One night in the middle of spring Hazel looked out of her office window, zoning out for a moment. She had been trudging through first-years' essays, not the best late-night reading. A dark figure was crossing the lawn, coming in from the forest. Too tall to be Pomona gathering new plants, too short to be Hagrid leaving a group of creatures in the woods. She shrugged it off, thinking it must have been one of the new professors. She hardly knew the man who had taken over Ghoul Studies. It could have been him. Or half a dozen others. They had originally wanted to hire a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, but McGonagall had called off the interviews for the post last-minute, insisting that Hazel was the most qualified person on the staff, and that they needed someone who could handle the unique difficulties of the position. Given all of her Auror training and the time she had spent fighting with the Order, she was the best person to handle it. But it was difficult nonetheless.

An hour or so later, she stretched, thinking of going for a walk. Before long her feet had carried her to Astronomy Tower, where she ended up on a lot of her late-night walks. It offered a breathtaking view of the stars and the Hogwarts campus. And it had been home to many of her and Sev's study sessions. It was a good place to think, a good place to be alone as long as she kept the Astronomy class schedule in mind. As she stood watching the stars, she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. She wasn't alone tonight.

"Ssh. It's alright." It was a voice that nearly broke her. Her heart was in her throat, expecting a fight. He stepped out of the shadows as Hazel defensively drew her wand. No. You're dead. It can't be you.

"Whoever you are, this isn't funny. If I find out you've been messing with Polyjuice Potion, I'll get you expelled. Minimum. Tell me something only the real Severus Snape would know," she commanded, tears already welling up in her eyes. He reached out for her, but she stood her ground, threatening to curse him. "Tell me."

The sadness in his eyes was hard to mimic, even with Polyjuice Potion. But he understood why she would be cautious. "You have the faintest scar below your left ear. It came from our sixth year, when I accidentally cursed you. Madam Pomfrey missed it when she was healing all of the others." She lowered her wand as Sev reached out for her, his fingertips brushing over the scar she usually forgot about. "You've never much minded, since you can cover it with your hair, but I've felt awful about it ever since. You've always said my nose was unique. No matter how many times I wanted to shrink it, you would tell me not to." Smiling slightly, he thought of something that would get past her defenses and disbelief, past the hex that was still hovering on her lips. "Amortentia - do you remember when we first brewed it with Professor Slughorn? Mine is linen, lavender, and Butterbeer. Yours is ink, rosemary, and powdered bat wings. Both of us were worried about what it meant, but the first time I kissed you, I knew. What else? Er, you have a tiny scar in the groove of your hip from when you fell off of a swing set when you were younger, and it's always the last place I kiss before I -"

"Okay," she laughed, lowering her wand. She stared for a second, looking him over before she wrapped her arms around him. "Sev… how? Harry said he saw you die." He felt the tension drop from her shoulders, the sadness and the anger she had been carrying for so long starting to fade away.

"Nagini was a constrictor, not a biter," he told her, holding onto her for dear life. "Her venom was only a paralytic, something the Dark Lord failed to realize. I had been taking a small dose of antivenom every day, as a precaution, ever since I watched her kill someone else at Malfoy Manor. You know I did a dozen things as precautions before every meeting. It was… not pleasant, but here I am." He let go of her only long enough to show her the two identical scars on his neck, tiny puncture marks from the snake. "I kept the scars. Why bother getting rid of them? I went into hiding for a while, in case any more rogue Death Eaters emerged or in case the Ministry hunted me down. I was hated by both sides in the end."

"Harry saw you die," she spoke into his shoulder, still in shock that he was back after all of this time, that it was actually him. "You gave him all of the memories you had of his mother -"

"I didn't want them anymore."

"Why?" She stepped back in surprise, still holding onto his hands. "Lily was everything to you when we were kids -"

"I love you." He'd been dwelling on the words since he disappeared, dwelling on the ache in his chest, the longing to be back there with her. He'd dream of her every night and wake up trying to resist the urge to camp out in the woods just to check up on her. Every glimpse he managed to catch made him want to race towards her, but he couldn't. Not yet. Not until things settled down. Not until it was relatively safe. "I know I haven't told you enough, but I love you."

"Sev," she smiled, the hope in his chest faltering for a fleeting second. It was too good, she was too good to stay. She'd given up on him. She must've found someone else. How could someone like her ever - "I love you too."

He gave her a kiss, holding her close for what seemed like an eternity. Neither of them wanted to let go. Just being there together was erasing the pain of the last few months, the pain of loss and of being forced to stay away. "Hazel, I - You ask nothing of me, only that I be there with you. And only when I can be. You understand my need to constantly work, to throw myself into everything I do -"

"Sev, what do you want? I mean it in the best way possible, but why are you back? Why now? It's still dangerous out there. Plenty of people would still love to see you dead."

