Harry was shrouded in darkness. Going from bright sunlight to a place so dark, left him feeling blind and disoriented. He squinted to see that he wasn't in total darkness, there was dim light coming from the ceiling, but he was still unsure of where he was. After another few moments, his eyes had become better suited to the new surroundings, and he found that he was in a long, dark tunnel, lit by small dingy lights every so often along the crumbling concrete ceiling.
"What the hell?" Harry asked. There was no one else around, and definitely no Snape, Lily, or James. A look in either direction told him there was no easy way out, or at least no way visible. "Great," he muttered, and noted the chill of the tunnel and the slight stench of something that was sure to be unsightly when he came across it.
With a final look in either direction, he picked the way he had originally appeared facing, and started to walk.
When he hadn't gotten anywhere but through more dark tunnel after five minutes, he let out a long, low sigh and began to contemplate his situation. He still hadn't been able to talk to Lily, and his only conversation with James ended with Harry threatening to hex him.
Suddenly an uncomfortable question popped into Harry's mind. Why had he been following Snape around anyhow? Aside from the fact that he had given Harry little glimpses into Lily's life, Snape wasn't his father, and he'd been sent back in time to see the truth about his parents. Maybe I'm just too cowardly to see more of the truth about my father, Harry admitted. Gleaning information through the eyes of Severus Snape had already given him a bad taste in his mouth about James, and perhaps Harry was nervous about witnessing more atrocious acts first hand. Somehow the image of James had morphed into the image of Dudley, chasing him down the street, stuffing him into rubbish bins, and locking him out of the house in nothing but pajamas while it snowed all night.
Harry tried to pull himself back to the present... or the past? He didn't know anymore, but he didn't like to think about the Dursleys.
He squinted in the dark tunnel and saw someone walking slowly up ahead. Harry hurried to catch up, wary of who it might be if not Snape, and kept one hand on the wand in his pocket, just in case. This was the time when Voldemort had been gathering death eaters to him after all, and Harry didn't want to chance ending up dead before he was ever even born.
"Hey," Harry shouted when he was close enough to catch dark hair and a black coat.
The man turned to reveal Severus. The scowl wasn't a good sign.
"You're still here," he said in what Harry imagined was the prequel to the man's famous deadly tone.
"Yeah, guess the mirror didn't think I was done mucking about the past yet." Harry frowned, and noted that some time had passed again because Snape looked older, although not too much.
"That means Lily is still dead?"
Harry nodded solemnly.
"She dated James for a while, but they broke up. I'd hoped that meant they didn't get married and she didn't die."
"Are you together again?"
"No." He looked away, ashamed.
"Is she even talking to you?"
"Some, but it's not like it was before. School is finished and I don't often get the chance to see her."
"You mean out for the summer?"
"We graduated. I'm almost 18."
"Oh." Harry fidgeted again as they walked.
"Where are we?"
"That is no business of yours."
Harry frowned. Until now Snape had been generally forthcoming with him.
"Where are you going?"
"To meet someone."
Heart frozen suddenly, Harry remembered that Snape had joined Voldemort in his youth before he turned spy for Dumbledore. Maybe that was the reason he never got back together with Lily.
"Did you apologize?" It was an innocent question, but it earned an explosion.
"Of course I apologized!" Severus spat out at him. Harry shrank back a little. There was the start of the Snape he knew, snarky, face sullen, and constantly angry all the time.
There was silence for a long while as they walked on and on through the darkened tunnel.
"I'll win her back, you just see if I don't." He looked to his right, but the 15-year-old boy was gone.
"Finally" he breathed, hoping that he had said or done something that would change the future, and that perhaps this time, Potter reincarnate wouldn't be back.
He continued to move forward to his meeting with the dark lord, the only one who could promise him for sure that Lily Evans would be spared in the coming fray.
‘She will be safe Severus, trust me, she will be safe.' The dark lord's words echoed through his head, as the still new black mark on his arm tingled, as he moved closer to the future ruler of the wizarding world.
The End.
