It had taken Dumbledore some time to persuade Snape to stay where he was before he hurried to his office with Minerva following close behind. Arthur's glowing head was already waiting for him in the fireplace when Dumbledore opened his door a few seconds before he reached it.
"Professor! You look like you've been running!" said Arthur's grinning face.
Dumbledore was all business. "You've found her brother?"
"Yes, rather he found us. A Jaken Colberson contacted the French Ministry last night about his missing sister, and they passed him right along to me."
"He just contacted the Ministry last night?" McGonagall asked, mirroring Dumbldore's own thoughts. "She's been here for four months! Why would he wait so long if his sister was missing?"
"Did he give you any information about her? A hint as to what's happened?" questioned Dumbledore.
Arthur frowned. "Not really. From what I saw, this guy seems – I don't know- untrustworthy."
"Why?"
"I don't know. Call it a gut feeling. Something is not right with him. He gave me Severus Snape's name, and mentioned Hogwarts, like he knew exactly where she was."
"That, I believe, is because they were friends a long time ago. Perhaps he thought she would seek him out. What worries me is your distrust of him."
"It was just a feeling-"
"And those are many times more accurate than knowledge of a person. Did Mr. Colberson give you any contact information?"
"Yeah. I told him I'd let him know if I heard anything."
"So you didn't tell him where she is?"
"No, sir. I figured you might know more about her than I, and would be a better judge of what to do."
"Thank you. I would like to speak to him myself before I release her to him."
Arthur Weasley passed the information to Dumbledore before wishing him good night and disappearing
"What will you do now, Albus?"
"I will send him an owl and request a meeting."
Snape found himself on the third floor, making his way toward Medea's door. His feet seemed to carry him without intervention from his mind. Then his hand raised itself to knock on her door. It opened and two silver eyes peeked out through the darkness.
"Severus," she gasped, stepping back from the door.
Snape stepped through the open door and closed it behind him. He peered through the room, lit only by a dying fire in the fireplace. No one else was there.
"Are you alone?" he asked.
"Yes." She motioned toward a chair before the fire, stirred the flames before throwing on another log, then sat beside him in the darkness. They sat silently in the silence, each wondering what the other was thinking. Snape stole a look at her, noting that she looked exactly as she had when he last saw her so many years ago.
"What happened to you, Medea?" His voice was calm and even, betraying none of the emotion behind his question.
"When?"
"Between the last time we saw each other and now." He stared intently into the glowing fire. "Surely you realize it has been some years, yet you are unchanged by time."
"Surely you realize it has not been that long, yet you are a different person," she replied, as if they were commenting on the rain.
"I'm not so different."
"You've been overwhelmed." Her eyes seemed to see through him as they stared fixedly into his own. "The darkness in you has taken over. You've become what you detested." When he made no move to answer, she continued. "You once told me that you were afraid of what you were becoming; an unfeeling fiend. You wanted to become a man that others respected, not a monster they feared."
"You think I've become a monster?"
"I think you are much worse off than when we first met. When is the last time you laughed, or even smiled? Can you even remember?"
Snape thought hard, but was too ashamed to say he couldn't. "I've been through a rough time." He stretched out, holding out his long legs and reaching up with his arms. "You've seen that yourself."
"No," she said, shaking her head. "It happened long before that. You wanted to die. I've never known that in you. You feel sorry for yourself, don't you? But why? You have a second chance at life. You have the chance to right all those wrongs you did. Have you taken the opportunity?"
"Am I really that changed?"
She leaned over the arm of her chair and stared deeply into his dark eyes. He stared back, taken in by her attention once more.
"You're in there somewhere," she said, finally. "That same scared young man who only wanted someone to love him. Not someone to protect him or fear him, but someone who really cared about him. You have that here. Professor Dumbledore and Minerva. And even Remus. Yes, I remember what you told me about him. The joke his friends played on you, but he too worried for you, just as I did."
Snape sat silently, staring smugly into the fire.
"I waited for you, you know. I thought you would come back for me and bring me back here to live with you. I nearly died when you left."
These last words snapped his attention. Snape closed his eyes, willing the tears not to come. You did die, he wanted to say. But she was sitting here next to him! She was alive!
"Medea, what do you remember about that?" he asked, wondering if he should have waited for Dumbledore to accompany him.
"Nothing, really. I was just waiting for you to come back. I went up to the roof, in case you were waiting up there. That's the last thing I remember, being on the roof and watching the sun rise, waiting for you."
"You remember nothing else?"
"Nothing but Mr. Ollivander's store. And Mist- Professor Dumbledore."
Snape sat quietly, considering what she had said, all the while aware that she as just a few feet from him. Inches, really. And she looked exactly the same. Her long black hair swept over her shoulders and breasts, hidden by the thick black robe. Her long fingers lay entwined in her lap. Her skin was flawless, even in the dancing light of the fire. Her eyes were lit like torches, reflecting the flames like tiny mirrors. She was as beautiful as he had ever seen her.
He suddenly became aware of his own appearance, so changed since their days together. His skin was much paler, not just since his return from hell, but since he had come to Hogwarts. While his own fingers were still long and thin, they were grainier, older. He was, in fact, older; much more aged than his years on earth betrayed.
"What are you thinking?" Her words were more of a sigh.
"That I should never have left you in Paris."
"Well, I'm not in Paris anymore. I'm here." She smiled at him, her first smile he had seen in years, and his heart lightened.
They sat together much longer, sharing the silence between them. Finally, Snape stood to go.
"Will you return?" she asked.
"Why?"
"So I can get to know you again."
"Of course. As long as you wish me to return."
Dumbledore was not happy to learn that Snape had gone to see Medea that night, against his own instructions to the otherwise, but he could see the effect this visit had on Snape, and allowed them to continue. Now that it was too cold for Medea to walk outside in the evening for very long, Dumbledore allowed Snape to take her about the castle after the remaining students had gone to bed, and even after the holidays when classes were back in session. All the while, Dumbledore wondered what was taking Jaken Colberson so long to reply to his owl. Neither he, nor Snape nor Minerva had yet told her that her brother was looking for her. And all were glad for it, for Snape seemed happy for the first time in many years. Medea began joining him in his lab, assisting on several experiments, their gentle conversation rolling through the classroom and into the hallway where the passing headmaster smiled to himself. They had quickly fallen back into the friendship they had formed in their youth, but would it evolve again into more? While they appeared to have a great many years separating them, Dumbledore knew they were very near in age. And they had been lovers in the past. And they were both very happy. So why, in the deepest pit of his stomach, did Dumbledore fear they might fall in love again? Even he could not explain it, nor could he ignore the feeling of foreboding it gave him. He knew he could no longer close the eyes to the attachment when, crossing the grounds from Hagrid's cabin late one evening, he spotted the pair kiss under the pale light of the moon.