(Author Notes Revised February, 2013)

Disclaimer: I am not J K Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: This is a one-shot, which assumes an alternate universe which follows canon up to close to the end of book six, but after which Severus Snape refuses to conform to Dumbledore and Harry's plans. Moody came up with a plan of his own to get Harry out of Privet Drive, and when Harry and Hermione were camping in the Forest of Dean, Severus notified a squad of Death Eaters of their location instead of planting the Sword of Gryffindor for Harry to find. (Thanks to Ron turning up, Harry and Hermione still managed to escape.) Severus subsequently catches Harry, Hermione, and Ron trying to break into Hogwarts to retrieve a basilisk fang to dispose of the locket horcrux, and notifies Voldemort at once that he has caught Harry Potter. Voldemort sends a squad of Death Eaters to collect Harry from Severus...

Reminder: This story is identified as 'tragedy'.

As Harry waited at the gates of Hogwarts for the Death Eaters to arrive through the morning mist, he realised something had changed in Snape. Whereas before Snape would have responded to his taunts and words, now he simply ignored Harry, as if he were completely beneath his notice. He waited for Harry to subside into sullen silence, and only then did he speak.

"Dumbledore insisted you were your mother's son. He lied. You've got nothing of her except her eyes."

There was an ice in his words which made Harry suddenly very afraid.

"What are you getting at professor?"

"When fate made James Potter's son 'the boy who lived', it handed the Dark Lord victory on a silver salver." There were sounds of footsteps and laughter approaching through the mist. "Goodbye Potter."

Reeling from the killing curse, Harry found himself in a place which seemed to resemble King's Cross, only without any trains. There was something small and misshapen, like an ugly baby on the platform nearby, and Albus Dumbledore, looking very grave and sad.

"What happened, professor?" Harry asked. The Death Eaters had found the broken holly and phoenix feather wand on him, spellotaped it together, and mockingly handed it back to him, to duel Voldemort with. Unsurprisingly Harry's wand had been unable to cope. "Am I dead?"

"Almost." Dumbledore said, sounding very tired and disappointed. "I couldn't be here otherwise. Part of Voldemort had latched onto your soul, when he sent that first killing curse at you on Hallowe'en, all those years ago. When he tried to kill you just now, he blasted it free. In theory, that needed doing to help make him possible to finally defeat. In practice, it's all over now. It was that night after the Astronomy Tower."

"When Snape turned on you and killed you, you mean?" Harry said.

"Professor Snape killed me on my orders." Dumbledore said. "It was necessary. I was dying anyway, and it meant his position with Lord Voldemort was strengthened. I mean it all ended when you insulted and berated him afterwards. Severus loved your mother very much. For years it was that, and that there was a possibility that there was something of her in you, which guaranteed his loyalty to our cause, over Voldemort's. He did his best to hide it, but there was always something there. But you pushed him too far that night Harry, with your insults and actions, even though he was running and not trying to harm or capture you. He concluded that anyone who had said anything about Lily was wrong, and that there was nothing after all but his hated enemy, James Potter, in you." Dumbledore had to stop for a moment to collect himself before going on. "Severus was supposed to help you. He was supposed to get the sword of Godric Gryffindor to you so you could destroy the locket. Thanks to a careless remark from Miss. Granger during the winter, when Phineas Nigellus was present, he knew where you were. He could have got the sword to you. My portrait in the headmaster's office knew enough of your and my plans to encourage him to do so. Instead he alerted the Death Eaters, and then, when they failed to capture you due to Mr. Weasley's unexpected arrival, he has been waiting at Hogwarts for you ever since. You pushed him into the dark, Harry, and night is falling now as a consequence. He's not interested in Voldemort or his ideology, but he's not interested in fighting him either. He just wants Hogwarts as his own personal fiefdom, to run as he sees fit, and he saw James Potter's son as nothing more than the ultimate bargaining chip to get what he wants from Voldemort."

Harry felt sick. In his mind he went back over all the encounters with Snape, testing Dumbledore's words, and remembered that final meeting.

"You're not entirely to blame." Dumbledore continued. "I saw the antagonism between the two of you, often enough, but I just thought it was healthy sparring, striking sparks off one another. I could have done things to de-escalate the situation."

