A/N: The second half of "Perfect."


Whomever says that darkness is its own reward clearly understood the nature of evil. For that is – was – the creature I served, and it was by that creature I was killed.

There were so many things I could have changed, and yet, when I reflect, with the infinite time that I can now reflect with, I cannot see any other outcome. I was always the greasy Potions professor; I was always the servant of the Dark Lord; I was always the antagonist to the Golden Boy of Gryffindor House. I accept that. I acknowledge it. I lived with and in that knowledge for twenty years.

But now, in the clarity of death, I see someone else in the dark eyes and black hair. I see a man who loved and lost, who made mistakes and tried to amend them in his own way. Without pity for myself I observe my care for Lily's son, and with some astonishment I realize that there were times I nearly risked my own life to save his. I see a professor who gained the respect of his colleagues, and a spy who worked for years without being recognized, and I see the love of a mentor by whose word I killed and by whose command I would have gladly died.

And in the last moments of my life, I saw compassion that I never imagined I would see again. In that moment, I was no longer Severus Snape. I was a dying man, who with his last breath asked to see the eyes of the one who would save us all, and I was given that gift and the knowledge that perhaps I would be redeemed.

For the first and only and last time in my life, I became something I never thought I would be, to the eyes of the one boy I had despised and loved as I never had before.

Because, in that last glimpse of the mortal world, I became perfect.