PG-13 Methos takes a young Severus Snape under his wing.

Disclaimer: I own none of these characters.

Death & Betrayal

by MarbleGlove

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Severus prowled the battle field.

He held his wand in one hand and a dagger in the other. He was tense, despite the fact that the battle was over. The war was over.

Harry Potter had triumphed over Voldemort in a suitably spectacular manner. Given all the buildup to this one duel, you would have thought the actual event would have been rather anti-climatic, or at least he, Severus, had thought as much. But no, the great boy-who-lived, garnered even more fame for himself with the spectacular light show he put on while killing the dark lord. Severus sneered at the various bodies laying around. Unfortunately they were already dead, and so he couldn't kill them.

He thought about kicking them but there were already photographers on the scene. Most of them were crowded around Potter though.

He would never like Potter, but he had come to accept him as a fact of life. Adam had helped him with that, as with so many other things.

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He had been pacing in Adam's library (keeping a wary eye out for any of the Monster Books) and ranting about Harry bloody Potter.

Adam had listened to him from his seat, sprawled in an armchair. Finally, as Severus had begun to run down, he had said, "Harry Potter is a prophesied champion."

Severus had glared at him, but waited silently for further explanation.

Adam continued in a casual drawl, as if he didn't care about what he was saying. "There are two ways to think about prophesies about people. One is that the person in question is an important leverage point on which fate acts. Thus people like Harry Potter will draw attention, both good and bad, and will have rather amazing amounts of luck, again both good and bad. This is the standard explanation offered by divination experts."

Severus nodded his understanding. You had to be particularly attentive to what was said, when Adam spoke in such a dismissive manner.

Adam continued. "However, there is another interpretation, that has less to do with fate and more to do with personalities. I have a friend who was the focus of a prophesy." Despite his casual tone, Adam's eyes were dark with emotions that Severus could not interpret.

"His friendship is difficult to maintain. Mac is judgmental and arbitrary. He makes strict moral demands of his friends, his enemies, and his self. Any failure to live up to those demands is punishable. I despise him for his blindness to all the ambiguities that fill life up, but I also love him for it. His is such a simple world. Sometimes I am jealous of it, even as I sneer."

"And he is your friend? He sounds worse than Potter, if that's possible."

Adam smiled wryly. "It's quite possible. But I digress. No one is sure what exactly a prophesy is, or where it comes from. But what if it is merely a seer looking into the future and seeing something that is a logically necessity. I can say, 'the sun will rise tomorrow.' Is that not a true prophesy? What if all prophesies are as simple as that, at least to the seer. A prophet looks into the future and sees a person who is so predictable as a person that their actions are as predictable as the rising of the sun?" Adam closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the cushions of the chair. He seemed only half awake.

"Who Harry Potter is, is the sort of person who will come into conflict with Voldemort. And who he is, is the sort of person who will continue to fight Voldemort until either he is dead or he is triumphant. Just as Voldemort is the kind of person who cannot allow an intended victim to survive. They will strive against each other until the very end, not because of a prophesy, but because of who they are. The prophesy did not create the conflict, but merely reported it. If only they were different, the fight would be different, but they are who they are.

"They are the type of people that you can not change, and that you and I will never be. We can only hope to never come into direct conflict with someone like that because they will not give ground."

There were still shadows in Adams eyes when he smirked at Severus. "The only thing to do with such a person is to help him on his way towards whatever conflict is his, and possibly put a few of your own enemies in his path."

Severus had snorted with amusement, but had thought long and hard about that conversation. He wasn't sure that he believed the second analysis, but he did begin to change the way he acted around Potter. Whenever possible, he ignored the boy rather than criticize, and he no longer argued against the boys central role in the battle plans being developed.

Whether it was destined or not, Adam had been right that people were who they were and should be treated as such. There was no point in Severus wasting himself on a pointless struggle to change Potter.

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Thinking back on this conversation and his subsequent thoughts, he realized that there was little point in trying to change Adam either. Adam would act as he would act and should not be blamed for being who he was.

Severus forgave Adam for his absence.

The anger at Adam's absence surprised him more than his forgiveness of it, though others might be more surprised at Severus forgiving anyone than being angry. But Severus knew there was no reason for him to be angry. Adam had never promised to be there. He had never even implied that he would be there. He had let it be known that he would not partake in the final battle. But still Severus had expected him. He had expected those denials to be a ruse.

As the weeks passed, and the time drew nearer, and as the hours passed and the time drew nearer, and as the battle commenced, and as it finished, Severus kept an eye out for his mentor to appear. But Adam was never there.

How could a man who had been Death, who kept a collection of wands from wizards he had killed, and who helped the Order develop their battle plans, not help them to implement those plans? Aside from Dumbledore, none of the members of the Order of the Phoenix had been in a pitched battle before. They had researched and known intellectually what was going to happen, but none of them had the experience that Dumbledore had, or that Adam must have.

But Adam would not talk about it. And he had not appeared for the final battle.

