Bring Me To Life : A Continuation
by I Got Tired of Waiting

Part II : Dearly Departed
Only You Are the Life Among the Dead

The following day, they left the castle to bury Severus in a grove of willows on the far side of the lake near the Forbidden Forest. Eight pallbearers, eight male Prefects of all four Houses, accompanied his levitated casket to just outside the circle of willows.

Colin and Sinistra (who had come from his home in Italy) officiated the interment ceremony outside the grove, and the hundreds of folk who made up what Severus had called family, paid their last respects to the man who had made much of their life possible with his (and Harry's) defeat of Voldemort and their subsequent fight with the Muggles.

At the end of the ceremony, eight new Pall-bearers escorted the plain wooden casket, covered now in flowers, to the inside of the grove, the Prefects leaving with the rest of the Slytherins back to the castle. The people gone within afterwards, immediate family and close friends only, stood around the perimeter. They'd not disturbed the centre.

A secluded spot, the long arms of the willows ringing the space touched the ground making almost solid walls of swaying green around a clearing just large enough to hold the forty or so people standing respectfully for the final burial. If one looked up, the ring of trees raggedly framed the sullen sky.

A smaller, circular area in the centre had been raised and paved with small loose-fitting stones, the moss growing between the cracks overlapping until it formed a feather-soft, unbroken carpet of verdant green. Flat rocks, joined at their edges, ringed this bower, their clean smooth surfaces waiting silently for the bottles of wine and baskets of food, or the candles to softly light the books brought out here to read together but eventually set aside for other pursuits.

This place had been their favourite rendezvous to escape the rigours of the school, a place where they could be private, hidden from the prying eyes of the students and townsfolk. By mutual agreement of the staff, who were completely devoted to them both, the area was declared out-of-bounds to all but Harry and Severus. And surprisingly, through all the years of student high-jinks and public censure of their relationship, no one had ever defiled their sanctuary.

This was the first time all but four had been here.

Assailed by the memories, Ron, Hermione, and Seth remembered fondly the many times they'd been invited to late afternoon picnics here with Severus, Harry, and Lenore. They'd each enjoyed its solitude for their private pleasures as well. Intimately they knew the bower's softness, the feel of its moist downy surface on bare skin, the clean, earthy smell of moss filling their senses as the warm sunlight dappled tangled bodies.

Ron and Hermione never returned after Draco died as Ron adamantly refused to face the memories and Hermione didn't have the strength to return alone. At this moment, gripping Ron's hand, she wasn't certain which was sadder: the memories of those lost times, or the sight of the gaping hole with its almost obscene mound of earth nearby, waiting to fill and seal the new grave.

Next to it lay another grave, its small marker not the only thing left to remind them of Lenore. Hermione was saddened to see Seth standing near it, his face filled with empty anguish. The little grave was covered in flowers. Hermione knew Seth returned here almost every day to talk to his wife and had the feeling he would add Severus to those conversations as well. While it wasn't something she could do, he drew comfort from it and that was all she could hope from it.

She knew Severus and Harry had never returned here after Lenore had died, their pleasure in the place spoiled by her lost presence, but they could think of no more fitting place to leave her; she'd enjoyed the pleasures of the bower as much as they. As a child during their family outings, she'd been free to boisterously play without the restraints of castle etiquette. As an adult, she'd been free to loose her passions in the full light of the sun, loving Seth with a wild abandon she couldn't display elsewhere.

Hermione understood this completely.

The silence within the intimate space was total, the murmuring voices of the throng of people outside its confines unheard as they slowly left for home. They would not soon forget the simple ceremony. As Colin had so eloquently stated, it was the beginning of a new era and the end of an another.

Severus was brought to the grove for the last time in the mid-morning, the clouds shadowing the sun. While Harry seemed indifferent, Ron had insisted, knowing it would be the least painful time as they'd rarely come here alone in the daytime; those jaunts has been reserved solely for family and friends.

Out of respect for Harry's fragile state, they'd quietly decided before the ceremony to allow only the immediate family to directly approach him. While the majority of the people stayed well back, Harry stood numb by the open grave, passively accepting their condolences as one by one they embraced him, trying desperately to remove the aching sorrow from his much-loved face and bring some spark back to his dull, lifeless eyes.

All too soon, the casket was lowered into the grave, the token handfuls of dirt thrown in. It was time to go.

Severus and Lenore were home and Harry was alone.

TBC