A/N: Hmm, I guess I should warn you even though they're "off screen": several character deaths mentioned in this chapter.
Chapter beta read by Forty-Two Dreams. All remaining mistakes are mine.
DENOUEMENT
Happiness. It was an outburst of sheer and overwhelming happiness resulting from the victory that had driven the Dementors away, Snape realised. Still doubtful, he rolled up his sleeve to check his Dark Mark: it was gone. He could still see it under his skin, like a watermark, but it was mostly gone.
The Dark Lord had been defeated.
"Need some help to walk back to the castle?" Lupin offered.
Snape glared at the offending extended hand, contemplated the distance separating them from the school grounds, observed his right leg torn to shreds, glared at Lupin's hand again. Oh, what the hell.
Still reluctant, Snape accepted the help at last without a word. He put an arm on Lupin's shoulders, so that he could transfer some of his weight on him. They walked back towards Hogwarts, discovering as they went the full horror of what had just happened.
The number of casualties was alarming. The initial happiness had now been replaced by concern, fear and grief. Many wizards and witches were looking around frantically, some of them calling names. Some others were assembled around a dead body, overwhelmed with grief or denial. Snape suddenly felt Lupin tense perceptibly.
"I, um, I'll be back in a minute," Lupin said hurriedly before pacing away.
Snape observed him head towards a standing witch in the distance, who he finally identified as Wilson. She was one of those looking around frantically, and seemed relieved when she saw Lupin walking in her direction.
Not really wanting to watch their happily fluffy reunion - even though he was somehow relatively glad to discover Wilson was still alive - Snape ignored them and continued his way up to the castle. The school grounds were a spectacle of desolation. He tried not to examine any of the dead bodies too closely - it was likely he knew some of them. But one in particular caught his attention and he froze instantly.
Draco Malfoy.
He slowly moved towards the young man's lifeless body, feeling more and more sickened at every step. Draco was spread out on the ground with an expression of fear and pain engraved on his face. The left side of his body and face were entirely burnt. His skin was torn where large and sharp claws had attacked.
Draco Malfoy, killed by a dragon. How very ironic, Snape thought with an increasing appalled feeling, bile rising in his throat at the examination of the young man's broken body.
As if hypnotised by this sight, Snape had to force himself to look up and to keep walking. Further along the way, he had to stop again to let by a convoy of Aurors guiding the Death Eaters they had arrested, among which Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange strode. As they all walked past him, Malfoy silently glared at Snape with contempt in his eyes. Snape returned the glare.
"Can I have a second with him?"
Snape jumped at the voice. He turned and found out it was Wilson. She and Lupin had caught up with him, and she was asking an Auror for a moment with Malfoy. Snape noted the way her left arm fell limply to her side - very likely broken.
The Auror seemed hesitant, but obviously didn't know why she was making such a request, as Snape did - and probably as Lupin did too, if his worried expression was any indication. The Auror eventually agreed. "But only for a second," he warned.
When Wilson faced Malfoy at last, the hatred she had for the wizard was very palpable. Malfoy stared back at her with cockiness and defiance. Snape could see Wilson boiling, her anger and rage increasing slowly in her eyes. She was clutching her wand very tightly, and breathing heavily.
When she lifted her wand and made a movement towards Malfoy, Lupin caught her by the shoulders.
"Endora," he said soothingly. "Don't do anything you might regret later."
Wilson turned to her brother with a reproachful look. "I don't think there's anything I could do to him that I would regret later. Come on, Remus, he's - "
"I know. But you might want to entrust this to my care for a moment," Lupin concluded as he reached for Wilson's wand. The witch maintained her grip.
"You would do the exact same," she countered heatedly. "You told me that when Peter -"
"But in retrospect, I know now it was wrong," Lupin interrupted. "Come on. Don't," he finished quietly, almost pleadingly.
Wilson finally let go of her wand with obvious reluctance.
"Oh, isn't it touching…" Malfoy mocked. "Now if you two are finished, maybe - "
He never had the chance to finish his sentence. At the sound of his voice, Wilson suddenly turned and marched towards him, before punching him hard square in the jaw.
"I hope you rot in Azkaban until the end of your despicable life," Wilson hissed angrily. "I also hope you spend these years grieving for your loss, just the way I have because of you. But I doubt you have enough heart to experience any kind of emotion."
Malfoy remained impassive, but Snape noticed the slightest frown appear at Wilson's last sentence. Malfoy didn't know. He didn't know about Draco. As the Auror led Malfoy away, the Death Eater smirked.
"No prison will hold me very long," Malfoy boasted. "I'm more powerful than you think; I'll be out in no time!"
Snape watched Malfoy being led away, experiencing a sudden outburst of contempt for this man - it was likely Malfoy was right. Once the group was out of earshot, Snape saw Wilson shake her hand from the corner of his eyes.
"Damn it hurt!" she exclaimed painfully.
Snape couldn't help but smile as he realised she had fought to maintain her composure in front of Malfoy. In the distance, he saw Malfoy's smirk vanish as the wizard caught sight of Draco, his head turning to remain focused on his son's dead body.
Yes Lucius, your son, Snape thought with a hint of resentment.
"By Merlin's beard!" he heard Wilson cry out suddenly as she left hurriedly, soon followed by her brother.
Snape watched them kneel next to dead bodies, somewhat uncaring until he recognised one of his colleagues. Vector.
