Yeah. First HP fanfiction. Quite sad that I’ve only written one, eh?

SPOILERS FOR DEATHLY HALLOWS!

…..Thank you. (Also thanks to my beta for helping me :D)

OoOo

He could not believe it.

Was it truly over? Flinty green eyes scanned the area, tombstones cluttered about the yellow-green grass of the cemetery. Death had followed him like his own shadow, barely missing him yet snaring the people he loved instead. He often wished he was the one Death had caught, despite being the last hope for so many people. But was it that bad to be selfish? He had been the one risking his life, he had lost his family, the only real family he had since his parents died…He could be selfish for once.

Harry sighed and raised his head to the heavens. The sky was blotchy with rain-clouds and wind, the trees around him yowling their grief into the air in hopes something would hear them. The grass brushed against his ankles as it swayed with the breezes, as if urging him forward and to that lonely grave before him. Lonely. Even in Death, that man was lonely, forgotten, shrugged off by many. A hard grip of anger clutched up Harry’s insides, making his blood turn red-hot in his veins.

Severus Snape’s gravestone stood before him.

Harry had no more hatred for this man. He had wasted so much energy in hating him, wasted time, and wasted his life. Why hate the dead, why hate their memory? Dumbledore would not want him to dislike the man even in Death. This man who had helped him along the path of destroying Voldemort once and for all. Harry knew Snape had seen so much of his father James in him, even when it wasn’t there. This had fueled Snape’s loathing of him, because of the things his father did, not Harry himself. It took the boy many, many days to forgive this man for all the wrong he had caused….it took even more to thank him for the good.

Harry shifted uncomfortably. The wind continued to lap and race ahead of him, making his hair slap against his forehead and over his green eyes. Eyes so much like his mother’s. His lips drew into a taught line, his brows lowering as he tried to think of what to say. But the words became clogged and jumbled in his mind, his lips unmoving. He had to do something. Harry knew, he would not return to this grave in a very long time, if even ever again. This was perhaps his very last chance to make amends with the man buried beneath the soil.

Shaking fingers brought a single flower to his face. Harry’s face softened, his pulse began to slow, and the words in his head disappeared. For long moments he simply looked at the thing clutched in his hands, observing every detail, each petal and marking, loving the scent, which drifted from it. It perfumed the air around him into a lulling honey-smell, gave him comfort. It was strange, how such a thing could calm him so. He looked at it for a few more moments, admiring its simple beauty. A sigh tore at his heart, yet did not quaver over his lips. He inhaled shakily and placed the flower on the grave, casting a spell to hold it there where it belonged.

He turned to see Hermione and Ron, looking at him in such a caring way it nearly broke him in two. Hermione reached out and hugged him, Ron patted his shoulder gently. Together, the trio walked away from the graves, bidding the dead one last good-bye to finally get on with the lives they were gifted with. Life was a blessing; they had come to realize this over the past few years, knowing that each moment together was not a moment wasted. For some unfortunate people, life was all too short.

The single white Lily fluttered in the breeze, wafting her sweet smell over the grave of Severus Snape.