One Last Night
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Thanks to idreamofdraco for beta-reading. You rock!
The night was dark, pitch black and moonless. Nestled somewhere between dusk and dawn, when the sky was at the blackest of hues, the end began. A soul wavered on the verge of life and of death. A mate felt an ache that could not be sated with drugs, alcohol or the cool caress of a loveless lover.
She was dying. The last night she would have with him was the only night she couldn't see Selene in her perch. Her Grecian guardian had abandoned her to her fate.
"I don't want to die." Her voice was quiet and solemn. He took her hand as the breeze that gently drifted through the trees blew a few strands of hair across her face. Her eyes were hollow and dark.
"I know." It was all he could say. He didn't want it anymore than she did. She was all he had left. All he had left, a dying girl.
"I should be with my husband. I will be soon. But you were always the one who made me feel like I could face the world." Her words were as sorrowful as her eyes.
"When will your last night be?" His voice was rough and edged with sadness. She wanted to cry, but no tears would come.
"You should know better than I do." It was true. He should. They both knew his place in the war—with the Dark Lord.
"I don't." He couldn't say any more. He wanted to tell her it was years away, but they both knew it was near.
"I made my bed, and now I must lie in it." She didn't want to say it, but she knew it had to be said.
"He helped you make your bed." The anger was evident in his voice.
"We made our bed together and will both likely die. If there was another way to rid the world of the Dark Lord, I would." She looked away from him.
"You were not supposed to leave your hiding place, especially not for me, a traitor." She wrenched her hand from his, her eyes sparking with anger.
"You think you don't matter to me? I never wanted to leave you, you bloody pillock! I loved you for most of my life! Ever since we were children!"
"Why did you leave me then? Why did you go off to Potter and give your soul to him?"
"Damn it all to hell! I didn't have a choice when it came to leaving you! It was either leave you or you'd be expelled!"
The fury in his eyes was frightening. "Who was going to expel me? McGonagall, your bloody Head of House?" he snarled at her excuse. She looked in his eyes, remembering how soft they could be and how hard they were now.
"I love you. I wanted my son to be your son. I wanted you to push him on these swings, the very swings we grew up pushing each other on. I'm a big girl now, Severus. I'm going to die for him, even though he isn't yours. Grow up."
She Disapparated, leaving him alone on a playground settled on the edge of a ghost town.
He sat back down on the swing. It creaked with his weight and stopped moving with the breeze. A crack of thunder echoed around him, followed quickly by the steady beat of rain.
He sat there, in his high and mighty black robes, staring at the spot she'd been standing in as she spoke her last words to him.
"I love you. I wanted my son to be your son."
He could still see the way her dress clung to her body, the soft white cotton and the pale green silk around her waist, the way her white sandals hugged her feet. He could see the way her long red hair tumbled down her shoulders, and the clip keeping her bangs out of her face brought out the green of her eyes.
He was soaked and shivering, but he didn't move from the swing. He knew he would never be able to sit on it again with her, never look into her stunning eyes. He wanted to die.
She loved him. She left him. She was going to die.
End