Orion's Telescope

By: Lunatic with a Hero Complex

As he stumbled through what surely must have been a terrifying evil army, he knew that something had definitely changed. All around him, Death Eaters were lying still on the ground. Their bodies were unmarked, and their faces were blank, their eyes closed.

This pattern of annihilation seemed to be circular, all orbiting around a single center. It was this center that Severus was making his way to. Potter had left the Shrieking Shack and he'd found in himself, a desperate desire not to die this way. He'd used almost all the remaining force his soul had in it, just to make it to the castle's dungeons. He'd found a bezoar and ingested it. And had lain on the floor as his body attempted to heal itself, contemplating the impending implosion of this deadly situation their world was in.

He knew damn well what his memories would tell Harry to do. Hell, the boy was a sacrifice, he deserved a first name basis. And despite their history, he wished more than anything that it did not have to be as it was.

It was as he was making his way with the renewed energy of the healed down towards the battlefield that a massive force had shaken the castle, as though it were one swift and terrible earthquake. He'd energized his haste to a run. And that was how he found himself making his way through the still and silent remnants of Voldemort's army.

As he neared the center, the bodies became less and less, and he knew that he was definitely getting closer to the source, and he found that really, he would prefer never to know the image at the heart of this intimate cluster fuck of destiny.

Around the two bodies in the center, there was a fifty foot radius of empty ground. As though all of the people he'd passed had been watching one central fight.

The left body was the shriveled and now lifeless form of the most terrible Dark Lord since Dark Lord Tristan Hopkirk in the thirteenth century. It looked like everything that had been animating him had simply been pulled away and left only a shell, like a broken vase.

The body on the right was small in comparison to the surrounding victims. Its limbs straight and relaxed. Severus felt his breath catch at the sight of it. He hadn't actually really realized it to be truth until just this moment.

The body twitched.

His mind froze in its frantic rationalizations for a moment and then he was supporting the teenage limbs.

A frantic coughing was issuing from the lungs of The Great Savior Harry Potter, and his hair was matted with dirt and blood, for once staying down. His eyes were open, reflecting the starlight, aware still, but only slightly.

"Harry, Harry, look at me, focus on me." Severus was trying to bring him down from whatever daze he seemed to be in, bring him back to the world of the truly living.

His head lolled forward, still not focused, and he seemed to have a little recognition of his professor, "Pr'f'sor Snape? Dead."

"Most assuredly not Potter, as you are not, now stay with me."

"I did it Professor, he's gone, I can feel it."

Snape could see him slipping again and recognized a panic blooming in his chest where panic had not bloomed in so very long, "Then stay here to enjoy it."

His eyes were only for the stars, "He just pointed the wand at me, and then Avra Kedavra…and the light was so white…and the deatheaters just fell and Voldemort screamed, and I screamed, and then he was gone, and my head was lighter."

His voice was fading in and out, and now his eyes seemed more made of starlight than actual flesh.

"Yes, he's gone Harry, but your friends aren't I need you to hold on."

"I can't stay awake professor, I'm just so tired. I feel like I've been moving my whole life and I just want to rest now." His eyes cleared up slightly, "I want the Weasley's to have my parents vault, and I want Remus to get Sirius's vault, and I want you to have Grimmauld Place, and Ron and Hermione get my things, can you remember that?" He was going and Severus knew it, but he didn't want it to happen.

"No! Fight it Harry, just keep breathing, think about your friends, anything just keep breathing!"

He was shaking him now, he wasn't sure when he started, but he stopped abruptly, Harry just smiled at him and said, "Hey, at least I kill dark lords better than I make potions, that's a blessing." And then he was gone, the starlight now the only thing making his eyes glisten.

And Severus felt an indeterminable sense of loss. Perhaps it was because Lily's only offspring had just exited the world ahead of him. Or perhaps it was because any child so young, had died while doing so much for his elders. Or maybe, just maybe he knew that the only person in the world who really understood what it meant to just be a weapon for an army had just died, and now Severus was left to fend for himself in a world of people who suspected him of Death Eater activities.

He brushed the black hair over the now smooth forehead and gently carried the boy back to Hogwarts, entering the Great Hall like one bearing the Holy Grail.

The hall was instantly quiet. And then wails began to sound from the four corners as people recognized his cargo. On he walked and he set the boy down on what had once been the head table.

He bowed his head, closed his eyes.

He thought about all the years of his life he'd wasted on a madman and a childish quest for hatred. All the time he'd lost to trying to lock out the world. And he thought of Harry's eyes full of moonlight and sweet relief.

And he turned to the hall, lifted his head, opened his eyes, and he prepared to live.