(eeee - I've just read this and I'm still bouncing from the immediate incoherent reactions I'm having)
*breathes*
First of all, thank you so much mystery writer.
I adored this, especially the complete and total sensory deprivation that Severus experiences yet awareness of self (which is how I picture the afterlife, so you've totally hit something that I fully resonate with here). And that Lily and Remus are strong enough to bring him back. But I especially (I've already used that word haven't I?) loved that they are familiar to him when everything else is lost.
There were some lovely, vivid descriptions and phrases throughout: This is not the barren, acrid heat of the desert, nor the wet, sticky heat of the tropics. This heat is a living thing, with pulse and breath. He can remember nothing before the heat and the darkness, and he is certain that nothing will follow them. There is no end or beginning. They have consumed his senses, until there is nothing left but the shrivelled husks of his eyes, the barren caverns of his ears, and the ash-clogged openings of his nose and mouth. There is no one to reach out to for comfort, no one to break up the hours and hours of darkness. And I've just realized I'll be quoting the whole fic back at you so I'll stop here.
Thank you so much mystery author. I feel like you not only wrote for my prompt, you wrote for me. <3 <3 <3