This story was written for the Quidditch League Competition (round nine).

The prompt is: "What if Snape hadn't told the prophecy to Voldemort?"

Enjoy!

Snape didn't like the man.

Sure, he was his follower, but the way Voldemort spoke, the way his eyes flitted carefully to the faces of Death Eaters, and the way how he always kept his hands out of sight under his cloak all reminded Snape too much of himself. Voldemort did not trust any of them. Did he even care for any of them?

And what about Snape himself? Should he tell the Dark Lord about the prophecy he had just heard?

Snape suppressed a frustrated sigh as he pondered over the subject. He didn't know why but it just didn't feel… right to tell him. He decided to wait a bit longer. Just to see how things work out.

Snape watched the happy family from the shadows as the boy boarded the train.

Before, he would've seethed at the anger and jealousy but right now, just for a moment, he felt grateful.

Something had held him back that day from spilling his secret to Voldemort and he was glad for that. He hadn't known the prophecy had been referring to Lily's child. If Voldemort knew, she would've been in extreme danger. Right now, the entire wizarding world was still being shaken by Voldemort but at this instant, Snape didn't care. Lily was still alive and safe. And the war, hopefully, would only last a few more years.

The train started to move. The boy, Snape heard that Harry was his name, waved to his parents from his window. The Death Eater stood and watched until the train was long gone and the parents and relatives of the children slowly left one by one, his eyes focusing on a certain redhead until she was left his sight.

Snape disapparated away.

The war was growing worse now. All around Snape, Death Eaters and Aurors alike were constantly preparing for battle and fights would erupt without warning. The war had been raging on for almost two decades and both sides were beginning to wear down. The Death Eaters and Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix were all becoming exhausted and Snape knew that the next battle could be the decisive one.

He could say they had taken down all of the Ministry of Magic. The Death Eaters had infiltrated the ministry almost completely, bringing all of the ministers and wizards into their control. Now, there was just Dumbledore and his Order of the Phoenix. Snape had to admit they were the harder opponents.

After picking off people in the order one by one and vandalizing their homes, they had all gone into hiding. The Death Eaters have searched for months and finally got them cornered.

The Order had picked Hogwarts for their last stand. When Snape heard about it, he could almost taste the bitter irony of it all. Most of these Death Eaters had come from that place, including Voldemort himself, and it was the last place where Snape had talked to Lily. Now, they were fighting on opposite sides in one of the most devastating wizard wars.

He didn't have much time to think about it though for Voldemort was giving them the signal to advance.

His leader stood, straight and tall, staring at the castle in front of them, his dark eyes unblinking. The Death Eaters had the school completely surrounded. They only had to destroy the barrier now.

"Finally," Voldemort rasped. "The war has been won." It had already been won when they took down the Ministry, but Voldemort had insisted on destroying every single last Auror.

Snape took in a deep breath to calm himself.

"Lily," he thought.

He hoped that she had left the country by now. Lily had a family; she couldn't have stayed to fight. Snape hadn't seen her for the last few years so he was almost positive that she has fled along with the hundreds of others who knew they couldn't win. Lily was loyal and had a strong sense of justice but even she couldn't possibly be this stupid, right? She couldn't possibly be in that castle, right?

Voldemort's command came suddenly and Snape was jolted out of his worries. "ATTACK!"

The Death Eaters swarmed to the castle, surrounding it instantly from all sides. The barrier did not last long as hundreds of them countered it at once. Snape watched it dissolve into the air, glittering in the evening sky.

As he ran toward the entrance, he could see some battles already starting to erupt. Flashes shot from the windows and Death Eaters dropped like flies. Some shot back, shattering the windows.

Snape knew this battle was going to be short. He ran inside, gripping his wand tightly. He could only see Death Eaters. The Aurors were hiding.

"Which way do we go?" Snaped asked a man next to him.

"Just check the entire castle," he grumbled back before running up a staircase.

Snape followed him. The Death Eater threw open a door and got a full blast from a spell from the inside. The impact pushed him over the edge and Snape listened to his scream as he fell all the way down to the first floor. So the Auror inside didn't use the killing curse on him, despite the dire situation. Snape almost shook his head at the displayed naivety. He braced himself and shot a spell inside the door.

"Stupefy!"

