Once upon a time, Severus Snape's eyes were brown. Brown eyes that were full of life. Minerva didn't remember this fact until she saw Severus's memories. She pulled her head from the Pensieve. Her eyes shed silent tears as she digested the memories Harry had given her access to a few minutes ago.
She was so used to see his black cold eyes. Devoid of life. Devoid of the spark that held the wanting to live. The memory of the first time she had Severus, as a young Slytherin first year. Looking towards her in a desperate silent plea of help to save him from the increasing bullying he was receiving from her own house was burned into her mind.
She braced herself against the Pensieve. Watching the memories replay in the enchanted water. It was mere hours ago she wanted to kill him. Now she wanted nothing more than to see her friend. Pull him into a hug despite his insistent protest and sit down to a game of muggle chess. Which would probably end in them bickering over quidditch.
Voldemort was dead. Fifty people on the light side were dead. The castle was damaged. She looked up to the ceiling above her with a long tired sigh. Could she handle dealing with Severus's sarcasm right now?
She turned to look at Harry. He stared at her with haunted eyes, His body was battered and bruised but he was still alive.
"Harry...Where is Severus?"
Harry, who already looked like he wanted nothing more than to collapse and sleep for the next one hundred years, slumped and tears were springing up in his eyes. He opened his mouth to speak but couldn't seem to say anything. Minerva felt a sinking feeling of doom that she lost another important person in her life. She took a slow careful step towards her Gryfindor. Her throat tightened up at the news she didn't want to hear.
"Where is Severus, Harry?"
"Dead." Harry said. His voice was barely a whisper. Minerva forced herself to stifle a sob as more grief washed over her.
"H-How?" She tried to keep her voice steady.
"The boathouse. Voldemort thought he was the master of the elder wand so he cut his throat and made Nagini give the killing blows." Harry said. Wiping the tears with his sleeve. His fists clenched tightly. Minerva didn't have time to process and ask herself why Harry was angry about the Potions master's death. She exited the office quickly. Moving through the school and her grounds as if on autopilot. Barely realizing that Harry was following her.
She reached the boathouse without incident. She paused at the doorway. The musty smell of fire, death, and stale lake air was overwhelming her senses. She didn't want to believe he was dead. She prayed to Merlin, despite knowing it wouldn't make any difference, that Severus was simply knocked out. Sleeping. Whatever.
Her eyes met Harry's green eyes. Filled with grief and guilt.
"Stay here. I need...I need to see this. Alone."
Harry nodded. Taking a step back to provide her space. She pushed open the dirty glass door to look inside the dark boathouse. She walked down the long rectangle room as her eyes adjusted to the darkness surrounding her. She saw quickly recognized Fawkes.
She yanked out her wand and did a short wave. Not believing she was staring at Fawkes, who was staring at something against the back wall of the boathouse.
"Lumos."
The area was dimly lit. Allowing her to see what Fawkes was actually doing.
Fawkes was leaning over Severus's body. His tears falling on Severus's throat where his throat was cut with one precise cut and six bite marks from a venomous snake on the side. Minerva forced herself to looked at Severus's face. He didn't look scared or surprised. He didn't even look angry. But his eyes. His eyes were half-open. Allowing her to see the black dead eyes of her former student.
His eyes didn't look any different than when he was alive for the past ten years. Minerva stepped closer. Not failing to notice the dried blood that pooled on the ground beneath him. His blood-soaked skin and clothes. Fawkes pulled back. Waiting and watching for Severus to wake up and say something. Anything.
The dead eyes kept looking at her.
Minerva, with a shaky hand, pressed on her fingers against the uninjured side of his throat for a sign of a heartbeat. His skin was cold. There wasn't a thudding of hope. A sign of life. He wasn't breathing. He didn't blink. There was no sarcastic comment to make her infuriated. There was no taunting to prove his house was superior.
Tears poured down her cheeks. Fawkes must have realized it wouldn't have worked as he started to sing the Phoenix Lament. The same chilling song he sang in Albus's death. Minerva sobbed and grabbed Severus's cloak. Shaking his body briefly. Pulling her best glare she used to intimidate students, which she found still worked on Severus even during his teaching days, as a fruitless effort to scare him back to death.
"Damn you, Severus! Severus, get the hell up! Severus, wake up!" She pleaded.
The dead black eyes stared back at her. The young brown eyes of Severus in his first year flashed in her mind again. The brown eyes he had before he started occlumency. Before he used the skill to shut away his feeling, personality, thoughts, and most importantly memories. The more he put up walls in his mind. The darker his eyes got over the years.
"Severus..." Her voice cracked. Fawkes continued to sing. Fawkes must have known what they were planning. Fawkes valued loyalty. Severus was loyal to the end. Severus was even loyal to a dead man. She pulled him against her body. Wanting to find any sign of life as she cried harder. Not just for Severus now. But for all the grief she had pushed down over the past year, over the past few months, over the past hours.
Even a Phenoix can't save a dead man.
Minerva cradled his head before pulling him into an awkward hug. Her body still shaking in grief. Fawkes finished his song. Instead of flying away, he stayed. He stayed. He stayed when Albus died. He watched over the school in secret, using invisibility without anyone but Severus's knowledge. He will stay to look after the school and her students. The school his best friend cared for. The school his spy, a man Albus considered his own child, tried to save in the last year of his life. The school Albus's best friend wouldn't let fall to ruin. Even if it killed her.
So Fawkes stayed as Minerva let go of Severus, gently closing his eyes. Holding her wand tightly as she wiped her tear and canceled the Lumos spell. The room filled with darkness again when Minerva levitated the spy's body in the air and left the room. The room that still had the pool of blood spread across the floor.
Fawkes flew beside Minerva as she guided Severus and herself into the open. Harry didn't say a word as he followed the new headmistress of Hogwarts and the hated Potions Master towards the broken castle.
Minerva was silent as she reflected on the Slytherin boy with brown eyes as they marched back to the aftermath of war.
-The End-
