Cold, wintry nights often worked well for him. While everyone else in town were asleep and warm in their cozy homes, they were far from safe. He prowled in the shadows, miming a harmless snowdrift in case one of the young ones woke up and stuck their curious noses outside.
Movement. He sensed movement. Careful not to make noise himself, he strained his neck to turn and found himself face-to-face with the one man he had been trying with all his might to evade, yet fully expected to find him. Seeing as though neither could make any sound, the man across from him inclined his head as if to say hello. Those dazzling blue eyes sparkled in the dim moonlight. Silently cursing those dreadfully perfect eyes, the man who believed he had rightfully been here first glanced into the nearest window before raising his wand to curse those eyes for real. However, the sight he found himself looking at in the window caused him to hesitate for the briefest instant. The blue-eyed man seized the opportunity, and made that moment of pure hesitation wretched.
Feeling a change in the atmosphere, the window-gazer tore his eyes away and repelled the curse away from him. However, there were two faults that would prove to be fatal if not handled correctly. One- that one moment was too late to block the entire curse, and instead, the curse broke in two and half of the power hit him. Two- he must have really defective aim, for the other half of the split curse shot through the window he had been gazing in a moment before, and collided with a slender woman who gave a shriek of pain. No, thought the man who was now on the ground, writhing in agony. The blame for this mortal peril, though, was not entirely of the curse.
The noise of the breaking window woke the neighborhood. Without a sound, the blue-eyed man vanished. The man on the ground stole one last look in the window; the woman was not to be seen. Eyes glistening, he whispered a spell, and he too vanished, still thrashing with pain.
"Why was the deed not completed?" demanded the presence before him. It was not a yell, but full of accusation all the same. Snape hung his head low; he'd rather be scolded with the fullest extent of his master's powers than explain why the flawless plan failed under his management. He knew his master wouldn't understand. His life was over now. There was only so much forgiveness one could receive.
There was silence for many moments. Snape's head swam with decisions. He knew he could not lie. Looking down, he whispered his reason. It felt so unworthy to be speaking of such things to his all-powerful master, but he spoke the truth anyway. Snape kept his head down even after he finished. Then there came the punishment he had been expecting all along. Suddenly, an unbearable cold seeped through his bones, causing him to shiver in fright. He looked up- his master was no longer before him. The icy pangs in his blood consumed him, and he fell to the floor, gasping for breath. His lips turned blue and he could no longer think, but then the ice seemed to melt, though it left a shivering residue in his veins. Teeth chattering, Severus looked up again to find his master turned away, his disappointed head in his hands. But… could that be a sob he heard? No, it couldn't possibly… Though in the middle of the unbearable suffering he just experienced, Snape could have sworn he felt a moment of warmth, as if he was receiving a hug…
but then it was gone.