I do not own ASOIAF/GOT or Harry Potter.

In a far-off land, long forgotten by those who had once had a hand in its creation, a lone gust of wind howled. Vapours created from the mouths of nearby animals wisp away and create small clouds in their wake. The day was chilly, it seemed. Nearby animals long unhindered by the safety of walled shelters sensed a change was coming to these lands. Living out in the wild has seemed to have given these creatures a heightened sense of what's to come. Many animals here have been born within the long summer, yet they too can sense that the warmth that has given them comfort is slowly receding and with it, winter comes. Suddenly, clouds marred the once blue sky and turned it ashen. A storm was brewing and the animals around could sense that something unnatural was about to occur.

As the last stag galloped from the clearing, a lone bolt of lightning tore from the cloud and struck the ground hard. A crack was heard and instead of destruction, creation was instead left in its wake. A shadowy figure in all-black laid face-down on the ground. The once white snow has slowly dyed a shade of red. A stranger it seemed, who once did not belong to this land, had come knocking on death's door seeking the next great adventure. It seemed fate had other things in mind for our hero, for what the man once thought was the end may have not been so, a new beginning perhaps? The bloodied man brought many things with him, but one of those things was something that this land had not seen in a long time. Slowly other players in this higher game seemed to sense that what was once lost was being restored to the land. Unknown to the man below, magic was returning to the world of Planetos and indirectly every being that used 'magic' would soon find out that their tricks were not so much so any more. But that is much later, for now, the man below would soon find out that the end of something was really the beginning of something new and what the man chose to do with his new chance, only time could tell.

Severus groaned in pain. He was cut open and could feel the blood leaving his body. He thought for a second that it might have been better to have just succumbed to his wounds and do everyone around him justice. He frowned bitterly if one thing was known about Severus, it was that he always seemed to disappoint people and later in his life he learned to embrace it, so here too he would persevere if only out of pure pettiness. As he felt the cold around him, he thought he was finally about to pass on, yet when he felt wet, he shot up and weakly turned himself over. As he looked up at the sky above he noticed that he was no longer in the Shrieking Shack, or Hogsmeade for that matter. As he weakly turned his face over scanning the environment he noticed that the weather was much too cold to be Scotland and also much too barren. He seemed to have been laid dead in a forest of great size. He looked into the horizon and say naught but wildlife and nature.

The only clear memory he had was of him dying in a rather stupid way. What had possessed him to save the Potter boy and put him over his own life seriously had him questioning his sanity. Yes, he had felt liked he owed Lily somehow over her death and the fact that he was indebted to his father, although that damned James and his cohorts had been the ones responsible for placing him in danger in the first place. Somehow Severus giving up his life for the Potter boy had seemed to finally remove some hidden shackles draped over his soul, leaving him feeling oddly enough free. Snape not even for a second was fooled into thinking that someone had come to his aid and saved him, not when the whole world had painted him as the villain. It was saddening to see even those he once held respect for eye him with contempt. It seemed as if he had died, but if that were true, then where was he now?

He shook his head, such metaphysical questions were not to be pondered about right now, and not when he was so vulnerable. He seemed to find some strength and moved his arm towards his robe. For a moment he panicked when he felt the absence of his preferred weapon and foci, but he calmed down when he felt the familiar long stick deeper within his robes. He let out a breath of relief, if he were in some hell he would at least want a fighting chance. As his fingers caressed the woody-brown construct, he slowly brought it to his face. He observed his wand to check for any damages, it would have been a nightmare to find it damaged in any such way as he highly doubted he would be capable of crafting another. Sure Severus was no stranger in using magic wandlessly, he actually was quite proficient at it, his job as a spy dictating as such, but still one could never truly hope to achieve the same level of magic that a wand would grant. It is like the same thing as those damned muggles and their transport. You had a certain location you wanted to visit, you had certain options in mind. You could either walk there or take a cab and be driven there instead. Both of these options did the same thing, they took you to your destination, it's just that you would undoubtedly reach faster with a car instead and would still retain your physical energy unlike if you had walked there instead. The same thing goes for magic for wandless magic seem to take the energy out from you and there was always a damned price to pay for the more complex branches of magic, that is why rituals existed in the first place to take payment from another instead of one's self. He shook his head, he was no longer a teacher he needn't remind himself of such things.

