A/N- Rounding third! Hang in there with me, the conclusion will be within the next chapter or two.

Snow

Of Gold and Steel

Chapter Thirty Seven

She felt anxiety, confusion, sadness, yet his body was still. Where the brief numbness had resided for long minutes, now there lay a world of pain, unfurling in her belly. Sara blinked away the tears as she moved toward him. He was pale, still, and his chest held no traces of breath. Blood covered him, staining his robes and pooling on the floor. She knelt, drawing the solid weight of his body into her lap, her fingers closing over his cheek as her head bowed. This couldn't be real. It couldn't be real!

"Severus Snape, open your eyes this instant, I have a bone to pick with you." He didn't stir. Her fingers clenched around his upper arms as she lifted her eyes toward the ceiling, her fogged mind scrambling for purchase and finding none. She had to stay calm. He wasn't dead. He couldn't be dead. She wouldn't feel him if he were dead. He was aware, somehow, though trapped. The panic that rose in her was not her own. Her eyes closed for a moment but all she saw was a glimpse of red hair and ash. She groped for something, anything to hold onto, the whispered words spilling from her lips softly. "Severus, my Kel, you need to wake up. I can feel you. I know you're there. I know you're not gone."

There was a flicker of a response, the brief flaring of hope inside her, unfurling, uncurling from a tightly clasped bud. It flickered and then faded. "Yes, I know you're there. Tell me what to do. I need to know what to do."

The hope sprang once more and as unbidden, a memory sprang to mind. Dumbldore's eyes twinkling knowingly, his words gentle despite her having snapped at him. "The primary function of a Kelsalis, when she is smart enough to use her power, is that of healing, Sara."

She gave a growl of frustration as she addressed the otherwise empty room. "I get it, fine, I get it. I'm to heal him, but how? How can I heal him when I don't have …." She paused for a moment, her gaze locking to the ceiling above her head, the wheels turning, the words she'd heard whispered in her ear. Her pleasure came from his pleasure, at his behest. His life… could it work both ways? Could it really be that simple? So stupidly simple that she'd never seen it?

Dumbledore had given her the answer. "You'll know what to do."

The gates clicked open, the locks fell away, and to her astonishment, she knew. And it sickened her. Her eyes lowered to his unmoving form, and that flicker radiated in her stomach again, a question. Her fingers moved sluggishly, stroking his face as she forced out a shaky laugh. "Never say I didn't do anything for you."

She reached for his wand, abandoning her own on the ground. Instinct carried her as she gingerly moved his larger frame to prop it against the wall. On impulse, she brushed her lips over his cheek, wiping away the traces of tears with her thumb and with shaking hands pressed the wand she held against the smallest of the wounds. The flare, the flicker of hope that dimly grew was latched onto, his essence, his hope, his life's pulse. "Kelsalis …" Her lips moved, whispering the words gently, her mind reeling as she forced them out. "Adimo.." There was no change, and yet that flame grew inside her. "Vulneris."

She let her eyes fall closed, her head bowing as she felt the smallest sting on her upper arm, pain lancing through her. Sara inhaled sharply, a whisper coming from the back of her mind, a voice so like her own that she did not know, and yet instinctively obeyed. Her eyes flicked open, her gaze coming to rest on the wound the wand had been touching, only to find it gone. Her heart leaped inside her chest. Though the smears of blood remained, the skin was unmarred. She drew in a breath and knew then, murmuring the words softly, as she moved his wand to the next. "Kelsalis adimo vulneris." Another searing pain, so intense it took her breath away, this one on her neck.

Without thought she forged onward, moving to the next wound, and the next, and the next. With each passing moment, her pulse quickened, adrenaline carrying her onward. It wasn't enough. His pulse was thread, but growing stronger, and she knew, as she brought the wand to his throat where the largest gash was, just what she was doing. She was fully aware, fully clear, and regretted nothing. Her hand rose to rest on his face, and for a moment, she thought she saw his eyes flicker with awareness. A trick of the light. It had to be a trick of the light. Her fingers shook as she stared at him, the final words spilling from her lips without conscious effort. It only mattered, the strengthening flare of hope that had no flickered into full on awareness. "Kelsalis adimo mortis."

No sooner did the words leave her lips than her neck burned, blood seeping from the now opened wound even as she watched in mute fascination as the one on his own neck faded. Awareness sparked in obsidian eyes in that instant, just as her own vision blurred. Her lips worked soundlessly, her fingers pressing to her neck as if to do so could possibly stop what she'd started. He blinked at her, his lips curving into a smile, a beautiful, untainted smile, though as comprehension dawned, it faded, to be replaced by horror.

Her fingers loosened on his wand as the first moment of panic set in. He was angry with her. Shit. Her blood soaked fingers moved, pressing to his lips to forestall the diatribe she knew was coming. His eyes, those precious black eyes that bore into her own with such intensity stared down at her as the blackness overtook her, and breath was robbed of her, his arms around her catching her as she fell and his voice in her ear, the last thing she heard. "Stupid, stupid girl."

