House: Ravenclaw
Word Count: 626
Category: Short
Prompt(s): [Word] Tattoo
Little bit of what COULD have happened after he got the tattoo.
That damn tattoo was the root of all evil, or so he was convinced. It had ripped the last shreds of her away from him, made them just vanish, like dust scattering into the wind. He wished he could blame all of it on the tattoo, but he couldn't. He was also to blame for all of it. After all, it had been he who had started all of it, he who had made the first, terrible gash in their friendship. But he had always been able to fix things, always. Hadn't he?
So why couldn't this turn out the same? Why did this time have to be any different?
Maybe it was the universe trying to teach him a lesson, trying to tell him it wouldn't last forever. If you wanted something you had to work to obtain it, and then work even harder to maintain it. As much as he would love to blame all of this on his tormenter, he knew that he couldn't.
It was his own fault. It was his mind that wasn't deemed the same as hers, his choice in friends that had made her uncomfortable. If he had just stuck with her, if he had just ignored the group of people who had drawn him in with their power, maybe he wouldn't be here today.
He wouldn't be here lying on his bedroom floor, staring up at the tattoo that tarnished his pale forearm.
It was his interesting in the dark arts that had driven her even further away from him, his tendency to meddle with things that he just knew shouldn't.
It was his friends who were a bad influence on him, each of them choosing to get the very same tattoo that tormented him to this very day. The tattoo that looked like a skull and a snake at the same time. It was his friends influence and use of words causing him to use one on her. He had called her that word, the one he was never supposed to say. It wasn't anyone else's fault but his own.
Well his, and that vile tattoo. 'The Dark Mark'. It was him who had chosen to join Lord Voldemort early. He was still in Hogwarts for Merlin's sake, he hadn't even graduated. And he realized that he could never be like her, not in a million years could he ever be like her.
With her vibrant smiles that could light up a room, and eyes that practically glowed. Her compassion that was even more noticeable than the bright red hair she had, even more noticeable than her gem-like green orbs. He could never be like her; she was the girl who had been placed into Gryffindor - she had a promising future ahead of her.
She was nothing like him. He was dark, and unwelcoming. He picked friends that would make fun of her, even if he didn't mean to. But he couldn't get rid of them now, it was far too late for that. They would make his life hell, he was sure of that, and they were protecting him in a way, no one dared to cross them. He was a Slytherin through and through, and he was sure that his future without her would be dull and lifeless.
Yes, they used to be friends. But he had ruined his chances, pushed her into the arms of his tormentor, his enemy. His actions screaming, take her. I don't need her. But he did, oh how he needed her.
Severus Snape needed Lily Evans. She was the light, and he was the dark, and she helped him obtain balance. She was his balance. And no matter what anyone said he would always need her.
Always and Forever.