A/N: Yes, that was anti-climatic. I'm tired and have been writing non-stop on lots of projects….KILL ME NOW! And be warned…this skips ahead. Yeah…this coincides with a chapter from a companion fanfic I've yet to write. Hehehe…So anyways…on with the fic!

Fading memories…reconstructed memories…and a dream. A dream of you in a world without you…

Sora's Ending, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

It was over.

Finally over.

It was really a wonder how he was still even alive. Then again, love was the strongest shield against any dark magic…or at least a good incentive to survive. But he had not coward in the face of danger. He faced it head on in order to bring the Dark Lord's end. All those lost lives would have not been in vain, especially not hers.

Severus lay quietly on the stone floor of Hogwarts somewhere near the Great Hall, bleeding from the various wounds he procured in the large-scale scuffle between nearly the entire Wizarding World and the forces of darkness. If it wasn't the entire world at its own neck, it had felt like the entire world was there, fighting and shedding blood for the Cause. Each person had a different Cause from the next. Some selfish. Others selfless. Severus' was somewhere in between. His Cause had not been for the world at large, but for one specific individual. Well, a couple really. And himself.

He had to make up for what he had done to the Potters, especially Lily Evans Potter. Had he been a much less callous youth he might have had a friend throughout the years. She had been a good acquaintance who he sometimes sought out in the library. She had been the only one kind enough to approach him. And he couldn't save her. To her he owed a fight against the Dark Lord.

Next was Albus Dumbledore who had great plans that he had wished to set into motion that could have benefited them all. He had been well loved, a symbol of perseverance, determination, cunning and absolutely batty ideas. He had been almost as good as a father to him compared to his real father and any other replacements he tried to have. He should have lived where Severus should have certainly died. To him he had to continue the masquerade and fight on.

And to Alice…he owed his love, for he surely had not shown her enough of it while she lived. She who wished to never be forgotten who wiped his memory of her so he could focus on the larger Cause and not on her, the woman who never stood a chance at life. Severus covered his face with his damaged hands, trying very hard not to let out a sob as he coughed up a bit of blood. He could remember every single moment he spent with her, but that single minute in time had stood out the most.

And Severus had to run then. There was no turning back. He had to get Draco out of the castle and to safety before the Ministry came. He himself had no possible future besides that of a convict, but Draco, the boy who had done nothing to deserve a sentence in Azkaban had to get away—to hide. And Narcissa, too, if he could handle it. He had to hide those two. It had been for those moments of flight that he had done the dangerous thing of forgetting.

He forgot all sense, all propriety and calmness. He tossed out thoughts of others from his mind as it centred itself solely on the survival of himself and his ward. He had forgotten that Alice wouldn't have let him leave unscathed. There had been no way he could have stayed and no way she could have left. It was a dilemma he was met with all too quickly.

She blocked the way.

Between the cowering students she kept safely shielded and blocking them off from leaving she never could have been able to defend herself properly. He never imagined her in a more fierce calmness however. She did not cry, though her eyes held a disappointed and sad look to them. It had almost driven him mad. And he spoke to her briefly as they locked eyes.

Save your tears, because I'll come back for you. I will return before the end of your next year. That was what he told her in that one glance. She pursed her lips and shook her head, gripping her wand.

"No, you won't." she whispered, confusing those around her. She raised her wand at the same time as he did. It had been well enough for him to think back then that a harmless Cutting spell would have been enough to distract her so he and Draco could escape. He thought she would have blocked it and be much slower. But the stakes had been high and she had quite the gamble to play. She had been only slightly faster than him. Just the fraction of a millisecond was enough to give her the upper hand.

She had always been a very apt pupil when he taught her and her memory charms could put Lockhart to shame.

"Obliviate!"

She could be very selective about the memories she erased and how she pieced the remaining ones back together. And they were generally unnoticeable to the one who had it cast on them by her. So for a few moments he knew nothing and then came back to his senses in the exact same amount of time.

There was a very large flaw with this though. One had to focus an incredible amount of concentration before attempting such an energy-wasting venture. And considering the amount of memory she had to erase and reconstruct in a small amount of time, it took a lot of energy she usually did not have.

And Alice exploited this flaw perfectly to fit into her plan to eradicate herself from existence. She too had thought she had no future outside of the war then. Instinctively, she must have known he would not be able to return to her as promised and decided that she should be lost in memory. Should he ever live to see the next day he was going to have a long talk to her about her issues with living.

"Reducto." His harmless little spell had turned out not so harmless in the end and he left her bleeding on the ground without so much as a thought to her, dragging Draco the entire way.

