He wants me to kill him. He wants me to kill him. To be the villain in everyone's eyes even more so than I already am. To be the monster who kills to leader of the light. He wants me to be the one to stand there and kill him.

The thought crossed his mind for the thousandth time in the past few hours, the words whirling around his head on a loop ever since he had learned the terrible role he was set to play in this damned war. How many times must he pay for his past crimes? How much more will the mistakes of his youth cost him?

Would he ever earn the forgiveness he had been promised?

Dumbledore was meant to be his redemption.

His saviour.

Instead he was just to be another means of damning him.

Another burden to bear.

"Please..." He pleaded into the silence of his rooms. Calling out into the darkness pretending there was a soul left in this world willing to hear his prayer. "Please let there be another way, don't make me do this, not after everything else." Tears ran cold down his cheeks, the dungeon air chilling them on contact.

"I am trying. I have done all I can to earn forgiveness, please, let me have it. Let me see the end of this war, let it be over, I can't do it anymore. Don't make me take another life. Don't make me take his. Let there be another way. Please, I wish there was another way. I'd do anything"

"Well now…" A singsong chirp echoed through the room and Snape's eyes shot up to see a strange looking man perched on the edge of his desk looking quite at home "…there's an offer I love to hear, anything, anything, anything he says. Anything he says and anything he means….so anything is what he'll get….now you say you want a way out….well I have the key to one hell of a door….so….let's make a deal shall we? Dearie."

I'm not currently planning to do anything else with this. Its just a little 'what if' scenario I wanted to explore and thought I would share.