Chapter 1

Melody rammed her way through the thick underbrush, near the Forbidden Forest. Her short, wavy blonde hair kept catching in the branches. She whacked them away as if they were not only in her way, but attempting to thwart her search for her husband. She had not seen him for over a year. That is war, he said. She knew though that there was more. He felt personally responsible for the war and did not want it to hurt any more people, especially her. Well, the Potter boy had ended the war and she wanted her husband back.

An hour later she dragged herself back to the castle to ask for word of him. Several paces away from the door, she saw three teenagers standing, looking battle worn and weary. One of them had fiery red hair; he was Bill and Charlie's youngest brother, Ron! She ran forward.

"Ron," she shouted as she ran forward.

"Melody?" he asked, surprised.

"Who," Harry Potter muttered distractedly. He was slouched over against the wall, running his fingers over his wand.

"Melody, friend of Charlie and Bill's. She's Head Auror," Ron told him, though he didn't seem to be paying his friend much mind. Melody didn't bother to correct him to say Ex-Auror, though she would have usually.

"Harry Potter?" she asked, seeming merely curious, not really caring that he was the most famous person in the wizarding world.

"…and Hermione Granger," Harry added indicating the brown-haired girl on his right.

"Have you seen my husband?"

"Snape?" Ron asked slowly.

"Yes, Severus," she answered impatiently, as though he were being an idiot.

Harry's eyes widened and he almost fell over, tripping over a nonexistent stone. Snape has a wife? He slumped down even further, and now he would have to tell her that he was dead. He had never imagined…

"I'm sorry there was nothing I could do," Harry whispered.

"You're not saying what I think your saying," she said quickly. Harry felt like such an idiot. Here he was telling her that the famous Harry Potter could do nothing about the fact that he was dead, that he had seen him die.

"He's… Snape is gone. I'm sorry,"

"No, he couldn't be," she muttered, "No."

"I'm sorry." Was that all he could say? I'm sorry. That means nothing. Anyone could be sorry. He hadn't done anything for Snape and he was the only one that could have. Melody turned away from them.

"Melody, I…" Ron trailed off. He had been about to offer comfort. She was a family friend after all, but he did not know what to say any more than Harry had. Melody ignored Ron, which Harry could not blame her for; Ron was not known for his tact.

Harry simply stood there wanting to put his arm around Melody, or something like that, even though he had never known her. He knew what she was suffering, what that was like. He knew death, well. He had been about to move over to her, but she turned around to face them. Tears played down her face, but when she next spoke it was with resolve.

"Take me to his body."

Harry nodded, leading her down the dirt road to Hagrid's and detouring to the Whomping Willow. He wordlessly attempted to hover a fallen branch, but to his dismay, instead levitated a feather. He quickly cancelled the spell and muttered the charm aloud. This time he was more successful.

Harry shook his head. Were his spells off because he was in shock? That was dangerous; he would be vulnerable in the case of an attack. Hermione gave him a concerned glance as the branch hit the knot on the tree that immobilized it. Nevertheless, she led Melody forward. Harry cast a quick Patronus to check his magic. Oddly, it seemed completely unaffected. Ron waited for him and Harry blurted out before he could stop himself…

"Snape has a wife?"

"Had," Ron corrected, "had a wife."
"So…"

"What?"

"You knew?"

"She's my brothers' friend," Ron said, failing to make it appear that it was no big deal.

"Who would think he would be married to a beautiful Head-Auror?"

"Beautiful?" Ron asked, trying to distract Harry. Harry looked at him like he was an idiot.

"Snape slinks around like a snake, wearing that overlarge cloak, whereas Melody is thin, fit, and well-dressed. His eyes are like… cold black and her eyes are green. How did they end up together?" Harry asked, gesturing wildly and moving towards the entrance to the Shrieking Shack.

"Yeah, I sort of wondered the same thing. She's really nice and outgoing and he's just cruel," Ron told Harry, tripping over a root.

They clambered through the small tunnel. At the bottom, where Hermione and Melody stood, were pools of blood. Snape's body was not there.

"I'm going after them," Melody said angrily.

"Who?" Hermione asked, speaking for the first time.

"Death Eaters," Harry whispered, "I'm going with you."

"Me too," Ron and Hermione said at the same time.

"No, you both should stay here. Harry will be plenty of help," Melody answered. Hermione gave Harry an annoyed and stubborn and angry look.

"They'll probably have to come. They won't let me out their sight since I let myself die, reawoke, and then went after Voldemort. They can duel," Harry said, as casually as discussing plans for dinner.

As Melody led them out of the Shrieking Shack, Ron spoke:

"Why are we going after his body? He's dead."

"I would have done anything to get Sirius' body back," Harry said and the pain, still there, choked away any further words.

