Disclaimer: JKR and Warner Bros. own everything. The idea of basing a darkfic on a nursery rhyme belongs to my twisted plot bunnies. Any dialogue you recognize belongs to JKR.

A/N: This idea came out of nowhere... literally. That's really all I can say. This one is a bit incoherent, but most of that is intentional. Well, if you think I'm insane, I seriously don't blame you... just be sure to read my other fics!

Strange, that his last thoughts were of a muggle children's rhyme. His mother had crooned it to him once, softly, so that his drunken father would not wake. It was just a silly little song, and songs didn't make the bruises go away, or keep you warm at night.

He had forgotten it until the day he heard her sing it, laughing with her sister. The words sounded beautiful when she said them.

Ring around the Rosie…

The two little girls had spun around, wild and carefree, Lily's feet leaving the ground ever so slightly. The passage was spinning now…

Pocket full of posies…

He had almost gotten up the courage to give her a bouquet once, but the flowers seemed wilted and pathetic. Besides, she only would have laughed at him, what else could she have done? A scrawny boy with wilted flowers… he threw them away in disgust.

There was something he had to give the Potter boy now, his face was blurry and pale; Severus almost asked him why he was standing upside-down, it wasn't part of the game…

He reached out, found the boy's robes, and pulled him closer. "Take… it… Take… it…"

Someone else was there, perhaps it was Granger or Weasley; it didn't matter, anyway. Suddenly, he didn't want to lose those memories. He felt himself slipping back into them.

Ashes, ashes…

There was no memory of Lily this time. This time, there was Dumbledore, smiling at him, his look both kindly and condescending. "You must kill me…"

The old man stroked the head of the baby Phoenix, covered in soot. Was it hard for him, knowing that he would not rise from the ashes?

Severus didn't want to relive that memory; he slipped further back, into his childhood. Lily turned her face toward his; he waited, eager to see those beautiful eyes. But Lily Evans was gone, and he was back underground in the cold…

We all fall…

But he had fallen too early! He had ruined the game… and now there was no time to start over again. In seven years, he had tried never to look into Harry Potter's eyes. The boy was thick-headed, arrogant, he didn't deserve those eyes that shone like emeralds.

At least, that was what Severus Snape told himself… The reality was that he couldn't bear to see hatred in Lily's eyes, as he had on that summer day in their fifth year…

Still, hatred was better than the cold. "Look… at… me…"

…down.

His hand lost its grip on Potter's robes, but his eyes never released those emerald orbs. Now it was too late to ask her if he could play as well…

-Finis-