The Bitter End

by lionesseyes13

Colin Creevey, Nymphadora Tonks, Mandy Brocklehurst, and Severus Snape all remained loyal to their Houses until their deaths, and all of their deaths serve to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses inherent in their respective Houses.

4. Chapter 4

Or perhaps in Slytherin,

Where you'll make real friends.

Those cunning folk use any means

to achieve their ends.

Sorting Hat, Book 1

Enslaved to No One

As I gaze into the piercing green eyes that look so much like Lily's that I can pretend for my own peace of mind that they are indeed hers, I know that Lily would be proud of me. She would be proud of me not because I embodied the bravery of a Gryffindor, but the cunning and the determination of a Slytherin.

I am the spy who might make it possible for Potter to defeat the Dark Lord once and for all. That knowledge makes me fiercely proud, since I realize quite clearly that nobody could have performed as well as I did. After all, no one is more qualified than a serpent to slink around unnoticed, biting foes in the heel. Moreover, nobody but a snake could infiltrate a serpent's lair.

Nobody could have done a better job than I did, and I, Severus Snape, will die enslaved to no one, because Slytherins are much too ambitious and too prideful to die in chains.