"She needs closure," Hermione said simple as someone who know, but did not know. "Harry are you okay?"

"Hmm?" Harry muttered.

"I've never seen you choke on such a simple spell. I just though you may be a little shaky from fighting Voldemort less than 24 hours ago," Hermione added.

"My magic is fine. I don't know what happened. I tried a Patronus, which was no harder than usual," Harry retorted as though she had been verbally attacking him rather than expressing concern. Hermione ignore the rudeness; he had endured a lot. He would be humored for now.

"Where would they go?" Hermione asked.

"I would expect them to scatter at Voldemort's death, those that still could that is," Harry answered.

"They must have wanted revenge badly if they took the time to retrieve his body," Melody added.

"What would they do to it?" Hermione asked, horrified.

"Humiliate it in some way. When they though I was dead, Voldemort used the Cruciatus Curse. I don't know who they would humiliate more, myself or a traitor who helped bring down Voldemort," Harry said darkly.

"You endured the Cruciatus yesterday?" asked Hermione in surprise.

"No. It had no effect,"

"What?"

"Sacrificing you life evokes an interesting sort of magical protection," Harry answered. "Anyway we should start looking."

"Right," Ron said. Melody stood there. She had been watching these exchanges with a hint of surprise, but mostly with impatience.

"I have some ideas of where to look," Melody told them when they had finished.

"Great! Death Eater hideouts," Harry said sarcastically.

"Not appreciated, Harry. Just because you've been desensitized by constant pursuit by a Dark wizard," Hermione said, her voice quavering slightly. Harry hadn't realized Ron and Hermione were afraid. They had been with him through most of the difficult parts of his life.

Melody led them past the grounds, where they apparated from. The first place they came to was a dark forest. It seemed fitting to Harry that it was Dark wizard hideout. Vines crept across the ground like spiders. The trees stood tall and angry and forbidding. Harry was sure that the Death Eaters weren't there though. He looked over to see if Melody, a head Auror, was of the same opinion. To his surprise, she was ignoring the scene around her and staring down at her small hands, obviously perturbed about something.

"What is it?" Harry asked curiously.

"It's nothing, nothing," she said, shaking herself as though trying to convince herself as well as him. "They're not here, let's go, Malfoy Manor."

"They're not going to be there, unless they're waiting to kill the Malfoys. They'll blame them for Voldemort's death," Harry said, convincing himself as he tried to dissuade her. "No you're right, let's go." With a swish of cloaks they had apparated to Malfoy Manor.

"A Head-Auror," Harry started.

"Ex-Head-Auror," she corrected.

"A former Auror would not be walking straight up to the house of a Death Eater, staring down at her hands," Harry told her. She was about to walk straight through the gate, though Harry doubted it would admit her. The magic was strong here, like it was a Voldemort's horocrux cave. Melody blushed. Even in the pain of her loss, she did not like her abilities as an Auror being questioned. She fiddled with the wedding ring on her finger, sliding it around.

"I imagined that, well it's not important, it wasn't what I though," she babbled.

"You were probably almost injured, severely. I can feel the power of the magical defenses," Harry chastised her.

"Harry," Hermione said and the taking him aside whispered, "She just lost her husband leave her alone." Harry blew up at that. He cast Snape's Muffliato spell, so that no one nearby, especially Death Eaters, would hear.

"Are you all absolutely insane? This house has been give protection by some of the darkest wizards of our age! The best thing that could happen would be pursuit by inferi. That's one thing I might be able to save us from. I'm not skirting around emotions if I could be responsible for the deaths of three more people!" Harry ranted. They all shut up pretty quickly.

"Homilius Revelio," Hermione muttered, "No one is there."

"That spell could be tricked, but in any case, you're probably right," Harry told them, "We should go back to Hogwarts." He looked over in annoyance to see Melody turning her ring over in her hand. He apparated in a huff. There were three pops behind him, so he began to walk towards the castle. Then, he heard a screech behind him. He turned around immediately, wand drawn. Melody had screamed for no apparent reason. Perhaps he should have been gentler with her; he had been so messed up when Sirius died. Even though lives were on the line, it wasn't her fault that she was irrational.

"Melody," Harry said quietly.

"Look! Look!" she shouted, almost hysterically. She shoved her wedding ring into his hand. I love you was crudely engraved into the ring. It seemed queer that Snape had loved anyone and much weirder that she was showing this to him. "Do you see it? The message?" she asked Harry and he said that he did. "It wasn't there before. He sent it to me. Our rings are connected with a Protean charm. He said that he might!" she cried excitedly.

It took a while for her to convince them, especially Harry, that it was actually sent to her through the ring. They were inclined to believe that losing her husband had caused her to lose it. When they were convinced, Harry brought up another problem.

"Death Eaters must have taken the ring to lure you in," Harry said finally, "I saw him die."

