Epilogue
Severus walks along the beach with Lucius and finally knows what happiness feels like. It feels like warm sand under your toes and robes blowing gently around your ankles, like the wind on your face and slender fingers entwined in your own. As the sun sets and the air grows cold, Lucius wraps his arm around Severus shoulders and he leans into him, savouring the feeling of human contact.
"Mr Snape?" The voice pervades his subconscious, reaching his ears like an echo. He hears curtains being drawn back and sunlight pierces his eyelids, making him throw an arm over his eyes. He blinks several times before half-opening them, allowing his pupils to adjust to the light.
"Mr Snape? It's time for your medication." The nurse hands Severus a small paper cup filled with half a dozen brightly coloured pills, which he eyes suspiciously before, once again, asking what they do. He patiently replies that they are for his own good. As Severus swallows the pills he feels himself floating further and further away from his mind, losing all coherent thought. He quietly thanks the nurse, who then leaves the room, locking the heavy steel door behind him and disappearing down the corridor of D-wing, Bramble Close Mental Institution, where therapy is a useless formality and screams resound through the building every hour of the day and night.
Nobody here will ever see the outside world again.
Severus turns from the barred widow onto his back, his hands behind his head. He stares up at the wall; and Lucius Malfoy stares back. From every angle the pictures looked down on Severus; still, moving, colour, sepia, full length portraits, passport photos. There are images of Lucius at all different stages of his life, all different moods, all different ages. Blond hair spills over his shoulders and blue eyes stab into Severus' black ones. The only reason he is allowed to keep his shrine is that he is never getting out. He isn't going to be cured.
Severus sighs contentedly and lies staring at the ceiling, listening to the whirring nothingness inside his ruined mind.