A/N: This is a little one shot for The Script Challenge in which my song was Breakeven. I think I've gone a little bit far-fetched but oh well, onwards we go. :P

He watches her as she falls to the ground in a heap of giggles underneath the Beech tree. He watches her laughter as Potter joins her on the ground and they stare up at the skies above them, fingers entwined and chests heaving.

A feeling of intense jealousy rips through Severus Snape. His best friend, his love, has been taken from him. No, he has lost her. He has given her away, practically thrown her into the welcoming arms of James Potter. She is unattainable, a perfect being; sees good in everyone. She was the one who brought out the best in him.

But she was a Mudblood. Choosing her would be choosing death, his classmates would shun him and society would mock him. Severus Snape did not have James Potters Gryffindor courage.

Severus Snape is a coward.

He's in his dormitory. In his hand a picture. Torn, aged, and falling to pieces. His eyes, black spheres, are fixed on the face of the girl who stares up at him, smiling her dazzling smile from beneath the plastic. A tear finds its way to the surface of his eye, but freezes as Avery walks in. He hastily tucks the battered picture into his pocket, vowing to destroy it later.

He watches her as she lies on the grass, her red hair fanning out behind her. A delicate blush is painted on her cheeks and her face is alight with amusement. He watches as Potter guides her hand skyward, pointing out an oddly shaped cloud.

He seethes as her laughter erupts through the grounds. He sees, from a distance, Potters face; bright with satisfaction. He puts an arm around her and she nestles into him.

It kills him that Potter is the man that gets to treat her.

There is smoke. It engulfs the room and invades his senses, yet he ignores it. In his shining eyes is reflected a fire, bright and burning. He stares, his mind churning in the most calculated of ways as he takes a step forward, as if to put it out, but then retreats.

His memories of her must be incinerated.

The next day the ashes of an old, torn picture reign free.

He watches her as she sits up and leans her slender body over Potter's, her face dangerously close to his. She sticks her tongue out. He takes her by the waist and she is on top of him, a giggling mass of a woman.

It is when her lips make contact with Potters that he bursts. Rage erupts inside him, stretching out until it threatens to rupture from beneath his own skin. He feels alight, his eyes smouldering black as they follow their movements in an anger that almost bubbles over.

But he swallows, encasing the anger inside of him. He closes his eyes and vows never to watch her again.

From that instance, he keeps the anger inside of him. It motivates him, it encourages him to paint his soul black and join the darkest of sides. The anger compresses inside him for so long, until it amounts to nothing.

He begins to feel nothing, his entire being devoid of any form of emotion, his life a monotonous, melancholic, miserable routine.

It is not until two years later, as he is crouching over the grave of his first love that the emotions come rushing back to him. They come back in flurries of tears that freely escape his tight, black eyes and gather at the end of his crooked nose. He buries his head in his hands; the shame, the guilt, the grief, the love, all diffusing into his soul once more.

From that instance, Severus Snape was a man tainted by guilt and stained by love.

A/N: So, do let me know what you think, constructive criticism is welcomed!