Slashretreat drabble: World Enough and Time Title: World Enough and Time Author: lesyeuxverts Beta: the fabulous and amazing bewarethesmirk Word Count: 299 Rating: PG-13 Pairing: err, hints at future Harry/Snape? maybe? Warnings: character death (sort of) Disclaimer: Not mine. Title stolen from Andrew Marvell. AN: For littleblackbow, who couldn't come to slashretreat_dc but who was kind enough to send us all art via slashpine! Mine was this lovely picture of Harry looking off into the distance, wistfully, with Snape in a dark profile in the background, so I used it as inspiration for this, though I'm not sure it was quite what littleblackbow was envisioning with her art.
If there had been world enough and time, Harry would have found Snape before the end – hunted him down in his cottage by the sea and made him see reason.
Nothing had made a difference, neither Hermione's arguments nor Professor McGonagall's requests. Snape had refused to see them all.
Harry still thinks that he could have persuaded Snape, if he'd had enough time. If he'd taken out more articles in the Prophet, defended the man's honour more vehemently, or sent him another owl, Snape would've listened. He would have relented.
The word coward hangs between them – one of the last words that Harry said to Snape. Look at me, Snape said, his last words.
He'd lived, but he hadn't wanted to see Harry again. He hadn't let Harry apologise.
If there had been world enough and time – it's something Harry heard Hermione say once – he wants it to be true now. If he had gone to Snape's cottage, ignored the man's refusals and broken through his wards, if he had only gone there…
He wouldn't be standing in the rain now, listening to a flat eulogy and wondering how many of the mourners really knew Snape. He wouldn't have had to hear Poppy's verdict that the northern sea air hadn't been good for Snape's weakened lungs, that with time and care he could have been kept healthy, that she could have done something for him.
Listening to the eulogy, he fingers the chain of the Time-turner in his pocket. Harry is a full wizard now, stronger than most, and his friends in the Department of Mysteries know better than to gainsay him when he knocks on their doors.
Stories of the funeral will win him admittance to Snape's cottage if nothing else will. He has world enough and time.