A Choice

[dh2_sockpuppet]

Title: A Choice
Characters and/or pairings: Severus Snape
Word count: 1,454
Rating: PG-13
Highlight for Warnings: *Canon character death*
Summary and/or prompt: Snape’s thoughts as he looks at Harry for the final time.

Comments

[secretsolitaire]

Very powerful, and very true to Snape's character.

[rotaryphones]

Thank you!

[hogwartshoney]

*blinks*

Woah. This is... excellent! Wow... that one hit hard, and this bit especially

This is the last room he will ever be in. The last conversation he will ever have. The last face he will ever see.

is incredibly real for him to think. *not explaining this well*

I really like Snape's voice in this and the entire story is full of depth - all these things we'd never think of, the young DE ... his wanting the DADA position, his still clinging to Albus like a child....

and he was still afraid of being cast aside. <-- that one made my chest hurt!!!

[rotaryphones]

I was nervous about that death scene since, you know, it's not something I've ever experienced myself. So I'm glad that part worked for you.

And I thought that the movie really brought home how much Snape depended emotionally on Albus (thanks to some superb acting). It was fascinating to watch.

Thank you so much for reading!

[hogwartshoney]

it's not something I've ever experienced myself

Yeah, well I've been close, and for me reading it, his moment of realization is pretty spot on.

Every situation is of course different, and a person's level of awareness in the moment is really the key.

I had a skydiving accident, oh.... 21 years ago or so, and as I was about to auger into the ground, I thought to myself (and had the words come across my mind's eye in letters 10' tall)... "This is it. This is what death looks like." and that was all... very matter-of-fact, no panic, fear, nothing, just a statement of fact. Weird.

[rotaryphones]

Oh my god, that's an incredible story. How terrifying. And also fascinating, how the brain processes something that's almost too large to process. Anyway, I'm glad you're okay, and thanks for sharing!

[therealsnape]

Very well-written, and it addresses so many things. The constant demands for the DADA position. The false memories (or at least things he couldn't have seen) in the pensieve.

And that last line, of course.

Great job.

[rotaryphones]

Thank you! There were a lot of little things that I enjoyed the chance to explain and (and fix) with this fic. I'm glad they worked for you!

[woldy]

Nice explanation of the implausible memory they inserted into the film, and I like that Severus isn't self-sacrificing here. I can easily imagine him making the decision to follow Dumbledore's orders, and how angry he must be upon realising that Dumbles intended Harry to die. Great ficlet!

[rotaryphones]

It's funny, because the scene where Snape finds out that Harry will die is the one that really piqued my interest about his character, even though I didn't end up addressing it directly in this fic. It just made me wonder why he continued to follow Dumbledore's plans to the end, and I don't think it's because he wanted to save the world. Thanks for reading!

[talesofsnape]

The lovely kellychambliss recommended this at one_bad_man, and so I came along. I'm so glad that I did. You turn what seemed in the book like some sort of unmasking into a chance for Severus to be true to the character we (if not JKR) knew and loved throughout the entire series of books. Thank you.

[rotaryphones]

Aw, I'm flattered to have been recced! I definitely used this as an opportunity to make sense of Snape's character, given the somewhat contradictory information we're given. Thanks for reading!