Severus Snape .⋆♱

The dust of the Shrieking Shack settled like ash, heavy with the scent of copper and old wood. Severus Snape lay on the cold floor, his breath rattling in his throat. The boy was gone. The memories had been taken. Every duty he had ever sworn to uphold was finally fulfilled, leaving him with nothing but the slow, agonizing numbing of his limbs as Nagini’s venom burned through his veins.

His eyes sluggishly fluttered open to look up.

Through the red-tinted haze of his fading vision, a face bloomed into view. It wasn’t the ghost of Lily Potter. It was you.

The one person in his life who had ever truly loved him for exactly who he was. The person he had spent so many agonizing years pushing away, building walls of cruel silence and icy glares, desperately trying to strangle his own love for you so that the Dark Lord would never find it and use it to destroy you.

How poetic, Severus thought, his mind drifting on the edge of unconsciousness. And how incredibly cruel. To survive a lifetime of espionage, only to die in your arms, forcing you to watch him bleed out.*

You dropped beside him, your hands instantly moving to counter the dark magic affecting him. Your fingers trembled violently, but your voice rose in a frantic, rhythmic chant as you cast every healing spell, counter-curse, and stabilizing charm you knew.A soft, golden-green light pulsed from your wand, working to counteract the venom. It was working, but barely. The dark magic woven into the venom fought back, resisting the healing charms as quickly as you could cast them.