Always

(Harry Potter)

The perspective of Severus Snape- a lover, a guardian, unseen.

They saw the cloak, the scowl, the spite,
The bitter man who walked the night.
They see a black night in my wake,
A snake, a spy, a soul opaque.

I wore the dark like second skin,
But no one asked what lay within.
They saw the sneer, the sharpened wit-
Not how the pieces never fit.

You smiled at me with summer's grace,
While I lived life in shadow's place.
I spoke one word and watched you leave,
A single slip, a life to grieve.

I remember us in the grass, the sky was blue,
A moment passed. And so did you.
I held my guilt like coiled wire,
And burned beneath my own desire.

I hated him. I hated fate.
I hated what I learned too late.
But when I saw your child’s green eyes,
The war was done. I chose my side.

They’ll never know the life I gave-
The days I died, the nights I stayed.
They’ll never see the lines I crossed,
To pay for love already lost.

I watched him fall, I watched him rise,
I shielded him with hidden lies.
Not for the boy- no, not for pride-
But so your memory never dies.

I watched him grow with his grin,
The ghost of James beneath his skin.
But still I stood, though cracked and worn-
A vow kept though never sworn.

They call me cruel.
They call me cold.
But I remember hands I held.
I never spoke. I never wept.
But in the dark, the promise kept.

One word I believed in. One word I thought.
Through death and dreams and all that went wrong.
As a man, whose love was true-
Who never stopped remembering you.

Always.