus's hands and leaned forward to whisper into his ear, "It's your ancestor, Rosalind, she's trapped behind that wall. She's what is powering the magic in this school. Set her free and everything – even your bond – will be broken." And then he delivered a kiss to his cheek, on the edge of his mouth, and stepped forward.


Louis le Prince's memories were open for Lily's use. He moved through the man's life, experiencing what it was like for him, the bastard son of a king and a witch. Learning to ride, to hunt, to fight. Training with the bow and the sword, learning magics not taught at Hogwarts. Louis le Prince had not used a wand to channel his magic, but rather his sword. A hilt made of oak, a blade forged from star iron, a core of wyvern fang. The spells he had used were called Spirit Riposte, and Second Wind, and Elemental Disruption.

The Prince's memory became entangled with his own, and when Lily lifted his wand he moved it through the air as if it was a sword: parry, thrust.

James threw out a Stunner, and Lily slashed through the air, creating a barrier that absorbed the spell and shattered it, hurling back a dozen small, red beams that shot forth in a wild frenzy. They were weaker than a standard Stunning Spell, but with so many of them they proved hard to dodge. James ducked out of the way of one, only to be hit in the shoulder by two more. The small beams of red light were not powerful enough to knock him unconscious, but they were strong enough to enfuse his arm with a numbing weakness. His wand clattered to the floor, his wand arm dangling downward as if it was too heavy to properly lift. He tried to pick up his wand again, but Lily sent out another spell.

Lightning crawled out from the end of his wand, it's twisting fingers skittering out across the floor in an arc. James abandoned his wand and rolled out of the way, barely missing the strike. James sat on his haunches and looked at Lily with wild eyes, unable to recognize the man that stood in front of him. This was not the Lily he had known, this was a full-fledged, blooded knight that would do anything to protect the man he loved.

Then James shifted his gaze, not on Lily, but something just past his shoulder. Lily turned to look and saw Sev – his Sev – peeking into the walled-off room. During the fight, Sev had made the hole large enough to step through, and now he was dragging something out of it– a gray, skeletal, mummified corpse still wearing a wedding dress.

Lily could hear the whole of Hogwarts shaking above them. There was crashing, and screams, and throughout this terrible din there stood Dumbledore with his wand in his hand, a hand reaching out to grab Sev by the back of his robes.