Pure unadulterated FLUFF. SS/LV(TR) Don't say you haven't been warned.

JKR owns everything, I own knowing. Waaah!

Severus Snape's Garden

When he opened his eyes he winced and rubbed the sleep from his tired eyes. Dim light, morning light, light that filled the soft painted master bedroom with it's comfort, decided to play tricks with his vision. Sheer drapes in magnificent folds obscured his view of the room, keeping him guessing still as to the time of day, playing with his senses. His sheets were of the same flimsy sheer material, in a bright white which contrasted to his dark mood; the place in his heart where silence and nighttime had brought unfulfilled dreams and nightmare fantasies.

Severus realized that he was nude, and a bit cold. Sheets could only provide so much warmth, being damp as they were from last night's exercises, and somebody had left the glass terrace door to the bedroom open. Severus spent a moment contemplating the feel of the rich textures he now touched, revelling in luxury he could never have hoped for before. A world of glass theatres and expensive limos, of the white walled mansion estate that was now his own, bought in his name with another person's money.

It was like a dream. He couldn't remember how he had ended up in this bed. But he might have been drunk at the time, giddy still with the lingering effects of the Avada Kedavara curse he had thrown, or hurting still from the painful ripping of his soul. Strange, for some reason now he felt more human than he ever had. Was it the sex?

Severus sat up, and pushing aside the drapes nodded. Indeed it was sunrise, for the sky outside the window was a molten crimson, dappled with soft peach and the lightest indigo. Around him he could see that the bedroom was more lavish and opulent than he could ever have imagined. Richly papered walls in shades of blue and gold, stucco ceilings with painted cherubs playing in the plaster patterning, a glimmering chandelier that made more light from the refraction across its surface that it ever could if it had been turned on. Furniture in the most expensive lacquered Rosewood. Heavens! He stood, and his feet were cushioned by the softest oriental rug he could have ever touched. Walking across it he found himself touching the mirrored panelled doors of a walk-in closet. Pushing open the doors revealed a wealth of clothing in lush fabrics that longed for his touch, velvet that kissed his pores and caressed the hairs on the back of his arms.

He trailed his fingers along the lush fabrics to the back of the closet, but pulled from the midst a simple pull over robe of the softest velvet grey, a day robe, with no more detail or flash than his own nose professed. It caressed his skin like a lover's touch when he pulled it over his head, and he let it fall to his ankles, just kissing them by a hair.

Wealth of kings at my command, Severus thought, walking to the terrace door and surveying the vast landscape of the sheltered garden below him. All for the price of my soul...

Outside was warmer than the inside, the terrace slowly heating under the gentle rays of the distant sun rising in the east. He didn't have to pull on another cloak, nor put on any shoes, for he didn't feel the need to. This garden and patio were private, no others could enter. It was this privacy that momentarily alarmed him. For once he could go where he wanted and do what he pleased, without having to answer summons or teach classes.

He was also alarmed when, coming down to the bottom of the terrace stairs, his foot touched upon water. His garden was a pond, long and vast, with the only pathways being made of floating stepping stones. Fish danced and flickered beneath the surface of the water. Crimson lilies on their pads floated as boats across the glimmering surface. Frogs sang a soft morning chorus under the shade of a tree, whose roots grew like crooked fingers into the water, holding the tree just high enough that it's drooping ferns barely touched the water's surface. Stone angel fountains, ironic in their intent, lay strewn with much care in various locations along the pond, no two of them looking pointed in the same direction. Yet all were capable of motion; even now the head of the nearest was contemplating him, as if waiting to see if he would take the first step that would lead him out into the water.

Severus swallowed a painful lump in his throat that sank and settled with a hungry burn in his chest. His heart leaped and tears sprang up into his eyes in a moment of emotional forgetfulness. This had been his dream as a child. He had often pretended that he were a prince with his water garden; the trees, the plants, the fish that jumped up from the sparkling jewelled water to catch mosquitoes. It was his garden, his kingdom, taken from his very thoughts, recreated just for him.

He caught his breath, stiling himself, and used the angel statue's proffered hand for support before stepping onto the first step stone, holding his robes above his knees as if fearing the bright clean waters would soil the velvet garment. His feet felt clumsy and awkward as he took each step, the stones moving and changing their positions as if leading him in a preset direction, or else following the whim of his own designs.

More enchantment followed his steps. Stone unicorns pranced from one rock to the next, their hoofs leaving soft prints in the moss. Tiny flowers of every imaginable colour peeked out from behind corners, from the branches of trees, from their roots, spilling out of the cup that the angel to his left was dipping down to the water, touching it but only a little. Marble mermaids peeked their heads up from the water to smile at him, before continuing to swim their way around the garden in a game of mirthful tag. For a place that was devoid of people, the garden felt quite comfortably populated.

