The end has come for Severus Snape. Then again, maybe not.
Notes:
This is my first try at a non-humorous piece. JKR owns it all. I just play here.
(See the end of the work for more notes.)
"Ron, Hermione, we can't just leave him like this!", Harry rasped to his best mates.
Harry tried Episkey on Snape's gaping wounds, which did stem the flow of blood a bit, as Hermione groped through her bag, quickly finding the Dittany, which she poured on the wounds.
"Ron, send your Patronus to Madame Pomfrey! He needs her urgently. We really shouldn't move him while he's like this", Harry whispered urgently, not wanting to give away their presence beside the fallen Professor.
A blinding flash of light temporarily stunned the trio, as Fawlkes materialized on Harry's shoulder. One look at Dumbledore's fallen soldier had Fawlkes descending to Snape's chest, where he immediately lowered his head, dropping beautiful iridescent tears into the wounds, healing them. He then bent his neck, dropping more tears into the Potions Master's mouth, until Snape swallowed convulsively.
One breath, then another, then Snape's eyes opened. Eyeing Harry Potter hovering anxiously above him, he struggled to sit. Their eyes locked, and Snape whispered Legilimens. Snape's memories stumbled rapidly into Harry's mind.
Visions of Snape and Lily playing together at the park, while Petunia jealously spied on them. Snape and Lily being sorted. Snape being humiliated by the Marauders in fifth year. Mudblood said in anger after total emotional degradation. Begging forgiveness, in front of the Gryffindor portrait. James and Lily, dating, marrying, having a child. The prophecy. Voldemort's decision to kill the Potters. Begging Dumbledore to save Lily. Sending a Patronus to Lily and James, begging them to flee. Snape's anguish, holding a deceased Lily in his arms and sobbing at his inability to protect her and his culpability in her murder. Clutching the crying toddler in his arms, the only link to Lily, begging Dumbledore to let him raise the boy. His utter despair learning he was placed with the Dursleys.
Snape and Harry both gasped, but the mental link continued. Harry as a student, looking so much like James, and being encouraged to act like him by the Headmaster. Snape saving Harry, year after year, angry as hell that Dumbledore would allow Harry to endanger his life, preparing him for a war that adults should be fighting. Being forced to euthanize the dying Headmaster to save Draco's soul and secure Snape's place at Hogwarts. Treading a razor thin line, keeping the Carrows from torturing the students, keeping them safe, while trying to look like the stern disciplinarian Voldemort demanded.
The utter devastation when Snape learned that Lily's beloved son was never meant to survive his meeting with Voldemort, that he had to sacrifice his life for the greater good of all humankind.
"Not. On. My. Watch", Severus Snape, Harry's bodyguard, Lily's friend, Dumbledore's mercy killer, and Voldemort's worst enemy in Death Eater clothing, snarled as Harry helped him up from the Shrieking Shack floor.
"Mr Potter, we will go, together, to Tom Riddle, under the cloak. Before we reach them, I will keep the cloak, and Fawlkes, leaving you to face the monster, while I find a position near Riddle. Use the stone, your relatives will accompany you there. When you offer yourself to him, I will release Fawlkes. If I am correct, he will incinerate Riddle, immobilize the Death Eaters, and then heal you. I will now send word to Minerva to kill the Snake, he is at the Hogwarts entrance.
Mister Weasley and Miss Granger, the last of the Horcruxes is the Ravenclaw Diadem, in the Room of Requirement, on top of a wig on a model bust, atop a large, old cabinet" he stated, rapid-fire, as time was of the essence. "Voldemort let that slip from his mind before he set the snake on me, and sent him to the Main Entrance". As an afterthought, he added, "go to the Chamber of Secrets, Basilisk venom should be enough to kill the Horcrux."
Harry and Snape hurried off, to end Voldemort's reign of terror. Snape's plan went without a hitch. Voldemort struck down Harry. Before the Death Eaters had a chance to react, Snape shed the cloak, Fawlkes simultaneously incinerated Voldemort and immobilized the Death Eaters, and Neville killed Nagini. Dumbledore's faithful familiar then healed Harry.
As Snape helped Harry to his feet, the Aurors appeared. "Snape was Dumbledore's man through and through, he saved my life countless times, including today. Fawlkes saved him, he would not have done so if Snape hadn't been totally faithful to Dumbledore. Please take the other Death Eaters, but leave Snape, he was a spy for the Light." After that impassioned plea, Harry started swaying from exhaustion, in tandem with Snape, who was holding Harry up.
Seeing Dumbledore's boys so exhausted, after literally giving their lives, Fawlkes transported them to the Infirmary, where Madame Pomfrey was inundated with patients that were thought dead. Fred Weasley, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Lavender Brown, Colin Creevey, and others who fought so hard against Voldemort and his minions, awoke, healed, after the blinding flash of light that destroyed Voldemort. It was the light of pure love. Voldemort could not survive it, the Death Eaters could not defeat it, and those who gave their lives against evil were healed.
Finally safe from a raging madman, Severus turned to Harry. "You should know that I never hated you. Many times your recklessness angered me, but I never hated you. Since your fifth year, you have taken after Lily far more than you have your Father. I would very much like to get to know the man you really are, Harry Potter", Snape stated, when the silence got too much.
"I'd really like that, Sir", Harry whispered, not quite knowing what to say.
"Severus Snape, how in Merlin's name did you get here? I was frantic when" - Madame Pomfrey shrieked when she saw the Phoenix, which chose that moment to land on Snape's head.
"Get off my head, you great incendiary pheasant", chuckled the Headmaster, who flashed a rare smile.
Poppy chuckled as well, before looking over the half-starved Boy Who Cheated Death, and the similarly gaunt Professor, and threatened to tie them to a hospital bed if they didn't gain at least two pounds, each, in a week.
"Together?", squeaked Potter, who had a bit of a crush on the Potions Master.
Pomfrey, seeing Potter's blush and Snape's smirk, muttered "if needs must", and tied both to a bed. Together.
"And make sure they stay that way", the Mediwitch called back to Fawlkes, as she turned to tend to the wounded.
Later that day, beyond the earthly plane, Albus Dumbledore eyes were twinkling in overdrive. "I just love it when a plan comes together", he chuckled, as he watched his two boys plotting their escape from the Infirmary. "It won't work until your soul mate marks activate, in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 -"
Harry Potter and Severus Snape gasped in unison as identical Phoenix tattoos appeared where once, for Snape at least, there had been a Dark Mark. They immediately became animated and hopped back and forth between the two wizards. "Meddling flaming chickens", Snape mumbled, as Harry Potter became The Boy Soul Bond to Snape. They saved each other's lives, was there really any doubt?
When the Soul Marks activated, Fawlkes returned to the Next Great Adventure with Dumbledore. Their work with Dumbledore's boys was complete.
Notes:
Last two Horcruxes destroyed after Snape was bitten, then healed, it fit this tale better.