The night was dark, the air cold. The students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were all hundled under their duvets in their four poster beds, trying to get warm, their dreams were of loved ones. Down in the dungeons, a single beam of fire light illuminated the hallway from the office door that was left slightly ajar. If anyone had peeked into the room, they would have seen a greasy haired, hooked nosed man, dressed in black robes, pacing around the room.
This man was of course Severus Snape. He had just come from Dumbledores office, and was lost in his own thoughts. Severus has always been faithful to the aging man, but what he was asking of him was too much. He had always been a member of the order, from the first time. He had to watch Voldemort kill his friends, and there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't stop the dark lord, because then his motives and his allegience would be revealed, and all his hard work would go up in smoke, just like he would.
He slowly sunk into a chair and placed his weary head into his hands. He was tired, very tired. Years of being a double agent were beginning to take there toll on his mind and body. He was finding it harder each day to keep the barriers up in his mind to keep peepers out, and he was running out of places to hide his memories so that no one can find them.
If anyone was still watching the man from the crack in the door, they would have recoiled in horror as a wet line glistened down the side of his face. Here was the hardest and coldest man in the school, yet he was crying. Severus let the tears flow, letting all the pain and suffering flow out of him with the salty water. and then became angry. He stood up and started pacing again, more ferociously this time.
"How could he, how could he ask me to do such a thing!" He shouted, kicking the chair in his office as he went past. After a couple of minutes of more shouting, he sank back behind his desk and sighed. Of course he would do what Dumbledore had asked of him, but it would break his heart. He couldn't wait till Voldemort got what was coming to him, and he hoped he was there to see it. That thought was with him when he sunk into his own four poster bed, and he fell asleep with a smile of his face.