The Potions Master and the Ravenclaw

"You just... know."

Author's Note: A lil quote from Half Blood Prince an one from Deathly Hallows in this chapter.  It's also a sort of long one, and it's a bit dark at the end. Hope you like it! Comment and let me know what you think. Thank you all for reading this far!

...

Snape was walking toward the Hogwarts castle entrance, the twilight casting an orange glow on his pale features. 

He was absolutely furious.

He had just walked the castle grounds with Dumbledore and he had hoped to discover what the headmaster had been doing with Potter during all these evenings they had spent closeted together. 

Dumbledore had said he had things to discuss with him, information to give him before it is too late, but the old man did not trust him – Snape – with that same information.  It enraged him.

Dumbledore claimed it was not a matter of trust.

"I prefer not to put all of my secrets in one basket, particularly not a basket that spends so much time dangling on the arm of Lord Voldemort," he'd said.

"Which I do on your orders!" Snape snapped. He was angry.  Hurt.

"And you do it extremely well. Do not think that I underestimate the constant danger in which you place yourself, Severus. To give Voldemort what appears to be valuable information while withholding the essentials is a job I would entrust to nobody but you."

Snape persisted, livid that Dumbledore withheld vital information from him and still expected Severus to grant him the small favor of murdering him. He was insulted by it, and he told the headmaster as much.

Dumbledore finally sighed deeply in resignation.

"Come to my office tonight, Severus, at eleven, and you shall not complain that I have no confidence in you..."

...

Snape stormed out of Dumbledore's office and thundered down the spiral stairs. As he made his way back to his quarters, his head spun. 

He felt ill.  Dizzy.  Nauseated. 

What Dumbledore told him had completely gutted him and he struggled to process it.

Harry Potter was a fucking horcrux.

"So the boy... the boy must die?" Snape had asked quite calmly.

"And Voldemort himself must do it, Severus. That is essential."

All those years he had spent protecting the boy.  For her.  For Lily. And for what?  He'd been a pawn in Dumbledore's game.  Manipulated and played for a fool.

"You have kept him alive so that he can die at the right moment."

"Don't be shocked, Severus. How many men and women have you watched die?"

"Lately, only those whom I could not save," said Snape. He stood up. "You have used me."

"Meaning?"

"I have spied for you and lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you. Everything was supposed to be to keep Lily Potter's son safe. Now you tell me you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter."

"But this is touching, Severus," said Dumbledore seriously. "Have you grown to care for the boy, after all?"

"For him?" shouted Snape. "Expecto Patronum!"

From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe. She landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office, and soared out of the window. Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded, he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.