Author's Notes: Written pre-Deathly Hallows (so non-DH-compliant) in response to the challenge "The Morning After". Five related but able to stand-alone 100-word drabbles in the order they would have occurred.

The Promise Inherent

It still burned hours later, but it was a good burn. It reminded him that there was hope, or at least retribution, for witches and wizards like his mother, and even himself. The Muggles couldn't hurt them, for soon they would be eradicated.

Severus wished he could appear at the run-down house he'd been forced to grow up in (for there wasn't enough money for anything better after his father's drink budget) and bare his arm to the man. He wanted to see the fear in his father's eyes. It stung that his father's death had denied Severus that revenge.

Forced Realisations

Severus slumped against the toilet, his nausea slowly fading. He'd watched a man die last night. Not some filthy Muggle, but a wizard. The man had done nothing but protect his own, and Severus had had to watch him expire slowly, the poison in his veins causing blood to flow and froth out of every orifice until the man finally fell still.

He had brewed that poison.

Severus's stomach tried to rebel again, but there was nothing left to give.

He found himself, still sickened, leaning against the doorway of the Hogwarts Headmaster's office. Dumbledore's sad smile was strangely reassuring.

To Remain Unbroken

He made the promise planning to break it. A sad end to a wretched existence, he supposed, but it would have been fitting. The spy killed by his own lies. Very poetic.

Then again, he was glad that Dumbledore had countered those plans when he'd explained the situation that morning. Sentimentality and self-sacrifice had never suited him.

However, he still fought tooth and nail with his mentor about the upholding of such a vow. The man was important, for all that he was also annoying.

As he made his second promise in as many days, Severus's chest felt strangely tight.

All Holed Up

Draco's constant snide remarks were a distraction – perhaps even a welcome one – from the memories. Even the piteous whining, as annoying as it was, went without reprimand, because for all that the boy acted like he was still his father's son through and through, Severus understood façades well.

"Why can't we leave this rat's hole?" Draco asked for the thousandth time.

Snape glared and finally answered him. "Because as of last night, I am a murderer, and you are wanted by both sides in this war."

Draco fell silent and instead examined his robes, ruined during their escape, his eyes suddenly downcast.

The End Of The World As He Knows It

The first day of Severus's adult life in which there was no need to worry about the Dark Lord seemed strangely normal. It should have been momentous, but while the Dark Lord's final death the previous day had been spectacular, the dawn that followed was quiet.

Frankly, Snape was a little annoyed at the anticlimax.

The shock in Draco's eyes as he was flung against the wall of their "rat's hole" and ravished by his ex-teacher was certainly a good way to turn things around.

Finally, it was starting to feel like today might be just a little bit different.