When Lucius comes for him, Snape is suddenly fearful. He is ignorant of the battle in the castle and the debris flying on the grounds, and suddenly he is quite certain, as he heads to the Shrieking Shack that this may be the last time he sees Hogwarts Castle, and he regrets - for a moment - that is must be in this state of disarray as he drinks up the sight of it.

And then he is there in the Shrieking Shack giving a battle update, and for the first time in over a decade, he cannot keep his head in front of the Dark Lord. Occlumency has failed him, and he is thinking about the things he has learned and the knowledge he still has not shared with Potter. He had tried, earlier, certain that the boy was with McGonagall, but it was a failure, another failure.

"...my Lord, their resistance is crumbling - " Snape says, when the Dark Lord's face begins to harden into something more furious and cold than Snape is used to seeing directed at himself. It is part attempt to reassure his Lord and part cowardice.

" - and it is doing so without your help," is the Dark Lord's high, clear reply. "Skilled wizard though you are, Severus, I do not think you will make much difference now. We are almost there... almost."

Now, Snape is quite certain that the Dark Lord is aware of something, a terrible realization that Snape had come to half a year ago. He is struck with a desire to flee madly, to run from the Shack like a rash Gryffindor, for he knows now that he will not survive to see the Dark Lord defeated, but the Dark Lord will not be defeated unless he gets a message to the boy, Snape realizes, his eyes focusing on the snake in the corner of the shack that he had been aware of since the moment he had entered.

"Let me find the boy. Let me bring you Potter. I know I can find him, my Lord. Please." Snape moves forward, aware that he seems somewhat desperate, but that is what he intends, for the Dark Lord to think he is afraid of his fury and desperate to please in these last moments; he cannot know the whole truth, so Snape strengthens his Occlumency barriers and focuses.

Now the Dark Lord stands and says, "I have a problem, Severus." His voice is cold and commanding, despite its quiet calmness.

Snape knows, knows he is about to die, but he must find the boy, so he stands strong, like a spy of nearly twenty years. "My Lord?"

Then the Elder Wand is being raised, and pointed calmly at some random location. "Why doesn't it work for me, Severus?"

"My - my Lord?" Snape says, attempting to sound blank and uninformed, but surely the hissing snake can hear his heart beating so heavily. "I do not understand. You - you have performed extraordinary magic with that wand." It is the truth.

"No," says the Dark Lord. "I have performed my usual magic. I am extraordinary, but this wand ... no. It has not revealed the wonders it has promised. I feel no difference between this wand and the one I procured from Ollivander all those years ago."

And now Snape knows that it is true, what he had realized about the wand, because if the Dark Lord knows it, it is a reality - the only one that matters; true or not, Snape's fate will rest on that wand and the Dark Lord's beliefs about it.

"No difference," the Dark Lord reiterates, almost calmly, but Snape's Dark Mark is beginning to burn with his fury. He begins to move around the room. "I have thought long and hard, Severus... Do you know why I have called you back from the battle?"

Snape knows; he knows, but suddenly he wonders if there is a way, one last way to serve Dumbledore. He doesn't think so, staring at Nagini. It is too late.

"No, my Lord, but I beg you will let me return. Let me find Potter." It is the appropriate response, Snape knows, for a man in his position, but he is not surprised when the Dark Lord is not pleased.

"You sound like Lucius. Neither of you understands Potter as I do. He does not need finding. Potter will come to me. I know his weakness, you see, his one great flaw. He will hate watching the others struck down around him, knowing that it is for him that it happens. He will want to stop it at any cost. He will come."

And for the first time in years, Snape does believe in the boy, believe that he will come and do anything to stop the battle, but he also realizes the boy is too smart to come to die, that his friends will have come up with a plan (however stupid a plan it may be) and he will not die easily like he must, not without knowing the truth, and how could he know? How could he possibly expect what Dumbledore had planned for him?

"But my Lord, he might be killed accidentally by one other than yourself -" he says, and it is a real concern.

"But it is of you that I wished to speak, Severus, not Harry Potter. You have been very valuable to me. Very valuable."

"My Lord knows I seek only to serve him. But - let me go and find the boy, my Lord. Let me bring him to you. I know I can -"

It is a last, desperate attempt. The Dark Lord will think he wants to find the boy so he can live and serve his Lord, but he wants to find the boy so that his Lord may die. He wants to live, but more than that, he wants the Dark Lord - no, not the Dark Lord, Voldemort; his name is Voldemort, and in these moments, Snape will think it - to die. He has always expected to die for this war, but he has not, for many years, entertained the idea of dying without purpose or reason. Snape is going to die, and Voldemort is going to live, and all of it - from that very first day in the park - has meant absolutely nothing.

"I have told you, no!" Voldemort says, his voice rising at last, with a glint of red in his eyes. He moves forward, betraying his impatience with his anger, and says, "My concern at the moment, Severus, is what will happen when I finally meet the boy!"

