The Price
Disclaimer: What belongs to J.K. Rowling does not belong to me. No, I'm not making money off of it.
A/N: I wrote this at 3:40 am after watching the deleted Snape scene from the Half Blood Prince movie, so please excuse any errors that you may come across. The quote "When you loved someone, you knew these things." Is from the book called Inspell. If you haven't read it yet, you should. They're great books. In the mean time, I hope this story touches your heart like the idea for it touched mine. Thanks!
Rachael Snape could feel the hole in her chest growing with each passing moment. Her heart hurt like never before…and she knew. She knew without searching for him that she had lost him. When loved someone, you knew these things. Tears fell from her eyes, blurring her vision, but she didn't bother to wipe them away. It didn't matter that she couldn't see. It didn't matter that they had won the war. It didn't matter that the Dark Lord was finally dead. What mattered was the price. She had loved him, only him, more than she thought was possible. And now…now he was gone.
She fell to her knees, broken. She fell face first to the floor. It hurt so bad she wanted to scream. Then she felt a familiar hand on her back, and heard a familiar voice speak.
"You realize the floor isn't exactly clean at the moment?"
Her head shot up, and for a split second her green eyes met his dark gaze before she threw herself into his arms.
"Severus!" She gasps. "Merlin! I thought…"
"You thought what?" He asks, pushing her back just far enough for him to look at her. He gently used his thumb to wipe the tears from her face. "You didn't really think they could get rid of me that easily, did you? … I love you."
Rachael's hand covered her mouth in an attempt to muffle the sound of her sorrow. Tears fell from her eyes as she stepped away from the mirror of erised. They had told her that in time the pain would fade…she would move on. Thirteen years. She had waited thirteen years…and thirteen years couldn't heal the wounds or fill the hole she still felt in her chest.
She whirled around as a hand lightly touched her shoulder. A young man with Severus's shoulder length raven colored hair and dark onyx eyes stood before her. In looks and mannerisms he was his father's son. He had graduated today.
"Maybe you shouldn't have come." He murmurs, studying his mother.
She shook her head. "I wouldn't have missed your graduation for the world." She assures him, trying to regain control of herself. "I just…I just wanted to see if he was still there."
He pulls her into his embrace and she breaks down in tears again.
"I miss him, too." He tells her, a single tear falling down the side of his face as he gazes into the mirror. He could see himself as he had crossed the stage and received his Hogwarts diploma. He had looked out into the crowd and smiled at his mother, but in the mirror his father was sitting next to her, wearing the same smug that he used to give other people while bragging about his son.
He closes his eyes as he adds, more to himself than to his mother, "But it's not real…and they lied. Time doesn't heal everything."