melfinatheblue (melfinatheblue) wrote in luciusfqf, @ 2007-12-21 09:03:00 |
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Entry tags: | fiction: lucius, fiction: lucius/severus, gen, slash |
Snape's Funeral
Title: Libera Me
Author/Artist: melfinatheblue
Rating: G
Pairing: You can read as Lucius/Severus, or not. Could be read as gen, I guess. So, I have no idea.
Summary: Severus Snape's funeral
Warnings: Sad, depressing, it's a funeral.
Prompt: A shallow grave, the colour purple and the sound of music from the luciusfqf item prompts
Notes: I combined a plot bunny and a prompt and a deep desire to use classical music in a fic. Go me! Latin is from Libera Me from Faure's Requiem and repeats as I remember it doing so. Full lyrics are linked at end.
"Lucius, stop!"
He continued to punch the wall.
She grabbed his arm.
"Lucius, dearest, stop. That won't help. That won't bring him back. Now come on. You don't want to be late, do you?"
He shook his head mutely. She undid her black scarf and wrapped it around his hand.
"There, now, that'll work for the moment. Let's go make sure Draco's dressed, shall we. We may not have received an invitation to Severus Snape's funeral, but we are most certainly going. He would have wanted us there, you most of all. And no trumped up child is stopping us, savior of the Wizarding World or not."
Draco was up and ready to go, dressed in black, with his Slytherin House tie on. He looked nervously at his father.
"What happened to your hand?"
"Your father just got a bit upset is all, dear. Nothing to worry about. Now we'll just get some flowers from the garden and we'll be ready to go. Any preference, Lucius?"
"I'll get them myself. I know what he liked."
He walked downstairs and out into the garden. He wanted to make sure that the plants he gave said something, even if only he and Sev understood what they meant.
"Amaranth for immortality, cypress for mourning, forget-me not for friendship and true love, and purple roses because you liked the color. And one black rose for my black beauty."
"Lucius!"
"Coming!"
He wrapped his hair ribbon around the bouquet to hold it together. Then he walked out of the garden to his family.
"I think he'd approve. He always did like the purple roses."
"Ready?"
"Ready."
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Harry Potter had pulled as many strings as he could get his hands on to get Severus Snape the funeral he felt he deserved. Unfortunately for Harry's sense of guilt, there weren't enough strings in the Wizarding World to get the killer of Dumbledore the funeral Potter wanted him to have, which was probably a good thing. Snape might have been tempted to return from the dead and strangle Potter if a spectacle had been made of his death.
So instead of a marble tomb by the shores of the lake, there was a shallow grave in a graveyard in Hogsmeade. Instead of a choir of merpeople, there was a single singer. There was a small crowd of people, mostly Hogwarts staff, students, and former students. Harry stood in the middle of them with Ron and Hermione, and hoped he'd invited everyone important to Snape.
"Harry, you did well. Severus would have appreciated this."
"I think he probably would have been sarcastic about it."
"Well, yes, but he was sarcastic about everything."
"Are you sure I invited everyone important to him?"
"Everyone I can think of he spoke even semi-fondly of is here, Harry. Well, except for one person."
"Who? Who didn't you mention?"
"It seemed very inappropriate to let you invite a Death Eater, even if the Ministry pardoned him."
Harry thought for a second. The only pardoned Death Eaters he could think of were the Malfoys.
"Malfoy!"
"Lucius Malfoy, yes."
"He and Professor Snape?"
"Malfoy and Severus were at least close friends, though rumor often suggested they were much more. Malfoy likely recruited Severus into the Death Eaters, which indirectly led to his demise. I doubt very much that Severus would want him here."
"Harry!"
"What is it, Ron?"
"Malfoy's here, the slimy git!"
Harry turned around to see, that in fact, the Malfoy family was entering the cemetery. They were all dressed in black, except for Draco's Slytherin tie. Professor McGonagall quickly moved to intercept them.
"You're not welcome here. Please leave."
Lucius Malfoy looked at her with cold grey eyes.
"Unless you are planning on attacking me or calling the Aurors, I'm not going anywhere. I will pay my respects to Severus Snape with my family. Now, if you'll excuse me, Professor McGonagall, I have some flowers I wish to put on the grave."
"You have no right."
"He was my dearest friend. It is you who have no right."
He pushed past her and limped slowly up to the stone. He placed his hand on the smooth granite. It was so different from Sev's warm skin.
"Damn you, Sev. You weren't supposed to die like this. You were supposed to turn into a grouchy old man, remember? And Merlin knows you'd have made a good one. What possessed you to do something so bloody stupid? Worst part is that the Dark Lord never figured it all out. You were this brilliant double agent. and he never knew, just killed you for a wand. Stupid, stupid, stupid. You know if you were here right now, it'd be you I hit instead of the damn wall. Goddamn you. How am I supposed to keep going with this great big hole in me where you used to be? And that damn boy, the "Prat who lived" as you used to call him, didn't even bother to invite me to your funeral. I don't know what to say Sev, really I don't. I'm so sorry I got you into this mess. So very sorry."
He braced his hand against the gravestone and knelt in the soft earth.
"There's nothing I can say that can make up for the damage I did to you, Sev. I know that. I just hope that you're happier now then you were here."
"You know, if I'd known they were inviting murdering bigots, I wouldn't have bothered to come. You know mate, it's your own fault he's dead, so why the hell are you here?"
Lucius slowly got back up to his feet. His knees and lower legs were stained with fresh dirt. Ron continued to taunt him.
"Honestly, if you hadn't gotten yourself caught in the first place, he might still be alive. I'd sure be pissed if the bloke responsible for my death showed up at my funeral. So why don't you do us all a favor and go off and die in a ditch somewhere?"
Lucius looked at the boy. He had turned as red as his hair, and both his fists were clenched.