The Auror, a man with short dark hair, leaped to one side and sent a spell of his own. Snape ducked behind the corner of the door as it shot past his head. Another Death Eater came to help him. Together, they made short work of the Auror and Snape watched with apathetic eyes as he fell in a flash of green light.

He turned and kept running. All around, Snape could see Death Eaters racing around like shadows, most of them headed to the Great Hall. Snape turned and ran in the opposite direction. He didn't know why but his feet seemed to know where to go. He ended up where he didn't expect.

The Gryffindor common room.

It hadn't changed much. Snape had visited the place once before, when he had to pull a prank to get back at James and his idiot friends in his fifth year. He had to admit, the red banners and warm fireplace had looked rather attractive. Maybe because the fire had been the same shade of orange as her hair. Now, the fire wasn't burning anymore but the banners were still up.

There was no one in the room. Snape took a few cautious steps around. No other Death Eaters have arrived yet.

Suddenly, a rustling noise made Snape turn around, his wand arm raised. He found himself staring into two large green eyes from across the room. His breath caught in his throat.

The boy, no older than fourteen, was staring back at him with wide, frightened eyes. He was breathing in short gasps and his hands were clenched around his wand.

Snape hesitated. He didn't know what to do. He knew who the boy was.

Should he kill him? Lily's child?

Wait.

Why was the boy here? Does that mean…

"Wait!"

A woman jumped out of nowhere, cutting Snape off from Harry. She held her arms up protectively, her eyes wide and alarmed behind her red hair.

"Wait, please," Lily pleaded. "Don't kill my son."

Snape didn't move. His mind reeled and he almost dropped his wand. His arm moved on its own and peeled off his mask to get a better look at her face.

She hadn't changed much. The war had aged her, but her eyes still had the same sparkle in them that Snape had seen decades ago. She was wearing her wizard robes and her long hair, instead of being neatly combed, was tied up but falling apart.

"Lily," Snape said.

Lily's jaws dropped. Her arms lowered a little as she stared into his dark eyes.

"…Severus?" She sounded so disbelieving, so devastated.

"Lily, what are you doing here?" Snape whispered hoarsely. He had wanted to believe so badly that she had left. Maybe he had known on the inside that she wouldn't leave but how he had hoped that wasn't true! What was he supposed to do now?

"I'm…" Lily hesitated, thinking of what to say. "…fighting," she finished. She had a wand in her hand but didn't seem too eager to use it. Confusion flickered in her eyes.

Snape gulped. He knew they only had moments before other Death Eaters came in and finds Lily. He had to make a decision now.

Snape took a breath and regained his composure. "Lily, you have to leave," he said.

"But… I…"

"Take your kid and go. Or at least hide somewhere where they can't find you."

"Severus…"

"We don't have time to talk," Snape said curtly. "You'll die if they find you."

"But… why are you helping me, Snape?" Lily asked. "You'll get in trouble if-"

"There's no time to talk!" Snape snapped. "Why didn't you leave and escape?"

"J-James was going to stay and fight…"

"Oh, so you'd risk your life to stay with him?"

"Yes." Lily replied with such certitude, Snape felt his heart thud dully in his chest.

He turned away. "You'd even risk your child's life for him?" he asked bitterly.

He heard Lily pause. "No," she replied. "James told me to take Harry away. I was supposed to take Harry out of here away but he ran back to Hogwarts."

Harry was looking at his mother with fierce determination. "I told you to go, Mom," he said. "I was going to help Dad!"

Lily drew him close. There were tears in her eyes. "We can't win," she whispered sadly. She turned to Snape. "Will you really help Harry?"

Snape turned back and gave a curt nod. It was Lily he wanted to help, not her son, but it didn't matter, as long as she was safe too.

"Do you know a way out of here?" Snape asked.

Lily nodded. "There are many secret passages Dumbledore revealed to us," she said. "There's one-"Her eyes suddenly flitted to the side and widened.

Snape turned around without thinking and blasted the Death Eater with a stunning spell. As the man crumpled to the ground, Snape yelled at Lily to hurry and the three of them ran out of the room.

Lily led the way towards the south side of the castle and Snape checked around them constantly. A few Death Eaters appeared here and there but Lily caught them all by surprise and knocked them unconscious before Snape even raised his wand.

The secret passage wasn't far off in a small hallway and thankfully, no Death Eaters were to be found in that area. In fact, it looked quite deserted although Snape could hear cries and shouts from other places behind the walls. Lily quickly tapped a few places on the wall and a door shimmered to appearance. As she and Harry stepped into the doorway, Lily turned and looked at Snape.

