DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter, its publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. No money is being made for this. No copyright infringement is intended.
Title: Twelve Years
Author: Relala
Beta Reader: Lady of Scarlet
Adult witches and wizards, unlike Hogwarts students, do not follow the seasons and see them as clockwork.
They do not judge the passage of time by the heat of a summer's day into the passage of a winter freeze snap. In adult life, time isn't judged by the ringing of lunchtime bells, the worlds upon wizard watches that tell you it's past curfew, the rise and set of the sun upon the school grounds which begin the day anew. Days do not flow together like an endless stream, but rather form a chain. Each link separate from the others--alone despite the fact that they create a strong sequence. Perhaps this is why twelve years can pass without an adult man really noticing.
Twelve whole years. More than an entire decade which, according to the mind of a teenager, is an eternity's worth of time. What changes could that bring about in a person?
As Remus lets his eyes roam slowly over the man before him he assesses each and every little detail, filing them away in the cabinet of his mind. He will look over these things later and find that the skin of Severus's face is even paler than it once was, his eyes a little bit harder. He finds that the man now hunches over when he walks, all his smiles thin-lipped and false.
There is nothing in the man that resembles the boy he once knew during his schoolboy years at Hogwarts, and although Remus knows that people change he can't quite put his finger on just what might have changed Severus Snape so much. Years later, after Severus dies a martyr in the war and the truth about his actions is revealed to the world, Remus thinks back on a certain conversation:
"You're wondering, perhaps, how I knew you were here? I've just been to your office, Lupin. You forgot to take your Potion tonight, so I took a gobletful along. And very lucky I did...lucky for me, I mean. Lying on your desk was a certain map. One glance at it told me all I needed to know. I saw you running along this passage way and out of sight."
"Severus —"
"I've told the Headmaster again and again that you've been helping your old friend Black into the castle, Lupin, and here's the proof. Not even I dreamed you would have the nerve to use this old place as your hideout."
"Severus you're making a mistake," Lupin says urgently. "You haven't heard everything—I can explain—Sirius is not here to kill Harry—"
"Two more for Azkaban tonight," says Snape, his eyes now gleaming fanatically. "I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this...he was quite convinced you were harmless, you know, Lupin...a tame werewolf..."
"You fool," says Lupin softly. "Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?"
If your life had been ruined in a single instant by a boy pulling a prank, would Sirius Black really have been innocent in Severus's mind? The thought makes him shiver, and although he hates to admit it, there is something worse than hate blooming inside his heart. Something that tastes too much like understanding for the werewolf's liking.
Severus's years without Lily were his own private Azkaban.
THE END
"Reviews are the only payment FanFiction authors receive. Even if it's just a word or two, leaving a review lets me know you've passed this way."