"You want to hit me, you filthy blood traitor? Go ahead. It won't change anything. It won't bring back your brother, and it won't bring back my best friend. It won't fill up that aching hole inside of you. All the anger does is distract from the grief, give you something else to feel. You want to feel angry, go ahead. Let it poison you for all I care. My best friend, one of the three people I loved most in this world is dead and I am at least partly responsible. The pain you could inflict on me is nothing compared to that. The pain the Dark Lord inflicted on me is nothing compared to that. Severus Snape is dead and gone and for the rest of my life there will be a hole inside me where he once was."
He placed a hand back on the gravestone.
"Requiescat in pace, Sev."
He walked to where Narcissa and Draco stood. They took seats near the front. Narcissa took the flowers from him.
"You forgot to put them on the grave."
"I got distracted."
"We'll do it after, as a family."
"Um, Mr. Malfoy?"
"Mr. Potter, as I already told your gatekeeper, I am not leaving."
"It's not that. Since you and Professor Snape were good friends, I was hoping you might have an idea of what music he might like."
"Libera me from Faure's Requiem. It was his favorite piece."
"I'll see if the singer knows it."
"He would likely appreciate it."
"Oh, and Mr. Malfoy, I didn't know about you and Professor Snape. If I had, you would have been invited. You were his friend, you should be here."
Harry began to walk away, then turned back.
"There's going to be a wake after, up at Hogwarts. You and your family are welcome to come to that too, if you want."
Lucius inclined his head; a lord acknowledging his inferior.
The service was short and full of platitudes. People spoke about what a good kind man Severus Snape was. Obviously they'd never been in the same room with him. Lucius fought hard to keep from laughing sometimes. It was really bad. Even Harry Potter was saying nice things, and only nice things. Snape had spent six years terrorizing the boy, and Potter was making him sound like a saint.
"If anyone else has remarks they'd like to make about the deceased, please come up to the podium."
Draco elbowed him, hard.
"You should go up, father. That was a load of twaddle. Honestly, if Uncle Sev knew that Longbottom spoke at his funeral and you didn't, he'd haunt you for the rest of your days."
Lucius shook his head.
"Fine, if you won't, I will."
Draco pulled a purple rose from the bouquet and walked up to the podium.
"I've known Severus Snape my entire life. He was my godfather. He wasn't a good man, well, not really. He was grouchy and sarcastic, and about as much of a morning person as I am, which meant that he was never really awake till lunch. He always wore black, smelled like potion ingredients, and could reduce an incompetent student to tears in ten seconds flat. He was also a brilliant potions master, a talented wizard in general, a very good friend, and a true Slytherin. Only a Slytherin could pull off a plan like his, even while dying. So you can stuff all this talk of how noble he was, how good, how loyal. He'd have something really cutting to say about it, you all know. And then he'd go raid the Manor's wine cellar with father and they'd have this really erudite debate that'd get increasingly incoherent as they got drunk. It's funny to think that's not going to happen anymore. It really is."
Draco put a hand to his face and realized he was crying.
"That's all I have to say. Except he loved purple roses. I never knew why, but he loved them."
He set the rose on the gravestone and walked back to his parents. Lucius was trembling, his hair hanging in his face. Narcissa pulled his head down to her shoulder, and started to stroke his hair. As he approached them, he realized his father was crying. He'd never seen that before. He had the sudden urge to curl up on his father's lap and bury his head in his chest and sob. But that was something to be done in private.
Libera me domine
de morte aeterna,
The music started and the funeral began to break up. It seemed that most of the mourners were more than ready to leave, even though it was considered the height of rudeness to leave before the closing song was over.
in die illa tremenda, in die illa
Draco leaned his head against his father's chest. Propriety be damned for once. He could
feel it vibrating and realized that very quietly, interrupted by sobs, his father was singing the song as well.
Quando coeli movendi sunt, quando coeli moventi sunt, et terra,
Dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem.
He watched as people left. It had started to rain. Even the Weasel slipped away, after a few words to Potter. By the end, it was just Potter and them, in the pouring rain.
Requiem aeternam, dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Libera me, Domine
Lucius stood up, and Narcissa handed him the flowers. He walked slowly and carefully back up to the stone and laid the flowers on top.
"Mr. Malfoy, what does the song mean?"
"It's part of the Requiem mass, Mr. Potter, the Catholic service for the dead. The last part, 'requiem aeternam, dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis' translates to 'rest eternal grant them, O lord, and let perpetual light shine on them.' Libera me means either deliver me or free me. The rest is freely available in the Hogwarts library, I'm sure."
"Thanks, Mr. Malfoy."
Harry looked at the flowers for a minute. They were an odd assortment, purple roses, forget-me-nots, and some other stuff he didn't recognize. Wasn't the sort of thing you'd expect Lucius Malfoy to bring to a funeral. He shrugged and turned towards Hogwarts. Halfway to the castle Professor McGonagall was waiting for him. They walked the rest of the way together. They were almost inside when Harry stopped.
"Do you hear that, Professor? The sound of music? It's like the rain is singing."
She nodded.
"The last movement of Mozart's Requiem, if I'm not mistaken. Agnes Dei. It's an old spell, Harry, cast shortly after the Founding to give comfort to those who mourn. They can hear it all the way to Hogsmeade. Now let's go inside and warm up."
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Lucius stood and listened to the music for a few moments.
"Not your favourite piece, Sev, but you did always like the doom and gloom more."
"Father, let's go home. He's not here anymore."
"I know, Draco, I know. I miss him."
Lyrics here including English translation
And soundtrack is available here for a week or so. It's a collection of 6 songs. They're numbered in the order they'd sort of fit into the piece, with the Dies Irae starting off the piece, and either of the two Agnes Deis ending it.