Work Text:
Ginny sensed something was off the moment Snape walked into the place. It was a nagging feeling, a sort of dread that lumped heavily in the pit of your stomach. His ever-present fog of self-importance polluted the air around him. His dark cape swirled wildly with each stride he took, as his conceited turn of the lips, firmly in place, repelled anyone who dared to talk to him.
Ginny simply couldn't stand him, especially when her fiancé, Harry Potter, excused himself from their group and cautiously, almost playfully, stalked over to the lone table in the corner of the ball hall where Hogwarts' Headmaster was sulking.
How odd, she thought.
Harry never ever talked about the man. Yet, Ginny knew he held him in very great esteem. A war hero, the man-bat was now, all thanks to her Harry of course, whose goodness was of an angelic kind and had cleared Snape's name all the way to an order of Merlin's Badge.
"Gin! Where's Harry? It's almost time." Hermione asked as she approached her from behind, taking her a little by surprise.
"Over there", she signalled with a subtle nod of her head at the black corner. A sour look grimaced her face.
"With Snape... talking" Well, it appeared that was the case, but Snape only nodded while Harry's mouth kept moving. Ginny barely refrained from pouting, as it was childish even by her standards.
"Oh." Hermione bit her lip and fidgeted a little with her dress. "I'll go and get him. Or…" she trailed off. Ginny managed to tear her eyes from Snape and looked at Hermione, "Do you?" Hermione prompted.
"No gods no!" Ginny shook her head and tried to look as unaffected as possible "I can't stand Snape, you go" Hermione nodded and approached the pair with a mysterious smile.
Harry's speech was flawless and truly moving. In the midst of the 3rd anniversary of the victory against Voldemort, her lover managed to make them all laugh and remember those who had fallen with fondness and respect. Ginny was crying; all were, in fact. So much they had lost. Her dear brother.
A sudden tug kept pulling her eyes insistently; she was making her best to resist, to not budge, to hold. But the urge was great, like an itch you just had to scratch. She turned around, and her brown eyes met Snape's obsidian ones.
He was, of course, totally unmoved by the hero; his eyes fixed on her. A second passed. She recognised a size-up when she saw one, so Ginny held Snape's stare in defiance. Only when a booming sound broke their trance did she return her gaze to Harry and her mind to reality.
Gosh, what a creep.
XXXXX
Snape was obsessed with Ginevra Weasley, and he hated it.
It started innocently enough, just a quick assessment of her features. Her long red hair was so dull and messy. Her muddy brown eyes lacked any vibrancy. Snape knew her freckled face was considered pretty, but he couldn't find any trace of appeal in her smile or her lithe body. He was biased, and he knew it, but still, he hated it. He almost hated her.
She had no extraordinary skills or dazzling beauty in his opinion, but she had him.
And he hated that now.
Not at first, though, for this category 5 hurricane of a mess started off like a simple drizzle, just before he killed his mentor and the only person who had had some sort of faith in him. It started out of the blue, like lightning, like an unexpected flu.
It started out with a kiss… how did it end up like this?
He was deeply invested in his tongue-lashing against that stupid black-haired boy whom he used to despise to the bone. Demanding explanations, trying to extract an answer after he had recognised the curse the dim-witted boy had cast over Draco Malfoy. They had been alone in his office, and probably that had been his first mistake.
"Are you really that naive?" He spat with venom, "Now, give the book back and stop wasting my time!"
The boy wore only a vacant expression, his eyes lost and unfocused. Later, about two years later, Potter confessed that he had been high on a new revelation, shot through his veins and into his brain. Harry Potter wanted to taste Severus Snape. And that he couldn't, for his life, remember a single word Snape had uttered in anger.
Of course, the moment the boy removed his glasses and closed the gap between their lips, Snape had a grave failure in his systems. So great was the shock that he was rendered speechless and couldn't, for his life, react like a sensible professor would. No. He couldn't still, even after 5 years, believe that his first instinct had been to brutally kiss the boy back.
He had grabbed the front of his school robe and tugged him closer; he kissed him with hate, with anger, with despair. With urgency. And was met halfway.
The moment the kiss broke, so did the spell, and he had almost hexed the kid out of his office and of his sight. The boy had growled back like a raging lion but obeyed, closing the door with a loud slam. Leaving an overwhelmed potions master behind.