It was only after the battle had been fought and won, that Severus tried to slow his breathing, and calm his pulse, and thought he understood why Adam had not come. The battle had been vicious and all of Severus' intense concentration had been bent on identifying the people racing around as either ally or enemy and killing the enemies. It had been an intense adrenaline high. For a time it had been as wonderful as flying.

Death had rode for centuries, and Severus was now sure that Adam had taken delight in his killings. He had not only killed with experience and expertise, but with passion and joy. The greatest of masters all loved their subjects. Adam was a master of killing.

Adam would have enjoyed the battle too much. It would have awoken something best left sleeping. As a Hogwarts professor and alum, Severus castigated himself, he should have known better. Was not their very motto a warning? Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus. Don't tickle a sleeping dragon.

We are who we are, and that must be taken into account in any battle plan just as the terrain and the weather. Not just skill, but personality is a vital feature of any plan.

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The final battle had started shortly after daybreak. Adam had not been amongst those at Hogwarts waiting the night through for the light that would allow them to more easily kill their targets. Nor had he been waiting at the battle ground.

Despite the letter that had told him that he would not be taking part, Severus had half expected Adam to appear with some magic or muggle device. He realized that he was upset at this loss even though it wasn't a loss, because it was nothing that he'd ever had. For once, he didn't feel bitter, he merely felt unhappy. He didn't feel betrayed, simply disappointed. After that there were other things to think about.

The battle had been quick. It was over before noon. At the end, Severus just stood there still quivering with adrenaline and no standing targets remained. He was not the only one wandering around looking surprised, hoping to find someone to curse. It was a bit of a let down, he wasn't anywhere near to the limits of his energy. Almost every casualty had been on the Death Eater side.

The Aurors marched their prisoners away. A few Aurors stayed behind to sort through the unconscious survivors of the last battle to find any stunned Death Eaters to be taken away later. The medi-wizards were also sorting through the people remaining, dividing the living from the dead.

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It was really only at this point that Ron Weasley first pointed out how many of the Death Eaters had died with a certain kind of wound: one or more small holes. Sometimes the holes went all the way through the Death Eater, but sometimes there was only an entrance hole that contained a small piece of metal. Several of the Death Eaters had a single hole in their forehead. "What curse does that? It's nothing like I've seen before."

Severus was both tired and energized, an unpleasant combination that was a poor excuse, he felt, for not having noticed this before. The Weasley boy was right, it was not the result of any curse that Severus had seen before. However he had seen similar injuries. Nearly twenty years ago, when he had first met Adam, Adam had killed ten Death Eaters with a muggle device that left that exact type of marking.

He suddenly felt much better than he had. He felt warm and comforted. Adam had been here. However, surely it would be difficult for even Death himself, to go completely unseen while killing so many people in front of so many witnesses. It was something for him to figure out later. He hugged to himself the knowledge that Adam had come, that Adam cared for him. He said nothing aloud.

It was Hermione Granger, the know-it-all, who answered the unspoken question though. For once he was grateful for her seemingly endless need to educate those around her. She looked at the body that Ron Weasley was pointing to and said, "that's a gun shot wound, I think. A gun is a muggle device that throws a small metal object called a bullet with extremely fast speed. Their pretty illegal in Britain. And I didn't see anyone using a gun." She frowned with concentration and after a further moment of looking at the body, she looked up and around finally focused on the surrounding hills. "I'll bet there was a sniper."

"A sniper? Use real words, 'Mione."

"Sniper is a perfectly good English word, but it is muggle. It's a person with a gun who shoots from a distance. Guns can be made to be extremely accurate even miles away. Our sniper could have been practically anywhere on those hills. With a brown or gray cloak, they'd be practically invisible but would have a perfect view of the entire battle field. However it doesn't seem like something the Headmaster would think of. I mean, snipers have sort of a bad reputation. Killing from a distance and all that. They use surprise and generally try to avoid being seen at all. Not very honorable."

Severus smirked. No, the headmaster would not have approved. No, it was not very honorable. But it was safe and deadly.

Adam had been here after all. Severus' smirk turned into a real smile.

The war was over.

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A/N: So this took a bit longer to get out than I had planned because, lo and behold, I am employed. Finally. Yay!

This should be the second to last chapter. Of course I have been saying that to myself for three chapters now, but this time, I really do think I've excised the entirety of this plot-bunny. Admittedly, a sequel has already started scratching at the door, Life & Loyalty, but as of yet, it's not even firmly plotted out, so it may never happen.

In response to a review: in this universe, I think immortals are about as well known to wizards as they are to muggles. Ie. Some few people know, but it's not publicized. On a rare occasion that an immortal is less than discreet within the wizarding world, he or she is frequently mislabeled as something else. (an idea: perhaps Nicholas Flamel was an immortal as was his wife and they pretended to have a philosophers stone to give them an excuse to hang around for centuries on end. Wouldn't it be funny if it turned out that the stone in Book 1, was in fact just a regular rock?)