As he brought his wand to his face he observed it closely, turning it around and looking for any damage. When he found none, he released a breath of relief. It would have been a nightmare to use a broken wand, one only needed to remember the Weasley boy to remember why wands should never be used broken. Although he was in great pain remembering the ginger's spell bouncing back at him caused Severus to smirk slightly. If there was one thing that he would miss it would be smacking the Weasley boy on the back of his head whenever he made a mistake. He sighed deeply, such luxuries were not to be remembered when he would likely never get the chance to partake in them again. He stared at his wand and remembered how far it had taken him.

He first noticed the wood, Yew. He had remembered what that old fool had recited about the wood, that it was a rare wood to match with since it required a complex personality that was unusual and notorious. He was told that it gave its user an advantage when it came to battling with other wands and its hold over death seemed more powerful than other woods. It was not necessarily a dark wand but would jump at the chance to cast such spells. He was told that a yew wand never chose a wizard whose nature was timid and shy nor a lacklustre wizard. He snorted as if realizing that he had somehow been painted as dark from the very beginning.

He next remembered the core, a dragon heartstring. Not much had to be said other than somehow it was the darkest of the cores, willingly casting lethal spells even when it was not needed. He moved on to the length and suppressed a curse at the old man for what his memory held him saying. He looked at the length, twelve inches, and remembered the old man telling him his personality would dictate a much shorter wand, however he had possessed some redeeming qualities and thus was granted a wand length more in the middle. He remembered barely suppressing the urge to strangle the old fool when he insulted him right to his face all those years ago.

Lastly, as he gripped the wand tight, he noticed it was hard and unyielding. He was not easily swayed and always held true to his beliefs. All his life he had one purpose in mind, to be accepted by people, but unfortunately, he grew up in a dark time and seemingly was put into the worst of circumstances and was used as a puppet by everyone. Even by the very girl that he had come to have feelings for that he only realized later in life was an obsession that was parasitic in nature. He knew he never truly loved Lily, they were never anything alike; she was the light while he was the dark. People say that opposites attract, however in reality that is far from the case. We all as people are more primitive than we liked to think. As like the people of old, we formed groups early on that we rarely deviated from and would usually only socialize within our circles, Lily being who she was, was destined to be popular and Severus being the reject that he was, was always destined to have been shunned by society. In his childhood, he latched on to the only person to have ever shown him kindness and desperately tried to never let go. Hell, he had even only joined the death eaters as a way to impress Lily in showing his strength, if only he had known where that decision would have taken him. He shook his head. In the end, his feelings for Lily never wavered even slightly, even to the point where he gave his own life for her son.

Somehow his sacrifice seemed to lift the burden that was placed on his soul and for once he felt like he was truly prepared to move on once and for all. He made a grim expression, it only cost his life, he thought to himself bitterly. He was truly a tool to have been used by everyone, and like all tools, there is a time when their usefulness comes to an end and there placed in the trash like he was. "If fate wants me just sit back and waste away into oblivion, it looks like I once again will disappoint." He sneered at the sky for a second and then violently started coughing blood.

He weakly opened his eyes and noticed animals around him had started to look to him as if he were their next meal. He needed to heal himself and quick if only to prepare himself for his next encounter with death. He brought his wand to his chest and pointed. "Vulnera Sanentur." He muttered in an almost song-like fashion. He moved the wand over the rest of his body. The spell had to be cast thrice to be truly successful. He felt the flow of blood leaking from body stopping. The second time he felt that his wound had purged themselves of the filth and disease that had started to take root and felt his blood slowly start to regenerate within his body. Finally, as he muttered it for the third time he felt the injuries mend themselves together as he was never injured in the first place. He winced briefly when he realized he didn't have dittany on his person, but he quickly sighed in acceptance of the new scars that would undoubtedly join their brothers on his body. Severus was not a pretty man by any account so his body being horrific would only fit the part.

He tried to lift himself off of the ground but found that he could not do so. He realized that his bones were probably broken by whatever had brought him here. It was a miracle in itself that he had been able to move his hand as he had been. He noticed that some of the animals around him were becoming bolder as they seemed to have circled around him and got closer. It seems they were afraid of him for some reason, he wondered why because he had only cast magic recently, when he was unconscious their beastly minds should have feasted on him. He decided to not give the beasts a chance. He quickly rolled over and pointed his wand at his spine. "Brackium Emendo!" He shouted loudly hoping to scare the animals just enough to allow him time to heal.

