"Severus..." mumbled a pensive Dumbledore, his eyes transfixed on the bravest sepoy he'd raised, as Draco Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange looked on.
Severus didn't move. He didn't even blink an eye. He just watched and watched the old man, under whose commands, he'd lived much of his life for the past seventeen years.
"Please," the headmaster sounded more helpless this time, like the autumn leaf about to get detached from the tree it had survived on, ready to hit the ground, ready to let go.
Severus stared for a second more, perhaps to bait his heart into the delusion of sanity, to pip his tears with remorse, his love with hatred.
The last he'd cried was seventeen years back, holding a dead woman in his arms, with her baby wailing at a loss it couldn't even comprehend.
A sepoy isn't supposed to have any feelings, and he'd fooled everyone except a beating piece of flesh that had survived on a Patronus more than blood.
"Avada Kedavra!"
He didn't take a second longer to flash his wand than he'd taken to rip apart his conscience, and the bravest man Hogwarts ever had was now a Death Eater.
Death had failed to surprise him any longer, for he'd seen many. It was his life that did.
For seventeen years he had lived for a reason he couldn't quite understand. He was the man who died every day for the boy who lived.
The day he died for the umpteenth time, albeit never to rise again, it was the boy who looked on, not wailing this time, but yet again unable to comprehend the loss he was staring at.
Severus cried for the first time in seventeen years, but it wasn't for death. It was for a pair of eyes he was leaving behind.
The eyes he couldn't look into and protect any longer. The eyes he'd already lost once, and would do anything to save that from recurring.
The eyes of a Lily.
Like in his life, he was cheated in his death too. Why did he live on then? Why did he wait for so long?
It was to answer a rhetoric he was asked every day, "Severus, please?"
This is a tribute to the departed soul of Alan Rickman, who portrayed the role of Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series.
It is a character I hold very dear and seek closure from.
Rest in peace, Severus. You'd live on, in here.
Always!
Severus didn't move. He didn't even blink an eye. He just watched and watched the old man, under whose commands, he'd lived much of his life for the past seventeen years.
"Please," the headmaster sounded more helpless this time, like the autumn leaf about to get detached from the tree it had survived on, ready to hit the ground, ready to let go.
Severus stared for a second more, perhaps to bait his heart into the delusion of sanity, to pip his tears with remorse, his love with hatred.
The last he'd cried was seventeen years back, holding a dead woman in his arms, with her baby wailing at a loss it couldn't even comprehend.
A sepoy isn't supposed to have any feelings, and he'd fooled everyone except a beating piece of flesh that had survived on a Patronus more than blood.
"Avada Kedavra!"
He didn't take a second longer to flash his wand than he'd taken to rip apart his conscience, and the bravest man Hogwarts ever had was now a Death Eater.
Death had failed to surprise him any longer, for he'd seen many. It was his life that did.
For seventeen years he had lived for a reason he couldn't quite understand. He was the man who died every day for the boy who lived.
The day he died for the umpteenth time, albeit never to rise again, it was the boy who looked on, not wailing this time, but yet again unable to comprehend the loss he was staring at.
Severus cried for the first time in seventeen years, but it wasn't for death. It was for a pair of eyes he was leaving behind.
The eyes he couldn't look into and protect any longer. The eyes he'd already lost once, and would do anything to save that from recurring.
The eyes of a Lily.
Like in his life, he was cheated in his death too. Why did he live on then? Why did he wait for so long?
It was to answer a rhetoric he was asked every day, "Severus, please?"
This is a tribute to the departed soul of Alan Rickman, who portrayed the role of Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series.
It is a character I hold very dear and seek closure from.
Rest in peace, Severus. You'd live on, in here.
Always!
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