He hoped his eyes didn't show any emotion. "Go."

Lily looked at him with sadness in her eyes and a sense of hesitation. She opened her mouth to speak when her eyes fell onto something behind Snape. She gave a short gasp and before Snape could even see who it was, Lily had already stepped in front of Harry to take the curse.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Snape and Harry watched as she fell, watched as her hair flew loose and settled on her face as her body crumpled without a sound. A strange noise resounded in Snape's ear and he wasn't sure if it was coming from his or the boy.

Voldemort himself stepped out of the shadows and gazed at them calmly.

"Severus," he said with hardly a hint of emotion. "I never thought that you'd betray me."

Snape's mind slowly stopped reeling and he saw his leader standing in front of him. He saw Lily, dead, at his feet, and he saw the destruction going on around him.

Why?

Why?

She had almost escaped it. Why? Why couldn't he have been a second faster? Why didn't he jump into the way instead?

Harry was hugging his mother and shaking her and crying. Snape stood as if his legs were rooted to the ground. He slowly turned and looked at Voldemort.

"The way you lead, many others will betray you, my Lord," Snape rasped.

He didn't want to think. He didn't want to feel. Snape raised his wand and fired the unforgivable curse at Voldemort who dodged and fired one of his own. Together, they attacked back and forth destroying their surroundings. Snape's power and energy was fueled by his anger. In all his time spent as a Death Eater, he had never felt so much the desire to kill someone. It didn't matter now that he had followed the man in front of him for years. It didn't matter if he himself died. It didn't matter if Voldemort was stronger, the strongest. Snape was going to end him.

Snape didn't know how long they fought, maybe seconds, maybe hours. He didn't know when he started feeling tired but when he realized, he felt like his arms were going to drop off. He couldn't tell if he was tiring Voldemort out; he looked indifferent.

Snape ran down the hall, shooting curses behind him. None of them hit his opponent. At the end of the hallway, Snape turned around the corner but crashed into a suit of armor situated on the other side of the wall. He tripped for half a second and Voldemort had his chance.

The force of the spell sent Snape flying against the wall. He felt his bones crack on impact and he fell to the ground and tasted blood in his mouth. He couldn't seem to raise his head. The only things left that did seem to function were his eyes for they flitted over to Voldemort.

The Dark Lord was staring past him. He had a look of surprise in his eyes. Snape saw the green flash for a split second before it disappeared from behind Voldemort.

The man fell first to his knees, a look of shock etched on his face. His body turned smoke-like and he disappeared in front of Snape's eyes.

The boy had his mother's wand in his hands. He stood, shaking, with tear stains on his cheeks, in between Snape and Lily. Snape didn't know where he had learned the killing curse but it didn't matter much. Harry, a child, had defeated Voldemort, Voldemort the Dark Lord.

Snape coughed. He could feel his lungs grow weaker by the moment. He wanted to call the boy over him but he couldn't find his voice. Harry seemed to have read his mind, though, for with trembling legs, he stumbled over to where Snape was.

Snape swallowed. He had to tell the boy all he knew before it was too late. Somehow, his voice came back.

"The horcruxes," Snape whispered. "You have to… destroy them." He knew he might be ruining the boy's life by telling him Voldemort's secret but who else can finish the Dart Lord off? Snape had stumbled across the information by accident himself and if Voldemort was to remain dead, the horcruxes must be destroyed. "He won't… be gone unless you… destroy the horcruxes…"

The boy's eyes were wide. "H-Horcruxes?"

"Dumbledore," Snape wheezed, barely audible. If the man wasn't dead, he could explain to Harry. "Now… run."

Snape felt his eyelids close. The world was dimming, it seemed. His head didn't hurt anymore and for a second, he forgot about the battle happening around him. Harry turned away slowly and half ran, half staggered towards the door. Snape watched as he disappeared into the secret passage. He felt a little stab of guilt and sympathy for the boy although it quickly disappeared.

Snape glanced over to where Lily laid, her hair spread out around her like fire. He wanted to be able to touch her, or even look into her eyes one last time. His body, however, simply couldn't move anymore so he stared at her instead. Maybe only a second passed but Snape felt like he stared on forever. She was only a few metres away from him but they could have been worlds apart. Maybe they always had been.

Snape closed his eyes.