The boy who had to die

Severus Snape rushed into his office. He was almost insane with rage; he felt it could tear him apart. It was like a fire burning all over his body, forcing him to dig furiously and scratch at everything nearby. It was as if poison flowed through his veins, suffocating all hope and happiness. A disease, which kills everyone, he ever cared about. It started with his mother, continued with his best friend, and now it was Potter. That's right. Even in his mind, he couldn't call him by his first name. The hatred that arose from his father's tyranny and underlined by the boy's arrogance still lingered in him. However, he knew that the boy was the only living person he still had. The only positive reason for his constant survival.

He risked his life every day. Lies and hypocrisy became his coat, which he never took off. He could barely sleep and could no longer remember when he was holidays. He bowed to his enemy, and his true comrades-in-arms despised him deeply. For the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore, he was only a Death Eater, who is useful just for doing dirty work, that none of the "good guys" didn't wanted to do. They only used him as a weapon - not that he didn't deserve it ... He deserved it. That, and much more. However, it didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was the boy's life. Unfortunately, now it didn't seem like, that boy had a great chance of survival.

It was a whole big mockery.

“So the boy…the boy must die?” Snape didn't want to believe his ears.

“And Voldemort himself must do it, Severus. That is essential… that is essential, That is essential… the boy must die…”

His own and headmaster's words sounded like a broken tape recorder in his head. The light side darkened a little again. They left the whole weight of the world and its rescue to the child. They let the child sacrifice "for the greater good." Merlin's Beard, child! No matter how Potter could be annoying, arrogant, how he disobeying rules and regulations, how the brat annoyed him with his too much consideration for others, how he threw himself into every danger, and how much it reminded him of Lily. It was bad. Severus felt deceived, betrayed. He promised Dumbledore his devotion for protection for the woman, he loved, and then for her boy. But the leader of the light only used him and didn't intend to keep his promise. He raising the boy like a pig for slaughter. Maybe the headmaster lied for the first time too, maybe he'd have let both Longbottom and Potter killed, just to get his Chosen One.

Severus knew Dark Arts very well.

“Fragment of Voldemort’s soul was blasted apart from the whole, and latched itself on to the only living soul left in that collapsing building.”

Damn, it sounded suspiciously like the creation of a Horcruxes. But how can you get rid of the living box of this disgusting magical artifact without actually killing the host? Desperately, he rushed to his library and began research. He was determined to disobey the headmaster and try everything just to save the boy. If he found anything that could help Potter and free him from a piece of Voldemort's soul, even if it was the darkest magic, he would use it. If he found something like that, without the slightest hesitation, he would easily kidnap the boy from Hogwarts and tie him to him with blood. He hasn't changed in the slightest. Still the same selfish Death Eater, caring only for those he loves, and otherwise their families and the whole world around them can burn just if he gets what he wants.

In a few minutes, his so tidy cabinet looked like it had exploded. Open books, potions, and scribbled parchments rolled everywhere. This state of feverish search, however, led nowhere even after three months. Time passed and the moment, when the boy will saw nothing in him but a disgusting murderer, was approaching. But that didn't seem to have a solution. There is no other option and things just happen the way the senile old man planned. Regardless of moral values, what is dear to him or what would be fair. The child deserved to live, he deserved his revenge, and Dumbledore deserved to understand how gray he had become.

But as always, life and death aren't simply fair!