Disclaimer: If I was JK, Snape and Tonks would have been married by the sixth book, so do you really think I own this?Claimer: I own this idea... however depressing it may be.
Pairings: Tonks/Snape of course, though you may see a bit Tonks/Kingsley if you look really close... too close, back away from the screen!
His Life In Hers
Nymphadora Tonks looked up from her crumpled position on the floor. She had sustained some minor bruising on her jaw, and her shoulder felt as though she'd been carrying a hundred bricks upon it, but besides that, she felt alive. Almost.
The sun was just rising from behind the Forbidden Forest, casting shadows from the castle looming behind her, upon the cliff. She did not feel as though she could stand just yet, as her eyes saw the occasional person, dead or alive, strewn about the grass.
Kingsley Shacklebolt crawled beside her and smiled. "Harry survived, Tonks. Nearly everyone did." Tonks thought for a moment.
"Who... who fell?" she asked, her heart not sure if she could stand a list of names right now.
"Mundungus Fletcher, Minerva McGonagall, Cho Chang, and numerous other Hogwarts students..." Kingsley bit his lip. She had to know the truth. "No one has yet found Severus." He glanced at Tonks, who still stared blankly at the forest, wishing silently the world would just fold in there and then, and that none of this war would ever have mattered.
"So that's it then," she murmured softly, no emotion betrayed in her voice. She shielded any pain away very well; though Kingsley knew the defences the woman was putting up. He didn't want her to hold onto lost hope, but didn't want her to give up, not after everything The Order had been through. Everything she'd been through.
"There's always a chance Tonks."
"He doesn't feel dead. I always thought you'd feel when somebody was dead. But maybe emptiness comes later. I think I... I think I need to go away." Kingsley gently grabbed her hand as she tried to stand.
"Tonks, just sit and watch the sunrise with me." She glanced at him, and sat back down, fiddling with a bracelet upon her wrist.
"They couldn't hurt me..." she said after a while. "The Death Eaters couldn't hurt me because I knew I would stay alive for him, I knew that I had to keep on surviving so I could stay with him. And he doesn't even have the decency to survive for me!"
Tonks knew she was being irrational, had no cares. She didn't to fix blame somewhere. She couldn't to any particular Death Eater, not even to Voldemort himself. She only had Severus to blame, and if that were how she'd feel better then, she would try and comfort herself with the facts she made up.
"I'm sure Severus fought to the last," Kingsley told her, but she wasn't listening. She was far to focused on a black figure stumbling up the hill towards them. She watched until he collapsed into the dewy green of the ground.
Tonks pulled herself up, and this time Kingsley did not stop her. She had no energy, no feeling left in her body she could move, and yet she ran towards the figure, tears she could not feel streaming down her face.
She fell onto the body, crying. "Oh god, Severus, Severus," she said, feeling nothing but relief as a small grunt replied. Suddenly, the Auror kicked in, as Tonks realised what needed to be done. "You've got to go to the hospital wing," she told him.
"Tonks, I love you," Severus whispered, looking up at her face. "Stop crying." It was an order, or so it seemed, but Tonks knew it was meant with the most compassion that Severus Snape could manage.
"Severus please..."
"Tonks, no. I came to find you, tell you that I loved you, but... I don't think I can continue..."
"Don't you dare give up on me Severus Snape! I have been through too much to let you fall now, too much to let you give up." She put all of her weight into trying to lift him. "I can't help you if you don't try and help yourself!"
"There's no point Tonks, just leave me."
"No way. You cannot just lay there looking defeated and down on yourself just because you're a little bit injured. People are dead, do you not understand that? And now, you want to just give up? Well, fine! I thought you at least had a shred of decency left, in which you could understand that people are never coming back. You don't even have the courage to survive!"
"Tonks..."
"Let me help you." He stared at her, and then started to move. Arms around each other as support, they walked towards Hogwarts, towards the tents set up outside of the school where Healers were working effortlessly to stop the pain felt by so many.
"Onto that bed," Madam Pomfrey said to Tonks as she gave medicine to a patient, indicating to one on the far left of the tent. Tonks helped him to lie down as a nurse rushed over, frantically checking the wounds, washing away the blood.
Tonks watched Severus' hand move, walked towards him and took hold of it in her own, running her thumb over his palm. "It may not be a good time," he said suddenly. "And I know you would want this to be done properly in a nice fancy restaurant somewhere with all the trimmings. And this isn't perfect..."
"What..." Tonks began, but Severus shook his head to silence her.
"Nymphadora Tonks, marry me." Tonks stared in disbelief. She kissed his lips, his forehead before speaking.
"This is perfect," she said, tears welling up again. "Yes I'll marry you Sev."
"Ah good. Thank Salazar Slytherin for that..." And then, slowly, painlessly, he slipped away from her forever.