I've left a long author's note at the bottom about some of the behind the scenes writing things that have affected this story a lot, if you're interested. If you aren't, just enjoy this chapter!

This probably isn't the end, but we're certainly very, very close.

A solicitor from the Ministry of Magic arrived two weeks after the funeral, quite unannounced. He was met with hostility on the front porch by Felicity, who was still in her pajamas. Draco heard her interrogating the man from his room, the window of which was conveniently open.

"Couldn't have sent an owl ahead, even?" he could hear her saying, and noted the particular quality of her voice that meant she would soon be yelling. Draco hurtled out of bed to go get a grasp on the situation, and arrived downstairs in his boxers and an unbuttoned button down shirt.

The man from the Ministry was clearly not impressed with this welcome, and said that he had had enough trouble finding the place without all this shouting, thank you very much. At this point, Draco, whose shirt was now buttoned, albeit incorrectly, invited the man into their topsy-turvy world, and took Felicity into the kitchen so they could brew a pot of tea.

"What are you doing?" he hissed as he set the water to boil. "What did that man do to you?"

"He intruded on my property without the accepted warnings, and he wants to talk about our dead friends and relatives."

"Yes, probably because they've left us lots of money."

"Well, I don't want it!" Felicity cried, luckily muffled by the now screaming kettle.

"Well, you already have it! Now go ask the man what sort of tea he'd like," Draco said, nudging her ahead of him with the tea tray.

When they were all settled, with a disgruntled Felicity staring out the window with arms crossed on her chest, and with both of the young Malfoys still in their pajamas, the man cleared his throat.

"As I'm sure you know, you've become two of the wealthiest young wizards in Britain, if not the world. All I need to do is officially inform you of these things, and leave just a few objects in your possession, and then I will be happily on my way." He took a piece of parchment from his vest pocket and tapped it with his wand so that it floated in front of his face. "I'm now reading from the will of Lucius Malfoy," he began.

"To my son Draco, I leave all of the Malfoy property, including Malfoy Manor, its acreage, our home at the shore, and all their contents. This comes with the responsibility of sheltering my wife Felicity anywhere she should like to stay, for as long as she would like to stay, along with any future spouse or children she may have.

As for my fortune, I leave it split equally between both Felicity and Draco. I hope that this won't come as bad news to either of them, as half of the Malfoy treasure is already twice as much as any one wizard could dream of having. Each should be given a key to my Gringotts vault, and I trust the goblins of the institution will oversee the equitable division."

The man cleared his throat again, and looked up at them while searching through the pockets of his robe, finally producing two gleaming keys. Felicity still would not look at him, and Draco, with a look of sympathy at the man, took both.

"And then he's left an envelope for each of you," he said, handing out two envelopes on thick grey stationery sealed with gleaming green wax. Draco took these as well; Felicity hadn't budged.

"That's finished up Lucius," he said, looking very glad to be soon gone, "but there is one more thing." He waved his wand, and there was a loud thump that Felicity could not ignore. Turning her head to the man's feet, she saw a trunk that looked entirely too familiar.

"This was found in the possessions of Severus Snape, with a note that made clear it was to be returned to its rightful owner." Then the man reached down and turned the trunk so Felicity could see the front and its clasp; her initials were gleaming there, as bright as the day she had gone to buy it at the age of 11.

After the man left, practically running away, Draco helped Felicity drag the trunk upstairs.

"Is it just school things?" he asked as they pulled it into her bedroom.

"It should be, unless someone's messed with it. But I think I'd like to open it alone, if you don't mind."

"Not at all." He was fingering the envelopes that the man had left, and he placed Felicity's, along with her key, on her bed. "I'll see you later." Draco left in a hurry, and Felicity knew that it was to go find a quiet reading spot.

With bated breath, she undid the trunk's clasps and lifted the lid. There, on top of a pile of folded robes and neatly stacked books, was another letter.

Dear Felicity,

Here is your trunk, returned to you at last. At the end of what should have been your sixth year, your classmates packed it up neatly and left it at the foot of your bed, hoping for your return. In turn the house-elves placed it at the bottom of the stairs leading to Ravenclaw tower with the rest of the garbage that was to be taken away. That is where I found it, and since then I've kept it safe in the Headmaster's study. I once asked Lucius if I should return it sooner, and he said he thought the memories might be too much. At the time, I agreed.