More stones and each stone elegantly carved in marble just for the cupping and supporting of his own feet. Willow fronds brushed his hair, and as he came out from behind two trees the path stopped and met with stone terrace once more. This was the back of the garden, a stone balcony over looking the vast hills and valleys below the chalet. For that was what this was; a chalet, a paradise of gardens and trees in the Canadian Rocky mountains, kept warm summer, winter, spring and fall by spells. Beyond the terrace lay the slopes of the ski retreats, the muggle tourists not yet risen to greet the day's activities, save for a few stray early risers wanting to catch the cool morning slopes before the sun started to soften them.

And overlooking it all, with the world were laid before his feet, was Lord Voldemort.

Severus caught his breath in his chest, bunching his hands in the front of his robes as if to still them. His Lord was wrapped in a plain black velvet hood, the sunlight overhead casting him in shadow. A moment passed where Severus could only stare at that dark form, then his Lord turned slowly around and observed Severus with a smile of complete contentment.

His eyes were green.

"Do you like the garden, Severus?" came the voice, soft as a hiss but bright as a song. "Does it please you?"

"Yes my Lord," Severus said, and he felt embarrassed at how weak his voice sounded, how subdued. "It is like a dream..."

"It is from a dream, Severus, your dream," Voldemort approached him, his skin having the odd appearance of human flesh in the morning light. "Forgive me, for I stole your dreams from your mind while you slept..."

"You put this all together just last night?"

"No, child," Voldemort chuckled. "I've been taking this image from your mind for many years now, only just now may I show you the finished design. I am glad it pleases you. It is all for you..."

"For me, my Lord?" Severus swallowed, putting a hand to his neck.

Voldemort approached him smoothly and put two hands to Severus' face.

"My Loyal Servant," Voldemort breathed. "Your obedience delights me. You have freed me this evening, from a fate worse than death, and I thank you for it."

"I have?" Severus was rightly confused. He had slain Dumbledore last night; how had this accomplished what Voldemort was saying?

"Yes, Severus...but you do not understand," Voldemort sighted. "You have made me human again...more human than I could have ever hoped for."

"I have?" Severus was now utterly confused.

"Look at your left forearm..."

He did, pulling back the hem of his robes to touch the skin of his arm dazedly.

"It's gone! My Lord! But how? Why!"

"Yes," Voldemort nodded. "For Harry Potter has fulfilled the Prophecy it would seem..."

"He what...?" Severus felt a strange agony consume him at the sound of his hated rival's name. "How? When?"

"He had, if you recall, a power that I knew not, which I merely glimpsed in his head before in the Department of Mysteries," Voldemort reached up a hand to touch Severus on the chin. "He has taught me that power, and destroyed the Darkness that was in me. It was a power I did not understand or enjoy. Now I must pass this power onto you, my precious follower. For last night you helped me to gain that power I did not understand...You healed me."

"I did..." Severus was still uncomprehending, blushing profusely. What was Voldemort saying? Last night they had coupled, a wild tangle of limbs and Severus remembered nothing more than the sweet passionate exchange of their bodies. What had Voldemort gained from it that Severus had not?

"What was dark inside me was destroyed last night when you admitted your feelings to me," Voldemort reached up calmly to brush a strand of hair from Severus's face. "Your love saved me, darling, from a fate worse than death. Emptiness, despair. A life of cruelty. I had laid before me the domination of all mankind. But now I see that you are all I need. Without my darkness, there can be no Lord Voldemort. All that is left is Tom Riddle," the man swallowed. "A Tom Riddle who loves and needs you Severus."

"Loves me..." Severus felt his heart twisting inside of him. He had said something to that effect last night, that he loved his Lord, adored him, needed him. "My Lord..."

"Just Tom now Severus," the man reached up to touch his damp eyes and wipe away the tears there. "When I learned to love, when I finally understood what the boy had that I did not, the evil powers in me left. I have no followers now, nor any horcruxes. All that was evil about me left..."

"Your body..." Severus reached out to touch it, the flesh pliant and warm under his fingers. "T-Tom..."

"I don't know how long this body will last, maybe a human lifetime, maybe less..." Tom admitted. "Potions will keep it going, but no more than that. So it isn't important, taking over the world any longer, not when I am mortal now. Not when I have the rest of my years, long or short, to spend with you on the peaks of these mountains. My Love. My Own..."

"My Lord," Severus curled up into the arms that reached around to embrace him. "I don't know what to say..."

"Say you'll stay with me here," Tom breathed. "Let us grow old together under these ageless skies. Forget the Potter boy, he'll know by morning that he has won. Forget my followers, all free from their slavery. Forget England, that cold and distant shore that hurt us both so deeply. Just stay here with me, love. Forever."

"Yes...yes..." Severus looked up into those green eyes. "Yes forever..."

It may have been a dream, or maybe it wasn't. He wasn't sure what was truth. But a pair of lips met his that reassured him beyond any doubt that this was where he belonged. A place of no pain, no suffering...the arms of his beloved wrapped around him, protecting him, caring for him, a paradise for them to share. No loneliness or emptiness could reach him here.

He was at peace.