"Lily! Lily!" Severus screamed, pushing through the fir trees toward the sound of her voice.

"I'm here, Sev! Oh, Sevy, please hurry!"

"I'm coming, Lily! I'm coming!" he yelled back, and all at once he burst through the trees into a clearing. The sky was dark overhead, and the acidic stench of blood and dark magic made it hard to breathe.

For a moment, Severus could see nothing but dark, unidentifiable shapes in the clearing. But as the air and his vision cleared, he saw her, laying in the clearing, the train of her lacey, white wedding gown floating in a pool of blood.

"Lily!" Severus shouted, and ran to her side, falling on his knees and checking her heartbeat. He pressed his hand against the alabaster skin and hissed, drawing it back again. She was burning up!

She moaned, an anguished sound that made Sev hurt inside.

If he didn't do something soon...he didn't let himself think of that, and pushing the thoughts behind his occlumency sheilds, he began to work on Lily.

"Easy, Lils. I've got to bring your fever down." He pulled a potion from his jacket, and pressed it to her lips. She turned her head away.

"Lily, please! You've gotta drink it! If you don't you'll-"

"I'll die, Sev," she said, her voice clear and strong though her eyes were nearly overflowing with tears. "It's too late, darling. Lucius, he-he got me with a curse. A new one; not sure what-" she was suddenly overcome with a fit of coughing. Sevrus slipped a hand underneath her, pushing her up so she was sitting. He manuevered himself around behind her, so she was laying against his chest. He didn't notice, nor did he care, that his trousers and coat were getting soaked in blood.

He grasped her soft, slender hand in his and held on tight, laying his cheek against her fiery curls and whispering gentle words of comfort.

As soon as she regained her breath, she whispered:

"Sev. I love you. D-don't let me die in vain, darling. T-take care of my baby. Our baby, Sev."

"What?"

"T-take care of Harry, Severus. He's not James' baby. I never loved James. Only you," she whispered, her voice nearly gone.

"P-promise me, Sev. Promise me you'll take care of our baby."

The anguish in her voice was too much for Sev, and he began to cry. "Yes, Lily. Yes, I'll take care of him. I promise." he said, clutching her hand as tightly as he could without fear of breaking her.

She smiled at him. "Thank you, Sev. I can go now." And with that, she breathed one long sigh, and Lily Evans was...dead.

"No, Lily!" Severus screamed, the words ripping from his mouth and slicing the thick air like a sword.

"No. No!" he said, laying the body of his love on the grass and frantically checking her pulse. There was none.

"Lily, please," he said, slipping his hands under the body and lifting it. But he found he couldn't. Suddenly, he was no longer Severus Snape, the thirty-five-year-old potions master, but he was Sev, the scrawny twelve-year-old boy. He struggled and tried, his sobs turning to anguished screams as desperation set in. But he could not lift her.

And then, she began to bleed. She bled from her mouth and from her wrists, blood running in rivulets down her face and hands and then her legs, pooling on the ground.

There was chest wound. Not a cut, but a bullet hole, right where her heart was. The blood soaked through her dress, turning the whole thing crimson. And then it began to soak through to Severus' arms. And soon his arms were dripping blood, and all he could see was red, red and blood, and he screamed-

Severus Snape woke with a start, his face wet with tears and his shirt sweaty.

Tonight was the Sorting. It would be Harry's third year at Hogwarts.

Sometime during the summer, he had ceased to think of Harry as Potter. How could he think of the boy as the son of his enemy, when every night he heard, over and over that the child was not, in fact, James' son, but his own.

He sat up, swinging his legs around so he was sitting on the edge of the bed.

"I cannot go on like this," he whispered, tiredly. "But what can I do?"

Somewhere from the back of his mind, he heard a soft, girlish voice whisper, "Take care of our baby, Sev."

"I can't!" he yelled, punching the bed in frustration. "He thinks I hate him! Merlin, Lily, why now?!" he said, his voice breaking near the end of the sentence.

He sighed and put his face in his hands.

"Alright. Alright, Lily! If I do, will you stop haunting me?"

A little giggle could be heard, and, in spite of himself, Severus smiled. But soon that smiled faded as the giggle went silent.

"Never mind, I didn't mean that! Haunt me Lily, as long as you like. Atleast I'm near to you." he cried into the dark room, his voice filled with longing.

For a moment, he thought he felt a soft hand brush his cheek, and he could have sworn he heard the rusle of wings.