Author’s Note: This is a poetic sequel to “Legend of the Lost” in which Severus Snape and Lily Evans are finally reunited in the afterlife.

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“Lily, tell me,

What color is it I’m seeing?

Or is it something beyond sight?

Oh, tell me, Lily…”

“Dear Sev, you know what it is…”

“But I want you to be the one

To tell me again…

Oh, it’s beautiful, Lils…”

“Silly, silly…like a little boy…”

“Oh, please tell me,

Tell me forever

So this veinless heart

Keeps beating…”

“Alright, I’ll try and paint it –

You know when the trees sang?”

“Yes.”

“That’s the color of their song.

You know when the stars were born?”

“Yes.”

“It’s the color of their birth.

And when the four winds spoke?”

“Yes.”

“That is the color of their tidings.

It is snow upon the sun

And wine upon the tongue

And the sting of flowers grown in the bracken

And the breath of thirsting souls.”

“It burns me, Lily…

Like the ink of books once burned me.

But I want it always to burn,

Burn on, burn on in me

Like the color of your eyes once did…

Oh, Lily, how can we see without eyes?”

“Our truest eyes are deeper set,

And they open fully when we awake from sleep.”

“Yes, sleep…

I feel that everything has paled

Next to the brilliance that is here…

Oh, is it not the color of fire,

And will it not swallow us up?”

“Are you afraid, Severus?”

“No, no…I want it to touch me…

To consume me, even…

Oh, what is this desire?”

“They say that Hell is made of fire

But separation knows no warmth.

The only fire that ever breathed

With color, as you see it here,

Was made of Love.”

“Then that is the true nature

Of the color that is calling me?”

“Yes, my dear one, yes…

The flames stoke the embers

Of the Heart.”

“Is it like rebirth?”

“Yes, as if all the world had died

And fractured into starlight

That sings a newborn song.”

“It is as if everything has stopped,

Frozen in fire…

Only to melt and run like a brook

That laughs for the first time.

Oh, Lily, I love your laugh…”

“Oh, Sevy…back to me again?”

“Yes. Always.”

“After all this time?”

“Has not time perished

With the ocean foam

And burned away

Like mortal breath

Or run itself out

Like mortal blood?”

“Oh, blood…oh, Severus…

I wept for you when you died…”

“And I for you, when you died.”

“I know. I felt it.”

“Perhaps the color is also

That of blood,

That of tears

Shed for love?”

“And the touch of one to another…

That touches the soul.”

“Your boy…he touched me like that

When my lungs were failing…

I felt like a fool,

For I had judged him sorely wrong.

But he did not hurt me…

Not like all the others.

No, no…

He held me when I cried

And forgave me when I died.

He is your son, Lily…

He has your eyes

On the surface, and deeper set.”

“He called on me to come for you…”

“He did?”

“Yes…

But I was already there.”

“You were?”

“Yes…

Did you not always know I would be?”

“I hoped, but…

I was dirty, Lily, and it was dark…”

“Oh, Sev, such a little boy…

Did that ever stop me before?”

“No, but…

You went away…”

“Yes, I went away…

But did you think I was truly away, all this time?”

“…No.

You were the only melody I could hear

In the Silence.

But I…hurt you…

Lily, I…hurt everyone…”

“But I see you…

Oh, Sev, I always see you.

Always now.

And no matter how you were shadowed,

You were never altogether lost

For no mortal being

May see this fire

That loses himself to anything

But Love.”

“Lily?”

“Yes?”

“Is there such a thing as touch here?

The last time I held nothing but a shell…

Though I knew you were there, somewhere…

Yet I feel you now, oh, close, close-knit…”

“Nothing good is lost here,

No sense taken away, only transfigured.”

“What in us is holding on to the other?

Is it a knot looped ‘round like a dance?

Is it like the breath that failed me?

Because…it wounds me…

But I keep wanting it…to wound me…”

“No, it is not the breath which failed you…

It is the one that is never snuffed out,

And it wounds only to heal.”

“I am holding you, and you holding me…

We are alone, yet not alone…”

“No, never alone.”

“The color I see…does it bring us full circle?”

“Yes, it is the Circle

With no beginning, and never ending.”

“Lily?”

“Yes?”

“Is it the color of our love?”

“Ours, and all others like it…

They all flow together, like a river…

Like a rainbow.”

“Will we always be here?

Oh, Lily, tell me…”

“Oh, Severus…dear Sevy…

The wars are over

This is Always.”