A Day in the Afterlife of Severus Snape
Snape POV
Ten years after epilogue
Another year passes by and the crowds gather at the sight. Another anniversary of the end of the war, another reminder of the lives lost in defeating the Dark Lord, mine included. My soul has wandered this grave for nearly twenty years and I have come to realize that which I never knew before. I loved her.
I, Severus Tobias Snape, am in love with Hermione Jean Granger. Maybe now that I've said it aloud, I can overcome it and move on with my life…er…afterlife. I do not know when or how it happened but now that I see her here again, as she comes but once every year, I am pressed with the same feelings of longing and urge as she passes my grave. She lays a white rose down on my tombstone and says a simple, "Thank you, Severus". My heart melts at the way my name slides from her lips.
She walks past the memorial site and sits in the gazebo. I know she goes there to think and recall the past. Her hair is lighter, shining with hints of beautiful brown and gold, and she is thinner. The years have done well to this beautiful lioness, while I, the bat of the dungeons, stay in my ghostly form, unbeknownst to those around me.
Honestly, I think a part of me always loved her. She reminded me so much of Lily in her youth that it frightened me. To see my beloved alive in the body of someone else haunted me throughout her school years. However, in death, you see, I have a great deal of free time to think. Yes, she has similar tendencies and the personality of my beloved Lily, but she is NOT Lily. She is Hermione, a strong, courageous, insufferable know it all Gryffindor who has unknowingly won my heart.
I wish I could talk to her. I know what you must be thinking, 'Severus Snape is not one to show any emotion, other than anger and hatred of course.' Death has changed me. On one hand, I am glad to be rid of my life. I am no longer a pawn between two masters, I am now free to live, and I use that term loosely, as I see fit. On the other hand, I am so far away from the one i love.
She was there the night I died, she watched me give my memories to Harry and take my final breath as my soul left that miserable place we call the world. She comes but once a year, but not only to me. The memorial is filled with the lost souls of all who died in the quest to defeat the Dark Lord.
Over the years, I have learned of a way to make myself into an apparition and wander freely throughout the cemetery. With this being said, what is stopping me from 'popping' up to Hermione and professing my love for her? Oh, yes, that's it, she could never love a bat like me. Plus, we could never be together. She is alive, and I am not.
I stare at her in the distance as she sits on a wooden bench at the memorial site. She looks around to see if anyone else is there and pulls a familiar vial out of her bag. Draught of the Living Dead? Why would she do something so stupid? I watch her as she takes the vial to her lips, muttering something I could only make out as an "I love you" and drinks the contents. My mind and body scream in protest. She was supposed to live! She was supposed to move on!
Not seconds later, the life leaves her body and her ghostly soul forms not but a few feet from me. She gets used to her bearings and begins to 'float' around, her voice calling out a familiar name. "Severus? Where are you? Severus?" I froze in shock.
My name? She is calling my name? Without hesitation, I respond to her. "Hermione? Yes, I am here. Over here!" She turns and comes toward me with a look in her eyes that I cannot decipher.
"Hermione, what are you doing here? You were supposed to live!" She looks up at me and utters the words I have wanted to hear since the first time I laid eyes on her. "Severus, I love you. I can't be without you anymore. It hurts too much. I know I never told you but I have always loved you, ever since I was seventeen and I saw how brave you were. I came to be with you. I've seen how you look at me so I know you feel something. Your eyes always gave you away." She smiles up at me and I knew I was immediately done for. I was, as the Muggles say, 'putty in her hands.'
Unable to form the words, I pull her into my arms and kiss her with all the passion this shell of a ghostly man contained. When we separated, I looked into her whiskey colored eyes, which were twinkling as bright as Dumbledore himself, whispered "I love you too my little Lioness" and immediately knew I was at peace. I had the witch of my dreams in my arms. She smiled and laid her head on my shoulder. After standing in silence holding my love in my arms, we separated. Taking her hand, I lead her into the Forest of Dean where the others would be waiting to welcome our newest resident. Maybe, just maybe, the Afterlife wouldn't be so bad after all.