Harry could see that Dumbledore was just trying to make him feel better.

"No, professor. The fault lies entirely with me. I should have given him more of a chance. I see that now." He slumped. Unfortunately it was too late.

They sat there in guilty silence for a while. Everything had been built on his mother, now, Harry saw, and the love of two remarkable men for her; and he had relentlessly destroyed the support for their cause of the one who had still lived. He looked at Dumbledore wondering what he was thinking. His old headmaster was sitting, sunken-eyed and his chin cupped, beneath his beard, in one hand, staring into space, apparently lost in his own thoughts.

"So what now, professor?" Harry asked.

"Now, Harry? At present, you are not quite dead. Voldemort tried to kill you, but has instead killed the piece of himself which had been lodged in you ever since that fateful Hallowe'en when he first tried to kill you and your parents died. If you want to, this time, and this time only, you can go back. The cause is nearly hopeless now, and all you may be able to do is salvage a few friends from the wreckage. You will be hard-pressed even to escape, though there may be a few moments of shock at what has happened of which you could try and take advantage. You cannot expect anything but hatred from Severus, though, and he took Slytherin's locket from you when he caught you trying to enter the chamber. I believe he suspects Voldemort has horcruxes, and with the locket in his possession he will be able to confirm that theory. He has not the slightest intention of doing anything to destroy the locket, though, and if he reports the locket to Voldemort, Voldemort will likely realise you were after horcruxes and redouble his protection on the surviving ones. Severus has been the key to this, all along, as you should have realised, Harry, and we've lost him now."

The gazes of the majority of the other Hogwarts staff members at the meeting were hostile and accusatory. Severus Snape ignored that.

"Following the capture and disposal of the truant Hogwarts student Harry James Potter, although the Dark Lord is currently convalescing from his recent exertions, he has been pleased to express his gratitude by allowing me greater leeway in how school business is conducted. The Carrows have been removed from the school, and the subject of muggle studies will be abolished altogether. Whilst the Dark Lord was happy with the revised muggle studies course, he has conceded that there's really nothing sufficiently extraordinary about muggles worth wasting a couple of hours of senior students' time about them every week, and that all right-minded students will be capable of forming their own correct opinions about them on the subject. The subject originally known as defence against the dark arts will now simply be known as duelling, and any magic not usually applicable to duels, such as patronus charms, will be removed from the course and made available as options in other subjects. The heads of houses will take duelling lessons on a rotating basis. I am abolishing the house cup – elves are removing the hourglasses even now as I speak – although an inter-house quidditch contest will remain in place for the time being. Disciplinary procedures will be restricted to essay setting, detentions, suspensions, and expulsions. The Dark Lord is feeling sufficiently generous that any students or staff who may have mistakenly assisted Mr. Potter during his recent escapade on school grounds are pardoned, although their actions may be held against them if they infringe against the Dark Lord's desires in the future. Finally, despite the ministry's stated view that muggle-born witches and wizards can only get their magic by stealing it, the Dark Lord has agreed, for the purposes of intensive study, to license the attendance of muggle-borns to Hogwarts and for them to carry wands on the school grounds, on condition that Professor Flitwick carries out studies into their genealogy and home circumstances, collecting accurate data to support or disprove the ministry stance on this."

"You sold out Harry Potter, Severus." McGonagall said, voicing the opinion of many of the staff.

"Potter sold this school out." the headmaster coldly replied. "He used it as a platform to flaunt himself repeatedly in the papers, making libellous statements and swelling his own ego. He formed gangs of followers to disrupt the operations of this school and society. He repeatedly attacked certain other students, using borderline unforgiveable curses at times, whilst walking away from any serious disciplinary consequences because he was a favourite of my predecessor as headmaster. He was his father all over again, only even bigger-headed because of the whole 'boy who lived' nonsense. And as with his father, the only safe place to be with Potter around was if you were one of his favoured cronies. Everything Potter did he did to bolster his own ridiculous image and sense of self-worth. The world is well rid of him, and if in his manner of his departure from it he did finally benefit this school as an institution in any way, it is only due recompense for all the damage which he has caused over the years."

