Disclaimer-All characters and books belong to J.K Rowling and Warner Bros. Inc., I just use them in my stories and little plots, and in no way, earn anything from writing these stories.

Too Late

Three seconds too late. Three hours too late. Three days too late. Three weeks, months, years, always too late. She was still too late to save him. She could have saved him. She had the anti-dote with her, just inside her robes, in her bag. The bag, where over the last few months, Harry, Ron and herself had stored their belongings as the traveled to find and destroy the last few Horcruxes that stood in their way to defeat Lord Voldemort.

But finally, he was gone. Gone forever. And so was he. She should have moved. She could have jumped up, ran over, put his head on her lap, opened his mouth, and poured in the anti-dote. And he would have lived. Lived to see freedom, freedom from both masters, freedom from anyone but himself.

But no, she was frozen from shock. Too shocked to move, to get up, to do anything but crouch there, with Harry and Ron underneath James Potter's Invisibility Cloak and wait for Voldemort to leave the Shrieking Shack, so that Harry could finally defeat him.

But then, silver came from his mouth, and he demanded Harry to bottle it, to take it. So she handed him an empty vial. And he did as he was told. Then he ordered Harry to look at him, and he did. Then, his breathing stopped. Completely.

And then, Severus Tobias Snape left the Wizarding World forever.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, as the tears began pouring down her face, as she kneeled in front of his grave, placed next to Albus Dumbledore's on the grounds of Hogwarts. "I could have saved you. I should have. But I couldn't move, and I love you, and I'm so sorry." With that, she wiped her tears away with her gloved hand, placed the dried roses, so dark red at this point they almost looked black, his favorite color, in front of his grave and stood. She turned around and started back towards the castle when a warm wind whipped around her, almost as if in a hug, and she could have sworn she heard him whisper "I love you, too," until she realized he couldn't, because Hermione Granger knew for a fact that he was indeed, dead.

And she was just a mere three seconds, hours, days, weeks, months, years, too late.

Too late, indeed.

AN-I wrote this while listening to Bullet For My Valentine's Heart Bursts Into Fire from their new album, Scream Aim Fire. This is set three years after the final battle at Hogwarts. Let me know what you think. This is just a little one-shot I thought of when I read the words she was too late in the summary of a story.

Thanks,

Xanatara