Turmoil of Quite a Different Sort

It was brisk, gray morning not uncommon in their part of England. Severus Snape watched for the two town cars that would undoubtedly bring his morning berating that came always in one way or another. Odd it was, he had almost wept upon hearing the news. Though whether it was grief, perverse joy or disgust he couldn't quite place and didn't really want to at this point. Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy dead in a sickening twist on Romeo and Juliet. Sounded like a headline, something in the cold fashion that came always from the professor's mind. Nothing came too close to him anymore.

"Oh Severus," Minerva McGonagall whimpered as she soundlessly came out onto the steps. She clutched at his arm, a very out of character action for this usually stern woman. He dutifully patted her shoulder rolling his dark eyes. Things like this make idiots out of everyone, he thought, myself not the least, referring to the torn bloodstained note that lay in his pocket seal broken, contents cried over.

"Have you read it yet?" McGonagall said in a disturbed voice. He shook his head not looking at her, but at the road. Oh for the love of hell why aren't they here yet? He thought. Snape's deranged musing was broken by Minerva's stern voice. "Well get it out then. The entire school's had a look at it, except you. You're the one he intended it for after all," she said in an openly annoyed voice.

Almost angrily he wrenched it from his pocket, pallid hands tearing a refused seal open. Severus scanned it while Minerva read it throughly for perhaps the fiftieth time that day. She still shivered and welled up a cry of horror over those blood-soaked linens and cold faces. Severus on the other hand was more drawn to emotion by the references to himself and their council though even more so, Draco's talk of Lucius Malfoy. Finally in probably the last thing Draco wrote he spoke openly of his mother and father's harsh treatment, how far his obsession with Harry Potter went and how he just wanted out of it all.

Snape gulped and asked in a shaky voice, "Has Albus seen this yet?"

"No," Minerva said in a sure voice and then as a most urgent afterthought she added, "He wants to let you go. The Headmaster thinks you're mainly to blame, especially for Harry's death because of your connection to James and Lucius."

Once again his gaze was cold. He remembered times he had spoken openly to McGonagall about a few of the darker patches in his life. Breaking his concentration for the second time that day, Minerva said, "You must tell him. It would spare you your job and your reputation."

To this Severus merely shook his head coldly, looking up at the building of Hogwarts site to some of the most horrific times in his life both as a child, teenager and adult. He remembered Lucius's clammy hands and James' laughing. He wanted to vomit at the very memory of them. And now both their children were dead and he was blamed? The ultimate irony in a long procession, he thought vindictively.

"Tell that fool that I've resigned," Snape said in a measured, all the same dangerous tone. He turned, sweeping black cloak following him like a bad memory. McGonagall looked once again near tears as a black car came violently sweeping up the drive