Severus turned his face to look for his boyfriend, they were both at a party at work but it was getting late and it was time to go home. Instead of a pair of beautiful gray eyes he found some piercing green eyes that kept staring at him, making him feel uncomfortable. The owner of those eyes approached the younger man with a somewhat frightening smile, at least for Severus.
"Sev, how are you doing? It's a good party, isn't it?" asked the man named Tom Riddle, a rather attractive but sinister green-eyed man who was Severus' superior at his work place. He had a glass of wine in his hand and looked quite elegant. Severus smiled forcibly trying to be friendly but at the same time thinking of the best way to cut the conversation short without sounding to harsh.
"Yes, everything is perfect but in fact I feel a little tired, I'm just looking for my boyfriend to leave" commented Severus seeing the grimace of disgust that Tom made at the mention of Sirius. "If I were your boyfriend I wouldn't leave you alone for a minute, you are so beautiful that someone could try to steal you." Tom commented with a seductive tone bringing his body closer to Severus.
The lad, feeling instant discomfort took a step away pretending to approach the table for a drink. "Emm yes of course, w-well I must go now it was a pleasure to see you Tom have a good night" without waiting for an answer Severus started walking away trying to make distance while looking for Sirius, for his relief it didn't take long to find him joking and laughing with his group of friends.
Severus didn't particularly like them but he didn't hate them either, they just seemed a little heavy, although to be honest he hadn't gotten along with Sirius at first either, it had taken a couple of years to learn to tolerate him and the courtship of his best friend Lily Evans with Sirius best friend James Potter to force them to be able to be together outside of work without killing each other, which caused them to get to know each other a little better and eventually they had ended up falling in love after seeing the things they had in common and how only they understood each other.
Severus smiled as he remembered how Sirius had fought with his father after seeing the bruises he had caused him before one of their dates. That same day Sirius had confessed his own difficult childhood with his neurotic mother and the two had spent the night together in tears and comfortable silences. Shortly after, Sirius had offered him to live with him, and that was the beginning of their relationship. "Hello handsome" murmured Severus near Sirius' ear causing him to be startled as he didn't see him coming.
"Sev don't scare me! I almost threw my drink away" said Sirius with a smile. Severus rolled his eyes and then smiled. "I think we should go now, it's getting late." Sirius took his cell phone out of his pocket and saw the clock on the screen. "Wow, it's true that time flies when you are having a good time. Everyone started saying goodbye and then going home, that weekend was the last quiet time they had together, as the days went by things started to get tense at work. Riddle had tried to make Sirius work twice as hard leaving him too tired to do anything with Severus and had started to harass him more.
Severus noticed Sirius' growing irritation and the anonymous gifts he had been receiving only made the situation worse, Severus swore to him that he didn't know what was going on even though he had told him before about the supervisor's strange attitudes towards him, Sirius had labeled it as favoritism and they ended up fighting over it. The last fight was three weeks after that party.
Severus arrived home later than usual since Riddle had made him finish some reports he was supposed to deliver the next day that he had "accidentally" forgotten to give him. When the raven-hair youth entered his house he noticed instantly that something strange had happened, the table was full of beer cans which was strange since neither he nor Sirius were drinking to the point of getting drunk because of the bad experiences he had had with his alcoholic father, Sirius was on the couch with a can in his hand and his eyes were red as if he had been crying.
"Love, Is everything ok?" asked Severus, to his surprise Sirius looked at him furiously before getting up abruptly and walking towards him. Sirius gave him a strong push that made him hit the wall and then shouted at him, "Okay? How the hell do you expect me to be okay with me being here worrying about you just to find out you were being fucked by that bastard?"
Severus was surprised by his partner's words: "What are you talking about? I was working" Sirius looked at him in pain and then smiled bitterly: "Yes, of course, but I know what kind of work you were doing Snape, stop pretending. Peter told me everything and now it all makes sense, why that idiot was trying to keep me busy while you were comfortably spreading your legs for him and making fun of me you fucking whore". - Ended up shouting the gray-eyed before hitting the wall behind Severus head making him flinch.
Severus was shocked by the blow but instantly changed his expression to one of annoyance "I don't understand what you are talking about, I told you that this man has been bothering me, I have nothing to hide and I have not deceived you in any way, it hurts me that you think I am capable of something like this". Sirius seemed to lose his resolve for a moment but almost instantly turned his expression to one of grimace and displeasure.
"Peter told me he saw you two kissing today and heard you agree to go to bed at a motel after work and how you would call me to make up that you had to stay and do work." Severus frowned as he tried to understand why Sirius' friend had said something like that, even though he didn't get along with the guy at all because he thought he was a bootlicker with their boss he had never do anything to him that would make him want to hurt him like that.
"Look, I don't know what Peter wins with inventing that but I swear Sirius I was working I was not with anyone today or any other day Sirius I love you I would not do that to you" plead severus trying to convince his boyfriend to believe him but to his surprise Sirius slapped him hard and then yelled at him "How dare you say you love me? It all matches, stop denying it and try to lie to my face. You are nothing more than a cheap whore, a fucking slut."
