[TM] Take someone out.
“Severus…”
The world is silent. Only Albus speaks. He’s aware of the hungry eyes and eager wands of what will happen if he hesitates; the Carrow with their sight unseeing, Bellatrix’s mindless cruelty and Fenrir’s lust. He could let them have Albus. For a moment he’s tempted to, watch as they tear apart the man and Severus’ll beg that they take the memory away from him; from where Albus and this school has been carved into his heart.
What does he care for the desperations of a dying man and distraught mother? How many has he killed, or let die? How many has he walked away from? How many did he love and still let die? What does he care for Albus Dumbledore, Narcissa Malfoy or her son?
“Please.”
He acts before he can think anymore. The words spill like a hundred lies he’s said and in that moment, he means them all. He’s a Death Eater in all his glory. Fearsome and unrepentant. He doesn’t even pause to watch the body as it falls.
But he grabs the boy by the collar, and throws him into a retreat. He was out of the equation for a moment. This life- and it’s fleeting worth was his- not Draco’s, for a second more, or a day, it wasn’t Draco’s.
Severus didn’t matter anymore. He was gone, fallen with the man he killed, and he knows, better then most, the life he never wanted but owned and loved was gone too. He’ll keep living but only in function.
He’ll die soon. He knows that without knowing why; he’ll still wake up each morning to find the sun has risen, and he’ll eat when he’s hungry, sleep when his mind is scattered, and then perhaps collapse when everything else comes to bear on shoulders that were never meant to hold a burden. He’ll be alive but everything in him will be gone.
But that won’t touch Draco, for a moment longer, and Severus knows that a handful of moments are all he has left.
Severus Snape
Harry Potter
387
OOC: Come on, I really had too.