Once Voldemort's presence had been completely extinguished, Snape felt the massive stone hanging over his heart finally fall away.
Yet the stone that had reduced his heart to ruins seemed, after so many years, to have become an inseparable part of him.
The obsession that had sustained him for decades vanished so suddenly that it instead left him with a terrifying emptiness inside.
He stood there blankly, his gaze sweeping once more over Voldemort's corpse, over Vizet with his wand raised, then over the distant, shadowy Forbidden Forest.
Perhaps that deep, dark forest was his final destination. Perhaps he should return to the darkness and become one with the darkness no one wished to approach.
At that moment, a glimmer caught the corner of his eye. It was a point of light surrounded by the radiance left behind after Vizet's spell.
The point of light continuously twisted, spreading out and drawing back in, gradually revealing a clear human silhouette.
The sight of that thick red hair falling to her shoulders made his breath catch.
Lily?
Thick, gleaming red hair, emerald green eyes like gemstones, and a smile like a ray of morning light, warm enough to melt all coldness...
It really was Lily!
The moment he saw Lily, he instinctively took a large step forward. But he soon noticed another figure appearing beside her.
That figure had a head of messy black hair, like a battered bird's nest.
He wore a pair of foolish-looking glasses, and behind the lenses were pale brown eyes like dishwater.
Clearly, Lily had appeared—and so had that damned James Potter!
As Snape stopped in his tracks, Harry began walking toward the two figures he had missed day and night.
"Dad! Mum!"
Harry cried out hoarsely, opening his arms and embracing his parents.
James pulled Harry