"You should have told me!"

Snape threw himself on the armchair, then rose and paced towards the kitchen. She followed suite.

"You had no powers. Gods I knew something was off when you never progressed with the locket. When you couldn't even summon a simple bulb in the greenhouse. I knew it!"

"You're so clever, I'm surprised you didn't corner me before."

"I thought you were testing me-"

"You wouldn't have made a deal with NOR would you have listened to me if I'd told the truth-"

"I trusted you. And if years spent together at school didn't establish it, then I'm not sure what would have. I trusted you were telling the truth. In fact I spent DAYS researching the effects of powers after death, knowing how little literature there was on the matter as well as assuming you had ample time to explore your abilities. I thinks –he must know something I don't, he couldn't possibly be to lie"

"Well this is it then. I lied. And you would have been smarter to question me instead of blindly believing or trying to put the facts together in your head. You blame me for assuming the worst in people, but you Gisbon are one in the same. You could have approached-"

"I didn't think I needed to." She spat the words out. Then disappearing into the bedroom she holds the locket. Eyes down and her curls standing on the tips of the head, she brought her wand with a figment of glowing blue- like a ribbon out of the key.

"Take all of them. Take them and stay out of my life."

"No." He backed away slowly, arms crossed.

"It wasn't a question. Take them professor and go back to your rotting hole and live your happy afterlife." When he'd refused the second time she stuck them back into their rightful place.

"The Promise Bond was a lie as well. Not that I didn't know. It can only be made between living beings. Now that there is nothing holding you here, this is the end of it all."

"Where am I supposed to go?"

"Wherever you want."

Both looks at each other with a certain listless gaze.

"When I come back to Earth, I had no clue what was happening. No bloody clue. The only indication that my life had meaning was this f8888 Fish and Chips shop that I stumbles into one morning. Whatever spirit was there, obviously had a malicious intention. But an intention nonetheless and options that Id never been presendsed with."

"You could have told me that from the start."

"Told you? Gods I didn't even believe it myself. How could I ever expect you to do the same?"

"It would have changed –"

"-It would have changed nothing. I don't know what Im supposed to do. I've always had answers, or someone telling me answers: your Headmaster, the Dark Lord, Lily. But now, I've no one to rely on. No one to even f*8888ing ask about my actions and it scares me. It scares me to think that I'll ever be my own man."

He couldn't bear to look her in the eye. Why had he just told her his thinkss. The Priest wanted him to be vulnerable. Was it supposed to hurt this much?

"I wonder the same thing. I know how you feel about me talking about it, but when I think of Harry , I wonder if I'd ever have been considered for a position as an Auror if he'd never brought my application to Robards Jr.. I'd done it by myself?

I've applied for an internship with Milicent after the war. I've even been published. But I didn't want to end up like my mother. You know, she'd always wanted to be archeologist but she settled for a stable job and her family. I don't want to be fourty and working a job everyone expected me to do. Well now I'm 37 and I wonder if I'd just done it for the badge and the glory. Both of which I'll never receive because I wasn't the one who defeated the Dark Lord. A plain but ambitious girl, seems to be developing a taste for famous wizards.

How flack is that?"

"I don't think it is flack at all. Who wrote that?"

"Skeeter."
"Skeeter is a ministry rat. She writes what people want to hear and what the Minister tells her."

She smiled.

"Bond or no bond Hermione, I made a promise to help get you into Robards Jr.'s good graces. And I fully intend to keep my promise."

"I can't accept your help. I'm sorry Sev ."

A sudden twist in his gut and a tremble through his hands as she says the final words. He slowly rose from his seat, jacket in hand and leaves the door. He turned to see her following his steps with her eyes. Whatever words come out of his mouth could not change the situation. He leaves her behind the door.

Pip and Frodo yapped and wagged their tails in the downstairs window, but Snape made his way down the street. To say he felt remorse and guilt was to say the least.

For the first time in a very long time, tears stung his eyes and he rapidly waxed them off. Thankfully, the crowded streets of London would soon swallow his misery.