It hurt so much. He felt as if every single bone in his body was on fire. His throat was raw from screaming for mercy. And even then, unconsciousness refused to give him respite.

Severus Snape was finished. Everyone could see that. With the battle of Hogwarts over and the boy who lived dead, there was precious little that could possibly save Snape, death eater and murderer of Albus Dumbledore. Nobody knew that they were in fact calling for the humiliation and torture of one of the bravest men to have ever walked the earth in eons of wizarding history.

And then, here were those who truly wanted to hurt Snape with everything they had. They broke his bones, spilt his blood, held him under the cruciatus curse till he passed out. They touched him in ways no one should be touched. They hit him on levels no one should be hit.

Snape, however, chose not to break. It was a destiny he had chosen after all. His only regret tormented him more than these goons ever could. He had failed lily, not once but twice. In his own personal hell, Severus Snape spent his remaining days in madness with no one to hold him but his demons who simply mocked him.

No dementors needed to kiss the wretched lunatic of Azkaban. No whips and wands were needed now. The man broke himself down little by little, to free his inky spirit from the clutches of darkness it had come to know like an old friend.

Severus Snape found his rest in oblivion as his crazed spirit left behind the body that had been the vessel of pain and sorrow for a man who had deserved so much more.

….

In a faraway clearing of the forbidden forest, an old and faded gemstone shone; not with a brilliance but with a dull sheen. It died almost as soon as it came. It did its job as it allowed something to escape into itself and die away; memories and sins of one Severus Snape, a man who had deserved none of it and a man who had deserved so much more.