The answer was a simple one. "I want a home. A real home. With you. I want you to come with me. Tell Minerva you're retiring at the end of the year. Come with me, and we can finally start the rest of our lives."

"Sev -"

"Please."

"Stay here," she implored. "There are only a few more months of school left. We can find a way so no one knows, we'll figure something out."

As soon as they were back in her chambers, Sev waved his wand, changing them into their pajamas and summoning cups of tea. "Here. Sit." She obeyed, never letting go of his hand. Her tea was set aside as she started talking, still incredulous that he was back.

"It hurt so much, Sev. For the first few days... I thought I was dying. Poppy insisted on keeping me in the Hospital Wing. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep - I wanted to sleep so much but every time I closed my eyes I could see you, and the funerals -"

"I watched my own funeral," he confessed. "Or what informal funeral you gave me. I would have traded anything to hold you in that moment, to tell you I was alright." He let her collapse onto his chest, continuing to talk as he ran his hand through her hair. "I've been so alone, but I had to keep you safe. I had to. After everything -"

Hazel sat up a bit, taking his face in her hands. "All I could think was that you were on your own in the Shrieking Shack," she whispered, her lips nearly grazing his. She leaned in for a tear-filled kiss. "You were on your own, in the place you'd almost died before..." She kissed him again, desperately trying to be sure he wasn't going to dissolve into thin air. "I didn't even get to say goodbye." Their conversation devolved into long, passionate kisses, both of them crying and clinging to each other. "I don't want to let you go. Maybe we'd feel better if we... You always said it was about connection, about feeling... feeling like we were almost one person." She started to push his shirt up, Sev inhaling deeply as her fingers brushed his stomach. "Severus -"

"We shouldn't... I want to, but we shouldn't, not tonight," Sev declared, finally pulling back.

Hazel sighed, knowing he was right. No matter how desperately they wanted to, nothing would feel good if they were both crying. "You're right. Maybe in the morning. Or tomorrow night." She laid her head on his chest again, thankful to hear the steady heartbeat that she'd missed for nearly a year now. "Let's stay here, then. Right here. Stay here and don't let go of me. Please."

He kissed the top of her head, starting to rub small circles in her back. "I'm not going anywhere. Why don't you tell me everything? Whatever you want to tell me, that is. I've missed you, I've missed your voice, I've missed being here with you." His voice stayed level despite the tears trailing down his face. "Merlin, I've missed you. I knew I did, horribly, but now that I have you again... Hazel, I missed you."

"I went back to Cokeworth." Her voice was hollow now. "I started going through everything like you told me to. I found... all of our letters, the photos, everything. It broke me, Sev. I have loved you... for over half my life." She tried to stifle it, but she began sobbing again. "I'm sorry, I... I'm so glad you're okay. I'm so glad you're home. I love you, I love you so much..."

"I love you too," he answered, letting her cry into his chest as he held onto her. "I promise I'm not going anywhere. I promise I'm not leaving like that again. I'm so sorry. It hurt worse than almost dying. I promise I'm not... I'm going to do everything I can to keep from hurting you again. I promise we'll have that life we always wanted. I love you."

The two of them sat up all night, alternatively talking and crying and smiling at the fact that they were back together again. Near sunrise they dozed off for a bit, but Sev insisted that he had to disappear soon or he would attract too much attention. So he eventually got up, promising that he would be back by the time the sun set. Hazel watched as a rather large bat disappeared into the forest, still a bit in shock that all of this was actually happening.

After that night, a bat would appear at her window every evening and fly off into the forest every morning. Sev hated to go, hated to disapparate and spend his days hiding out in the little house on the coast, but it was for the best. No one could know that he was alive, not yet. So they both put up with it, with the late nights and early mornings and goodbyes filled with the longing to stay.

When summer finally came, Hazel packed her things and said her goodbyes, telling McGonagall that she would have loved to stay, but it was a lot to be there, especially with the constant swell of memories surrounding her. There was a twinkle in her eye as she wished Hazel luck, just like when Dumbledore knew more than he was letting on. "Enjoy your retirement. Perhaps we will see you back here one day... but I do wonder, now that you're leaving, do you think the bat that seems to fly up to Ravenclaw Tower every night will leave us as well?"

"Of course, Minerva," Dumbledore's portrait smiled, gesturing to the lifeless portrait beside him as he answered for Hazel. "There is a reason Severus here hasn't moved at all."