A/N:

Time: Three years after the final war.

Multi POVs

See these italics? Flashbacks and Snapes thoughts . You'll be able to tell the differences.

We are enjoying the words and definitions from, "The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows" along with foreign words and their definitions. I made up Aven and Ember but the rest of the Harry Potter world belongs to JK.

ENJOY!

Dead Reckoning

Noun.

To find yourself bothered by someone's death more than you would have expected.

Three years.

It's been a little over three years since the war of blood and power had occurred on the grounds of Hogwarts and over the city of London. Over three years of repair and rebuild but yes, the last of the damages are nearly finished. The Ministry had been restored and the darkness of evil seemed to finally being staying hooked to the back of the mind of many as they were given no other choice but to continue on. At long last, and to the relief of many, the world again seemed to flow with the calmness of the Hogwarts lake.

But not all had gone as planned.

In the immediate clean up of the battle, between deaths, arrests and healing, Hermione, Harry, and Ron brought Professor McGonagall and a Ministry healer to the Shrieking Shack to collect the body of their past potions master. To the disbelief of every one of then and later, the man was missing in form, but in blood. The blood will still there... splattered grotesquely against the wall and running down in heavy ended drips. There was so much of it that it pooled on the dusty, broken wooden floor and lay drying around a body shaped space in the middle of it all. Minerva would take a step back, away from everyone else. This was her moment of weakness in the aftermath of death; the breaking of the woman who though hardly showed anything was clearly deeply upset. He hadn't attacked her... He helped her attack them... and Minerva regrets the things that she had said to him before that.

According to the three, there was no way the man could move on his own which meant the body had been moved another way, most likely through magic means that there was of a strength Severus wouldn't have been able to muster mustered. Unfortunately, with no proof or way to find out by whom or where he'd been taken to, Severus Snape was called for missing and a manhunt was sent out. Notices were on all the highest circuits seeking for the brave teacher who was gravely injured, but the funeral was still held accordingly for those who knew he was most likely dead only a few months later. The Order and Hogwarts staff stood alongside the Malfoys and a few scattered others in respectful silence that grey, windy day in the graveyard and Hermione could have sworn to seeing Draco crying with his mother while his father stood motionless with bloodshot eyes and a slight drunken sway in his stance. The world was very quiet as Severus Snape's coffin was lowered into the ground, however empty it was.

Those of the Order who survived became family; Charlie had died and Fred critically wounded though had survived and was still in recovery even this long after. Tonks sacrificed everything for the child she could not save and a wedge was placed between husband and wife who now took time apart to personally heal from their injuries that festered on the skin as it did in the heart. There are other stories that will be told at another time, but it's important to know that war has not yet left though the ash marks and broken stone are gone.

That had all been a few years ago, and life most certainly goes on.

...

Hermione Granger walked the sidewalk of the busy London street before turning into a mixed media shop and giving a small smile to the owners. She had since been hired at the Ministry and was working to equalize Magic and Muggle acceptance. A store such as this, a half-blood store with both world selling for the mixed family home, this would have been under relentless attack by Voldemort, but had since done nothing but flourish. There was still bias, but remaining Deatheaters had gone into hiding and though their arrests were rare, they were still made known through the Daily Prophet. Hermione had realized a long time ago that no matter what topic, there would always be an opposite side or opinion, and that was what she worked for, keeping that middle ground between the two sides quiet and respectful.

She exchanged some Ministry paperwork while speaking happily with the well-mannered family who offered her a cup of lemonade and a few chocolate frogs for her way out. Hermione was very well liked within the worlds around her as well as the Ministry, and she tried her hardest to keep it that way which made her parents, who had regained their memory and since connected more their magical daughter, very proud indeed. Saying her parting as she stepped out the door, Hermione turned to the street, taking a moment on the stoop before stepping into the busy crowd. She walked with the mass of pedestrians when a cold, but slightly familiar force came from ahead of her and found a cobwebby space between two vertebrae where it settled with a cold, resinating chill of her childhood. She maneuvered to the front of the crowd, stopping at the corner to wait for the change of light.

She could have sworn...

"Professor Snape!" Hermione called to the turning away figure dawned all in black who stood on the other side of the crosswalk. Whoever it was had been approaching, she was right about this but now they turned away. In a hurry, Hermione looked both ways before she took off but had still landed with her hands on the hood of a screeching car as she attempted to race across the active street.

"Professor, Snape!"

Once across, she pulled away from the standing crowd who watched her carefully and looked around desperately. She wasn't sure if what she saw was real, or even her old Professor... Either way, the figure was gone now as was the chill she remembered, and Hermione she gave a sigh of defeat as she looked around a final time before starting back on her original path.

