November First, Four Years Later

Dumbledore had never seen Snape in a worse mood, and that, in and of itself, was saying something. Bleak, forlorn despair radiated off of him.

"I killed her."

"You did no such thing."

"I followed your instructions, gave him the prophecy, and he killed her for it. I may not have cast the spell but I as good as killed her."

Dumbledore was now confused. He knew Snape and Lily had been on friendly terms back in school during their last year, but his reaction seemed much too severe for the length and character of their relationship. He decided to poke the emotional boil and see if he could make it pop.

"I'd think it would be James you'd be regretting. There's no way to pay back that life debt now."

Snape glared at him while speaking, "James was a sodding pillock and I owed him nothing. He didn't do it to save me. He did it to save Lupin. He couldn't have cared less if I lived or died, but he cared very much if Lupin killed someone. But I did owe her…" His voice trailed off while he debated telling Dumbledore about his sorrow. He was used to keeping his own confidences, he'd had no one to really confide in for the last four years, but this burden was more than he wanted on just his shoulders.

"The Hero's Farewell." He saw that Dumbledore looked appropriately shocked. "I see you know the general idea of how the spell works."

Dumbledore nodded. Yes, Lily had known that spell, it was part of what she studied as an Unspeakable, but Snape? Well, he had certainly fit the bill for the part of the Hero. He looked at Snape more carefully, and yes, the lingering trace of the spell was there.

"Four years ago she cast it on me, gave me her protection, kept me safe on this dark journey, and I gave him the information that killed her."

"Severus, I cannot stress this enough, you did not kill her. If anyone killed Lily, besides Voldemort, it was Lily." Dumbledore saw rage and grief flare in Snape's eyes and decided he needed to get to the point fast, before Snape attacked him.

"Lily studied old magic. She learned how no prophecy in the entire history of mankind has ever turned out well for the person who set it in motion. She was the one who created the spell to make Sybil a prophet of Voldemort. She was the one who created the prophecy that we fed him. And she was the one who decided to place herself as the bait for the trap. You acted your part, but you were doing it in her play.

"Lily knew we were losing. Fifty of us died in the year prior to her discovery of how to create a prophecy. She came to me once she had discovered it, and we put it into motion. A year passed and no Wizarding babies were born at the end of July, so that October she and Alice Longbottom decided to make sure the next July there would be reason for Voldemort to strike. They both went into it knowing exactly how the situation would end up. Lily placed that protection on Harry on the day of his birth. She knew the only way to trigger it was her death and she hoped that it would cause his curse to rebound upon him."

Dumbledore waved his wand absently and a pile of papers materialized on his desk. "She gave me this before she went into hiding after Harry's birth. It's her research. Had she lived she would have turned it into a book and published. As you can see, she didn't really think she'd live, or she would have kept it. I think you will find it comforting, though."

Snape took the papers, his emotions once more in check. "I actually came to tell you to make sure the Longbottoms are very well hidden. Bellatrix is out to make sure that anyone who could be been the child mentioned in the Prophecy dies soon, and painfully. Take her threat seriously, Bellatrix is an unpleasant person."

Snape retired with her papers, and a lessened sense of guilt, but a greater sense of loss, to his rooms beneath the castle. They were not particularly well organized but he could see the seeds of the plan Dumbledore talked about in her research on Prophecy. She had found that of old Prophecy was used as a way to trick someone with great hubris into an action that would bring about his or her own doom. Her wit flashed trough what would have otherwise been dry scholarly prose. He could see the way she would have said the words he now read.

He flipped to an older page, probably one of her first notes, and found a discourse on something called "Women's Magic." Menstrual magic, calling down the moon, midwifery, herbalism (Potions! She noted beside it.) he scanned the pages with interest but not fascination until he hit "The Hero's Farewell." Well, no wonder the old bat knew what the spell was. Dumbledore had probably read her description of it.

"The Hero's Farewell is one of the oldest examples of women's magic. It is also, interestingly enough, one of the only spells a properly motivated Muggle can cast as well. (It does not work as well for them as it does for us, the protection falling more under the heading of 'very good luck' than the shielding the spell will create for us. But, as some of the women who used it found, very good luck was enough to bring their men home.) Although the first use of this spell is unknown, variants of have been mentioned as far back as Roman Britain, where it appears to have been used to protect some of the well loved men who fought under Bodicca against the Romans. The spell does not require a wand, memorized words, or any other tangible component. It is entirely an act of love and will. Later versions of it do involve some physical object, but they are not vital to the functioning of the spell.

The earliest versions of this spell involve an exchange of risk for risk and the bonding created by the pleasure of sex. An unmarried pregnant woman would find herself ostracized by her tribe, cast out, alone, and that increased the already vast danger of childbirth. This risk, taken upon herself of her own free will, absorbed the risk her beloved faced in his own task

The working of the spell is simple (Or not, you need one hell of a lot of concentration to pull it off! He saw written in the margin next to the paragraph.) while coupled the woman focuses on the dangers her beloved will face, and wills them to pass him by. The stronger her will, the better her ability to imagine the dangers needing to be faced, the more love she can pour into her man, the better the spell works.

It is believed that the spell requires that both the woman and her beloved be virgins, but I have been unable to confirm this.

This spell had largely been ignored during the years between the middle ages and the start of the 20th century. But with the large number of wizards who enlisted during the First World War, and the larger number who fought the Axis or Grindewald (Rumor has it Dumbledore had this spell placed upon him before his fight with Grindewald, he would not confirm said rumor. Snape's eyes widened at that, and he smiled imagining the conversation where she tried to get him to confirm that rumor. Yes, the Old Goat knew the spell.) during the Second World War it regained popularity, if not a full understanding of how it worked.

For obvious reasons, men cannot cast this spell. I did not find anything to indicate they had their own version of it.

He laid her notes aside and finally allowed himself to cry for her, and for loss of the Victory Party reunion he had been dreaming of for four years.