While everyone else was celebrating the end of Lord Voldemort and the flight of the few remaining Death Eaters, Hazel made her way up to the Headmaster's office. The gargoyle out front had been destroyed, so she took the stairs up, passing the untouched office entirely and stepping into her chambers.

As soon as she closed the door behind her, she noticed the note. Sev wasn't hiding up there. He had clearly fled. It made sense, after all. No one yet knew that he had actually been on the winning side all along. No matter who won, he would be in danger for a little while. He'd left her a note, Hazel picking it up off of her desk and turning it over in her hands before unfolding the parchment.

My dearest Hazel,

I've just gotten word that Harry Potter is in the castle. You are in your office, and I do not wish to disturb you. Soon you'll hear the news in the corridors, and the war will be on our doorstep. I want to find you, but I don't want to bring the war to you any earlier than need be. I hope you get a couple moments' more peace.

If you're reading this, you have yet to find me after the battle. This is something I know you've been worried about for a while, something we've both been turning over in our minds and refusing to say to each other, but the odds are against me making it out of this alive. Both sides will want to see me dead even if I manage to survive the initial battle.

If that is the case, I want you to donate all of my books to the school. Someone will get good use out of them. Let Horace take whichever ones he wants and give Madam Pince the rest. Keep the ones in the house if you want them. The enchantments will be broken so anything written inside one will no longer copy into the other. As for the house itself, the keys are in my desk drawer, under a pile of old parchment. I know it isn't a beautiful place to live. Not what you deserve, but it's all I have to give to you. Take the house, take everything in it, take everything I've left behind in our rooms. The goblins at Gringotts will take care of the accounts for you. I've already had all of the paperwork drawn up. As you know, professors do not earn that much, but there's a little something left over from Horace and I's inventions and writings. If you need more than that, the Malfoys will help you, Narcissa especially. She always was fond of you back in our school days. If something happened to them, I'm sure the other professors would be willing to help.

I wish there was more that I could leave to you. I wish I could have found the words long ago to tell you how much I appreciate you, to tell you how much you have truly saved my life over the years, to tell you how lucky I feel to wake up next to you every day. You really have been the one bright spot in my life, especially as of late. There are no words for how truly lucky I am to have you, to have had the honor of being with you, so I must resort to the words that I have long avoided out of fear, the ones I now wish I had told you in person more often.

I love you.

I hope to see you again, but if you are reading this, I doubt that I have made it out of battle. Still, I hope to be able to tell you again in person: I love you.

All my love,

Sev

Hazel sank to the ground, leaning on the wall for support. Clutching the letter to her chest, she knew it long before Flitwick came to find her to tell her that Sev was still unaccounted for. He wasn't missing. Sev was dead.

The note clutched in one trembling hand and her wand in the other, Hazel made her way down the stairs, past the gargoyle that lay broken in front of the Headmaster's office. All she could do was keep moving. If she didn't, she would collapse.

Minerva was the first one that she came across, heading down a corridor to help coordinate the effort to move the injured survivors into the Great Hall. They exchanged a look as they passed, Minerva still convinced that Sev had been working for the Death Eaters all along. In time, Harry would clear his name with Hazel's help. But for now they just passed each other by, Hazel finding herself in the entrance hall.

"Professor!" She turned to find Harry jogging towards her, having broken off from his group. He came to a stop in front of her, saying, "Professor Snape, he… I'm sorry. He was attacked - Voldemort's snake attacked him and there was nothing I could do and he… he's dead."

Hazel's heart fell. She knew what he meant before he said it. As soon as he'd found her, she knew. He should be celebrating. Of all people, he should be celebrating. Not finding her in the middle of a nearly empty corridor. "Where is he?"

"The Shrieking Shack. Professor, I'm sorry. I know what he meant to you. Even if he was -"

She cut him off, not wanting any more of an explanation. "Thank you, Potter. Go celebrate with your friends. Congratulations. You've done well."

"Professor Ashmore, I'm sorry."

