Author's Notes: This is pretty self explanatory. I own nothing, other than my heartache today.

In Memorium

It wasn't exactly unexpected. Death, that is. But dying by snakebite... well, that was not what he had imagined would finally get him in the end.

Slowly reaching towards his neck, he tried not to move any quicker than necessary. Between the venom and the huge hole in his neck, he figured he probably had about 5 minutes before death would finally claim him. Maybe a minute or two longer if he could slow the flow of blood rapidly leaving his body.

Trying to muster some happy thoughts in his last few minutes eluded him. Lily first popped into his head, but all he could see was his last confrontation with her, when she finally told him that they couldn't be friends anymore. All the happy memories were tarnished by his final treatment of her. And any happy thoughts from his childhood were always marred by a drunken Tobias.

His life had been well and truly shitty... to put it bluntly. He longed for a different life... one not soiled by mistake after mistake.

What if he could escape the life he had lived? Even for his last final minutes? Live someone else's life... a better life.

He imagined a life in a good home, with loving parents. Maybe even some siblings, since he had always been lonely being an only child. Friends that supported him, even if he wanted to go to art school and be an artist. He could be anything in this other life... maybe even be an actor. He could see it now... his name on a theater marquee.

Reciting Shakespeare to a crowded house, and then pursing a film career if it tickled his fancy.

He would meet the girl of his dreams and settle down. Maybe not marriage or children; that wasn't really his thing. But love... oh, definitely love... would be part of the equation.

He would have the admiration of his peers, with the love of his life by his side.

And when it was finally time to be called by Death, it wouldn't be a horrible thing. It would just be saying goodbye.

He would have loved this life, and lived it to the fullest.

Always.

Alan Rickman

1946-2016