A Tale of Death, Love, and Sacrifice

Disclaimer:
I own nothing but the ideas expressed in this fic. Even that's a crapshoot...

Rating:
T (R) for angsty content.

Genre:
Romance/Angst (Possibly a little Tragedy if you think about it technically enough...)

Pairing:
Snarry (Snape/Harry)

Summary:
Basically Snape's thoughts after the war while visiting Harry's grave. Snape's POV. Severus is left to ponder why people make the decisions they do and why he must always live his life as "A Tale of Death, Love, and Sacrifice".

There he was. Looking me dead in the eye. He knew he'd never make it-he knew no witch or wizard ever could. He knew that I knew it as well. That was when he whispered "I love you, Sev...No matter what happens, always remember that..." Leaning forward towards me, he pressed his lips to mine in a heated but chaste kiss, knowing that it would be the last. With that, he was off to fulfill the prophecy we all knew he was destined for. And I whispered painfully "Goodbye, Harry..." Whether he heard it or not, I can't be sure.

Snapping back to my senses I saw Lucious Malfoy approaching me, a menacingly dark evil glistening in his gray orbs, his silken snow-colored hair billowing behind him. He threw a few curses at me, all of which have since escaped the confines of my memories. As have most details of the battle. I wish all of them would disappear in that same manner. Unfortunately, I have never been so lucky in any other matter, why should this be any different. I countered all of his curses with the skill and ease my years as a Death Eater had earned me.

That was another detail I shall never forget. He knew I'd been a Death Eater. He knew I'd worked for the very man who'd taken from him-in the course of one night-everything he'd ever hold dear to him. Voldemort. Even now, after his death, the name still gives me an almost unbearable urge to vomit. But, yet he saw all of my darkness and never once judged me for it. He loved me all the same. That's something I shall never forget.

Back to the encounter with Lucious. After having toyed with him long enough, I finally took mercy on him and hit him with Avada Kedavra and was done with it. I found myself enjoying the pain written in his eyes from the Cruciatous I'd hit him with only moments before far too sadistically to have possibly been healthy. But, I didn't care. The bastard deserved it. After finishing with Lucious I heard the most inhuman screech I'd ever heard-and more than likely will ever hear-in my life. And within that instant, my heart sank lower than I would have ever thought physically possible. I knew it had happened...and that my one beacon of hope...was gone.

I remember everything going still and silent. I knew in that moment that it was over. That we'd won. But at what cost? I remember running faster than I'd ever run before in the direction of the screech. There he was. Lying face down in the dirt, soaked in blood. Most of which I presumed to be his own. After regaining control of my limbs, I ran to him and threw myself to my knees at his side.

My hands shook violently-as did the rest of my body-as I turned him over and held him in my arms. I could tell he knew this was the end. And as much I tried to deny it, I knew it as well. As he looked up, into my eyes, I could read the pain written in the beautiful glistening emerald pools I'd come to love so much.

"Sev..." He whispered my name so hoarsely, I could scarcely recognize it. I wanted so desperately to take away his pain and suffer for him. I would have gladly taken his place had I been offered the chance. I would have gladly died so that others might come to enjoy his lively spirit and innocence as much as I had. I would have died if I could have given him the chance to be somebody else's everything. But, now looking back on how terribly I've suffered, I wonder if I could bring myself to put him through that. Weakly, he pulled me to him for one last kiss. A kiss which I poured my heart and soul into-my very being. Then he looked at me and whispered "I love you..." Smiling sadly, I felt the tears begin streaming down my face as I returned "I love you, too, Harry..."

He smiled, weakly and almost painfully, as his eyelids fluttered a few times before finally gliding closed as his chest rose and fell for the final time. I felt my chest and throat clench excruciatingly as I filled with a multitude of emotions. Part of me wondered how the bloody hell I was supposed to go on without him. The other part of me would have murdered Voldemort right then and there had Harry not already done so. And the last part of me was just numb. The lucky small fraction of me was numb enough to feel nothing at all.

Now, as I sit here before this grave marker, I can't help but wonder if I could have stopped all of it. Part of me can't help but think that I could have done something-anything-to save him. However, the rational half of me knows that I could never have done anything. That this was how things were meant to be. No matter how impossible dealing with the grief and the loss seemed, this was how it was destined to end. I read the engraving for what has to be the millionth time now.

Harry James Potter-Snape
30 July 1988-14 November 2006
Loving and Devoted Husband
Gone...But, never forgotten

So true...I think to myself. Laying eighteen blood red roses at the base of the stone, I say to no one, "Wait for me, love...I won't be long..." Standing, I proceed to make my way up to the castle. I tried to tell myself that I can go on without him, that that's what he would have wanted, but, in the end, the pain became far too debilitating. Now, I can only pray that he understands. My life is nothing. It has no meaning without him here beside me to share in it. He was my life. As weak and foolish as it may be, I lived for him. Without him, I see no reason to continue. Sure, I lived the first, what...thirty seven years of my life without him. But, that had been entirely different. That had been before I'd known him. Before I'd tasted true love and happiness. Now that I've known that, I can't let it go.

Continuing on my way down to the dungeons and my office, I pull a small vial of a clear, liquid substance. I know, for a fact, that this will be nearly instantaneous and I'll feel nothing save the sweet release as I leave this world to join the one I love for all eternity. As I slowly pull the cork out of the vial, I think to myself before downing the sweet death, I'm coming, love...