Hey everybody ! Here's a new chapter. I hope you'll like it.

The next chapter will probably be the last of this story. There will be a sequel though ! I'm not giving details yet, but I should start publishing soon after the end of this one :)

Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy the end of this story, I'll try and post it in the next few days ^^

Chapter 11 : Dreams of the past, Dreams of the future

Every night, he relived the same dream. Well, it wasn't really a dream. It was more a rush of sensations, with absolutely no image. While staring at the black canvas that hid anything else from him, he felt pain. Horrible pain spreading through his body. He felt an unpleasant warmth run through each of his veins and making each of his muscles sore. And then, he heard noises, slightly distracting him from his aching head, his aching chest, his aching stomach, his aching limbs, his aching everything. He couldn't quite determine the source of the noises, but he felt someone was there. Where ? If only he knew... His brain refused to work properly, and he gave up any kind of thinking. He still instinctively managed to open his eyes, and now he saw again. He was in a familiar wooden house, and around him, he saw three familiar faces. They all seemed terrified. There was a blond girl, whom he didn't remember ever seeing afraid before. Beside her stood two boys. One of them, he was sure, had often been frightened by him before. He had seen this face many times, though he didn't really remember where. The other face was the most familiar of all. It was a face he hated of sight, but the eyes that stared at him were the eyes he had always loved. For the first time, he managed to stare into these eyes, forgetting about his foe's face that surrounded them, until he didn't have the strength to keep his eyes open anymore.

Then, his thoughts wandered towards Hermione. He convinced himself that the girl was safe and happy, and thought about her giggles for what he thought would be the last time as he felt himself drift deeper and deeper into unconsciousness.

When he woke up, he found that he was in the hospital wing, in the middle of the night. His potions never lasted the night, so he always woke up there, as he had that night. He was recovering from Nagini's bite safely now, although the nature of the poison forbid him to take Dreamless Sleep Potions, or to take any stronger anaesthetics. So, every night, he relived that night. He relived it with a terrible guilt. That night, he was ready to die. He had hoped to die. He had selfishly believed that Hermione would be safe and happy, and he let go, almost embracing death. If it hadn't been for Loony Lovegood, he would be dead for sure, but luckily, she was there, and always carried all sorts of antidotes and medicines with her. The specific antidote she used on him was originally meant to be immune to Wrackspurt attacks for a whole week, but apparently, it was efficient on snake bites too.

So, every night, he woke up in both physical and emotional pain. Every night, he was reminded of his weakness. He had considered abandoning Hermione. He had even embraced that thought for a few seconds. And since Poppy hadn't allowed visits yet (especially for such a young child), he knew that she probably felt he had abandoned her. During the year, he had come to consider her as part of his life. The only part of his life that made it worth living . The only part of his life that was his choice, and that hadn't been the result of a terrible mistake he had made years before.

He had trouble to actually believe that he was free now. Voldemort was dead. He had been cleared from all charges without a trial that had been pressed against him, thanks to Potter's insistence. The Daily Prophet had published his story and his reasons for fighting the Dark Lord, mentioning his good heart and loving spirit. He would have laughed but it would have been painful, so he just shuffled the paper and threw it away with an exasperated 'Huff'. The Quibbler had remained a little more realistic (for once). Xenophilius Lovegood seemed to understand the guilt he had felt for endangering Lily, and certainly didn't write anything as ridiculous as 'Snape' and 'loving spirit' in the same sentence. But he didn't really care that his mask had fallen. He didn't give much thought to what people thought, and he didn't have any game to play anymore.

Like every night, Poppy came to check on him.

'How many times will I have to tell you that you must call me when you wake up ?' the mediwitch scolded.

Snape sighed. He knew he wasn't a good patient, but he had been used to suffer in silence, and he would feel rather childish calling for Poppy every night. He still held to the little bit of pride he had left. The mediwitch immediately started to apply a relaxing salve on his legs, arms and chest which eased the pain considerably.

