Dear Dark Lord,
This is an open letter to you. Call it a challenge if you will but yes, I dare to challenge you. I am your humble servant, Severus Tobias Snape. I am revealing myself to you because I must, for the sake of the light and for the sake of my own sanity and conscience.
As you would very well remember, I entered your service some 16 years ago with a wide-eyed curiosity of a brilliant but bullied child. I wanted my talents known, my work praised. Little did I realize that you simply were another power hungry bully, not unlike to the ones who had made my life a living hell in my early years. The only thing that set you apart, My Lord, is the fact that while they were made of immaturity and complexes, you were nothing but evil and pain. Fashioned out of trickery, what else could you have been? I regret my old decisions now but more than that I have sincere pity for you, for a child who knew nothing but evil because he was born so. It is truly something remarkable, something I have never heard of before.
Does it baffle me that a little infant with no magnificent powers brought you to your knees? Does it terrify me that an under-nourished, abused orphan child defied you with his sheer will and strength of character?
Yes my lord. The answer to both the questions is a 'yes'. It's just that my regrets deepen each time I look at the consequences of a choice I made as a folly of my youth. I cost Lily her life and Harry his happiness. No, I have not grown to care for the boy. But I know his potential and his capability. I know the signs and I knew his mother. I have reasons enough to detest my traitorous actions. How could I have betrayed the love of my life? This is the question that haunts me.
But today, I am going to right the wrong in whatever capacity I can. I will meet you man to man, My Lord. I will stand with the boy who lived because it is never too late to make amends. You may have captured my need once; you can never capture my want. And my deepest desire today, is to watch you fall from your disgusting grace.
I want you to feel the pain you have caused the world. I want you to know the sorrow of having your heart ripped into shreds.
I am still loyal to you, My Lord. I am simply following what you have always told us. It is all for the greater good.
I have finally come to realize what the greater good is. I will stand for it, loyal as I am to your cause.
I hope someday you understand it too. But until then, we meet as enemies, My Master. Farewell!
Yours in servitude,
Severus Tobias Snape