Hogwarts House Challenges
Drabble Club, Slytherin House.
Prompt: Let it not be said that he was a coward.
People ask why Severus Snape is so bitter.
Perhaps it is the fact that he had an unhappy childhood and abusive father, those who knew him say.
Maybe it's because he was a Death Eater, others say.
Only three people know the real reason, but they are all dead.
Who's ready to visit the Next World and meet them all?
We start with interviewing Lily Potter, his best friend.
"Well, we were pretty good friends until he became a Death Eater in sixth year," she said. "But we had a fight too, which I think is what made him go to the Dark side."
We ask what the fight is about.
"Well," she begins, "It was really him who started it. James, my idiot, was taunting him and he'd turned Sev upside-down and was going to take off his pants, but then I intervened and Sev was all mad, like he'd wanted it to happen. He told me that he didn't need my help, because I was a m-mudblood- sorry, I still can't say that word easily- and I got really confused, because I'd always helped him. Even with his cut and bruises from his damned father, I'd always helped and I'd defended him in front of my sister Petunia. She hated all wizards, had always wanted to just be normal. Anyway, Sev had just told me he didn't need my help, so I ignored him but I was really mad. I told James that I'd go out with him if he put Sev down and so Sev got mad and then later he apologized and threatened to sleep outside Gryffindor if I didn't come out. So I did and we just parted badly again."
She pauses for breath.
"Severus was in love with me, and I him, but I never realized it."
She cries, and we thank her politely for her time while James Potter consoles her. Later we ask him for an interview and he says, "No thanks, I'd not like to talk about him just now."
So we go find Professor Dumbledore.
"Would you like a lemon drop?" he asks with that twinkle in his eyes. How does he even get those in the afterlife?
We politely decline.
"Very well," he says. "About Severus, you say? Well…"
From his vagueness we glean that Severus was a man with lots of secrets and right now he was not able to disclose anything more, which means that either he doesn't know or won't tell.
"Let it not be said that he was a coward," Dumbledore says.
And that is all he tells us.
Finally, we move on to the third person who knew Severus Snape the best, and he gives us a sour look as we sit . He seems to be wondering if he should tell us or not, because now Severus is dead, so surely it won't hurt him, right?
He deems it not to be so, and shoos us away.
But we go with a smile, because we knew this would happen. After all, who knows Severus Snape better than Severus Snape?