Disclaimer- I don't own it. I wish I did. But it all belongs to J. K. Rowling.
A/N- Hey, everyone! Sorry for the long wait. I didn't realized it had been that long since the last update. I was not holding this story hostage, and I promise that it will get done. I've found way too many good stories that have been abandoned. So rest a sure that this story is going to be finished.
I'm thinking that this story wont be more than maybe ten chapters with a possible epilogue. But that is all up to you loyal readers, tell me what you would like to see happen in this story and I will see if it can happen.
So with that out of the way. -drum roll- let's get on with the show!
Oh how could I forget! -shame on me- Thanks to my fabulous beta Deb. These chapters wouldn't even make sense without her help. -applause-
"Where have you been? Why didn't you tell anyone where you were going? Don't you realize there are still Death Eaters out there? What if they had captured you? What if you had been killed?" A frantic Molly Weasley was screaming at the Golden Trio upon their return.
Placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, Arthur Weasley stepped in, "Now, now, Molly. I'm sure that the kids have a perfectly good explanation as to where they were and why. Don't you kids?"
Harry was still in shock and was hardly listening to what was going on around him. Ron was too scared to say anything. He was already scared of his mother, but now that he knows it was HIS mother who killed Bellatix Lestrange, well he would rather face the Dark Lord.
Seeing how neither one of the boys was going to answer, Hermione stepped up to Mrs. Weasley with her chin held high. "Mrs. Weasley, please listen to me and please try to understand. We went to the Shrieking Shack." Seeing the anger rising up again on Mrs. Weasley, Hermione quickly continued. "No, Mrs. Weasley, listen. We went to the Shrieking Shack to… to retrieve Professor Snape's body. We didn't want anyone else to see him the way he had died. He deserved better than that. But when we got there, his body was gone. There was no trace that anyone else had taken his body away. The only things we found were dust, blood and a phoenix feather."
Taking a deep breath, Mrs. Weasley said, "And why exactly would you want to retrieve the body of that traitor? He killed Albus Dumbledore, for Merlin's sake. I for one hope that he died a painful death, even if it wont be enough to pay for all the damage he did."
There was a long silence after Mrs. Weasley was done. Harry suddenly began to cry, Mrs. Weasley became instantly worried about the young boy. Her anger quickly banished as she made her way towards the Boy-Who-Lived. Before she could get any closer, Harry moved back and held his hand up. Wiping his eyes on the back of his robes, he looked her in the eyes with anger. "You don't understand. Snape wasn't a traitor. I already said this, why don't you believe me?"
"Harry," Mrs. Weasley said as she tried once again to get close to Harry. "It's not that I don't believe you. It's that I don't see evidence which says that Snape is innocent. You saw him kill Dumbledore! How could he not be a traitor?"
"He just wasn't a traitor! He had always been on our side. He risked his entire adult life to make sure we would win." Taking a deep breath, Harry closed his eyes. He was frustrated that Mrs. Weasley didn't want to listen to him. But he had to try to get to her and make her understand. "He didn't exactly kill Professor Dumbledore. I saw his memories, and Dumbledore's portrait confirmed it too. Professor Dumbledore was already dying from a curse, that's why his hand was black. Professor Snape tried to save him, but only managed to give him a year. Can't you see? Dumbledore would have died either way."
Mr. Weasley saw that his wife was ready to argue with Harry. He knew that she really wasn't listening to what was being said to her and that she would refuse to listen to any thing that said that the Potions master was innocent. "Harry," he said cutting off whatever thing his wife was getting ready to say. "If Albus was indeed dying, then why did Severus kill him?"
Tiredly, Harry said, "It's too long of a story, but needless to say, it was all part of Dumbledore's grand plan." Throwing a glare in Mrs. Weasley's direction, Harry said, "And since your wife had her heart set on Snape dying a most painful death, then I can assure you he did. Voldemort set his snake, Nagini, on him. She bit the Professor on his neck. I don't even want to think about what could have killed him; the bite or all the blood he lost. But it was probably painful either way." Not wanting to see anyone anymore, Harry turned and walked towards the Astronomy tower. Leaving behind a white-faced Molly and a shocked Ron.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tobias was instantly awakened when he felt the bed move. He had fallen asleep some time in the middle of night with Severus' hand in his own. Quickly getting to his feet, Tobias took a look at his son. Severus was trying to open his eyes and was also trying to say something. Putting an ear close to Severus' mouth, Tobias was able to make out the word, "Water".
