Disclaimer: I don't own anything! If I did I wouldn't be writing fanfiction. :P

AN: Just a quick little one shot because I love Snape. His story is so heart breaking! This story gets a little dark toward the end so that's why the rating is T. The title is a song from the musical once. If you haven't seen it you should! Anyway... Happy reading!

Broken All the Way Down

"Severus!" I looked up to see Albus Dumbledore standing over me. Pain like nothing I could have imagined was stabbing me in the heart, growing with every beat of my heart. Grief was choking me, welling up in me, pouring from my eyes.

"He promised me." I whispered. "He promised he wouldn't kill her!" I spat. Dumbledore looked at me with such pity that I wanted to vomit.

"The only thing we can do now is honour her memory Severus. Her child will be coming to Hogwarts; we must take care of him." I nodded. I hated Dumbledore in that moment. How could he speak of the future when the only thing I lived for was gone?

The years dragged painfully for me, but eventually the day came when I was to meet Harry Potter. I looked at him and felt angry. He was the spitting image of his father, but his eyes…they were the mirror image of Lily's.

Protecting Harry seemed an impossible task, the boy was attracted to danger and trouble like moth was drawn to light. I had to constantly keep my eye on him. He took so many unnecessary risks with his life. It made me bitter. But I couldn't give up; I owed it to Lily to take care of her boy, because she couldn't.

With the return of the dark lord my life got ever more tedious. I was being pulled in too many directions, but I knew that I had to keep going. I had to get Harry through the war. It was my only goal, but it got stomped out by Dumbledore.

"Harry will die, Severus." He sighed and looked away from me. "He and Voldemort are inexplicably and irrevocably linked. He has to keep to the task though. He cannot know what he is facing. He'll lose hope." I glared at Dumbledore. Rage was filling my chest, words of hate building at the back of my throat like bile.

"So what has been the point? Raising him like a pig for the slaughter? This is sick." I spat.

"Severus please calm down. What was I supposed to do? You know I am dying; I just need you to keep guiding him. For me Severus please?" When I said nothing in response he sat across from me and leveled a stare at me. "Severus, am I to understand that you've grown to care for the boy?" My jaw tensed. What a fool. I drew my wand and wordlessly conjured a patronus, it was Doe. Just like Lily's had been. Dumbledore looked at me. A look I remembered from ages back. Pity. "After all this time Severus?"

"Always." I vowed.

Dumbledore was dead, I was headmaster, and still doing my best to help the war efforts inconspicuously. I was wearing thin, but I kept going. I had to. I heeded Dumbledore's advice and helped Harry when I could. I led him to the sword of Gryffindor. In the end I suppose I died for him. No, I died for her. I had loved Lily for almost all of my life, and I would never stop. In the end I was broken. Broken all the way down. Protecting a child that I had dreamed would be mine, if Lily had chosen me instead. I left my memories, the most precious thing I had, for Harry. So he would understand why I had done what I did, and to prepare him for what was to come. It was a relief in some ways to be done with life; I had been walking around wounded for years. In death I was no longer broken.

AN: Hope you like my little one shot. It's a bit simplistic. I might rip this idea open and write more about Snape when I have some free time. PLease let me know what you though! I love reviews! Thanks for Reading! -WS