Harry found it slightly ironic that it had to rain on the day of Snape's funeral. The pathetic fallacy was a little unneeded and, frankly, over the top, but it did create a painfully morose atmosphere as a couple of hesitant guests paid their respects to the man that everyone had misjudged, Harry included.
Harry himself decided where Snape should be buried. He wanted to make sure that Snape, despite the Ministerial sneers, got the funeral he rightly deserved. Harry made sure that every detail was perfect, because Harry wanted to make sure that Snape's name, however infamous to some, was remembered for all the right reasons.
Harry gazed at the sepulchre he had built for his once enemy, a modest marble tomb surrounded by a pond with Lilly's, bobbing up and down in the blue water as a torrent of rain cascaded down from above. Harry remained silent as a small Ministerial conductor said a few words in front of the meagre crowd.
Harry ignored the rain, despite the fact he was getting soaked. He just stood there, the rain striking the resilient fellow as he watched the triple agent being lifted gently into the tomb, his body softly hitting the bottom.
Words and whispers met his ears as he saw the lid shut, sealed magically, the engraving on top momentarily gleaming amid the inundation of rain, words which Harry had carefully chosen:
Here lies Severus Snape, the Unknown Hero. May the world finally learn of your heroism, and may the world accept you for the man who was never understood. Here lies the man who truly saved us from persecution and discrimination, and let this be known to all who have ever shunned the indefinite man whom this grave shelters.
Harry didn't know who many of the other attendees were. He had expected more people than this, but the only attendees he personally knew were Ron, Hermione and Ginny, all standing behind them as they witnessed the burial of Severus Snape. Harry had been hoping that people would forget the old Snape that they were accustomed to, and accept the brave man he really was, but post-war bitterness resulted in many people shunning the truth and continuing to believe that Snape was an evil traitorous murderer.
The Prophet hadn't helped at all. They refused to cover Harry's testimony for Snape, and went on like Snape was the mastermind of Voldemort's operations. In partial reality, Snape had been this, but only to destabilise Voldemort.
Harry had realised why Dumbledore had grown to trust Snape so much. Dumbledore was always one to believe in the sanctity and power of love, and Snape had shown that he was willing to put his life in danger for the vague concept any of us call love. Harry himself, despite lacking much love throughout his life, felt that love was as important as Dumbledore always said it was, and Harry was truly grateful that he should share such love and intimacy with Ginny, and his friends.
Harry was sad that Snape never had anyone who truly loved him in return. His parents were not exactly the most caring of guardians and Lily had never grown to truly love Snape. Harry personally thought that if Snape had not loved the dark arts so much, maybe Lily would have eventually fallen in love with him. Harry wondered what sort of man Snape would have become if he had been granted that destiny instead of the cruel one he had given. Snape would have been a sincerely happy man, who would have experienced mutual love and changed in the process.
Of course, if Lily had accepted Snape instead of James, Harry wouldn't have been standing there, pensively reflecting what might have been. Harry wondered whether Snape's despising of him was down to the cruel fact that he was the personification, the truth, the harsh reality that his one true love had fallen for another.
Snape always remained loyal to Lily, even after her death, by remaining faithful to Dumbledore and, surprisingly, to Harry himself. Harry considered everything that Snape had done to protect him, and all that Snape had done to help the cause, and it made him even angrier that so little people had turned up for his funeral. Not even the teachers at Hogwarts had shown up.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the congregation before me, one Harry James Potter wishes to say a few words..." said the Ministerial conductor. Harry shook himself out his reverie and stood upon the low ledge which rested to one side of Snape's tomb.
"I, for one, am incredibly surprised that more people have not shown up for the funeral of this honourable man. I suppose many people still find the concept of Snape to be objectionable, but, as I have said to the media, the man who resides in this tomb was one of the bravest men who fought in this war, and that will always be true. I thank all of you for coming to pay your tributes to Severus Snape, but I, personally, will only rest when everyone does the same. I have come to realise all the things he has done for us, and I want to make it clear that he risked his life to ensure the functioning of the Order of the Phoenix and the slow destabilisation of Lord Voldemort's regime. He did it in the name of love, love for one Lily Potter, my mother, and that can justify any of his actions. As Dumbledore once said, love is the most powerful form of magic and I know that he was right, because love sustained Snape's determination, and love is what caused Voldemort's demise. Many people say that Snape and Voldemort are alike, but, in truth, they are wrong. Snape embraced and felt love, whilst Voldemort rejected it, and that is all the difference in the world.
"Anyone who knew me during my time at Hogwarts will know that I loathed Snape because he hated me in return, for reasons I didn't understand, and I only abolished my hatred when I found out his true loyalties and his true intentions. I guess that the saying "don't judge a book by its cover" has never been more appropriate, but I would never have thought that Snape had done so much in the name of my mother, but he had. I am also forever grateful that it was he who saved my life on a few occasions, because he found that protecting me was his own way of facing the consequences of indirectly sealing the fate of his beloved Lily. The reason he despised me was because he saw my dad in me, and he and Snape loathed at each other as much as any two human beings can, but the reason he cared for me was because I had my mother's eye, and he saw a reflection of her in me.
"I don't expect the entire nation to immediately change their opinions on Snape, but I will work hard to make sure that he is respected and remembered. Thank you..."
Harry finished, and stood down from the raised ledge. A brief spattering of applause resonated in the recesses of his mind, but he was not paying attention. All he could think about was the memory of Snape, his legacy, and all he stood for.
Ginny took his hand, and Harry squeezed it, not knowing whether the wet on his face was rain, tears, or both. He watched as the Ministerial conductor conjured a wreath, and levitated it carefully onto the now sealed tomb.
Some of the onlookers left at this point, perhaps under the impression that this signalled the end of the service. Harry had no intention of leaving the grave of Snape so soon. As the crowd dispersed, he approached the tomb, and put his hand on the wet ornate marble. He conjured his own wreath, and placed it carefully next to the wreath of the Ministerial conductor.
"Thank you...and I'm sorry..." he said quietly, his voice faint in the sound of the falling rain. For a numb moment, he thought he almost heard a whisper echo in the dells of the rain, but he shook the thought away, feigning its impossibility. He turned back towards Ginny, Ron and Hermione, the only people who remained.
He move toward Ginny, who was giving him a concerned look.
"Harry, you must be freezing. Come on, we'll go into reception and dry off..." she said.
Harry didn't look her in the eyes, but Ginny knew what was wrong with him. She took both his hands, and coaxed his head up. His eyes were red, and although the rain covered his face like thick glaze, Ginny knew that not all of that water had come from the sky.
She wrapped her arms around him, and he held her tight, crying silently into her shoulder. They turned their backs on the tomb, and, together, walked towards the main building that lay to the south of the graveyard for the promise of shelter.
It seemed that, on that day of reconciliation, that Severus Snape was finally at rest.
"After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. ~J.K. Rowling"