Nasty, evil, and dark - and quite wonderful. But, oh, if it truly is the end, it's so tragic that he couldn't tell her. *Keeps hoping for another twist, the one that saves them both - maybe this was all played out for an unseen audience? maybe he finds the words just before she leaves? something??*

That was amazing!

Wow, that was powerful.  I certainly didn't expect Hermione to harden so much that she just sentenced him to death, but then in a game of "them or us" the determination to survive overrides everything I guess.

Very powerful and emotive story that I enjoyed, extremely well written. 

Um Wow. Powerful and beautiful in its starkness. Can't call it a lovely story, but definitely wonderfully done. Glad I took the chance when it came up as a random story.

"There is a pause, a heavy pause gravid with every miscalculation Severus has ever made..."  Oh, and my heart drops, because you have very eloquently summed up his character, right there.  The sad truth of his character's story is that he made one miscalculation after another, in the canon.  He was brave, but a bully.  He was strong, but manipulative.  He loved deeply, profoundly, but tripped into the abyss of his own pride.  And though incredibly cunning, crafty, and intelligent, an excellent spy and possibly assassin (we're left to wonder this in canon), the sheer number of misunderstandings, misconceptions, and miscalculations he labored under, usually when it came to his own sense of wounded pride were really quite legion.  I think we conveniently forget that in much of the fanon, and more or less i'm fine with that traditional departure from his character (even when we make him snarky to the point of alienating, so rarely do we show him as making the previously mentioned unholy trinity of mistakes) it is beautiful to see him IN character, even when I don't get my much desired happy ending.  ...I can so imagine his last thought, if not a last whispered request before the knife comes down to relay the message, 'but, I loved her.'  If spoken, it becomes that last act that has nothing more to do with self-preservation, even as it has everything to do with a last desperate act of self-preservation.  If only thought, it subtly pervades the universe and if only twice more in what is left of her slim lifetime, Hermione ends up crying herself to sleep (when she could have sworn there were no more tears left, ever, for anyone to say nothing of him), because the truth was that he lied about everything, always.  Had she really expected him, in this one moment, to tell the truth?  Hadn't he realized his life was on the line?  If he had, he would have said it, regardless - he was proficient at staying alive, or had been until then.  Staying alive, not truth, he had already demonstrated to her, was always his first priority.  He must not have realized what the right answer was, he must not have realized she'd really kill him.  He must have thought he was going to be freed, or get free, or be rescued...  And the thinking remains circular, because there is no way to verify the truth, because he never spoke the truth, but sometimes his eyes did in off moments, and so she knew, she knew he loved her, even if he refused to say it.  But why had she asked a liar a question that depended on his truthfulness?  To catch him up for being a liar, to catch him trying to test the wind?  Today he'll go this way, but he'll switch again if he needs to?  This time he's on my side, but next time he'll betray me?  And so she cries herself to sleep, because she loved him, and he loved her, and if things had worked out differently, if harry had never died, they might have lived out happy lives together, researching, brewing, making love, having children, growing old - but instead they had a war and the wrong side won and so it didn't matter that he loved her and she loved him, because her ethics refused to budge and neither did his survival instinct.  And then she wakes up in the morning, absent heart once more, numb and hard, pretending that her eyes aren't red-rimmed, pretending it doesn't matter, and she pretends so well she fools even herself.  ...All that to say, thanks for writing.  You're inspiring.

Whoa.  Just...whoa.  In a post-war world, this angsty stuff is so plausible.

My, this is dark. I really really liked it though *wanders of to look for som fluff to lighten the mood*

You are one of only two authors that can draw me into reading dark and angst ridden fics.  Normally I shy away from them.  This was powerful, deep and filled me with such remorse.  Definitely an excellent piece.

but he did love her...thats just sad, poor Severus he could have saved them both...but no he had to serve his own stupid pride! idot man...

at least Hermione will never know...

-karlamarie

I read this story on the exchange. It is a well-written and powerful piece of work. I'm not a big fan of dark, angsty fics, so I find the content, and especially the ending, hard to take. But that takes nothing away from how well-done this is.

Dark, painful, but entirely plausible. An interesting read.

I read this on the exchange and thought it was a powerful piece - really well written, Wonderful.  I'm still not quite sure, though, why Severus denied he loved her. Was it to save her, or himself?

That was stark--and painful.  You captured their very vivid and raw emotions.  A good dark read.

OH! Hermione... omg...