I don't own anything, unfortunately.
At first, he did not love Lily Evans.
He noticed the twinkle in her eye, the way her hair settled in an arc when her head touched the grass. He watched her, watched her grow and grew with her – and with that, his feelings grew, too.
She was oblivious; what did he expect, from somebody so fair and innocent? Snape watched her from afar, content for now.
But time does not heal all wounds, and neither does it cure an incurable love.
Lily sat impossibly still as the sorting hat was placed on her head. There was no hesitation. "Gryffindor!"
She didn't even spare a look for her old friend of Slytherin as she made her way to the Gryffindor table.
"Have you ever thought about what happens to us when we die?" Lily asked, idly picking grass from the dirt. "About good and bad people and everything in between?"
He suppressed a smile, and raised his eyes to meet hers. This moments that they spent together were rare – she was usually off with James, or studying with her friends. Her Gryffindor friends.
"You think too much," he told her wisely.
She grinned at him. He smiled back and whispered a spell that she didn't catch. Flowers sprouted from his hand, and he passed them to her, watching her face light up with joy.
She was worth it, he thought to himself. She was worth the pain.
James Potter's voice broke through the daze. "Hey, Severus!" he yelled in contempt. "Get away from my girlfriend!"
Lily scowled at James. "I am not your girlfriend," she told him sternly, but with an undeniable adoration that even Snape could not miss.
The young Slytherin clambered to his feet and walked away. If she's happy, you're happy, he told himself. Right?
"I need you to do this, Severus. Please."
"You'll look after her?" Snape looked more vulnerable than Dumbledore had ever seen him. "You promise? She'll be safe?"
The headmaster nodded. "She'll be safe."
"Fine. I'll do it."
"You promised! You said she'd be safe."
Dumbledore did not answer.
The Dark Lord's eyes were like black pearls, eerie in his unusual face. "Severus, my loyal servant. I have a favour to ask of you."
"Anything, my lord."
Those eyes glinted. "Anything?"
For the boy, he told himself as he left the castle. For Lily.
"Tell them how it happened that night. How you looked him in the eye, a man who trusted you, and killed him!"
Snape wished he hated the boy who looked so much his old love, but he could not bring himself to.
"Severus, you have served me well."
Snape peered at the Dark Lord with confusion. What had he been called here for? Unless –
An ice cold fear made its way through Severus Snape's bones.
"But as long as you live, the wand belongs to you…"
Snape closed his eyes against the pain, both physical and emotional.
The boy.
"Take the…take…" Take the tears, he tried to grind out through the agony, and through the cloak of death upon him. Take the memories.
Harry obeyed, tears rolling down his own face. "Look at me, Harry," the old potions teacher gasped, and the boy turned to meet his gaze. Snape let a weak smile fall from his lips. "You have your mother's eyes."
The darkness was unyielding, and Severus found it oddly inviting. Death held out his hand, and the man took it carefully, weary from a lifetime off love and lies. He fell, peacefully, into the blackness, the only sound his regular breaths, quieting until he death wrapped its arms around him and lifted him away.