Reaching for the glass of water which he always kept on his bed stand, Tobias carefully helped Severus raise his head to take a drink of water. "Easy there Severus, drink slowly. That's a good boy. Do you want more water?" Putting down the glass, he realized that Severus had gone back to sleep almost immediately. Laying him down on the bed again, Tobias went to go fetch another cover for Severus.
After making sure that Severus was covered, Tobias sat back down in his chair and looked at the bird that was still in the same room as he. "Isn't there anything you could do to help my boy?" He asked, anguish in his voice at the thought of losing his son.
Suddenly, there was a flash of bright light, and the bird was gone. Groaning, Tobias buried his face in his hands. "I didn't mean disappeared!"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Hogwarts, Harry was looking over the grounds from the top of the Astronomy tower. For him, it was where everything truly changed. He saw his mentor and friend murdered without being able to do anything to help him. He witnessed a man sacrificing his life and soul for the entire wizarding world. He was there when war was declared between the Light and the Dark. Harry didn't know for how long he had been in the tower when he heard footsteps coming his way.
As he looked towards the door, he was surprised to see Healer Pye, who was definitely the last person Harry expected to see.
"Hey, Harry! Mrs. Weasley told me to look for you. She says that you were acting strange and imagining things. You look okay to me. Maybe just some cuts and bruises. How do you feel?"
Harry turned his back to the young Healer. He couldn't believe that Mrs. Weasley would think that he was making things up. No one ever believed in what he said, no one wanted to believe that Severus Snape had been a hero. 'But you didn't want to believe Dumbledore when he told you to trust Snape. You never did,' a small voice in his head said.
"Harry, are you okay?" Healer Pye asked as he stood next to Harry, looking out to the grounds. "Mrs. Weasley told me that you were going off about how Professor Snape was actually on our side the whole time. That Snape killing Albus Dumbledore had all been part of some plan."
"Did she also tell you how she hopes that Snape had a painful death?" Harry asked bitterly.
"Uh… not sure to tell you the truth. I stopped listening after a while. That woman can go off in a rant if she wants to. Besides, I believe you," Pye finished saying as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.
Harry looked at the young Healer in disbelief. "You do?"
"Harry, I'm going to tell you something that no one else knows," Healer Pye said as he looked around to make sure that they were indeed alone. "Around the end of August, I got an owl at St. Mungo's. When I opened the letter, I found the antidote against You-Know-Who's snake. At first I thought it was some sort of joke since we already had the formula for the antidote. But then I realized that there were several changes to it. I decided to give it a try, and I brewed it. A couple of weeks later, we got a patient that had been bitten by the snake. Naturally, we gave them the original antidote, when it didn't work we realized that the snake's venom had been altered. It was then that I used the new formula. It worked right away, everyone wanted to know how I got it so fast and how I had thought about it. I told them I had been just messing around the lab one day and came up with that little lifesaver."
"It was Professor Snape's formula, wasn't it?" Harry asked. A small smile on his lips, just thinking about how many people were saved by the man they probably loathed.
Healer Pye also smiled and looked at Harry. "The letter didn't have his handwriting, but it was he who had invented the original antidote when Mr. Weasley had gotten bitten." Running a hand over his face to rub off the sleep he said, "Professor Snape was bloody brilliant. He patented a lot of potions before all of this craziness had started. He could have been a great Master Healer."
Both men fell into a silence, thinking about the Potions master. Harry felt pride in having had the chance to be taught by the man. He regretted now calling Snape a coward, when it was farthest from the truth. Snape had risked being reviled as a spy just to help others who thought him a traitor.
All of a sudden, there was a bright flash of light behind them. Once it died away both men turned around to find the source of the bright flash and were shocked.
"Isn't that Professor Dumbledore's phoenix?" Pye asked.
"Fawkes!" Harry said as he stared at the phoenix in disbelief. Looking at the bird's bright red feathers, he remembered the feather that they had found in the Shrieking Shack when they had gone to find Snape's body. Walking closer to the phoenix, Harry said, "Fawkes, do you know where Professor Snape is? Is he alive?"
Fawkes nodded and raised his wings to fly. When he was over Harry's head he stuck out a leg. Without giving it another thought, Harry took hold of Healer Pye with one hand and with the other hand grabbed Fawkes' leg. With another flash of light they were gone.