"Dumbledore said…" McGonagall began, stubbornly.

"Whilst your loyalty to your former student and refusal to see his bad points for what they were was understandable, I have the files of a number of candidates who would be interested in taking teaching positions on my desk right now, Minerva." Severus said softly. "Some of them can start at a couple of hours' notice, if necessary."

A silence fell over the room.

Severus arrived back in the headmaster's office to the reproachful silences of most of the portraits of former headmasters.

He ran a sardonic eye over them, and lighted his gaze upon Dumbledore's.

"Feeling happy with how your pet Potter performed?" Severus said.

"Severus, you mistook the boy terribly…" Dumbledore's portrait whispered.

"No, Albus: you mistook the boy terribly. Like your tame griffon, McGonagall, you indulged his numerous failings instead of seeing him as he was and attempting to correct them. You let him do whatever he wanted because of your precious prophecy. Well that's all gone now, because it was James Potter mark two who wound up as 'The Boy Who Lived'. Neville Longbottom would have been a much more significant threat to the Dark Lord, not least because Longbottom's actually been trying to fight these past few months and doesn't have the same talent as Potter for alienating everyone except his favourites."

Severus sat down at his desk.

"Severus. The locket you took from him…"

"What's this, Dumbledore?" Severus turned his chair to face Dumbledore. "Is it possible that you have something important to tell me? Something – some sort of plan to try and cajole me into taking part in – which you had only previously shared with your precious Potter?"

"It's a horcrux, and I think you can work out for whom." Dumbledore said. "I believe that Mr. Potter was on his way to the Chamber of Secrets when you caught him. He could have used a basilisk fang to destroy it."

Severus opened a desk draw and retrieved the locket from it. He held it up in front of Dumbledore's portrait.

"A horcrux of the Dark Lord, eh, and Potter had it? The Dark Lord should be pleased to have it back."

"Please, Severus…"

"You had your chance, Dumbledore, and blew it. You used your time in the sun in indulging two generations of Potters and their friends, and so made the world in which we live today. It's a world where the Dark Lord is victorious and where all but the most empty-headed narcissistic of Gryffindors can see the only pragmatic things to do acknowledge that fact. I shall arrange to see Bellatrix tomorrow."

He turned back to the draw and dropped the locket into it, and closed the draw.

He spent an hour or so going over papers, then gave a grunt of satisfaction, and headed for his personal quarters.

Author Notes: (Revised, February 2013)

A couple of reviewers have now said something to the effect of 'but Severus antagonised Harry first'. This is tragedy. It doesn't matter who started it. What matters is that no sides involved nor any observers said 'this is madness' and seriously tried to stop it - and it kept escalating. Albus Dumbledore had the power and authority to stop things (at least whilst he was still alive) and he was in a position to certainly see what was going on, but he kept on (as in canon) merrily stirring away, rewarding James Potter mark II (as Severus would have seen him) for breaking rules, and stepping in to protect him from the consequences of the occasions when he broke laws (most spectacularly the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy with the flying car incident). James Potter mark II and his gang attacked teachers (okay, admittedly one of them was Lockhart), and Albus Dumbledore did nothing. James Potter mark II tried to kill students (including, most publically, in his sixth year, Draco Malfoy), and Albus Dumbledore did nothing (but then apparently students trying to kill other students was no concern to Albus Dumbledore, as he ignored Draco Malfoy doing so, too). And Albus Dumbledore, if he thought Severus Snape was problematic as a potions teacher, or at least problematic as one in the vicinity of James Potter mark II, had the option, I have to presume, to bring back Horace Slughorn at any time that he wanted once Harry was at Hogwarts. In canon, even with a war on and his doubts that he might be seen as 'taking sides', Horace Slughorn comes scooting back to Hogwarts fast enough at the prospect of being able to associate with 'Lily's boy'. Unless Horace Slughorn was otherwise unavailable for some reason before September 1996, I do not see why Albus Dumbledore could not have brought Horace Slughorn back to Hogwarts the sooner, if he considered what was going on in the potions classrooms unacceptable. Albus Dumbledore could have taken steps to de-escalate things, but for whatever reasons decided not to do so. In this story he tells Harry at 'King's Cross' that he thought it was 'good for Harry' to have one teacher who was apparently out to get him and that it would help Harry to grow up and develop as a person. For all that I know that might have been canon Dumbledore's reasoning, too.

