FIc: Alone, Together
Title: Alone, Together.
Author: half-light-01
Pairing/Characters: Severus Snape/Harry Potter.
Word Count: 100 x2
Rating: PG
Challenge: snarry100 #626: United.
Summary: In the days after the war, Harry understands too late that he was never alone.
In the days after the war, Harry thought of death and of still being alive. He thought of service, sacrifice and of Severus Snape. His gut twisted at memories of rage and hatred, emotions he found he could now barely conjure. Not after watching the life drain from those black eyes, leaving them no different, as though the man had always been dead. But that was untrue. He had fought, on Harry’s side if not by it. Their paths always running parallel, united in purpose but disconnected in every way that mattered. The crushing irony of unwittingly being alone together.
~
Harry’s hands shook as he hung the portrait. He understood now. Understood the sting of the loss of someone who had never really been his. Felt the burn of shame and regret. Knew the unending suffocation of grief he had no right to. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the silent, watchful man. He sat, stared, paced and wondered why he could no longer cry. But this painted echo wasn’t Severus. Not really. Harry sometimes thought The Boy Who Lived died alongside him on the floor of that Shack. As entangled in death as they had been in life.