a bit late, but, hey, let's keep the magic going. Originally written for severus_sighs Anniversery drabble fest

Title: All Hallows Eve
Author: venturous
Pairings: Mentor!Snape and 1st year Harry; past Severus, Lily; Severus/Harry
Rating: PG
Word count: 6 x 100
Warning: flangst, tears.  slash implied after age 18
Notes: thanks to beta spidermoth for speedy work. I tinkered only a tiny bit with canon time: in HPSS Harry encounters the Mirror in mid November of his first year.


All Hallows Eve

October 31, 1991 – Hogwarts

He gazed, transfixed, into the Mirror of Erised. Of all the revelations during Harry's first weeks at Hogwarts this was the most profound: his parents had been Wizards, well-loved, smart, and beautiful. Yet they were just as dead as all the times Dudley taunted him. It was baffling. He tried to feel through his confusion. They smiled at him from the hazy mirror, and he wished he could step inside and be enfolded in their arms.


He must have dozed there, for he awoke to see another figure in the mirror, at first dark and indistinct, then clearer: Snape!

****

I escaped the wretched merriment of the All Hallows Feast to find peace, and patrolled the corridors for delinquents and the hormonally unhinged. But I found myself in this dim and little used wing of the castle, and began to wish I had remained amid the gleeful ghosts in the Great Hall, for my own were beginning to follow me.

I'd forgotten it was here; it has been so many years. Merlin knows I would never seek it out. Especially not this day.

And then I see him, crumpled on the cold floor, James and Lily looking down on him.

****

Harry scrambled to his feet, panic-stricken, as the scowling face of his fearsome Professor loomed in the mirror. He trembled, but did not turn round, for he could not bear to turn away from his mother's eyes, so warm and kind. To his amazement, Harry saw her look up at Snape and smile. And then she touched the stern Professors cheek, and he bowed his head slightly, leaning into her touch.

"It's not your fault, Severus." She spoke so quietly, Harry wasn't sure he really heard her. But her lovely voice rang like a bell in his mind. Her voice.

****

Her voice. I've not heard it for ten years. I freeze, my eyes flooding. Damnable Mirror! I cannot feel, only see her move her hand across my face. Loath am I to look away for a moment, yet I know the damage this enchantment can exact.

There is her boy, watching her. As if he's never seen her. Something is in my eye. I forbid it, but a tear spills free. I close my eyes and will the Mirror's spell to break.

When I open them she has vanished, and the green eyes gazing into mine belong to her son.

****

October 31, 2001 – churchyard at Goderic's Hollow

Harry shivered. Severus pulled him closer, resting his chin on top of Harry's tousled head. The wind swirled his black cloak and dry leaves rattled across the gravestones.

"Do you remember that night?"

Severus had been dreading the question. After a while he answered. "Yes."

Somewhere nearby, an owl softly hooted. Harry twisted within his embrace, and Severus began to pull away. But Harry grabbed his cloak firmly. Severus sighed. "I was too late."

"It's not your fault.

"Severus." Snape opened his eyes and looked into shining green ones.

Severus remembered a decade ago when he gazed into these green eyes. There before the Mirror that night he discovered he would give everything to save this boy, this man. Little had he known, just then, all this would entail. It's an enchantment, perhaps, but not from any magic or mirror.

Harry drew him down into a soft, searching kiss. Severus answered, possessive and hungry. He felt cool hands slide inside his robes, seeking skin, and his heart overflowed. As Harry pressed against him, clearly ready for more, the wind rose, whipping Severus' great black cloak all around them.

Severus murmured into Harry's ear: "It's time to go get warm, love."


*******