Title: This Life of Darkness Pairing: Harry Potter/Severus Snape Rating: G Disclaimer: Property of JKR etc. Summary: Harry chases Severus up a tree, only to find out what he doesn't expect. Notes: Starduchess, I'm THRILLED to be writing this drabble for you! Happy Halloween! <3
‘Surely you didn’t think you’ll hide forever,’ Harry says.
The tree rustles. ‘Obviously I’d underestimated the great importance of my arrest to Auror Potter: that I’d been targeted as the next feather in his cap-'
‘You’re not wanted anymore. You’re… free.’
He’s not sure how Snape does it – impregnate the silence with so much sardonic meaning, it’s almost a shout.
‘Free. I will never be free,’ the rusted, bitter voice echoes from the branches above him.
‘You don’t have to live like this. Let me see you. Please.’
Perhaps Snape heard the desperate catch in Harry’s throat, for a black shadow pours itself to the ground – congealing into the shape of a gaunt frame with bloodless lips and burning eyes.
He looks sunken… and emaciated.
Starving.
Harry draws back, half from fear but mostly to hide his crushing grief.
‘Vampire.’
‘Indeed.’ Snape’s face was so calm, Harry wonders at the price of such self-control.
‘There’s no cure, is there?’
Laughter. ‘The cure is death, Potter.’
He risks a hand on Snape’s face. ‘What if you have… a companion?’
‘You would leave the light,’ Snape murmurs, ‘for this… life of darkness.’