"My Lord, there can be no question, surely -?" Snape asks, but the very fact that he has been called here means Voldemort does question it; Voldemort is quite possibly afraid that he may fail. There is a feeling in Snape's chest, and it is like horror, because he knows where Voldemort is leading this conversation, and he knows he is going to die, but if Voldemort is afraid, then surely that means there is hope.

" -but there is a question, Severus. There is." Voldemort does not move, and Snape does not breathe, cannot breathe, for if there is the slimmest of hopes, it is that Voldemort will not read his mind and know what the boy needs to do.

"Why did the wands I have used fail when directed at Harry Potter?" Voldemort asks him.

"I - I cannot answer that, my Lord," Snape replies, and it's true, he does not know the whole truth, but he knows most of it and expects the rest.

"Can't you?" Voldemort asks. He knows. "My wand of yew did everything of which I asked it, Severus, except to kill Harry Potter. Twice it's failed. Ollivander told me under torture of the twin cores, told me to take another's wand. I did so, but Lucius's wand shattered upon meeting Potter's."

"I - I have no explanation, my Lord." He cannot look at Voldemort now, and now all he can do is stare at Nagini, because she is a reminder of Snape's promise to Dumbledore, and Voldemort is guarding his snake, so there is very little time to relay his message to the boy.

"I sought a third wand, Severus. The Elder Wand, the Wand of Destiny, the Deathstick. I took it from its previous master. I took it from the grave of Albus Dumbledore."

And now Snape is flooded with something like terror, and he feels himself turning white as he stares at Voldemort. "My Lord - let me go to the boy -"

"All this long night, when I am on the brink of victory, I have been here," Voldemort says in a whisper, "wondering, wondering, why the Elder Wand refuses to be what it ought to be, refuses to perform as legend says it must perform for its rightful owner... and I think I have the answer."

Snape is silent.

"Perhaps you already know it? You are a clever man, after all, Severus. You have been a good and faithful servant, and I regret what must happen."

"My Lord -" Snape says, because there is so little time, and he is about to die.

"The Elder Wand cannot serve me properly, Severus, because I am not its true master. The Elder Wand belongs to the wizard who killed its last owner. You killed Albus Dumbledore. While you live, Severus, the Elder Wand cannot be truly mine."

"My Lord!" Snape protests finally, raising his wand. These are his last moments, he is certain of that now, and he will not die with his wand useless by his side.

"It cannot be any other way," Voldemort says. "I must master the wand, Severus. Master the wand, and I master Potter at last."

Suddenly, Voldemort is swiping the air, and for a moment, Snape is relieved when nothing happens, but then, before he can scream, before he can even comprehend that it is not the Avada Kedavra curse that is being thrown at him, his head and shoulders are covered in Nagini's cage. He hears a hissing sound, but not from the snake, from Voldemort; Snape knows exactly what is going to happen.

He has always known that being discovered as a spy would lead to a horrible death, but being killed, with Voldemort thinking him a loyal servant surprises him. It shouldn't; he has suspected for months that Voldemort was not the master of Dumbledore's wand, but it does, it surprises him, and the surprise almost - almost - masks his fear.

Then, there is a hot sensation in his neck as Nagini attacks, and he cannot breathe, cannot even think because this is the most pain he has ever felt; not just because of the snake bite in his neck, but because he has failed. None of it matters, because Potter is going to be stupid and Voldemort is going to win, and Lily's sacrifice has been for nothing.

Snape falls to his knees. He hears Voldemort mention regret, but there is a burning and he cannot focus. The cage is gone then, and it is a momentary reprieve when the snake leaves with Voldemort, and finally, Snape is alone.

But only for a moment - just as his eyes begin to close, he hears a noise. And there - there is Potter. Snape knows he is in shock, knows he is moments from death - but Potter is here, and there is still a chance. He grabs at Potter's robes.

"Take... it....Take... it...."

With the last bit of magic Snape has, he reaches into his own mind and thinks of Lily and Potter senior and this boy in front of him, this boy who is also going to die, and he just pushes.

For a moment, he feels the memories as they pour out of every bit of him, and he is giving Potter everything, and for a moment, Snape panics at this lack of control, at sharing these memories with Potter, but the boy is going to die. For the first time in years, Snape longs for Potter to understand, to really and truly know, so Snape gives Potter the proper memories, the ones he needs, but he gives him others too. Lily is pouring from every bit of him, and Snape is relieved, even in these moments of dying, that Potter does not argue and takes the memories from him.

Someone will understand. Lily is dead, and someone understanding is all Snape wants now. He is dying, and his grip is loosening.

"Look... at... me..." he says in a voice so quiet, he's barely aware that he's spoken.

He looks at Potter and sees everything: Lily and the park and Petunia and that awful realization that he had killed his only true friendship with a word, just a word. The Shrieking Shack is blurring around him, and he knows Potter needs to go, needs to hurry, but for some odd reason, he is infinitely glad that he can still see the green blur of Lily's eyes staring at him from Potter's face. There is more than those awful memories though, there is Lily's smile and her face and long afternoons under the trees on Hogwarts grounds, and there is her laugh and a smile and a glint of green.

There is something like redemption.