The Harry Potter books are for the most part written 'looking over Harry's shoulder', and the reader is personally informed by the narrative as to exactly what Harry is doing and what his motivations for doing it are. People at large in the wizarding world in general do not have the benefit of J. K. Rowling (or some fanfiction counterpart) explaining to them what is going on, and a lot of what Harry does might easily be viewed as attention-grabbing stunts or bids for glory. This is a boy who disregards the word of the deputy headmistress that the Philosopher's Stone is safe to go after it anyway (incidentally putting it in considerably more danger than it apparently had been in before, as Quirrell/Voldemort seemed to be stymied until they had the 'use the boy' moment), who 'borrows' a flying car to get to Hogwarts in his second year and who later in the year very publically 'outs' himself as a parselmouth, and whom even his own housemates are convinced cheats his way into the triwizard tournament. And when the Ministry of Magic raises questions about him and his frame of mind in his fifth year, he ripostes with an interview to a noted journalist. It seems to me Harry's actions can credibly be misconstrued as those of someone who absolutely has to be the centre of attention (so long as he feels Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore has his back) - especially by anyone in a mindset that Harry James Potter is simply James Potter (noted in some quarters for his big ego and desire for attention) returned with an extra 'Harry' in front.

I do not consider the Severus Snape in this story a hero - but nor do I consider him a villain, either. I consider that he certainly was a minor villain in his Death Eater days during the wizarding war, back when he was whole-heartedly committed to Voldemort and his ideology, and he might have had a brief moment of heroism when he actually repented initially and went to Albus Dumbledore and begged him (albeit with prompting) to save not just the shadow of the girl he had once loved, but one of his own worst enemies, too. By the point that this story commences he's become cynical, thoroughly disillusioned, and in a sense burnt out by everything he's gone through. In a flicker of what he once believed in, he wants Lord Voldemort's version of muggle studies removed from the Hogwarts curriculum, and muggle-borns permitted access to the school, but he's prepared to sacrifice the execrable reincarnation of his own worst enemy to get it. It's not as if Potter has been doing anything obviously useful as far as Severus can see, anyway - as with canon, Harry James Potter has been in hiding for months, apart from the brief attack on the Ministry, and that looks to a casual observer as if it was some sort of bizarre revenge attack on Dolores Umbridge (who was, after all, the apparent primary target of Potter's Ministry of Magic invasion). Potter clearly (to Severus Snape's mind) has been interested only in trying to hide and save his own skin, whilst carrying out the odd (attention-grabbing) petty act of revenge against prominent figures who've annoyed him; and whilst Potter has been in hiding, some of Potter's contemporaries, such as Neville Longbottom, have actually, obviously, been trying to fight the regime, which makes Potter's hiding look even more pathetic to Severus.

Severus Snape certainly has no idea at the onset of this story that Potter was trying to find and destroy horcruxes, because Albus Dumbledore, in all his great cleverness, never mentioned that to Severus Snape - and once Potter is gone, having got sufficient concessions from Voldemort to be able to make life at Hogwarts tolerable, Severus Snape has no interest in rocking the boat and engaging in assisting an insanely risky Gryffindor-esque project and chancing bringing down the house of cards he's been carefully building at Hogwarts for likely no good end. He has a very good idea of just how bad things could get at Hogwarts for anyone attending if he weren't in charge but someone much more hardline and/or fanatical (such as Bellatrix) were installed as headmaster or headmistress instead.

This story is trimmed from a somewhat longer story in my files which had a last desperate fight angle to it, but I felt there's enough, absent the (original) maybe-even-though-Harry-and-his-friends-blew-it-the-others-can-still-win-against-Voldemort angle, for it to stand on its own as a piece of tragedy.

Finally, to repeat something from my opening note, this is a one-shot. I have too many other things I'm currently trying to keep up with for it to be anything otherwise.