Post Mortem
Summary: After his death, Severus Snape finds himself standing alone in a field of beautiful and familiar white flowers, but the only Lily he can see is the one smiling sadly from a few feet away... DH-compliant, major spoilers
Pairings: The only ones specifically mentioned will be JamesLily and (Part?/OneSided?)SeverusLily. The rest you can imagine for yourself.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. If I owned Harry Potter, Snape and Lupin and Fred wouldn't have died, there would have been more Tom Riddle, and Malfoy would have had more screen time post-Death Eater induction. Go away now while I mourn this horrible loss.
Final Lily
"Someday these walls will speak;
The floor beneath you creek
To call my name;
Here in my web of dreams,
My whispers turn to screams
And place the blame...
...For this freedom,
I have given all I had;
For this darkness,
I gave my light;
For this wisdom,
I have lost my innocence;
Take my petals
And cover me with the night!"
-Rose Red, written and performed by Emilie Autumn
Death was painless. Well, after the poison and blood loss did its work, that is, but it was still far swifter and less jarring than Severus Tobias Snape had expected. One minute, he was staring into Potter's-Harry's-her eyes, slumped on the floor pathetically with a gaping wound in his neck, and then the next he was standing in a peaceful field, blinking slowly and surprisingly unfazed by the abrupt change of scenery. Beautiful white flowers-her flowers, the ones that represented her purity and beauty and calming movements and name-brew in a nonexistent breeze.
Then Severus regained his senses and let out a noise of annoyance. "Somehow, I thought Hell would have been less...pretty," he finished with a snarky sneer, giving the flowers a glare that was reduced by the tender feelings they induced within him. His sneer froze when there was a soft laugh behind him. A feminine laugh. A familiar laugh.
Before Severus could turn, a slim hand, skin nearly as pale as his own but also a noticeably healthier shade, rested itself gently on his upper arm. "Oh, Severus," an equally familiar and soft voice said with a tenderness he had not heard in ages, "your humor has never changed."
For a moment, Severus just stared with wide eyes at the hand on his arm before whirling around, mouth opening slightly as he saw the hand's owner. Standing a mere arms length away, deep crimson hair falling gently around her face, a light dusting of freckles across her nose, a small smile on her soft lips, and those damning emerald eyes, was the one person he never thought he would see again.
It took a few moments for Severus's voice to work, and once it did, he was barely able to croak out a slightly strangled, "Lily."
The woman, Lily Evans-Potter, smiled a bit more, but now Severus could see the sadness in her eyes. Carefully, hesitantly, as if doubting himself, Severus raised his hand to hover over her cheek. When she made no move to pull away, and indeed maintained eye contact, he finally made the final movement to touch her skin.
Eyes drifting shut, Severus heard Lily sigh quietly in what he possibly deluded himself into thinking was contentment, focusing on the feel of too-soft skin under his hand. Again, the name of the one he so loved for so long crossed his lips: "Lily..."
"Yes," she whispered back, prompting Severus to open his eyes again and spot the tears in her eyes. "I've been waiting for you, Severus. To thank you."
In an instant, the moment of tenderness was broken on Severus's end as he pulled his hand away like a Basilisk had lunged toward it with fangs bared. Anger instantly rose within him, and he found his Occlumency useless to stop it.
"Thank me?" he repeated, unable to believe it. Then, again, anger rising, Severus once more said, "THANK me? For what?
"For joining that monster? For giving him the prophecy? For believing he would spare you-selfishly asking for your own safety-or perhaps for leading him to your house and life! For condemning you to-to-"
Severus's wide gestures, which had begun at the beginning of his speech, suddenly stopped, and he was only faintly horrified to find himself tearing up. Roughly, rubbed his face with his hand, trying to shove the emotions away with little luck. Again, that hand-that accursed and beloved hand-gently rested itself on his bicep, this time a little more firmly than before.
"To death?" Lily gently supplied. Severus refused to react other than the slightest twitch. A sigh escaped Lily, a sigh of sadness and regret, and suddenly Severus stiffened when he felt her other hand gently touch the forearm of the hand covering his face-the same spot where he knew the Dark Mark lay for the past 20 years of his life.
"Oh, Severus," Lily began quietly, slowly lowering the arm. Her face came into view, knowing and sad, but regretful, too. "Oh my dear, dear Severus. As wonderful as you have always been at potions and spellcasting and everything else you set your mind to, the one thing you could never control was your tendency to take all blame and shoulder it on yourself."
Severus blinked once, flabbergasted, as Lily gave him another sad smile. "Severus, I never blamed you. Not once. You came for me*, didn't you? As soon as you realized what happened, you came to try and save me-to try and save me and my son. And even after I was gone, you swore to protect my son, and while I don't approve of how you've treated him" (Severus suddenly felt ashamed as he never quite had before) "you have kept that promise. And, you know what?"
Lily smiled a bit more brightly, leaning closer to Severus's face, her grip on his arms preventing him from pulling awkwardly away. "That's why I want to thank you. Because you continued to care even after I died, to protect my only son, my darling Harry, who only reminded you of your past mistakes whenever you saw him and was unknowingly ungrateful towards your actions. So thank you, Severus. Thank you for being the man I so very love."
And with that, Lily leaned forward and kissed Severus, who felt more alive in this place of death than he ever had at home. And when Lily pulled away, eyes shining with love and joy, for the first time in quite some time, Severus Snape the greasy git and feared Potions Master couldn't help but smile.
* After writing this line, I suddenly realized it was a direct quote from Advent Children-a wonderful movie-which I did not mean to put in...but Lily didn't want me to change it! Silly girl. So here I'm going to put credit where credit is due and thank Aerith/Aeris of Advent Children for her wonderful words to Cloud. :)
thanks for reading!
-MKL, signing out.
"Any sound can shake the air. My voice shakes the heart." -Sho Minamimoto, The World Ends With You (NDS)