The black-eyed put his hand on his cheek and glared at the other "I will not allow you to insult me like that and much less to hurt me I've had enough of that for a life time, if you really think that about me and you are going to believe someone other than me, your boyfriend then I don't know what I am still doing here. " Sirius looked at him with hatred and replied "Well, then what are you waiting for? Get the hell out of here, I don't want to ever hear anything about, ever! You go with your lover I'm sure he will be happy to have you just for himself."
"You're a real idiot Sirius I can't believe you're doing this! We're fucking over and I hope that when you do realize the mistake you're making it won't be too late". Severus said before taking his stuff back out the door not minding how late it already was. Sirius punched the door and started kicking and breaking things around him, then he let out a frustrated scream and started crying. Between tears and sobs he fell asleep and knew no more. The next morning was the worst of his life and he never thought anything like that would happen.Sirius woke up with a terrible headache and a big hangover. He looked around and grunted with annoyance at the disaster he had caused, he sighed and decided to go eat something first so he could take some pills for his headache, he will worry about the mess later. Once he had made himself a couple of pieces of toast with marmalade, as he had no energy for anything else, he decided to check his phone to see what time it was and see if any of his friends wanted to go out with him to get some form of distraction.
He frowned when he saw several missed calls from his friends and family, including his brother with whom he hadn't spoken in weeks because he was in college studying. He unlocked his cell phone and found many very strange messages, some asking him where he was, if he was okay, if he needed help, if the news was true, among others. He was going to answer one of the messages when his cell phone began to ring showing the number of his best friend.
He answered the call but before he could say anything a sobbing sounded from the other end of the line "S-Sirius this is Lily... I w-wanted to know how you were... I-I know what happened with S-Severus. And-and I..." The line was filled with sobs again and Sirius felt his heart squeeze as he heard her crying in pain. Surely Severus had already told her that they had broken up, even though he thought it was an exaggeration to cry about something like that as couples separated all the time he appreciated her sympathy.
"I know it's hard but I'm sure it's for the best if he did what he did it must be because he didn't want me to be with him anymore and well, what can I do? It will be hard to see him at work on Monday but..." Sirius was interrupted by a drowned "What?" from Lily who was still crying on the other side of the line "Sirius y-you don't know what w-what happened?" asked the redhead.
At that moment Sirius was filled with a bad feeling and his heart began to race, he doubted for a moment but in the end decided he needed to know what was going on so with a panicked tone he asked. "Lily, what happened to Severus? He's okay, isn't he?"only silence meet his questions and his anxiety started to grow every second. "Come on Lils this isn't funny please just tell me already he is fine, you need to tell me he is fine."
A very strong cry was the only answer he got for a moment and he did not know how to react, he began to call the redhead but she did not stop crying this time with more force until a broken voice interrupted the loud wailing, this time a male was heard from the other side "Sirius, Severus ... th..-is ... he's ... he's dead. "
Sirius stopped breathing for a moment feeling his heart breaking and part of him dying at the sound of those words. "N-No, no, no...c-come on James really this isn't funny, you need to stop you're overdoing it." James sighed he hated being the one telling his best friend the terrible news "it's not a joke Sirius...I... I'm sorry" Sirius shocked his head in denial and mumbled "What are you saying?...T-That's not possible, it just can't be. He can't be dead, he...he just can't..." James also let out a muffled sob as his almost brother continued to listen to him in the background.
"S-...brother, it's true it's on the news... Severus was murdered." Those last words were all it took to break him completely. He felt his phone slip from his fingers, it fall on the table as he felt his body lose strength. James' voice called out to him and said something he couldn't understand, everything around him became dark and blurry, his eyes were completely fixed somewhere on the wall and time seemed to stand still.
He looked at the door hoping that it would open and Severus would come in and say that it was all a cruel joke but that didn't happen, nor would it, never again.
He didn't know how long it was until he was finally able to get out of the trance, got up and turned on the TV, he just felt a huge need to check that what he was told was true. He heard with terrible pain how they had found the half-naked body of a dark-haired young man who had been sexually abused, stabbed several times and then suffocated to death. He heard how they had found it because a neighbor had reported screaming near his house in the middle of the night and his body had been abandoned in an alleyway near where they lived.
He saw the images of the alley with a huge pool of blood and the body covered by a sheet being loaded into an ambulance and for a second he thought that maybe they had mistaken that maybe they had mistaken him and Severus was now safe somewhere but quickly this idea crumbled when they passed a picture of the victim's broken clothes and he recognized the black jeans with a dog print on the front pocket that he had given him as a gift and that he knew Severus had worn the day before.
The following days were confusing and difficult for Sirius, he had been questioned and asked for DNA samples to rule him out as a suspect, he had seen Severus' mother crying in the middle of the police station after he went to recognize her son's body screaming and asking for it to be brought back. Sirius could not help but feel the guilt flooding into his being, if only he had not thrown him out of his apartment, if only he had listened to him.