The words left his lips without remorse. How had she done this? How had she managed it? He didn't stop to think, but wrapped his arms around her as her slight form lurched forward and then was sickeningly still. Dread uncurled in Severus's stomach. The pool of blood on the floor was not only his. The wounds were sealed, the venom that had paralyzed proper thought was no longer in his veins, no doubt mingled on the floor with their blood. His arms wrapped around her and curled her in tightly as he closed his eyes, cursing fluidly as he gathered the last of the strength that was in him and focused his mind, pushing aside the emotions that threatened to overtake him.

They apparated into the Great Hall with a smooth pop. He didn't know if the battle was over, he didn't know if Potter was dead, or if Voldemort had finally been defeated. He didn't know if he'd be killed on sight, or if he would live to see this through, he knew only one thing. He lifted his voice, though it was weak at best. "H..help!" His voice was not his own, weakened by exhaustion, and emotion, it broke, coming out as a sob. "Help! Poppy!"

The first face he saw was McGonagall's. Anger burned in her eyes, and her wand was pointed to him. He clutched Sara's still body closer to his, rasping out the words, as he tried to focus his eyes on her through the haze of tears. This time, he felt the sadness acutely, the grief directly. "K..kill me. I don't care… kill me, but please… you have to… Sara…"

Her eyes then fell to the bloodied form in his arms and her wand lowered. She swept forward, her voice lifting. "Poppy, I need you."

"And so do a dozen over bloody people, Minerva, you'll have to wait." The sound of the medi-witch's tired voice came from somewhere else.

Severus's heart sank as he shifted in place, drawing Sara into his lap. "Please." Minerva's face blurred as he lowered his head, burying his face in her hair, rendered helpless for the second time in the night. "She… she… please. Please help. Minerva, please help."

He was surrounded by people then, in the next moment. Granger was kneeling beside him. "Professor?" He was barely aware of Potter's bloodied figure taking up residence on the other side. "Professor Snape, let Hermione take her. She can help her." His fingers wouldn't let go though and the anguished bellow that ripped through the room couldn't have been his.

His eyes closed tightly as the warm weight of his wife was taken from him and he lunged forward toward nothing, hands clawing as he saw stars. "Sara! Give me Sara!" She was the only bloody thing he had left. The only thing that mattered and she was gone.

Arms closed around him, and still his eyes didn't open, he didn't know how to open them again to a world without that little piece of light that had pieced together the fractured remnants of his blackened soul. The words were dim, barely making a mark on his awareness, Granger's voice snapping orders to some unknown person. "She's still got a pulse. Ron, hand me the dittany from my bag. Hurry."

A pulse. Severus's hands shook as he slowly let his eyes open, staring at Sara's form. "She's…"

Potter's voice came from his left, and the arms that had restrained him loosened, as if testing him. His broken world came into alignment once more, and he was able to breathe, if only for a moment. "Kill me, but save her. You have to … you must…"

"Someone do something! Shut him up! Please!" The words, the voice, Minerva taking charge as she was so good at. Severus lowered his head, expelling a breath as the spell hit him, sending him into blissful darkness and the welcomed arms of unconsciousness.

Sara blinked, frowning as she found herself staring at, of all things, a tree. In all her time picturing the afterlife she'd never considered that it would consist of an ordinary, gnarled tree in desperate need of pruning. The voice was one she didn't know, coming from somewhere behind her. "He's okay."

She spun and found herself faced with a vaguely familiar face. The woman was younger than her by some years, flaming red hair and green eyes that bore a world of emotion far older than her physical form seemed to be capable of having lived. Sara stared at her, her brow drawing together in a frown. "Are you… are you her?"

The woman smiled. "I suppose you know, then. He's a bit of a mess, at the best of times. But he's a good man."

Cautiously, she lowered herself to the spot the woman was patting. She didn't speak, but glanced toward the horizon. "Ash. Why is there ash?"

The girl's eyes flicked toward it, one slender shoulder rising in a half-shrug. "His world is burning and soon, there will be nothing left but memory."

"Am I dead, then?" Sara turned her gaze back to the other woman.

She was answered with a quick shake of the head. "Not quite. The dead can never truly be brought back. You're not quite dead yet, but it's close for the moment."

Sara couldn't bring herself to wrap her mind around it. She leaned back against the trunk of the tree, watching as the first bits of ash began to fall around them, peaceful as the first snow of winter. She lifted a hand, capturing it in her palm, staring at it. "It's nothing without him." The words were matter of fact.

To her surprise, the woman's laugh was quiet. "You can stay. Or you can go. You've done your part. But I think, he deserves for you to go."

Her fingers traced over the ash, reducing it further, and curiously it felt like silk beneath her fingertips. "Life or death, neither is anything without him." The admission was gentle as she glanced toward the other woman, the woman that she'd always been measured by, who's memory was something that even the gods themselves wouldn't have been able to live up to. Sara's voice was rueful, yet she couldn't bring herself to hate the memory of Lily Potter than sat beside her. "I'll never be you, and I don't mind that he doesn't love me. I can love him enough for the both of us, until he's ready."

The smile was brilliant and in that moment, she saw the years of worry edge out of the other woman's eyes. "My boy did it. He saved the world. And you saved Sev's. I think you should go back. I think you'll find he was ready a long time ago. He's just a bit of a dunderhead at those things."

Sara glanced upward toward the canopy of the tree, a bit of ash landing on her nose. "Thank you, for him."

The woman gave a brief smile as she shook her head. "Don't mention it. But I think you should close your eyes now, Sara. It's time to go home."