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TITLE: Embers

AUTHOR: Relala

BETA: lady of scarlet

FANDOM STATUS: Fanon


Under the blue illumination of Severus's wand-light, Lockhart twinkles just as bright and as beautiful as any fallen star. His beauty seems to dazzle the Potion Master's eyes and cloud his mind with a frosting thick haze so that he merely holds his wand aloft as he lies in bed and gazes at his lover's sleeping form. Wordless is what Severus becomes when his eyes meet this tender-faced Cupid. Utterly wordless.

He closes his eyes for a few seconds and wishes in the silent language of the speechless that they will be able to stay like this forever.

Oh, Severus knows it will not be possible. He knows that between the two of them there is no true love. In fact, there is no love at all between the sleeping Adonis and himself. It is all merely lust and panic which draws lovers together in these times of war, and Lockhart has never been choosey about who he takes to bed. He is like a tiger, devouring the adorning looks Severus gives him when he is hungry and basking around in the lovemaking's light, yet never pining once those things have gone away.

When Severus Snape's well of lust dries out completely, or when the time comes when it is convenient to leave him, Lockhart will turn his baby blues forward without a glance spared backward. Lockhart would be able cut the rope which Severus clung to for dear life and watch him plummet into darkness without a second thought.

Severus doesn't enjoy knowing this fact, nor does he really despise it.

Sometimes, in the most private chambers of his mind, he admires him for it. For Severus has killed people - Muggle children and wizarding men alike - and he has never had the courage or the heart to watch them in their last moments. Severus cannot meet the winking embers of their souls. Lockhart could.

And in the end that's what it comes down to for these two men. Their love is a blazing flame which shall one day fade away, dying as surely as any human being, and Severus just wants someone to be able to confront the embers of his eyes without flitching.

THE END


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Revisions: Changed flitching to the correct flitching. (2-25-10)