Every night that week he had gone to bed drowning in tears until exhaustion won out, and it wasn't until a week later that he found by luck a definite evidence on his phone. He was checking the messages he had received when he saw the notification of a message of Severus on his voice mail, he felt a pang of tearing pain on his chest and his lungs started constricting, short breath fight with each other to try to leave his body and with trembling hands he picked up the phone and dialed the number to listen to the message.
Seconds later Severus' voice filled the room as if he had never left. "Sirius I am very sorry about what happened, I don't understand why your friend would say those things but I am willing to confront him if necessary, I know what alcohol does and I understand that there were things that could have made you doubt but Siri we have two years together and I don't want to throw them away because of some gossip, if you are willing we can talk tomorrow, when you are sober, I will spend the night with Lily and keep my phone with me in case you decide we are worth one more chance."
There was a pause in the audio where he heard Severus sobbing and then with a broken voice full of tears he said "Sirius I love you, please believe me...I will quit that stupid job and we will fix everything please just give us a chance...I need you, If you still love me please don't leave me like this, you are all I have that keeps me from breaking, please...p-please I swear for my life I'm not lying..." Another cry was heard and then Severus murmured "Rest for now Sirius, you really are a fool but I still love you... and no matter what that won't change...so I'll leave you to it and I just hope you listen to this and reconsider...goodbye. "
A sigh was heard and Sirius thought that the message would end there but when he was going to press the hang up key a new voice was heard in the background calling Severus and asking what he was doing in that place at that time, after that the message was cut off but Sirius didn't need anything else to recognize that voice. He quickly ran to the police station to get them his phone.Sirius was standing in front of a grave with a bouquet of white roses, his favorites, several months had already passed and he still felt that emptiness in his heart. It had all happened so fast, as soon as he had taken the record and told what had happened with Peter and Tom Riddle the cops had started investigating them and it didn't take them long to get Peter to confess how Tom Riddle had planned everything to get Severus to break up with her boyfriend so he could have a chance with the boy.
Peter had stayed close by and had seen Severus leave the house in tears so he had warned Riddle. He told them then how Riddle was sickly obsessed with the younger male and had thought that by getting the boyfriend out of the way Severus would quickly accept him and his advances after everything he had already done for him but that had not happened, Severus had told him to leave him alone for good and they had argued when Riddle had tried to "convince" him to go home with him and Severus had refused.
He explained how everything had escalated from there with Riddle losing control and how he watched Severus reject him over and over again, all of a sudden Riddle had pulled a knife and subdued Severus to rape him while the youth was fighting and screaming, Frustrated and furious Riddle started stabbing him trying to make him shut up and then after he had gotten what he wanted he put his hands on his thin neck squeezing hard until the already weakened boy had stopped fighting for good, the black eyes lost their shine and staring at where Peter was hiding he let out his last breath.
Peter had been convicted of being an accomplice to the murder but unfortunately they hadn't been able to make Riddle pay as the coward had taken his own life by hanging himself in his apartment. Sirius hated that he couldn't get any form of revenge, or at least to see him pay for what he did in some way but he hoped that the bastard was burning in hell. After Severus' body had been released a burial had taken place, Sirius could not remember exactly what had happened because his pain had been to great and he had only managed to go like a barely functioning zombie.
Severus mother had yelled at him and beaten him up for not having prevented her son from dying while his father had spat at him saying that this had made him a faggot and that had been their punishment from god. Sirius hadn't even reacted to defend himself or to punch the father of his lost love but to the surprise of many it had been the usually quiet Remus who had hit the horrible man and taken his friend away from the couple.
Sirius had changed jobs without being able to bear the idea of returning to that place and had moved in with Remus since he couldn't stand one more day of coming home only to see the place without Severus, the memories where to much for him to handle knowing he was responsable too for the emptiness of what once had been his favorite place.
"Hi love, it's me again, I brought you your favorite flowers, you know, I still dream about you sometimes, you appear in front of our door and smile at me as always and I feel the happiest man because I am able to see you again in front of me...a-and I-I... Fuck!...I miss you so much and I don't even know what to do because you were what made me a better person, only you could erase my darkest side and make everything look possible and now that you're not here I feel like I'm drowning, like the part of me that I hate is going to win and I just want to go with you, all I want is for you to come get me, I need you with me Sev... I never meant to hurt you... nothing will be the same without you..."
Sirius sat down in front of the grave and laid his fingers on the name "You don't know how much I miss you, I always dream with you and I don't understand why you had to leave me, why this had to happen to us..." Tears started filling his eyes and soon they were falling. " P-Please forgive me my love...i-if I hadn't been such an idiot you would be with me right now... we would be celebrating your 23 years, you would be laughing and opening presents...not buried here."
Sirius dropped completely into the grave "I don't know what the hell to do anymore!" He screamed hitting the ground with his fist. "I think I lost my way without you and I don't know where to go... sometimes I wish it had been me and not you, I deserved it so much more than you ever could." Sirius felt himself crumbing and his body shaking with force, he knew he had to get on with his life, but...how could he do that with that part of him so dead and empty since he had lost the love of his life? Only time would tell.
