Disclaimer: HARRY POTTER, characters, names, and all related indicia are trademarks of Warner Bros. (c) 2001 - 2005

Warning : SPOILERS FOR DEATHLY HALLOWS and - excuse me - not betaed. I felt the urge to write this. The poor guy needs some compensation.

Authors Note : Yikes. I KNEW it. As a side note, I'm no native speaker, but I checked this as thoroughly as I could. Please, do mention any faults you come across.

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He had gone on.

Frankly, he still had doubts concerning the whole situation - looking back at some of the things he'd done, he still expected an eternity as a second Slytherin ghost.

One of his hands came up on its own accord, stroking the skin of his neck, feeling for the bitemarks of that cursed snake. Oh, he so wanted to see the dead body of the thing, just to be sure these eyes with their ferocious glint in them would never look at anyone again.

But then again, maybe it was better to be here, already dead, than to be at the mercy of the red-haired menace and all others still believing their own twisted version of things. Thankfully, he just knew that the boy had looked at these important moments of his life. He knew he'd understand, knew he'd play an important part in bringing the whole affair to the light. He trusted the boy, he realized - strange it was, but he owed it to the scrawny git's son, to her son.

--

He'd known she was with the group of people coming towards him the moment he set eyes on them from afar. There was not only this place, shedding light - Is this really heaven, he thought ? - , there was her light also, the immense joy she had always radiated.

--

Dumbledore had been there. Quiet, thoughtful, eyes full of mirth as ever, thanking him again for what he had done. Black, Lupin and his wife Nymphadora Tonks, James Potter - the only one who let his offered hand go after five seconds as if it was burning his skin - , all apparently well-informed on how things had been going lately. He prayed to Merlin and every god he could think of that Dumbledore had left out his true motivation for his deeds.

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Potter had already hastily voiced his thanks for keeping his son alive and then backed away from him, Lupin was still earnestly thanking him for what he had sacrificed for Harry - inwardly, he whinced at the conclusion the werewolf had drawn so easily - when he saw her face. Beaming at him, eyes teary. He had not seen so much adoration on her features since that fateful incident where hadn't been able to hold his mouth shut.

As soon as her arms were around him, he knew that she knew. She knew why he had done so many things he wasn't proud of, many things he'd rather forget. He didn't know if he should curse Dumbledore or thank him for it. When she kissed his forehead and whispered her thanks to him, clutching the front of his robes and now crying openly , he just knew that many things he'd done and sacrificed were now making sense.

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The End. For now. My fingers itch. They might itch a bit more with every review I get :-D.