"Severus?" Snape was snapped out of his morbid contemplation by Dumbledore. "Are you all right?" the Headmaster continued with a hint of concern in his voice.
"More than some," Snape replied somewhat bitterly.
"I would like to see you and Minerva in my office in an hour. Can you make it there by then?" the old wizard asked. Snape only nodded. "Good. I will see you there then."
After Dumbledore left, Snape continued heading back towards the castle, this time a bit more attentive to the casualties around him. Humans, centaurs, giants, all sorts of creatures lay strewn about the school grounds. The surviving magical beasts were retreating, mostly towards the Forbidden Forest. The Dementors were nowhere to be seen.
The deceased wizards were predominantly adults, but some were students. As he walked through the battlefield, Snape recognised some of them, like Seamus Finnigan. Closer to the castle, he spotted a group of redheads gathered around another lifeless body. He walked past them, and recognised the Weasley's second son - Charlie. He caught sight of Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger standing there, but no sign of Potter anywhere.
During the next half hour, once his leg was healed by Madam Pomfrey, Snape helped some of the more seriously wounded. Not by healing them or entertaining them with his witty yet underappreciated sense of humour, but someone had to strap arms, splint legs, and remind anyone still breathing they really had nothing to complain about.
Once it was time, Snape left for the Headmaster's office. As he entered the antechamber, he immediately spotted Potter, sitting in an armchair in a corner.
The boy's face was down, his elbows on his lap and his head between his hands. Potter didn't look up or acknowledge Snape's presence in any way. To be honest, he wasn't even sure Potter was even aware of his presence. There was some kind of a desperate look to the boy that made Snape stare at him for a few seconds.
He eventually proceeded into the Headmaster's office. Dumbledore and McGonagall were already there.
"Ah, Severus, here you are," Dumbledore greeted him. "Have a seat, will you?" he then invited.
Snape settled in an armchair in front of the Headmaster's desk, next to McGonagall.
"Voldemort is gone for ever," Dumbledore announced, "though I'm sure both of you already figured that out. And Severus, I'm sure you already had the opportunity to witness some of the immediate effects."
Snape nodded and rolled up his sleeve for them to see his now almost invisible Dark Mark.
"Hmm…" Dumbledore thought aloud. "I'm afraid the outline will always be somewhat visible…"
"So, what happened exactly?" Snape asked.
"Harry Potter defeated him," Dumbledore replied. "I don't know all the details yet. Harry is still very shaken by what happened, and he's still not very comfortable with talking about it. The news has already begun to spread throughout the Wizarding world. I'm expecting a representative from the Ministry any minute now, probably the Minister himself."
"Is that why Harry is waiting in your antechamber?" McGonagall asked. "After what happened, I would have expected him to spend some time with his friends to celebrate Voldemort's defeat. But he seems… very anguished."
Dumbledore's face seemed to darken suddenly. "I'm sure you both remember the Experimental Charms Voldemort stole from the Ministry." Both Snape and McGonagall nodded. "If my reports are correct, Voldemort managed to cast one on Harry just before he was defeated. One that seems to have deprived Harry from his magic."
Snape exchanged a surprised look with McGonagall. "You mean, Potter is now… magic-less? Like… a squib?" Snape queried.
"Pretty much," Dumbledore confirmed sadly. "Needless to say, Harry was pretty devastated when he discovered that. He doesn't seem to be able to get over this news, quite understandably I might add. He feels like he just lost one of the most important things in his life, which is why I asked him to come here. I think all hope is not lost, and that he might be able to recover his powers much sooner than he expects."
"How so?" McGonagall interrogated. "This is an Experimental Charm, no counter-curse exists for it."
"I have been in touch with some people from the Ministry," Dumbledore began to explain. "They agreed that with a large, multi-disciplined team of competent searchers, they should be able to find a counter-curse in a few months time, a year at most. They are already working on establishing this team as we speak, and I have no doubt that any witch or wizard they contact will readily agree to help Harry after what he accomplished."
McGonagall nodded her agreement.
"I will now tell Harry about it," Dumbledore continued. "I hope it will help cheer him up. I entrust you two with the task of handling the situation outside, while I deal with Harry and the Ministry's representative. Thanks to both of you for coming here. This was a long day, and there's still much to do…"
They both left the Headmaster's office. McGonagall informed Potter that Dumbledore was expecting him, and then caught up with Snape as he headed back towards the entrance doors. They walked next to each other in companionable silence, until they both paused on the stairs just outside the castle.
"I'm glad all this is over at last," McGonagall said, and Snape nodded. "I'm sure you are relieved too. No more spying. No more double identities. No more Death Eaters meetings. No more serving a megalomaniac overlord. No more Occlumency lessons…" McGonagall added with a playful smile.
Snape smiled back. "To be honest, I'm not sure which I will miss the most: the evil overlord or the Occlumency lessons. I held both very dearly in my heart," Snape confessed on a very serious tone.
McGonagall's smile widened to a broad grin. "Come on, we still have a lot of work," she said while walking down the stairs.
Snape contemplated the battlefield a few more seconds before following her. The Wizarding world would carry the marks of this war for a very long time, just like he would sport the remnants of his Dark Mark on his forearm for the rest of his life. But all these wounds would heal - eventually.
Stay tuned tomorrow for the Epilogue (chapter length)