Last Kiss by calanor Title: Last Kiss Author/Arist:calanor Pairing: Severus/OMC, Severus/Harry . Rating: PG Word Count:1506 Warnings: Character Death Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. The characters and their worlds belong to their original writers and no copyright infringement or offense is intended. No money was made from this story. Summary: Severus’ family is cursed. A/N: Morganlefay1958 for helping me beat this muse into submission and the use of prompt 3: Every time Severus kisses someone, they end up dead. The inspiration for the last scene from this art here
Last Kiss
All it takes is one person to bring about a cursed or doomed existence to a bad romance or a jilted lover or a perceived betrayal.
Over five hundred years ago, the heir to the Noble House of Prince was to marry the daughter of a prominent family, but died in a far off land fighting for Britannia and her Queen. So the second son, who’d already set off to see the world after the marriage of his brother, was messaged and told he was to take his brother’s place to fulfill the contract.
Being dutiful, Marius knew he had to do his duty, but first he had to set things right. Especially with his lover, Adrian, also a second son in his own family.
But things never go they way they seem. His intended followed him from the manor to see what this man was like unobserved, only to him kissing another man, never knowing the full truth—only betrayal. Her enraged screams immediately brought the whole of the manor down to the gardens.
She cursed them, all of them, and all the generations thereafter. The combined power of both an angry witch and jilted woman fueled the curse through the generations, where love’s first true kiss would bring death.
Always.
)~(
Severus Snape didn’t know of this curse until his first love had died moments after they had their first true kiss. They had been together for months, had only just professed their love for each other. Only moments later, Severus was to watch him collapse in his arms and breathe his last.
His mother told him then of the curse that the men of Prince family bore. True love was never meant to be. She had prayed that the darkness of that curse would not touch her son.
Severus asked who had cursed them. Her name was Margaret Katherine Potter. Eileen told Severus how her father and mother tried to explain to her that young Marius was only ending his affair. That in his marriage to her, as the new Prince heir, he would be faithful.
All Princes were faithful. Even from that moment they continued to be faithful, but they no longer loved. Always cold and distant—unfeeling, that being the only way.. No other love would die from true love’s kiss.
Never again.
)~(
Severus became a cold, unfeeling, snarky bastard. He kept his feelings and his heart locked up tight. No one would ever, could ever, hurt him that way again.
That was, until the day a young, vibrant, green-eyed man slipped though the icy walls that encased his heart. No matter how hard he tried to fight it, his hate for all things Potter wilted away. He avoided the younger man, tried to keep him away, but Harry Potter had his ways.
Severus, with Albus pushing in his own aggravating way, helped train the young lad in spells and defense. He pushed Harry to his limits and beyond. In war and battles, any show of weakness was a dangerous liability. Showing weakness found you at the wrong end of a sword or wand and then dead.
Severus saw the passionate man underneath the ill-fitting clothes. Watched him once kiss another with such raw intensity and emotion that a jealous rage flared though him. He wanted to grab Harry and pull him away from the other man, to rage at him that he could do better.
But he didn’t. Severus couldn’t give Harry what he so badly needed, what he himself so badly wanted: true love.
Harry knew that Severus Snape was watching him, avoiding him, keeping him at a distance.
He could sense the jealously rise in the older man when he kissed another, knew he was watched as he fucked another in a dark alcove in one of the nearly forgotten halls of the school.
Harry tried to entice the older man, to weave a web and lure him in. But Severus Snape was made of sterner stuff. He rebuffed Harry at every turn, rejected him.
It was frustrating for Harry to want Severus so badly and still be rejected when he knew Severus clearly wanted him too. That was until Harry James Potter retrieved his family’s Grimorie from the Potter Vaults.
Harry immersed himself in his family’s history from the beginning of the aged book to the very last page. Up all night, he learned that the Longbottoms were family allies, as were the Blacks and another Noble family by the name of...Prince.
A dark chapter unfolded on a Margaret Potter who’d married a Marius Prince. She had been a witch who’d married the second son when the heir had died in battle. He read how she’d cursed him after finding him kissing a man, his lover. The writer clearly had the entire story, because though also a Potter, he didn’t show any bias, clearly writing the unvarnished truth.
Harry read how the young woman, not knowing that Marius was only saying goodbye, only saw betrayal in the one who’d been betrothed to her in his deceased brother’s place. She’d refused to listen to all who’d attempted to reason with her, letting her blind rage rule her thoughts and actions.
A curse most vile had been cast that day. One that had plagued the Prince family for generations. Harry sat on his bed thinking that he should know this Prince family.
Half-Blood Prince.
Then it dawned on him. Severus’ mother was of the Prince line. A chill of realization hit him. It all made a tragic sort of sense now. This was why Severus wouldn’t become involved with him. He was choosing a lonely secluded life alone. He would never...
Harry couldn’t have Severus.
There would be no kisses to share. No lazy days exploring that body in a rumpled bed. Not when there was a chance that the older man might kiss Harry with love and passion.
With True Love...and cause his death.
)~(
Harry took on the new challenge of the Curse and Severus Snape with vigor. He knew that a relationship with the older man would have to be friendship until he could find a way around the pain caused by his ancestor. In the days and months since he’d learned of it, Harry had been sorely tempted to find Margaret Potter-Prince’s grave, dig up her remains, salt, and burn them.
When Ron asked him why, he replied, “Because I can.”
But as in all conflicts, war always come to your door. Harry stood between Albus and Severus at the doors of Hogwarts watching as Death Eaters lined up behind the Dark Lord.
“Severus?” Harry whispered.
“Yes, Harry.” Severus had turned to look at the young man beside him, noticing he looked every inch the warrior going off to war.
Harry reached out and grasped Severus’ hand in his, “If my wounds on this day are mortal, would you grant me a boon?”
“What would that boon be?”
“Grant me just one kiss. One last kiss.”
Severus swallowed tightly against the lump in his throat. “Granted.”
Harry smiled as he stepped off the stone steps into the last battle.
Severus tried to keep Harry in his sights as he fought and dueled his way through Death Eaters and the others who fought on Voldemort’s side. He wasn’t sure how long they battled, as they trudged and slid though blood and mud. Watching both sides fall, cries of the dying all around them, he prayed Harry wouldn’t be one of them.
A hush fell across the grounds as the Earth beneath their feet rumbled and blue lightening flashed striking the hill above them. Severus quickly bound the one he was fighting and ran towards the rising smoke with one word on his lips.
“Harry!”
His blood-soaked robes flying behind him, wizards and witches parted as he ran. He stopped at the carnage before him. The evil beast once known as Voldemort was lying on the ground, a sword through his chest, his body still smoking. Harry was lying in a crumpled heap not far from the body. Severus, in three strides, was kneeling on the ground, pulling the man into his arms.
“Harry?” he whispered, as he brushed the ash-covered raven hair away from Harry’s pale face. Blood was trickling down the side of his face from a large gash in his forehead.
“Severus?” Harry struggled to breathe.
“Oh, Harry.”
“Just one kiss, Severus,” he gasped for breath, “Just one. Please.”
The wind was blowing Severus’ hair around his face. “You know.”
“Margaret...should rot...in hell.”
“I would have loved you.”
“I already do.”
One lone tear fell as Severus let his fingers comb through Harry’s hair, carefully he moved till he could feel his ragged breaths on his own lips. He poured all his pent up passion and love for the man in his arms into the kiss as their lips met.
When he pulled back, Severus knew that Harry was gone, his heart breaking.