And that had been when the light drizzle began.
xxxx
"I fucking hate you!" Potter yelled loudly. Thankfully, Snape had cast a muffliato around them in case Granger wasn't that far away in this godforsaken forest.
"Potter, listen for once!" Snape tried, even though he himself was having trouble controlling his own emotions. The boy had grown, even if he had also lost a lot of weight. The dark circles around his beautiful eyes only made the emerald in them pop even more. Despite the clear malnourishment, he was a bit taller, not as tall as he, but Snape was sure he wouldn't have to bend so much like those times they had snogged the hell out of each other in empty classrooms last year.
Fuck, he now had to admit that Harry Potter was extremely handsome. Because if he took his breath away with such an unkept appearance, he didn't want to know what he would do to him when he was back on his feet.
"I had to do it. Albus made me do it!" Snape hissed as he grabbed the boy's hair forcefully and coerced his eyes on him. Potter's strength had been drained by the anguish Snape had caused him, so pulling him close was not that difficult.
"What?" Potter whispered. The words finally sank in, and he stopped thrashing.
"He was cursed. You knew it. It was part of his plan," Snape whispered back in a rush. He was giving half-made explanations, but Potter somehow managed to fill the gaps in his story.
"You killed him still", Potter replied, tired and broken.
"Just… let me explain." He had been ordered to deliver the sword without the boy noticing. Still, Snape had tried in vain to remain away, unable to let Potter think he was that heartless. Echoes of the broken screams of his name as he walked towards the dark forest were giving him unbearable nightmares. So he brought the sword in person.
XXXX
The thing between them had remained an unsorted affair up until the moment he had woken up in St. Mungos. Weak, tired and sore. It hurt to eat, to speak, and to exist.
Why am I alive? Why am I still being punished like this?
Potter, of course, the answer to all his whys and wherefores
With the wards around the castle completely destroyed, the boy had managed to aparate with Snape to St Mungo's, where he was immediately taken in. Potter had dropped him off in the lobby and left just as quickly, only managing to tell a nurse he had been bitten by the same snake as Arthur Weasley had.
That had been enough, since they had managed to brew an antidote for the venom before and had experience with the bite, he was treated right away.
Potter appeared the day after he woke up, looking a bit better and alive. Snape had been secretly relieved by those facts. He tried to send him away, of course, first by ignoring him. Then, by being hurtful and particularly nasty. But the boy hadn't budged, insisting on returning day after day.
One day, after he had professed how annoyed he was by his presence, instead of flinching and leaving, Potter moved closer.
"Tell me you don't want me, and I'll go right now", he whispered against his lips, "never to bother you again"
Snape hesitated. Never sounded horribly definitive. That hesitation was all Potter needed. He began moving his lips sensually against his, it took him three seconds to break Snape's walls and to have him responding back as eagerly as a thirsty man in the Sahara.
The slight drizzle escalated to a full storm.
XXXX
Category 1
"Is that what you really want?!" Harry's world was crashing around him; Snape could see it in his eyes. Just like hers when he had called her mudblood.
"What did you expect?! A happy romance? A tale good for the gossip? Grow the fuck up, Potter!" Harry stood up and began dressing, angrily buttoning his Auror robe.
"Of course not, but even I did not predict you would be such an asshole about it!" Harry had tears in his eyes. Snape placed his arm over his face and blocked the sight. Refusing to feel any sort of pain because of this situation.
"You wouldn't be able to predict the rain even if you heard the thunder around you", Snape sneered in his usual nasty way.
"Yes, I am stupid. I know!" Harry's voice replied.
"That would be a first"
"Fuck you are so unbearable, I am out of here"
"Whatever"
"Fine!"
Snape stopped sensing his magic and removed his arm from his eyes. He was alone in his bedroom at Spinner's End, just like he should.
XXXX
Category 2
"Okay, if that's what you want, fine then", Harry said the moment he approached him at this blasted event that was draining him of all his will to live.
"I thought you were not talking to me", it had been 5 months since their fight. Snape had had some sort of… abstention in the first weeks, but somehow work and rebuilding Hogwarts had distracted him enough.
"I wasn't, but I figured, what the hell?" Snape raised an eyebrow.
"What, do you think, is what I want?" He cast wandlessly and nonverbally a muffliato around them and took a sip of his scotch. He was grabbing some fresh air, tired and overstimulated by the party's noises. Of course, not exasperated by his inability to tear his eyes off from the man who was currently pestering him so.