Hermione decided to keep this event to herself, but Ginny always knew when something was on her mind and once lowering herself into the armchair, Ginny almost-Potter confronted her about what it was.

"Did anyone ever find, Snape?" Hermione asked, bringing Ginny to widen her eyes.

"Ummm. No.. I haven't heard anything and I bet Harry would have told me.."

"So, he's still missing... right?" Hermione interrupted. "If he was never found and he was moved... There is a chance he's alive?"

Ginny stopped here and leaned back giving Hermione a once over.

"What's going on?" Ginny asked.

"I thought I saw him today.." She whispered.

"Where? What?" Ginny now excited, moved closer.

"In London. I didn't get a good look but whoever it was had black hair and... wore all black.." Hermione ended weakly, hearing the foolishness in her words.

"Hermione," Ginny laughed. "That explains so many people it's ridiculous."

"I know but…" Hermione stopped, bringing Ginny to scrunch her brow a bit, "I remember that feeling he would give off while in school. That dark feeling that would make sure you were out of his way before even seeing him.. I felt it right before I saw whoever I saw.. Maybe it wasn't him...But the energy.. the energy was so familiar.

The two sat in a rare silence that was broken by either twin coming over the couch and landing on either side of Ginny.

"What r' we talking about?" George asked grinning from ear to ear, as Fred came around the side of the couch slowly and lowered himself painfully on the seat next to his sister.

"Nothing.." Ginny said looking at Hermione with a smile. "Nothing at all."

...

...

Another week, another workday.

Hermione makes her way through the Muggle midday rush with her best friend Harry, his fiance Ginny, and her continued boyfriend, Ron. The rush of war and brush with death had Harry never taking a day for granted and he had quickly made his relationship with Ginny serious and most recently proposed which came as a delight to everyone around. Fresh out of Hogwarts, Ginny was already planning her life around Quittach as Harry worked within the Ministry as an Auror while Ron worked at a magic shop in Diagon Alley. Currently, the Hogwarts school year was in progress which brought days that were busy and daily schedules that rarely matched up. Harry and Ron had taken time for their weekly lunch with Hermione and Ginny, from which they were currently leaving from.

"And then I told her: No, Marland, I have the executive reports. Those are executive to do lists." Hermione continued brightly bringing the group around her, sans Ronald, to burst out with laughter.

The conversion would soon fade into partings as their walk neared a large town park where the group would disband when suddenly, her thoughts were pulled from her friends as the feeling of that familiar darkening energy invaded her space. Pulling out of traffic, and without a word to the others, she places her back against the brick wall of a near by business they were passing and examines those who move in front of her. She notices a flash of black that matches the energy from a few weeks ago, and quickly, desperate not to lose him again, pulls from her questioning group with a wave of her hand, and wordlessly follows on her own, leaving her friends in shock.

Blind to anything else around her, she felt with certainty as she zeroed in on the energy and when her pace picked up, she found that the tall figure in front of her did as well. She watched through people who zigzagged by them as the behavior of the hooded man she thought to be her teacher, became more frantic. From the crowd, she heard people speaking out in protest as the figure in front of her began to push aside those too slow.

"Professor Snape!" Hermione called above the crowd and her beating heart, her eyes widening in shock when the form picked up into a full out sprint.

She was so sure it was him that at the point when she followed him with the same athleticism as in her school years, she was more focused and well determined. She followed him in a swift jog down the block, slipping in and out people with ease when at the last moment, using the sharp sight that if it wasn't for her childhood she would have missed, Hermione Granger caught the black cloaked figure slip into a darkened alley.

This was it, she realized and taking a deep breath she slowed her stride. She stopped before stepping into sight and into the mouth of the darkened, space because she needed a moment to think and rationalize. As much as she wanted to hold her wand for protection everything she had known about the man argued her instincts and Hermione took a final breath to calm. No wand, she decided. Straightening herself quickly and with a heavy leg, she stepped into view and peered down the alley. Yes. Indeed there was a tall, shadowy figure halfway down the narrow, brick way and she noticed that the figure's body was moving as if catching its breath as well as unaware of her presence.

"Professor Snape?" She asked quietly as she stepped past the first of the littered papers and wall stacked boxes.

The form instantly straightened and Hermione raised both open hands and showed her palms while taking another step into the shade. The black cloaked creature took backward steps away, curving at the shoulders and leering from inside the shadow of its hood. She was so sure now and she took a slow breath and quietly repeated his old title while dropping her hands.

With another step, she was another step closer and the figure was another step away.

"Professor Snape."

The cloaked figure matched her steps with those of her own and eventually would back into a sunlit area just behind an intersecting ally that x'd the single lane. One side ran across the alley, opening to the street, the other side leads to a tall, brick dead end. At first glance, her feet stopped and her eyes widened in surprise to the lighted face and form of Severus Snape as he pulled his hood back slightly and stood tall, exposing himself for her identification in the ray of cloud broken sun.

