"And then?"
Snape's voice echoed through the empty room.
"Then I met her."
He closed his eyes.
This time, the images came faster.
The park in Cokeworth.
A swing.
A red-haired girl sat on the swing, pumping hard.
She let go when she reached the highest point.
She flew.
Hung in the air for a second.
Then drifted gently down onto the grass like a leaf.
The boy hid behind the bushes.
He saw it.
The corner of his mouth curved slightly.
In actual reality, that curve had been the expression of a desperate person catching sight of a lifeline.
But in this imagined scene-
It was only a boy's curiosity about another child.
An equal, untainted curiosity.
"Are you a witch too?"
He would step out from behind the bushes.
Not skulk there for ages before working up the courage to come out.
Nor strike up a conversation in an almost pleading tone.
He would simply walk over.
"My name is Severus."
"I can do what you just did too."
Lily would look at him, her red hair blowing in the wind.
Green eyes.
"Really?"
"Really."
"Is your mum a witch too?"
"Yes."
"That's wonderful."
She would smile.
And he would smile too.
Not that disbelieving, bitter smile of someone scorched by warmth.
Just a smile.
Two children smiling in the park.
Snape's eyes turned once more to those damned psychology books.
"If it had been like that..."
"I wouldn't have seen her as my salvation."
His voice was dry.
"Because I wouldn't have needed saving."
"I would just... have liked her."
"Liked her in an ordinary way."
"The way a boy likes a girl."
"Not someone in an abyss clutching at the only rope."
"Just someone in the sunlight walking toward someone else standing in the sunlight."
His