"I knew everything. I saw Dumbledore, and he told me I needed to start pulling the strings of my old life back together. So I tried to find you," Sev explained, staring intently into his tea. The two of them were sitting up talking, a rare thing now that he was headmaster. Usually they were up late working. Sev would work so late that Hazel had to sleepily get up and find him, reminding him that he too needed to sleep or he'd collapse at his desk. "They cancelled classes the week I was appointed Potions Master. I knew you were staying in Hogsmeade at the time, so I went to find you. You were the only person I could've possibly had left."

Hazel reached out and took his hand. "You never knocked."

He finally met her eye, asking, "Would you have answered?" The question hit her hard. Even when she knew he was a Death Eater, she'd let him in. Of course he'd been bleeding to death at the moment, but still. If she had known, she wouldn't have turned him away. Especially not then, when Voldemort had just fallen. It was a day of celebration for most, but for many others, the world as they knew it was falling apart.

They'd separated and come back to each other a couple times. A Death Eater and an Auror could never be friends. It was too dangerous to even keep in contact regularly. But they still managed to find each other on occasion. She'd seen him on her Auror missions a couple of times and spared him, telling him to run. To be fair, he'd saved her life a couple of times too. "Sev -"

"It doesn't matter. When I got there, I could see you in the window. You were hugging someone, so I knew you wouldn't be alone. I didn't want to interrupt."

"It was Remus," she explained. "He'd lost James the day before. And Sirius - Sirius was in Azkaban, we brought him in that night, and we thought Peter was dead. He was alone too."

"I stayed for a bit. I watched you, and then I came back here, back to the dungeons. Dumbledore came to find me, and somehow he knew. He knew I didn't want to be alone or... I would've probably done something awful. He kept me updated on your career. He kept telling me to write. I very nearly did, but… I'd lost Lily, and I'd lost you in almost the same way. You tried. You really tried, but it was intoxicating. It was power, it was family, it was... I should've seen it. I should've seen why you were so keen on introducing me to all of your friends. You were trying to save me, and I ended up alone." She'd let him talk, but this was enough. She'd seen this sort of spiral before.

So she gently took both of their teacups and set them aside, stretching out over the sofa to hold onto him. "You're not alone anymore, Sev. You never have to be alone again."

He kissed the top of her head, offering only two words in response. "I'm sorry."

"I don't want to say it's okay," she spoke into his chest, "because it's not. Stuff like that... I'm just glad you ended up in the right place. You know all of that could've gotten you killed. I'm glad you ended up doing what's right. I'm glad you ended up here."

"I wish none of it had ever happened," he confided, holding onto her tightly. "I wish I would've stayed with you, become a potioneer, or an Auror, or something that wasn't what I turned into. We could've had perfectly normal lives."

"Nothing would've ever been normal for an Auror in the middle of a wizarding war," Hazel reminded him. "I wish I'd made a lot of different choices too. The things Barty Crouch had us do… I don't know how I ever agreed to them. I was angry. I was angry at Voldemort, at the Death Eaters, at myself, at all of us in the Auror Office because it didn't seem like we were making any difference... and I was so blinded by anger… I did horrible things, Sev, things no one had the right to do. I wish none of it had ever happened."

But Sev was lost in thought, running a hand through her hair as he wondered, "Do you think we would've gotten married? If none of that had ever happened? If there wasn't a war and we'd stayed the way we were in the fall of our seventh year? If I'd never lied to you about everything, if I'd have been different?"

"Maybe. Either way, I'm glad I ended up back here. I'm glad Dumbledore needed a professor and I'm glad I was getting fed up with the Ministry. I don't think much would change if we did it now, though. There's not a lot of sense in it, especially with the way everything is... Why would you want to? Wait, would you want to?"

He sighed, explaining that, "You know I'm yours, and only yours. And I know you're mine, and only mine, but it would mean something, to prove it to the rest of the world..."

"The rest of the world already knows," she laughed. "Half of the students have been slipping up and call me 'Professor Snape' for years now. What else is there -"

Sev got quiet, his gaze shifting away from her. "To prove to the rest of the world that I'm worth marrying."

"Oh Sev." Her heart broke for the man who was still, despite everything, doubtful that he was anything more than the seemingly unlovable boy that everyone liked to hate. She leaned in and kissed him, draping her arms over his shoulders and promising that, "You are. You're so worth marrying." With another kiss, she held him close, finally realizing why it had always been so important to him.

His voice was hollow as he asked, still thinking of how their lives could have gone if they'd made different choices. Or at least fewer bad ones. If he'd given up on getting the Slytherins to like the pitiful half-blood from Cokeworth. If he'd kept up with Hazel's friends instead. If he'd told her the truth the first time she asked, or the second, or the third. "So, do you want to?"

"Wait, now?" Hazel sat up to look him in the eye. He couldn't help but smile at how her eyes lit up. "Severus Snape, did you just -"

"I'm not asking now, I'm merely asking if you'd ever consider it," he stressed, trying to suppress a laugh. "In the future, when all of this is over. I know we're already practically married, but... I'd still like to, one day. Make it all official. That is, if you'd want to."

The answer was immediate. "Yes. I love you, Sev. You're my Half-Blood Prince, remember? You always have been. Of course I'd marry you." She leaned in to give him a kiss, adding, "I want to spend the rest of my life with you, whatever that may be."

"So you'll marry me? Really? Even though I'll properly ask after. Get you a nice ring and all." He kept talking, the disbelief taking a while to wear off.

"Yes," she smiled, giving him a kiss. "Of course I will. Here. Maybe this will make you feel better." She moved to hold his hand, but snaked her hand up his arm instead. The ghost of worry flittered across his face, Sev wondering if she meant to have him make another Unbreakable Vow. This one, though, he knew he would be able to keep. "Like a Vow, but just a promise. A promise we'll get married after all of this is over. A promise that... that nothing's going to change."

"A solemn one to be made just in front of ourselves, in our pajamas?" He raised an eyebrow, a ghost of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Alright."

Hazel didn't reach for her wand. Instead she held onto him, saying, "Severus Tobias Snape, do you promise to marry me, to love me, to be mine for the rest of our lives - no, the rest of forever?"

"I do," he smiled. No glowing light snaked around their arms, no magic involved at all. They didn't need it. "Hazel Amelia Ashmore, do you promise to marry me, to love me, to be mine for the rest of forever?"

"I do." She leaned in to kiss him, pulling back only to ask, "Does this mean I get to call you my fiance now? Even though we'll make it all proper later?"

"I suppose it does. I like the sound of that."

As she laid back down, settling in to curl up with him on the sofa for a while, he held her a little closer than usual. She remained the one constant, the one bright spot in the middle of the darkness he faced every day. And for that, he loved her.