"A casual fuck now and then." Potter parroted his own words back. Had he really said that? No wonder the boy had stopped talking to him.
"Hmm, I don't know", he feigned a lack of interest that sounded fake even to his own ears. Harry knew him perfectly well and just shrugged, calm and collected, as if he had predicted such an unkind response.
"Well, if you change your mind, let me know," Harry declared with a not-feigned simplicity while combing his fingers through his wild hair. Snape followed the movement without meaning to. Then, he was alone again. Snape huffed under the shining stars and finished his drink in one go.
What harm could it do? A casual thing was the only sensible thing that could really happen between them. The entire world would collapse if something more were to happen.
Yes, that was a logical thing to have.
XXXX
Category 3
"Hn… Severus," his name sounded like the most sinful thing moaned like that. He loved it.
"What do you want?" Snape asked against that golden skin; he was fucking the young man with his fingers, preparing him for what was to come, even if he didn't really have to do it anymore.
"Come on, don't make me beg" Harry's nails were carving rivers across his back, his black hair was damped against his forehead, and his bright eyes were hooded in a haze of delight.
"You were particularly troublesome tonight. I am not sure I am in the mood for more," Snape teased, both knowing it was a bluff and that Snape was as addicted to the pleasure Harry provided as Harry himself.
Harry had apparated to his flat earlier that evening and had immediately called Snape. The man found him trying, most clumsily and inefficiently, to stop the bleeding on his chest from a curse that had hit him.
"How the fuck did the aurors let you leave like this?!" He answered as he cast the counter curse on his wound. Hating the worried tone that pitched his voice.
"I had stopped it, I was eager to come home, dunno what made it bleed again" Had been his stupid as fuck answer.
"The apparating, you clueless Gryffindor." Harry dared to chuckle. He, of course, knew and hadn't cared.
As Severus positioned his shaft at his entrance, he cursed again the magnetic pull these green irises had on him. If whatever this was was happening because of his fixation with Lily's memory, he was doing a fine job defiling it.
He entered him in on swift movement, and the young man arched his back and moaned loudly. The heat around him almost made him cum. This was bliss, this was heaven. Snape started moving in and out, grabbing the man's throat and losing himself in the pleasure of fucking one of the most handsome men alive, according to the latest posts on Witch's weekly.
This was perfection.
After it was over, both panted loudly across the mattress. In their nakedness, all their scars lay bare for them to see. Nagini's bite on Snape's neck, his faded dark mark on his forearm. Harry's scar on his forehead, his I must not tell lies on his hand, the basilisk's bite on his arm, and the long slash where Pettigrew cut him at the graveyard. The fresh wound in his chest.
Harry Potter was a collection of scars. And his job was only making this worse. Snape would have wanted him to continue his studies, maybe get a master's in Defence Against the Dark Arts, but had never truly voiced his opinion since, of course, that was not his business.
Snape tore his eyes from him and stared at the ceiling, finally regaining his breath. But before he could say anything, Harry turned to him.
"Hey, I had been wanting to tell you," He started, trying to look nonchalant and effectively managing to raise suspicion in Snape's mind. "We won't be able to meet here anymore", Harry sat on the bed and stretched. Snape secretly admired the way his strong muscles epitomised the perfect human male anatomy.
"Oh?" Was his sole response.
"We could meet at your house instead" Harry hadn't wanted to go back after their fight last year, and so they had met at the young man's flat every Friday after Harry's work without exception. Snape, of course, only left Hogwarts for a few hours, so that was all they had a week.
"Whatever", he actually preferred his own house; he could stay the night over there, away from nagging children.
"Oh! Great, well, it's settled." Harry babbled. Snape stood up and summoned his clothes.
"Aren't you curious?" Harry asked, Snape rolled his eyes and shrugged.
"Not particularly", he wouldn't admit even under cruciatus how much of a lie that was.
"Good!" Harry was happy. Which made Severus' heart squirm a bit more.
Later, he learned that Ginevra Weasley had moved in with his… fiancée… Harry Potter. It had been all over the papers. Snape had strolled angrily out of the great hall with the crumbled paper in hand.
XXXX
Category 4
"Sir, may I have a word?" Granger burst into his office, and Snape looked up from the schedule he was putting together and only raised his characteristic eyebrow. It was clear the girl was having words whether he wanted it or not.