'Do you need a small Sleeping Draught to go back to sleep ?'

'No, I will be fine, thank you.'

The mediwitch eyed him a little suspiciously, but nodded.

'Very well. Have a good night. Tomorrow, if you feel rested enough, I might authorise a few visitors.' She said as she put a friendly hand on his shoulder and left to her own bed.

He hadn't lied, without the pain that had woken him, he already felt himself getting sleepy, and he would have probably been asleep already if it weren't for the thought that he might see Hermione again after all these endless lonely days.

After what felt like mere seconds, Snape was woken up by a little weight on his chest, little arms around his neck and bushy hair all over his face.

'Sevwus !'

Snape opened his eyes groggily and started to remember where he was. The infirmary was now brightly sunlit, so he must have slept more than a few seconds after all. He didn't waste time to return Hermione's hug and kissed her forehead, before someone took the little girl back. Minerva seemed to have run a little. Obviously, Hermione had run free from her baby-sitter and climbed on the bed without authorisation.

'Hermione, you mustn't climb on his bed like that, he is recovering and he needs calm.'

Hermione pouted and pushed her lower lip slightly, but she nodded anyway.

'She was in a hurry to see you.' McGonagall told Snape with a grin.

Snape chuckled too.

'I can see that.'

'How are you feeling, Severus ?' Minerva was now setting into her motherly mode.

'Better. I can sit up on my own now.' He said as he demonstrated that he indeed could. 'poppy told me I would recover completely, the hard part is apparently over. In a few days, I will be able to start to try and walk a little every now and then. I should be out of here in two or three weeks.'

'That's good, because Hermione here can't wait for your return.'

Hermione slowly stopped sulking and tried to lean towards Snape, from Minerva's arms. The older witch allowed her to sit on the bed next to Snape. He encircled her with one of his arms to keep her from falling and Hermione snuggled into him a little.

'She's even refused to move back to my room while you are recovering. So, I transfigured myself a bed in your quarters to stay with her at night, I hope you don't mind.'

'Of course not. Besides, these quarters will most likely become yours quite soon.'

Minerva looked at him. Within a few seconds, her confused look turned to an amused expression.

'Oh, you think I will be made Headmistress ?' She asked with a smirk.

'Well, you would have been promoted already if the Ministry hadn't fallen last year. You have been Deputy Headmistress since before I even came to Hogwarts.'

'Yes, and I am perfectly satisfied with that position. I have not been offered the position of Headmistress, Severus, and even if I had, I would have declined.'

Snape nodded. Minerva hadn't really sought power in her life, and he wasn't surprised that becoming Headmistress didn't interest her. Then, he started thinking. Filius would probably get it then. He was a powerful wizard, he had taught at Hogwarts about as long as Minerva had and he had a certain charisma despite his unusual height. Besides, there hadn't been any Ravenclaw Headmasters for some time now. There was no doubt he would be a good Headmaster.

Minerva had been observing him with an amused grin the whole time he was thinking about this.

'Still thinking about candidates ?'

'Filius is the only I can think of.' Snape said flatly as Hermione pretended to be his nurse, and started pulling his sheets up to his chin to keep her patient warm.

Minerva chuckled.

'Severus, no one has been offered the position.'

'Well the Board of Governors should hurry, the new Headmaster will have much to do during the summer.'

'You misunderstand me. No one has been offered the position, because there is no position to fill. Hogwarts already has a Headmaster.' She said with a genuine smile.

He hadn't seen that coming. He knew everyone believed in his innocence now. But he would never have thought that he would remain as Headmaster. He didn't really know if he wanted to. He hadn't really experienced what this position meant, since the previous year had been rather strange. He let Hermione touch his forehead and exclaim happily that he had no fever, as he started considering himself as Hogwarts' Headmaster once more.

A.N. : I hope you liked it ! So this is almost over for now. I'm still not sure how I will conclude this story. I don't want to rush it, so the next chapters might take a few days. Anyway, thanks for reading this, and please review :)