He screamed in pain as he felt the bones in his body shift around to both heal themselves as well as straighten themselves. He cursed the fact that he didn't have any potion to numb his senses and he couldn't afford to use any magic to do so right now as he didn't want to make a mistake and end up unconscious while these beasts were among him. He bit his lip hard, so much so that it started to bleed profusely and clamped down on his occlumency shields. As he felt them activate, the feeling of pain seemed to subside and seemed to be forgotten by him. Severus released a heavy breath. 'That was close.' He thought. He sneered when he remembered how useful this function of his shields had become during his life. When he was not being tortured mentally by his failure to save Lily or that the fact that he was so lonely in his existence, it was used to soften the literal torture the dark lord had placed him under. He turned his face to the side and spit a glob of blood to the side, turning the white snow a dirty red.

Just then he felt a certain premonition go through his head and he quickly jumped up and rolled on the ground. "Ahhh!" He shouted in pain as his body was still not fully healed. He turned his over to where his body once was and noticed in its place stood a lone wolf, baring its fangs at him. It was a slightly larger wolf than those on he had seen before, but he had the pleasure of seeing some truly monstrous creatures so this did not faze him. As he gazed at the dark black wolf, he gritted his teeth as he was reminded of that bastard, Sirius Black, he would take joy in killing this wretched creature if only out of misplaced pettiness. He turned his head around searching for its pack as undoubtedly there would be more around him. He spotted five more shadows in the background, slowly circling him as if to corner himself like one would a stag, eliminating all routes of escape. He glared at the beasts around and a low growl soon escaped his lips. "You'll soon find out that you just made my job of killing you vermin all that much easier. It is not me that will want to escape from this encounter, however, you will never get the chance to run you bastards!" He spat out with incredible venom.

As his icy gaze passed the creatures around him, they began to feel as if the prey they once thought was harmless may not have been so. Still, a decision was already made and they had no choice but to go on with their plan to fill their bellies. A low growl hummed briefly and Severus snapped towards his left side and quickly aimed his wand at a grey-coloured beast. "Sectumsempra!" He shouted as a light shot out of his wand. The once airborne wolf seemed to have bisected midair so suddenly that when it landed on the ground it was still alive for a few moments. As Severus stared into its eyes he saw immense fear and then suddenly the beast's eyes glazed over signaling its death.

Seeing their companion seemingly killed so easily, the remaining wolves seemed to have backed off slightly and they turned towards the black wolf. 'Hmm, so that one is the alpha.' Severus thought to himself. He would need to make an example out of it. As Severus and the wolves cautiously circled one another, the wolves seemed to get the idea to attack all at once as surely the human before them could only handle one at a time. Severus from years of practice facing multiple opponents had hardened him and he knew how to handle such threats. As these were not human, he had no such qualms of using lethal spells and large ones at that.

As the wolves began to circle him, he lifted his wand and from his eyes, the beasts before him could fire and madness dancing around his eyes and the beasts truly began to fear for their lives. However, Severus would soon teach them that once you committed a crime, justice would eventually be served. Soon the roles of prey and predator were reversed and the man in black seemed to become a demon in this cold and barren land. Suddenly fire erupted from his wand, the beasts feared fire above all things, the red-flower they came to call it, and this man seemed to have possessed such control over this tool over all the rest. Regret and fear clouded their eyes, but alas it was too late.

Severus raised his wand and a deathly stream of flames seemed to pour from it, crimson and gold, it coloured the blank environment burning all that it touched. For a moment it seemed as the very sun that so often seemed to skip this land had finally come to greet the northern environment. Like a torch he held it up around him, twirling it slowly to light the darkness before him and as he moved his hands so did the fire like a vast lasso of death. He circled it around him and in seconds a ring of monstrous flames surrounded him like he was the Stranger himself. The wolves tried to escape, however, three of them seemed to have gotten caught up in the trap and they were slowly being burned alive. Their howls and cries filled the air with despair and he noticed the alpha's eye realizing that all of them would die this very day.

As the cowards that beasts were, the two remaining wolves fled off into the distance, however, Severus was not feeling merciful today. As the screams from the fire continued, an incredibly loud crack was heard and he appeared right in front of the forest where the wolves desperately wanted to take shelter in. Like the gatekeeper of hell itself, he blocked their escape and the wolves' eyes seemed to expand so much they were in danger of falling out from their sockets.