"Pardon my intrusion in this private matter," she began. Snape braced himself. "But it is high time this thing between you and Harry stopped"
To his credit, Severus Snape, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, only placed the scroll on his desk and did not choke on his own spit thanks to his seasoned spying skills.
"Oh," it was evident the girl knew and had known for a while, so no sense in feigning innocence. He leaned back on his chair and observed her intently. He hadn't thought his 40th birthday would turn out like this.
"You are right, Miss Granger; it is a private matter." Granger scowled and crossed her arms. She had been visiting Slughorn since the old man was tutoring her on her mastery of Potions. The first of many masters the girl would add to her collection, so her presence, per se, in the castle wasn't a surprise. Her presence in his office and her knowledge of the thing he had with Potter were, though.
"Harry is making a huge mistake, and I believe it's just so he can move on from this" That piqued his interest. Snape rubbed his temple and asked tiredly.
"Please elaborate if you pretend to make your point known at all", the girl was talking in riddles.
"He doesn't love Ginny! he is rushing into a marriage in hopes that somehow that will flush you out of his system. And it won't!" Granger combed her wild curls with her hand and sighed in defeat.
"He refuses to listen to me, so I trust you are more reasonable. Flush yourself out, leave him alone" Snape frowned, not liking in the least what the girl was suggesting.
"I think, Miss Granger, you should go. This is not something I am willing to discuss with you," he replied in a cold, hushed voice.
"I am leaving, but do think about it. This can't go on forever" With that, she left him with his own thoughts.
And Snape hated to be alone with his own thoughts, especially when they concerned the one Harry Potter.
It was Monday, it would be terribly out of character to contact Potter on a random day of the week, but Granger had left him quite restless. Pacing to and fro with a glass of firewhisky in his hand. It was true, the newspaper had haunted him since he had read the headline. The news was being discussed in every corner of this bloody castle. Even the teachers were gossiping about Harry Potter's love life as if it were the most interesting thing in the whole universe.
It was fucking not. And it was a lie.
He vanished the glass, sat angrily in the armchair beside the fireplace, and grabbed the new magical phone that rested on the little side table. He rang without a second thought, not caring he was calling the auror's main office, not caring he was typing the extension number Potter had given him. Not caring, he was behaving like a jealous and stupid fool.
Ring
Images he had managed to keep out of his brain began to appear
Ring
His hands on her body
Ring
His lips on hers
Ring
His cock inside of her
Ring
His cum filling her.
"Yeah?" His moans against her ear.
"Potter", he began, not sure what to say.
"Oh! Everything all right? Are you safe? Something happened? Where are you?!" The urgency in Potter's voice tugged the corners of his lips up and dispelled a bit of this fog of jealousy.
XXXX
Category 5
Severus saw him dancing joyfully and carefreely with his fiancée. Oblivious to the absolute mess he was conjuring inside Severus' brain. Harry's speech, of course, had been very touching, so that even he had forced a heavy lump down his throat.
Snape had known about their relationship; it had started, apparently, before the great battle, but Potter hadn't really brought it up, and he hadn't as well. Now he hated to admit he regretted that.
In fact, he regretted everything. All his decisions, all his mistakes.
And telling Harry Potter, this thing between them was casual, was a grave one. How long until his conscience catches up and decides that having an affair was wrong? How long until he chose her over him?
Severus Snape suddenly realised he was lost.
The party ended, and he found himself back at Spinner's end feeling more miserable than he had in ages. Completely wrecked, in fact. He had studied Ginevra Weasley carefully and had concluded that he was nothing compared to her.
She was young, pretty, and could give him a family. Children to carry on his name.
He was old, bitter and had treated him like a disposable thing for three long years. Fucking him wildly one day of the week and forgetting him the rest. But as time went by, little by little, that day of the week had become his sole reason to exist. His anchor, his north. And now Snape couldn't continue with this farce anymore. He wouldn't.
He would fight back or cease existing.
Harry arrived at Spinner's End and sat dramatically on his sofa; Snape remained on his armchair with his wand in his hand. Toying with it with his fingers as he watched Harry remove his heavy Auror robe.
"Sorry, I'm late, they wouldn't let me go," Harry explained. Snape pursed his lips in annoyance, knowing full well who had tried to stop Harry from leaving the Weasley group on such an important date.
