"Why on Earth does Dumbledore have you teaching, anyway? That seems really dumb. I get you have to atone for your crimes of getting me murdered or whatever, and I'm sure Dumbledore wants to keep his pet on a short leash, but why would anyone let you near children? I'm pretty sure you get off on bullying kids."
"Shut your mouth!" Snape snapped. "Do not act as though you did not treat me the same!" He had made a vow to ignore Potter weeks ago but the constant comments coming from the ghost made him lose his cool often.
"I was an immature child bullying another immature child. Which sucks, yeah, My fault on that bit. But you are now a grown-ass adult man abusing your position of power to bully defenseless children. How is that the same? Do you think Lily would honestly have ever liked you if she saw the way you're acting now?"
"DO NOT say her name!" In a flash, he was standing, toe-to-toe with Potter and red in the face. But the man only smiled and disappeared. Confused, Snape made a circuit around his quarters, checking to see if anything had been tampered with when he felt the temperature of the drop by at least thirty degrees.
"Severus." A soft voice whispered in his ear. Gooseflesh shivered down his body and the blood drained from his face. "Sev - er - us? Is that you?"
"Lily?" he croaked, eyes darting around the room. Silence. "Lily?"
"Yes, it's me." She appeared before him, looking exactly as she did the day she had died. Just like her husband, she didn't look dead and Severus had the urge to reach out and see if he could touch her. His hand trembled as he moved his hand to rest on her cheek. Just before he made contact, she flickered out of existence.
"No! Lily? Lily, please!" He realized with shame that he was crying, and prayed that Potter was not watching this.
Then she appeared across his room and Severus nearly tripped over his feet to stand.
"Severus. How could you?" The look of disappointment on her face had never been more intense. Not even during their argument in fifth year had she looked this upset. Severus flushed in shame.
"Lily, I'm sorry. I did not know the prophecy was about you - I never would have -"
"Answer this question, Severus. Would you feel guilty if it had not been me. Would you have continued to serve your lord if the prophecy had been about Frank and Alice?"
"I - I -"
"Because I think we both know the answer to that is no, you would not have cared. Do not lie to me and pretend you care for the rights of muggleborns, for the preservation of human rights, for peace, that I fought and died for. I was the only exception for you, the prettiest and kindest of the mudbloods. You would make an exception for me but not for the others. You begged your Dark Lord to save me, with not a CARE IN THE WORLD IF HE HURT MY SON? Do you think I would have ever forgiven you if that had worked?"
She waited for him to say something, to defend himself, but he had no words to explain his actions. He had been angry enough at James, his father, the world, that he had not cared who got hurt. It was true.
"Fine, don't answer me. Your silence speaks volumes, Severus. I can't even pretend that's what I truly care about, since that wasn't even the worst thing that you've done, is it? I did not come here to talk about me.
Did you not get enough retribution, when James died, when Harry was orphaned? Was that not enough pleasure for you? Must you still attack him? He is a child. He has never even met James. How dare you punish a child for the actions of his father.
It would be awful, but understandable I suppose, in the sense that you never got over your childhood trauma, if you were just unkind to Harry. But that is not the case. I have been watching you, these past weeks, and you have been cruel to several of the children. Little Neville is scared of you! Frank and Alice were my friends, they were kind to you as well, and this is how you treat their son? Does this please you, to be hated by children? To strike fear into their hearts? Do you like it, feeling like your father?"
The words flowed from her mouth like a stream of water, rushing faster and heavier as she talked until by the end she was yelling and her vibrant red hair had burst into flames.
Severus had to be dead, because this was hell. This was a pain far worse than anything the Dark Lord had subjected him too. He begged for something as simple as the Cruciatus Curse instead of this. Lily, enraged; Lily, weeping.
"I'm sorry," was all he could muster, but she disappeared.
There were many types of ghosts which could haunt a man. Potter and Lily were both quite literal ones, pouring salt in his coffee every day for the rest of term and dumping buckets of water over his head right before his lessons. But the literal ones were not the type that could slowly kill a man. Instead, it was the deep, rotting shame of a man's actions that festered away at his soul. A man who had needed to feel wanted, supported, appreciated, powerful, and important at the cost of the one person to ever grant him those things willingly, without payment.
Severus wept.
.....
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