Unexpected Fate (Severus Snape x Reader)

"Minerva, please," I whispered desperately, leaning forward, my hands gripping the edge of the desk as if it could somehow ground me, steady me. "You don't understand. Dumbledore knew. He—he wanted this."

Minerva's expression darkened instantly, her eyes narrowing as she straightened in her chair. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that Dumbledore—he wasn't murdered the way you think he was," I tried to explain, my voice shaking with the weight of the truth. "He asked Severus to do it. He knew it had to happen."

Minerva's chair scraped sharply against the stone floor as she stood abruptly, her hands pressed against the desk, her shoulders squared. Her disappointment was nothing compared to the anger now simmering beneath the surface.

"Do you even hear yourself?" she hissed, her voice low and sharp, barely controlled. "Do you truly expect me to believe that Albus Dumbledore—one of the greatest wizards to have ever lived—willingly allowed himself to be killed? That he asked for this betrayal?"

"It's not a betrayal if he knew it was coming," I argued, my voice rising in frustration. "He was dying, Minerva! He had been dying for months. That's why—" My breath hitched. "That's why Severus had to do it."

Minerva fixed me with a steely gaze, her lips pressed into a thin line, her eyes sharp and unyielding. "And you knew?"

A knot tightened in my stomach.

I faltered.

"I knew he was going to do it," I admitted, my voice barely above a whisper. "I knew that Severus had agreed to—to end it when the time came. But I didn't know—" My throat tightened. "I didn't know about the Death Eaters. I didn't know they were coming. I didn't know they would storm the castle. If I had—" I swallowed hard, shaking my head. "I would have fought. I would have stopped it."

Minerva exhaled sharply, shaking her head. "But you still knew he was going to die."

I clenched my fists. "It wasn't my choice to make!"

Minerva's jaw tightened. The silence between us felt unbearable.

"You should have told someone," she said finally, her voice quieter but no less cutting. "You should have trusted me, trusted the Order, trusted anyone but him."

I flinched at the way she said it. Him. As if he were nothing more than a traitor, a villain, someone undeserving of even his name.

"You still don't understand, do you?" I whispered, shaking my head. "You think Severus did this because he wanted to? You think he—he enjoyed it?"

I exhaled sharply, searching her face for something—understanding, hesitation, anything but the unwavering condemnation I saw in her eyes.

"Minerva, you say his name like he's a stranger. Like he hasn't been your student once. Like he hasn't stood in these halls, learning from you, respecting you, never betraying you."

Minerva's expression didn't change, her features carved from stone.

"I think," she said slowly, coldly, "that Severus Snape is exactly who I feared he was all along."

Something inside me fractured.

"You're wrong," I said, my voice rasped, yet unwavering.

She didn't argue.

She didn't need to. Her silence spoke louder than words ever could.

After a long, suffocating moment, she sighed, rubbing her forehead tiredly before looking at me again, her sharp eyes losing some of their harshness.