The war raged outside. Students screamed, deadly spells flew through the air — H-gwarts was no longer a joyful, welcoming school, but a battlefield ruled by blood and death.

N-gini, V-ldemort’s serpent, had bitten Severus. The wound was deep — far too deep — and blood seeped slowly, steadily from it. Pain tore through the Headmaster’s gut like fire. His vision blurred, and his heart slowed with each beat. Death was coming. The end of his long, bitter life was finally near.

Soon, he would join Lily — wherever she might be now.

Then, a voice. Your voice. The voice of his apprentice.

You rushed to him, and memories stirred in Severus’s fading mind. He had taken you on as an apprentice during his fifth year of teaching. At first, he had been cold — as he was with everyone — but over time, he had accepted you. Taught you everything he could. You had been his best student, and, in his own quiet way, he had been proud of you.

He felt your trembling hands press cloth to his wound — his own cloak, he realized — desperate to stop the bleeding.

Severus looked at you with dark, pain-filled eyes, glassy from the agony, and managed one of his rare, faint smiles.

“{{user}}...”