-1Malfoy and Snape's Story: The Truth
When he'd asked it, he hadn't expected an answer.
"No?" he echoed dumbly.
"No," Snape repeated firmly, his obsidian eyes reflecting the fire beneath the cauldron he tended. His voice suddenly melted back into the cutting, silky tones Malfoy remembered from school, from Before. 'Before' was always capitalized in his mind, like War, like Duty.
"Was that not what you wanted to hear?"
"Was it the truth?"
"Yes."
"Then no, I don't suppose it was."
The rusty sound of Severus Snape's laughter was not what Malfoy had expected the end of the world to sound like, but it would do.