Last Thing I See
Title: Last Thing I See Author: Shirahime Rating: PG Pairing: Snape/Harry Word Count: 330 Warning: Deathly Hallows spoilers Summary: Gazing up one final time.
Snape gazes up at the horror-stricken boy, making him gasp as he grabs hold to his shirt. What a sight he must be, Severus thinks to himself, judging by Harry’s expression. “Look… at… me,” Snape manages to utter, clinging to the boy. He barely holds himself partly upright, soon slumping backward to lie completely supine, blood pooling under him from the rent in his neck. If he didn’t know better, Snape could almost swear that he sees the shimmer of tears form in the eyes above him.
So strange, Severus thinks, how what must be the space of seconds seems to stretch and stretch as one’s life ebbs away. Those wide green eyes staring down at him, horror mixed with something else. Fragments of scenes play rapidly within Snape’s mind, of the eyes of a friend peering through the face of a foe, expressively defiant in some, fearful in others, apprehension often laced with something more. He’d always loved Harry’s eyes. Eyes like hers. But sometime in the space of the then and the now, he’d become enamored of them because they were Harry’s own. He has the time to wonder when protecting the boy due to the guilt of the past became protecting the boy only for his sake.
Strange, Severus thinks, but stranger still is how he finds the strength to raise a blood-stained hand. And soon it is reaching up until cooling flesh meets the soft and warm of Harry’s cheek. He tries to speak, but his voice is beyond the ability to form words. Severus watches as understanding dawns in emerald above as Harry reads the emotion buried in obsidian depths, almost as if it is plain to see. But all too soon, the light behind dark eyes is fading, and the boy opens his mouth to speak. But Severus is beyond hearing. As Snape’s vision blurs and fades to black, he swears he feels a tear strike his cheek as he slips away.