He Never Said Why

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Minerva McGonagall sat in her chair watching as a few other teachers walked into her office: Sibyll Trelawney, Aurora Sinistra, Pomona Sprout, Filius Flitwick and Cuthbert Binns. The six sat around Minerva's desk in late August with heavy hearts. Minerva looked around the table at some of her best friends, "Well, I believe we are all aware you aren't all going to be teaching come September."

Pomona and Filius were retiring, and Binns would no longer be teaching. Although, Binns would remain and haunt the school with the other ghosts, apparently he got along rather well with the Grey Lady. Filius was going East to live out his life with his cousins, and Pomona was going to help raise potions plants for medicinal purposes in America. Aurora looked uneasy, "That's four new staff members, any idea who they are?"

"Yes," Minerva said softly, "The Defense teacher will be Bill Weasley, he has quite a bit of experience from being a curse-breaker at Gringotts. The Herbology teacher will be Angelina Weasley, she had top marks on her NEWTS in the subject. I don't know who the Charms and history teachers are personally, but Mason Reed will be teaching Charms, and Nathen Finch will be teaching History."

"I'm surprised we haven't even heard of those two, Albus usually does a good job of hiring people that are known around Hogwarts." Pomona commented.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to see when they get here, I'm sure they'll be good teachers." Minerva assured them.

"That's what you said about Quirrel, Lockhart, Moody, Slughorn, Devons, Jenkins, Beech, Woodrow, and who could forget Elvin?" Cuthbert said in a detached voice.

Minerva cringed at the memory of the Defense teacher they had two years ago, he wasn't precisely sane after two years in Azkaban for a crime he didn't commit, and had a terrible lisp. After a year of being made fun of by students, he took his life in May. Albus had said he was a perfect candidate for the job, just like all the others. Minerva sighed and looked at her two good friends that were leaving in the morning, "We've been through a lot."

"The Second War, I believe it changed us all, yet we made it out somehow." Filius said, "Though many of our students didn't."

"An entire year of students was practically wiped out, I think Harry and Draco were the only ones that made it out." Sibyll said, "Unless you count the Slytherins in jail, and a couple of the Ravenclaws that went into hiding may still be alive."

"I don't envy those boys though," Pomona spoke up, "They lost everything, it's no wonder that they ran off. It's been six years since anyone's seen them."

"Poor Harry, and the boy's luck had just been turning," Filius said, "I heard that Severus and he were getting along quite well, especially considering the circumstances."

"Ah, the arranged marriage." Aurora noted.

"Harry was willing to do anything to stop Voldemort, no one should be forced into a bond to do something like that. Dumbledore told him the only way he would be strong enough to compete with Voldemort magically was to bind with a stronger wizard." Minerva was talking quietly, her eyes troubled by the memory, "I was there, only a few were. He had just turned sixteen, old enough to bond, and he was told that the only two eligible now that Sirius was dead were Tonks and Severus. When he said Sirius, his face went blank, and said that he would marry Severus so he wouldn't ruin Tonks' relationship with Remus. He didn't show any emotion, good or bad, throughout the entire ceremony."

"Things got better for the couple though, they actually got really close together, though they never consummated the bond." Sibyll added, "Harry seemed to calm that temper of Severus', and Severus was the only thing that kept Harry sane. I remember near the end of his sixth year when Harry came back alone when he had left with Ron to go horcrux hunting. Destroyed locket in his hand, and he was in tears. Severus was the one that spent the whole night calming him down to find out that he had seen Ron tortured to death."

"And again at the end of the year when Bellatrix killed Hermione and Ginny." Sprout noted, "When the deatheaters attacked the school and he ended up stabbing her with one of the swords from the suits of armor. He just stood there staring at the blood on his hands, it was the first time he had killed. Severus just held him after he dropped the sword and fell to his knees."

"He was there for the deaths of Neville, Luna, Dean, Seamus, Hannah, Ernie, Moody, Kingsley, Arthur, Andromeda and so many others." Binns added in his usual monotone voice.

"And Harry comforted Severus after every deatheater meeting, as well as one can comfort a man that's spying on the evil overlord trying to destroy his way of life and kill his husband. " Sibyll noted sadly.

Minerva gave the woman a sharp look before continuing on, "They broke up four days after the war, there was still a celebration going on in the Great Hall and Entrance Hall. In the middle of it Harry walked from the dungeon and out the main door on the verge of tears, and that was the last time we ever saw him. Severus was watching from the door to the dungeon, he said that they had a disagreement and went back to the dungeons."

"Severus told us a couple days later that he doubted that Harry would ever come back." Aurora added, "Severus has never been the same since."

"And Draco left a couple days later," Filius said, "He was mourning, so no one was really keeping tabs on him, and he just left to never be seen again."

"Forced to be a death eater when he was sixteen, watched his parents killed when he failed to kill Dumbledore, rebelled from Voldemort, saw the rest of his house arrested for involvement with Voldemort. He's the only one from his house that isn't in jail, other than Blaise who died in the final battle. I think everyone is surprised he was able to disappear from the magical world, he doesn't know anything about muggles." Minerva sighed as she listed his troubles off.

"Greif causes people to change, and with the grief those two had, their change was bigger than the magical world could contain." Binns said, and everyone stared for a few minutes before looking at the clock and realizing how late it had become. Goodbyes were said, and the teachers dispersed to their own quarters.

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(A/N: I know I made this rated M, but it will be non-graphic slash. So don't get excited. This is actually a fic I found last night that I wrote like six months ago, so I rewrote the first chapter, and I plan on continuing this story. If you're interested, please review.)