Forgotten

Disclaimer: Harry Potter\'s universe is the sole intellectual property of JK Rowling, and I make no money from my dalliances in it.

The Final Battle had just been fought and won by Dumbledore\'s Army. Bodies littered the Quidditch pitch, and the survivors walked amongst the fallen. The corpses were identified and moved into rows before family or St. Mungo\'s came to claim them.
Severus Snape was one of the survivors who volunteered for this duty. He cast his gaze over the collection of dead, and absorbed the gruesome realities of the battle (for this war had been more about espionage than battles). There were many children whose flesh had been burned off their bones, or were subjected to the cruciatus curse longer than necessary and were covered in angry red lines where their blood had boiled in their veins. He felt in many ways responsible for their deaths. Potter had approached him with an offer to teach the DA in absence of an experienced teacher, but Snape wouldn\'t hear of it, and kept it from Umbridge only due to the fact that his hatred for her far out-weighed his hatred for the boy.
As he walked along the long rows of dead students he attempted to commit every face into his memory. He never wanted to forget them. He knew they would haunt him in the dark nights, but that would be his penance.
Snape stopped at a small blonde-haired Hufflepuff. Her tag read \'Brenda Niflheim\'; he guessed she was a first-year due to her young appearance. He knelt down and brushed her hair from the good side of her face; the other side left in ruins.
\"I don\'t even remember you in my classes. I feel a fool for never appreciating every life that entered those dungeons.\"
He paused for a long time, his eyes straying to the work effort to categorize the bodies, but rested back to Brenda\'s tattered countenence.
\"It is little consolation to the dead to be remembered, by strangers no less, but you will never slip my recognition again.\"
He moved down the row to a brunette boy in Gryffindor. \'Larcen Hob\'.
\"You, however, I do remember. You had a talent for attracting attention, if memory serves. Not many students gained my undivided attention. I warned you constantly that it was something you did not want. Well...finally it will be given with a far more gracious attitude in place of a scornful one.\" Snape reached down and straightened the boy\'s glasses that had gone slightly askew.
\"Snape, you\'re needed over here, Goyle is too heavy to lift!\" a voice called to him from a distance. He sighed and looked at the bodies he passed; some with recognition, but most with utter oblivion.
He told himself furiously (lest he would forget) that it was far more than Potter who won this war; it was all the nameless faces, all the premature soldiers who would be forgotten as the years wore on. Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley would most likely be forgotten after enough time. Only Potter, the Boy-Who-Killed-Voldemort, would be remembered for his sacrifice. The rest would be represented by a mere number. 245 people dead. Along with Harry Potter.
Snape made it his personal mission to make sure all the names were recognized.

What a liberating experience being rid of the Dark Lord was.