Harry Potter One Shots

May You Find Some Comfort Here

All rights belong to the author, LAXgirl

Spend all your time waiting, for that second chance
For the break that would make it okay
There's always some reason to feel not good enough
And it's hard at the end of the day

It was over. They'd won. Voldemort was dead. And this time there was no chance of him ever returning. He was gone for good. Finally...

But this brought Severus Snape only a little bit of comfort in his disoriented haze of pain. Dark shadows moved across his vision like frolicking spirits beckoning him to follow them into the night. A deep yearning to close his eyes and let himself drift away pulled at his senses, but he fought against it.

He still had so much to do. Still so much to do before he could close his eyes and rest.

"Professor?" a frightened voice called from somewhere close beside him. "Professor, are you alright?"

Snape forced the encroaching darkness back a little through a rapid dint of blinking and looked to his side where another person knelt close beside his broken body. A teenager with tousled black hair and glasses.

Potter...

The boy was a mess. Scratches covered his entire body, bleeding and staining his clothes. His glasses were bent and sat crooked on his dirt smeared face. But other than that, he was fine. He would live. And that was all that mattered...

"Professor? Professor, are you alright?" the boy cried, leaning down over him. "Professor, please answer me!"

"Stop shouting, Potter..." Snape weakly choked, trying to swat the boy away. "You're giving me a headache..."

"Professor, are you alright? Why'd you do that?" he cried, still shouting. There were tears in the boy's eyes. For whatever reason, Severus didn't know. Nor did he really care. All he knew was that he was hurting, and the boy's shouting was not helping.

"Why'd you do that? Why'd you step in front of that curse for me?" the boy continued to angrily shout as he leaned over his professor's bleeding body and looked into his dark, clouded eyes. "You shouldn't have done that..." he sobbed, clutching Snape's robes. "You shouldn't have done that... I didn't want anyone else to get hurt because of me..."

Ah... So that was it... The boy was guilty because he'd gotten hurt protecting the arrogant little wonder boy's life. How typical... Always somehow making everything about himself...

"Stop it, Potter," Snape growled, trying to force the darkness from his vision again. But the darkness refused to fully go away. It stayed there, ringing his vision like a dark tunnel.

Somewhere in the back of his mind Snape recognized the fact that this was not good, nor was the amount of blood he saw coming off onto the boy's hands as Potter continued to clutch his robes as if trying to physically shake the answer from him.

"Why?" the boy was still shouting. "Why?"

Snape felt the urge to deduct fifty points from Gryffindor, but he held his tongue. It didn't matter what he told the boy. He'd done what he needed to do...

So tired of the straight line, and everywhere you turn
There's vultures and thieves at your back
The storm keeps on twisting, and you keep on building the lies
That make up for all that you lack
It don't make no difference

The boy had been cornered, trying to fight a force too large to take on himself. The final showdown had finally come. But as always Potter hadn't been ready. At least not mentally, that is... He still refused to accept the idea it was either kill or be killed. And Voldemort knew that.