"Professor..?" Hermione tried for the third time as he continued his trademark snarl that came from behind strands of black hair as he backed up another single step.

"Professor..?"

"He's not going to answer you." A matter of fact tone in a woman's voice came from the right, down the connected lane that lead to the dead end.

Hermione twists around on her toe just in time for a second figure to sweep past her and up to the Potions Master, but she'd have to twist a final time to finally seeing who had spoken. Finally caught up, she watched the woman dressed in a long black cloak land at the side of the still glaring man who had since raised his hood back over his head. Hermione looked between the two in slight shock, unable to pull much of anything from her racing mind or tightening throat. How could this be, was the only thought she could master, but was not what she could say.

The woman turned her cool, but fire colored gaze to Hermione and gave a small smile before turning back to Snape and brushing a lock of hair from in front of his face back into his hood; the teacher's eyes lulled just slightly at her touch.

"...What..?" she eventually struggles out.

"He can't talk." She said simply, dropping her hand and speaking in a harsher tone as if Hermione should have understood.

She looked to be about the same age as the Professor, and she had long very dark brown hair that cascaded down her back ending in a pointed blade at the end. Her spiky bangs fell past her cheekbones and waved like silk as she moved about. She wore a worn, black calf length, hip-hugging coat that was buttoned at the waist, as a pair of black cargo pants and tracking boots covered her legs and protected her feet. Hermione took a step back as the feeling of overwhelming took her like an ocean wave. She looked up to see the woman give Snape's wrist a squeeze before turning and stepping up to her.

"Are you, Hermione Granger?" She asked with a shy, narrowed eyed look but warm smile. Her eyes are watching Hermione's fingers which are foolishly premeditating her wands hidden placement on her hip under her robe.

As the older woman still chose to continue her steps and Hermione continued backward, they leave Snape to slip himself into the shadows and lean hunched against the wall with his hands in his coat pockets and eyes set in a glare on the two before him. Suddenly, remembering who she was, Hermione pulled together some sort of bureaucracy braveness and stopped her steps which allowed two more taken before the woman stopped hers as well. Hermione brought her attention back from Snape to the woman before giving a nod as her answer.

"My name is not important, but this event is." The woman started in a light but serious voice that resonated kindness while her appearance was that of a hungry snake.

A Slytherin, Hermione decided to herself.

"Here." The woman began patting her pockets. "A peace offering, I could understand how nerving this is.."

She pulled a chocolate bar from her inside pocket and extended the wrapped treat in her open palm to Hermione who took it, not arguing kindness or allowing for potential rudeness to set a scene she couldn't come back from. With ease she rips the wrapping and takes a bite before glancing past the woman to Snape, thinking to herself as she chews her bite. Looking him over she noticed his hair had grown longer and currently hung over his face and its tips came from the hood and hung past his collar. Evidently, he still acted vile as his irritated expression and angry glinting eyes hadn't changed with time, but he hadn't said anything which came to nerve her greatly.

"Professor Snape…" She whispered.

The woman looked from her own chocolate to over her shoulder and toward the man who stood alone.

"Yeah… pretty beat up, huh?" Her smile faded as she addressed Hermione kindly again.

"Come here." She called to him, and Hermione was not surprised when the dark teacher refused to even flinch.

"Severus. Come here." She called again, and Hermione watched his head tilt towards the side for a moment before he pushed off the wall and slowly walked up to the two of them.

"You're alive." Hermione breathed and Snape greeted the proclamation with a slight bow from his waist as he landed himself a step behind the woman's shoulder with a heavy step.

The woman placed a hand on Severus's back and a looked up at the man who glared at Hermione.

"Yup.." The woman answered for him.

"But.." Hermione's world started spiraling with questions as she recalled the Shrieking Shack... The blood.. his throat.. and the funeral. Everything..

"Take a bite, Miss. Granger." The woman who still went unnamed attempted to soothe. "I can understand why this is coming as a tad of a shock."

'Tad of a shock!" Hermione exasperated before taking a bite of her chocolate not because she was told to, but because she knew it's worth.

"There you go.." The woman sighed kindly as Hermione clearly relaxed.

"But.. I don't understand.. It's been years and…" Hermione turned from Snape to the woman, "You took him from the shack?"

"Yes. I'm also the one who healed him.. and what a strain that was." She smiled lightly as Hermione watched the man's scarred upper lip curl.

