Hi,
I find it difficult to believe that Snape has departed from JKR's world with his actions in HBP. I have my fingers crossed that he hasn't simply vanished or worse, become the traitor that Harry thinks. I hope there is a reason for his actions, and I can justify them in my own mind, as many of you who love the Potions Master must also be doing... This is just my take on what could happen next if it was to be simple...
This is going to be short, probably one more chapter, maybe two. Just depends. Hopefully I will finish it in the next couple of days. Not sure.
Please read and review if you wish.
I have made some adjustments to make the third paragraph clearer in relation to which he is which, but that is the only change from my original posting.
Thanks for reading and reviewing.
Frogfoot24.
Snape sat looking at the empty fire. He was cold, freezing cold, but he didn't dare light it. Of course, his home would be the first place they would look for him, and because he knew that, and they knew he knew that, it would be the last place they would look for him. They would, of course ultimately look for him there, but he didn't want to give himself away, not too soon, not until he had had a chance to truly consider the ramification of what he had just done.
He had, he knew, condemned himself. To death or worse. Either of his masters would meter out punishment for his actions. Voldemort would kill him without giving the action a second though. Oh, yes, he had killed Dumbledore, the only wizard his dark master had ever feared, but he had done so against his master's orders. Dumbledore was to be Draco's blooding, the first of many that the young man would kill to prove himself to his father's master. Only the boy couldn't do it, hadn't been able to when the time came, as he himself had always known he wouldn't be able to. As for the ministry… That didn't bear thinking about. Dumbledore had vouched for him, trusted him, believed in him; now he was dead at his hand, and that was something the Ministry would never forgive. An army of Aurors would come for him eventually, and they could have him. Just not quite yet.
And it had all been at the old man's orders. Dumbledore had known all along, what it would mean to attempt to recover that damned Horcrux – he knew it would end in death, and it had, just as he had expected, just as he had planned. And he had begged Snape to finish him off, when the job was done; when they returned; when nothing could be done to save him. Snape had resisted, right to the end, but watching the old man dying, slowly, life being sapped like a toppled old tree, he had known of no other option. Dumbledore deserved a better death than that slow spiral beyond the veil, and his quiet words had been the end of Snape's resistance "Severus, please…" It would echo through his mind for as long as he lived. Dumbledore had been the first to trust him, the first to forgive him, and he had repaid that by killing him and signing his own death warrant. Dumbledore had managed another first too – he had been the first he had killed since his return to the light. Not that it would matter.
There was no one left now, who would understand how hard it had been for him to cast the final blow to his saviour, if there ever had been. So he bowed his head, broken and defeated by a lifetime of fighting against the results of his foolish choices. If he had only known the truth, if he had only had the tools as a child that the man had learned simply to survive, he would never have turned to the darkness to hide his humiliation at the hands of those golden haired boys of his youth. It all seemed to be such a waste. So many lost – innocent and guilty alike. It was such a waste, such a waste indeed.