"Thank you." All she could do was nod, turning away before she started to cry. She set out across the lawn, waving her wand to pick up a stick and press the knot on the Whomping Willow, immobilizing the tree. It wasn't a long trip to the Shrieking Shack, but she was terrified of what she would find there. Part of her didn't want to see, but her feet carried her there nonetheless. There was no way she couldn't go.

Halfway down the tunnel, she realized that he had been alone, alone in one of the few places he was afraid of. Alone in the place he had nearly died when they were kids. And he didn't know if she was okay, he didn't get a chance to say goodbye, he didn't know who had won the war. Even if Harry had been there, he would have been alone. Looking into the face of the man he had hated and the woman he had once cared for was little comfort.

She stepped into the Shrieking Shack, holding her breath. But there was nothing there. She could tell that someone had gotten into a fight there, closely inspecting a trail of blood that ran down one of the walls. Fresh, or nearly so. "Lumos," she mumbled, lighting up the room so she could see further. There were no footprints anywhere, no signs that anyone had been there except for the blood.

Part of her wanted to believe that he was alive. But Harry had seen him, had watched him die. If Voldemort had known he was a spy, she would've bet anything that he told the Death Eaters to collect his body and destroy it. If not, they could have taken it anyway, to be given an honorable burial when they inevitably won. Or so it seemed in the moment.

She took a deep breath, sitting down near the trail of blood. Her eyes grew cloudy as she looked at his letter. With shaking hands, she read it over again, hovering on the signature.

All my love,

Sev

"Sev..." she mumbled, conscious of the tears now streaming down her cheeks, "I..." She sighed, trying to tell him what she would've wanted him to hear. "Sev, I love you. I'm sorry I wasn't here with you. I'm sorry... I'm sorry about so many things. I wish we could've had the kind of life you deserve. I wish... I know you're happy - were happy - at times, but I wish we could've... had some time where we didn't have to worry about the war. Oh Merlin, I love you. I love you, Sev. Why... Come back. If by some miracle you're not dead... please come back."

She didn't know how long she was in the Shrieking Shack. It was only when she heard footsteps that she realized some decent amount of time must have passed. "Professor?" Luna had somehow found her, the glowing light of her wand coming into view as she walked into the long-abandoned building. "Harry told me I'd likely find you here."

"Luna, why did you -"

"Odd sort of place. Never been in here myself." Xeno's voice carried up the steps. "They always said it was haunted." He stopped, looking around the shack. "I've got to say, it does look just about as I imagined it."

Hazel's voice caught in her throat as she looked at her old friend. "Why...?"

"I thought I should come to find you," he explained, helping her up. "When I first found out about you two, I remembered leaving Slughorn's Amortentia lesson and... Pan told me everything. She was cheering for you - we both were - until we found out he was a Death Eater. And then when Luna told me you'd gotten back together, I thought he had changed. He's been working for our side all along, hasn't he? I knew Dumbledore must've had spies..."

All she could do was nod. "Yeah. He... Xeno, he's dead. I know it. Harry saw him..." Xeno pulled her into a hug as Luna looked around the shack, checking out the trail of blood left behind. "You know he hated this place. And he was alone... he died alone and I couldn't..."

"I'm sorry," he told her, trying to keep his voice level. "When Pandora passed away... It took forever for Luna and I to smile again. I'm so lucky I had her. Whatever you need, we'll be here for you. For now, though, you should get back up to the castle."

"Why? Is someone looking for me?"

"You need to eat something," Luna offered. "You need to rest. He would want you to."

Hazel nodded, numbly agreeing. By the time they got back to the castle, things were already being fixed and put back in place. People would look at her as she passed, but no one stopped her. Xeno and Luna walked her back up to the Headmaster's office, leaving her there with the promise that they would see her soon. Somehow she managed to eat a couple of bites of something, take a shower, and drop into bed.

She was overcome with exhaustion, but the other side of the bed was empty. They'd slept there the night before, not suspecting what was to come. But now the bed was too empty, so she got up, grabbing one of Sev's cloaks from where they were hung by the door. She fell into a restless sleep on the sofa, wrapped in his cloak and still clutching the letter he had left her.