The Birth Of A Hope
The Dementors were all around him. He was surrounded from every corner, and had no escape.
Was to be this, then, his end?
After all he had done, after the point he had pushed himself to…
His knees subsided, and he hit the ground with a loud thud.
If it hadn't been for the frost that crept up his heart, I would have burst out laughing.
What, exactly, had he done?
Oh, right. He had failed. Always. Without exception.
He could hear their deadly rattle coming closer and closer. In the end, he thought, he deserved oblivion.
Thus, he stopped trying to resist.
The frost shrouded him…
Monsters! That's what you are, you and that little filthy weirdo!
His father's yells, and his mother's tears. Her lip, swollen and bleeding.
So, who wants to see me take off Snivelly's pants?
Their laughters, all around him. Potter's face, triumphant. His own face, red with shame.
I don't need help from filthy little mudbloods like her!
The rage in his voice.
The sorrow within her green eyes.
Her eyes…
They blowed uip in his mind. Green as the sea, wide as the sky. Smiling. At him, just at him.
Expecto Patronum!
The doe flickered onto the desert street, then leaped towards the Dementors, scattering them, making them disappear.
She trotted gracefully around him, watching over his overthrown body, making sure that her task had been completed.
Her delicate hoofs beat the concrete without any sound, and the night shimmered with her whiteness.
Just for a moment.
She turned to face him, just once, and observed him with eyes so familiar…and then she was gone.
And Severus Snape knew that there was still hope for him.