"No," she said brightly, "He's alive, but it's a code. I know Snape; this means something."

"Tell me if you figure it out," Harry said, not really caring, but trying to be kind to her. He covered the lawn in several long strides. When he reached the castle, the waves of people parted for him, allowing him to lead his friends and Melody quickly to the Great Hall. He paused for a moment to steel himself against the visions of death from the previous day and then walked straight up to Professor McGonagall for news. As she ran through all the latest news, Death Eater captures, victims freed from the Imperio, and many other developments, Melody continued to turn her ring over in her hand. Hermione was talking to her.

"Why do you think it's a code?" she asked kindly.

"Severus is slow to trust; he would be afraid of someone else taking it," Melody answered.

"Who would suspect your rings to be connected," Hermione asked doubtfully.

"Death Eaters are remarkable resourceful, not to mention willing to torture for information. I would expect you to remember that," Harry said quietly, before turning back to McGonagall. Hermione was silent for a moment, as was Ron, remembering Malfoy Manor.
"Well I would think that he would mention an experience that only you would know," Hermione said attempting a normal voice. "The hint you received would correspond to that event and reciprocally a place," Hermione told her, mostly to placate her, but also because she liked puzzles and logic.

"But those are words, they could mean anything: countless dates, marriage, countless moments spent together- Oh, of course!" she said, suddenly excited, "I should have known!"
"What?" asked Hermione, excited now too, though she had been doubtful moments earlier.

"The forest! Where he first told me he loved me. So obvious! So significant!"

"Why is it so significant?" Hermione asked curiously.

"It's where he told me everything, about his past. It's the place he used to go to escape from his father and where he used to gather what he needed for potion making, when he had nothing else to do," Melody said simply.

"Harry, we have to go now," Hermione shouted, before hurrying after Melody. Harry and Ron sprinted after them and those walking the halls, flattened against the wall to let them through.

"Wait, hold on before we apparate somewhere," Harry shouted after them. It took all of 30 seconds for Melody to repeat what she had told Hermione. Harry waved his arm, allowing them to apparate; he was willing to give her the time to realize the truth. He had certainly needed time.

The forest they had apparated into had a warmer feeling then the forest of Dark wizards. He could see many herbs that would have intrigued his potion master- as a child and probably even now. It also looked like a peaceful place to read, with wide oaks to lean against and plenty of light filtering through the upturned leaves. It looked a bit like the secluded areas he chose for his own haunts while stuck at the Dursley's.

He wandered forward after Melody, Ron and Hermione in tow. Then, in front of him, between the trees, he saw the glowing of a Patronus. It looked very much like nothing, very nearly a shield form. It had four legs and a head, but that was all he could distinguish. Before long it dissipated.

"That was his Patronus, a doe!" Melody exclaimed.

"It was barely formed," Harry said and there were some more vapory shield Patronuses before they ceased to exist at all. Melody ran forward to the distant area where the Patronus had appeared.

"Hold on! It could be anyone!" Harry shouted at her, "How foolish are you?"

"My husband needs me! You're just paranoid," she retorted.

"You don't have any idea who that Patronus came from. I happen to have the worst possible thing happen to me, more often than not," Harry answered annoyed.

"I can't not help," she whimpered.

"I went after Sirius, thinking he was being tortured by Voldemort. I took the bait. It became a full out Order and Death Eater battle and Sirius was killed when he would never have been in danger. All my fault," Harry said angrily.

"We'll move slowly, circle around and approach from the back," she said, almost pleading for him to agree.

"Now that sounds more like an Auror," he said, sighing heavily, "I know you won't give this up. Might as well agree when you're choosing to do it rationally."

As they traveled Harry considered his own surprise at Snape having been married. He'd seemed like such a loner, shutting people out of his life at every attempt at kindness. Yet, hadn't Harry himself once though it would be better to be alone. If you had no one else to lost, how could Voldemort destroy you?

The only person Snape had really hated was him. Harry could not blame him. Not only had Harry's father been Snape's rival, but Harry was a reminder of his biggest mistake: the delivery of the prophecy that led Voldemort to kill James and to kill Lily, the girl he had fallen in love with, Harry's mother, whose sacrifice had saved Harry. Snape had always been evil in his eyes, but now that he was gone Harry was seeing something more. Look at me. His green eyes, Lily's eyes.

Harry shook away his thoughts. They were approaching the area where the Patronus had been seen nearly half an hour ago and, Harry though wryly, one of them ought to be wary of danger. There on the forest floor was Snape's slightly mangled body, bleeding and the palest Harry had even seen him. Harry drew closer, putting his hand on Snape's to feel for a pulse that could not possibly be there, all the while expecting Death Eaters to appear and surround them.

"Merlin," Harry whispered, "He's still alive."