Severus shoved the memory away and turned on his side, struggling to get up. It was June 13, the day Harry Potter finally defeated the Dark Lord Voldemort and the day he promised to return and he had it on good authority that Alice was still inside the castle, waiting for him. It was her birthday after all. She was going to be twenty-five this year and she was probably eager to celebrate something. He wondered idly what she had done over the last year…

Had she thought about him?

He certainly thought about her, even if he didn't remember her.

He began to crawl, slowly working up energy to stand up and walk. What was the time then? How many had died? Who survived? He didn't know and he wondered. As he stood upright, he stumbled and fell onto the stone steps to the next floor. One by one, he pulled himself up, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. He had to find her, even if it killed him.

It had been rather unprecedented, even more so than Dumbledore's tomb. But her friends had said that she would have appreciated the gesture—laughed gaily at the insinuation had she been alive to hear of it. But she had not lived and quite a few were affected by the death of Alice Valentine. The entire school had not shown up—who would really after the colossal battle waged within its walls. The ones who did were the ones who mattered most. There had been no fanfare, no pomp and circumstance, but it had been beautiful in its own right and would have made her very happy.

Alice's religion—or private life in general—had been rather unclear during her stay at Hogwarts, so some had been very confused as to what should be done for her. Nobody was able to contact her family—if she had one—and it wasn't as if she left anything behind like a last testament. Everything had to be made up as they went along.

The surviving younger Slytherin students (of whom she mothered since their first arrival at Hogwarts) conjured and arranged flowers to the best of their ability with the help of some of the elder students who knew her. Talks had been made between the merpeople of the lake and Alice's childhood friend, Vladimir, for the burial grounds which was consequently underwater. Her other friends prepared some speeches and a rather lengthy eulogy in her honour, while trying to keep each other's morale up. And Severus…

…He had been the lucky one chosen to send the coffin adrift with her body lying inside. He sat alone next to the funeral barge, holding Alice's music box as it played her favourite song. He had switched the song as it had been shown to him once upon a time. Nobody questioned or ventured near him as he sat vigil, the tune twinkling softly. He had been treated, so he had very few scars or bandages to speak of on him since that day. He stared at nothing, his eyes almost glazed over.

In the past two decades of his life he had gone through Hell and back again and never once did he lose his nerve. He survived and moved on for he could not stop, as there was always something that had to be done; he had a reason to keep going. Now that everything had ended and nearly everything had been wrapped up neatly with the wonderful happy fairytale end where Light triumphed over Darkness and the hero got his princess there really wasn't anything left for him.

Not with her gone.

Severus Snape helped to save the world. Hurray. He could care less. Had he the choice, he would have just let the entire world fall into the hands of Darkness itself. It was still as decadent as ever, just without the Dark Lord looming over it. Nothing had changed. Students mocked and glared at him hatefully behind his back, Potter had the woman of his dreams and he was still as miserable and surly as ever. Women were being raped in the Americas, children were committing suicide in the Orient and someone in Africa was murdering a man from another tribe. What a lovely world he helped to save.

He turned to look at the closed casket, staring despondently. "Left behind again." He whispered as he let his head rest against the wood and closing his eyes. He gripped the music box in his hands. "Why did you have to go to the only place I cannot follow?" he asked quietly, hoping she was just playing a very elaborate and sick joke on him. Maybe the Weasley twins were pulling the wool over his eyes? But that was wishful thinking.

"I waited for you…" he said, moving a hand to cover his eyes. A tear fell. "I promised I would be there…Merlin, why didn't you wait? Just one more moment…just one more would have been enough." He started crying as each word spilled out, letting almost every bottled up emotion he had within him come forth as his tears fell. He hadn't cried at the news of her death, having been in a state of shock. But now, he sobbed terribly, his entire frame shaking. He only remembered ever crying like this twice in his life: when his mother died and the week after he killed Albus.

And he felt like he was falling and falling and falling…

"Guess who!" demanded a joyful voice from behind him as hands slipped around to cover his eyes. A twinkling laughed followed and he blinked in confusion. He said nothing and looked to the essays through the spaces between her fingers. She huffed and took her hands away. "Oh, you're no fun at all!" she told him, walking around the desk so that she faced him. He looked up at her, bewildered.

"…I had the most terrible nightmare." He said finally, not really believing what was going on. She smiled sweetly at him and pulled a seat close to listen to him. "A very terrible nightmare…you were dead!" She gave him an odd look.

"Dead? Really?" She shifted a bit in her chair. "Severus…you're morbid."

"Five points from Slytherin for your cheek." He said automatically.

"That's very unfair to the Slytherins." She pointed out. "Five points to Slytherin…because I say so." She then laughed softly and moved herself into his arms, holding him tight. "But you are alright…I mean…really alright? I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you…" She pressed her face to his chest. "…I think I'd die."

