Title: The Price of Existence
Author: Potterworm
Words: 292
Warnings: None
Pairings: None, references to unrequited Snape/Lily
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Summary: He hated the boy, Harry Potter, for the same reason the boy's father had hated himself. He existed.
Author's notes: It might as well be a drabble, it's that short. Oh well.
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The Price of Existence
By Potterworm
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He hated the boy, Harry Potter, for the same reason the boy's father had hated himself. He existed.
Now that may seem atrocious, a professor hating a mere child, but there was so much behind the hatred. It was so much more complex than a simple dislike. There was more than jealousy and more than venom. There too was love behind his reasoning.
Potter existed. For most, his existence was a catalyst of the end of the war. He was hailed and could reign in anyway now that he had blessed the wizarding world with his presence once more. He was their savior, simply put. (And their worship of him truly was simple. Like sheep they were. Who the shepherd was changed frequently.)
He of all people should be awestruck at he whom ended his curse half and half life. The life of a spy that is.
But when Severus Snape looked into the emerald eyes of the boy-who-ruined-his-life-by-living, he saw not was his existence had given them. He saw what it had cost them. It had cost the wizarding world a fine witch. But more importantly, it had cost him a dear friend, the only friend he ever had. And the only one he ever loved.
Every time he saw Potter, he wondered why Lily hadn't walked away. He had given her a means to live past the attack. His pleas for her life, while not highly tolerated, had in fact succeeded. Maybe it was just to placate the one who made all of his potions, but the Dark Lord had given Lily Evans (not Potter, never Potter) a choice. And when Severus looked at Potter, the epitome of all things mediocre, he could not help but think:
She chose wrong.