Title: "A House Divided"
Author: Kat Lee
Rating: PG
Summary: A house divided can not stand.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, names, codenames, places, items, fandoms, titles, and etc. are always © & TM their respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Any and all original characters and everything else is © & TM the author and may not be reproduced in any way without the author's express, written permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Note: Unedited. Not going to be edited. Take it or leave it as ye will.
A house divided can not stand. A house divided will always fall. Severus' mind whirled as his pale hands shook, causing his cup of tea to clatter. The fine china made such noise that, had a student made it, he would surely have given them detention. Yet, Severus barely noticed the racket as his mind continued circling. Memories, both good and bad, swirled in his mind, always coming back to that final moment of his love. Throughout it all, he heard Albus' deep, resonant, and sensual voice speaking one of the few mortal quotations he'd liked.
He couldn't get the words quite right, but the meaning was the same regardless. His house was falling. His beloved Albus' house had been saved, but his own was scattering. He wished his being would explode and scatter to the four ends of the Earth. Perhaps then, he wouldn't hurt so much.
But his ending would not be so easy. He had a promise to keep, a promise he'd wanted to make no more than the other one he'd kept two nights before. He'd rather have done anything but what he had, given anything than what he'd taken, but the love of his life had pleaded with him, truly all but begged him, to kill him, and so he had when he'd wished he could kill himself instead.
"Kill me," he whimpers and doesn't even hear himself speak.
Wrinkled hands put the tea aside and take in his pale flesh. His head is laid across a thin shoulder. His black hair falls across her black dress. "Hush, child," she says as she strokes him. Snape cries at last, and Minerva knows, for the first time, that the war will claim both Albus and Severus. No, she thinks forlornly as his tears wet her dress, it already has.
The End