The wolves looked like they were going to die of fright as they turned frantically searching for any such escape from the monster before them. He was somehow faster than them, appearing of thin air and behind them, a wall of fire burned only reminding them of its lethality as they heard the screams of their comrades. Suddenly a blast was sent to the wolf beside the alpha. "Confringo!" Severus shouted and the wolf soon exploded into gory pieces of flesh and blood.

Suddenly Severus started to approach the wolf before him. He took slow steps that seemed to crunch the ground before him taunting the wolf in its last moments and his prey, the great black wolf's legs gave way and he weakly stumbled onto the ground. As Severus finally stood before him, he towered over him like an agent of death. He pointed his wand towards the beast and decided to not give it an easy death as this one had the sheer audacity to mark him as food. "And now…you suffer." Severus drawled out. He pointed his wand towards the belly of the beast and a dark light shot out. Suddenly the wolf started to spasm and convulse and bile seemed to foam out of his mouth. Soon enough the beast's intestines were purged from its mouth and the beast started to spasm. What was funny was that the curse he just used was apparently one used for healing, but that was only so when one was under the effects of magical potions and being tended to a healer, this beast was not. As the beast started crying, Severus felt a hint of pity grow in him and he pointed his wand towards the beast's neck. "Sectumsempra." He whispered and a clean line of red appeared on the beast's neck and suddenly its head rolled off only stopping when it hit a tree.

As he looked at the head, he noticed only the whites of the eyes could be seen, he sneered and decided to adjust them so that the beast could finally rest in peace. A quick spell and he dismissed the body. He turned his head behind him and caught sight of how truly monstrous the fire had become. He paled slightly as he realized what a mistake it would have been if had accidentally burned the whole forest down. He quickly used his magic to dispel the flames and the ground around him started to look as if it had been bombed. Some small flames continued to burn in the distance, but as it was so cold out here, Severus doubted that such pitiful flames could be dangerous and ignored them as it would be too much work extinguished every little spark of fire that remained.

Suddenly it occurred to Severus that the huge fire surely attracted some form of intelligent life, and these wolves being afraid so much so of fire meant that they had come into contact with humans in the past and as such meant there would be some nearby. He swallowed briefly and surely enough he heard a rustle in the far-off bushes towards his left trickled out ten filthy men. As he looked at them he noticed they were all incredibly ugly and disfigured, they would not be out of place between the victims of the dark lord or even some of his more inbred followers. Their clothing was ripped and filthy, these were peasants it seemed and them being out here in the wilderness was anything but positive. "Outcasts." He muttered silently under his breath. These were undoubtedly the scum of society and their archaic weapons put him slightly at ease. Only one possessed a sword, the others seemed to have been carrying various wooden clubs and woodcutter's axes.

Suddenly the tallest of the bunch stepped forward. "Lor' luv a duck! Wotcher cock there, what do we got aaahrselves 'ere. Know what ah mean?" He let out in a disgusting manner of speech. As the man opened his mouth, Severus noticed that his mouth was missing many teeth and those that remained were blackened by disease.

A second man came and seemed to eye Severus up and down, noticing his state of dress and his clean state. Suddenly Severus noticed a look of intense greed light up in his eyes. "Awright geeezzaa! It looks like we got aaahrselves a lord among us. We lowly peasants are 'onaaahred." The man cackled. This second one was balding greatly and had hair so bright orange it would make a Weasley blush.

Another man stepped forward, this time the one with the sword. All the others seemed to turn to him and give him space. The leader, Severus soon thought. "We're 'onaaahred milord ter make yaaahr acquaintance, but yew see 'ere dis part ov da land needs a toll ter pass, so if yew would be so kind ter pay it, we would gladly appreciate it. OK?" The fat man grinned wide, showing his black teeth for all to see. He had disgusting blemishes all over his face and seemed to have a lazy eye in his left.

Severus growled lightly at being threatened by mere muggles, more less, actual filthy bandits. He snarled and grit his teeth slightly, but remembered that the fact he used such dark magic before and not even once did he get a hint of any wizarding authorities coming for him. A slow smile came to his face if these muggles wanted to play a game than he would indulge them in them. He turned towards the leader. "I've got no money." He muttered, knowing deeply the chain reaction these words would lead to.

The men all seemed to look at one another and like it was rehearsed they all started to laugh madly. "I was 'opin' that yew would say that. We got aaahrselves a fighter boys, let's 'ave some fun. Know what ah mean?" The leader cackled darkly. He soon turned serious and stared at me. "Lawd above! Thee're a fef an' we kill feves, so fer da kin' let us get aaahr justice. Innit." He proclaimed like some sort of knight enacting justice. Severus snorted a breath as if these lowly shits could ever be anything more than the scum they were.

