The silence of the beaten-down hung over Cokeworth like a rancid odour, clinging to every brick and spewing out with the smoke from every chimney. Inescapable and insidious, no one could visit the town and leave untarnished. Not even Severus, who knew what to expect of this hellscape.
The sense of bleak despair hit him in the gut as he trudged along the achingly familiar street. No cars lined the road; the people around here were too poor to afford them. Instead, he had an uninterrupted view of tall brick fences and, behind them, terraced houses that were so bland and uniform that when he slept at night, his mind could replicate every last mud-brown brick.
Few people got out, and fewer still stayed that way. Perhaps he should have known he wouldn't be one of them. Even with all his magic and his potions and his clever words, the stench of this place had sunk too deep under his skin.
Not like Lily. Born into the comparatively good side of town, she'd never been infested by this place like he had. Then again, even if their situations had been reversed, he had no doubt she would have made it out. She sparkled too brightly and lived too loudly to do otherwise.
That was why he'd always known deep down that he would never be the one to marry her. He'd hoped he was wrong. He'd cleaved himself to her like glue to show her just how loyal and smart and cunning he could be. He'd even thrown his lot in with the Dark Lord with the goal of making a name for himself and proving he was worth more than his Cokeworth upbringing. But all along, he'd feared it wouldn't be enough.
And that fear had turned out to be true.
Still, even in his worst nightmares, never had he thought she would marry Potter, or exclude Severus from her own wedding. If anyone deserved her less than Severus, it was that arrogant bully. For her to condemn Severus for his faults while overlooking Potter's… well, maybe she was just a stupid mudblood like Severus' friends claimed.
No, he didn't mean that. Foolish, maybe. Blinded, definitely. But she had never been and would never be the vermin the other Death Eaters saw her as.
Severus turned down the laneway that led to the park — /their/ park, as he'd come to think of it. It wasn't much, just towering trees and the swing where they first met and a small playground they'd created with magic one summer when nobody was around. While it didn't feel dirty the way most of Cokeworth did, it still wasn't exactly upkept.
And in a church a hundred miles away, Lily was preparing to exchange vows with the worst person on the planet. It probably looked like a page from a bloody fairy tale. Her dress would be lacy white as a nod to her Muggle heritage, and she would be surrounded by dozens of flowers in full bloom. Birds would sing as she walked down the aisle and the sun would be shining and everyone would smile.
Everyone except him.