I do not own, or receive any benefit of the Harry Potter properties.

The Married Life of Severus Snape

By Larry Huss

Now, they say the devil is a gentleman. He isn't, but I won't tell you how I know. What he is, is someone who wants to be thought of as such, and plays the part grandly. Tom Riddle (they called him Voldemort then) wanted to be thought of as lordly, and honorable to those who served him. So when Severus Snape told him about a prophecy that a young family called Potter was going to have a child that would have the power to thwart him, the fellow decided that a bit of murder was in order. In wholesale lots, in fact.

Now this Snape person had a bit of an obsession with the Potter woman; Lily her name was. He had put his foot in it badly some years back when they were in school together, and knew that his chances with her were slim or none, but people like that are the world's greatest optimists. So he begged and begged Riddle to just let him have the woman, and he'd keep her safely out of the way.

Riddle, he wasn't sure that he believed in any prophecy, but it didn't hurt to make sure, and anyway killing was his favorite thing. This way he nailed down the loyalty of a follower, and got to play also; he couldn't resist.

The opposition to Riddle at the Ministry of Magic was all rotten with traitors, and the vigilante group that old Albus Dumbledore led was just as bad. In less than a month the Potters were was right in front of him, revealed by a false friend, Pettifog his name, or something like that. Being so young and clever the Potters had trusted an old school friend, and diddled themselves out of any real chance of hiding.

Riddle blew through their wards like a typhoon wind, and laid James Potter out like a piece of logwood in no time flat. He went up to the nursery, where the mother and child were trying to get out a window and told Lily to step away from the baby and he'd spare her. Didn't work, she was a stubborn redhead and didn't have a lot of give-up in her nature. So there she was begging to be killed, if only the child be spared. Riddle was laughing to bust a gut; he could tell that he had a chance to make everyone miserable and still look like a generous Lord. So he shot out a Blasting spell and knocked the mother over to the other side of the room, breaking both her legs, bad. And then he killed the kid; no nits make no lice.

His business done, Riddle left, and a few minutes later Snape showed up to "rescue" his promised reward. She got taken to Snapes house, a place that you'd be glad to be from, not go to. There he tended to her, for with the war for Wizarding Britain going to St. Mungo's for healing was too dangerous, he said, for her. By the time she was up and about, and mostly done her mourning for husband and child, it was all over but the formal executions.

Whether Riddle had really believed in the prophecy or not, Dumbledore and the resistance to the Death Eaters did, and when the Potters and later the Longbottoms (another couple the prophecy could have meant) were destroyed, the heart went out of them. Within a year a hundred heads were stuck up on Tower Bridge, though Muggles couldn't see them of course, with Dumbledore's having the place of honour.

Snape put on his best behavior, and his nursing Lily back to health (and no doubt a potion or two) had her biddable and bedded by that time. She accepted that was as the only way to survive, and to protect her living relation, a sister. It also meant she had to hobnob with those of the victorious party; except for Pettifog, who Snape had quietly murdered for her, as a sort of birthday present. He was sincere in his affection, in his own way.

It was at a party at Malfoy House (the place the Malfoys had moved to on getting the Ministry of Internal Security appointment) that Lucius Malfoy couldn't resist letting it slip how far his good friend Severus had been willing to go to accomplish his ambition to get his Lily. It might have been well meant as a way of expressing admiration for such passion and love; it might have been meant just to twist the knife, with Malfoy it was always a bit hard to tell. What mattered was not how Malfoy meant it, but how Lily took it.

Snape was a budding Master at Potions; Lily had been not too far behind him at school. It gave them a topic to talk about, aside from the political situation, which was likely to lead to some tense moments. I can see you know which way this tale is going, now.

A week or so after the big to-do at Malfoy House, Lily made Severus a fine, big, meal. He said with a smug smile that he'd have to watch it, or she'd have him fat before the year was out. She said it wouldn't be his worry, and that she was two months along herself. While they were exchanging this little bit of happy domestic news, he didn't notice the loss of sensation in his toes, and then his knees. When he finally realized something was wrong, she quick as could got him tied up with a Full Body Bind Curse, so he could reach neither wand nor antidote.

As the numbness crept up his body she told him that he'd never see child of his born, and threw a rope over an exposed beam. Then she put a memory of all that into a Pensieve, and hung herself in front of him. How long he stared at the love of his life and the fruit of his loins swinging in front of him is unknown. It wasn't until a week later that Aurors came into the place and saw the scene. The poison she used was slow; he may have had an entire day to take everything in before he died. Some love matches aren't written in the stars, or at least not favorable ones.

Now my throat is dry, and my glass is empty. Rectify these problems and I might tell you of how Tom Riddle joined the ranks of Barbarossa and Arthur of blessed memory. Though with a bit more encouragement from his followers.