He smirked evilly at the men around him who had brandished their weapons and who started to circle around him. "Are you sure you want this, I'll give you a chance, if not I'll pull out what will be your demise." Severus warned them as he glared heavily at the bandits around him.

The leader looked at the men surrounding him and then back at Severus' lone self and shook his head. "No, I fnk we're good." Muttered the leader evilly.

Severus shook his head and glared at the disgusting creatures before him. He suddenly pulled a wand out from his robes and pointed it at one of the men. "So be it." He muttered darkly.

Suddenly all the men around him started to laugh incredibly loud. "A stick! Oh, we're all afraid now. 'Ave mercy milord." The leader started barking in laughter and he soon commanded the men around him to advance upon Severus.

Severus shook his head, he decided to put these muggles in their place. He pointed his wand towards the largest man. "Sectumsempra!" He shouted and a light shot out from his wand. It smacked right into the belly of the large man and slit it open revealing his innards which soon fell out of his stomach. The man started screaming so hard that he died from a heart attack rather than his own wounds.

Severus soon turned towards the rest of the scum. They looked at him with incredible fear in their eyes. Something which they never imagined possible just occurred before them and they began to realize that may have bitten off more than they could chew. A man dressed in green pointed a bony finger at him. "Sorcerer, 'e's a bloody sorcerer. Nan was right." The man cried out.

The leader was wide-eyed and started to slowly back away. "Kill da witch! Go on yew useless cunts!" The man desperately shouted to his cohorts and they seemed to fear the leader more than they did Severus, something that Severus would fix in no time.

Severus sneered at his opponents around him and dared them to come to him. A brave man with a club swallowed the lump in his throat and leapt forward, with his club high in the air, shouting high to the heavens. Severus was disgusted by the man's stupidity, hell even a child would be able to kill this idiot with him being so open like that, he decided to show him the cost of his mistakes. He aimed his wand at the man's arms. "Sectumsempra!" He shouted and the arm that carried the club was sliced clean off. Blood seemed to erupt from his now stub of an arm and the man looked like he was in shock. "Me arm!" He shouted and the man fell to the ground wriggling and crying like a child that had been disciplined. He started to beg for mercy, but he would not find it from Severus. "Confringo!" Severus shouted and the man's head exploded into gory bits.

This action seemed to scare the shit of the remaining men and they all started to run away in great fear. However, Severus would not give any mercy to those who meant him harm. With a crack, he apparated around the field, appearing before one man at a time and shooting them with a curse that sliced them dead. He purposely left the leader alive till the end as he needed him for a purpose and also to show him fear in his last moments.

He noticed the leader running for his life, smashing into trees and tripping over branches. He seemed to have done incredible damage to himself and Severus followed slowly, constantly apparating just enough behind him to keep the man running. Soon it seemed as if the man had not been looking at where he had been running and he slipped and fell straight into a broken piece of wood that resembled a thin pike. As he fell, he was soon impaled deeply and stopped in his tracks.

As Severus approached him slowly, he heard a wet gurgling sound emit from the bandit's throat. He came before him and gripped hold of the leader's hair harshly to lift his face up. The bandit's eyes widened and coughed out blood. "…D-demon…you're a bloody monster. Stay away from me!" The man begged in his last moments.

Severus glared darkly at the cowardly man before him. He stared him straight in his eyes and brought his wand straight towards the man's temple. "You will be useful to me in your last moments you cur, Legilimens!" He shouted and soon entered the man's mind. The man started to scream and as soon as Severus had what he had needed, he cancelled the spell and withdrew himself from the mind of the man. He was not overly shocked from finding out some concerning information from the muggle's mind, however, he now knew he was no longer home.

He quickly apparated back to the clearing to try to see if anything of use was there. As soon as he returned to the clearing, he noticed dust in the background. When he focused his eyes he realized that the dust was coming towards him. "Shit!" He spat out. He knew he was about to have visitors and this time he was surrounded with bodies around him. As he contemplated escaping, he soon saw the beginnings of a horde of horses coming to him and realized it was too late, as if he ran he would undoubtedly be blamed somehow for this mess. As he steeled himself for confrontation, he noticed an odd banner being carried by one the men, a grey wolf.