Title: Better the Death Eater You Know
Author: Ravenaiya (aka samuraiheart)
Rating: G
Summary: Flitwick contemplates what happened that fateful night and what it means about Snape.
Disclaimer: I don't own them, but if I did...
Notes: Beware of SPOILERS for Half-Blood Prince.
Filius Flitwick would never be described by anyone as a coward. He is certain of that, but that is not for lack of trying.
The problem comes mostly from the fact that, when there is any danger about, people seem to have a habit of shielding him from it as if he were a child. Perhaps it's the height. It is easy to confuse stature with maturity sometimes, but he thought for sure that once his hair turned white that wouldn't be a problem anymore.
Flitwick had respected Severus as a fellow teacher, and also, as a fellow Head of House. He is angry over what Severus did to Albus, of course, but he can't quite muster the same degree of anger over what Severus did to him. It feels so much like a reprieve, like a blessing, like a gift, that he can't be angry about it at all.
Is it wrong to thank a man for not killing you? Perhaps not, when you have every reason to believe you might have died in the ensuing battle. Or at least been more gravely injured than a bump on the head.
There are degrees of evil, he guesses. Maybe Severus just didn't have it in him to take more than one life that evening, but Filius wants so much to believe that Dumbledore's death had a purpose, that he is willing to put aside a few flaws in logic and hope that Severus might have had more of a plan that night than any of them realizes.
And he thinks, sometimes, that if he were to ever meet Severus again, if he were ever given the opportunity to point a wand at that man and demand answers, he would ask him that question second, the one about Albus. His first question would be, why did you save me?