Our Constellation--Dramione

Chapter Eighteen

Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, plotlines, characters, places, events (etc.) all belong to J.K. Rowling, she is the rightful owner. When a character is created by me, you'll know right away ;)

A/N: I'd warn you, but I wouldn't want to spoil it.

--

2 May 1998

This wasn't right. Eavesdropping on a conversation between You-Know-Who and Professor Snape. Hermione could barely make out the words they were exchanging. It was too soft-spoken.

Hermione tensed. Please don't let this happen! she pleaded. She knew what Voldemort was getting at and it would only end in a bloodbath.

Snape didn't know whether his blood had run cold or if the odd sense of heartache flooding in his veins was preparing him for the end.

"While you live, the Elder Wand cannot truly be mine."

That's where you're wrong, Hermione bit.

"You've been a good and faithful servant, Severus. But only I can live forever."

"My lord--" With a violent slash of his wand, Voldemort slit Snape's throat.

Snape felt the warmth leave his body while his every breath was disrupted by his arteries spewing more and more crimson substances than what could be recovered. He staggered backward and collapsed against the glass wall.

Hermione had heard the disgusting sound, almost like a pair of shears cutting through tough meat, but didn't anticipate this precise result. That said, she gasped and covered her mouth. No, no!

Snape knew the Dark Lord wasn't yet satisfied. Not nearly enough.

"Nagini, kill." Not a moment's preparation was given before the snake sank her deadly fangs deeper into his skin, injecting small amounts of tasteful poisons into his bloodstream.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were on the other side of the same glass wall that their professor's body was mutilated on. They heard and felt the snake's strikes as she repeatedly attacked Snape.

Hermione whimpered in horror. She covered her eyes and felt Harry's arms wrap around her.

Three, four... seven times did Nagini strike the man caught between two sides of a war. One of lost love and one of deception and treachery. This was his rightful demise. He wished it hadn't been so painful but he had no greater regret than wasting away his life looking after the son of the person most dear to him. He hated that he couldn't have ever had what James Potter had and felt shame in believing he could honour her by looking after her son. And to do so meant covertly sidling up on the very people he wanted no affiliation with. After all, it was the dark arts that repelled Lily away in the first place.

Nagini attacked him once more for good measure. Eight strikes for eight Horcruxes. How amusing...

Suddenly the Dark Lord vanished.

How rueful it was that Severus knew that Potter and his friends had witnessed all of it. The greatest joke of it was the Dark Lord hadn't the faintest idea they were near.

The substitute of each breath was a quickening dribble down his throat of more and more blood. He couldn't feel it but he could certainly hear it. Snape felt himself slipping away. But oh, how he was ready.

The trio looked on horrifically at the glass that had been painted in his red blood. Harry's wand dropped to the floor as he kneeled before his professor.

So much blood... his fingers cupped Snape's neck to almost clot the blood and keep it from spilling anymore. Very slowly did the professor meet his student's eyes. He grunted for just another breath, but instead, he began to cry.