Mindlessly, Severus reassuringly stroked along her hair, running his fingers through it and pushing it back. He quietly whispered to her as he held her there, feeling as if nothing were wrong in the world. And she kept close to him silently. He heard the whisper of a melody play around them, simple and sweet.

And so sad.

And he looked up to find her not in his arms, but sitting in front of a baby grand, playing on it carefully and a little awkwardly. She wore blue robes and her hair was tied up with a blue ribbon; she seemed a bit older, more careworn than the girl he had just held in his arms. She sat alone atop a stage with a single light shining down on her. She stopped momentarily and turned to look at him. She smiled and continued to play.

"Good evening, Severus." She greeted mildly. "What brings you down here? Can't sleep?" She smiled secretively, her eyes twinkling at the music sheets in front of her. She hit a sour note and then another. She stopped the music and took a quill to make a note on the sheets. "Or could it be possibly…something else?"

"I…I…"

"You're very articulate tonight, Severus." She commented silkily. She set her fingers on the ivory keys and started to play again. She began the melody straight from the beginning, humming along with it in that irritatingly flat way. The woman switched to singing the tune, which was a great relief. "What ails you, Severus Snape?" He glared at her, stepping forward boldly.

"What ails me?" he asked heatedly. "What ails me? Two minutes ago, you were dead!" She pressed down with all her fingers, creating disharmony. She stared at him.

"Dead?" she repeated, sounding incredulous. She stood up from her seat and walked over to him away from the light. She reached up and felt his forehead, cheeks and neck. "Hmmm…you're not feverish…Honestly, Severus, if that's your idea of a joke I am not amused one little bit." She huffed and returned to the piano to continue playing. "Honestly."

"But you were dead…I saw you. Your body…Madam Pomfrey…it was midnight, Cinderella!" he shouted, moving forward again as he swelled up with frustration made by his confusion of the situation. "You were dead!"

She pointedly ignored him for the moment, brows furrowed and eyes set in concentration. She made some final notes to the music sheets before turning her attention back to him. She sat up straight, hands primly in her lap. "And what would you do if I was?" she asked.

That was the thing, wasn't it? He didn't know. If she were dead, what would he do? Why, he'd try his damned hardest to get her back if he were desperate enough. Take retribution in her name.

One catch: How does one take vengeance for someone if the one seeking revenge is seeking it against himself?

"Severus, promise me…if something should happen…don't bring me back." The woman before him looked at him seriously as she said these words, brows furrowed in worry. Her lips were set and her hands shook. "Promise me." He still said nothing. "Severus!" She stood again and stalked over to the older man and shook him by the shoulders.

"Severus!"

"Severus!"

"Severus, promise me!"

"Severus, wake-up!"

"Mother, is he alright?"

"In a moment, Draco. Severus!"

"Severus…please…"

"This should do it…Aguamenti!"

Severus was doused thoroughly with a shot of ice-cold water. He shot up from his seat, drenched, wide eyed and pointing his wand madly all around. His breaths came out in laboured snorts, but they eventually became calm as he realized whom he was about to hex into oblivion. He sighed and put his wand away and fell back into his chair. He didn't even want to look at the missing coffin next to him or the people in front of him, so he covered his face with his hands.

"Narcissa."

"Severus."

Silence.

"…How are you, Severus?" Narcissa asked as she dried the dark man off with a spell. Draco stood awkwardly next to her, looking about nervously. He wrung his hands a bit and shifted from foot to foot. It was almost as if he expected an attack from something or someone with the way he threw glances over his shoulders. His mother hit him once so he'd stop fidgeting. "How are you…taking all this?"

"The Dark Lord's survival and all the subsequent torture he would render upon my body would have been more favourable to this." He replied.

Silence again.

Tentatively, the older woman spoke once again. "…You don't mean that." Severus said nothing to that. If he did it would have brought back too many painful memories. 'That's exactly what she would say.' That would have been his answer and he would have sent himself into a downward spiral of guilt and self-loathing where with each tear he lamented Alice's death. But he couldn't bring himself to cry anymore. Not in front of Narcissa at least. "You look awful. Haven't you been taking care of yourself?"

"The service is beginning, Mother." Draco stated, looking down the way. "We should be going." The woman nodded and began to follow her son to the lakeshore, but stopped to look at the broken man behind her. She walked over and gently pulled his sleeve.

"Severus…hurry…" she said. "Nobody will wait for us, I'm sure. She would have liked to have had you around for the funeral at least." She tried to urge the man a bit more until he relented. Narcissa watched as he carefully laid the still music box on his chair before leaving it behind to follow her. He tried not to look back for some reason and it piqued her curiosity. The music box was rather infamous and she had only seen it once. She really wondered what was so special about it.

It was a dirty little old box with a wilted flower inside with two little birds suspended in the air with wire, a dove being chased by a raven…

…or was it the other way around?