AN: This idea has been in my head for a while so I decided to write it. I hope you like it. Reviews are always appreciated.
Feeling Understood
by Professor Sonja Snape
Severus Snape did not remember much from the previous days. Today was November the fifth, 1981. He had lost his only purpose in life six days ago, and his memories of those six past days were nothing more than an indistinct blur. Now, he had found a purpose again, a reason to continue his life: he would not forgive himself for Lily's death and guilt would accompany forever, but if he were to continue his life – something he had hesitated on – then he would protect her son as long as he could.
He had not gone to the Potters' funeral. He could not have come even if he could bring himself to do it, because if the Dark Lord caught word of it when he came back, he would suspect Severus to be the traitor he was, and what use would he be as a dead man? He had watched the ceremony from afar though, desillusioned, sitting with his knees drawn up against his chest, and he had gone to see the grave afterwards. It was two days after the funeral, and he was leaning against a wall in a dark corner in Godric's Hollow, trying to pull himself together again. And then, he saw it.
The dark brown cat was perched on a branch, its dark eyes open but staring at nothing. Severus recognized the cat. He had seen it on the pictures of the Potter family, in their house. He had seen Lily with it at Hogwarts a few times before they had graduated. She had owned it since sometime during her seventh year, and now, it seemed that it would live as a stray animal. Severus felt a strange pain in the pit of his stomach at the idea, resulting from the unexpected connection he felt with the dark animal. The cat and he were living through the same loss, and although animals and humans did not feel emotions in the same way, both were sensible to the pain of loss. They were both lonely, mourning Lily.
The two solitary beings, human and cat, stared at each other in silence, and after a while, Severus took one step forward. The cat climbed down the tree, took a few steps until it was close enough to rub its head against the man's ankle. Severus had always liked cats. Cats were independent and fierce animals, with a pride of their own; their intelligence and wit could be seen in their eyes. He hunched down and extended a hand to the cat, who sniffed it and, after a while, accepted the truce of friendship, rubbing its head against the proffered hand.
From this day on, the cat had been living in Hogwarts, in the Potions Master's quarters. Of course, no student ever saw it, for Severus Snape did not allow anyone to get even a small glimpse of his personal world, of his vulnerability. The cat was free to go wherever it wanted as long as it was not seen. It went out in the grounds at night to hunt, and it sometimes wandered through the castle, when the students were sleeping. It stayed with Severus when the man needed companionship, offering the comfort it could when its master came back from Death Eater meetings or when he suffered from nightmares, when he was tortured or when he had to do terrible things which haunted him for a long time after. The cat was always there for him. Because cat and man understood each other.