Author's Notes: I do not and never will own Harry Potter.
Song is "The Spy Hunter" by Project 86. Warning for torture and character death.
The sting of oh, it stings, when I saw it all come crashing...
He doesn't see who trips him to his knees, but he feels the Cruciatus curse, lashing through his nerve endings and tearing a scream from his throat. He feels the boots sink into his side, feels the blood trickle from a broken nose. His world is pain, and he crouches, panting, in the middle of a snow-choked courtyard, watching the white turn crimson beneath his splayed hands.
He has expected this for years, but oh, how it hurts. It's Bellatrix who suspects him to be a traitor, of course. It's her who feeds him the wrong information, it's him who unwittingly tells the Order, and it's him captured before he can retreat to Hogwarts grounds, it is always him, burnt and lashed to a pole for the junior Death Eaters to practice their Unforgivables on.
It's him, facing his own death.
We caught you plotting murder and now the tide is turning...
"Well, Severus," Voldemort says, almost pleasantly. He refuses to look up, but a bony, corpse-white hand jerks his chin up anyway. The Dark Lord almost looks happy, and it sends a twinge of dread down his spine, spasming through his tortured nerves. "I misjudged the depths of your lust for the Mudblood, didn't I."
He opens his mouth (whether to decry his feelings or curse Voldemort for calling Lily that, he's not sure), but Bellatrix fetches him a knock on the jaw, her knuckles bristling with rings that leave trails of blood down his cheek.
"You do not speak to him," Bellatrix hisses, but Voldemort laughs.
"Now, now, Bellatrix," he says, almost chiding her like one would speak to a child. "We must allow the traitor to plead his case." Severus finds himself watching the tip of Voldemort's wand, almost mesmerized. Will he kill Severus quickly? Will he see nothing but green light, rushing toward him? Like Potter? Like Lily?
I am the voice of one among the silent who's tired of burning among the flames...
"Plead your case, Severus," Voldemort repeats, and there is an edge to his voice that was not there before. The circle of Death Eaters is silent around them. He's so tired of being what everyone demanded of him. No one will ever come on his behalf. No one will ever attempt to save Severus Tobias Snape. Lily might have, but Lily is dead, and their friendship long buried by his own mistakes.
"What case?" he finally says, spitting blood onto the snow. One of his teeth shines up at him. "I spied for Dumbledore. I told the Order your plans. I saved the Potter boy more times than I can count."
"What an idealist you've become in your old age," Voldemort sneers, but Severus shakes his head.
"Not idealism," he interrupts, wincing as Bellatrix's nails dig into his exposed shoulder blade. "I didn't do it for idealism. I did it for her. I did it for my mistakes and I did it because you are nothing but a half-blooded parasite, Tom Riddle-"
Shouts erupt from the assembled Death Eaters and Severus closes his eyes. This is the end.
We'll light our souls, heal our bones, upon your empire, burning...
He opens his eyes and has the distinct pleasure of watching the courtyard wall behind the Dark Lord explode, and Albus Dumbledore himself come striding through the rubble. I'm dead, Severus thinks in a daze, but the Order comes streaming in, and the world is full of red and green light.
"If my Lord won't kill you, I will," Bellatrix whispers in his ear, her hands locking around his throat and squeezing. His fingers slide ineffectually off hers, his vision dimming, before Molly Weasley blasts Bellatrix off him with a curse that he hasn't heard since the first War.
"Thanks," Severus tries to rasp out, but she doesn't notice.
It is fierce and it is bloody and he tries not to think of the death count, but the end is Harry and Voldemort, the end is the Dark Lord's body thudding into the gore-spattered snow with an impact heard by everyone there.
The end is also Potter throwing up into a bush while Granger rubs his back and Weasley looks embarrassed to one side, two of his fingers missing on his left hand. And Albus delivering Severus into a conjured stretcher and there are so many regrets in his eyes, Severus almost feels ashamed. Almost.
Surprise! Extra author's notes! Obviously, this is extremely AU. I wanted him to have a sort of happy ending, though. I was originally planning on this being much shorter, and him dying at Voldemort's hands, except...I couldn't write that. So have this instead.