"Look At Me"
How had it come to this?
Standing next to a man who had destroyed his life and pretending to be an ally. This man who killed so many. Destroying his school. Who killed the only one who ever meant anything to Severus.
Lily.
Oh Lily, would she even look at him if she knew. He had begged for her life. He sold the life of her husband and child so she could be spared. But it was all for naught, for she refused to let her son die, and so died herself.
Severus wanted to die, he lived only for Lily. She had been his friend, his life for so long. To think that the Dark Lord, his master…had killed her, it was more than he could bear.
But no. he was to live, to help keep her son alive and safe. Her death would not be in vain.
The bite hurt more than he expected. He thought he would be numb to pain for the rest of his life. But his death blow was both painful and ironic. Death by a snake bite, the symbol of his precious house. Death by Voldermort's hand. It was unsuspected.
As well as deserved.
He had caused nothing but pain to himself as well as his students. But he couldn't help but be bitter. He wanted to die, to perhaps be with Lily in the afterlife. But he was forced to teach her son, a boy who might have been his own son had he not been so stupid.
Lily.
She was the first thing he thought of as he fell to the floor. The strange floating cage that protected the Dark Lord's Snake floated off and away from him. His master turned, leaving him for dead. To hunt down Potter.
No! He would not fail her again. But there wasn't anything he could do. His blood flowed fast from the bite on his neck. His fingers fumbled at his neck, trying to slow his death.
Then Potter and his friends were there. How they had come to be there without being detected was a mystery to him. But Severus was not at all surprised. The boy always seemed to be where the trouble was. It both infuriated and impressed the professor.
The moment he saw Potter he knew what he had to do. No longer would he live a life of secrets. Both he and Potter lived a life of riddles, of cryptic answers. No more. He grabbed the boy.
"Take…it…Take ..it." Severus demanded as he forced his memories out. Things he had heard, things he had seen…things he had said. He forced himself not to wince at the thought of Potter seeing his memories, knowing his shame. That he had loved his mother more than anyone. But as the boy scooped up the silver-blue memories, it felt as if a weight had been removed. A massive, painful weight that Severus had to carry with him for years.
His body felt light, cold and Severus knew he was going.
Oh, Lily. If only he could see her once more. There was no guarantee that he would see her again when he died. All he had of her were the memories he gave Potter. His grip on the boy was harder to hold and he whispered desperately.
"Look…at…me." He demanded in what voice he had left.
Potter swung his eyes to lock on to his. He saw fear in those eyes; he was just a boy after all.
Harry really did have her eyes. He refused to believe it at first. But as the boy got older and ultimately, when he came to Hogwarts and Severus was able to get his first good look at the boy; he could no longer fool himself. He had Lily's eyes. Nearly identical.
The world around him faded away. Potter and his friends, the war going on not far from there, the fact that he was taking his last breath. All he saw was Lily looking back at him. His body went from cold to strangely very warm, he was passing, but he never looked away from those eyes.
Lily
