Title: All Over Again
Summary: Sometimes in autumn; it happens all over again.
Fandom: Harry Potter
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling
Sometimes in autumn; it happens all over again. He'd remember how it began and how it started to end. He remembered faces, of those he loved and hated.
Severus remembers.
He would walk slowly as if the rapid pace of the lives around him wasn't there, and yet they notice him. But they leave him in peace, for he isn't there at all. He was back to those many years ago; beneath the falling leaves that dances with the wind.
It's just that time of the year, they'd say, and he would not hear them.
The branches from trees would crash beside him and the leaves would crackle under his feet and he would remember how they began to end. How they began to end.
He was lonely now, and yet he too was lonely then. She was his one and only, but he was not hers. At first it was only that preposterous sister of hers; and firsts became many and like how he was her first wizard friend; he did not became her best one. They came and went, she came and stayed, but he never went away from her life; he was just shut out of it.
Then mostly, along came James; who he despised. Because he knew Lily would never be his alone. He was right.
But it all ended long before she told him to go away, it ended by the crackle of the branch and an accusation he denied. He ended it.
Yet he was still there; pretending that with closed eyes she was there.
Severus would hear autumn birds, falling leaves and the snapping branches; he hated the sound. It was the sound of a beginning; of sadness and the slow motion of darkness. It was the beginning of an end.
And then he would remember; and walk away, returning from his downfall. He would still smile when he remembered her, but smiles fade away. Of those many years ago, it was painted onto his regret.
And sometimes in autumn, it would start all over again.
A/N: Probably knows what I meant by the crackling of branches, it's the branch falling on Petunia. I know it probably wasn't during autumn but it corresponded with the falling branches.