I don't own Harry Potter okay? Ever since I first read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the first chapter, I knew there had to be some connection between Snape and Charity Burbage. And when I look in the fanfiction archives, I am not seeing more of this kind of thing, so as with anything I don't see enough of, I write some myself hoping to light some sparks. Yes, I know I should get to work on some of my other stuff but that will hit me more when I get life straightened out. Unemployment sucks. Ask Rita Skeeter. You will do things you think beneath you to get by. But enough of this A/N whining about my life, on with the fic!

It was as if I was staring at Lily before she died. Here I was, sitting right hand to the man who murdered the only woman who ever cared about me. The woman I was so foolish enough to cast away from my with my jealously and blind worship of this monster. Since that accursed word crossed my lips all those years ago, that wonderful Lily was never to be mine again. Never to acknowledge me again. Sure I warned Dumbledore to protect them but it wasn't enough. My Lily had wilted into oblivion never to be heard from or seen again. I was in this deep for her but now, I was losing my tulip.

I remember meeting her for the first time. Dumbledore had just hired me to replace Horace Slughorn as Potions master. I wanted to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Albus wouldn't have it. Afraid I would be tempted back into my old ways. No way was I going to be, I wanted to teach people to protect themselves. Maybe I wasn't best for that job. But the Dark Lord was going to return, I could only hope that it was not going to be for a very long time. My first day was full of arrogant young witches and wizards thinking they were better than me at potions and teachers who had known me since I first set foot in the halls of Hogwarts, all judging me for the mistakes of my youth. I may had only been 21 at the time of my appointment, but I had matured more than any of these other professors had in their long tenures at Hogwarts.

However, one professor saw beyond my past. Charity Burbage. The Muggle Studies professor. I found it a cruel joke, a way to punish me for my past in some cosmic way. The only people who really cared about me were Muggle-born or at least well versed in the Muggle world. She befriended me. I can recall when I first met her. I was leaving the Great Hall when she ran into me.

"Hello there!" She said pushing a basket of chocolate chip muffins into my hands. "You must be the new Potions Master, Severus Snape. I'm Charity Burbage, the Muggle Studies professor."

"And you aren't afraid of me?" I asked her.

"No. Well not anymore. You-Know-Who is gone, so I have no worries from him anymore. And from what Dumbledore told me, you would be okay now. So, I wish you the best of luck with your teaching here. Some of these kids can be a handful." Charity said to me as she turned back to the hall. "Now if you will excuse me, I have to go enjoy a quick lunch and back to work."

Every day from that moment on, she insisted that I come up to her office for tea. We would talk about what was going on at the school, things Dumbledore said, just anything. I almost felt as if I was talking to Lily Evans again. She was my best friend and now I felt like I had found someone who could help fill the void in my cold heart that was left when Lily died. Charity and I related on so many levels. She was no Lily, but she was the only person besides Dumbledore that knew about how I felt about her.

"Well, I am no Lily, I am sure of that," Charity said one day while she and I were having our daily tea. "But I can be a tulip for you. A different flower for that dark soul."

"That seems to be a creative nickname." I said to her. I looked over the grounds at the maze growing in the Quiddich pitch. "I worry for you. It's getting stronger." She knew what I mean by the "it".

"I don't care. If You-Know-Who is coming back, and Dumbledore says he will try to turn the Purebloods against Muggles and Muggle-borns, someone will need to be here to teach them otherwise." Charity smiled.

"You think that is all it will take?" I looked at her with shock. "People will die!"

"I don't care. If I can enlighten one Death Eater's child, I have done my job." Charity said as she drank her tea.

"That's what I admire about you Tulip." I had to admit, "You care more than any witch I have ever met before.

"You see what I have been able to do to you Sev." She said as she poured me some more tea. "Maybe not as well as I would have liked..." She said noting how I had talked about Potter since he had arrived. "But you are not being lured back."

"It would hurt the ones I care about too much. I already did that once." I said as I finished my tea. "I will love to see you tomorrow."

Charity was the only one who did not think I was getting lured into the Dark Arts. She trusted that I did not murder Dumbledore alone. She thought that there had to be some reason for it that I did not do of my own accord. Now, she was captured. The Dark Lord had captured her when she had come to Spinner's End looking for me during the summer holiday. I tried to warn her before the term ended, but I could not get to her. I tried to convince her that she needed to flee the country, but she would not. And now it was too late. She was here floating in front of Death Eaters and the Dark Lord being taunted and degraded for what she believed. But I could not break. I wanted to save her, but the Dark Lord need to be defeated. Dumbledore had told me to help Potter and to trust that he would complete the assignment and destroy the Dark Lord. However, I knew that people were going to die. But Charity?

"Sev... Severus... Help..." She strained as she floated above the table. I had to look away. Not just to keep up appearances but I knew what was going to happen next. "We're... friends..."

With her comment, I looked away in shame. I couldn't save her.

"Avada Kedavra!" The Dark Lord yelled over my shoulder, and I heard Charity's body fall to the table with a thud. I was silent as everyone laughed at her death. What came next made me turn away, but nothing could have prepared me for that. "Nagini, dinner."

And with those words, was the other person who cared for me gone at the hands of the Dark Lord. And I could not save either one. First Lily, and now Charity. My Lily and my Tulip are gone forever. And in both cases, it was my fault.

So how was that? Good? Bad? Forced? Let me know in a review. I have been wanting to write for awhile and while I know I should work on my other fics, I had to get this bug off my back. So remember to read, well you just did, and to review. Ciao for now,

otherrealmwriter

aka

Realm

PS Check out my other HP oneshots like Dudley Demented. I think you will find those interesting.