Here, Hermione took a moment and examined the form of her thought-to-be deceased professor up close. She ran her eyes over the gleaming white scars that daggered up from above his covered neck and over his jawline. One, in particular, ripped up through the side of his mouth and curved out to the outside of his face just under his nostril. Feeling sick, the image of Nagini flashes through her mind. She can hear the sound deafening her ears as the memory of the noise the snake made as it cracked his neck came back uncontrolled. Hermione looked away and noticed a few smaller scars that had made it into view from under sleeves and marked up his hands and fingers. Still, he looked better fed and overall more healthy than when he was a teacher though his movements were very stiff and his body looked weaker in spirit and personal exhaustion. She looks up and meets his eyes that are already, still, holding on her. The well black eyes that glared at her were still the same dead glare as ever, and his expression and pose stayed the same still, cold composure as in her school days. A toxic mixture of anti-social and angry. It seemed that nothing had really changed in the man but time.

"I knew everything from the start." The woman's voice brought Hermione's attention back, though she kept locked eyes with the teacher still trying to believe he was really in front of her.

"We had a deal.. Severus and I.. There seemed more to be done in his life... Another objective he had yet to fulfill…. He told me at the end he wanted to live all on his free will. "

Her hand dropped from his back, and Snape never wavered his cold, angry eyes that continued to pierce Hermione.

"So he can't talk?" She asked, suddenly feeling as if she were at a zoo. Yes, Professor Snape is terrifying.. but there was something.. different now that the man's much worse bark had been silenced.

"Nope." The woman shrugged, "Well, not yet anyway… And neither can you."

Hermione's head snapped over to the woman, "What?"

"Hermione, please understand it's not my request. It's his." Hermione's eyes flashed to Severus as the unnamed woman continued. The air changed and the space became very serious. "I told you everything you asked and more to keep you content. He knows he's not ready to go back into society.. and I have to agree…" She shook her head. "Look. You're literally the only one that knows.. We've even gone as far as not to inform the Malfoys or... even McGonagall… You can not be the reason his security is compromised."

"But, we all know the truth.. We know he was a hero."

A huff came from Snape's nose as he pushed off his toe and brushed by Hermione as he started up the shadowed alley. The woman didn't follow him and before he made it halfway he must have realized that she wasn't going to because he stopped and chose to lean against a nearby wall when his glare did not bring the woman to follow.

"Meaning there will be more publicity and attention than Professor Snape even wanted in life." She said softly, "You had in school, Hermione…" Here the two women met eyes and Hermione found herself completely transfixed on the fire waving in her gaze, "he was your teacher for six years… Can you really tell me a man like Severus Snape will flourish in the limelight as he is right now…?"

Even without thinking about it, Hermione had to agree. The professor had always been a solitary creature, always lurking in the dungeons and pushing everyone around him away. He never allowed for the slightest thought of disruption to his silence. For Snape to come to light.. without even voice of his own.. It would indeed do far worse than good in every aspect Hermione could think of.

"How..?" Hermione tried and failed to formulate just one question.

"Long… long hours and full months with little sleep…" Hermione looked up at the woman who looked at Severus's hunched form in sad thought. "In the beginning, things were very rocky... Very, touch and go…Minute to minute... For nearly a year he had to be in a coma and fed through injection while his neck healed. He breathed artificially because his throat was to... well...Destroyed... " She looked away. "For the longest time, I believed it all to be pointless."

Here Severus raised his head and looked over at her frowning expression with his own hard and emotionless one before adjusting his position and replacing his eyes in the direction of the brick wall in front of him.

"Hermione," The woman started again, turning to Hermione and addressing her fully now, "It's really important you don't look for him, talk about him or follow him again. You know he's alive.. That'll have to be enough.."

"But.."

"He will come out of recovery soon enough. I promise you will see him again. But right now, even though to you he might not deserve it.. Professor Snape needs to be left alone.. It's all he ever wanted and he needs it now more than ever… He's doing so well.. I mean, I never thought I'd see him walking again... I can't have him slipping away again because he gets too stressed, and um..."

Hermione looked down to see a flash of the silver handle of the woman's wand as it came exposed from inside her sleeve, "I mean it when I say I can't."

A rock clattered off the wall and both women looked over to see Snape pushing off the brick and standing in a pose that brought Hermione to think he was ready to leave.

"Yeah.. fine." The woman agreed to Snape's silence and turned a final time back to Hermione.

"Please." The woman pressed a final time, slipping her wand from view and lightening her tone.

"I promise," Hermione promised with Gryffindor oath to what she truly did understand.

With a nod, she watched the woman give a hopeful smile and move away from her. She walked up and laced her arm with Severus's who quickly drew his deep hood fully again and took the first steps away. Hermione watched the pair leave the alley without another word. The moment before disappearing around the corner, Hermione would meet eyes a final time with the unnamed woman who held fire in her stare that looked at her nervously before stepping out of view and into the London population with the man who was known to the world as dead.