AN: This is a series of unconnected drabbles/one-shots focusing on the different characters that made the Harry Potter series so memorable. The one-shots are written in no particular order and will explore different pairings and characters. My inspiration is a list of prompts I found somewhere on the Internet.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series or any other licensed trademarks. I make no profit from my stories.
Characters: Draco Malfoy, Severus Snape (not a romantic pairing)
Prompt: Never Look Back
Setting: End of Year Six as they flee Hogwarts
Irrevocable
On that night, they run, knowing they can never return, knowing that what they've done is irrevocable, knowing that no one will ever forgive them, knowing that the world as they know it has been turned upside down. They leave the grounds in a flurry of billowing black cloaks vanishing into the dark night. They fade into the darkness, almost as if they were never there, the only signs of their presence the chaos they left behind.
The elder, the one with dark hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin, tries his damndest to forgot how he ended up on this path doing the hard things, the things he'd really rather not do. He tries to forget that he was once young and stupid, enamored by a beautiful fiery redhead so far out of his reach. He tries to forget vivid green eyes mirrored in her son whom he hates and a beautiful tinkling laugh that used to soar above the din of a crowd like beautiful strains of music. He pretends to forget all these things because they're gone. They don't really matter anymore. They're gone and never coming back.
The younger, the one with cool grey eyes that look panicked for probably the first time in his life, tousled blond hair that looks soft as silk, and the grace of an aristocrat, keeps going following his mentor into the dark June night. He follows without a word, without question, lost in a myriad of swirling thoughts, knowing that he's failed monumentally and awaits him can only be torture. He knows how he ended up on this path. It was the only one open to him, and so, knowing he has no other choice, he looks back on the grounds of the castle and to him, knowing he will never return, it looks more beautiful than ever under the cloak of black night and the twinkling of the stars.