"Hey? Something's wrong?" Harry asked, tilting his head in that cute way of his.
Severus was always on him the moment he apparated, eager to quench the thirst that tortured him cruelly. This time, however, Severus was not interested in fucking him; he was interested in his day, in his opinions about the recent elections for Minister of Magic, in his take on the article he had published about the properties of Phoenixes' tears.
He wanted to know him; he was ready.
"Potter," he began, then he cursed under his breath. If he wanted to be successful, he had to bend "Harry"
That got Harry's attention. They could count on one hand the times Severus had called him Harry.
"Yeah?" The young man's voice had a slight tremor beneath it. Severus' jaw clenched, and he forced himself to continue.
"This has to stop", Harry sprang up not a second later. As if a great threat had materialised in the room, and he was ready to fight it like the hero he was.
"What?! Is this because of Ginny?" He asked incredulously, "You don't care about her, and that's my problem!" Apparently, Harry had come to terms with his infidelity and had decided to keep them both. But Snape was tired of this trio.
"Granger approached me", Severus began, that had been weeks ago, but he figured it was a good way to start. Harry groaned loudly and covered his face with his hands.
"Just! Ugh, don't listen to her, okay? She is just worried! It's nothing," Harry insisted. Severus sighed; the boy had no clue where this was going. "I'll talk to her,"
"I have no doubt of that, this has to stop nonetheless" Severus tucked his wand away and stood up, slowly, like the predator he was, dangerous and silent. He walked over to Harry and looked down at him. Not much, really. The boy had finally grown to be almost as tall as him.
Severus leaned in and caressed his lips with his own, hovering over them in the most provocative way. One hand slithered its way up and clasped Harry's hair, slowly tugging his head backwards, licking and sucking without a care about leaving marks for anyone to see. In fact, he wanted them to see.
"In fear of once again having you lecturing me about how stupid I am", Harry said breathlessly, already hard under his ministrations. "I must ask you for clarification, because I am fucking lost"
Severus Snape chuckled loudly next to Harry's ear. Harry's heart tripped. It was the most wonderful sound the boy had heard.
"Are you now?"
"Pretty much, you… agh.. s-say… uhmm… this has to stop… but.." Severus knew, of course, what he meant. A contradiction, Severus Snape was a walking contradiction, and the boy should have known it by now, still...
"Oh, you think this, between us?" He asked darkly and quite sarcastically. With that low-pitched voice, Severus knew, it drove Harry mad.
"No, no, no," he tutted. "No." He locked his obsidian eyes with the emerald ones and held him tight. He waited, knowing the boy would catch up because, in fact, he wasn't stupid at all.
"You mean Ginny?!" He asked incredulously. Severus' eyes narrowed. "But what? Really?" Harry forced Severus's hands off him and somehow managed to take a step back and away. Severus braced himself for the battle that was to start.
"What?! That's rich from you, you said this was casual!" Harry protested while taking off his glasses and placing them on the coffee table, preparing himself for the fight, but Severus almost grinned. The boy wasn't saying something like No, I love her! or No, this isn't fair to Ginny. Because he had been unfair since the beginning and hadn't loved her a bit. No, he was referring to Severus' own words, and that was easier in some way and not. He knew what he had to do, but he had never, ever, done it.
Severus Snape needed to ask for forgiveness.
"I set the date today! I fucking paid the wedding planner! Ginny is looking for dresses" Oh, the grave inconveniences, Severus' jealousy flared like a wild flame, and he had the auror pinned against the wall in an instant. Harry wasn't the only one who had remained in fighting shape, and the boy knew it. Quite intimately.
"Really? Tell me, does she know about this?" He asked as he squeezed Harry's balls just the way he loved. Harry gasped and did his best to muffle the sound Severus was forcing out of his mouth. With a wave of his hand, he undid his trousers and took him in his hand. Finally, the boy moaned wantonly and loudly.
"Tell me," he inquired breathlessly against his mouth ", does she make you come thrice in a row?" He asked as he pumped his dick, knowing the boy wouldn't last long.
"Does her Quidditch chatter entertain you enough? Are her questions about your cases helpful enough? Is she as beautiful as she thinks she is when she behaves like a silly girl?" Severus stopped touching Harry and placed his hand on the wall behind him, sensing that the strength in his legs was faltering under the jealousy of the images of all the domesticity she had with HIS lover, conjuring in his mind.
