Once he was certain Voldemort had truly stopped breathing, Snape finally felt the boulder hanging over his heart fall to the ground.
Yet the boulder that had reduced his heart to ruins seemed, after so many years, to have become a part of him that could never be stripped away.
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 Wizet with his wand raised, and over the deep Forbidden Forest farther away.
Perhaps that deep Forbidden Forest was where he truly belonged. He should return to the darkness and merge with the darkness no one was willing to approach.
Just then, he caught a glimmer from the corner of his eye. It was a point of light surrounded by the radiance left behind after Wizet's spell.
The point of light twisted continuously, spreading out and drawing back in, gradually revealing a distinct human shape.
At the sight of that thick red hair falling to her shoulders, his breath caught.
Lily?
Her thick red hair shimmered like gemstones, her emerald-green eyes gleamed, and her smile could melt away all coldness, like a ray of morning light...
It really was Lily!
The moment he saw Lily, he instinctively took a large step forward. But he quickly noticed another figure appearing beside her.
That figure had a mess of black hair, like a thoroughly ruined bird's nest.
He wore a pair of foolish-looking glasses, and behind the lenses were light brown eyes like dishwater.
Clearly, Lily had appeared—and so had that damned James Potter!
As Snape stopped in his tracks, Harry broke into a run toward the two figures he had missed day and night.
"Dad! Mum!"
Harry