I hope that you will need this trunk soon for your inevitable return to Hogwarts, and I'm only sorry that I couldn't return it to you in person. Life has been inordinately hard on you, and I think a return to your home and possessions of another life will serve you very well.

I wish I could have saved you, Felicity. I wanted to take you away from their torture as soon as I knew it was to happen, but there was no way to execute such a plan without betraying my true allegiance and ruining the little hope there was for our victory. In this way, you were one of bravest warriors who fought; you stayed. I tried my best to give you comfort, and to protect you, and I know that those attempts sometimes cost you more than they gave. Forgive me.

Because you are good, I know you will mourn me, but please do not imagine me suffering. I've finally escaped a world that never had a place for me.

Do not fear the future; it holds only opportunity.

Yours,

Severus Snape

Blinking away tears, she turned to the envelope next to her. The one she had really been dreading; his final words to her. This was her last chance to understand him, to understand anything. She took a deep breath, picked it up, and dropped it. Her hands were shaking. She tried again, and managed to break the seal. Downstairs she could hear Draco moving about; he must have already finished his. Two more deep breaths, then another, and then she finally found the strength to unfold the letter.

Dear Felicity,

If you're reading this, I can only assume that some unfortunate fate has befallen me. Tragic for myself, lucky, perhaps, for you. As I'm sure you've just heard, you and Draco will never lack for money, or for a place to live; this is the best gift I can give, and the only apology I can truly offer.

It's beyond time to tell you the truth about how I began to feel towards the end of the War. In short, I had many regrets. Ever since Narcissa's death, I saw that I had made the wrong choice with my allegiances, that even though I believed in the cause, no idealized world could possibly exist after so much torture and loss. You showed me this more and more as our time together went on, and I lashed out in reaction to being shown how mistaken I was. But I have always been a coward, and I never could find it within myself to try and escape the life I had created for us.

In our last few weeks, I began to see that you were too bright for me, and I tried to come to terms with the fact that I would have to release you after the war ended. I was surprised to find that the thought of this upset me deeply, and I decided to be kinder to you in case I could make you want to stay. However, without a choice, things will be much easier for you. I know you deserve to be free.

I know that you don't consider yourself brave; let me assure you that you are. Returning to a world of heroes who were able to fight may be difficult, but know that you survived just as much as they did, and in potentially worse conditions.

I hope that one day you'll be happy with someone else, and that you will not let our relationship tether you to the past. You are young and smart and beautiful, and there's no reason why the rest of your life shouldn't live up to the person you are.

I do not know if freedom or love is more important, but I think that freedom is harder to come by, and that you will find more than enough love all around you.

With love,

Lucius

P.S. Please don't talk to my portrait, if you can avoid it. He won't be particularly kind or intuitive, and I doubt it would give you much comfort.

Author's note:

It's all very sad, isn't it? I do wish that Felicity and Lucius could be together, kind of. And trust me, I played with it a lot. But even the earliest drafts always had Lucius dying at the end, with one significant difference; Felicity was to have not one but two children by him. One, a girl, born several years before his death, and the other a boy, born after the war ends. I liked that a lot because I enjoyed seeing Lucius as a new father, and it was a fun dynamic to play with when Felicity had the baby and she and Lucius were still not at a good point in their relationship. Also, Felicity was going to tell him about her second pregnancy as he was dying (because I'm a sick twisted person, I guess), which I liked to think might have allowed him a moment of happiness at the very end. However, once I wrote a little piece where Felicity was out to lunch with her friends after the war, and it ended with her crying to Luna about how she didn't really want to be a mom, even though she did love her children. She wanted to date a nice boy who loved her and she wanted to start a new life with him, and of course that was impossible when she already had these children to take care of. That was very sad for me, and then I realized that I could give Felicity the chance she was hoping for by simply taking away those children. A sad edit to make, but I'm glad now that Felicity has half a chance to live a normal life.