"No, right? If she did, then why would you come to me?" Snape's voice uncharacteristically broke. His head hung as his eyes closed.
"But you said…" Harry's voice faltered, and Severus opened his eyes and almost choked on the sight.
Harry was crying again, this time, though, Severus didn't turn away.
"You said casual, you said only sex", Harry sobbed. Severus sighed and shook his head, then, as gently as he could, caressed Harry's wet cheek with the back of his fingers. Fuck he had done this again.
Lily must hate him even more.
"Tell me you don't want this, and I'll stop right now," he countered, using Harry's own words, "never to bother you again."
"Fuck! Sev" Harry choked on a sob as he rested his forehead on Severus' shoulder. "Can't you really give it, though?"
"Out of the two of us, I have been the one who has been most committed," Severus reminded him with a teasing voice. "But you know this." Because Harry had asked, a year ago, if Snape was seeing someone else, and had smiled discreetly when he received a snort and an amused gaze in response.
"Fair enough," Harry replied dryly as his arms encircled Severus strong back. Severus, in turn, wrapped his arms around his waist and nuzzled his hair. He had never held him before.
"I was afraid," Severus answered the question Harry hadn't quite asked but had implied. "Not many of us can summon up courage in an instant, Potter, I am a Slytherin after all," the 'Potter' was muttered fondly. Harry's green eyes, sparkling with tears, looked up with bewilderment.
"I have finally found my courage, though, and I can't share you anymore. Choose me. Stay with me." Severus paused when he felt a lone tear leave his eye and trail down his cheek. "Love me." He finished
Harry sobbed harder, but with a faltering chuckle and an unbelieving smile, he wiped his tears and faintly nodded.
"You bloody bastard", Harry cursed, meeting Severus halfway and kissing him deeply while Severus was rejoicing in his new lack of fear. Fear of laying his heart bare for Harry to destroy.
"You git! Fuck, this is going to be a mess, I'm a mess" his eyes and nose were all red, and it didn't help him look as annoyed as he was trying to look at all. Harry was positively glowing.
"Yes, but you are my mess"
XXXX
"Gosh, it's time, how do I look?" Harry asked as he combed his wild hair back with his fingers. He had finally gotten his eyesight fixed, and Severus was extremely pleased that there were no more glasses that blocked the eyes he adored so much. Glad that the last traces of Potter senior on his lover were gone.
"You are fishing for compliments, and I will not oblige", was his lazy response as he revised Pamona's curriculum for her new apprentice that would help her with the classes. Finally, they had enough money to hire more staff.
"You bastard." Severus lowered the parchment, looked up and sighed at how absurdly handsome his lover looked. Harry, of course, noticed and smiled wickedly.
"You look adequate, " was all his mind could manage. Harry nodded happily, and Severus rolled his eyes. "Are you sure you don't want me to go? It would be easier with Weasley shitting on his pants" He grinned evilly. Harry huffed.
"He is not that scared of you anymore! Plus, no, Hermione will be there, I am sure she will help me break the news to Ron." Harry grabbed his coat, walked over to Snape's desk, and then encircled the older man with his arms from behind. Severus leaned back, content.
Six months had passed since he had broken off his engagement to Ginevra. That had been more than enough for Severus, for now. In the sake of good sensibilities, their relationship had remained a secret. But Harry wanted both of his best friends to know the truth before the rest of the world.
"Whatever then, hopefully you are skilled enough to come back to bed without a single scratch" There was a warning there, have no doubt. Harry swallowed hard, feeling very nervous. He wasn't so sure how Ron would react, and he wasn't so sure how Snape would react if he returned home with a bruised eye.
"Don't worry, he is my best mate"
"You ditched his sister"
"Tch well, I let her keep the flat." Indeed, Snape had not approved but had wisely said nothing since that meant Harry now lived in his house. Even though he had rented another place just for the pretence. The young man kissed the top of his head and headed to the fireplace.
"Wish me luck!" he said while grabbing a bit of floo powder.
"No, I shan't" Severus had already returned to his scroll. Harry rolled his eyes with a fond smile on his lips and disappeared in a whirl of green flames, happy and giddy about the future. Snape looked up at the now-empty spot, feeling calm and serene. Finally, the storm had passed.
Open up my eager eyes
'Cause I'm Mr. Brightside…